De Moor I:18: The Object of Natural Theology

With the Existence of Natural Theology asserted, its Object in fallen man is declared positively and negatively.

α.  Natural Theology extends itself, not only to the Existence of God, or that God is; but also to His Spiritual Essence, and His Essential Attributes, or what God is, for example, wisdom, power, goodness; whence the elogy of Optimus Maximus among the Greeks:[1]  and, moreover, to the Natural Works of Universal Creation, which we easily perceive has not existed from eternity, neither was it thus produced by chance or by a blind cast; likewise to the Natural Works of Providence, through which we perceive that this world is governed by its author.  Through this Theology some Knowledge, although Imperfect, is added, both of the divine Law, and of our Misery; to the extent that we acknowledge that God is to be sincerely worshipped before all, that Justice among men and Temperance in all of life are to be observed; that rewards are to be looked for by the just, punishments by transgressors; that we in as many things as possible are transgressors of the divine Law, are hence liable and obnoxious to divine vengeance, and that this guilt is not to be washed away easily:  that, at the same time, by all means Reconciliation with the Deity is to be sought.  These things have regard unto τὸ γνωστὸν τοῦ Θεου, what may be known of God, which God Himself ἐφανέρωσε, has shown, by nature to every man internally and externally, Romans 1:19.

β.  But that Θεοῦ γνωστὸν, thing known of God, stops far below those things which are necessary to be known for salvation, and which pertain to τὸ πιστὸν τοῦ Θεου, the thing believed of God, revealed in the Word of God, especially in the Gospel.

For, Natural Theology does not know, in the first place, who God is; that is, by nature after the Fall we do not understand the Trinity of divine Persons; see Chapter V, § 28.  Matthew 16:17, ὅτι σὰρξ καὶ αἷμα οὐκ ἀπεκάλυψέ σοι, ἀλλ᾽ ὁ Πατήρ μου ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven:  namely, that the Son is in the Deity personally distinct from the Father, yet one with Him in Essence; which Knowledge is nevertheless necessary for salvation; see Chapter V, § 29.  Hence by Nature after the Fall we are able to be said not undeservedly to be ignorant of the true God.  Indeed the Most Illustrious VRIESIUS, in his Exercitationibus rationalibus IV, § 6, on the Question whether the true God might be said to be known from Nature, thinks that it is to be answered affirmatively, since we know God by nature as the Independent Spirit, although naturally we know God imperfectly on account of a lack of knowledge of the Trinity:  but it is one thing, says he, for knowledge that one has of God to be imperfect and not saving; it is another thing for the object of such imperfect Knowledge not to be the true God.  It appears to be able to be said with no less right that naturally it is known that and what God is, or God’s Existence and Essence less distinctly, but not who God is:  but, if we do not know God as Triune, we will then form a false concept of His subsistence.  Hence the true God is said to be ἄγνωστος/unknown to the Gentiles, Acts 17:23, on which passage see LELAND, disputing against Cudworth,[2] in his de Utilitate et Necessitate Revelationis Christi, part I, section II, chapter XVIII, pages 506-521.  The Gentiles, devoid of revelation, are said hence to have lived in the times of Ignorance, Acts 17:30, and not to have known God, and hence to have worshipped those which by nature were not God, Galatians 4:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:5; τὰ εἴδωλα, the idols, which the Gentiles were worshipping, are opposed Θεῷ ζῶντι καὶ ἀληθινῷ, to the living and true God:[3]  consult GERARDUS GULIELMUS AB OOSTEN DE BRUYN in Dissertatione de Philosophia Gentile Doctrinæ moralis, pages 84-92.  SENECA’S Epistolæ XLI, “Without God no one is a good man:  —In every good man God (who God is is uncertain) God dwells.”   Concerning this matter, CICERO complains, in his Academicis Questionibus, book II or IV, chapter XLI, “To Zeno[4] and the rest of the Stoics generally the æther appears to be the most high God, endowed with reason, by which all things are ruled.  Cleanthes,[5] who is, as it were, a Stoic of elder races, a hearer of Zeno, thinks that the sun rules and is master of affairs.  And so we are compelled by the dissension of the wise, to be ignorant of our own ruler, inasmuch as we do not know whether we are subjects of the Sun or of Æther.”

Likewise Natural Theology does not know Christ the Mediator, and the way of the Reconciliation of the world with God in Christ, 1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Corinthians 2:6, 7.  In addition, it does not know the spiritual perfection of the Law, Romans 7:7, and the rise and magnitude of human Misery, which are the beginnings of Saving Knowledge and Repentance.  Hence man, imbued with Natural Theology alone, is said to be darkened in understanding, indeed, to be of the darkness itself, Ephesians 4:18; 5:8.

[1] Jupiter was sometimes called Optimus Maximus, the Best, the Greatest.

[2] Ralph Cudworth (1617-1688) studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was elected fellow (1639) and Regius Professor of Hebrew (1645).  He was supportive of the Commonwealth, but, after the Restoration, he appears to have had little difficulty accepting appointments in the established church, serving as Vicar of Ashwell, Hertfordshire (1662), and then Prebendary of Gloucester (1678).  He was a leader of the Cambridge Platonists.

[3] 1 Thessalonians 1:9.

[4] Zeno of Citium (333-264 BC) was the founder of the philosophical school of Stoicism.

[5] Cleanthes (c. 330-c. 230 BC) was a pupil of Zeno, and his successor as head of the Stoic school at Athens.