'Scripture cannot prove Scripture' denies only bare self-assertion, not divinity's marks in the text
These points, though, must be taken carefully. When we grant that sacred Scripture cannot be proved by Scripture itself, we mean only that the places where Scripture proclaims itself divinely inspired are not fit arguments to convince and persuade someone who already denies sacred Scripture's authority.
That does not stop us saying, in another sense, that Scripture proves itself: as the preceding theses showed, sacred Scripture bears many marks and arguments of divinity by which it asserts itself true and divine — just as heaven and earth proclaim and show God as their author, not by a bare spoken claim, but by the excellence of their nature and the traces of divine power and wisdom visible in them.
Or as a book claims Aristotle or Euclid as its author not from the title alone, but from the genius of the teaching, the sharpness of style, and the manner of argument — the sort that can belong only to those rare minds.
Latin
VIII. Quae tamen dextre accipienda sunt. Primo enim, cum concedimus Scripturam sacram non posse per Scripturam ipsam probari, hoc tantum volumus illa testimonia quibus Scriptura se esse divinitus inspiratam praedicat, non esse argumenta idonea quibus convincatur, et persuadeatur ille qui Scripturae sacrae authoritatem negat. At hoc non obstat quominus alio sensu Scriptura dici possit seipsam probare, quatenus, ut thesibus praecedentibus ostensum est, Scripturae sacrae insunt multa divinitatis signa et argumenta, quibus seipsam veram et divinam asserit. Non secus ac coelum et terra praedicant et ostendunt suum authorem Deum esse, non simplici aliqua voce et testimonio, sed ex ipsa suae naturae praestantia, et potentiae ac sapientiae divinae vestigiis, quae in illis notari possunt. Aut, ut liber aliquis Aristoteli, et Euclidi se vendicat, non ex solo titulo, sed ex ipsius doctrinae genio, acumine styli, et disserendi modo, qui ejusmodi est, ut non possit, nisi praestantibus illis ingeniis tribui.
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.