Scotus Academicus, Tomus sextus: De Legibus Divinis et Humanis

No one is unaware that the Evangelical Law is illustrious by many titles of glory, for which it is celebrated above the Mosaic. First of all, it is called by the holy Fathers the New Law, in accordance with that saying of the Apostle, 2 Cor. 5: Old things are passed away; behold all things are made new. Hence Chrysostom says in the same place: The forms of things have now been changed, so that there is a new soul and a new body, and a new manner of prayer, and new promises, and a Testament, and life, and a measure, and a new way, and — to say it in one word — all things new. To this Gregory harmonizes, Homily 22 on the Gospels: True man, he says, came into the world; he gave new precepts to the world, and opposed to the oldness of our life the newness of his own. Which indeed Christ himself confirmed when, addressing the Apostles, John 13, he said: A new commandment I give unto you; which words, although they were spoken specially concerning the commandment of love, nevertheless deservedly extend to the whole Evangelical Law; because herein it is distinguished from the old, namely, that the former was the law of fear, this one the law of love. For, as Augustine says in Book 1 against Adimantus, chapter 17: This is the shortest and clearest difference between the two Testaments: fear and love; which St. Paul had observed, writing to the Romans 8: You have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: Abba, Father, which is the spirit of love, as the same Paul says, 2 Tim. 1. — Secondly, the same law is called Evangelical; because, as the Author of the Imperfect Work on Matthew says, Gospel means good news: but good news is announced to men when there is promised to them heavenly beatitude, remission of sins, adoption as sons, resurrection of the dead, immortal life, the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven, possession of eternal glory, the fellowship of Angels, and communion of spirit, and brotherhood with Christ, and fatherhood of God. — Thirdly, it is sometimes called the law of faith, Rom. 3, evidently on account of the fuller expression and determination of the mysteries of God and of the articles of faith concerning the Holy Trinity, the incarnation of the Word, etc. Hence Christ the Lord, addressing the Apostles, Mark 4,¹ used to say: To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to them that are without, all things are done in parables, that seeing they may see and not see, and hearing they may hear and not understand. And the same Christ the Lord likewise said to the very same Apostles, John 15: But I have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you. It is also called the law of the spirit of life, Rom. 8, or the law of grace; for grace is the spirit of our life, or the life of our spirit; nay, sometimes the Evangelical Law is wont to be simply called grace, in accordance with that saying of John 1: The law was given by Moses; grace and truth were made by Jesus Christ: and therefore Paul said to the Galatians 5: You are not under the law, but under grace. — But several matters occur here concerning this Evangelical Law to be resolved. First, whether and how Christ instituted a new law. Second, how many and what kind of precepts this new law has. Third, what effects it embraces, and by what excellencies it shines forth.

It was the impious and absurd opinion of the heresiarchs of the latter part of this age to assert that Christ the Lord was not a true lawgiver, nor that he enacted any new law, but that he only freed us from the old law. Such was the view of Luther in his book On Christian Liberty, where he says: By no work, by no law, does a Christian man have need: since through faith he is free from every law. Calvin published the same error, for expounding that saying of the Apostle to the Galatians, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that he might redeem them who were under the law, etc., he exclaims thus: O what a wretched justice, he says; O what a pernicious error, to preach Christ as a new lawgiver. As if he had abolished the old law in order to impose a new law upon all Christians. That was not the office of Christ, as he himself said: God sent not his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by him. And in another place: I do not judge anyone, he says. Christ assuredly did not have this task and office, that he should institute a new law, but that he might take from the necks of men that servile yoke of the law. This is that which Paul proclaims, that God sent his Son made under the law, that he might redeem them who were under the law. But our more recent Theologians, opposing the divine counsel, teach that he is to be received as Liberator, not as Lawgiver, who would deliver us into the harshest servitude. But that we may restrain the madness of this ill-celebrated head more evidently.

Note 2. There are especially two duties of any law whatever; namely, to direct and to command: it directs, I say, the rational creature to an end congruent to it through fitting means; it prescribes, while it spurs on toward good and calls back from that which is dishonorable and evil: it commands moreover those things which it judges necessary, so that that honorable and due end may be obtained. Indeed the heretics concede that the New Testament has the character of a directive law, and that that saying of the Royal Prophet fits it: The law of the Lord is unspotted, converting souls, the testimony faithful, giving wisdom to little ones. For it is unspotted, since it persuades or permits nothing perverse; converting souls, because it rules not only the external motions of men, but also the internal and most intimate senses of the soul; the testimony faithful, because it is subject to no error; giving wisdom to little ones, because it enlightens man, as if still half-blind beneath the dawn of the native Mosaic law, with the divine light of faith, and calls and advances him toward eternal beatitude. But whether the Evangelical law is also preceptive, and prescribes for the faithful certain commandments under pain of sin and the threat of eternal damnation, is the controversy here to be determined.

Note 3. That although the new law could be said to have been instituted from the beginning of the world, insofar as all who were just looked toward the New Testament, nor were they justified except through graces granted in consideration of the merits of Christ, as the Apostle signifies, First to the Corinthians 10, where concerning the fathers of the Old Testament he says: All drank the same spiritual drink, and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ; whence the same says to the Hebrews 13, Christ yesterday, and today, and for ages; that is, although Christ appeared only in the middle of time, nevertheless he enlightened all the just of whatever time with the light of his faith, and enriched them with grace; although, I say, for this reason the Evangelical law can be judged founded from the beginning, yet it is certain that it itself was instituted and promulgated only through Christ in the middle of time, both as regards its precepts and respectively as regards the grace of the Holy Spirit, as well as the abundance of benefits. But why it did not begin before that time, a threefold reason can be brought forward: First, because grace ought not to be given abundantly before the impediment of sin was taken away from the human race, redemption being consummated through Christ: hence John 7, The Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. And Romans 8, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh because of sin, that the justification of the law might be fulfilled in us. Second, because that which is perfect ought not to be given from the beginning, but first that which is imperfect, as disposing toward it. And this is the reason of the Apostle to the Galatians 3, The law was our pedagogue in Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Third, because the new law is the law of grace: and therefore it was fitting that first man be left to himself in the state of the old law, so that falling into sin and knowing his infirmity, he might recognize that he stood in need of grace: and the Apostle assigns this reason to the Romans 5, saying: But the law entered in, that sin might abound: and where sin abounded, grace superabounded.

