Pro Rege

Matthew Barker, Natural Theology: Or, the Knowledge of God from the Works of Creation; Accommodated and Improved to the Service of Christianity, Chapter I

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Romans 1:20

The Scope of the Text:

How the Gentiles though without the written Law yet are under Sin.

The scope of the Apostle in the first part of this epistle, is to assert and prove the great doctrine of justification by faith, and not by the works of the Law. And to make his way to it, he first proves all men to be under sin. And all mankind being divided into Jew and Gentile, he first proves the Gentile to be under sin, in this first chapter; and the Jew in the second. And those that are under sin, cannot be justified by the works of the Law, and therefore must of necessity have recourse to the righteousness of faith, being convicted of sin by the Law.

Now lest it might be argued, “How could the Gentile be under sin, not having the written Law made known unto them?”¹ for it was the Jew to whom were committed the oracles of God; and where there is no Law, there is no transgression. The Apostle therefore in this chapter tells us, they had the Law of Nature, which was God’s Law; which though it is not written in ink and paper, yet it is written in the hearts of all men, and in the visible works of God’s creation: and the Gentiles thereupon are convicted to be under sin, not following the light and conduct of that Universal Law.

For as a law is directive and preceptive, it ministers knowledge, and commands practice: so was the Law of Nature to the Gentiles; it had a light in it whereby they might attain some knowledge of God; and it had a force in it to urge them upon the performance of duty and service to Him, answerable to that knowledge.

But, because they darkened this light in themselves, as in Romans 1:21, their foolish heart was darkened, and they did not follow the conduct of it, but retained the truth in unrighteousness; hereupon they are convinced of sin; for they did neither take up those worthy conceptions of God’s being, which the Law of Nature might direct them to; as the Apostle speaks in Romans 1:21-22, neither did they manage their conversation towards men with that justice, sobriety, equity, and charity, as that Law did both direct and urge them to; as the Apostle at large declares in the enumeration of those several vices, which they lived in the practice of, in the last part of the chapter.

Now this Law of Nature, as written in the hearts of Men, he speaks of in the verse before the text; calling it: that which may be known of God, manifest in them. And as written in the works of creation, he speaks it of these words of the text, For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal Power and Godhead. And hence he infers they are without excuse. And so I am come to the text.

What the Law of Nature is. How Adam had the knowledge of his Creator.

I, having already spoken from another scripture at large of the Glory of God, as manifested in Christ; and of the Glory of Christ, as manifested in the gospel-ministration; my intention from this text is, to set forth the glass of the world’s creation; wherein we may behold, and from whence we may evince, both the being of God, or his deity; and many attributes and properties of his being.

And whereas all theology consists of two parts; either that which is called natural, or that which consists of supernatural revelation; the former I shall here speak of.

By natural theology, that all may understand, I mean that knowledge of God, and our duty to Him, which the light of nature may lead man up to, and which is concreated with his soul. The image of God upon man in his first creation, consisted in knowledge as well as holiness; and the knowledge Adam had of his creator, was partly by the character of his being engraven upon his soul, which is by some styled an implanted word; and partly by what the large power of his intellectual faculty might gather from the works of creation; by both which he was led to God as his ultimate end. Now the light of nature, as it is now found in man, is the dark and weak remainders of this image still; which the Apostle says the heathens had, who had nothing of the external Word, either by writing, or any other way of revelation.

The text may seem a paradox; for it speaks of things invisible that are seen: If seen, how are they invisible? And if invisible, how are they seen? And therefore I must explain the text.

1. And first I shall shew what are the invisible things of God, spoken of in the text.
2. How these invisible things are seen, and understood, from the creation of the world; and the things that are made.
3. How upon the account thereof, the gentiles are said to be without excuse.

What is meant by the “invisible things of God”

For the first: by the invisible things of God are meant his being, and the properties and attributes of his being; and which is expressed in the Arabic version. These are called the things of God²; not as if in God there was thing and thing, or any multiplicity, diversity, or variety in his being, as there is in the beings of men: where the mind is one faculty, and the will another; the faculty is one thing, and the act another; wisdom is one thing, and power another; habit is one thing, and operation another; the whole is one thing, and parts another. For the nature of God is perfect unity, identity, simplicity, without any division or composition³; where mind is the same with will, act with power, wisdom with goodness, etc. but God speaking to men, speaks of himself, as we are able to understand. And therefore we read of attributes and properties in his being, as if these were distinct things; which yet are all one in Him; and are his essence and being, rather than the attributes of it. Now these are the invisibles of God.

