As there are, then, generally two laws presented to us, the one
being the law of nature, of which God would be the legislator,
and the other being the written law of cities, it is a proper
thing, when the written law is not opposed to that of God, for
the citizens not to abandon it under pretext of foreign customs;
but when the law of nature, that is, the law of God, commands
what is opposed to the written law, observe whether reason will
not tell us to bid a long farewell to the written code, and to
the desire of its legislators, and to give ourselves up to the
legislator God, and to choose a life agreeable to His word,
although in doing so it may be necessary to encounter dangers,
and countless labours, and even death and dishonour. For when
there are some laws in harmony with the will of God, which are
opposed to others which are in force in cities, and when it is
impracticable to please God (and those who administer laws of
the kind referred to), it would be absurd to contemn those acts
by means of which