words that this knowledge contains and involves the true principles of
ethics and politics: "When wisdom entereth into thy heart, and knowledge is
pleasant to thy soul, discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall
keep thee, then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and
equity, yea every good path." (93) All of which is in obvious agreement with
natural knowledge: for after we have come to the understanding of things,
and have tasted the excellence of knowledge, she teaches us ethics and true
virtue.

(94) Thus the happiness and the peace of him who cultivates his natural
understanding lies, according to Solomon also, not so much under the
dominion of fortune (or God's external aid) as in inward personal virtue (or
God's internal aid), for the latter can to a great extent be preserved by
vigilance, right action, and thought.

(95) Lastly, we must by no means pass over the passage in Paul's Epistle to
the Romans, i:20, in which he says: "For the invisible things of God 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, because, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither
were they thankful." (96) These words clearly show that everyone can by the
light of nature clearly understand the goodness and the eternal divinity of
God, and can thence know and deduce what they should seek for and what
avoid; wherefore the Apostle says that they are without excuse and cannot
plead ignorance, as they certainly might if it were a question of
supernatural light and the incarnation, passion, and resurrection of Christ.
(97) "Wherefore," he goes on to say (ib. 24), "God gave them up to
uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts;" and so on, through the
rest of the chapter, he describes the vices of ignorance, and sets them
forth as the punishment of ignorance. (98) This obviously agrees with the