Single Conclusion. — Christ the Lord truly instituted a new law, not only directive, but also preceptive.

This is of faith against the heretics.

Proof first from various testimonies of Scripture, in which in the Old Testament the Messiah is promised as about to come as lawgiver and founder of a new law.

Thus Jeremiah 31, Behold the days shall come, saith the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah, etc. I will give my law in their bowels. Which words the Apostle interprets as having been said of Christ and his law, to the Hebrews 8 and 10. Likewise Isaiah 2 it is said thus: And in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and all nations shall flow unto it, and many peoples shall go, and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall come forth from Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. That these things were said of the Messiah and his law is manifest from the text itself. And chapter 33 concerning the same Messiah it says thus: The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king, he himself will save us. The same is evident from the New Testament; for Christ everywhere speaks of his law: John 14, Keep my commandments. John 15, 10, If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love. Matthew 28, Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And Paul, First to the Corinthians 9: To them that were without the law, I became as if I were without the law, when I was not without the law of God, but I was in the law of Christ. And to the Hebrews 2 he compares Christ and Moses with one another, and as two lawgivers, one of the Old Testament, the other of the New; and says that if transgressors of the law given by Moses were punished, much more are transgressors of the law given by Christ to be punished. Wherefore the Council of Trent deservedly pronounces thus, Session 6, Canon 21: If anyone shall say that Christ Jesus was given by God to men as Redeemer, in whom to trust, but not also as Lawgiver, whom to obey, let him be anathema.

Moreover this truth is proved by reason: It pertains to the providence and prudent administration of a supreme king and sovereign Pontiff to enact laws by which both the kingdom may be governed peacefully and tranquilly and subsist, and due worship be paid to God: but Christ was the sovereign Pontiff of the Church and supreme Monarch of the whole world: therefore by either title he ought also to be lawgiver and to enact laws. The major stands: for no kingdom, no perfect community, civil or Ecclesiastical, can be governed fittingly without certain laws, and preserved stably, and directed efficaciously to the end proposed to it, as is known by experience. The minor indeed stands from Sacred Scripture itself, which professes Christ to be King at the same time as sovereign Pontiff. King, I say; thus Psalm 2, David prophesying in the person of the Messiah says: But I am appointed king by him over Sion his holy mountain, preaching his commandment. Which words the Apostle interprets of Christ, to the Hebrews 1, and Luke 1 the Angel says to the Virgin Mary that the incarnation of the divine Word is to be accomplished in her: The Lord God will give unto him the throne of David his father, and he shall reign in the house of Jacob forever. He was likewise Pontiff, as is evident from Psalm 109, which is entirely about the Messiah, as Christ himself expounded, Matthew 22. Of him therefore it is said: Thou art a Priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech. That this was said specially of Christ the Apostle affirms, to the Hebrews 5 and chapter 7; he had said before: Having therefore a great Pontiff who hath penetrated the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. Since therefore Christ instituted the Church as a new spiritual kingdom, of which he himself is King at the same time as sovereign Pontiff, he ought to institute laws by which it may rightly be administered and advanced to the end proposed, namely eternal salvation. — Wherefore the Council of Trent deservedly proscribing the error of Luther and Calvin, thus decreed, Session 6, canon 19, If anyone shall say that nothing is commanded in the Gospel besides faith, and that the rest are indifferent things, neither commanded nor prohibited, but free: or that the ten precepts in no way pertain to Christians, let him be anathema.

They object 1. The Heretics: The New Testament is opposed to the Old in this respect, that those who are truly under the new are not under the law, but under grace: whence John 1, The law was given by Moses; grace and truth were made by Jesus Christ: therefore Moses was indeed a lawgiver, but not Christ, who established no law: but only merited grace and justification for us. —

I deny the consequence: and to the antecedent I say, that grace is said to have been made through Christ, but the law given through Moses, not because Christ brought no law, but because He did not give a bare law without any grace, as Moses had given the law to the Jews, which commanded but did not help, threatened but did not assist, showed infirmities but did not heal: whereas Christ gave us the law with grace, that is, a law commanding what is to be done, and supplying the helps by which it may be done.

They object 2. That of the Apostle to the Romans 6. You are not under the law, but under grace; and likewise that to the Galatians 5. If you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law: but the faithful are led by the spirit; hence they are not under the law. —

I answer, the Apostle in those words speaks of the Mosaic law, to which he opposes the law of grace, in that it commanded and did not help: but it is otherwise with the Evangelical law, which contains the grace by which we are inwardly helped to keep what it commands, or, as St. Augustine says, book 1. De continentia, c. 3. We are not under a law indeed commanding good, yet not giving it: but we are under grace, whereby, making us love what the law commands, it can command as to the free. And as to the other context of Paul, I say that a part of the law no longer prevails: for in chapter 1. he says, Tell me, you who wish to be under the law, do you not read the law? etc. And in chapter 3. The law was our pedagogue in Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But when faith came, we are now no longer under the pedagogue. Therefore the Apostle holds that although the faithful are bound to avoid sins, they are not bound to this by the force of the Mosaic law, but by the virtue of the natural law, and of the Evangelical law conferring the spirit of grace.

They object 3. Whence 2. Cor. 3. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, namely from the obligation of the law: but the faithful have the Spirit of the Lord; For, says the Apostle, you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, etc.: wherefore the New Testament, Galatians 5. and James 1. is called the law of liberty: therefore the faithful are subject to no law. —

I answer, the Apostle by the law of liberty understands exemption from the Mosaic law, which was a compelling and terrifying law(?), accusing and condemning, from which those are truly freed who are led by the Spirit of Christ, even though they live under the Evangelical law. Wherefore, by the divinely annexed help, it comes about that the faithful freely and liberally and spiritually do those things which the law commands: whence they rather seem to be above the law than under the law, as St. Chrysostom expounds on those words 1. Timoth. 1. The law is not laid for the just. Hence St. Augustine on Psalm 1. near the second verse, The just man, he says, is not under the law: because his will is in the law of the Lord. For he who is in the law is dealt with according to the law; the one therefore is free, the other a slave. Ambrose, book 3. offic. cap. 5. The law is not laid for the just, but for the unjust, because the just man has the law of his own mind, and of equity,

They object 1. Heretics: The new law is called the Gospel, because it promises eternal life under the condition of faith alone, whereas on the contrary the old law would not promise the same except under the condition of observance of the commandments, according to Ezech. 20. He that shall do them shall live in them. —

I answer, the Evangelical law is called the Gospel by synecdoche, not because it promises eternal life under the condition of faith alone, but because, as we said above with the author of the Incomplete Work on Matthew, the Gospel is good news; but good things are announced to men, when heavenly beatitude is promised to them, remission of sins, adoption of sons, resurrection of the dead, immortal life, inheritance of the heavenly kingdom, possession of everlasting glory, fellowship of the Angels, and communication of the Spirit, and brotherhood with Christ, and fatherhood of God. But this promise and authentic constitution of reward is law, and part of the whole Evangelical law, just as the threatening and authentic constitution of punishment is penal law.

