Commentary on Romans, Biblical exegesis 1 · Chapter 2 · Section 3 · Subsection 27 – Subsection 28
Quest. 27. How the Gentiles which had not the lawe, did by nature the things contained in the lawe.
This place is diuersly expounded. 1. Some doe here vnderstand the Gentiles converted to the faith of Christ, which doe naturally the worke of the lawe, that is, to beleeue in Christ, not that faith is naturall, but because, duce natura credunt, they beleeue, nature so guiding them: and while they beleeue, opus legis oftendunt, they shewe the worke of the Lawe: to this purpose Ambrose, whose meaning seemeth to be this, that the Gentiles which receiued the Gospel, were mooued by the light of nature, seeing the great miracles which Christ did, to acknowledge him to be the Messiah. But 1. this is an improper speech to say, that to beleeue is to doe the things of the lawe: neither is faith a worke of the lawe: for then he that is iustified by faith, might be said to be iustified by the lawe, which the Apostle euerie where opposeth and setteth one against the other: and faith is called the work of God, not of the lawe: as Ioh. 6.29. This is the worke of God, that ye beleeue, &c. 2. Neither by the light of nature can any come to beleeue, but he hath neede of speciall illumination: Iohn 6.44. No man can come vntounto me, except my father drawe him.
2. Augustine likewise, lib. de spirit. & liter. c. 26. vnderstandeth this place of the Gentiles conuerted to the faith of Christ: and so also lib. 4. con. Iuli. c. 3. And thus he seemeth to prooue it: because afterward, v. 26. he saith, If circumcision keepe the ordinances of the lawe, shall not his vncircumcision be counted for circumcision? here the Apostle speaketh of a Gentile conuerted: for otherwise how could he keepe the lawe? and it is like, that in all these places the Apostle speaketh of the same kind of Gentiles: and they are said naturally to doe the things of the lawe, quia vt crederint, ipsa in eis per Christi gratiam sanata est natura, because that they might beleeue, their nature was healed by grace: to this purpose Augustine. But this exposition may be thus obiected against. 1. though it be admitted that afterward the Apostle speaketh of a Gentile conuerted to the faith, it followeth not that he should so meane here: for in this place the Apostle maketh mention of such Gentiles as had no other direction but the lawe of nature, and their conscience, and so are said to sinne without the law: but in the other place, he compareth with the Iewes such vncircumcised Gentiles which kept the ordinances of the lawe, and had the true circumcision of the heart, which they could not attaine vntounto by the light of nature: And so Origen though before he vnderstand the vnbeleeuing Gentiles, qu. 21. yet there he thinketh the Apostle to meane the Gentiles conuerted: see qu. 43. following. Some thinke, that the Apostle is there to be vnderstood to speake by way of supposition, if circumcision keepe the ordinances of the lawe, not that it did, but if it did, Calvin: but it is there better referred to the conuerted Gentile, O siand, see afterward question 43. 2. If to doe by nature the things of the law, were to doe it by nature illuminated by grace and faith, then were there no difference here betweene Iewe and Gentile: for the Iewe also did so keepe the lawe. 3. and whereas it is said, they hauing not the law, he sheweth, that they hauehave no other helpe, but the lawe of nature: whereas the conuerted Gentiles did such things by the instinct of grace and faith, rather then by the light of nature. 4. And whereas Augustine thus obiecteth, that if it be the lawe of nature which is written in their hearts, the Gospel should hauehave no priuiledge more then the lawe: which the Lord is said to write in their hearts, Ierem. 31.33. It may be answeared: that the one is written in the heart, ratione luminis naturalis, by the meanes of the naturall light: the other is written, ratione luminis fidei, by the light of faith: and by the first naturall onelyonly and morall duties are imprinted in the heart, by the other, beside these, all other mysticall points of religion, which nature cannot bring one vntounto without faith: this is the priuiledge then of the Gospel, more then the lawe of nature hath, Tolet. And Ieremie speaketh there of a supernaturall inscription and writing in the heart by grace, the Apostle here of the naturall, Pareus dub. 14.
