Article 4. On Laws

1st. Proposition. — The Laws must be joined to the Government to give it perfection.

That is to say: It is not sufficient that the Prince or the Sovereign Magistrate should regulate cases as they occur, according to circumstances; but it is necessary they should establish general rules of conduct, in order that the government may be constant and uniform: and that is what is called Law.

2nd Proposition. — The first Principles of all the Laws are fixed.

All the laws are* founded upon the first of all laws, which is the law of nature: That is to say, on right reason, and on natural equity. The laws ought to regulate all things human and divine, public and private; and are begun by nature, according to Saint Paul. For when the Gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature those things that are of the law, these having not the law, are a law to themselves: who shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them, and their thoughts within themselves accusing them, or else defending them (A).

The laws ought to establish the Sacred and profane right, the public and private right; in a word, the just observance of Divine and human things among citizens, together with rewards and punishments.

(/) /os. ix. 16. ( g ) 2 Reg. ii. 7. (A) Rom. ii. 14, 15.

We must then, before all things, regulate the worship of God. It was thus Moses began: thus, that he laid down the foundation of society among the Israelites. At the head of the decalogue we see this fundamental precept: lam the Lord, thy God, thou shalt not have any strange Gods before me, &c. (i).

Next follow the precepts which regard society. Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal (J); and the rest. Such is the general order of all legislation.

3rd Proposition, — There is an order in the Laws.

The first principle of the laws, is to acknowledge a Divinity, from whence is derived all that is good and existence itself. Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is all man ( k ). And the others, to do to others, as we would be done unto (/).

4th Proposition. — A Great King explains the character of the Laws.

Interest and passion corrupt men. The law is without interest and without passion. The law of the Lord is unspotted, converting souls: the testimony of the Lord, is faithful given wisdom to little ones ( fit ). It precedes experience, and supplies them from infancy with good maxims. The Justices of the Lord are right rejoicing hearts (n). One is delighted to observe how equal they are to every one, and how, in the midst of corruption, they preserve their integrity. TAev are lightsome (o). In the Laws are collected the purest lights of reason. They are true, and justified in themselves (p), for they follow the first principle of natural equity, with which no person can disagree, but such as are completely blind. They are more to be desired than gold and many precious stones: and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb ( q ). From them proceed abundance and repose. David remarks in the law of God, these excellent properties, without which there is no true law.

5th Proposition. — The Law rewards and punishes.

For which reason the law of Moses is everywhere found accompanied by punishments; It is this principle which renders them equally iust and necessary. The first of all laws, as we have remarked, is, that we should not do to others, that which we would not be done unto. Those who depart from this primitive law, so just and so equitable, thereby deserve that,

(0 Exod. XX. &c. ( j ) Ibid. xx. 3. ( k ) Eccl, xii. IS.

(/) Matt vii. 12. — Luke vi. 31. (m) Ps. xviii. 8. (») Ibid, xviii. 9.

(o) Ibid, xviii. 9. ( p ) Ibid. 10. ( q ) Ibid. 11.

T> that should be done unto them, which they would not have done to themselves; since they have made others suffer, what they do not wish to suffer. This is the just foundation of punishments, conformable to that sentence pronounced against Babylon. Take vengeance upon her: as she has done to others, so do to her ” (r). She has spared nobody, spare her not: She has made others suffer, let her suffer.

On the same principle recompenses are founded. Whoever serves the public or individuals, the public and individuals ought to serve him.

6th Proposition. — The Law is sacred and inviolable.

To understand perfectly the nature of the law, it must be remarked, that all those who have well treated upon it, have regarded it, in its origin, as a covenant and a solemn treaty, by which men agree together, by the authority of Princes upon what is necessary to form their society.

We do not mean by this, that the authority of the laws depends upon the consent and acquiescense of the people; but only that the Prince who, besides, that by his character has no other interest than that of the public, is assisted by the wisest heads of the nation, and supported by the experience of past ages.

