Prima Secundae
Lecture 252: The Timing and Unity of the Old Law

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now we get to the sixth article to the sixth one proceeds thus to the sixth one goes forward thus to translate into the native language it seems that the old law right was not so be given what the time of moses for the old law disposes for the salvation which was in the future through christ this has been said but at once man after sin needs the what remedy of this salvation therefore immediately after sin the old law ought to have been what given moreover the old law was given for the sake of the holiness of those from whom christ would what born yeah but to abraham began to come about the promise of the seed that was christ therefore right away huh in the time of abraham were not to have given the law right yeah yeah moreover as christ was not born from other descendants from from noah except from what abraham in particular to whom was made the what promise so also he was not born from other sons of abraham except from david huh to whom what the promise was renewed right according to that of the second book of kings chapter 23. he said what the man said to whom was constituted jacob he's descending through jacob right now he's talking about being narrowed down to under whom christ came right therefore the old law ought to have been given after david just as it was given after what abraham had to narrow down right now but against this is what the apostle says it's by antonio messiah right i was reading thomas there in the sentences huh he says grace is said by atonio messiah too yeah interesting and god has said to love us by antonio messiah because he does everything he's made right but he loves us with a kind of friendly love that's what the most general definition i think saint paul says everything is grace yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah because thomas used grace even for anything god of his gratis i mean it's just the whole creation really you know and uh but again you want to you want to just do something grace in nature you know using grace in uh in totemostic sense you know the definition of the definition of grace the gift divinely given and it explains it says it's a gift because it doesn't owe it to anybody it's divinely given because nobody else can give it yeah yeah so again this is what the apostle says to the galatians chapter three that the law was laid down on account of what transgression until would come the seed to which it was what yeah ordered by the angels in the hand of the mediator that is given in orderly way right there's a glass says therefore it was congruent huh suitable that the old law was given in order at that time okay thomas let's find your see you can get out of this this nut nut answer should be said that most suitably the old law was given in the time of moses the reason for which can be taken from two things according to which each law right huh is laid down for two kinds of what men for it is laid down to some who are hard-hearted well i guess juries and superb proud uh super going above right now who by the law are restricted right and dominated right is laid down for the what good who instructed by the law right are aided to fulfilling what they what intended it was suitable therefore in such a time to give the old law to what yeah because their pride about two things man is proud that's getting too close or comfort here to wit of knowledge and of what power of knowledge as if natural reason is sufficient right for him for salvation right and therefore that from this what pride he might right and he was permitted to man right to what his own rule right to rule his own reason without the aid of the aid of a written what law and man would be experienced right huh he would be learned by experience that he suffered a defective reason huh he's got an intellectus abumbratus huh yeah to this that men was quite as far as what idolatry right and the most what ugly yeah around the time of the time were what fallen down homosexuality among other things wasn't it huh yeah now we're back to that right and therefore after these times was necessary for a written law to be given right as a remedy for human what ignorance because through law that comes about in knowledge of sin right as is said in romans 3 20. but after a man was instructed by law he must be what convicted his pride about what yeah when he was not able to fulfill what he in fact knew he should do right and therefore as the apostle concludes to romans chapter 8 verse 3 because what was impossible to law in which he was what for for by flesh God sent his son that the justification of the law might be fulfilled in us kind of a difficult text you got there first Thomas there you see the point there right this is the second difficulty weakness right and the part of the good law was given as a what aid because then was most necessary to the people right huh when the natural law began to be obscured and account with the exuberance of the excessive sins right huh that's what Shakespeare says fair is foul and foul is fair however through the fog and filthy air so two things right one is the filthiness right super abundance here exuberance that's a little different different way of translating it but this yeah yeah or flowing character versions it's necessary for this aid right to be given a certain order ah that through the imperfect to the perfect they might be led by the what end so when we get the wall there when Cindy on is always talking about my dexio right but Thomas if you look at the question 117 I think it is article one we talked about the teacher right he speaks the teacher leading the student from the known to the unknown two ways and one of the ways is when you dexio right so senior gave a course on money dexio in logic and money dexio in wisdom because these are most difficult sciences and therefore between the law of nature and the law of grace it was necessary that the old law be what given huh the law of nature didn't suffice because it had been obscured