You ask: in what then does Christian liberty consist? —

I answer, that it does not consist in this, that we are free from the observance of the precepts of God, but first, in liberty from the slavery of sin, and death, according to John 8. Every one who commits sin is the servant of sin: If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. And Romans 6. Being freed from sin, we have been made servants of justice. Secondly, in liberty from the yoke of the ceremonial and judicial law of the Jews: Galatians 4. How do you turn again to the weak and needy elements, which you desire to serve anew? Thirdly, in liberty from the dominion and guilt of the law, even the natural law. Romans 6. You are not under the law, but under grace, 2. Cor. 3. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

In the new law two things must above all be distinguished; the one primary and principal, namely the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is granted to the faithful of Christ, by which they are justified, and which from the heart they fulfill insofar as there are prescribed to them the things to be done for obtaining eternal life, according to that of the Apostle to the Romans 8: The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath delivered me from the law of sin and of death. Now this grace has been granted to us most abundantly through Christ, since of his fulness we all have received, and the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given to us. The other is secondary and less principal, such as are all those things which dispose to grace, or pertain to its use. It is asked therefore whether both were set down in writings, or divinely inscribed in our hearts.

Note 2. Three kinds of precepts of the Evangelical law can be thought of: namely ceremonial, moral, and of faith. Those precepts are called ceremonial precepts of the Evangelical law which pertain to the sacraments, and to the sacrifice of the Eucharist, to the priesthood, and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and the external worship of God. Of this kind is that concerning Baptism: Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, etc. John 3; and that concerning the Eucharist: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man. John 6; and concerning the Sacrament of Penance: Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them etc. John 20; and concerning the Eucharistic sacrifice: Do this for a commemoration of me. To the moral precepts belong all those commands which Christ prescribed for the proper training of morals, but especially the precepts of the Decalogue, which he renewed when he said Matthew 19: If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. But to the precepts of faith belong all those things which regard faith, whether to be received, or kept, or professed. Thus Mark 16: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned.

Note 3. Among these three kinds of precepts this distinction must be established: that the Moral precepts, since they are of natural law, were not instituted by Christ, but only explicated and vindicated from the errors with which the malice of men had involved them. But the Sacramental and Ceremonial precepts were instituted by Christ, that they might take the place of the ancient ones, which were abrogated by him. Yet the precepts of faith were not newly instituted, but only were made clearer out of what was implicit: so that we are now held to believe explicitly certain mysteries which in the old law were believed only implicitly: such as the birth, passion, and death of Christ, which the Jews believed obscurely, but Christians believe expressly.

These things presupposed, two points are to be determined: first indeed, whether the Evangelical law was per se first written, both as regards what it principally imports, namely the grace and charity by which we are moved and incited to work well, and as regards the precepts and rules of working well. Second, whether Christ the Lord fittingly prescribed three kinds of precepts, moral, ceremonial, and of faith.

First Conclusion. — The Evangelical law differs from the Mosaic in that it was not first and per se delivered in writing by its sole author Christ, but proclaimed outwardly with living voice, and inwardly inscribed deep in the hearts of men through the illumination of the Holy Spirit and the abundance of grace.

This truth is proved first indeed from Jeremiah 31, where God says of the new covenant to be made by him: I will give my law in their bowels, and I will write it in their hearts. Wherefore the Apostle, addressing the faithful in 2 Corinthians 3, says: You are the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tables of stone, but on the fleshy tables of the heart: where Theophylact, from this passage of Paul, interprets the excellence of the New Testament: The law, he says, was written with ink, the Gospel for us was written by the spirit; by how great an interval then the spirit differs from ink, and the heart from stone, by so much does the new differ from the law, etc. To this concurs St. Augustine, book De spiritu et littera, chapter 17, whose words are these: There the finger of God wrought upon tables of stone, here upon human hearts. There the law was placed outwardly, whereby the unjust might be terrified: here it was given inwardly, whereby they might be justified.

You will say 1: The new Evangelical law was written just as much as the Mosaic, for the Apostles and Evangelists set it down in their writings: therefore the Evangelical law was not inscribed by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of men. —

Theologians commonly answer, following the Angelic Doctor q. 106. a. 1., that the new law contains two things: first, and principally, grace and charity diffused in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, by which we are impelled and helped to work well; second, the precepts and rules of working well. They concede therefore, as regards this second, that the new law was delivered in writing just as the old; but as regards the first, they affirm it to have been diffused and inscribed in the hearts of the faithful especially on the day of Pentecost: for so great an abundance of grace and charity was then given, that by its power the whole new law could have been preserved without writing, as St. Irenaeus teaches book 3 Against Heresies chapter 3. — Yet, since the grace of the Holy Spirit and charity is called a law not properly but only metaphorically, inasmuch as it moves and impels to work well, just as concupiscence is said improperly to be the law of sin because it leads to sin; therefore I answer otherwise, namely that although the new law, like the Mosaic, was set down in writing, yet the manner of each is not the same; since the new law was not per se first written, and for that purpose, as the Mosaic was, which was described partly by the finger of God, that is, by the ministry of Angels, and partly by Moses: but accidentally, and by occasion of writing the life of Christ, or of teaching the faithful by Epistles, or of meeting the heresies of Cerinthus and Ebion and others rising up especially against the Church, as Baronius rightly observes, following Suarez chapter 26, Section 3. Nor was it committed to writing on that same day of Pentecost on which it was promulgated, but only after the death of Christ in the year 6, when St. Matthew began to write his Gospel, as Irenaeus book 3 chapter 1 and Eusebius book 3 of the History chapter 8 teach.

