Fifth Part: On Divine Law

St. Thomas, I-II, q. 91, a. 4 and 5.

300. Divine law is an ordination of divine reason which was immediately borne and promulgated by the free and positive will of God for directing men to the supernatural end. - It is morally necessary:

1. even before the sin of Adam, on account of the supernatural end to which man must be directed by law: for if the end did not exceed the proportion of natural powers, natural law and human law, proportioned to natural powers, would suffice; but now it is necessary (by necessity of fittingness) that man be directed to that end by a law divinely given;

2. after sin, moreover a) on account of the uncertainty of human judgment (especially concerning contingent and particular things), so that man might know readily, without doubt and error, what is to be done and avoided;

b) for ordering by positive law the interior acts of men: for human law does not directly command except exterior acts; but for the perfection of virtue it is required that man exist right in both;

c) for prohibiting by positive law all sins: for human law cannot punish or prohibit all evils (Ps. CXVIII, 33).

"And these four causes are touched upon in Ps. XVIII, 8, where it is said: The law of the Lord is immaculate, that is, permitting no turpitude of sin; converting souls, because it directs not only exterior acts but also interior acts; the testimony of the Lord is faithful, on account of the certitude of truth and rectitude; giving wisdom to little ones, insofar as it orders man to the supernatural and divine end" (a. 4).

301. How many kinds of divine law there are. - A certain divine law was given to Adam in paradise for the whole human race. But after sin it was twofold: the old or Mosaic law, manifested through Moses to the Israelites alone; the new or Christian law, borne by Christ for the whole human race (Council of Trent, sess. 6, can. 19 and 20).

They are distinguished not as two species, but as imperfect and perfect in the same species; and they are as boy and man (Gal. IV), way and terminus, preparation and consummation, as is clear: 1) from the end to which they were directly ordered, which is the sensible and earthly common good in the Old Law (the temporal happiness of the Jewish people), the spiritual and heavenly good itself in the new (eternal happiness); 2) from the justice which they place in human acts, which the old law chiefly made as to exterior acts, which alone it could efficaciously restrain, but the new more as to interior acts, which it efficaciously directs; 3) from the mode by which it induces to its observance, namely, the old by fear of penalties, the new by love which is given from the grace of Christ.

1. Not the immediate end: this is rather subordination to God and is common to the old law and the new; but this subordination in the old law directly tended to temporal happiness, in the new directly to eternal happiness.

2. Chiefly, for interior acts were also regarded, such as love of God (Deut. VI, 5), penitence of heart (Lev. XVI, 18), and concupiscence of another's goods (Exod. XX, 17). Cf. q. 100, a. 2.

Before Moses, men were led to the supernatural end by the hypothetical natural law alone, or the natural-divine law: for, supposing the revelation made to Adam both of the supernatural end and of the future Redeemer, they were able to know by reason that one must tend to that end through Christ by faith, hope, and charity, and by acts of virtues.

3. Before Moses there was no positive divine law. The precepts concerning sacrifices were from human law determining natural law; the precept concerning circumcision was not a law borne for a people, but a private precept given by God for the family of Abraham (Gen. XVII). There were also certain other particular precepts given to Noah (Gen. VII and IX).