by the super exuberant sitting what's that software there don javadi right the exuberant sinner down to hell at the end the first effort should be said that at once after the sin of the first man it was not what suitable for the old law to be given because first because man not yet recognized himself to what needed being confident about his own what reason also because not yet at the dictamen the saying of what actual law and what darkened through the custom of what sinning the second it should be said that the law ought not to be given except to a people right because type of the common good we saw in the definition of law for it is a preceptum commune right this has been said huh and therefore in the time of abraham they were given certain family precepts as it were right familiar precepts and as it were domestic ones huh of god to what men right huh they're talking all about that about this thing on the family there in philadelphia right uh because uh it was still you know donald's talking you know about that and other people hope said also i saw it in the march to the bishop's house he's a priest to the god of the family and he says what am i going to do like very clearly when i go to the devil oh and we did he'll say something about yeah you know it's funny i was thinking you know this before an actress usually you know um i said you have to be a man and woman before you can be a what husband and a wife now when i was a little boy i had heard you'd never have children until after marriage so in my little head you know i thought that you can be a man and woman without being husband and wife right but you can't be a husband and wife without being what without being a man and woman see so that man and woman is before husband and wife in what sense of before in time but also in the second sense right and it's kind of striking you because you see the connection of the first and second sense there right now okay uh so not only is one in time a man and a woman before you are a husband and wife but you can be a man and woman without being a husband and wife but you can't be a husband without being a man and woman right well i thought you know from the explanation of the sacraments and so on right that you couldn't be a father and mother until after you are a husband and wife those do i know right i remember as a little boy you know my first thought you know you know defending the church right i thought there's a pretty good argument right about the importance of this sacrament right because the only thing i knew about marriage was the sacrament of matrimony that we've been taught in the balfour catechism and so on right and uh it had been made clear you know that uh you never were a mother and father until after you're a husband and wife right so i thought that uh just as man and woman is before being husband and wife husband and wife is before being mother and father right well this is going to be an argument for the for the greatness of the church right or the you know you know you know if you don't realize how great is the sacrifice right you gotta yeah yeah but um maybe father and mother is not before husband and i mean after husband and wife in the second sense right i think you'd say definitely husband and wife is after man and woman right but in this case it's it's better this way right you know maybe in that sense you could say huh you know better that had come before right but it can be it can be your mother and father you know and they used to solve the you know that chuck on winning you know in the old days yeah yeah and old other times other cultures they had different names for those children they wouldn't know what to do yeah yeah yeah i remember when complaining about the name illegitimate child he said it might even cause a love child he's like the idea illegitimate because of the stigma that went with that title yeah yeah yeah yeah they were in that tense in the law to get rid of that title to the vicious stigma one of my colleagues had their relative you know used to always say you know the first child can come anytime after that it takes nine months some of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of and therefore in the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most. the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most of the most. only those from whom christ was born right accepted the what love but the whole people signed with the sign of circumcision right which was a sign of the promise made to abraham and what believed by him right as the apostle says and therefore also before david it was necessary that the law be given to the people so what brought together right okay we'll see about that thomas but don't try that again okay should go on here This is question, what, 99, huh? My goodness, this guy. At some profession in college, he tells how many articles actually were in the Zoom. Oh, I forgot what the number is. It slips out of my head. You can count them if you want to, but I don't think that's the best use of your time. Do a word search. A word count. Yeah, yeah. Then we're not to consider about the precepts of the old law. And first, about the, what, distinction of them, right? And then secondly, about each of the, what, distinct genera, right? Now start the next question, question 100, huh? About the first, six things are asked. First, whether there are many precepts of the old law, or one only. He's very thorough, this Thomas, right? Secondly, whether the old law contains some moral precepts, huh? That's one of the species, huh? Third, whether besides the moral ones, it contains ceremonial, right? And fourth, whether it contains, besides those two kinds, the judicial ones, right, huh? I was reading, well, Thomas is one of the psalms there. He has those three in the psalm, you know, and it has three different words. But he takes them as referring to these three kinds that are going to be here. Five, whether besides these three, there contain some other ones. I hope not. I hope we don't go beyond the three, you know. Three is the first number