De Moor I:19: The Insufficiency of Natural Theology

With the Object of the Natural Theology of Fallen man having been carefully considered, our AUTHOR rightly concludes that there is an Adjunct of this Theology, namely, its Insufficiency for Salvation.

For that is proven, 1.  from the fact that the Trinity is not known through it.  For what Theology does not know God as Triune is not able to be saving to men; compare John 17:3; 1 John 2:23; and Chapter V, § 29, below.  2.  There is no salvation outside of Christ:  Natural Theology does not know Christ:  Therefore, it does not lead to salvation; compare John 14:6; Acts 4:12.  Again, salvation only occurs through the faith of Christ:  Natural Theology is ignorant of the faith of Christ:  Therefore, it is without salvation.  The Proof of the Major is Mark 16:16; John 3:16, 18.

It ought not to be taken as an exception, that this is the ordinary way of salvation; but that from this it does not follow that God is not able to confer salvation extraordinarily upon those that have lived holily according to the Law of nature, although they be ignorant of Christ.  For (as the Most Illustrious TURRETIN rightly says in his Theologiæ Elencticæ, locus I, question IV, § 5), since Christ is according to the Holy Scriptures the only way of salvation, without whom no one comes to the Father; an extraordinary way of salvation without Him is not able to be devised without sin.  Consult on this second Argument CALVIN’S Institutionem Christianæ Religionis, book II, chapter VI.

We proceed on the other hand:  3.  To what Theology salvation has been removed by divine authority, through this theology one arrives not at salvation.  But to natural Theology salvation has been removed, since the Gentiles furnished with it nevertheless are said to be ἄθεοι/ atheists and ἐλπίδα μὴ ἔχοντες, having no hope, Ephesians 2:12.[1]  4.  Natural Theology must lead to salvation either by the Legal way or the Evangelical way:  not by the Evangelical way, because its subject matter is ignorant of the Gospel and Christ:  but not by the Legal way, because for Fallen man there is no salvation by the works of the written Law, much less by the obedience of the less complete natural Law.  Paul teaches Jews and Greeks in Romans 3:19, 20 that πᾶν στόμα φραγῇ, καὶ ὑπόδικος γένηται πᾶς ὁ κόσμος τῷ Θεῷ·  διότι ἐξ ἔργων νόμου οὐ δικαιωθήσεται πᾶσα σὰρξ ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ· διὰ γὰρ νόμου ἐπίγνωσις ἁμαρτίας, every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.  Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight:  for by the law is the knowledge of sin.  In this, therefore, natural Theology is deficient, that it does not supply sufficient means for attaining unto true salvation; it does not exhibit the means of expiating sins, neither does it indicate whence we might be able to recover strength sufficient for the worship of God.

Herman Witsius

The Most Illustrious WITSIUS has written elegantly, as is his manner, in his De Œconomia Fœderum, book III, chapter V, § 14, “They do not procure assent from us, whether they be the ancients, a catalogue of whom Casaubon[2] has composed, in his Exercitatione I ad Apparatus Annales Baronii,[3] and after him Vossius, in his Historia de controversiis, quas Pelagius, book III, part III, thesis II; or they be the more recent men, that think that by this calling of nature the honest among the gentiles were led to salvation without the knowledge of Christ.  And we think that those of our brethren attribute too much to nature, for whom it was agreeable to write:  Men, if they be not willingly blind, are able to acquire through τὸ γνωστὸν τοῦ Θεου, that which may be known of God, some knowledge of the divine mercy, by which they might pursue salvation, by that method, which perhaps lies hidden, even if that γνῶσις/knowledge were destitute of distinct knowledge of some mysteries, which they of themselves were not able to know in any manner:  Amyraut’s Specimine Animadversionum in Exercitationes de Gratia Universali, part II, page 133.  For us it is certain that there is no salvation without Christ, Acts 4:12:  That there is no communion for those of age with Christ except through faith upon Him, Ephesians 3:17:  That there is no faith upon Christ without the knowledge of Him, John 17:3:  That there is no knowledge of Him except through the preaching of the Gospel, Romans 10:14:  That there is no preaching of the Gospel in the works of Nature.  For the Gospel is that mystery hidden from times of ages, Romans 16:25.”

But if Natural Theology were sufficient to acquire Salvation, it would not have been such a great privilege to the Israelites to be blessed with divine Revelation above the Gentiles:  but see Psalm 147:19, 20; Romans 3:1, 2.

That the Ethics of the Gentile Philosophers did not furnish the true way of eternal felicity and solid tranquility of mind, teach GERARDUS GULIELMUS AB OOSTEN DE BRUYN in his Dissertatione de Philosophia Gentile Doctrinæ moralis, pages 116-128, 130, 131; and Anonymus in his Cogitatione de Doctrina Sapientium Gentilium morali, ibid., § 15-17, 187-190.

[1] Ephesians 2:12:  “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope (ἐλπίδα μὴ ἔχοντες), and without God (ἄθεοι/atheists) in the world…”

[2] Isaac Casaubon (1559-1614) began his career as Professor of Greek at Geneva and finished his career as a prebendary of Westminster and Canterbury.  He was a learned critic, and he produced annotated editions of Greek and Latin authors.  He was among those that sought a reunion between the Protestant and Roman churches.

[3] Cesare Baronio (1538-1607) was an Italian Cardinal; he wrote Annales Ecclesiastici in twelve folio volumes.