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

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[§ 35] Jewish proper law is twofold. It is in part ceremonial, and in part forensic or judicial. The ceremonial law, because of its
emphasis, was directed to the observance and support of the first table of the Decalogue through certain political and
ecclesiastical actions and things; or it was devoted to piety and divine worship. … [§ 37] The forensic law was the means by
which the Jews were informed and instructed to observe and obey both tables, or the common law, for the cultivation of human
society among them in their polity, according to the circumstances of things, persons, place, and time. … [§ 40] It should be
observed that often one and the same law of the Jews could be said in varying respects to be moral (or common), ceremonial,
and forensic, and to this extent mixed. What is moral in such a law is perpetual; what is judicial can be changed by the change of
circumstances; and what is ceremonial is considered to have passed away. …
[§ 41] At this point we encounter the controversy over what we maintain to be the political doctrine of the Decalogue. In the
judgment of others the Decalogue should instead be considered theological.
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Some persons consider that we thus sin against the
law of homogeneity. Whence there is a deep silence among them about the role of the Decalogue in politics. But this is wrong in
my judgment. For the subject matter of the Decalogue is indeed political insofar as it directs symbiotic life and prescribes what
ought to be done therein. For the Decalogue teaches the pious and just life; piety toward God and justice toward symbiotes. If
symbiosis is deprived of these qualities, it should not be called so much a political and human society as a beastly congregation
of vice-ridden men. Therefore, each and every precept of the Decalogue political and symbiotic. The contemplative and practical
life in every respect is embraced and completed in them, although the first and last precepts have the sole purpose of building up
the souls of men and are merely speculative. If you would deprive political and symbiotic life of this rule and this light to our
feet, as it is called,
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you would destroy its vital spirit. Furthermore, you would take away the bond of human society and, as it
were, the rudder and helm of this ship. It would then altogether perish, or be transformed into a stupid, beastly, and inhuman
life. Therefore, the subject matter of the Decalogue is indeed natural, essential, and proper to politics.
If the external and civil life of words, deeds and works is accompanied by true faith—together with holiness of thought and
desire, and with a right purpose, namely, the glory of God—then it becomes theological. So therefore, when the works of the
Decalogue are performed by the Christian to the glory of God because of true faith, they are pleasing to God. But if, to the
contrary, they are performed by an infidel or heathen, to whom the Apostle Paul indeed ascribes a natural knowledge of and
inclination towards the Decalogue,
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these works are not able to please God. But in political life even an infidel may be called
just, innocent, and upright because of them.
Jurists and moralists also handle the concerns of both tables of the Decalogue, but in a manner fitting and proper to each art and
profession, so that neither is confused with the purely theological or political. As the general doctrine of the Decalogue is
therefore essential, homogeneous, and necessary in politics, so the special and particular doctrine of the Decalogue
accommodated to individual and separate disciplines is proper to jurisprudence. And theology rightly claims for itself the pious
and salutary doctrine of the Decalogue, which ought to be a teacher leading to Christ, so far as the Decalogue pertains to life
eternal. …
XXII
[§ 3] FROM THESE THINGS 45 it follows that the magistrate is obligated in the administration of the commonwealth to the proper
law of Moses so far as moral equity or common law are expressed therein. This is to say, he is required to conform to everything
therein that is in harmony with common law. But he is by no means required to conform in those things in which the proper law
of Moses, in order to be accommodated to the polity of the Jews, differs from common law.
[§ 4] For if the magistrate should establish as absolutely necessary these proper Jewish laws, which by their nature are either
changeable or obsolete, he would destroy Christian liberty, which has been given for edification to him and to others, and would
entangle himself and others in the yoke of slavery. Thereby he would make a necessity of something free, and impede
consciences by a grievous and dangerous snare. He would obtrude mortal laws, which were promulgated in former times only for
the Jewish people and are by their nature subject to change for a variety of reasons, as if they were immortal. And unless proper
laws are changed with the changing circumstances because of which they broadly exist, they become wicked and attain neither to
the equity of the second table of the Decalogue nor the piety of the first. Thus they cease to contain the common foundation of
right reason. Accordingly, the magistrate who makes the proper law of Moses compulsory in his commonwealth sins grievously.
For those particular circumstances and considerations because of which the Jewish proper law was promulgated should bear no
weight in his commonwealth. …
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