about which we say all, right? And six, about the way in which the law induced us to the observation of these, for seven. Okay, it was adultery, punished by murder, by execution. Yeah, stolen, yeah. I'm told that's what the Muslims do. Yeah, yeah. They come to the floor, I don't know why, but they take them up a building on the sixth floor. Okay. And everybody's gathered down to watch, and if they survive the fall, they're stolen. Oh, okay. Sounds like a good idea. Yeah, I think so, yeah. And they're asking Carson there, you know, one of the candidates for the Republican ticket, right? You know, whether they should have a, would he support a Muslim president? Lots of trouble handling that question, you know, because they try to catch him with these, you know. What did he say? Well, he just didn't think it was a good idea, no. A Muslim president. He's got to kind of walk it back a little bit, you know. I would answer, it depends upon how much of a Muslim he is. He's in favor of, you know, all these things that... Yeah, it depends on how current he is. Yeah, yeah. I'm really interested to see if he's going to argue for the one precept. To the first, therefore, one goes forward this. It seems that in the old law, there's not contained except one precept. Now, there you can argue this. The law is nothing other than the, what, precept itself. Oh, the command, I guess. So, it's been had above. But the old law is one. There you go. That sounds like a... Therefore, it is not contained except one precept. Maybe I can even answer that one now. Usually, Thomas has got to be stumped, you know. I could answer that one, maybe. To Thomas, if I say something more interesting than I would ever say. Moreover, the apostle says, Romans 13, if, what, it will be, what, in this one word, in this word, love your neighbor as yourself. But this command is one. Therefore, the old law does not contain except one, what, command. Moreover, Matthew 7, 12, it is said, whatever things you wish that, what, other men, right, that men do to you, you do also to them. This is what the Pope was kind of quoting today. For this is the law and the prophets, right? Don't you wish that you had been aborted? That's a pretty good argument, right? That's a good argument, a good major premise, right, to use. Because people will probably agree to that thing, you know. It's kind of commonly agreed, right? I know what they'll say. But that's not really a human being. It's not really a person. That's not right. That's what they'll say. Or if one's parents are pro-abortion, you say, well, no, a little uncomfortable about that, then they might respond with, oh, we weren't aborted too. But then you respond with, how would you have known who was who that you were aborted? It's very strange coming from a non-Catholic family where my parents are both pro-abortion and there are so many inconsistencies. It's not a logical sort of position they hold. But the whole law is contained in the law and the, what, prophets. Therefore, the whole law does not have except one, what, precept, huh? Brevity is the soul of wit, huh? The gensis is what the apostle says, the Ephesians, huh? Emptying out the, what, law of the commands, right? That's, I guess, plural, right, huh? By decrees, huh? And he's speaking about the old law as it's clear through the glass there. Therefore, the old law contains in itself many commands, huh? I answer. It should be said that the precept of the law, since it is, what, obligatory, it's about something that ought to come about, huh? But the something ought to come about, this comes from the necessity of some, what, end, huh? Whence it is manifested of the notion of a precept is that it implies an order to an end, insofar as that is commanded, right, which is either necessary or at least useful or expedient for the end, huh? Now, is Thomas looking before and after when he saw that before the law is some end, okay? Looking before and after, it seemed to me, he's pretty good at doing that, I think. Yeah, he is, yeah. I've got to conclude that he has a reason, yeah, and therefore an immortal soul. Therefore, he's probably laughing over us now. I'm stumbling over the text, you know, yeah. Now, it can happen, however, that for one end, many things are necessary or what? Expedient. And according to this, there can be about diverse things, precepts given, right, insofar as they're ordered to what? One end. One end, huh? I need only the filet mignon, I need the wine to go with it, huh? Of course. Yes. The steak knife, don't forget the steak knife. I need the steak knife, too, yes. Yeah, you can't, you know, open down the wine. I know, I would enjoy it that way, you know. You know, it's like drinking the wine at one cup or something. Which it should be said that all the precepts of the old law are one according to their order to one end. What's the one end? It's the attitude, isn't it? But they are many according to the diversity of those things which are ordered to that one end. Well, that's pretty good, Thomas. That's pretty good, huh? He's got the word order in there, too, right? Which is defined by before and after. So to the first, therefore, it should be said that the old law is said to be one by its order to one end. And nevertheless, it contains diverse precepts or commands according to the distinction of those things which are ordered to the end. Just as also the parts of building, right? The R is edificativa. I don't know where I've seen that in Thomas before. The R is edificativa. I don't know where I've seen it. is one according to the unity of the end because it tends to the edification of the what else but nevertheless it contains diverse precepts according to the diverse acts to which it is what order so is philosophy one knowledge yeah it's all ordered to wisdom and as i tell lady sophia it's wisdom is a knowledge of god right you know when i retired there i said i'm going to save all these books i have for the modern philosophers because it's kind of a history of errors and i was like history of heresies or something you know maybe