Bellarmine: adversaries confuse faith-certainty with trust-certainty

Bellarmine charges Protestants with confusing faith-certainty and trust-certainty.

Trust is absolute on the promise side but only conjectural about one’s disposition, yet still enough for security; faith’s certainty touches intellect alone.

Latin

XII. Ita philosophatur hac de re Bellarminus, lib. 3. de Justif. cap. 2. sub finem, Deinde. Adversarii, inquit, ut fidem cum fiducia, ita certitudinem fidei cum certitudine fiduciae confundunt. Multum autem interest inter utramque certitudinem. Nam certitudo fidei, quae nititur sola Dei authoritate, omni ex parte dubitationem excludit. Certitudo fiduciae partim nititur divina promissione, partim propria dispositione: & quod attinet ad divinam promissionem, omnem similiter formidinem excludit, & est absolute, & simpliciter certitudo; quod attinet ad propriam dispositionem, non excludit quidem penitus formidinem, neque est certitudo simpliciter, sed secundum quid, & conjecturalis; tamen tanta est, ut satis esse possit ad securitatem gignendam. Quae eadem fusius persequitur atque amplificat ejusdem libri cap. 11. Quod autem. Ubi praeterea observat duplicem in spe certitudinem considerari posse: unam ex parte intellectus, quam modo verbis illius descripsimus; alteram ex parte voluntatis, quae est firma adhaesio voluntatis ad rem speratam: quae maxima esse potest, etiamsi ex parte intellectus non sit homo certus se rem illam consecuturum. Certitudo vero illa quae in fide est, solum intellectum afficit.

About this text

Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu - Sedan Theological Theses, newly rendered from the 1675 London Latin. Covers De Theologia through Angelorum & Hominum Sanctorum Cultu Romana I-LXXVII and Pars Secunda (Reformata) I-XL. Not the collected folio.

English follows locked Pitt Latin through Imaginum CLOSED + Sanctorum Cultu Romana CLOSED + Pars Secunda Reformata I-XL. 1675 PDF ~384-390 (book ~370-376); Vision OCR + pdftotext + tess. No modern English. This slice densifies Sanctorum Pars Secunda I-XL. Next: Pars Secunda XLI–fin (~CI). Claim stays claimed (book densify not done).

Catalogue & scope

ESTC R17887; Wing L802. IA bub_gb_eOkHAW4G0-wC (+ EEBO 1675 for gap leaves). Densify through Sanctorum Cultu Romana I-LXXVII + Pars Secunda Reformata I-XL (Pars Secunda not closed; not whole folio).

Witnesses

Copy-text Locked Latin, De Theologia I-XLIII (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
Checked print Internet Archive PDF of the 1675 Pitt folio (Latin)
Checked print pdftotext of De Theologia pages (Latin)
Checked print Internet Archive DjVu OCR of the 1675 Pitt folio (Latin)
Copy-text Locked Latin, De Fide I-XXII (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
Copy-text Locked Latin, De Authoritate Scripturae Pars I I-XLVII + Pars II I-XXXV + Pars III I-VIII (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
Copy-text Locked Latin, De Scripturae plenitudine densify (Pitt 1675) (Latin)

This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.