As God himself is said to be the King eternal, immortal, and invisible⁴; and to dwell in light inaccessible⁵, whom no eye hath seen, or can see: so are all the attributes of his being, in themselves invisible. Though his goodness, power, and wisdom, are visible in their effects; yet as they are in God they are invisible. For God being a spirit, cannot be seen by a corporeal faculty; for all sensation is made by a suitableness of the object to the sense. Nay, the soul itself, though it is a spirit, while it dwells and acts in the body, cannot see God as he is, because it acts here according to the law and capacity of its present state: which is to understand, and see things by those species and images which are presented to it from the phancy [imagination], and conveyed to the phancy from the sense. But how it may see God, and understand in its separate state, is not my present work to enquire; for the Apostle speaks in the text, of man in his present state; and so these things of God are invisible to him, as to any immediate and intuitive sight of them. For they are not absolutely invisible; for the soul, when it is fortified and fitted, may be capable of seeing them but it cannot in its present state; propter excessum intelligibilis supra intellectum⁶,because of the excess of the object above the faculty, as the light of the sun is to the eyes of a bat.

Though invisible, yet how seen

How are these invisible things of God said to be clearly seen from the creation of the world? The Greek word καθοραω⁷, which we render clearly seen, will not well bear that interpretation: neither can I find it so in any other translation. For the clear sight of God, and of his attributes, is rather to be seen in Christ, than in the works of creation; who is called, the brightness of his Father’s glory, Hebrews 1:3. Or, it is rather reserved for the future, than attained in this present state. But yet these invisible things of God, though more darkly, may be seen from the creation of the world, and the things that are made; as the apostle here asserts.

What is meant by the creation of the world

Now by the creation of the world⁸, is either here meant the beginning of its being, and so the beginning of time; and then the apostle means, that those invisible things of God have been discovered and seen, a constitutione Mundi, from the first beginning of the world, in the things that are made. Those attributes of his that were invisible, did then manifest themselves in visible effects, and not before.

And this sense the Syriac, and some other translations do seem to follow; though disapproved by most of others: as also by most of our modern expositors⁹; Doctor Hammond excepted.

Therefore by the creation of the world, I conceive, is meant the things created, especially the first mass and chaos; which alone was properly and strictly, the effect of God’s creating power¹⁰. Now here is seen God’s eternal power, considering that he did create, not with labor and difficulty, but by his word; not out of preexistent matter, but out of nothing.

What difference betwixt the creation of the world, and things made.

Question: When the apostle speaks of these invisible things as seen; does he speak of the sight of the body, or of the mind?

Answer: He speaks of both, though chiefly of the latter; for the eye of the body beholding this visible world, the mind thence, by the help of the sense, is enabled to infer and conclude, that this must be the effect of some infinite power; and so the mind sees this power: for when the mind, by reasoning, has found out effects in their cause, it has an intellectual sight of what it has discovered. And that seeing is here to be chiefly taken for the sight of the mind, the next words more clearly show, “being understood by the things that are made,” which run thus in the Greek, τοις ποιημασιν νοουμενα. And νοεω implies the acts of the mind, as it raises itself up to the knowledge of things, by its agitations and exercise: and so it sees the invisible things of God, in the things that are made, as it ascends from finite, to that which is infinite; from visible, to that which is invisible; from corporeal, to that which is incorporeal; from temporal, to that which is eternal.

By the next words, “the things that are made,” in the Greek, ποιημα, we may understand the works of creation, as they were formed out of the first chaos, which was the proper object of creation. So that we may distinguish in the text between the creation of the world, and the things which are made; taking the word κτισις, or creation, as expressing the first matter of all things; and ποιημα, things made: the several creatures, both animate, and inanimate, that were educed out of that first matter.

Or, as the former word doth properly express¹¹, the producing of all things out of nothing; so the latter word, the curious frame and order, wherein all things were made.

