BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

On the divine law
be sweet to you, then will your foresight 7 watch over you, and your
prudence protect you’. All this is plainly consistent with natural knowledge;
for it teaches ethics and true virtue, after we have acquired a
knowledge of things and have tasted the excellence of learning. Thus, in
Solomon’s view also, the happiness and peace of the person who cultivates
natural understanding chie£y depend, not upon the realm of fortune
(i.e., the external assistance of God), but upon their own internal
power (or the internal assistance of God), because they preserve themselves
best by alertness, action and good counsel.
Finally we must not forget this passage of Paul, found at Romans 1.20,
where (as Tremellius translates it from the Syriac text) 8 Paul says,‘for the
hidden things of God, from the creation of the world, are seen through
the understanding in his creatures, as well as his power and divinity
which is for ever, so that they are without a way of escape’. With this he
indicates plainly enough that each man fully understands by the natural
light of reason the power of God, and His eternal divinity, by which men
can know and deduce what they should seek and what they should avoid.
Hence Paul concludes that all are without a way of escape and can not be
excused by ignorance, though assuredly they could have been excused
were he talking about supernatural inspiration, the su¡ering of Christ in
the £esh, the resurrection, etc. This is why, immediately below, at verse
24, he continues: ‘for this reason God gave them over to the ¢lthy lusts
of their heart’, and so on, down to the end of the chapter, where he is
describing the vices of ignorance. This also agrees with the passage from
the Proverbs of Solomon, 16.22 quoted above: ‘the punishment of the
stupid is their stupidity’. So it is not surprising that Paul says that
wrongdoers have no excuse. As each man sows, so he reaps; from bad
things, bad things necessarily follow, unless wisely corrected; from good
things, good things necessarily follow, if allied with constancy of purpose.
Thus the Bible fully endorses the natural light of reason and the
natural divine law. And thus I have done what I proposed to do in this
chapter.
7 Spinoza’s note: mezima properly signi¢es thought, deliberation, and vigilance.
8 Tremellius and Junius published a Latin translation of the Old Testament and Apocrypha in 1575^9
which was in common use among Protestants. Some later editions added Tremellius’ translation of
the Syriac version of the NewTestament.
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