Depravity and mysteries above nature both demand the Spirit's work for faith
Human crookedness, plus the darkness sin has piled on, forces this need for God's Spirit in the soul. Scripture is full of matter that fights our warped loves. The flesh-bound person therefore recoils and turns away — and that recoil blocks true acknowledgment and right judgment, because we all judge by the grain of our affections.
Sin also darkens the mind so thoroughly that even among ordinary natural things we keep hallucinating and falling into error. How much less, then, can we be sure of what stands above nature? So the Holy Spirit must drive out the mind's native night, and clear the smoke by which wicked desires cloud the intellect and stop it from seeing truth.
Nor is depravity the only reason. The very character of the doctrine Scripture teaches also requires this Spirit work if faith is to be born in us. Scripture holds mysteries that outrun not only fallen nature but human nature taken by itself, even without sin. Nature cannot invent them, think them up, or even understand and take them in. So the Spirit must heal minds sin has blinded, and must also lift the intellect well above its natural level, until it can rise to things that great.
Latin
IV. Porro istam Spiritus Dei in animis nostris operationem necessariam reddit ingenii humani pravitas, et tenebrae quas peccatum accersivit. Etenim Scriptura sacra multa continet, quae pravis et distortis nostris affectibus repugnant. Unde fit ut homo carnalis ab illa abhorreat, et eam aversetur, quod impedit ne ejus veritatem agnoscat, et rectum de ea judicium ferat: quandoquidem prout quisque affectus est, ita judicat. Deinde mens hominis in universum ita per peccatum obscurata est, ut, etiam in naturalibus, non possit non hallucinari, et saepissime falli. Ac proinde multo minus quae supra naturam sunt certo agnoscere et percipere potest. Ad hoc igitur necesse est, ut Spiritus sanctus mentis tenebras nativas dispellat, et fumos illos, quibus affectus pravi intellectum obscurant, et praepediunt ne possit veritatem cernere. V. Imo hanc Spiritus operationem ad fidem animis nostris ingenerandam necessario exigit, non tantum naturae nostrae depravatio, et tenebrae ex peccato ortae, sed genius ipse doctrinae in Scriptura traditae. Siquidem multa mysteria continet, quae non tantum naturam corruptam, sed naturam humanam in se, etiam citra peccatum, consideratam, omnino superant: ita ut ab ea, non solum non inveniri et excogitari, sed nec intelligi et percipi possint. Ideoque necesse est, ut Spiritus sanctus non tantum mentes nostras peccato caecas sanet, sed etiam ut intellectum nostrum non parum supra statum naturalem extollat, ut ad res tantas possit assurgere.
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.