This truth, constant amongst all men, is admirably explained in the scripture. God assembles his people, and causes the law to be proposed to them, by which he established the sacred and profane, the public and private law of the nation, and makes all agree to it in his presence. Moses called all Israel, and as he had recited to them all the articles of this law, he said to them: Keep therefore, the words of this covenant, and fulfil them, that you may understand all that you do. You all stand this day before the Lord your God. Your Princes and tribes, and ancients and doctors, all the people of Israel, your children, and your wives, and the stranger that abideth with thee in the camp; that you may pass in the covenant of the Lord thy God, and in the oath which the Lord thy God maketh with thee. And that he may raise thee up a people to himself, and he may be thy God. Neither with you only, do I make this covenant, but with all that are present, and all that are absent (*).

Moses receives this covenant in the name of all the people who had given him their consent. I was the mediator, and stood between the Lord and you, to shew you the words he gave to you, and you gave to him (t).

All the people expressly consent to the covenant. The

(r) Jer. (i) Deut, xxix. 2 to 15. (/) Ibid. v. 5.

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Levites shall say, with a loud voice: Cursed he he that abideth not in the words of the law, and fuljilleth them not: and all the people shall say. Amen ( u ).

We must remark, God has no need of the consent of men to authorize his law, because he is their Creator, and can oblige them to whatever he pleases; nevertheless, to render the thing more solemn, and more firm, he obliges them to the law, by an express and voluntary covenant

7th Proposition.— The Law is reputed to be of Divine origin.

The Covenant which we have just read, has a double effect: it unites the people to God, and it unites the people in themselves. The people could not unite amongst themselves by an inviolable society, if the covenant had not been originally made in the presence of a superior power, such as that of God, the natural protector of human society, and the inevitable avenger of every contravention of the law.

But when men bind themselves to God, promising him to observe, as well in his regard as among themselves, all the arti cles of the law which he proposes to them, then the treaty is inviolable, authorized by a power to whom all are subject.

For which reason, all nations have been desirous to give to their laws a Divine origin; and those which had it not, pretended to have it.

Minos boasted of having learned from Jupiter, the laws which he gave to the Cretans; Lycurges, and Numa, and all other Legislators, have wished that the convention by which the people bound themselves to keep the laws, should be strengthened by the Divine authority, in order that no one should speak against them.

Plato, in his republic, and in his book of laws, proposes none but such as he wishes should be confirmed by the Oracle, before they are received; and it is thus that the laws become sacred and inviolable.

8th Proposition. — There are Fundamental Laws that can - not be changed; it is even very dangerous to change, without necessity, those which are not fundamental.

It is principally of these fundamental laws that it is written, that in violating them. The foundations of the earth shall be be moved (v). After which, there shall remain only the fall of Empires.

(«) Deut xxv ii. 14, 26. ( v ) Ps. lxxxi. 5.

In general the laws are not laws, if they hare not something inviolable in them. To mark their solidity and firmness, Moses ordained, Thou shall write upon the stones, all the words of this law, plainly and clearly (to). Joshua accomplished this commandment (a;). „

The other civilized nations agree to this maxim. Let their he an Edict, and let it he written according to the law of the Persians and the Medes, said to Ahasuerus the wise men of his council, who were always near his person, who knew the laws and judgments of their fathers (y) This attachment to the laws, and to ancient maxims, strengthens society, and renders States immortal.

We lose a veneration for the laws, when we see them often changing. It is then that nations seem to stagger, as if they were troubled, and had taken wine, as the prophets express themselves (z). A vertiginous spirit possesses them, and there fall is inevitable: because they have transgressed the laws, they have changed the ordinance, they have broken the everlasting covenant (a). It is the state of a sick and restless man, who knows not what position to find rest in. There are two nations, says the Son of Sirach, which my soul ahhorreth, and the third is no nation, which I hate, and the foolish people that dwell in Sichem ( b ), namely, the people of Samaria, who, having overset order, forgot the law, established a religion, and an arbitrary law, merited not the name of a people.

We fall into this state, when the laws are variable and without consistence, that is to say, when they cease to be laws.