Of the Judicial Laws of God. The Seventh Sermon
IN prosecuting the treatise of God’s laws, I have now lastly to speak of that sort which are called the judicial laws: of which I will entreat, dearly beloved, as briefly as I can, so far forth as I shall be persuaded to be expedient for your edification. This treatise will not be unpleasant nor unprofitable to every zealous hearer, although it doth specially belong to courts of law, where judgment is exercised: for the judicial laws were with wonderful faith and diligence set out of God? by the ministry of his servant Moses; and God is not wont to reveal any thing to mankind with so precise and exquisite diligence, unless it do directly tend to mankind’s great commodity.
[6 et cultum sacrum, Lat.; and upon the holy worship. ]
[7 gratulatoria seu eucharistica, Lat.]]
[Ὶ [ vel instituto, Lat.; or institution.) [9 ab optimo et sapientissimo Deo, Lat.; of the most excellent]
[and most wise God. ]]
ὰ ὸ».2 1 iron a 218 THE THIRD DECADE. [sErM. Now although these judicial laws are very few in number, and not to be compared in multitude with the huge volumes of the laws and decrees of emperors, kings, and wisest sages; yet do they in their short breviary contain the chief points of judgment and justice, and, in effect, as much almost as is contained in the books of the laws and constitutions of the emperors and oivil lawyers. The good Lord would not by too long and burdensome a pack of laws be too burdenous and troublesome unto his people; neither was it needful over curiously to stick upon every several thought of ill-disposed persons: it is sufficient for all wise men, people, and nations, if every one have so much law as is sufficient for the conservation of peace, civil honesty, and public tranquillity; as all the holy scripture witnesseth that the people of Israel had.
ΝΟΥ͂ these judicial laws are the most ancient, and very fountains of all other good laws which are to be found almost in all the world. Moses was before all other lawgivers that were of name and authority: among whom Mercurius? Trismegistus and Rhadamanthus the Lycian are thought to be the eldest. The Egyptians called their Mercurius by the name of Thoth, who, as Lactantius affirmeth, slew Argus that had so many eyes, and upon the murder fled into Egypt. Now Argus and Atlas lived about the time of Cecrops Diphyes; and Cecrops is reported to have been in the same time that Moses was ~~ Rhadamanthus also is supposed te have lived after the days of Joshue, Moses his servant and successor, ες [ universa historia sacra, Lat.; all the sacred history.] 5
[2 He is by Augustine (de Civit. Dei, Lib. xvur. cap. 8 and 39)]
[made a late contemporary of Moses. ] A (3 In Euseb. Chron. a.m. 3765 are placed “Rhadamanthus et Sar- 1]
[pedon reges Lyciorum.” Moses is there placed from A.M. 3608 to x]
[3728. Augustine (de Civit. Dei, Lib. xvmr cap. 12.) places Rhada- ΝΞ]
[manthus in the interval between the Exodus and the death of Joshua. ] 1 [4 legislatorem suum, Lat.; their lawgiver. Lactantius, on the]
[authority of Cicero (de Nat. Deor. Lib. 111.) having stated that there]
[were five Mercuries, says: —quintum fuisse eum, a quo occisus sit]
[Argus: ob eamque causam in Agyptum profugisse; atque Agyptiis]
[leges ac literas tradidisse. Hunc Agyptii Thoth appellant.—Lactant.]
[Div. Instit. Lib. 1. cap. 6. pp. 29, 30. Lugd. Bat. 1660.] [6 Cecrops is placed by Abp. Usher, B.c. 1556, a little after the i]
[birth of Moses. In Euseb. Chron. under date A.M. 3615, it is said: i]
[Quidam scribunt Athlantem fratrem Promethei, et Argum cuncta cer-]
[nentem his fuisse temporibus; alii vero sctate Cecropis (i. e. A.M. 3640.)]]
vit] THE JUDICIAL LAWS OF GOD. 219 But the most famous lawgivers of the greatest and most ancient nations did follow long after the death of Moses; Draco and Solon among the Athenians, Minos with the Cretians, Charondas of the Tyrians [Thurians], Phoronzus to the Argives, Lycurgus to the Lacedeemonians, Pythagoras to the Italians, Romulus and Numa unto the Romans. Plato writ of laws a little before the reign of Philip, king of Macedon and father to Alexander the Greaté. And Cicero, Lib. 11. de Legibus, saith: “I see therefore that the opinion of the wisest sort was, that law was neither invented by men’s wits, nor yet was the decree or ordinance of people; but a certain eternal thing, ruling the whole world with discretion to command or forbid, to do or leave undone. So they said that the chief and highest law is the wisdom of God, which commandeth or forbiddeth all things by reason. Whereupon that law, which the gods have given to mankind, is rightly commended: for it is the reason and discretion of the wise which is able either to command or else forbid; and so forth”. Therefore the judicial laws of God are eommended unto us, not so much for their antiquity, as for the authority which they have of God.
