ON THE MUTABILITY OF THE OLD LAW.

S. Th. I-II, q. 100, a. 8 ; q. 103, a. 3 and 4, q. 104, a. 3.

312. Principle I. The old law, the redemption of Christ having been accomplished, ceased, because its end, which is to prepare for Christ and the new law, ceased (q. 103, a. 3 ; — Hebr. VIII, 13 ; Col. II, 16 ; C. Flor.). However

1. its moral precepts, although not because of the old law, oblige because they are of natural right and because they were again imposed by Christ in the new law ; which especially holds for the precepts of the decalogue, which contain the very preservation of the common good which is the ordering to God (the first 3 precepts), and the very order of justice and virtue to be observed among men (the remaining 7¹) ;

2. as to the ceremonial precepts, they ceased, the Redeemer having come, because exterior worship must be proportioned to the interior worship which it expresses ; in the Old Law however there was faith and hope not only about happiness and heavenly goods, but also about the means to them, which are the graces of redemption, as about certain future things. Whence the Redeemer having come, [the worship] began to cease and, the redemption having been accomplished, lost its obligation (as the Apostles decreed in the assembly at Jerusalem, Acts XV, 1-28), which was done in the very death of Christ (C. Flor., decr. pro Jacobitis) ;

3. as to the judicial precepts, because they were instituted to dispose the state of the people by which they were ordered to Christ, therefore with the state of the people having changed after Christ came, they lost their obligation (Cf. Acts XV).

313. Principle II. To observe the ceremonial precepts today is gravely evil, because they are false worship (q. 103, a. 4).

It is proved :

A false profession of faith is gravely evil. But all ceremonies are protestations of the faith in which interior worship of God consists, and the ceremonies of the Old Law signified Christ about to be born and to suffer. As therefore he would sin gravely who should now say that Christ is about to be born, so he who observes the ceremonies of the Old Law (ad Gal. V, 2, 4).

The judicial precepts however, because they were not instituted to figure Christ to come but only to dispose the state of the people, can be observed, unless accidentally one wishes to impose or observe them out of a false opinion as obligatory from the institution of the old law.

314. Principle III. Christ having died, the old law ceased to oblige (Hebr. IX, 16, 17 ; Eph. II, 15), whence it is called dead (q. 100, a. 4, ad 1).

However it could be observed by the Jews for a time without sin, as is clear from the example of the Apostles (Acts X, 14 ; XVI, 3 ; XVIII, 18 ; XXI, 24 ; I Cor. IX, 20) ; and from the necessity of observing it for some time so that the Jews might more easily be brought to Christ : so that not at once and as it were violently but gradually the law would cease and the worship and customs would be changed, and so that the Synagogue might be buried with honor. But it was not observed inasmuch as it signified Christ to come, nor with the persuasion that it was still obligatory (as the Apostles moreover expressly said) ; but inasmuch as it prescribed a manner of worshiping God conveniently to be observed according to the special circumstances of that time, as these circumstances sufficiently indicated. After the time however of the Gospel sufficiently promulgated, all reason for observing it ceased, whence from this moment worship has no longer any but the sole false signification of a future redemption, and the law became mortal ; — which seems to have been done at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, at which time the Synagogue was definitively buried. Cf. C. Flor. decr. pro Jacobitis, 4 Feb. 1442.