the theology i said but i'm just going to think about god for the rest of my life you know and but uh in a sense that's what it is right everything is ordered to a knowledge of god but even in theology everything is ordered to a knowledge of god right god in himself god is the beginning and the end of all things so has there ever been an initiative to change the name of philosophy because of what modern philosophers quote unquote have done to it it's no longer a level of wisdom technically it's a level of something else yeah yeah it's really kind of a a you know corruption of uh philosophy right modern philosophy is in bad shape what uh was it augustine said it's an immature reverse love of reason if you look at plato and aristotle plato has some mistakes you know you can see aristotle was building in plato right and how far plato got in many ways right and then you go back into the greeks before then you see you know okay there's a sudden development there you know and uh so you go from the first philosophers to plato and then to aristotle's real development you know and then people who've built in aristotle you know they're spelling things out that he didn't spell out in the works we have anyway and uh then all the modern philosophers are just chaos i wrote my doctoral thesis on a comparison of the three you know roads in our knowledge with aristotle then in descartes right one of my colleagues uh wrote a thing on and hume you know you realize his mistakes i remember you studying you know especially junior in college there having a course in the modern philosophers i teach at the surrogate so just picture last time you know you know you know and what you're being introduced to is the air of this kind of era that guy's like studying you know the heresies in theology right this era and that one i'm trying to remember the name of the uh who was it who was the the patron of uh moral philosophy moral theologians saint alphonsus yeah yeah i think it was alphonsus i think when i was teaching at st mary's college in california before i had my doctorate and that was an old you know it existed a long time and there are a lot of interesting old books in the library there i ran across this history of heresies one after another you know you description of the heresy and the refutation of it you know and so on and uh can't even take so much of that you know but but it's kind of that's a study of modern philosophy is like you know kind of a history of uh mistakes and uh you read the conic there and you're starting the first book of natural hearing there and you're in the the uh premium there right where it all talks about the confused and the distinct and so on and then uh he explained the text and then he sits back and gives you kind of a little excursion there into the modern philosophers you know and big heart's misunderstanding got confused and distinct you know and immediately it's beautiful the way he explained that you know and these things you know i picked up the degrees in my thesis you know eventually when i decided to do what i did uh that's what it's got to history you know what's this guy's mistake you know if you do enough of these guys you when you get a new modern floss that reads you know this guy's here is his mistake because you can almost predict he's going to be going off in some you know crazy sideshow it's almost as though they don't want to listen to anybody else yeah yeah yeah yeah you know there are styles i mean thomas is about the latin avaralus they speak as if wisdom began with them that's the way descartes and these guys speak you know as if they discovered the the secret of everything and you said saint thomas spoke about avaralus no the latin avaralus they're called you know these are the followers and they're christians presumably but they were following avaralus right and getting into a number of troubles but but he's kind of describing their their their their appetite there right now you know they speak as wisdom begin with them huh you know i remember when i was starting on philosophy you know speaking aristotle thomas and this friend of mine says oh you're talking a little bit about he says well i want my own philosophy you know that's kind of the idea that some you know a lot of professors have though you know they want the students you know to think for themselves and come up with their own you know things and uh yeah that's a grief to that back in the 70s i think you had a bunch of students who were very influenced by the hippie culture yeah you kind of throw all all the white male stuff out yeah you said okay let's let's work together and come up with what the virtues should be the real virtues and not those white male virtues and so they did an exhaustive examination what the various virtues we should be in an ideal world and it turned out they were exactly the same it's the traditional ones a very interesting experiment in the classroom now right the second apply the second objection i guess to the second should be said that as the apostle says that's saint paul right the first epistle to timothy the end of the precept is what charity for to this every law tends that there be what constituted friendship right either of men to each other or of man to god right that's what thomas was saying there and i was saying you know that this is god's love for the rational creature because it's associating them with this in friendship with him right and therefore the whole law is fulfilled in this one command love your neighbor as yourself as in a certain end of all the commands now also he goes on to say in for in the love of one's neighbor is included also the love of what god when the what next door guy the proximus is loved an account of god now now i see this phrase haven't you seen this in angels or in angels i mean in the same sometimes that they love somebody in god they say that for the expression haven't you yeah so they would like what he's saying here you know much better in god than in yourself i guess there's more reason to love you in god than to love you in