You will say 2: Also the Mosaic law was engraved on the hearts of the Jews by the grace of the Holy Spirit, which was not wanting to the Jews, that they might understand and keep that law commanding many supernatural things, according to that of Deuteronomy 30: The commandment which I command thee this day is not above thee, etc. but the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayst do it; therefore this consigning of the law in the mind was not a prerogative proper to the Evangelical law. —

I answer, that although the Jews were not lacking the grace by which they could fulfill the precepts of the Mosaic law, nevertheless that grace did not look precisely to the Mosaic law, but to the new law, and to Christ its author, from whom it flowed forth as from a fountain; for it was granted solely in view of his merits. Add that the grace granted to the Jews was not of such abundance that it could be said the Mosaic law was inscribed by the Holy Spirit upon the minds of men, for this privilege was reserved for the Evangelical law itself, because on the day of Pentecost, on which it was promulgated by the visible outpouring of the Holy Spirit, it was also sealed upon the hearts of the faithful.

You will say 3: The natural law itself is also inscribed upon the hearts of men: for, says the Apostle to the Romans 2, the Gentiles who have not the law, do naturally those things that are of the law... because they show the work of the law written in their hearts: therefore it is not a privilege proper to the Evangelical law that it is written upon the minds of men. —

Alexander of Hales replies, q. 66, member 4, that in truth both laws, the natural and the Evangelical, are inscribed upon the hearts of men: but, he says, there is a twofold inscription: one inscription indeed of debt for the one acting according to the dictate implanted in conscience from the very formation of man: the other inscription according to the dictate impressed upon conscience by faith, or justification. The first inscription is of nature: the second is of the Evangelical law: the first is implanted by nature: the second is given or superadded by grace. The first is the same in all men: the second truly is the same in all believers.

Second Conclusion. — Christ the Lord, with most prudent and wholly divine counsel, prescribed three kinds of precepts in the Evangelical law, namely sacramental, moral, and of faith.

The truth of this conclusion will be clear from the exposition of each of its parts. Now the Seraphic Doctor weighed the first part most excellently thus, book 6 of the Compendium of Theology, c. 3.

Christ instituted the Sacraments of the law of grace as legislator of the new law, in which law, calling men to rewards, he gave precepts, he instituted Sacraments. For Christ, the Word of the Father, since he is of supreme goodness, and supreme truth and power, by reason of his supreme goodness promised beatifying rewards; by reason of truth he gave directing precepts; by reason of power he instituted helping Sacraments, that so through the Sacraments virtue might be restored for fulfilling the precepts, and through the precepts one might arrive at the rewards. Moreover, he instituted the Sacraments in words and elements, as Augustine says: The word is joined to the element, and it becomes a Sacrament, and there the element stands for the matter, and the form of the words for the form. And to this end the Sacraments were instituted in words and elements, that they might have clarity of signifying and efficacy of sanctifying: because while the elements offer themselves to the eyes, and the words to the ears, which are the two senses especially cognitive, they give clarity of signification. Then, the words sanctify the elements, that the efficacy of man's creation may become fuller. — Moreover, the Sacraments were instituted for a manifold cause: First, on account of the humiliation by which man seeks salvation by subjecting himself to things within. Second, on account of instruction, by which man is carried through visible things to knowing invisible things. Third, on account of exercise, by which man avoids harmful occupation and idleness. Fourth, on account of the congruity of the physician to the medicine, since since the physician is God, and man is sick, fittingly the medicine ought to contain something divine, namely invisible grace, and something human, namely the visible form of grace. Fifth, on account of the congruity on the part of the infirm, since since the infirm one is man, constituted of body and spirit, but the spirit in the body does not well apprehend spiritual things except in corporal things, con > where human reason furnishes no experience. It is evident therefore from what has been said what is the efficient cause of the sacraments, namely divine institution: what the formal cause, namely the sanctification of grace: what the final cause, namely the cure of human infirmity. — Moreover, the Sacraments of the new law are seven, according to the seven diversities of men in the Church. The first is of those entering, as Baptism. The second of those fighting, as Confirmation. The third of those recovering strength, as the Eucharist. The fourth of those rising again, as Penance. The fifth of those departing, as Extreme Unction. The sixth of those ministering, as Order. The seventh of those introducing new soldiers, as Matrimony.

The Sacraments were figured in the seven seals with which the page of the Old Testament was sealed, which the Lamb, who holds the key of David, who opens and no man shuts, unsealed. Likewise in the seven trumpets with which the Angels sounded. Likewise in the seven stars which the one like to the son of man held in his right hand. Likewise in the seven loaves with which the Lord satisfied the crowd. Likewise in the seven eyes upon one stone. Likewise in the seven lamps of the Tabernacle set upon the candlestick. Likewise in the seven washings of Naaman. — Moreover, the Sacraments are seven, which dispose one to the having of the seven virtues; for Baptism is the sacrament of Faith, Confirmation of Hope, the Eucharist of Charity, Penance of Justice, Extreme Unction of Perseverance, which is the complement of fortitude, Order of Prudence, Matrimony of Temperance. There is also another reason for the number of the Sacraments, because they are ordained against a threefold guilt, and against a fourfold punishment. Whence Baptism is ordained against original sin, Penance against mortal sin, Extreme Unction against venial sin; Order against ignorance, the Eucharist against malice, Confirmation against weakness. Matrimony against concupiscence, which it tempers and excuses. There is yet another reason for the number, because the Sacraments are the healing cause of spiritual sickness after the manner of bodily medicines. Now bodily medicine is fourfold; namely curative, conservative, preservative, and ameliorative. In like manner also the Sacraments cure. Baptism cures at once and totally. But Penance cures gradually as to punishment, until man be debtor to no punishment. Extreme Unction cures from lighter sicknesses, namely from venial ones, just as baptism and penance cure from lethal ones. Therefore the aforesaid three Sacraments are as it were curative medicine. Confirmation, however, is medicine conserving spiritual health, in which the Holy Spirit is given for strength and for the preservation of the grace given in baptism. Matrimony is preservative medicine. Order is ameliorative medicine, in which grace is augmented. The Eucharist does all these at once, for it cures venial sins, which are the occasion of a greater fall: it also conserves the grace found in man, and its increase, and so ameliorates, and nevertheless preserves.

So the Seraphic Doctor. From whom it is clear with how congruent an order Christ the Lord ordained the Ceremonial and Sacramental precepts of the new Law.