As when the apostle speaks of the new creation, which believers have in Christ; he makes use of both these words of the text (Ephesians 2:10). We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. To show the excellent frame of this spiritual work, it is called ποιημα, the workmanship of God. And to shew the power of God manifested therein, it is said to be created, κτι𝜁ω.

Why the Apostle only mentions God’s eternal power and god-head.

Question: But why doth the apostle only mention God’s eternal power? Are not other attributes of his being to be seen in the works of creation, as his wisdom and goodness, as well as his eternity and power?

Answer: The apostle mentions the power of God, because of all God’s attributes, it seems to be most eminent and conspicuous in the work of creation. For it was properly an act of power, to make all things out of nothing; though his wisdom was seen in the guiding of his power, and his goodness in making all things good. And the apostle mentions God’s eternity in the text, which is another attribute, when he calls his power eternal: and by this he shews, that as the world had its being in time, so that God who made it, was before it, or else he could not have made it, as the cause must needs be before the effect; and what is before the creation of the world, and every thing that is made, must needs be before all time, (which came in with the creature, as the measure of its duration) and so be eternal.

But yet though only God’s power and eternity be here mentioned; yet, as a learned expositor observes¹², his other attributes are included in the word God-head. As if the apostle should have said, “In the creation of the world are seen God’s power, and God’s eternity: but what need have I to particularly mention any more attributes of his being, when his Godhead itself, which comprehends them all, is manifested therein.”

How the gentiles are without excuse by the light of nature.

The last particular to be explained is: How are the Gentiles hereupon said to be without excuse?

A man may be said to be without excuse, when he hath no apology to make for himself, as the word in the text signifies; and that either with respect to malum culpæ, the fault committed by him: or, malum pœnæ, the punishment inflicted upon him. In both, the Gentiles were without excuse.

1. As to the malum culpæ, or the evil of sin they were guilty of: for they had such means of knowledge ministered to them, by the light and law of nature, that might have led them to more venerable thoughts of God, and a more honorable worship of him, than was practiced by them: and also to a more righteous and blameless conversation amongst men: so that thereupon they were without excuse.
2. And then as to the evil of punishment, inflicted for their sin; God would be justified therein, and they left without excuse, when he should proceed to judgment.

For God does, and will manage his judgments in such righteousness towards all men, with respect to their several capacities and conditions in this world, that every man may be found without excuse that falls under them.

How far the light and law of nature may lead a man towards his salvation, I shall not here dispute: all that the apostle asserts here concerning the gentiles, is, that they were αναπολογητος, or without excuse thereby.

And the apostle Paul deals with the gentiles thus particularly, because the ministry of the uncircumcision was more peculiarly committed to him than the other apostles. And he does it rather in this epistle to the Romans, than in any other, because Rome was the chief seat of the gentiles empire in the apostles time; and where idolatry and moral wickedness also did most abound, as it usually does in such great cities; and as their own historians do abundantly declare concerning it.

Footnotes

1. Understand it of Gentiles without the Church. ↩︎
2. Proprietates ejus quae non sunt visae. Arab. ↩︎
3. Mens soluta et libera, segregata ab omni Concretione. As Cicero speaks of God. Tusc. q. lib. 1. p. 118. ↩︎
4. 1 Timothy 1:17; 1 Timothy 6:16 ↩︎
5. Operationes Dei descendunt ad nos, essentia tamen manet inaccessa, the works of God descend to us, yet His essence remains inaccessible. ↩︎
6. Aquinas ↩︎
7. The Greek word may be best rendered, Despiciuntur; As seen here below. ↩︎
8. κτισις κοσμου ↩︎
9. The beginning of the world is sometimes expressed by καταβολῆς κόσμου (Eph. 1:4), or by ἀρχῆς κτίσεως (Mark 13:19), but not by κτισις κοσμου. ↩︎
10. Creatio est emanatio universalis entis ex nihilo, creation is the emanation of universal being from nothing . Aquinas ↩︎
11. A work curiously wrought, is either properly called ποιημα, if we derive it from ποιος, as some do; or else κατ’ ἐξοχήν; and so words and syllables set together in meter, are called ποίημα, or a poem; or the producing of any work, secundum praecepta artis, according either to the precepts of rhetoric, music, architecture, etc. as critics tell us. ↩︎
12. Estius in Loc. ↩︎