yourself whence the apostle lays down this one precept for two right which are the love of god and one neighbors about which the lord says matthew 22 in these two commands the whole law and the prophets hangs right they depend upon that that should be formal again of cause and effect you might say right the other ones hanging from it right in aristotle you know these you speak of the causes being what above right the effect and the effect is hanging so we're being supported by it right well we tend to use the word what ground for a cause and like the cause is holding up the thing the same it's a little different imagination right now you know it's the basic idea right that one depends upon the other right now the sun is being held up by something the sun is being held up by something the sun is being held up by something the sun is being held up by something that's being held up by something that's being held up by something that's being held up by something that's being held up by something that's being held up by something that's being held up by something that's being held up by something that's being held up by something that's being held up by something that's being held up by something that's being held up by something that's being held up by something that's being held up by 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Now, what about the third ring here, about you want what to do to others what you want them to do to you, right? To the third, it should be said, as said by Aristotle in the ninth book of the Ethics, right? Now, the eighth and the ninth book of the Ethics are devoted to friendship, right, in Aristotle, right? That's very striking, you know, you find that in the modern philosophers, right, that appreciation, you know, of friendship, right? You see, two of the ten books of the Nicomarckian Ethics is devoted to what? Friendship, right, huh? But in the ninth book, Aristotle says that the friendly things which are to another, right, come from the friendly things which are of a man to himself, right? When a man has himself to another as to himself, huh? So I think that's one of the things in my Greek books, right? A friend is another, what? Self, huh? And I've seen there, it's in Shakespeare, I think, somewhere, you know, a friend is a second self. That's nobody saying it, right? You know, a friend is another self, or a friend is a second self, right? Okay? And therefore in this which is said that whatever you wish that men do to what? To you, you should also do to them, right, huh? They unfold, you might say, or explain a certain rule of the love of the neighbor, which is also implied in what is said that you should love your neighbor as you love yourself, right? Which is a kind of unfolding of this what? Command, yeah. Okay? So these are all tied together, these ones, huh? It's a beautiful explanation there, huh? First of all, even spiction of friendship as being better than justice, right, huh? Because if I'm just with you, I'll give you what, you know, I owe you, but friendship, I'll go beyond that, you know? And it makes human society much more livable. Yeah. Well, today aren't, uh, connected to foster that friendship between men. Yeah. Many of them are, many of them are, many of them are, many of them are, many of them foster their thinking of hatred or to at least, uh, uh, stir, we're out of the waters a bit. Mm-hmm. It's, you know, with all the, uh, the hate crime legislation, which is supposed to foster friendship, it really doesn't. And there was a study done by some very liberal Harvard professor about, um, I guess the effect of, uh, you know, this multiculturalism and integration and stuff like that, which is sort of tied into this. Yeah. Although in a subacadential way. And he found that instead of bringing people together from different cultures, sort of creating a new unity that actually separates people and atomizes them so that there is less trust between ethnic groups and there's less trust even within the ethnic group and within the family, it's, uh, it's interesting. And some of these laws are sort of being corrosive in a way, in addition to the immigration issue. Mm-hmm. Al Gore made a faux pas, uh, during, uh, some speech, instead of saying, you pour les hummes, he said, out of one, many. And, uh, he sort of like, put the cat out of the bag in a way, I think, what, what their philosophy is. Well, in, in philosophy, in, in the reason, from one, many, right? Because you get many conclusions in one principle, right? One case to the heart, it's more than worse, right? From many, you're, you're made to be, what, one, right? Husband and wife are one flesh, right, huh? You know, that's the expression. They say they're even more than one flesh in, the child, right, huh? But, you know, that's, in terms of, it kind of shows the contrariety of the, of the appetite and, and reason, right, huh? Marriage is one of two adversarial individuals with a contract, essentially. Yeah. But it was, it was O'Donnell, somebody was saying, there was a joke there, about the family there, you know, because it's some, some joke was on EWTN, and there was a big interview there, talking about, you know, and, uh, going beyond the thing, you know, that, uh, the reason for the family is that you don't have to argue with, uh, with, with strangers. It's kind of funny, that's what they call it. It's kind of funny. Social pressure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember, you know, teaching St. Mary's there, you know, and, of course, the Christian brothers, you know, they ran the college, but they didn't all agree as to what, you know, was, the Senate, you know, the faculty would meet, you know, and so on, and, uh, I remember one of the Christian brothers, you know, agreed with us, but he wanted us to introduce the, uh, the thing in the meeting, because he has to live with these guys. And, uh, so. Yeah. It's kind of funny. Okay, now we're going to get the multiplicity of the, of the old law, right? And, of course, the order is understandable, right? He's got the moral precepts.