The same likewise holds of the precepts pertaining to faith. For since the sum of faith is situated chiefly in this, that the faithful man ought to know those things

which pertain to God, and Christ the Lord, according to that oracle of Christ the Lord himself, John 17, This is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent, in order that there might be had a knowledge of both that divine object, as perfect as befits mortals, the Apostles, having received it from the mouth of Christ, published it under special and distinct articles in their Creed. For, as the Seraphic Doctor observes there, book 5, c. 21, if respect be had to those who published the Creed, then the articles are twelve according to the number of the twelve Apostles: but if we consider what is to be believed radically, then the articles are fourteen, of which seven pertain to the Divinity, and seven to the humanity of Christ, and these signs are in the seven stars, and the seven golden candlesticks, in the midst of which the Son of man walked. There are therefore seven articles of Faith which pertain to the Divinity. The first is that there is one God, which is noted there, I believe in God. The second is, that the Father is God, there, the Father almighty. The third is, that the Son is God, there, and in Jesus Christ his Son. The fourth, that God the Holy Spirit is God, there, I believe in the Holy Spirit. And thus it is clear that the aforesaid four articles are concerning the unity of the divine Essence, and the Trinity of Persons. The fifth is, to believe the remission of sins for those who are in the Church, there: the holy Catholic Church, the communion of Saints, the remission of sins. The sixth is to believe the resurrection of the dead. The seventh is, to believe the reward of the good, under which also is comprehended the punishment of the wicked, there, life everlasting. And these three articles pertain to the Divinity; because by the power of the Divinity there takes place the remission of sins, which is the vivification of the soul, and the resurrection of bodies, and the glorification of body and soul together. — The other seven are the articles which pertain to the humanity of Christ. The first is, to believe that the Son of God was conceived by the Holy Spirit, there: who was conceived by the Holy Spirit. The second is, to believe that the Son of God was born of the Virgin Mary, there: of the Virgin Mary. The third, that the Son of God died for us on the cross, there: Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. The fourth is, that the Son of God descended into hell according to his soul, there: He descended into hell. The fifth is, that the Son of God rose again from the dead, there: On the third day he rose again from the dead. The sixth is that the same ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father, there: He ascended into Heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God the Father almighty. The seventh is, that the Son of God will judge the living and the dead, whether good or evil, there: From thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. So the Seraphic Doctor.

The same thing is evident regarding the Moral precepts, by which man ought to be ordered to God, to his neighbor, and to himself: to God indeed, that he may render to Him the worship owed; to his neighbor, that he may bestow justice upon him in all things; and to himself truly, that he may procure and safeguard those things which are necessary to him for salvation. And Christ the Lord duly ordained all these duties of man in the Gospel. For first He taught and prescribed distinctly the things that concern the worship of God: for God is to be worshipped and honored supremely on account of His supreme majesty; to be loved with the whole heart on account of His infinite goodness; to be feared supremely on account of His tremendous justice; to be besought earnestly on account of His paternal clemency; to be heard and followed in all things on account of His watchful providence, etc. Now Christ the Lord instructed man unto all these offices to be rendered to God: for He taught how His supreme majesty was to be worshipped, when He said, John 4: The hour cometh, and is now, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeketh such to adore him. God is a spirit: and they that adore him must adore him in spirit and in truth. What manner of love ought to be bestowed upon His infinite goodness He prescribed, Mark 12, when He said: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength: by which words He demonstrates, says Alexander [of Hales], memb. 8, ad tertium, that it does not suffice to love God with the whole heart, that is, the understanding, by declining error; with the whole soul, that is, the will, by declining contradiction; with the whole mind, that is, the memory, by avoiding forgetfulness; but even with the whole strength, by adding good operation. He taught likewise how greatly God is to be feared on account of the severity of His justice, when He said, Matt. 10: Fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body into hell. He disclosed also how God was to be entreated on account of His paternal clemency, while He not only prescribed the manner of praying, Matt. 6, saying: But thou when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door pray to thy Father in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret will repay thee: Praying, do not multiply words, as the Gentiles do, for they think that in their much speaking they may be heard: but He also prescribed the form of prayer, when He said in the same place: Thus therefore shall you pray: Our Father who art in heaven, etc. — Finally He taught man also how he ought confidently commit himself to the divine care and providence, when He said in the same place:

I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat, and the body more than the raiment? Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they? And which of you by taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these. Now if God so clothe the grass of the field, which is today, and tomorrow is cast into the oven: how much more you, O ye of little faith! Be not solicitous therefore, saying: What shall we eat: or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.

— In like manner He instructed man with respect to all the duties to be bestowed upon his neighbor: for the neighbor is to be reproved and recalled from the miseries of the soul, namely sin, relieved in the necessities of the body, protected in the goods of fortune, and incited unto the goods of glory. And Christ ordained all these duties. First indeed, when He said, Matt. 18: If thy brother shall offend against thee, go, and rebuke him between thee and him alone: while at the same time He taught that every injury was to be forgiven the neighbor, saying, Matt. 6: But if you will forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your offences. But if you will not forgive men, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you. He taught likewise when the neighbor was to be relieved in the miseries of the body, when He said, Luke 6: Be ye therefore merciful, as your heavenly Father also is merciful; judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you shall be forgiven. Give, and it shall be given to you: good measure and pressed down and shaken together and running over shall they give into your bosom. For with the same measure that you shall mete withal, it shall be measured to you again. In sum, He prescribed all the duties toward one's neighbor, when He said, Luke 10, that the neighbor is to be loved as oneself; and Matt. 7: All things whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them. And John 13: A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you. By which words He calls the commandment of loving one's neighbor new, either because it was renewed and enlarged by Him, whereas before it had been almost antiquated and restricted through perverse custom, as Clement the Roman expounds, lib. 6 const., cap. 23; or because Christ prescribed it in a new manner, adding namely a new motive taken from His own example, and His marvelous love toward men, as Chrysostom says, hom. 71 in Ioan. From the fact that by His advent men were made brothers, and are on that account specially to be loved, but especially Christians, who being inserted into Christ as their Head are members of one and the same Church, on account of which they ought to love themselves as members of the same body. — Finally He ordered man toward himself, while namely He set forth the pattern of His own most holy life to be imitated by men, saying, John 13: For I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so you do also. And that men might the more easily imitate this most holy life, He distinguished it as it were by three lineaments and characters, when He said, Matt. 16: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. By which words He distinguishes three duties of the Christian man; namely the renunciation of all things and of himself: for He says, Luke 14: Every one of you that doth not renounce all that he possesseth cannot be my disciple. And Matt. 19: And every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name's sake shall receive an hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting. — Moreover He teaches that vigilance unto the mortification of the body must be maintained unceasingly, and that the cross must be borne daily; for Christ suffered, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps. Finally He admonishes that all our acts are to be elicited out of charity, and for the glory of God, while in all things vainglory is to be avoided. Take heed, He says, Matt. 6, that you do not your justice before men, to be seen by them: otherwise you shall not have a reward of your Father who is in heaven.