Now that we may plainly and distinctly discourse upon this matter, ye have to mark, that to judge is an action; and in this treatise is taken for an action done in the courts of judgment: for it signifieth to take up and determine of matters betwixt such as be at variance, or else upon the hearing of a cause to give sentence or judgment. Finally, to judge doth signify, to deliver them that be in danger, to relieve the oppressed, to defend the afflicted, and with punishment to keep under mischievous offenders. Judgment, therefore, is not the sitting or meeting of judges in assizes or sessions; but is rather the very diligent discussing of causes, the giving of sentence according to right and equity by the laws of Godand also the assertion and defence whereby the good are delivered, and the punishment that is executed upon the ill- [6 Draco, B.c. 624. Solon, 594. Minos is placed by Euseb. Chron.
[i thirty years later than Rhadamanthus. Charondas at Thurium, 446.]
[Phoroneus is placed in Euseb. Chron. about the 110th year of Isaac’s]
[age. Lycurgus, 884. Pythagoras, 547. Romulus, 753. Numa, 715.]
[Plato de Legibus, cir. 367. See also Polydor. Vergil. de rer. invent.]
[i Lib. 11. cap. 1; and Augustin. de Civit. Dei. Lib. xvmr. cap. 3, 8, 25.] [7 Cie. de Legib. Lib. 11. cap. 4.]]
220 THE THIRD DECADE. [SERM. isposed and wicked offenders. The judges are the overseers of judgment and justice; I mean, such as do justly according to the laws give sentence betwixt them that are at discord, which do defend and deliver the good, and punish and bridle the wicked. And so the judicial laws are those which inform the judges how to determine of controversies and questions, how to judge justly, how to punish the wicked, and how to defend the good, that peace, honesty, justice, and public tranquillity may be among all men; which is the end and mark alone whereto both the judge and all the judicial laws do tend and are directed. For God, our good Lord and lawgiver, would have it to go well with man, that we may live happily, civilly, and in tranquillity. And therefore we do not in this treatise exclude the care and defence of pure religion, but do make it one of the especial points which the judicial laws do look unto.
And now even as the ceremonial laws, so also are the judicial laws added by God unto the ten commandments, to expound and confirm them therewithal. For the precepts of the ten commandments are the chief and principal precepts, whereunto we must refer all laws, as to the eternal mind or will of God. I think I need not to stand and shew you, dearly beloved, to what precepts of the ten commandments every several judicial law is to be referred: for that is very plain and evident to every one that will take but small pains to confer and lay them together. For the judicial laws that are set out against murder and injury are appertaining to this precept: Thou shalt do no murder.” And whatsoever is spoken against adultery, fornication, and filthy lusts, are added to the commandment: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Likewise, whatsoever is said in the judicial laws against deceits, shifts, cozenings, and usury, do belong to the commandment: Thou shalt not steal.” Lastly, all the laws touching the bridling of heretics and suppressing of apostates by force are set down to make plain the first, second, third, and fourth commandments of the first table: for some laws may be applied to more precepts than one of the ten commandments. But this is easy and plain to be perceived of every man: therefore I will not stand any longer about it. r Now for because the judicial laws do first of all require
judges, such, I mean, as should maintain and put the laws in execution (for the laws without executors seem to be dead, and on the other side are alive under a just magistrate, who is for that cause called the living law’); therefore before all other laws are placed those judicial laws which were given by God touching the magistrate or judges, with their office and election. Of their election thus we read: “Bring ye,” saith Moses to the people, “men of wisdom and of understanding, and expert, according to your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you” Again: “I will make thee3 rulers and judges to judge the people, according to thy tribes, in all thy cities which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” And yet again more plainly: “Seek” (saith Jethro, being inspired from above, unto Moses) “” out of all the people men of courage, and such as fear God, true men, hating covetousness,” (to wit, such as hate to take money and bribes), “and make of them over the people rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: and let them judge the people at all seasons. Which if thou dost, thou shalt both keep the ordinances of God#% and the people in peace and safety.” To this doth belong that which we read in the book of Numbers, where Moses prayed, saying: “Let the God of the spirits of all flesh set a man over this congregation, which may go out and in before them; that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep without a shepherd.” Herein Moses hath left an example for us to imitate, in making our prayers to God for the election of our judges. For oftentimes our opinions or judgments of men do utterly deceive us; but the God of spirits doth behold the minds and hearts, and knoweth what every one is in thoughts and inward meaning. He therefore must be besought to give and shew to us not hypocrites to be our judges, but men of truth and virtue. In the same place doth Moses leave to us “the description of consecrating new chosen judges: for they were set before the Lord, and hands were laid upon them [1 See Vol. τ. p. 339.] ες [3 spectate probitatis viros, Lat.; men of tried probity. Heb. and Auth. Ver. known. Vulg. quorum conversatio sit probata.] [3 Constitues tibi, Lat.; thou shalt make thee.) [ servabis instituta Dei, Lat.; implebis imperium Dei, et preecepta @jus poteris sustentare, Vulg.] [5 intus et in cute, Lat.]
