Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n
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A32695
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The harmony of natural and positive divine laws
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Charleton, Walter, 1619-1707.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing C3674; ESTC R19926
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100,936
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250
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were bitten were ex genere Chersydrorum a kind of Water Serpents grown more venenous by heat and thirst and so truly Seraphim i. e. ardentes and exurentes and that they were not bred in the place call'd Phunon where the Brazen Serpent was Erected but brought thither vi quadam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Divine Power to punish the Contumacious people hath been amply proved by the Many-tongued Bochartus in Hierozoici parte posteriori l. 3. c. 13. to whom we owe all the knowledge we have acquired of the various kinds of Animals mentioned in the Holy Bible As for Solomon's adding the Images of Oxen and Lions to the Brazen Laver either he did it by secret intimation or suggestion from God or as Iosephus judges and other Learned Iews it was his first step toward the Idolatry to which after he arrived When we said that Graven Images of Animals were by this Law forbidden we comprehend also Images of the Caelestial Luminaries because they too have their Motions not Animal indeed but Regular and Periodick For that not the Coelestial Orbs but the Stars and Planets are moved in Caelo Liquido in the AEthereal spaces or Firmament is the most ancient Opinion of the Hebrews as the Gemara teaches at the beginning of Genesis saying Orbes fixi sed sidera mobilia And they expressed in Figure either the form of some single Planet as of the Sun Moon Saturn call'd the Star of your God Remphan or Rephan in Act. 7. 43 Lucifer Jupiter c. or some whole Constellation made up of many Stars and by men fancied to resemble a Man or brute Animal or Serpent or other Living Creature Wherefore Images of this kind also fall under the interdiction of this Law It appears nevertheless that the Images and Figures here interdicted are in the number of things in their own Nature neither good nor evil but indifferent and consequently not unlawful and which are prohibited only for caution of some Evil that may arise from the abuse of them And that very many things interdicted in the Mosaic Law are indeed by their own nature or per se 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indifferent but directly opposed by God to the Institutes of the AEgyptians Phoenicians Arabians to the end that the Hebrews might be kept the more remote from Polytheism or the Worship of many Gods is prudently observ'd by Maimonides But besides this Caution there is another excellent use of this interdict of Images viz. to admonish men that God is most remote from our sight and other senses The Invisible God is not to be Worshiped by Images Symbols or Representations Ye saw not saith Moses any similitude in the day wherein the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire lest perhaps being deceived ye might make to your selves any graven Image And Seneca Nat. Quaest. 8. 30. could say of God Effugit oculos cogitatione visendus est Also Antiphanes the Philosopher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. God is not seen by Eyes He is like to no man whence no man can know him by an Effigies And that this was the reason of this Law is intimated both by Philo when de-Legatione he said Eum qui inaspicuus est in simulacro aut fictili opere ostendere nefas and by Diodorus Siculus when he said of Moses Imaginem statuit nullam quòd non crederet Deum homini esse similem And by Tacitus Iudaei mente solâ unumque numen intelligunt Prophanos qui Deûm imagines mortalibus materiis in speciem hominum effingunt For the same reason Halicarnensis and Plutarch Affirm That Numa caus'd all Images to be remov'd out of the Roman Roman Temples Quod non sanctum ratus assimulare meliora pejoribus neque ad Deum accedi aliter posse quà m cogitatu And Varro hath left upon Record That the Romans for more than One hundred and seventy Years from the building of their City Worshipped the Gods sine simulacro adding that if that wise Custom had been continued to his days the Gods would have been observed more Religiously and alledging the Example of the Jewish Nation to attest that his Sentence and at length concluding That they who first set up Images of Gods for the People took away fear from their Cities and put Error in the place of it What therefore shall we say of Pictures or Forms of Animals made in flats or cut in hollows are they also by this Precept forbidden or not Certainly this place cannot be interpreted to condemn them That not all Pictures were Prohibited may with good reason and assurance too be inferr'd from the Ensigns of the Hebrews bearing a Man a Lyon a Bull an Eagle c. Some Pictures are indeed forbidden but in other places namely all those which Idolaters used in their Superstitious and detestable Worship Levit. 26. 1. To which may be adjoyn'd the Figures cut or engraven upon Metals and believ'd to be of Power after their Consecration with certain Magical Words and Ceremonies to defend Men and Cities from Invasion of Enemies Scorpions Lyons Serpents and other hurtful Animals commemorated copiously by Maimonides Ductor Dubitant part 3. cap. 37. Which Opinion the Graecians following call'd such Magical Figures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfect Works whence comes the corrupt word of the Arabians Talisman signifying the same thing Others call them as we have before hinted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Principles or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Traditions of Elements Of these frequent Examples occur in the Constantinopolitan History in the posthume Works of Scaliger in Gaffarel and in our Mr. Gregories opuscula That we may come now to the Christians they have believ'd themselves to be oblig'd neither by other Laws of the Hebrews indeterminately nor by that of having no Graven Images of living Creatures For such Images and Statues both of Emperors and of private Men renowned for Learning and Wisdom have been in most Cities extant among them and are so at this day without danger of Idolatry and therefore without offence And as for Figures painted or engraven since these were not without difference interdicted even to the Hebrews they have used them more freely as the Figure of a Shepherd in a Cup or Chalice mention'd in Tertullian assures us Nay they abstain'd not from the Figure of our Saviour Christ after the Emperors became Christians witness these Three ancient Verses written by Prudentius Christus purpureum gemmanti textus in auro Signabat labarum clypeorum insignia Christus Scripserat ardebat summis crux addita crist is Christs Figure of bright Gold on Purple born Did the Imperial standard long adorn Drawn upon shields for Arms his picture stood And on their crests was rais'd a Cross of Blood The same excellent Poet in passione Cassiani hath transmitted to Posterity that in the Monuments of Martyrs was express'd in Figures the manner of their Martyrdom and what they had