You ask 1. Why Christ the Lord did not institute judicial precepts. —

I answer, that He did this indeed deliberately; because He founded no temporal kingdom or civil republic, but a spiritual community, whose principal governance is spiritual, and is ordered to a supernatural end: nor did He care for its external and political governance so far as to will of Himself to establish judicial laws useful to it, but He made the authority of enacting such laws over to His Vicar on earth, namely the Supreme Pontiff. For since it conduces to the best governance of the Church that laws often be changed according to the variety of times and occasions, Christ preferred to give the Church the power of establishing them, whereas He willed the laws promulgated by Himself to be stable and unchangeable. — Hence the Doctor concludes, in 3 dist. 10 n. 6, that the Evangelic law is indeed lighter than the Mosaic, if it be regarded according to judicial precepts in relation to Christ, because Christ instituted no precepts of this kind. But otherwise if it be regarded in relation to the rulers of the faithful, because, he says, then it was not lawful for priests or judges to enact whatever laws, as it now is lawful for Christian princes. Thus therefore in this respect it is discerned that there are fewer burdens of the Christian law insofar as it itself was handed down by Christ, but perhaps in time more others were afterwards added to it by those who have the governance of the Christian people.

You ask 2. Whether Christ added anything to the moral precepts and the faith of the ancient law. —

Alexander answers, qu. 56 memb. 8 ad tertium, that as regards the substance of the faith nothing has been added to the things to be believed, yet something has been added to the articles of the faith:

And that addition is, as of the explicit to the implicit, and of the determined to the undetermined, as appears in the example. Before the time of Abraham there was the faith of our reparation, yet implicit: afterward it became somewhat explicit in Abraham, that it would come to pass in flesh, when it was said to him: In thy seed shall all the Gentiles be blessed. Genes. 22. and thus the article concerning the Incarnation, which previously was implicit, was touched upon and somewhat made explicit: nevertheless it was not yet determined whether the incarnation would take place of a man or of a woman, until Isaias said: Behold a virgin shall conceive: likewise the manner whereby the virgin would conceive was not yet determined, until the Angel said: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee. Therefore the faith was not changed, and yet an addition was made in the faith of our reparation article by article, as of the explicit to the implicit, or rather of the more explicit to the less explicit. Similarly it must be said that in moral matters nothing has been added as regards the power of the sense: but as regards the reason of the letter an addition was made by those modes which have been spoken of

The Mosaic Law and the Evangelical Law do not contradict one another in opposite ways, nor do they establish precepts perfectly opposed: for although some Mosaic law forbids what the Evangelical Law permits to be done; thus Leviticus 11 forbids many things from being eaten, such as unclean things, while Matthew 15 declares no foods unclean; for Christ says there, Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man: whence the Apostle, 1 Tim. 1, says: All things are clean to the clean: yet these two precepts do not conflict with one another; for Alexander of Hales says, qu. 56, art. 1.

The Law forbade foods and declared them unclean for a threefold cause: First, on account of signification: hence it called them unclean, because they figured unclean things: Second, on account of abuse, hence it called them unclean and forbade them, because men used them for the worship of idolatry: Third, on account of the unworthiness of that people, on whose account it withdrew certain things from them as unclean: but the law of the Gospel declares and grants all things clean with respect to the nature of things, and to their fitting use, and to the dignity of those using them: and so the Law and the Evange> lium conflict only disparately, inasmuch as the Evangelical law excels the Mosaic in most respects

Note 2. From the same Alexander of Hales in the same place, the old law can be compared with the new chiefly according to six considerations. The first indeed, according to the consideration of virtue and efficacy. The second, according to the consideration of severity. The third, according to the consideration of truth. The fourth, according to the consideration of goodness. The fifth, according to the consideration of remuneration. The sixth finally, according to the consideration of the bearer of the law, or of the legislator. And so it must be resolved in the present question whether the Mosaic law truly differs from the Evangelical in all these respects.

Note 3. From the same Alexander of Hales in the same place, art. 2, ad secundum: a twofold sanctification can be distinguished, namely carnal and spiritual. Carnal sanctification is liberation from the penalty of sin which someone would incur if he were to despise or fail to do what was commanded: but spiritual sanctification is the very cleansing from the stain of sin which is in the soul. Now it is certain that the Mosaic law had the power of conferring sanctification of the flesh: for the Apostle says, Hebrews 9: The blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled to the cleansing of the flesh, that is, says the Gloss, it sanctifies those defiled by contact with the dead from the penalty, availing for cleansing not of the soul but of the flesh, because it freed from the penalty. But the difficulty is whether the Mosaic law also had the power of conferring true justification before God, which consists in the remission of sins and the infusion of sanctifying grace.

Single Conclusion. — The old law and the new differ first in this, that the latter has the power of justifying, while the former does not.

The Apostle proves this truth with many arguments, but especially in Rom. 1, where he says: I am not ashamed of the Gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and to the Greek. On this passage Anselm writes thus: It is the power, because it bestows grace, by whose aid we may be able to do what it commands. Which because the Mosaic law did not do, it was weak.

But that the Mosaic law did not have the power of justifying, the same Apostle teaches openly in the same place, chapter 8, when he says: For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son condemned sin, that the justification of the law might be fulfilled in us: and Galatians 2, verse 16: By the works of the law no flesh shall be justified, that is, no man. And verse 21: If justice be by the law, then Christ died gratis. And chapter 3: Because by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified before God (certainly by the force of the law) it is manifest, because the just man liveth by faith: and Hebrews 7: There is a setting aside of the preceding commandment, because of its weakness and unprofitableness: for the law brought nothing to perfection. From all these it is established that both laws differ in this, that the Old cleansed indeed from the defilement of the flesh contracted by reason of transgression of the ceremonial precepts, but did not confer true justice of the soul: while the New has the power of conferring such justice: because it has present Christ the font of justice, who offered satisfaction to God for our sins, and merited sanctifying grace: whence John 1: The law was given by Moses; grace and truth were made by Jesus Christ. Hence, as we have said, as many as were justified in the old law ex opere operato, either through martyrdom or through other services rendered to God, did not obtain this grace of justification except through respect to Christ, the author and whole of the same grace, from which the grace of justification derived to absolutely all men living under whatever law: For neither is there another name under heaven given to men, wherein we must be saved, as we read in Acts IV.; hence chapter XV.: Through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we believe to be saved, even as those Fathers of the Old Testament, who, as the Apostle says, 1 Cor. X., did drink of the spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ.