222 % THE THIRD DECADE, [serM. with making of prayers and supplications. Moreover the office of judge is very briefly, but yet in most effectual and absolute sentences, described of the Lord, by the mouth of Moses, in these words: Hear the causes of your brethren, and judge righteously betwixt every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. Ye shall have no respect of any person! in judgment: but hear the small and the great alike; and fear not the face of any man: for the judgment xvi is God’s.” Again: “Judge the people with just judgment. Decline not in judgment: have no respect of persons, neither take thou any bribes; for rewards do blind the eyes of the wise, and doth pervert just causes. Do judgment with justice, that thou mayest live, and possess the land which the Lord thy God shall give thee.” And again: “Do no unjust thing in judgment; accept not the face of the poor, neither fear thou the face of the mighty, but judge thou justly unto thy neighbour.” Again: “Thou shalt not have to do with a false report; thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a matter of justice according to the greater number for to pervert judgment:” that is, if thou seest an innocent to be condemned of the multitude, do not thou therefore condemn him because the multitude hath condemned him; but judge thou justly, and commit not evil ol, because of the many voices of the multitude. Thou shalt not esteem a poor man in his cause: neither shalt thou hinder the poor of his right in his suit. Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous see that thou slay not. Thou shalt not oppress the stranger; seeing ye yourselves were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
And God verily, when he had delivered the people from the tyranny of the kings of Egypt, did not put them in subjection to kings again, nor burden them with the tributes which kings are wont to exact of their subjects: for he made them a commonweal, or an aristocracy, which was the most excellent kind of regiment, wherein the choicest men in all [1 non agnoscetis facies, Lat.; ye shall not acknowledge faces. Auth. Ver. Marg.]
[2 ne flectas judicium, Lat.; thou shalt not wrest judgment. Auth. Yer.
3. Non enim justificabo impium, Lat. omitted by the translator;
[for I will not justify the wicked.)]
the multitude were picked out to bear the sway and to rule the rest: but yet because he was not ignorant of his people’s foolishness, and that they, being weary of their liberty, would crave a king (which thing he did afterward also dissuade them from# by his servant Samuel), he made laws for a king also, that he might understand that he was to live under the laws, and to give judgment according to the laws. The discipline or institution of a king is thus expressed in the seventeenth chapter of Deuteronomy: “When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me; then thou shalt make him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose. One from among the midst of thy brethren shalt thou make king over thee; and thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not of thy brethren. But he shall not gather many horses unto himself, nor bring the people back again into Egypt, to increase the number of horses;” that is, to get himself a strong troop of horsemen: “forasmuch as the Lord hath said, Ye shall henceforth go no more again that way. Also let him not take many wives to himself, lest his heart turn away: neither let him gather too much silver and gold. And when he is set upon the seat of his kingdom, he shall write him out a copy of this law in a book, according to the copy of the book which the priests the Levites do use: and it shall be with him, and he ought to read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and to keep all the words of this law, and these ordinances, for to do them. And let not his heart arise above his brethren, neither let him turn from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left; that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, both he, and his sons, in the midst of Israel.”
Thus much hitherto of the magistrates, of judges, and of kings.
Now I suppose that in this institution of a king all things are contained, which are most largely set out by other authors touching the discipline and education of a prince. And by the way this is especially to be noted that kings are not set
[6 multis et validis rationibus, Lat. omitted; with many and power-]
[ful reasons.].]
224 THE THIRD DECADE. ἔβεη as subjects, to_be judged of God by the word, as they that ought to rule and govern all things:: -“— to the rule of his word and commandment.
And here I have to rehearse unto you some of the judicial laws; I mean, not all and every several one, but those alone which are the chief and choicest to be noted: by which ye may consider of the rest, and plainly perceive, that the people of Israel were not destitute of any law which was necessary and profitable for their good state and welfare. I will recite them unto you as briefly as may be, and in as natural and plain an order as possibly can be.
