people, and though He spoke somewhat more clearly than the other
prophets, yet He taught what was revealed obscurely, and generally
through parables, especially when He was speaking to those to whom it
was not yet given to understand the kingdom of heaven. (See Matt. xiii.
10, etc.) To those to whom it was given to understand the mysteries of
heaven, He doubtless taught His doctrines as eternal truths and did not
lay them down as laws, thus freeing the minds of His hearers from the
bondage of that law which He further confirmed and established. Paul
apparently points to this more than once (_e.g._, Rom. vii. 6, and iii.
28), though he never himself seems to wish to speak openly, but, to
quote his own words (Rom. iii. 5, and vi. 19), "merely humanly." This he
expressly states when he calls God just, and it was doubtless in
concession to human weakness that he attributes mercy, grace, anger, and
similar qualities to God, adapting his language to the popular mind, or,
as he puts it (1 Cor. iii. 1, 2), to carnal men. In Rom. ix. 18, he
teaches undisguisedly that God's anger and mercy depend not on the
actions of men, but on God's own nature or will; further, that no one
is justified by the works of the law, but only by faith, which he seems
to identify with the full assent of the soul; lastly, that no one is
blessed unless he have in him the mind of Christ (Rom. viii. 9), whereby
he perceives the laws of God as eternal truths. We conclude, therefore,
that God is described as a lawgiver or prince, and styled just,
merciful, etc., merely in concession to popular understanding, and the
imperfection of popular knowledge; that in reality God acts and directs
all things simply by the necessity of His nature and perfection, and
that His decrees and volitions are eternal truths, and always involve
necessity. So much for the first point which I wished to explain and
demonstrate.

Passing on to the second point, let us search the sacred pages for their
teaching concerning the light of nature and this Divine law. The first
doctrine we find in the history of the first man, where it is narrated
that God commanded Adam not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil; this seems to mean that God commanded Adam
to do and to seek after righteousness because it was good, not because
the contrary was evil: that is, to seek the good for its own sake, not
from fear of evil. We have seen that he who acts rightly from the tru