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 XV. In the Law of Christ there is no precept that wholly ministers to the Law of Moses; but for a time onely and less principally.

THis Rule I received from S. Irenaeus;* 1.1 and they are his words as near as I could translate them. In lege Christi non est ullum praeceptum veteri tantum legi inserviens, nisi ad horam & minus principaliter. For our Blessed Saviour descended like rain upon a fleece of wooll, and made no violent changes, but retain'd all the morality that he found amongst his Countrymen; he made use of their propositions, spake their proverbs, united their ejaculations into a collect of his own, for almost every word of the Lords Prayer was taken from the writings of the pious men of their Nation; he chang'd their rites into Sacraments, their customes into my∣steries, their washings he made our Baptisme, their Paschal supper he con∣verted into the Holy Eucharist: and still because he would be understood by them, he retain'd the Mosaick words when he deliver'd a Christian pre∣cept; for he knew his Father would send his Holy Spirit to be an infal∣lible interpreter; and when the types of Moses pass'd into the substance of Christ, then the typical words also would be expounded in the senses of Evangelical duties.

For indeed it is not reasonable to suppose that our Bl. Saviour,* 1.2 who came to fulfil the Law in his own person, and to abolish it in his Disciples, to change the customes of Moses, and to be an eternal law-giver in the in∣stances of moral and essential natural rectitudes, would give a new Com∣mandement to confirm an old precept which himself intended to extin∣guish. No man puts a piece of new cloth to an old garment, nor a new injunction to an abrogated law; that is, no wise Master-builder holds up with one hand what he intends to pull down with both: it must therefore follow that whatever Christ did preach and affirme and exhort, was, al∣though express'd in the words of the Law, yet wholly relative to the duty & signification of the Gospel. For that which S. Hilary said of all the words of Scripture, is particularly true in the sense now deliver'd of the Ser∣mons of Christ:* 1.3 Sermo enim divinus secundum intelligentiae nostrae consuetu∣dinem naturamque se temperat, communibus rerum vocabulis ad significa∣tionem doctrinae suae & institutionis aptatis. Nobis n. non sibi loquitur: atque ideo nostris utitur in loquendo. God speaks to us and not to himself; and therefore he uses words fitting to our understandings. By common and usual expressions and such as were understood he express'd precepts and mysteries which otherwise were not to be understood.

Thus when our Bl. Saviour delivers the precept of Charity and forgive∣ness he uses this expression,* 1.4 When thou bringest thy gift unto the Altar, and there remembrest that thou hast any thing against thy Brother, leave thy gift at the Altar, goe and be reconcil'd to thy Brother, and then come and offer thy gift. If Christ had said, When thou comest to the Lords supper and

hast any thing against thy Brother, &c. he had not been understood: but because we know this is an Eternal precept, part of a moral & eternal excel∣lency, a duty of Christianity and a portion of Christs institution, and we know that Christ pull'd down the Jewish altars and the sacrifice of beasts by the sacrifice of his Eternal Priesthood, and we also are sufficiently in∣structed by what instruments and by what ministeries the memory of that is conserv'd and the benefits of it conveyed; therefore we also are sure that by these words Christ intended to command us to be at peace with our Brother and with our enemy, when we come to offer prayers and to cele∣brate the memorial of his Eternal sacrifice.

So when our Bl. Saviour told the Parable of Dives and Lazarus,* 1.5 and intended to represent unto his Disciples that we are to expect Salvation by the ordinary ministeries of the Church, and not to expect it by the way of miracle and extraordinary dispensation; he was pleas'd to say, They have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them. This was all which could be said to them whose Scriptures were compleated in the writings of Moses and the Prophets: but when our great Master had by his H. Spirit and by his Apostles and Disciples perfected another instrument of salvation and repository of Divine truths, the proposition is to be inlarg'd to these. They have Christ and his Apostles, they have the Gospels and Epistles, let them hear them; for if they will not hear and obey them speaking in the Scrip∣tures, neither will they be converted though one arise from the dead, and appear to them in the terrible dresses of affrightment.

When Christ whipp'd the buyers and sellers out of the Temple,* 1.6 and urg'd the words of the Prophet, My Fathers house shall be called the house of prayer to all Nations; but ye have made it a den of theeves: although this was spoken to the Jewes, and of their Temple, yet Christ who knew this Temple was to be destroyed and not a stone left upon a stone, intended the piety of his Commandement should last longer then the dying Temple; and therefore it is to be translated wholly to the Christian sense. And although he would not have the Temple prophan'd so long as it was stan∣ding and us'd for prayer and Divine service, ad horam, as S. Irenaeus his expression is; even for an hour, taking care of that because it was a holy place: yet the sacredness and holy usage of the Temple was less principally intended; but principally Christ regarded the Christian Oratories and separate places of devotion; that where God by publick appointment and the lawes was to be worshipped, there the affairs of the world should not intrude by the interests of a private and a prophane Spirit.

Notes

• * 1.1

  1.
• * 1.2

  2.
• * 1.3

  In Psal. 226.
• * 1.4

  3.
• * 1.5

  4.
• * 1.6

  5.