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| Chapter XXIII. The answer, that by the law of nature men were from the beginning liable to judgment and punishment.
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Chapter XXIII.
The answer, that by the law of nature men were from the
beginning liable to judgment and punishment.
Serenus: God at man’s
creation implanted in him naturally complete knowledge of the law, and
if this had been kept by man, as at the beginning, according to the
Lord’s purposes, there would not have been any need for another
law to be given, which He afterwards proclaimed in writing: for it were
superfluous for an external remedy to be offered, where an internal one
was still implanted and vigorous. But since this had been, as we have
said, utterly corrupted by freedom and the opportunity of sinning, the
severe restrictions of the law of Moses were added as the executor and
vindicator of this (earlier law) and to use the expressions of
Scripture, as its helper, that through fear of immediate punishment men
might be kept from altogether losing the good of natural
knowledge, according to the word of the
prophet who says “He gave the law to help them:”1558
and it is also described by the Apostle
as having been given as a schoolmaster1559
to little children, as it instructs and guards them to prevent them
from departing through sheer forgetfulness from the teaching in which
they had been instructed by the light of nature: for that the complete
knowledge of the law was implanted in man at his first creation, is
clearly proved from this; viz., that we know that before the law, aye,
and even before the flood, all holy men observed the commands of the
law without having the letter to read. For how could Abel, without the
command of the law, have known that he ought to offer to God a
sacrifice of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat
thereof,1560
unless he had been
taught by the law which was naturally implanted in him? How could Noah
have distinguished what animals were clean and what were
unclean,1561
when the
commandment of the law had not yet made a distinction, unless he had
been taught by a natural knowledge? Whence did Enoch learn how to
“walk with God,”1562
having never
acquired any light of the law from another? Where had Shem and Japheth
read “Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father,”
so that they went backwards and covered the shame of their
father?1563
How was Abraham
taught to abstain from the spoils of the enemy which were offered to
him, that he might not receive any recompense for his toil, or to pay
to the priest Melchizedec the tithes which are ordered by the law of
Moses?1564
How was it too
that the same Abraham and Lot also humbly offered to passers by and
strangers offices of kindness and the washing of their feet, while yet
the Evangelic command had not shone forth?1565
| 1565 Gen. xviii., xix.; cf. S. John xiii.
34. |
Whence did Job obtain such earnestness of faith, such purity of
chastity, such knowledge of humility, gentleness, pity and kindness, as
we now see shown not even by those who know the gospels by heart? Which
of the saints do we read of as not having observed some commandment of
the law before the giving of the law? Which of them failed to keep
this: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one
Lord?”1566
Which of them did
not fulfil this: “Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven
image, nor the likeness of anything which is in heaven or in the earth
or under the earth?” Which of them did not observe this:
“Honour thy father and thy mother,” or what follows in the
Decalogue: “Thou shalt do no murder; Thou shalt not commit
adultery; Thou shalt not steal; Thou shalt not bear false witness; Thou
shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife,”1567
and many other things besides, in which
they anticipated the commands not only of the law but even of the
gospel?E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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