Ductor dubitantium, or, The rule of conscience in all her generall measures serving as a great instrument for the determination of cases of conscience : in four books / by Jeremy Taylor ...

RULE 4. The ten Commandements of Moses, commonly called the Moral law, is not a perfect digest of the law of Nature.

* 1.1 THE Jews in their Cabala say that the law of God was made before the creation of the World two thousand yeers and written in black burnt let∣ters on the back side of a bright shining fire; according to that of David, Thy word is a lanthern unto my feet, and a light unto my paths. Their meaning is, (for under Phantastick expressions they sometimes intended to represent a ma∣terial

truth) that the Decalogue or their Systeme of Moral precepts was no∣thing but an express or the Tables of the law of Nature; long before Moses time given and practis'd by their Fathers. But this was not a perfect Systeme; it was the best that ever was since Adam brake the Tables of the Natural law and let sin and weak principles into the world; and it was sufficient in the present constitution of the world; but even this also was but like a Paedagogue to bring us to Christ. In the Scholes of Moses they practised the first rudi∣ments of perfection; but Christ was the last and therefore the most perfect Lawgiver; and they that did commence under Moses the servant of God, were to proceed under Jesus Christ the son of God: and therefore the Apo∣stle calls Christ 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉:* 1.2 and if we will acknowledge Christ to be our lawgiver, and the Gospel to be his law, called in the New Testament, The law of liberty, a Royal law; then we must expect that our duty shall be further ex∣tended then to a conformity in our lives to the ten words of Moses.

I doe not here intend a dispute whether Christ hath given us laws of which neither before Moses nor since there are no footsteps in the Old Testament;* 1.3 for I think there are none such, but in the letter or in the analogy they were taught and recommended before: but this I say; that some excellencies and perfections of morality were by Christ superadded in the very instances of the Decalogue; these also were bound upon us with greater severity, are in∣deared to us by special promises, and we by proper aides are inabled to their performance; and the old commandements are explicated by new commen∣taries, and are made to be laws in new instances to which by Moses they were not obliged; and some of those excellent sayings which are respersed in the old Testament, and which are the dawnings of the Evangelical light, are now part of that body of light which derives from the Son of righteousness: inso∣much that a commandement which was given of old, was given again in new manner, and to new purposes, and in more eminent degrees; and therefore is also called a new commandement.* 1.4 Thus the conversation Evangelical is called an old Commandement and a new one. So that in the whole this will amount to the same thing as if they were new Commandements. I will not therefore trouble this article with those artificial Nothings; or en∣deavour to force any man to say Christ hath given us new Commandements; but this I suppose to be very evident; That we are by Jesus Christ oblig'd to doe many things to which the law of Moses did not oblige the sons of Israel: but whether this was by a new Imposition, or a new explication of the old, it matters not, save that some men will be humor'd in their own manner of speak∣ing.

I give an instance;* 1.5 The Christians are obliged to love their Brethren, and their Neighbours: The Jews were so too: but Christ commanded us to love those whom the Jews did not call Brethren or Neighbours; even all that have the same Nature, even all that are in calamity. For to the question ask'd by the Pharisees, and who is our Neighbour? Christ answer'd by the Parable of him that fell among the Thieves: He that is in need is our neighbour. The Jews understood this to mean nothing but one of the same Nation or Religion, the rest they hated. Here then is a new duty; to which the Jews in the same latitude and in the same expressions were not bound by the Decalogue; and this is as much as a new Commandement: for it is new to me if it imposes a new duty. So if God forbids incest: and by it onely means the conjunction of Parents and children, if afterwards he commands us to abstain from Bro∣ther and Sister, Uncles and Aunts; this is a new law under the old words.* 1.6 The

Jews might hate their enemies; but Christians have none, that is, they have none whom they are to repute such by a legal account. The seven Nations in Palestine were legally and properly to be accounted Enemies; but to Chri∣stians all are to be esteemed as Brethren in some account or other; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,* 1.7 To a good man no man is enemy: So that by alteration of the subject matter, the old law is become new, that is, we have a new law. Lex vetus amorem docet in proximos,* 1.8 nova in extraneos. The old law teaches love to Neighbours, the new to strangers, that is, to such whom the Jews called so; but yet the Christians are to treat as Neighbours. For that is a duty to us which was not so to them; and we may perish for omitting that, to which they were not obliged so much as under the pain of a legal impurity.

But not onely in the object of our duty;* 1.9 but in the expression and signi∣fication of action Christ is a New lawgiver. They and we are bound to love our Brethren; but the precept of love did not bind them to what we are bound:* 1.10 We must die for our Brethren; and of this we have an express com∣mandement, which it is certain they had not;* 1.11 and no sign of it in their Mo∣ral law. And it is not the same words, but the same intension of duty that makes the same law. The Jews were bound to love their wives; but an easi∣ness of divorce did consist with that duty exacted by that law, but it will not doe so in ours. Now as in moral actions a degree alters the kind; so it is in laws; for every new degree of duty that is requir'd supposes a new authori∣ty or a new Sanction to inferre it; for the same law does not in one age directly permit an action, and in another forbid it; it does not reward that person which in another it will condemne.