Hence all the holy Fathers constantly affirm that those who in the Old Testament were acceptable to God through faith belonged to the New Testament: for they were not justified except through faith in Christ, who is the author of the New Testament: which truth Saint Augustine thus expounds, epistle 17, which is to Optatus, where he says:

Since all the just, that is, the true worshippers of God, whether before the incarnation or after the incarnation of Christ, neither believed nor live except by the faith of the incarnation of Christ, in whom is grace and fullness, certainly what is written, that there is not another name under heaven wherein we must be saved, holds from that time, and the suprascript name [prevails over] man, from the time he was vitiated in Adam: for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive: because as in the kingdom of death no one without Adam, so in the kingdom of life no one without Christ: as through Adam all men are unjust, so through Christ all men are just: as through Adam all mortals in punishment were made children of the age, so through Christ all immortals in grace become Sons of God.

This same truth St. Leo explains in a wonderful manner, sermon 3, De Nativitate: Let there be silence, therefore, says he, the complaints of those who, with impious murmuring reviling the divine dispensations, complain of the slowness of the divine nativity, as though what was done in the last age of the world had not been expended in times past:

the incarnation of the Word conferred these things to be done which were done, and the sacrament of human salvation never ceased in any antiquity: what the apostles preached, this the prophets announced: nor is that fulfilled late which has always been believed. But the wisdom and benignity of God, by this delay of so salutary a work, made us more capable of his voice by occasion, so that what had been foretold by many signs, many voices, and many mysteries through so many centuries might not be ambiguous in these days of the Gospel; and the nativity, which was about to surpass all miracles and every measure of understanding, would beget faith in us so much the more constant, as its preaching had been both more ancient and more frequent. God, therefore, consulted human affairs neither with a new counsel nor too late: but from the constitution of the world he instituted one and the same cause of salvation for all. But the grace of God, whereby the whole company of the Saints has always been justified, was increased at the birth of Christ, not taken away; and this Sacrament of great piety, whereby the whole world has now been filled, was so powerful in its significations, that those who believed in it as promised attained no less than those who received it as given. From this you will understand that, as the same sun of nature pierces both hemispheres with its light and cherishes them with its warmth, so that there is none who hides himself from its heat, so Christ the Lord, the Sun of justice, made fruitful both law by the light and dew of his grace. And as one hemisphere shines the more brightly, the nearer the sun approaches it: so the state of the old law, according as it drew nearer to the approach of Christ, received a more abundant illustration and fruit of the divine mysteries; and, as St. Gregory says, homily 16 on Ezechiel, According to the increases of time grew the knowledge of the holy Fathers, and the nearer they were to the advent of the Savior, the more fully did they perceive the sacrament of salvation.

Secondly, the Evangelical and Mosaic laws differ as regards the manifestation of truth; for, says the Alexian,

truth looks to three things as well in the Gospel as in the law. 1. The knowledge of things to be believed. 2. The grace of things to be done meritoriously. 3. The glory of rewards. With respect to the knowledge of things to be believed, the Gospel and the law differ according to veiled and revealed: with respect to the grace of things to be done, as promise and exhibition: with respect to the glory of rewards they differ as shadow and image: so that in the law there is a veiling of knowledge, a promise of grace, a shadow of glory: but in the Gospel there is the revelation of the knowledge of faith, the exhibition of the grace of God, the image of the reward.

And indeed the Apostle confirms this truth, 2 ad Corinthians III, where he says: The veil in the reading of the Old Testament remaineth unrevealed, because it is made void in Christ. Hence he adds: But we, beholding with unveiled face the glory of God, are transformed into the same image. Whence truth in the law was as a shadow: but in the Gospel as an image; hence Hebr. X: The law having a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image. Wherefore St. Gregory, super Ezech., book II, expounding these words, A wheel was within a wheel, says: A wheel was within a wheel, because what the law preaches, what the prophets announce, this the Gospel exhibits: and St. Leo, sermon VII, De Passione: Shadows cling to the body; from the ancient observance there is no departure from the Sacrament. Host passes into host, blood is taken away by blood, and while the legal festival is changed, it is fulfilled.

Thirdly, the old law and the new differ by reason of severity; since the old law furnished wrath, but the Evangelical mercy: the former was a law of fear, the latter of love; the former of servitude, this of liberty; the former prescribed for servants, this for sons. Wherefore the Apostle, ad Romanos VIII, says: You have not received the spirit of servitude again in fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, wherein we cry: Abba, Father.

But the severity of the Mosaic law flourished chiefly in this, that, says the Alexian, that law has wrath and the strictness of punishment in its judicial precepts: fear through the multitude of its threats in its moral precepts: but in its ceremonial precepts servitude through the prospect and dread of eternal damnation.

Wherefore St. Peter, Act. XV, explaining the difficulty of observing the law, says: Why do you tempt God by putting a yoke upon the necks of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But otherwise concerning the Evangelical law, which has very few precepts and contains an abundance of grace annexed, whereby they are made easy: hence Christ the Lord rightly said, Matt. XI: My yoke is sweet, and my burden light. For, as St. Augustine expounds, Epist. CXVIII, Christ subjected us to his light yoke, and bound together the society of the new people with a light burden, namely with sacraments fewest in number, easiest of observance, most excellent in signification.

