Conferences of John Cassian, Part I — Historical footnotes

knowledge, according to the word of the prophet who says “He gave the law to help them:” and it is also described by the Apostle as having been given as a schoolmaster to little children, as it instructs and guards them to prevent them from departing through sheer forgetfulness from the teaching in which they had been instructed by the light of nature: for that the complete knowledge of the law was implanted in man at his first creation, is clearly proved from this; viz., that we know that before the law, aye, and even before the flood, all holy men observed the commands of the law without having the letter to read. For how could Abel, without the command of the law, have known that he ought to offer to God a sacrifice of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof, unless he had been taught by the law which was naturally implanted in him? How could Noah have distinguished what animals were clean and what were unclean, when the commandment of the law had not yet made a distinction, unless he had been taught by a natural knowledge? Whence did Enoch learn how to “walk with God,” having never acquired any light of the law from another? Where had Shem and Japheth read “Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father,” so that they went backwards and covered the shame of their father? How was Abraham taught to abstain from the spoils of the enemy which were offered to him, that he might not receive any recompense for his toil, or to pay to the priest Melchizedec the tithes which are ordered by the law of Moses? How was it too that the same Abraham and Lot also humbly offered to passers by and strangers offices of kindness and the washing of their feet, while yet the Evangelic command had not shone forth? Whence did Job obtain such earnestness of faith, such purity of chastity, such knowledge of humility, gentleness, pity and kindness, as we now see shown not even by those who know the gospels by heart? Which of the saints do we read of as not having observed some commandment of the law before the giving of the law? Which of them failed to keep this: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord?” Which of them did not fulfil this: “Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of anything which is in heaven or in the earth or under the earth?” Which of them did not observe this: “Honour thy father and thy mother,” or what follows in the Decalogue: “Thou shalt do no murder; Thou shalt not commit adultery; Thou shalt not steal; Thou shalt not bear false witness; Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife,” and many other things besides, in which they anticipated the commands not only of the law but even of the gospel?