nature but one law, according to Aquinas; first, because it hath one fountain or root in the natural or motive faculty, which is but one, stirring up to good, and declining the contrary; secondly, because all is contained in that general natural precept, that good is to be followed, and ill avoided; and thirdly, because all the parts are reduced to one and the same last end. 66 That this law of nature bindeth all creatures, it is manifest; and chiefly man, because he is endued with reason; in whom as reason groweth, so this band of observing the law of nature increaseth: * Postquam ratio ad perfectum venit, tunc fit quod scriptum est, adveniente mandato, peccatum revixit; "When reason grew to perfection, then it came to pass which was written by St. Paul, when the com"mandment came, sin revived." Neither is it a small warrant for this law of nature, when those which break the same are said by St. Paul y to be delivered over unto a reprobate sense, (or mind,) to do those things which are not convenient; and again, that their consciences bear witness, and their thoughts accuse them. For though this law of nature stretch not to every particular, as to command fasting and the like, yet it commandeth in general all good, and whatsoever is agreeable to right reason. And therefore said Damascene; a Homines facti sunt mali, declinando in id quod contra naturam est: "Men," saith he," are made evil, by declining unto that which is contrary to nature:" and St. Augustine, Omne vitium naturæ nocet, ac per hoc contra naturam est; "Every vice doth "wrong to nature, and is therefore contrary unto it." 66 z Neither yet are the rules of this law of nature so strait, but that they suffer exceptions in some particulars. For whereas by this law all men are born lords of the earth, yet it well alloweth inequality of portions, according to unequal merit; by taking from the evil, and giving to the good; and by permitting and commanding that all men shall enjoy the fruits of their labours to themselves; according to the rules of justice and equity. * Basil. y Rom. i. 28. z Rom. ii. 15. Lib. 2. Fid. Orthod. c.30. And though the law of nature command that all things be restored which are left in trust, yet in some causes, this her law she suffereth to be broken; as to deny a madman his weapons, and the like, which he left in keeping while he was sober. But the universal principles can no more be changed, than the decrees of God are alterable; who, according to St. Paul, abideth faithful, and cannot deny himself. SECT. VII. Of the written law of God. AFTER the eternal and natural, the law positive or imposed is the next in order, which law, being nothing but an addition, or rather explication of the former, hath two kinds; divine and human. Again, the divine positive law is double, the old and new; the old was given unto Moses in mount Sinai, or Horeb, at such time as the world had stood 2513 whole years, and in the sixty-seventh day of this year, when as Ascatades, or Ascades, governed the Assyrians; Marathus, the Sicyonians; Triopas, the Argives; Cecrops, Attica; and Acherres, Egypt; to wit, after the promise to Abraham 430 years. And this, it seems, was the first written law which the world received. For the very word vóμos, signifying a law, was not then, nor long after, invented by the Grecians, no not in Homer's time, who lived after the fall of Troy eighty years at least; and Troy itself was cast down 335 years after Moses led Israel out of Egypt. This law it pleased God to engrave in stone, that it might remain a lasting book of his expressed will in the church, and that the priests and people might have whereof to meditate, till the coming of Christ; and that so these children of Israel, though bred among an idolatrous people in Egypt, might be without excuse; the slight defences of ignorance being taken from them. The reason known to us why this law was not written before is, that when the people were few, and their lives long, the elders of families might easily, without any written b 2 Tim. ii. 13. с Aug. de Civit. Dei, lib. 18. law, instruct their own children; and yet as they increased, so doubtless they had, besides the law of nature, many precepts from God, before the law written. But now at length, forasmuch as the law of nature did not define all kinds of good and evil; nor condemn every sin in particular; nor sufficiently terrify the consciences of offenders; nor so expound divine worship, as for those after-ages was required, who gave every day less authority than other to the natural law; in these respects it was necessary that the law should be written, and set before the eyes of all men ; which before they might, but would not read in their own consciences. The schoolmen, and the fathers before them, enlarge the causes and necessity why the law was written, whereof these are the chiefest. The first, for restraining of sin, directly grounded upon this place of David; The law of the Lord is undefiled, converting souls; the testimonies of the Lord are faithful, giving wisdom to children. For the human law, saith St. Augustine, meeteth, not