THE MOSIAC LAW
I. In addition to the natural law implanted in the minds of men, the Almighty was pleased to give a certain positive law consisting of statutes. He has given us this additional law by means of direct revelation, because of the super natural end proposed to us, which requires further instructions and a better organization than the natural forces of our reason can provide us with. Further, for his full development even in the natural order man would require some thing more than natural light, for this is incomplete in each individual, and liable to variation and to obscurity. The goodness of God has bestowed on us something more precise and definite, more visible and tangible, something that brings us into closer relations with God, and remedies the miseries and insufficiencies of our fallen condition. From the beginning, accordingly, additional laws were given, as to Adam in Paradise, to Noah after the deluge, to the patriarchs, Abraham, and Moses. Behold the goodness of God which has not left human nature to itself, but gives evidence of constant watchfulness and concern about it. In addition to the law which guides us to a natural perfection, He has given us the law of a much higher and happier life. If we bear this light burden, we shall be rewarded with abundant advantages.
II. The dealings of God in granting systems of law have been accommodated to the condition of mankind in their various stages of natural and social evolution. When men had organized themselves into regular societies, God selected one society, and engrafted on it a new religious system with a full code of laws. The natural and the supernatural development of the Jewish nation went on side by side, each supporting and supplementing the other. The system was not perfect, but was intended to lead up to a final and perfect religious system which should be adapted, on condition of the concurrence of mankind, to regulate happily both the supernatural and the natural course of humanity. Thus God "who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways . . . left not Himself without testimony" (Acts xiv. 15, 16), while waiting till His Son revealed in the flesh should establish the kingdom of God on earth. The Jewish system consisted of a civil polity with authorized government, and a code of precepts regulating domestic as well as civil life, and the administration of justice, commerce, war, agriculture, hygiene, etc. On this well-grounded natural basis was raised the spiritual system of supernatural truths and laws. Some of these enforced with a new sanction the old precepts of natural law; others were new ceremonial laws about the priestly order, the sacrifices, fasting, and other observances of a mixed social and religious character. All this was admirable, but far more so is that religion which was so splendidly prefigured.
III. The Jewish Law established on a permanent basis the supernatural relations of man with God. It furnished to all ages an example of the dealings of Divine Providence with man, and showed how the action of God and of man are related, and how the supernatural is concurrent with the natural in the historical course of events. It prepared the way before the face of the Messias, making straight the path of His descent from Adam downwards, instead of allowing it to be lost in the dimness of the past like the genealogy of all other men and nations. The combined result of the supernatural and natural elements in the Mosaic system was a living influence that spread from China to the shores of the Atlantic, and instilled into all nations some idea of the Messias and the restitution of fallen humanity. Learn hence the necessary connection between divine law and all branches of natural law. The natural is the basis, the supernatural is the completion. Each must be cultivated. To neglect either is prejudicial to the other.