But I adde other instances.* 1.12 If Repentance be a precept, and not one∣ly a privilege; it is certain that in the Gospel there is a precept which was not permitted, much less injoin'd; for this obedience supposes Christ to be our Redeemer in Nature before he is our lawgiver, and therefore that it could be no part of their Moral law. But Repentance is not properly and primarily a law of Nature; for though it was the first action of religion that we find was done in the world, yet it is such a one as supposes Nature lapsed; and therefore at the most can be but adopted into the law of Nature: but yet because it is as much a part of the law of Nature, as Restitution is a part of Natural Justice, this instance is not altogether an improper illustration of this Rule.

But there are also many things for which provisions are made in the law of Nature;* 1.13 for which there is no caution in the Decalogue. I instance in the matter of incest; and if any man will reduce it to the fifth Commandement, it is certain he must then suppose, onely the mixture of parents and children to be, and that of Brother and Sister not to be incestuous; for these cannot come under the Title of Father and Mother; and if it be refer'd to the seventh Com∣mandement it will be as improper as to suppose jeering to be forbidden in the sixth. I could adde that there being but two affirmative precepts in the Deca∣logue, there is no caution against sins of omission in any other instances.

I will not instance in those precepts which relate to our B. Lord himself,* 1.14 and are superinduc'd by Christianity upon the law of Nature; such as are [faith in Jesus Christ, hope of eternal life, fraternal correption, avoiding scan∣dal, custody of the tongue in many instances, the Sacraments, to stand fast in Christian liberty, searching the Scriptures, humility, mortification, bearing the

infirmities of the weak] and many more; all which proclaime Christ to be our lawgiver; but doe not properly denore the imperfection of the Decalogue as it is a Systeme of the laws of Nature.

But I adde from the very stock of Nature many others.* 1.15 For though by the Decalogue we are forbidden to doe evil, yet we are not commanded to doe good: and that is a material consideration; and cannot by way of reducti∣on be brought hither: because they are wholly different things, and are the effects of several reasons, and to be incouraged by distinct promises or immunities respectively, and are not consequent to each other. For the sons of Israel and all the world are bound to doe evil to no man, but are not bound to doe good to every man: The first is possible, the second is not: and the Jews never understood that they were bound to give almes by the sixth Commandement: and in Nature the obligation to doe good is upon a posi∣tive account; as the obligation it self is. Of the same Nature is Gratitude, readiness to help a man in need, to keep a secret intrusted to us, to performe promises: all which are of greater concernment to mankind then to be intru∣sted onely to analogies, uncertain inferences and secret corollaries, and yet for these there is no provision made in the ten commandements.

Neither can this measure of the Decalogue be reprov'd by saying that all these laws of Nature,* 1.16 and all the laws of Christ may be reduc'd to the Decalogue. I know it is said so very commonly, and the Casuists doe com∣monly use that Method, that the explication of the Decalogue be the Summe of all their Moral Theology; but how insufficiently, the foregoing instan∣ces doe sufficiently demonstrate: and therefore how inartificially will also appear in the violence and convulsions that must needs be used to draw all these dissonancies into one center. I remember that Tertullian (I suppose to try his wit) finds all the Decalogue in the Commandement which God gave to Adam to abstain from the forbidden fruit.* 1.17 In hac enim lege Adae data omnia praecepta condita recognoscimus, quae postea pullulaverunt data per Mosen. And just so may all the laws of Nature and of Christ be found in the Decalogue, as the Decalogue can be found in the precept given to Adam: but then also they might be found in the first Commandement of the Decalogue, and then what need had there been of ten? It is therefore more then probable that this was intended as a digest of all those moral laws in which God would expect and exact their obedience; leaving the perfection and consummation of all unto the time of the Gospel: God intending by several portions of the Eter∣nal or Natural law to bring the world to that perfection from whence Man∣kind by sin did fall; and by Christ to inlarge this Natural law to a similitude and conformity to God himself as far as our infirmities can bear. It was very well said of Tertullian, Intelligimus Dei legem etiam ante Moysen; nec in Oreb tantum,* 1.18 aut in Sina & in Eremo primum, sed antiquiorem, primum in Paradyso, post Patriarchis, atque ita ex Judaeis certis temporibus reformatam: ut non jam ad Moysi legem ita attendamus, quasi ad principalem legem, sed ad subsequentem quam certo tempore Deus & gentibus exhibuit, & repromissa per Prophetas in melius re∣formavit. The law of God was before Moses, neither given in Horeb nor in Si∣nai, in the wilderness [nor in the land] but first given in Paradise; afterwards to the Patriarchs, and then being reformed it was given to the Jews: so that we are not to look after Moses law as the principal, but to the law that comes after the law of Moses, which being promised by the Prophets God in the ful∣ness of time gave unto the Gentiles in the times of reformation.

