Johannes Althusius: Politica - Hubertlerch.com - HubertLerch.com

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[§ 18] This rule, which is solely God’s will for men manifested in his law, is called law in the general sense that it is a precept
for doing those things that pertain to living a pious, holy, just, and suitable life. That is to say, it pertains to the duties that are
to be performed toward God and one’s neighbor, and to the love of God and one’s neighbor. … It is evident from these things
that laws or rights in human society are as fences, walls, guards, or boundaries of our life, guiding us along the appointed way
for achieving wisdom, happiness, and peace in human society. When laws are taken away, human society, which we call
symbiotic, is changed into a brutal life. …
[§ 19] This law, as we have said, is twofold. It is either common or proper.
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Common law ( lex communis) has been naturally
implanted by God in all men. “Whatever can be known about God has been manifested to men, because God has made it
manifest to them.”
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As to knowledge ( notitia) and inclination ( inclinatio), God discloses and prescribes the reason and means
for worshipping him and loving one’s neighbor, and urges us to them. “For there was reason derived from the nature of the
universe,” Cicero says, “urging men to do right and recalling them from wrong-doing, and this reason did not first become law at
the time it was written down, but at its origin.”
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It is commonly called the moral law ( lex moralis).
[§ 20] By the knowledge imprinted within us by God, which is called conscience, man knows and understands law ( jus) 28 and
the means to be employed or avoided for maintaining obedience to law. By this innate inclination, or secret impulse of nature,
man is urged to perform what he understands to be just, and to avoid what he knows to be wicked. “When gentiles who do not
have the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law unto themselves, even though not having the law, because they
show forth service to a law written on their hearts. Their conscience bears witness to it, and their thoughts alternately accuse and
even excuse them.”
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Other witnesses of scripture also make clear that conscience duly excuses a man when he acts uprightly,
and disturbs and accuses him when he deserves condemnation for acting wickedly. …
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In this common law ( jus commune) is
set forth for all men nothing other than the general theory and practice of love, both for God and for one’s neighbor.
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[§ 21] There are different degrees of this knowledge and inclination. For law is not inscribed equally on the hearts of all. The
knowledge of it is communicated more abundantly to some and more sparingly to others, according to the will and judgment of
God. Whence it is that the knowledge of this law may be greater in some than in others. Nor does God urge and excite all
persons to obedience of this law in the same manner and to an equal degree. Some men exert themselves more strongly, others
less so, in their desire for it.
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[§ 22] Christ set forth two headings of this common law.
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The first heading pertains to the performance of our duty
immediately to God, and the second to what is owed to our neighbor. [§ 23] In the former are the mandates and precepts that
guide the pious and religious life of acknowledging and worshipping God. These are in the first table of the Decalogue, where
they instruct and inform man about God and the public and private worship of him. … [§ 24] In the latter table are those
mandates and precepts that concern the just, and more civil and political, life. Man is informed by them that he may render and
communicate things, services, counsel, and right ( jus) to his symbiotic neighbor, and may discharge toward him everything that
ought to be rendered for alleviating his need and for living comfortably. Properly speaking, however, they are not called
mandates and precepts, as the previous ones are, but rather judgments, statutes, and witnesses. They are contained in the
second table of the Decalogue.
Affirmative precepts of the Decalogue are about duties to be perfomed that are owed to God and one’s neighbor. Negative
precepts are about prohibited things that are to be omitted or avoided.
[§ 25] The first precept of the first table is about truly cherishing and choosing God through the knowledge of him handed
down in his word, and through unity with him accompanied by a disposition of trust, love, and fear. Forbidden by this precept are
ignorance of God and of the divine will, atheism, errors concerning God, and enmity or contempt towards God.
The second precept is about maintaining in spirit and in truth a genuine worship of God through prayers and the use of the means
of grace. In this precept a false or feigned worship of God is forbidden, whether through images, idolatry, hypocrisy, human
traditions, magic, or anything else.
The third precept is about rendering glory to God in all things through the proper use of the names of God, oaths of allegiance to
him, respect for what has been created by the Word of God, and intercessory prayers. Negatively this precept is about not taking
away from the glory of God by perjury, blasphemy, cursing, abuse of the creation, superstition, a dissolute life, and so forth.
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