Of the holy buildings, of the not making away of such things as were consecrated to the Lord, and finally, of the maintaining and publishing of true religion, there is large speech everywhere throughout the whole scripture. Neither do I think it to be greatly to the purpose word by word to recite all the laws, nor particularly to make mention of all the commandments touching those matters. Verily, of the heathen, and of the overthrowing of their temples and superstitious holy toys, this commandment is briefly given by the Lord himself: “When the Lord thy God hath cast out many nations before thee, thou shalt root them out; neither shalt thou make league with them, nor pity them, nor join affinity with them: because they will seduce thy sons to serve strange gods; and so my fury wax hot against thee, and I destroy thee. But this shalt thou do to them: ye shall dig down their altars, ye shall break their idols!, ye shall cut down their groves, and burn their images with fire. For an holy people art thou unto the Lord thy God; and the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself.” The same law is set down in the twenty-third of Exodus, and is again repeated in the twelfth of Deuteronomy. Hereunto belong the laws that were published against idols and images. In the nineteenth of Leviticus the Lord saith: “Look not back to idols, neither make you molten gods: I am the Lord your God.” Also in the twenty-sixth chapter: “Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up any pillar, neither shall ye set you up any image of stone?in your land,
[1 statuas, Lat.; statues, or pillars. Auth. Ver. Marg. ] [2 lapidem figuratum, Lat.; a stone of picture, or figured stone.]
[Auth. Ver. Marg.]]
to bow down unto it: for I am the Lord your God.” Again in the sixteenth of Deuteronomy: “Thou shalt plant no grove of any trees nigh unto the altar of the Lord thy God: neither shalt thou set thee up any image, which the Lord thy God hateth.” There are, beside these, also many other laws to this end and purpose in every place through all the volume of the scriptures. ᾿ς Ofthe well handling and entreating of the poor, of widows? of orphans, and strangers, the Lord giveth this commandment: “Ye shall not afflict the widow, nor the fatherless. But if ye go on to afflict them, without doubt they shall cry to me, and I will assuredly hear them, and will be angry with you, and will slay you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.” To this belongeth a good part of the fifteenth chapter of Deuteronomy. In the twenty-fourth chapter the Lord saith: “Do not pervert the judgment of the stranger, of the fatherless, and of the widow. Remember that thou wast a stranger in the land of Egypt.”
Of the receiving and refusing of witnesses and their witness-bearings in judgment these few notes are given in the law: “One witness shall not be of force against a man, whatsoever his sin or offence shall be: but in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. If a false witness rise up against a man, to accuse him of trespass, the judges shall make diligent inquisition; and if they find that the witness hath borne false witness against his brother, then shall they do to him as he had thought to have done to his brother; and thou shalt put evil away from out of the midst of thee.”
Now, for the oath which the judges have to exact, or they that are at variance, or else the witnesses, have to take, that doth the Lord command to be done by the calling to record of his holy Name, and that too of none other but his name alone. Deuteron. x. &ec.
Moreover, that in effect is a kind of appeal, where Moses doth so often bid the judges in an hard and doubtful matter to have recourse unto the high priest, and so, as it were, to God himself, or the oracle of God, for the declaration of the same; as is to be seen in the eighteenth chapter of Exodus, and in the first and seventeenth chapter of Deuteronomy.
[3 pupillis, Lat. omitted; fatherless.]
15
[Bullinger, IL]
Of lawful wedlock, against incestuous and unprofitable marriages, and also of the degrees of consanguinity and affinity, there are exquisite precepts as well in the eighteenth chapter of Leviticus, as also in other places of the books of Moses. Verily, where lawful marriages are not, there is no matrimony: therefore the children that are so born are counted bastards; neither is there for them any dowries or inheritance. and The Lord in many places of his law doth charge parents to bring up their children honestly, and to instruct them in the fear of God. Among the rest he saith: “The words which I command thee this day thou shalt shew unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou art at home in thine house, and as thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets betwixt thine eyes; and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thine house, and upon thy gates, &ec.”
Again, for the honouring, reverencing, and nourishing of parents, there are not in the moral law only, but also in the judicial laws, some things set down wherein the honour and duty to be given to parents is diligently commended to all sorts of people: of which I will speak when I come to treat of parricide, under which title I do comprehend the evil handling and naughty demeanour of men to their parents.
Now, how great the authority of fathers over their chil- dren was, We may conjecture by that especially, where, in the twenty-first of Exodus, it is permitted to the father, that is in xa. poverty, to sell his daughter. Again, in another place, leave is given to the father either to deny, or else to give, his deflowered daughter in marriage to him that did defile her. And again, it was in the father’s power to break the vow! which the child had made without his knowledge or consent, Numbers xxx. But that to disinherit the children (if the children had not deserved it, but that some corrupt affection had blinded the parents) lay not in the power or will of the parents, that law doth shew, which is published in the twentyfirst chapter of Deuteronomy; and doth forbid the father to place the second in the right of his eldest or first-begotten son.
