divine: that is, although both are sins, yet in the nature of the action it is of a less degree of crime to break the law of our superior than of our supreme, of man than of God.

44. (11.) Divine laws are imposed upon the people; but human laws are imposed indeed, but commonly by their consent, explicit or implicit, formal or interpretative, and without acceptation in a sweet regiment may indeed, but are not usually, passed into the sanction and sacredness of laws d For the civil government is not absolute, and mere and supreme; but in some senses, and to some purposes, and in some degrees, limited, conditional, precarious, and mixed, full of need, and supported by them who are to be ruled, who therefore are to be regarded.

12. Some add this; The divine laws bind both in public and in private, the human in public only: that is, because human laws take no cognizance of what is secret, therefore neither do they, of themselves, bind in secret. But this although in speculation it hath some truth, yet, when it is reduced to practice, the consideration is different. For though man's laws know not what is in secret, and therefore cannot judge; yet God, that binds human laws upon our consciences, knows the most secret breach of laws, and he judges and discerns. But this hath some difficulties in it, and many very material considerations, and therefore, is to be distinctly handled in some of the following pages. This only for the present. When in private we can be excused or innocent before God; in that private, and in those circumstances, human laws oblige note. But God's laws equally oblige both in public and private, respectively to the subjectmatter. Of themselves, human laws have nothing to do with private actions; that is, neither with the obligation, nor the notice.

45. There are many other material differences between the laws of God and man, as to their obligation upon conscience; which I shall afterward explicate upon the occasion of particular rules. The great sum of all is this, so far as relates to conscience; The law of God binds stronger, and in more cases, than human laws. A breach of a human law is not so great a sin, nor is it so often a sin, as a breach of the divine; the advantage both in the extension and the ine Rule 4. of this chapter.

d Vide rule 6. of this chapter.

tension being (as there is all reason it should) on the part of God; that God, who is in all, may be above all.

46. Thus they differ; but, in order to the verification of the rule, it is to be remembered, that, in the main obligation of conscience, they do agree. The divine law places things in the order of virtue and vice; and the sacraments are therefore good, because they are appointed by Christ, our great lawgiver; and in the old law the eating of swine's flesh was therefore evil, because it was forbidden by the law of God. For all the goodness of man's will, consists in a conformity to the will of God, which is the great rule and measure of human actions. And just so it is in human laws, according to their proportion and degree: when the law of the church commands fasting, to do so then is an act of temperance as well as of obedience, and to disobey is gluttony; and to wear cloth of gold is luxury, when the law commands us to wear plain broadcloth. To give great gifts at marriages and feasts may be magnificence; but if the law limits to a certain sum, to go beyond is pride and prodigality. This is the work of God, though by the hands of Moses and Aaron: for it matters not by what means he effects his own purposes; by himself, or by his power administered by second causes. The sum is this, which I represent in the words of St. Gregory Nazianzenf: "Submittamus nos tum Deo, tum aliis, tum iis qui imperium in terra gerunt: Deo quidem omnibus de causis; alii autem aliis propter caritatis foedus; principibus denique propter ordinem, publicæque disciplinæ rationem :" "Let us submit ourselves to God, to one another, and to princes; to God, for all the reason in the world: to one another, for charity's sake; to princes, for order's sake, and the account of public government.”—But if we refuse to obey men, God will punish us; and if we refuse to obey God, even the prince ought to punish us; and both promote the interests of the same kingdom. Κολάζεσθαι δὲ τοὺς μὴ ἀκολούθως τοῖς διδάγμασιν αὐτοῦ βιοῦντας, λεγομένους δὲ μόνον Χριστιανοὺς, καὶ ὑφ ̓ ὑμῶν ἀξιοῦμεν, saith Justin Martyr"; "We pray you, O king and princes, to punish them who are Christians only in name, and do not live according to the decrees of our great Master:" and then for their own interest this is his account; Θεὸν μὲν μόνον προσκυνοῦμεν, ὑμῖν δὲ πρὸς τὰ ἄλλα 8 Apolog. 2. pro Christ.

£ Orat. 17.

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χαίροντες ὑπηρετοῦμεν, βασιλεῖς καὶ ἄρχοντας ἀνθρώπων ὁμο λογοῦντες· "We worship God alone; but in other things we gladly serve and obey you, confessing you to be the kings and princes of the people."-I conclude this in the words of St. Bernard: "Sive Deus, sive homo mandatum quodcunque tradiderit, pari profecto obsequendum est cura, pari reverentia deferendum ;" "A law, whether given by God or by man, is to be observed by a like care, and a like reverence;" alike in the kind, but not in the degree.

RULE II.

Human Laws do not oblige the Conscience to an active Obedience, when there is an imminent Danger of Death, or an intolerable or very grievous Evil in the Obedience.