3. Some doe take the Gentiles here to be vnderstood not conuerted to the Gospell, but such as liued before the times of the Gospel: but beside the light of nature, had auxilium diuinae gratiae, the helpe of Gods grace, whereby they kept the morall precepts of the lawe: Thus Thomas interpreteth, and Vega lib. 6. super decret. concil. Tridentin. c. 21. so also Tolet: that they did the workes of the lawe, non quidem sine fide & gratia, but not without faith and grace, annot. 25. But this opinion is confuted by Medina lib. 4. de certa fide c. 7. and Pererius disput. 8. numer. 61. and it may be further refelled thus: 1. If that were S. Pauls meaning, that the Gentiles by their naturall light, helped by faith did keepe the lawe, they should not in this behalfe differ from the Iewes, who did keepe the lawe by the same meanes also, the light of nature assisted by grace. 2. the Apostle saith, they hauing not the lawe, are a lawe to themselues: but they which are ayded by grace, are not a lawe to themselues, they are guided and directed by grace.
4. Some here vnderstand such among the Gentiles, as had the true knowledge of God, such were Melchisedeck, Iob, the Niniuites, Cornelius. Chrysost. Faius. But these were not many among the Gentiles: the Apostle seemeth to speake more generally, of a great number among the Gentiles.
5. Some thinke that the Gentiles by the light of nature though they beleeued not in God, might doe workes of the lawe worthie of reward, to this purpose Origen, whose opinion is before confuted, qu. 21. Lyranus seemeth also to incline hereunto, obseruatio legis naturalis cum fide & cultu vnius Dei, (ad quod inducit ratio naturalis) aliquo modo sufficit, &c. the naturall obseruation of the lawe, with the faith and worship of one God, to the which naturall reason iuduceth, was some way sufficient to the Gentiles vntounto saluation, &c. But nothing can be acceptable to God without faith: not that generall faith and knowledge of one God, but the knowledge of God in Christ: for he is the way and doore, and without him is no entrace into life.
6. Wherefore the Apostle here describeth the Gentiles in generall euen before the times of the Gospel, and such as had no other direction then by the lawe of nature: which they had, as the Apostle sheweth by these two arguments: both by the externall workes of the lawe, and by the inward testimonie of their conscience. But the Apostle faith not they fulfilled the lawe, they onelyonly did certaine things, prescribed in the lawe, Martyr: And he speaketh rather, de notitia naturali, quam de implenda legis facultate, of the naturall knowledge which they had, not of any power or facultie to fulfill the lawe, Calvin. Beza. And he meaneth not all the Gentiles in generall, but the wiser sort among them as Solon, Socrates, Aristides, the Sciptoes, Catoes, with other, who outwardly did some externall workes which the lawe commanded, though they wanted the inward obedience, Pareus.
Quest. 27. How any thing can be said to be written in the heart by nature, seeing the minde is commonly held to be as a bare and naked table.
v. 15. Which shewe the effect of the lawe written in their heart: It is the opinion of the best Philosophers, as of Plato in Philebo, that the soule of man by nature is like vntounto a booke wherein nothing is written, or like vntounto a bare naked table, Aristot. lib. 3. de anima. c. 4. how then doth the Apostle here say, that the lawe is written in their heart?
