Theological Theses · §2679 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

No one belongs to Christ who does not keep the commandments

Thesis IX. No one who fails to keep God's commandments is in communion with Christ or can be thought truly to know and love him. John says: 'By this we know that we have known him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says he knows God but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him' (1 John 2).

In chapter 3: 'Whoever keeps his commandments remains in him, and he in him'; and in chapter 5: 'This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.' That is why Paul (1 Cor. 7) teaches that in Christ nothing counts for anything but keeping God's commandments: 'Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing; what counts is keeping the commandments of God.'

Latin

IX. Neque vero quisquam est in communione Christi, aut eum vere nosse & amare censeri potest, qui mandata Dei non servet. In hoc scimus, inquit Johannes, quoniam cognovimus eum, si mandata ejus observamus. Qui dicit se nosse Deum, & mandata ejus non custodit, mendax est, & veritas in eo non est. 1 Joan. 2. & cap. 3. Qui servat mandata ejus in illo manet, & ipse in eo. Similiter cap. 5. Haec est charitas Dei ut mandata ejus custodiamus. Unde est quod Paulus, 1 Cor. 7. solam observationem mandatorum Dei alicujus momenti in Christo esse docet, Circumcisio, inquit, nihil est: & praeputium nihil est: sed observatio mandatorum Dei.

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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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