Scripture holds the substance — not every rite left to church prudence
We say Scripture contains the former kind — the substance — not those accidental appendages of church faith, morals, and discipline.
Many circumstances of worship and church polity are not set out item by item in Scripture; they are left to the prudence of church overseers under the general rule that all things be done decently and in order in God’s Church.
So Rome’s doctors waste their shot when they press old Jewish or Christian rites, statutes, and ceremonies — still kept among us in worship and polity — as if their absence from a Scripture catalogue refuted us.
Latin
VII. Res prioris generis asserimus sacra Scriptura contineri, non item alias istas, quae sunt ad Ecclesiae fidem, mores & disciplinam veluti accidentariae. Multa enim quae pertinent ad varias divini cultus & Ecclesiasticae politiae circumstantias, fatemur non esse sigillatim in Scriptura tradita, sed relicta prudentiae praepositorum Ecclesiae, sub hoc generali praecepto, ut omnia fiant ordine & decenter in Ecclesia Dei. Unde patet ab Ecclesiae Romanae Doctoribus frustra contra nos in hac controversia, varias instantias peti a ritibus, statutis & caeremoniis quibusdam, quae in Ecclesia antiqua, sive judaica sive Christiana, olim observata sunt, & etiamnum apud nos servantur tam in divino cultu, quam in politia Ecclesiastica, etiamsi nihil de iis in Scriptura constitutum sit.
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.