Faith's proper formal reason is God revealing, with the Spirit's inward motion

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What then is faith's proper reason? Canus, in the place already cited, joins this to three settled points: faith's last resolution is into an interior efficient cause — God moving us to believe. To the article "God is triune," to "the Church cannot err," and to every other principle of Christian doctrine, I assent by infused faith not because John said it, or any other man, but because God revealed it; and to "God has revealed" I believe at once, moved by God through a special instinct.

So on the object's side the formal moving reason is revealed divine truth; yet that does not move us unless an interior cause is also present — God himself moving by a free and special concurrence. Stapleton's third conclusion (question 1, article 2) says the same: God revealing is properly and absolutely the formal object of faith. He proves it from the Prophets and Apostles, who had no other formal object; therefore every believer's faith has that same object, for there is one faith of all. In reply to the third argument he writes: absolutely and of itself, the last resolution of things to be believed is the truthful God — or God revealing inwardly in the heart — after John the Baptist: "He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, and whoever receives his testimony has set his seal that God is true" (John 3).

Finally the scholastics commonly hold that the assent of our faith is at last resolved into the Holy Spirit's inward motion — as Thomas's commentators show on the Secunda secundae, question 1.

Latin

XVI. Quae sit vero propria fidei nostrae ratio sic explicat idem Canus loco saepius memorato, His vero tribus certis stabilibusque sententiis illa etiam conjuncta est, ultimam fidei nostrae resolutionem fieri in causam interiorem efficientem, hoc est, in Deum moventem ad credendum, verbi gratia, huic articulo, Deus est trinus, et huic, Ecclesia non potest errare, et caeteris universis doctrinae Christianae principiis, assentior per infusam fidem, non quod Johannes dixerit, aut quivis alius homo, sed quod Deus revelaverit: huic autem, Deus revelavit, immediate credo, a Deo motus per instinctum specialem. Itaque, ex parte objecti, ratio formalis movens est divina veritas revelata: sed illa tamen non sufficit ad movendum, nisi adsit causa interior, hoc est, Deus etiam movens per gratuitum specialemque concursum. Idem docet Stapletonus quaest. illa prima art. 2. ubi haec est ejus tertia conclusio, Deus revelans est proprie et absolute objectum formale fidei. Idque probat exemplo fidei Prophetarum et Apostolorum, qui non aliud formale fidei suae objectum habuerunt; unde concludit omnium fidem idem objectum habere; quandoquidem una est omnium fides. Ibidem vero resp. ad tertium arg. illius haec verba sunt, Absolute et per se, ultima resolutio credibilium est Deus verax, seu Deus intus in corde revelans, juxta illud Johannis Baptistae, Quem misit Deus, verba Dei loquitur, et qui accipit testimonium ejus signavit quia Deus verax est, Johan. 3. Denique haec est communis Scholasticorum sententia, Assensum fidei nostrae resolvi ultimo in motionem interiorem Spiritus sancti, ut videre est apud Commentatores Thomae in secundam secundae quaest. 1.

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.