The effects of this Rule in order to Conscience are these:* 1.19

1. That we acknowledge Christ to be our Lord and Master,* 1.20 our lawgiver and our Teacher.

2. That we understand the ten Commandements according to his Com∣mentary.* 1.21

3. That the Customes,* 1.22 explications, glosses, and usages of the Jews may not be the limit of our practice.

4. That we expect not justification by our conformity to the Decalogue.* 1.23

5. That we endeavour to goe on to perfection;* 1.24 not according to the pat∣tern which Moses, but which Christ shewed in the Mount.

6. That we doe not reckon any Systeme of the Natural law,* 1.25 but the books of the New Testament.

7. That we doe not esteem it sufficient for us to live according to Nature (as the expression is commonly used) but that we live according to Grace,* 1.26 that is, the measures of reformed Nature. For in this sense these words of Justin Martyr are true and useful, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, To live according to Nature is the ornament or praise of one that is yet an Unbeliever: meaning that the Disciples of Jesus must doe more. For according as the world growes in age, so also it is instructed in wise notices; and it must pass on to glory by all the measures and progressions of grace; and all that law by which we live in all the periods of the world is nothing else but the several degrees and promotions of the law of Nature. For children are governed by one measure and young men by another, and old men still by a more perfect; and yet the whole is nothing else but right reason drawn into laws, and that which fits our Nature bound upon us by the decree of God: some laws fit our Natures as they are common to us and beasts: some fit us as we are next to Angels; and some fit us as we are design'd to immortality, and the fruition of God: and the laws of Nature do grow as our Natures doe. And as we see is in matters of speculation, those principles enter into us, or are drawn from their hidden places, in our age of which we had no sign in our youth; and when we are children we admire at those things and call those discourses deep and excellent which when we are grown up we are asham'd of as being igno∣rant and pitiful. So it is in our manners, and so it is in our practical notices; they all grow till they arrive at their state and period: but because the Eter∣nal laws of God, that is, those laws which are not fi••ted to times and persons and relations, but to the Nature of man, that is, to all Mankind, intend to bring us to God and to all that perfection of which we are capable; therefore it is that they also must increase according to the growth of Nature: when therefore the Nature of man was rude and in its infancy, God drew out of the Eternal fountain but a few of these Natural laws: but he still superadded more as the world did need them, and at the last by his Son, who by his incar∣nation hath adorn'd our Nature with a robe of glory, hath drawn out all those by which we are to converse with God and men in the best and greatest Enter∣courses: that he might enable our Nature to dispositions proper and immedi∣ate to a state of glory. Not but that they all were potentially in the bowels of the great Commandements; but that God did not by any Prophets or Law∣givers draw them all forth, till the great day of reformation, at the Revela∣tion of the Son of God.* 1.27 But in this the sentence of Irenaeus is wise and full. Consummata vitae praecepta in utroque Testamento cùm sint eadem, eun∣dem ostenderunt Deum qui particularia quidem praecepta apta utrisque praeceptis, sed eminentiora & summa, sine quibus salvari non potest, in utroque eadem sua∣sit. The precepts of perfect life are the same in both Testaments, and doe

demonstrate the same God of both; who indeed hath given severally several instances of Commandements; but the more eminent and the chief, without which salvation is not to be had, are the same in Both. Meaning, that there are the same general lines of Religion, and of Justice in the old and in the new; but the special and particular precepts are severally instanc'd by Christ and Moses.

Notes

• * 1.1

  1.
• * 1.2

  Rom. 7. 1••.
• * 1.3

  2.
• * 1.4

  1 Job. 2. 7,••.
• * 1.5

  3.
• * 1.6

  Levit. 19. 1••.
• * 1.7

  Hierocles.
• * 1.8

  Tertul.
• * 1.9

  4.
• * 1.10

  1 John. 3. 16.
• * 1.11

  Job. 15. 12, 13.
• * 1.12

  5.
• * 1.13

  6.
• * 1.14

  7.
• * 1.15

  8.
• * 1.16

  9.
• * 1.17

  Lib. adv. Jud.
• * 1.18

  Ibid.
• * 1.19

  10.
• * 1.20

  1.
• * 1.21

  2.
• * 1.22

  3.
• * 1.23

  4.
• * 1.24

  5.
• * 1.25

  6.
• * 1.26

  7.
• * 1.27

  Lib. 4. c. 26. in princip.