Concerning the coming to inheritance, and the succession
[1 Deo nuncupatum, Lat.; made to God.] i]
of goods, or the lawful succession by kindred, there is a precise law in the twenty-seventh chapter of the book of Numbers. There is set down the case of the daughters of Zelphad, who did request that their father’s name should not be wiped out, but that their father’s inheritance and name might be given unto and still remain with them. Upon that occasion was the law made, that if the sons did die, the heritage should be conveyed over and given to the daughters, or, at leastwise, to those that were nearest of affinity. And thereunto belongeth the law of raising seed unto the deceased brother, and the thirty-sixth chapter almost of the book of Numbers. Upon this law also doth hang the right which cometh by adoption.
Furthermore, of whoredoms, adulteries, and the ravishing of virgins, there are many profitable, honest, and wholesome In the twenty-third of Deuteronomy it is said, “There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor whoremonger of the sons of Israel.” And in the same place he forbiddeth to bring oblations which are the price of an harlot’s hire. In Leviticus charge is given, saying: “Set not out thy daughter for hire, to make her play the harlot; lest the land be defiled, and filled with sin.” Therefore, in the twenty-second of Deuteronomy, the maid that was deflowered, and yet feigned herself to be a virgin still, when she was given to an husband, was commanded to be stoned to death before the doors of her father’s house; to the end that parents, being terrified with so grievous a thing, might be stirred up to look more warily unto their children. In the twenty-second of Exodus this law is given: “If a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall endow her and take her to wife.” There are most sharp laws against whoredoms and adulteries, Deuteronomy xxii.; for there adulterers are punished with death. The same punishment was appointed for him that did by violence ravish a virgin.
For suspicions and jealousy there are rules given in the fifth chapter of Numbers. Against detestable, unlawful, and altogether devilish lusts, there are most severe and yet most just laws expressed; as against most filthy incest, abominable sodomy, horrible and unnatural bestiality, and such sins as God hath cursed, and are not once worthy to be named among men. Levit. eighteenth and twentieth chapters.
15—2
Divorcements and separations were permitted by the law in the twenty-fourth of Deuteronomy, for nothing else but six. for the hardness of the Jewish people’s hearts, and for the avoiding of some greater inconvenience; to wit, lest peradventure any man should poison, strangle, or otherwise kill the woman, his wife, which he hated, when he could by none other means rid his hands of her. And they that were in that manner divorced might at their pleasures be married to others.
Moreover, that justice might be maintained, and that every man might enjoy his own, in the law there was charge very diligently given for the division of things, for the partition of the land of promise by equal portions, and for the peculiar possession of proper goods; that to every tribe possessions might be given by lot, and that no man should by any means make away the possessions which were given him. For hereunto belongeth that which is spoken by Moses in the thirty-second, thirty-third, thirty-fourth chapters of the book of Numbers, and oftentimes in other places also. and And yet notwithstanding, this law was nothing prejudicial to traffic by exchange. For there were many and very upright laws published for buying and selling, for letting and hiring, for borrowing and lending, for usury and things left in custody. Whosoever desireth to see the places in the law, he shall have them in the twenty-fifth of Leviticus, in the twenty-second of Exodus, in the fifteenth and twenty-third chapters of Deuteronomy. And I suppose that to this is tobe referred the law which is given concerning pawns or pledges: “1 thou hast taken thy neighbour’s garment to pledge, thou shalt restore it him again before the sun be set. For that is his only covering:” that is, it is the garment wherewith he covereth his flesh, and wherein he sleepeth.. “For it shall come to pass, that if he ery to me, I will hear him; because I xxiv. am merciful.” Again; “Thou shalt not take the nether or upper mill-stone to pledge: for he hath laid that whereon he liveth to pledge to thee.” leh The laws for things left in custody, or committed to the every man to make true restitution of the thing which was “credit of another man, and for taking of oaths, commandeth given unto him to keep. But if it were stolen away from him to whom the custody of it was committed, then he that
kept it ought to purge himself by an oath before a magistrate, to shew that he consented not to the conveying of the thing away. The same order is commanded to be observed in things borrowed, that are lost, or otherwise broken: as is to be seen in the twenty-second chapter of Exodus.
