CHAPTER V
THE SEEDS OF THESE THREE (LEARNING, VIRTUE, AND PIETY) ARE NATURALLY IMPLANTED IN US
1. By the word nature we mean, not the corruption which has laid hold of all men since the Fall (on which account we are naturally called the children of wrath, unable of ourselves to have any good thoughts), but our first and original condition, to which, as to a starting-point, we must be recalled. It was in this sense that Ludovicus Vives15 said, “What else is a Christian but a man restored to his own nature, and, as it were, brought back to the starting-point from which the devil has thrown him?” (Lib. i. De Concordia et Discordia). In this sense, too, must we take the words of Seneca, “This is wisdom, to return to nature and to the position from which universal error (that is to say, the error of the human race, originated by the first men) has driven us,” and again, “Man is not good but becomes so, as, mindful of his origin, he strives toward equality with God. No man who is viciously inclined ventures the ascent towards the place whence he descended” (Epist. 93).
2. By the voice of nature we understand the universal Providence of God or the influence of Divine Goodness which never ceases to work all in all things; that is to say, which continually developes each creature for the end to which it has been destined. For it is a sign of the divine wisdom to do nothing in vain, that is to say, without a definite end or without means proportionate to that end.