through the sloath of Governors lose their terror but the Iewish Ordinances being the decrees of the Eternal God not weakned by either continuance of time or softness of the Judges remain still the same and when the Ax and the Scourge are no longer fear'd mens minds are nevertheless kept in awe by Religion And as the Stability of these Laws given by Moses whom God had consituted His Representative and Vicegerent in the promulgation of them to the People of Israel is by Cunaeus rightly referr'd to the Eternity and Immutability of the Divine decrees so is it Lawful for us to assert the Vniversal Extent of them from this reason that the Divine Law of the Decalogue is an Explication of the Law Natural written in the mind of every individual man from the beginning though we must at the same time acknowledge that the very giving the same in Precept to the Iews added a new Sanction and Obligation to the former so that the Iew doing the contrary not only offended in doing an act simply vitious but also in doing an act strictly for bidden because as St. Paul speaks Rom. 11. 23. by the transgression of the Law he dishonoureth God That this different Obligation of Laws Natural and Divine may be yet more clearly understood we observe that the determining of human actions ariseth either from their own Nature as to Honour and Worship God is due to lye unlawful of it self or from the Positive Divine Law Those of the former sort are referr'd to the Law Natural Those of the Latter are such as have been prescribed by God some to single persons namely to Abraham Isaac Iacob Moses and other servants of God among all People to Israel alone God prescribed many Positive Laws pertaining to their Religion which was the same with their Politie To all mankind some things were commanded for a time as the observation of the Sabbath presently after the Creation as many of the most Learned think the Law of not eating bloud or the strangled after the floud Others to last for ever as the institutions of Christ concerning Excommunication Baptism the Supper c. if there be any more of that kind So that one and the same vitious action is more or less offensive to God according to the determination of it to be so by Positive Law or by meer light of reason i. e. by Law Natural Because though both Laws be Divine yet the Obligation of the former is double of the later single Having thus Briefly indeed but plainly asserted Gods Right to the Monarchy of the whole World distinguish'd His Natural Dominion from His Civil defined what is Law Natural what Positive Divine and shewn the difference betwixt that and this as to their Obligation it seems to me that I have not only prevented all such erroneous conceptions which otherwise might arise either from Ambiguity of the words Right Dominion Government Law and Obligation or from Confusion of various Notions of single things But also laid the Corner Stone as it were of the little structure I propose to my self to erect in order to the stronger defence of my mind against allurements to do evil i. e. to violate any of God's Laws For in this illaborate exercise of my pen I have no other end or design but this to investigate and examine the perfect Concordance betwixt the Laws of Nature and Positive Divine Laws principally those of the Decalogue to the end that being at length fully convinced of the double Obligation incumbent on me not to transgress any one of the latter sort I may in the little remnant of my days do my best devoir to live more inoffensively both toward God and toward Men. For certainly who is throughly conscious of the justice equity and decency of Religious Duties will be so much the more solicitous to perform them because the more the understanding is illuminate by the rays of Truth and Evidence by so much the less prone it is to be imposed upon by the specious pretexts of Passions and by consequence the more apt to direct its Handmaid the Will in the right way to Felicity which consists in the Knowledge Love and Veneration of God As for Method the work in which my thoughts are at present versed will be in bulk so little I need not be over curious what Form to give it the Materials so few I need not be solicitous in what Order to range them to the best advantage Without affectation therefore of ornament from either of those two things and without farther amusing my self with variety of distinctions many times of more subtilty than use I will content my self with tracing as faithfully as I can the footsteps of Time or to speak a little more plainly reciting and considering the various Moral Laws whether meerly Traditional or Written given by God first to Noah and his little Family when soon after the Deluge they began to replenish the Earth with Inhabitants and then to Moses when he constituted and established the most Admirable Common-wealth of the Hebrews in the same order in which they are said to have been delivered and breifly comparing them singly with the Laws of Nature it being as I just now profest my chief scope in this Disquisition to find the Concordance betwixt these and those CHAP. III. Of the Precepts of the Sons of Noah in general I Begin from the Moral Laws which according to the Tradition of the Talumdic Masters were given to Noah and his Sons soon after the Floud and which are thence named Praecepta Noachidarum Which before I recite three things not altogether unworthy to be noted for our more facile understanding of their authority and extent are to be Premis'd The first that by the Patronymie Noachidae the Rabbins unanimously understand all Nations besides the Hebrews who affect rather to be call'd Abrahamidae from the Father of all the Faithful Abraham The second that the same Rabbins firmly believing and confidently teaching that there hath been no Age wherein these Precepts have not obtained therefore take them for the Natural and Common Right of all men Whence we may receive a glimps of Light whereby to discern both what they thought of the Religion of the Ancients before the Law and upon what condition it was lawful for Strangers to reside in the Land of Israel after the Law For while the Hebrews were sui juris i e. lived under no Laws but those of their own Republick within their territory no dwelling was permitted to any Idolatrous Gentile But the Stranger who in the presence of three men had taken upon himself the seven Precepts of the Sons of Noah and promised to observe them was held to be Proselytus Domicilii and tho' he were neither Circumcised nor Baptized might nevertheless as a Sojourner dwell among the Hebrews The third that tho' in the Mishna or Collection of ancient Traditions made by Rabbi Iehuda surnamed Hakadosh the Saint who lived