And for because it is manifest that no small part of the goods of the ancient Israelites did consist in the multitude of bondmen, therefore the law of God doth stick long upon the discourse of bondage and bondmen, and of the binding and manumission of them. And yet it doth diligently command to handle bondmen mercifully like men, and every sixth year! to set them free from slavery. But if it so fell out, that at the sixth year’s end any bondman were desirous to stay still in his master’s house, he was permitted so to do, upon condition that his voluntary bondage should be confirmed by the ceremony of mancipation; to wit, that the bondman, being brought before the judges, should there testify that he would serve in bondage voluntarily; and thereupon the nether lap of his ear should be bored with an awl, and fastened to the door. And that was the sign or token of faith and obedience. For David, alluding thereunto, did say, that the Lord had bored through his ear, that is, that by faith he had bound him to obedience. Moreover, the Lord did in these laws limit out the time of bondmen’s manumission, because the lords of bondmen should not use them over-cruelly for their gain and commodity’s sake: all which are at full set down in the twenty-first chapter of Exodus. We must also refer that to the clemency A that ought to be shewed to servants, where as in the twentythird chapter of Deuteronomy it is said: “Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which is escaped from his master unto thee; but let him dwell in any place whereunto he is fled.” And yet manstealing is most sharply forbidden. Now they commit the offence called Plagium?, that is to say, manstealing, whosoever do entice other men’s bondmen to run from their masters, or which do, by theft or robbery, steal other men’s servants, whom they do either keep to ἢ themselves, or else sell to others. Against such this law is given: “Whosoever stealeth a man, and selleth him, if he be
[1 sexennio finito, Lat.] [2 See above, page 47.]]
convinced of the erime, let him die the death.” And the same law is again repeated in the twenty-fourth of Deuteronomy.
Of free men little is said in the law; but they were exempted from bearing office in the commonwealth, which were known to be harlots’ children, whose fathers! no man knew. Strangers also, as the Ammonites and Moabites, were utterly barred from rule and authority in the Israelitish weal public. Deuteronomy xxiii.
All deceit, cozening, robbery, shiftings, and subtil crafts, are flatly forbidden in the law under the title of theft. For in the nineteenth of Leviticus we read: “Ye shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie one to another.” And in the nineteenth of Deuteronomy: “Thou shalt not remove thy neigh- bour’s meerstone.” In the twenty-second of Exodus the Lord doth punish theft with four or five-fold double restitution: which whosoever did not perform, he was sold, and brought into extreme bondage. But if the stolen thing were found with the thief, and recovered again, then did the stealer restore to the owner double the value of that which was stolen. To this law belonged whatsoever was spoken concerning sacrilege, stealing of cattle, robbing of the common treasury, and carrying away of other men’s bond-slaves; of which I spake somewhat a little before. And to this doth appertain that excellent law which saith: “Thou shalt not deny, nor keep back, the wages of an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of the strangers that are within thy land; thou shalt give him his hire the same day%, and that before the sun go down; because he is needy, and doth therewith sustain his life: lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee.”
Concerning doing and receiving damage, and the making ΟΥ̓ full restitution for the harm that is done, there are many κρῖ. constitutions in the law of the Lord. “If any man,” saith
[[Σ and whose, Lat.] [2 mere: a boundary. Johnson. ] [3 sacrilegium, abigeatum, et peculatum, Lat. See above, p. 44-48.] [ die suo, Lat.; at his day. Auth. Ver.] ὦ]
[6 Sustentat ex eo vitam suam, Lat. So Vulg. and Coverdale, 1535,]
[“and his life (is) susteyned therwith.” Ainsworth in loc.: “And unto it]
[he lifteth up his soul; that is, hopeth for and desireth it for the main-]
[tenance of his life.”]]
the law, “doth dig a well, and do not cause it to be covered, so that an ox or a sheep of another man’s do fall into it; then let him that owneth the well take to himself the beast that perished, and pay the worth of the beast to him that is the owner thereof.” The like law is made in the twenty-first of Exodus touching an ox that pusheth with his horns. In the twenty-second chapter is given the law of restitution in giving like for like; if either one man’s pasture be eaten up by another man’s cattle, or if one man hurt another’s corn or vineyard. For the law commandeth to restore other pasturings, other corn-ground, and other vineyards, not of the worst, but of the best, to him that had the damage done him, Likewise if any man had set thorns on fire, and by his negligence had suffered it to catch hold upon corn, either standing in the field upright, or stacked up in mows at home; then he, by whose negligence the fire began, did make amends for the loss that the other received. The same law is again repeated in the twenty-fourth of Leviticus. In the twentysecond of Deuteronomy there are many things expressed that must be referred unto this title: of which sort is the law that biddeth us to bring back the ox that goeth astray, and to restore the things that are found to him that lost them; to keep our buildings in good reparations, that by misfortune in the fall of them our brethren be not mischieved. And like to these is the law also which saith: “Thou shalt have a place without the host to go forth unto; and shalt bear a paddle-stick at thy girdle, wherewith as thou sittest thou shalt dig a hole to hide thy ordure, or cover thine excrements in.” And in the civil law the like matter in effect is handled’: for very necessity doth require, that in commonweals there should trouble or annoy his neighbours about him. To this should be laws concerning draughts, and order of buildings, so that no man by his excrements or building of new houses place, also, we may add the laws that were made concerning the separating of lepers from them that were clean, lest peradventure the contagious disease should by little and little infect the healthful. The laws of lepers and the leprosy are
[6 mow, a heap of corn or hay; when laid up in a house, said to]
[be in mow; when heaped together in a field, in rick. Johnson’s Dict.] [7 Codex Justin. Lib. vir tit. 10, de edificiis privatis. Tom. 11.]
