Part 1-2, Question 107 786
toward diverse ends. In the case of cities, for instance, a law that was ordered toward rule by the
common people (populus) would be different in species from a law that was ordered toward rule by the
aristocrats (optimates) in the city.
In the second way, two laws can be differentiated by the fact that the one of them orders things
more closely to the end, while the other orders things more remotely. For instance, in one and the same
city, a law imposed on grown men (viri perfecti), who are capable of immediately doing what contributes
to the common good, is different from a law meant to teach children, who have to be instructed in how to
perform the acts of men later in life.
Therefore, one should reply that, according to the first way of differentiating laws, the New Law is
not different from the Old Law, since both have the same end, viz., that men should submit to God, and
there is just one God for both the New Covenant and the Old Covenant—this according to Romans 3:30
(“There is one God who justifies circumcision on the basis of faith and the lack of circumcision through
faith”).
According to the second way of differentiating laws, the New Law is different from the Old Law.
For the Old Law is, as it were, a teacher of children, as the Apostle says in Galatians 3:24, whereas the
New Law is a law of perfection, since it is a law of charity. On this score, the Apostle says in Colossians
3:14 that the New Law is a “bond of perfection.”
Reply to objection 1: The oneness of faith in both covenants attests to the oneness of the end. For
it was explained above (q. 62, a. 2) that the object of the theological virtues, one of which is faith, is the
ultimate end. Still, though, faith had one status in the Old Covenant and another in the New Covenant.
For they believed in what was to come, we believe in what has been accomplished.
Reply to objection 2: All of the ascribed differences between the New Law and the Old Law are
taken in a way corresponding to the perfect and the imperfect. For the precepts of any law are given
concerning acts of virtue. But the imperfect, who do not yet have the habit of a virtue, are inclined
toward doing the acts of virtue in a way different from those who have been perfected through the habit
of the virtue.
Those who do not yet have the habit of a virtue are inclined toward doing the works of the virtue by
some extrinsic cause, e.g., the threat of punishment or the promise of some extrinsic reward such as
honor or wealth or something of this sort. And so the Old Law, which was given to the imperfect, i.e., to
those who had not yet attained spiritual grace, was called a ‘law of fear’ insofar as it induced one to the
observance of its precepts by threatening certain punishments. Again, it is said to contain certain
temporal promises.
By contrast, those who have a virtue are inclined toward performing acts of that virtue out of love
of virtue and not because of any extrinsic punishment or reward. And so the New Law, which consists
principally in the spiritual grace poured into our hearts, is called a ‘law of love’. And it is said to contain
spiritual and eternal promises, which are the objects of virtue, especially of charity. And thus the perfect
are inclined per se toward those objects of virtue—not in the sense of being inclined toward something
extrinsic, but in the sense of being inclined toward something that is their own.
Moreover, the reason why the Old Law is said to “restrain the hand and not the mind” is that
someone who refrains from sinning out of a fear of punishment is such that his will does not abstain from
sin absolutely speaking, as does the will of someone who abstains from sin out of a love of righteousness
(amore iustitiae). And it is for this reason that the New Law, which is a law of love, is said to restrain
the mind.
To be sure, there were some individuals in the status of the Old Law who, having charity and the
grace of the Holy Spirit, looked toward spiritual and eternal promises. And to that extent, they belonged
to the New Law. Similarly, even in the New Covenant there are some carnal men who have not yet
attained the perfection of the New Law and who, even in the New Covenant, have to be induced to acts