Love: not formal when faith is precise; essential when faith means faith working through love
Is love a formal essential act of faith? Chamier, Wendelin, Wittich, Cocceius say yes; others no.
Le Blanc distinguishes: take faith precisely (apart from hope and charity) → love belongs to charity, not as faith’s formal act.
Take faith as the aggregate “faith working through love” (how most Reformed take it here) → intellect and will together; sincere love of God and Christ is essential — living faith cannot be conceived without it.
Latin
XCV. Similiter dubitatur, An amor sit actus fidei formalis & essentialis? Affirmant viri doctissimi Chamierus, Wendelinus, Wittichius & Cocceius; alii vero negant. Quantum ad me attinet, puto hic esse aliqua distinctione opus. Fides enim potest duplici modo sumi. Primo praecise, secundum id quod habet a spe, charitate, ac reliquis Christianis virtutibus distinctum. Hoc sensu amor non est fidei actus formalis; sed ad aliam virtutem, nempe charitatem pertinet. Secundo fides sumitur, pro aggregato quodam plurium actuum sive habituum, qui comprehenduntur sub nomine fidei per charitatem operantis. Et ita, plerique Reformati notant se fidem sumere in hac quaestione, nempe, non pro uno actu vel habitu simplici, sed pro complexu plurium actuum vel habituum. Unde est quod illam locant non in solo intellectu, sed etiam in voluntate, quia complectitur actus, tum ab intellectu, tum a voluntate elicitos, & habitus facultatem utramque informantes. Ut videre est apud Chamierum, Wendelinum, Paraeum, & alios, ubi de subjecto fidei disputant. Ad fidem autem prout comprehendit omnes actus, quos complecti solemus sub nomine fidei per charitatem operantis, proculdubio pertinet, tanquam actus ei essentialis, amor Dei Christique sincerus, sine quo fides viva & per dilectionem operans concipi non potest.
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.