[Lugd. 1551.]]
983 THE THIRD DECADE. [sera od at large set down in the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of Leviticus. and Just weights and just measures the Lord commanded to kept in the law, where he saith: Thou shalt not have in thy bag two manner of weights, a great and a small: neither shalt thou have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small. But thou shalt have a right and a just weight, and a perfect and a just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. For all that do such things, and all that deal unrightly, are abomination unto the Lord thy God.” This law is given in the twenty-fifth of Deuteronomy, and is again repeated in the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus.
Of public judgments, of witchcrafts, and the punishment of offenders, there are many laws set down in the book of xxii, the Lord. Thou shalt not,” saith the Lord, suffer witches to live.” Again: The fathers shall not be killed for the sons, nor the sons for the fathers: but every one shall be slain for his own offence.” Neither doth the law conceal the manner of killing: for it giveth the use of the sword, of stones, and of fire, into the magistrate’s hands. And sometime it is left to the judge’s discretion to punish the offender according to the circumstance of the crime committed, either in body or goods, in loss of limbs or life, in scourging with rods, or selling into bondage. In the twentieth chapter of Leviticus all the offences are almost reckoned up that are to be punished with present death. And in like manner the like are repeated in the eighteenth and twenty-first chapter of the same book. and Against witches and soothsayers! there is precise charge given in the eighteenth of Deuteronomy. In the nineteenth of Leviticus this short precept is given: Ye shall not seek after witches, nor observe your dreams: ye shall not decline to sorcerers, nor inquire of soothsayers to be defiled by them.” Against such the law doth expressly give judgment of death and extreme punishment, Leviticus xx. In the twenty-second ἰ of Exodus this strait sentence is sharply pronounced: “Let not a woman live that is a witch.” and Against heretics, schismatics, apostates, and false prophets, the law giveth judgment in the thirteenth and eighteenth
[1 Mathematicis, Lat. See Vol. 1. 221, note 7.]
chapters of Deuteronomy; where it doth most plainly teach how such kind of people are to be handled. And like to this is the law for the stoning of blasphemers, which is contained in the twenty-fourth of Leviticus; and also the law for contemners and breakers of the Lord’s sabbath, Numbers xv.
Against seditious rebels and secret slanderers there is much to be found in many places of the law. Chore, Dathan, and Abirom were rebels, of whose ends ye may read in the sixteenth of the book of Numbers. If any man did maliciously bring up a slander upon his wife’s chastity, and was not able to prove it true, he was merced at a sum of money, or punished with stripes, as is to be seen in the twenty-second of Deuteronomy. In the nineteenth of Leviticus this precept is given: “Thou shalt not go up and down with tales among thy people: neither shalt thou hate thy brother in thine heart; but shalt rebuke him and tell him thy mind plainly.” Also in the twenty-second of Exodus it is said, “Thou shalt not rail upon the gods (or judges!), nor blaspheme the ruler of thy people.”
Moreover there are sundry kinds of murder, whereof some are greater or smaller than other. The most detestable murder of all is parricide, (when one killeth his father or his kinsman?), under which we do comprehend the evilentreating or currish handling of parents by their children. Whosoever striketh father or mother, or curseth them,” bidden to kill the rebel that dareth stand up to resist the saith the law, “let him die the death.” Again, they are upright decrees and holy ordinances of the elders, Deuteronomy xvii. And also in the twenty-first of Deuteronomy we find: “If any man have a stubborn, a froward, and rebellious son, that will not hearken to the voice of his father, and the voice of his mother, and they have chastened him, and he would not hearken unto them: then shall his father and his mother take him, and bring him out unto the elders of that city, and to the gate of that place; and say unto the elders of the city, This our son is stubborn and disobedient, and will not hearken to our voice; he is a rioter and a drunkard: and straightway all the men of that city shall stone him with stones until he die: and thou shalt put evil from thee: and all Israel shall hear and fear.”