with all offences, either by way of prohibition or punishment; seeing thereby it might take away something seeming necessary, and hinder common profit; but the divine law written, forbiddeth every evil, and therefore by David it is called undefiled. Secondly, It serveth for the direction of our minds. For the laws of men can only take knowledge of outward actions, but not of internal motions, or of our disposition and will; and yet it is required, that we be no less clean in the one than in the other. And therefore were the words converting our souls added by David; wherein are all our outward acts first generated, according to the cabalists: Actiones hominum nullæ essent, nisi prius in mente dicerentur; "The actions of men," say they, "would be none at all, "were they not first conceived in the mind.” Thirdly, It leadeth us to the knowledge of truth, which, by reason of diversity of opinion, and difference of peculiar laws among sundry nations, we cannot be assured of; but the law of God bindeth all men, and is without error; and RALEGH, HIST. WORLD. VOL. II. therefore also said David, That the testimony of the law of God is faithful; giving wisdom to children. SECT. VIII. Of the unwritten law of God, given to the patriarchs by tradition. NOW, that in all this long tract of time, between the creation and the written law, the world and people of God were left altogether to the law of reason and nature, it doth not appear. For the patriarchs of the first age received many precepts from God himself, and whatsoever was first imposed by Adam, the same was observed by Seth, who instructed Enos; from whom it descended to Noah, Sem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses. Yea many particular commandments afterwards written, were formerly imposed and delivered over by tradition; which kind of teaching the Jews afterwards called cabala, or receptio, precepts received from the mouth of their priests and elders; to which the Jews, after the law written, added the interpretation of secret mysteries, reserved in the bosoms of their priests, and unlawful to be uttered to the people. But the true cabala was not to be concealed from any; as being indeed the divine law revealed to the patriarchs, and from them delivered to the posterity, when as yet it was unwritten. The commandments which God gave unto Adam in the beginning, were, that he should impose names to all beasts, according to their natures; to whose perfection of understanding they were sufficiently known. For finding the reason of his own name Adam, of adamah, earth, or red clay, he gave other names significant, not only to beasts, but to his children and nephews, which afterwards his issues imitated; as the name of Seth signifieth, as some take it, one that was laid for the ground or foundation of the church, or rather, one given in recompense for Abel that was slain; and Enosh signifieth man, or miserable, &c. Further, God commanded Adam to till the ground, and to live by the labour thereof; God also gave him the choice of all fruits, but the forbidden; and in Adam also was mar riage first instituted; all men thenceafter being commanded to cohabit with their wives, rather than with their father and mother. That murder and cruelty was also forbidden both before the law written, and before the flood itself, it is manifest; God himself making it appear, that it was one of the greatest causes of the destruction of mankind by the general flood. For God said unto Noah, An end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with cruelty through them; and behold I will destroy them from the earth. That offence therefore, for which all perished, could not be unknown to all that perished; God's mercy and justice interposing between the untaught and revenge. This commandment God repeated to Noah, after the waters were dried up from the earth. e Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God hath he made man. Also the law of honouring and reverencing our parents was observed among the faithful, and the contrary punished by the father's curse; as, fCursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. Again, we find that the unnatural sin of the Sodomites was punished in the highest degree, as with fire from heaven. The sin of adultery and ravishment was before the law no less detested than the rest, as appeareth by that revenge taken for Dinah's forcing; and by the judgment which hJudah gave against Tamar, That she should be burnt; and by the repentance of Pharaoh and Abimelech, against whom this sentence was pronounced, Thou art but dead, because of the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife. To these we may add the ordinance of sacrifice, of distinction of clean and unclean beasts, of circumcision, of the brother to raise The common reading is cum terra: but God did not destroy the earth; and why may not this preposition in this place have the same force which it hath, according to Junius, Gen. iv. 1. item xliv. 4. and Deut. xxxiv. 1. especially seeing these words are but a repetition of f Gen. ix. 25. h Gen. xxxviii. 24. |