Kinds of Law

The community of all things in the universe is governed by divine reason. This government is law. Since divine reason is eternal, being identified with God himself, this law is the eternal law.

All things are subject to the eternal law; it directs all things to their proper ends. But it is, in a special way, the law which governs rational creatures. Human beings share the divine reason by becoming aware of an order in things according to which man is to attain his last end, his true purpose in existing. The eternal law, thus manifest to human reason, is called the natural law. The natural law is the eternal moral law asknowable by sound human reason without the aid of supernatural revelation.

From the precepts of the natural law, human reasonderives details of direction and order for conducting the affairs of life. Human reason interprets or applies the natural law in particular cases. Each enactment and application of the natural law for particular cases is a human law.

Over and above the natural law, and human laws derived from it, man needs to have the eternal and divine law revealed to him supernaturally. For man has a supernatural end to attain; merely natural means are inadequate to attain this end. Besides, human judgment about particular acts and situations is variable and uncertain, so that human laws are sometimes contrary to one another. Nothing short of an unmistakabledeclaration of divine and eternal law can adequately direct and curb the interior acts of a man. Such declaration is made only by supernatural revelation. Human laws cannot forbid and punish all evils; when human laws attempt to do this, they invariably destroy much that is good. Only the divine law, supernaturally manifested,can forbid and punish all evils, and at the same time perfectly serve the common good of human society.

The divine and revealed law is manifested in the Old and the New Testaments of Holy Scripture. We call these the Old Law and the New Law. These two laws are distinct, asthe imperfect state of a thing is distinct from its fully developed and perfect state; as the baby is distinct from the adult into which it is developing; as the sapling is distinct from the tree that it is to become. For the New Law is the perfection of the Old Law. The Old Law worked for the good of mankind through material things; the New Law works for the good of mankind through spiritual things. The Old Law was enforced by fear; the New Law is enforced by love.

By sin, man turned away from God and fell under the influence of strong sensual impulses. These impulses are always ready to flame up instantly; they are called fomes of sin.Fomes is the Latin word for touchwood or tinder that catches fire from the smallest spark. Now, while fomes isa deviation from the rule of reason, it is a constant directive force, and therefore it is called (though not with strictpropriety) a law. St. Paul speaks of it so when he says(Bom. 7:23): “I see another law in my members fighting againstthe law of my mind.”