[2 The translator’s addition
Furthermore, murder is either committed willingly or else unwillingly. Of murder unwillingly committed there is an example in the nineteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, where the case is put as followeth: Two friends go to the wood to hew wood together; and as the one fetcheth his stroke, the head of the axe falleth from the helve, and striketh the other so that he dieth upon it. This deed the Lord doth neither impute, nor would have it to be imputed to the man, but to himself; and therefore he giveth licence to the man to fly unto the sanctuary. For his mind was that the sanctuaries should be a safeguard to such kind of people as killed men unwillingly, and not to bladers! and cutters, not to them that poison, or otherwise kill their neighbours of a set pretence or purpose: of which there is much to be seen in the thirty-fifth of Numbers, the fourth and the nineteenth chapters of Deuteronomy. To the law for murder unwillingly committed doth the case belong? that is thus put forth: Two men fight together, and in their fight they strike a woman with child, so that either she falleth in travail before her time, or else doth presently die out of hand. In such a case what is to be done, the Lord did teach in the twentyfirst of Exodus, where the law of like for like is also set down: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand,” &c. In the same place, also, is put another kind of murder, which is committed either by thy beast, as by thine ox that pusheth with his horns, or by thy wolf, or by thy dog that thou keepest in thine house; or else by some instrument, or building, that is in thy possession. Now thou didst either know, or not know, the fierceness of thy beast, the peril in thine instrument, or the rottenness of thy building. If thou knewest it not, thou wast then excused: but if thou knewest it, and didst not seek a way to prevent the mischief, the Lord gave charge that thou shouldest die for it. But if of clemency it were granted thee to redeem thy life, thou shouldest not refuse to pay any sum of money, how great soever it were.
Now wilful murder, committed upon pretended malice, Η
[1 bladers, latronibus, Lat.] [2 non veneficis aut parricidis, Lat.] [3 etiam, Lat.; also.] Η [4 quee fit voluntate destinata per insidias aut malevolentiam, 3]
[Lat.; which is perpetrated of set purpose by lying in wait or malice. ] Ἵ]
is utterly unpardonable in the law of God. Such an one,” saith the law, thou shalt pull from mine altar, that he may be killed.” In this case redemption of life is not permitted, but the blood of the murderer is straitly required. Many cases of this severity, and many other things tending to this end, are to be read in the thirty-fifth chapter of Numbers and the twenty-first of Exodus. In the twenty-first of Deu- - teronomy is described the action, partly ceremonial, and partly judicial, which was solemnized when any man was found to be slain, and no man knew who was the murderer;- where also the manner is prescribed, how to make an atonement for the murder: whereby we may gather how horrible a sin murder is in the sight of God and the catholic church.
Lastly, the law doth not leave the order of war untouched: for it giveth precepts concerning the beginning, the making, and the ending of war; which are to be read in the twentieth chapter of Deuteronomy. Moreover in the law there are set out the examples of terrible wars; as that with the Amalachites in the seventeenth of Exodus, and that with the Madianites in the thirty-first of the book of Numbers: where somewhat also is said touching the division of spoils gotten in the wars. I know, my brethren, that I have been somewhat tedious unto you in making this rehearsal of the laws unto you: but for because the most wise and mighty God doth nothing without especial causes and the evident profit of mankind, I could not therefore suffer this part of the law to pass me untouched; considering that I see it so diligently taught by God himself, and that it maketh much to the opening and maintaining of the moral law. Our good God, who knoweth all things, doth also know the dulness and overthwart slackness of man’s wit, and how it requireth to be driven perforce many times to do good and eschew evil. And therefore the holy Lord hath in these judicial laws added an holy kind of compulsion to drive men on withal.
In the morals he frameth our manners, and teacheth us what to do, and what to leave undone. With the ceremonials he helpeth forward the morals; and doth under types and figures lay before the eyes of our body and mind the mysteries of God and his heavenly kingdom. And lastly, by
[5 mysteria regni Dei, Lat
the judicials he compelleth us to the keeping of the laws, and doth preserve the integrity of the same. Now all these together do tend to this end only, that man may be saved, that he worship God aright, and live according to the will of the Lord.
Thus much have I spoken hitherto, by the help of God, concerning his holy laws. Now let us praise the goodness of the Lord, who doth not suffer his people to lack any thing that is necessary for their commodity; and doth even at this day instruct us with these laws to the glory of his name and health of our souls. OF THE USE OR EFFECT OF THE LAW OF GOD, AND OF THE FULFILLING AND ABROGATING OF THE
Same: Of the Likeness and Difference of Both the Testaments and People, the Old and the New. The Eighth Sermon
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