Yet Church consensus is not faith's proper basis; the Samaritan woman in John 4
Yet the Church's consensus and testimony is not the proper and principal basis of our faith, the thing to which its certainty should be reduced. The Church, as we have just said, is what proposes and explains through its ministers — and through private believers too — the things we are to believe, according to God's ordinance. By its testimony and authority we are first led to give them some faith. But our faith does not rest there. It rests on a far more solid foundation. If it goes no further, it is not true and legitimate faith, only a human persuasion.
The Church does for us what the Samaritan woman once did for her townspeople. It opens the way for us to know Christ and his teaching. First the Church's testimony admonishes us to believe in Christ. But after we have heard Christ himself speaking — outwardly in the Word and inwardly in our hearts — our faith no longer rests on the Church's testimony. We can say to it what the Samaritans said to the woman: "Now we do not believe because of your speech, for we ourselves have heard, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world" (John 4).
Latin
XIX. Neque tamen Ecclesiae consensus et testimonium est propria et praecipua fidei nostrae basis, ad quam certitudo ejus reducenda sit. Nam Ecclesia quidem, ut modo docuimus, ea est quae per ministros suos, et privatos etiam fideles, credenda nobis proponit et explicat, juxta Dei ordinationem, ejusque testimonio et authoritate primum inducimur, ut eis aliquam fidem adhibeamus, verum in eo fides nostra non conquiescit, sed longe solidiori fundamento nititur. Quod si ultra non pergat, non est vera et legitima fides, sed tantum humana quaedam persuasio. Videlicet, Ecclesia idem nobis praestat officium quod olim Samaritana mulier concivibus suis. Nam Ecclesia aditum nobis praebet ad cognoscendum Christum, et doctrinam illius. Et Ecclesiae primum testimonio commonemur ut in Christum credamus. Sed postquam Christum ipsum loquentem audivimus, tam extrinsecus in verbo, quam intus in cordibus nostris, jam fides nostra non amplius nititur Ecclesiae testimonio, eique dicere possumus, quod Samaritani mulieri dicebant, Jam non credimus propter loquelam tuam, ipsi enim audivimus, et scimus quod hic est vere Servator mundi.
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.