Theological Theses · §2538 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Prevenient motions are vital operations, not free acts

Thesis C. So he holds that the motions in which he places prevenient grace are vital operations proceeding actively from our faculties. Yet they are not elicited freely by those faculties, and strictly speaking they should not be called acts of free choice, though they depend a great deal on free choice.

The reason is that free choice can help or hinder those acts in various ways, can desire them and ask God for them, and can in some way fit and dispose itself so that, by the common course and order of divine providence, they may be given to it by God more readily.

Latin

C. Itaque motus illos in quibus constituit gratiam praevenientem, censet esse operationes vitales, a facultatibus nostris active procedentes, sed quae tamen libere ab eis non eliciuntur, nec dici debent actus liberi arbitrii, proprie loquendo, quanquam multum a libero arbitrio pendeant. Idque quoniam liberum arbitrium variis modis potest actus illos juvare, vel impedire, eosque desiderare & petere a Deo, & quodammodo seipsum aptare & disponere, ut juxta communem cursum & ordinem divinae providentiae, facilius sibi a Deo donentur.

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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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Translated from Latin (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
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We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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