SECT. V. Of the definition of laws, and of the law eternal. The law eternal is thus defined by Thomas: bLex æterna est æternus divinæ sapientiæ conceptus, secundum quod ordinatur ad gubernationem rerum ab ipso præcognitarum ; "The eternal law is the eternal conceit of God's wisdom, "as it is referred to the government of things foreknown "by himself." Or, Lex æterna est summa atque æterna ratio divinæ sapientiæ; quatenus res omnes ad destinatos fines ita dirigit, ut illis juxta conditionem ipsarum modum aliquem necessitatis adferat; "It is the high and eternal "reason of divine sapience; as it directeth all things in "such sort to their proper ends, imposing a kind of necessity according to their several natures or conditions." Now the difference lieth in this; that as the same divine unc Th. q. 93. art. 1. 66 b P. 2. q. 9. art. 1. derstanding directeth all these to their proper ends, so it is called providence; but as it imposeth a necessity according to the natures of all things which it directeth, so it is called a law. 66 66 Of this eternal law Cicero took knowledge, when, in his book of laws, he wrote in this manner: Erat ratio perfecta, rerum natura, et ad recte faciendum impellens et a delicto avocans; quæ non tum incipit lex esse cum scripta est: sed tum cum orta est. Orta autem simul est cum mente divina: quamobrem lex vera atque princeps, apta ad jubendum et ad vetandum, ratio est recta summi Jovis; "That perfect reason and nature of things encouraging or impelling to rightful actions, and calling us back from evil, did not,” saith he," then begin to be a law when it was written, but "when it had being. Being and beginning it had together "with divine understanding, and therefore a true law and 66 a fit princess to command and forbid, is the right reason "of the most high God." This eternal law (if we consider it in God, or as God) is always one and the same, the nature of God being most simple; but as it is referred to divers objects, so the reason of man finds it diverse and manifold. It also seemeth one law in respect of things necessary, as the motions of the heavens, stability of the earth, &c. but it appeareth otherwise to things contingent, another law to men, another to other creatures having life, and to all those that be inanimate. By this eternal law all things are directed, as by the counsel and providence of God; from this law all laws are derived, as from the rule universal; and thereto referred, as the operation of the second to the first. dThe eternal and the divine law differ only in consideration; the eternal directing more largely, as well every creature to their proper and natural ends, as it doth man to his supernatural; but the divine law to a supernatural end only; the natural law thence derived is but an effect of the eternal, as it were a stream from this fountain. The law human or temporal is also thence drawn, in that d Tho. et Aug. it hath the form of right reason; from which if it differ, it is then impositio iniqua," a wicked imposition," and only borroweth the name of a law. To this eternal law all things are subjected, as well angels and men, as all other creatures, or things created; whether necessary or contingent, natural or moral, and human. For the law eternal runneth through all the universal, and therefore it is the law also of things which are simple, natural, and inanimate. Hence it is that all things created are commanded to praise God their Creator and Director; as, e Praise him, all ye his angels: praise ye him, sun and moon, all bright stars, heavens of heavens, for he hath established them for ever and ever. He hath made an ordinance which shall not pass. Praise ye the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all depths: fire, and hail; snow, and vapours; stormy winds which execute his word: mountains, and hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars: beasts, and all cattle, &c. Now as the reasonable creatures are by this eternal law bound by the glory and felicity proposed unto them, (beatitude being both the attractive and the end,) so all other natural things and creatures have in themselves, and in their own natures, an obedience formal to it, without any proper intention, known cause, or end proposed. For beasts are led by sense and natural instinct; things without life by their created form, or formal appetites; as that which is heavy, to fall downward, things light, to mount upward, &c. and fire, to heat whatsoever is apposed. This kind of working the Aristotelians ascribe to common nature, others to fate; a difference used in terms only; it being no other than God's general providence: for as it is truly said of God, that he is omnia super omnia; so are all things which appear in themselves thence derived, thereunder subjected, thencefrom by his eternal law and providence directed, even from the greatest to the least of his creatures in heaven and in earth. The schoolmen are very curious and ample in the consideration of these laws; and in discourse of the profit, and • Psalm cxlviii. of the matter and object of the eternal law. But as the profit is manifest in the good of all creatures, who have thencefrom either reason, sense, vegetation, or appetition, to conduct them; so is the object and matter of the law, the whole creature. For according to St. Augustine, f Lex æterna est, qua justum est ut omnia sint ordinatissima; "The law eternal is that, whereby it is just that all things "should be disposed in the best and goodliest order.” Lastly, It is disputed, whether the eternal law be immutable, yea or no? but the resolution is, that it changeth not; for which St. Augustine useth a sufficient argument in his first book of Free Will, the sixth chapter. For the law of Moses, which had a time prefixed, was eternally by God ordained to last until the time of the pedagogy of God's people, or introduction to Christ, should be expired; which time of expiration some think our Saviour noted to be come, when on the cross he said, g Consummatum est. But I rather think these words of our Saviour to have no other signification, than that now the prophecy of their giving him vinegar to drink was fulfilled. For so St. John expounds it, when he saith, ver. 28. That Christ seeing all [other] things to be fulfilled, ut consummaretur scriptura, that the scripture in this also might be fulfilled, said, I thirst; though I deny not, but at the same time also the date of the law was expired, to wit, of the law ceremonial, and of so much of the judicial as appertained peculiarly to the Jews, and agreeth not with the law of the New Testament and gospel of Christ. For the immutable law of God, though prescribing things mutable, is not therefore changed in itself; but the things prescribed change according to this eternal ordinance, of which the Wisdom of Solomon, And being one she can do all things, and remaining in herself reneweth all. SECT. VI. Of the law of nature. OF the law of nature, as it is taken in general, I find no John xix. 30. Psalm lxix. 21. f L. 1. de lib. arb. c. 6. 66 definition among the schoolmen; only as it is considered in man, it is called, "The impression of divine light, and a participation of the eternal law in the reasonable crea"ture;" h Lex naturalis est impressio divini luminis in nobis, et participatio legis æternæ in rationali creatura. i Ulpian defines the natural law to be the same which nature hath taught all living creatures: Jus naturale est quod natura omnia animalia docuit; and he afterwards addeth, Jus istud non humani generis proprium, sed omnium animalium quæ terra marique nascuntur, avium quoque commune est; "The law of nature is not proper to man alone, "but the same is common to all living creatures, as well "to birds, as to those which the land and sea produceth." But this definition is not general, but of the natural law in things of life. The law of nature in general, I take to be that disposition, instinct, and formal quality, which God in his eternal providence hath given and imprinted in the nature of every creature, animate and inanimate. And as it is divinum lumen in men, enlightening our formal reason; so is it more than sense in beasts, and more than vegetation in plants. For it is not sense alone in beasts, which teacheth them at first sight, and without experience or instruction, to fly from the enemies of their lives; seeing that bulls and horses appear unto the sense more fearful and terrible than the least kind of dogs; and yet the hare and deer feed by the one, and fly from the other, yea, though by them never seen before, and that as soon as they fall from their dams. Neither is it sense which hath taught other beasts to provide for winter, birds to build their nests, high or low, according to the tempestuous or quiet seasons; or the birds of India to make their nests on the smallest twigs which hang over rivers, and not on any other part of the tree, or elsewhere, to save their eggs and young ones from the monkeys, and other beasts, whose weight such a twig will not bear; and which would fear to fall into the water. The instances h Aug. in Epist. ad Hil. 89. et in Evang. Joh. tract. 49. Justitia et Jure, 1. 1. tit. 1. i Ulp. de |