[Theses theologicae, variis temporibus in Academia Sedanensi editae et ad disputandum propositae; (London: 1683)]
Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu (1614–1675), a faithful minister and learned professor in the Reformed churches of France, was born, according to varying accounts, either in Longvilliers near Paris or in Senlis, into a noble lineage known for its fidelity to the gospel. His family, enriched with civil dignity and ecclesiastical zeal, had long adorned the cause of Christ in France; his grandfather Étienne Le Blanc served as royal counselor and wrote piously on Christian devotion. Educated in the spirit of Geneva and Beza, Le Blanc rose early to prominence as a preacher in Sedan, a stronghold of French Huguenot piety, where he served over thirty years. In 1644, he was appointed professor of theology at the renowned Academy of Sedan, succeeding the eminent Des Marêts, and was several times rector and moderator, guiding both ecclesiastical polity and theological instruction with singular prudence. A man of profound intellect and irenic disposition, Master Le Blanc strove not only for the propagation of pure doctrine but for the peace of the visible church, even being appointed by civil magistrates, including the Marshal of Turenne, to mediate reconciliation between Protestants and Papists—though in vain. His involvement with the Synod of Alençon in 1637 as a commissioner to assess the doctrines of Amyraut and others shows the esteem in which he was held for both doctrinal precision and spiritual sobriety. As Pierre Nicole testified, he was “a precise man with a clear mind,” discerning with rare clarity the subtleties of authors and doctrinal variance. He departed this life in Sedan in 1675, leaving behind not the noise of controversy, but the fragrance of wisdom and charity, ever laboring for truth and unity in the house of God.
Table of Contents:
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I. Oftentimes inHoly Scripture, that is called eternal which hath a beginning of duration but shall have no end. Thus, that blessed life which God promiseth to them that believe in Christ is frequently termed eternal, and likewise the punishment which, by the just judgment of God, shall one day be inflicted upon the wicked and impenitent is called eternal. As when the end of both the righteous and the wicked is described in these words in Matthew 25:46: And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
II. Sometimes also, that is called eternal which, though it shall one day have an end, yet by reason of its long continuance seemeth to emulate eternity. Thus, although the heavens and the earth must one day pass away, yet it is said in Ecclesiastes 1 that the earth abideth for ever. And in the same sense, Moses maketh mention in Deuteronomy 33 of the everlasting hills. Hither also may be referred that promise in Genesis 17, wherein God assureth Abraham that He will give unto him and to his seed all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession.
III. Moreover, that which, during a certain course, must perpetually hold place, is said to be eternal. Thus we must understand that saying in Exodus 12: Ye shall keep this day with an everlasting ordinance, where it speaketh of the feast of the Passover. For the legal rites and Mosaic worship were to continue until the time of reformation and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
IV. Yea, though the life of man be most brief, sometimes that is said to be done for ever which, throughout the whole life of a man, shall never cease but must hold place until death. As when it is said of the Hebrew servant who, in the seventh year, would not use the liberty offered by the law, He shall be his master’s servant for ever, in Exodus 21. Hither pertaineth that saying of Horace: He shall serve for ever who is content to live with little.
V. But eternal is properly said of that which simply and absolutely lacketh both beginning and end of duration. And this is that eternity which is wont to be predicated of God and numbered among His attributes. For the essence of God is wholly free from origin and cessation. God neither began to be, nor shall ever cease to be. And as the magnitude of God is so great that it cannot be contained or defined by any place, so His duration is limited by no time, but precedeth and surpasseth all times.
VI. This Scripture plainly teacheth in many places, but especially in Psalm 102, where the Prophet, comparing things that among visible things are most enduring, namely the heavens and the earth, showeth that they once had a beginning, being the work of God’s hands, and shall one day have an end. But God abideth forever, and is ever the same both was and shall be. In the beginning, saith he, O Lord, Thou hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Thy hands: they shall perish, but Thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; and as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end. This perpetual permanence of God is also celebrated by David in Psalm 92: But Thou, Lord, art most high for evermore. And Moses, the man of God, in Psalm 90: Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God. Hither also he hath respect when he addeth, A thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past: for, in respect of the immense and unlimited duration of God, neither a thousand years nor any designated time hath any proportion.
VII. Wherefore, God is called in Isaiah 9 the Father of eternity, and likewise the first and the last in Isaiah 41 and 57, the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity. Hither also pertaineth that description whereby God designateth Himself in Revelation 1: I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord God, which is, and which was, and which is to come. By which we are taught that God’s duration embraceth all times—past, present, and future—and that God may most rightly be called the beginning without beginningand the end without end: for, inasmuch as He is the beginning of all things, He Himself hath no beginning; nor can He have any end, being the end to which all things are referred.
VIII. In this matter, the reason of Scripture manifestly concurreth. For whatsoever arguments demonstrate that there is one first Being from which all other things depend and have their origin—such as we have brought forth and expounded in those Theses wherein we proved that God is—these arguments, I say, necessarily prove that this first Being, namely God, is also eternal and had no beginning of duration. For the Being that is first and the cause of others cannot have been made: neither by another, for then it would not be first, but there would be another Being prior to it; nor by itself, for to be made it must not have been, and to make it must have been, which are manifestly contradictory. But that which is and was not made never began to be, and therefore is eternal. Wherefore, that august name of God, יהוה, which signifieth that God is of Himself and by Himself, and He who maketh all other things to be, and thus the first and independent Being, includeth and connoteth God’s eternity. Hence, by the translators of our vernacular version, it is not unfitly rendered the Eternal.
IX. Furthermore, as God’s essence doth not simply lack a beginning of duration, but it is impossible that it should not always have been, so also it is simply and absolutely necessary that it should perpetually endure and never have an end. For as God is from none, nor received His being from another, so He can be destroyed by none, nor lose His being. Wherefore, He is called by the Apostle ἄφθαρτος, incorruptible or immortal, in 1 Timothy 1:17.