1. THIS rule is to be understood to be true regularly and ordinarily, and in laws purely human; that is, such, which are not commentaries or defensatives of a natural and a divine law. For if the forbidden action have in it any thing, that is intrinsically evil,-then the action must not be done, though to save our lives: for no sin ought to be the price of our life, and we ought not to exchange an eternal life for a temporal. Here our blessed Saviour's words are plain, "Fear not them which can kill the body;" and, "What profit have you, if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul?" and, "It is better to go into life maimed and blind, than, having two feet or two eyes, to go into hell-fire ;" and, "God is to be obeyed rather than man ;" and, "He that would save his life shall lose it ;" and divers others to the same purpose. Now when any thing of this nature is the subject-matter of a human law directly, or if the violation of any thing of a divine commandment be the consequent of the breach of a human law, then the human law binds to its observation though with the loss of our lives.

2. But the question here is concerning mere human laws established in an indifferent matter: and in this it is, that h Lib. 1. de Præcept. et Dispens. cap. 11, 12.

i Videat Lector Latomi librum, de Ecclesia et Legis Humanæ Obligatione: et Claudium Carninum, de Vi et Potestate Legum Humanarum; Cajetanum verb. Præceptum, Navarrum, Card. Toletum de hac Materia in Libello de 7. Peccatis Mortal.

the rule affirms, that human laws do not bind to their observation with the danger of life. The reasons are these,

3. (1.) Because the end of such laws is only the good and convenience of the lives of the citizens. "Nemini parere animus bene à natura informatus velit, nisi utilitatis causa et legitime imperanti," said Cicero; Nature herself teaches all wise men to obey princes that govern by laws, and for the good of their subjects.'-They therefore being wholly made to minister to the circumstances of life, must not, by our lives, be ministered unto; nothing being more unnatural and unreasonable, than that a man should be tied to part with his life for his convenience only. It is not worth it; it is like burning a man's house to roast his eggs.

4. (2.) "Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth, and all that a man hath he will give for his life :"—It is indeed the voice of nature and of this world, there is no capacity to receive any good when our life is gone; and therefore nothing of this world can make a man recompense for his life. That law therefore that pretends to do advantages to our life, if it shall also require our life for the securing such advantages, takes away more good than it pretends to give, and makes the substance less principal than the accessory.

5. (3.) If human laws do admit of equity, as it is confessed by all men, there is no case so favourable as that of saving of our life: either then we are to suppose the laws to be made of a rock, and to yield to nothing, but for ever to be a killing letter, and an instrument of the hardest bondage ;-or else, at least to be so compliant as to yield to her citizens in the case of life and death.

6. (4.) All human power is given to man for his good, not for his hurt; for edification, not for destruction. But it very often happens, and it is so in most laws that are merely human,—that the good of the particular law is not so great as the saving the life of one man; and if such laws should not yield to the preservation of so precious a life, it were a law made for evil and not for good, a snare and no defence, an enemy and no guardian or friend.

7. (5.) Necessity is the band, and necessity is the solution of a law. "Necessitas facit licitum quod alias licitum non.

k. De Offic. i. 4. 6. Heusinger. pag. 38.

neca:

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est,” saith Alexander'. To the same purpose is that of SeNecessitas, magnum humanæ imbecilitatis patrocinium, quicquid cogit, excusat;" "Necessity makes every thing lawful, to which it does compel." But of all necessities that is the greatest, which is the safety of our lives, and a rescue from death: this case therefore is greater than the band of human laws.

8. (6.) The laws of God, in precepts purely affirmative, do not oblige to an actual obedience in the danger of death. This is in such positive laws of God, which do not involve a negative, of an intrinsic malice against a law of nature or of prime rectitude, the laws of God intend not to oblige, when death shall be the reward of him that does obey. Thus the Maccabees break the rest of the sabbath to defend themselves against their enemies; and the priests for the uses of religion, and the disciples of Christ to satisfy their hunger: and Christ was their advocate. Thus David and his followers did eat the shewbread expressly against the commandment, but it was in his great need; and Christ also was his advocate, and defended the fact: and if a probable necessity, that is a great charity and relief, which is but the avenue and the address of an extreme necessity, be a sufficient excuse from the actual observation of a law of God, positive and affirmative; much more shall an extreme necessity excuse from such a law, and therefore yet more strongly does it conclude against the pressure of a human law, in such cases. And therefore the church m hath declared that the ecclesiastical laws of fasting do not oblige in case of sickness or old age, or journey and great lassitude; and thus also no man is bound to go to church on a festival to hear divine service, when an enemy lies in wait to kill him that is, the laws of the church were intended for the good of the soul, and therefore not suffered to do hurt to the body; and as God affirms he will have mercy and not sacrifice,-and therefore himself makes his own laws, that can yield at all, to yield to the occasions and calls of mercy: so does the church in the imitation of God, whose laws and gentleness are our best measure; not that every little excuse and trifling pretence can excuse, but the danger of death, or sickness, or 1 Ad lib. Si ex toto, ff. de Legibus.

m Cap. Consilium de Observatione Jejunii.