Theological Theses · §2470 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Alvarez: sufficient for faith, efficacious for its preparations

Thesis XXXII. Diego Alvarez, among others, teaches this expressly in section 3 of the chapter already cited: 'Every aid that is sufficient with respect to one act is always efficacious with respect to another, which an absolute decree of the divine will has appointed it to bring about.

'For example, aid sufficient for the act of faith effectively produces in a person devout thoughts and knowledge of what is to be believed, or devout desires to have faith, and other incomplete acts of this kind which, as a rule, come before the assent of faith. Likewise aid sufficient for the act of contrition effectively produces in a person reflection on the pains of hell, or attrition, or other incomplete acts of this kind which as a rule come before perfect contrition.'

Latin

XXXII. Id inter alios docet expresse Didacus Alvarez numero tertio capitis jam citati. Omne, inquit, auxilium sufficiens, comparatione unius actus, semper est efficax respectu alterius, ad quem efficiendum decreto absoluto divinae voluntatis destinatur. Ut, verbi gratia, auxilium sufficiens ad actum fidei, efficaciter producit in homine pias cogitationes, & notitias credendorum, vel pia desideria habendi fidem, & alios hujusmodi actus imperfectos, qui regulariter loquendo antecedunt assensum fidei. Similiter auxilium sufficiens ad actum contritionis producit efficaciter in homine considerationem poenarum inferni, vel attritionem, aut alios hujusmodi actus imperfectos qui regulariter perfectam contritionem antecedunt.

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About this text

Louis Le Blanc, a Reformed professor at Sedan, sets out theology in theses argued against Rome: Scripture, faith, grace, free choice, good works and the saints.

This volume holds the Theses on Theology I–XLIII and On Faith I–XXII, in eighteen sections.

Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu (1614–1675) was minister and professor of theology at the Academy of Sedan, the Reformed school on France's eastern border. His Theses were disputed by students over many years and collected in a London folio (1675).

The Theological Theses range across the whole Reformed system — Scripture, God, predestination, grace, and justifying faith — in the crisp thesis-and-proof form of the seventeenth-century schools.

Date1675 AD (Sedan theses; London collection)

No modern English.

Reference

ESTC R17887; Wing L802. IA bub_gb_eOkHAW4G0-wC (+ EEBO 1675 for gap leaves).

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