Chapter 36 [XXI.]—The Law Written in Our Hearts.

What then is God’s law written by God Himself in the hearts of men, but the very presence of the Holy Spirit, who is “the finger of God,” and by whose presence is shed abroad in our hearts the love which is the fulfilling of the law,155    Rom. xiii. 10. and the end of the commandment?156    1 Tim. i. 5. Now the promises of the Old Testament are earthly; and yet (with the exception of the sacramental ordinances which were the shadow of things to come, such as circumcision, the Sabbath and other observances of days, and the ceremonies of certain meats,157    See Retractations, ii. 37, printed at the head of this treatise. and the complicated ritual of sacrifices and sacred things which suited “the oldness” of the carnal law and its slavish yoke) it contains such precepts of righteousness as we are even now taught to observe, which were especially expressly drawn out on the two tables without figure or shadow: for instance, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” “Thou shalt do no murder,” “Thou shalt not covet,”158    Ex. xx. 13, 14, 17. “and whatsoever other commandment is briefly comprehended in the saying, Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself.”159    Rom. xiii. 9. Nevertheless, whereas as in the said Testament earthly and temporal promises are, as I have said, recited, and these are goods of this corruptible flesh (although they prefigure those heavenly and everlasting blessings which belong to the New Testament), what is now promised is a good for the heart itself, a good for the mind, a good of the spirit, that is, an intellectual good; since it is said, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their hearts will I write them,” 160    Jer. xxxi. 33.—by which He signified that men would not fear the law which alarmed them externally, but would love the very righteousness of the law which dwelt inwardly in their hearts.

CAPUT XXI.

36. Lex scripta in cordibus. Quid sunt ergo leges Dei ab ipso Deo scriptae in cordibus, nisi ipsa praesentia Spiritus sancti, qui est digitus Dei, quo praesente diffunditur charitas in cordibus nostris, quae plenitudo legis est, et praecepti finis? Nam quia Veteris Testamenti promissa terrena sunt licet (exceptis sacramentis, quae umbra erant futurorum, sicut est circumcisio, et sabbatum, et aliae dierum observationes, et quarumdam escarum cerimoniae , et multiplex sacrificiorum sacrorumque ritus, quae vetustati carnalis legis jugoque servili congruebant,) talia contineat praecepta justitiae, qualia nunc quoque observare praecipimur, quae maxime duabus illis tabulis sine figura adumbratae significationis expressa sunt, sicuti est, Non adulterabis, Non homicidium facies, Non concupisces, et si quod aliud est mandatum quod in hoc sermone recapitulatur, Diliges proximum tuum sicut te ipsum (Exod. XX, 14-17): tamen quia in eo, sicut dixi, promissa terrena et temporalia recitantur, quae bona sunt hujus corruptibilis carnis, quamvis eis sempiterna atque coelestia ad Novum scilicet Testamentum pertinentia figurentur ; nunc ipsius bonum cordis promittitur, mentis bonum, spiritus bonum, hoc est, intelligibile bonum, cum dicitur, Dabo leges meas in mente eorum, et in cordibus eorum scribam eas. Unde significavit eos non forinsecus terrentem legem formidaturos, sed intrinsecus habitantem ipsam legis justitiam dilecturos.