Answ. 1. Plato was of opinion, that all things were at the first written in the soule, but when it commeth into the bodie, is blotted out againe and forgotten: and vponupon this ground that opinion is mentioned by the Platonists, that scire est reminisci, to know is nothing els but to remember. But this assertion presupposeth that the soule of man had a beeing without the bodie: and that there is a certaine promptuarie or seminare of soules, from whence the soules are deriued into the bodies: But this opinion is contrarie to the Scripture: which affirmeth that God formeth the spirit of man within him, Zach. 12.1. the soule of man is created within him, in his bodie, infundendo creatur, & creando infunditur, it is created by infusion into the bodie, and iufused by creation. 2. therefore a better answer is that whereas Aristole saith, foreign, that nothing is written in the vnderstanding: it must be vnderstood actually: yet potentia, in possibilitie euerie thing is written there: because the vnderstanding is apt, and hath a capacitie to receiue and apprehend euerie thing. 3. neither is that axiome of Philosophie generally to be vnderstood, but to be restrained to such principles, as are not engendred in the mind without instruction, experience, and obseruation, as is the knowledge of arts, otherwise there are some principles, which are by nature imprinted in the soule, as first the naturall conclusions, which the soule apprehendeth of it selfe without any other demonstration: as that God is to be worshipped, parents are to be honoured, that good and honest things are to be desired: secondly there are certaine foreign, generall notions, which are at the first apprehended onelyonly by the sense: as that the fire burneth, that the whole is greater then the part, and such like, ex Perer.
Quest. 28. Of the Lawe of nature, what it is.
It shall not be amisse by occasion of these words of the Apostle, who speaketh here of the lawe of nature written in the heart, a little to digresse, and briefly touch certaine questions of this matter: and first we will see, what this lawe of nature is, and of what precepts it consisteth.
1. It is euident by the Apostle here, that there is a lawe of nature: which he prooueth by …o effects, the one externall in the performance of some things agreeable to the lawe, the other internall in the testimonie of the conscience: But in this inward testimonie, there are two things to be considered: there is first that which is called foreign, which is the comprehension of certaine practicall principles, and a naturall discerning betweene good and euill, iust and vniust: then there is foreign, the conscience, which either accuseth one for doing euill, or excuseth him in choosing of that which is good: the synteresis doth frame the proposition, the syneidesis or cosncience, the assumption, as thus: the naturall lawe reacheth that parents must be honoured, and that they which disobey parents are worthie of punishment: thus the proposition is framed out of the principles of nature: then the conscience of the guiltie person supplyeth the assumption: But we Cham, Esau, Absolom, hauehave disobeyed our parents, therefore we deserue punishment: and the like practicall syllogismes may be made in other commandements, Gryneus.
1. Melancthon thus defineth the lawe of nature: it is a knowledge of certaine principles belonging to the practise of life, and of the conclusions thence necessarily inferred, agreeable with the eternall rule of truth, which God hath planted in the mind of man, to be a testimonie vntounto man, that there is a God, which ruleth and iudgeth the actions of men, &c. In this description there are the former causes expressed of the law of nature. 1. the materiall cause, or the obiect thereof, wherein it is occupied, and whereof it consisteth: namely, of certaine practicall principles with the conclusions gathered thereupon: for the speciall scope of this naturall direction, is for the the practise of life, and not for speculation: and in this naturall knowledge, are not onelyonly contained the first principles, as parents are to be honoured, but the conclusions thence diducted, as out of this principle in generall, eueryevery one is taught by the light of nature in particular to conclude, that therefore he must honour his parents: 2. the formall cause is the agreement with the rule of truth, and the equitie of Gods written lawe: for the lawe of nature is a summarie abridgement of the morall lawe. 3. then the efficient cause, and author is God, who hath written and imprinted this law in the heart of man, as Ambrose thus defineth this naturall law, quam Deus omnium creator singulorum hominum pectoribus iufudit, which God the Creator of all hath infused into euerie mans breast, epist. 71.4. then the end is that it should be a testimonie of the diuine prouidence and iudgement, whereby he ruleth all things, and in the ende will iudge the actions of men. This description of the lawe of nature agreeth with the Apostles definition here, it is the effect of the lawe written in our hearts, the effect or worke sheweth the matter, of the lawe, the forme written, the efficient, for it is Gods writing: the ende is expressed afterward, their conscience accuseth or excuseth them,