Theological Theses · §2606 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Grace acting on the mind

Thesis XXIV. On the following page, to set out the acts of divine grace one at a time, they note that three things in corrupt man need correcting and regenerating: the mind, the will and the affections. To this threefold subject they match three kinds of act of divine grace.

First, in their own words: 'By his word and the enlightening of his Spirit, God assures the mind of his saving will and brings it to assent to the truth of the word. Through carelessness or through malice of will, a person can spurn and scorn this enlightening and revelation when it first comes to the mind, outwardly or even inwardly, and can refuse to take it deep into his soul, and from this comes affected ignorance.

Even so, once the truth is set clearly and plainly before the mind by the Holy Spirit, the intellect cannot fail to assent or hold back its judgment. It is determined to assent by the object so presented and by the Spirit who instils it, and the intellect cannot of itself resist that enlightening, since its object determines it.'

Latin

XXIV. Pagina vero sequenti ut actus gratiae divinae sigillatim exponant, observant tria in homine corrupto egere correctione & regeneratione, mentem, voluntatem, affectum, ac triplici huic subjecto gratiae divinae triplices actus accommodant. Primum ergo, ut ipsi sententiam suam exprimunt, Mentem Deus verbo & spiritus sui illuminatione de voluntate sua salutifera certiorem reddit, eamque ut assentiatur verbi veritati facit. Et quanquam homo possit vel per negligentiam, vel per malitiam voluntatis, hanc illuminationem & revelationem, tunc cum ea primitus vel externe, vel etiam interne menti fit, respuere, contemnere, nec eam alte in animum admittere, unde ignorantia affectata oritur; fieri tamen non potest ut si quando veritas clare & perspicue a Spiritu Sancto menti praesentetur, intellectus non assentiatur, aut judicium suspendat, sed ab objecto ita proposito, & a spiritu insinuato, determinatur ad assentiendum, nec potest intellectus ex se illi illuminationi resistere, cum ab objecto suo determinetur.

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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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