Page:Moraltheology.djvu/64

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

3. Laws are divine or human. Divine law is either natural or positive. The natural law is promulgated in the rational nature of man, and is a participation in human reason of the eternal law of God, which bids us observe right order, and forbids its disturbance. Positive divine law is made known by revelation.

Human law is ecclesiastical when made by the authority of the Church; municipal or civil when it is the ordinance of the civil ruler. The term civil is frequently restricted to the Roman civil law.

Other divisions of law and their application will be clear from the chapters which follow.