Nor does it stand in the way that in the Evangelical law certain precepts seem difficult of observance, such as the precept concerning the indissolubility of marriage, concerning the love of enemies, concerning the necessity of confession; for those are rendered easy on account of the abundance of grace, which is imparted by Christ in the new law; according to that prophecy of Isaiae 10: In that day his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall rot at the presence of him. Nor does it equally matter that the Gospel is called a burden and a yoke: for, says St. Augustine, sermon 22, De verbis Apostoli, This burden is not the weight of one weighed down, but of a wing flying; for birds also have the burdens of their wings: they carry them on earth, they are carried by them in heaven, etc. And St. Bernard, Epistolar. 87, ad Monachos S. Bertini: Light, he says, is the burden of the Savior, and the more it grows, the more bearable it becomes. Does not even the multitude of wings itself lift the bird, not weigh it down? Take away the wings, and the rest of the body is carried to the depths: so the discipline of Christ, so the sweet yoke, so the light burden, that the more we lay it aside, the more it is drawn forth by him, because rather does he carry it than is carried. The Apostle commends this truth excellently, ad Galatas IV, in these words: It is written, that Abraham had two sons: one by a bondwoman, and one by a free woman, etc. Weighing these words, St. Anselmus, in the same place, says: In each Testament God begat sons who should serve him, but in the Old Testament Jews as servants, who would obey slavishly out of fear of punishment and the promise of temporal things: but in the grace of the New Testament free men, who would serve out of love. To him accords S. Chrysologus, sermon 1, on the Gospel: Cum ieiunatis etc., where he says: He who changed the Lord God into a Father wished to reign more by charity than by power, and chose rather to be loved than feared. This truth St. Augustine had indicated before, writing in the book against Adimantum, chapter 16: God, to the whole man laboring, appointed as Lord that which he should fear; and to the son born redeemed opened as Father that which he should love. Wherefore in chapter 17 he says: This is the shortest and most manifest difference of the two Testaments, fear and love.

Fourth, the difference between the Old Law and the New is that the Old Law was less perfect: but the Evangelical Law breathes and holds every perfection whatsoever; which prerogative of the New Law the Apostle commends with many words to the Galatians 4, and to the Hebrews 7, saying that the Old Law was the figure and shadow of the New: but the New, the truth and complement of the Old. Hence Jerome in book 1 against the Pelagians, chapter 9: In the Law it is promised, in the Gospel it is fulfilled; there is the beginning, here the perfection; there the foundations are laid, here the summit of faith and grace is set. This truth Victor of Antioch explains with an elegant simile, expounding that passage of Mark 4: The earth bringeth forth first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. For he says: First it brings forth the blade in the law of nature, afterwards the ears of grain in the law of Moses, then the full corn in the Gospel.

Fifth, the New Law surpasses the Old according to the reason of wages and reward; for the Old Law alone pledged and promised temporal goods as the wages of its observers, as we have already observed, according to that of Isaiah 1: If you will hear me, you shall eat the good things of the land. But the Evangelical Law promises eternal life and the heavenly kingdom to its followers. Hence the Apostle to the Hebrews 7: Christ was made the surety of a better testament. That is, as the Gloss there says, the New Testament is better than the Old: because it promises better goods, that is, eternal ones: but the Old, temporal ones.

Finally, the preeminence of the New Law above the Old appears chiefly from this, that the Old Law was prescribed to the Jewish people alone; hence Deuteronomy 4: What other nation is so illustrious, as to have ceremonies, just judgments, and a universal law? Hence the Apostle to the Galatians 3: To Abraham were the promises made, and to his seed. Whence the Royal Prophet, Psalm 147: He hath not done in like manner to every nation: and his judgments he hath not made manifest to them. But the Gospel was given to the whole human race without exception; for Christ commands the Apostles in Mark 16: Preach the Gospel to every creature. And in Matthew 28: Go ye, teach all nations, etc. Moreover, the Old Law was prescribed to the Jewish people indeed by God, but by the ministry of Angels and through the hands of Moses; but the Evangelical Law has Christ the Lord, the Son of God, as its author and promulgator: which prerogative the Apostle commends with many words to the Hebrews 1.

At last, the Old Law was promulgated with terror, but the New with love: for it began to be published on the very day of Pentecost, on which the Holy Spirit, whose proper name is Love, poured himself into the Apostles, and poured forth divine love into their hearts; in regard to which St. Bernard, Epistle 107, exclaiming in admiration, says:

O twofold, and at the same time most firm proof of love toward us! Christ dies: therefore he merits to be loved. The Spirit moves us, and makes us love: the former made it that he might be loved, the latter that we might love; the former commends much love to us, the latter gives it; in the former we discern whom we are to love, from the latter we take whence we are to love: therefore from the former comes the occasion of charity, from the latter the affection.

You ask: whether the Evangelical Law was prescribed at a fitting time. I answer affirmatively: since that law has the reason of the Holy Spirit joined to it, it ought not to have been prescribed before sin was taken away from the human race by the death and passion of Christ, as the Apostle teaches to the Romans 8, where, having premised the description of the new law, he subjoins: God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, hath condemned sin in the flesh, that the justification of the law might be fulfilled in us. 2. The new law is a perfect law; but what is perfect ought not to be given at once, but what, as St. Thomas says, according to the order of temporal succession, as one becomes a boy, and afterwards a man. The Apostle gives this reason: The law, he says to the Galatians 3, was our pedagogue in Christ, that we might be justified by faith: but after the faith is come, now we are no longer under a pedagogue. 3. It was fitting that man should experience his infirmity through sins, and know that he had need of grace, according to that of the Apostle to the Romans 5: The law entered in, that sin might abound: and where sin abounded, grace did more abound.

The Subtle Doctor embraced all these five prerogatives of the Evangelical Law above the Mosaic in five headings in book 3, distinction 10, n. 1.

First, because Christ, by his passion exhibited to us, merited more grace than by that to be exhibited to the ancients. Second, because we have more helps of grace than the Israelites had; for they, he says, besides matrimony (if indeed matrimony was a sacrament among them), had no sacrament except circumcision, and that as a remedy against original sin. But after their relapse, if they could merit some grace by their own motion, well enough: but for acquiring grace at that time no sacrament was instituted among them. For they had not the sacrament of penance, nor several other helps for obtaining grace, which we have. Third, besides the greater efficacy of the sacraments and their plurality, we have a doctrine more explicative and declarative of the truth than they had, and more examples of the saints, and more efficacious for imitation. And fourth, more merits of the saints, who perhaps merited not only for themselves but also for us; and we also merit by invoking their aid and intercession with God. Simply, therefore, there are more and more efficacious helps in the Christian law than in the old, and therefore in that respect the new law is lighter. There is also one help very noteworthy, because for the observance of the Christian law eternal life is explicitly promised to us: but to them either rarely, or never, were anything but temporal goods promised; for temporal goods never so much allure the soul to keep an everlasting law as eternal goods do. » Thus the Doctor.