Law

A rule of action. (1.) The Law of Nature is the will of God as to human conduct, founded on the moral difference of things, and discoverable by natural light (Rom. 1:20; 2:14, 15). This law binds all men at all times. It is generally designated by the term conscience, or the capacity of being influenced by the moral relations of things. (2.) The Ceremonial Law prescribes under the Old Testament the rites and ceremonies of worship. This law was obligatory only till Christ, of whom these rites were typical, had finished his work (Heb. 7:9, 11; 10:1; Eph. 2:16). It was fulfilled rather than abrogated by the gospel. (3.) The Judicial Law, the law which directed the civil policy of the Hebrew nation. (4.) The Moral Law is the revealed will of God as to human conduct, binding on all men to the end of time. It was promulgated at Sinai. It is perfect (Ps. 19:7), perpetual (Matt. 5:17, 18), holy (Rom. 7:12), good, spiritual (14), and exceeding broad (Ps. 119:96). Although binding on all, we are not under it as a covenant of works (Gal. 3:17). (See COMMANDMENTS.) (5.) Positive Laws are precepts founded only on the will of God. They are right because God commands them. (6.) Moral positive laws are commanded by God because they are right.

The word is properly used, in Scripture as elsewhere, to express a definite commandment laid down by any recognized authority; but when the word is used with the article, and without any words of limitation, it refers to the expressed will to God, and in nine cases out of ten to the Mosaic law, or to the Pentateuch of which it forms the chief portion. The Hebrew word torah (law) lays more stress on its moral authority, as teaching the truth and guiding in the right way; the Greek nomos (law), on its constraining power as imposed and enforced by a recognized authority. The sense of the word, however, extends its scope and assumes a more abstracts character in the writings of St. Paul. Nomos, when used by him with the article, still refers in general to the law of Moses; but when used without the article, so as to embrace any manifestation of “law,” it includes all powers which act on the will of man by compulsion, or by the pressure of external motives, whether their commands be or be not expressed in definite forms. The occasional use of the word “law” (as in (Romans 3:27) “law of faith”) to denote an internal principle of action does not really mitigate against the general rule. It should also be noticed that the title “the Law” is occasionally used loosely to refer to the whole of the Old Testament, as in (John 10:34) referring to (Psalms 82:6) in (John 15:25) referring to (Psalms 35:19) and in (1 Corinthians 14:21) referring to (Isaiah 28:11,12)

LAW, THE. This term is applied in the N.T. to the old dispensation, in distinction from the new; the dispensation under the law in distinction from the dispensation under the gospel; the dispensation by Moses in distinction from the dispensation by Christ. John 1:17; Acts 25:8; Heb 10:1-18. But besides this its general sense, which is never entirely lost sight of by the writers of the N.T., the term refers more specially to the Mosaic legislation, including the moral, Matt 5:17, the ceremonial, Eph 2:15, and the political, but more especially the first. Sometimes St. Paul uses the word "law" (without the article) in a wider sense — of principle, rule of moral conduct — and speaks of the heathen as having such a law written on their conscience or being a law to themselves. Rom 2:14-15. The moral law of the old dispensation, embodied in the ten commandments (the Decalogue), was promulgated with extraordinary solemnity on Mount Sinai by God himself, under the manifestation of his holy majesty, and recorded by his own finger on two tables of stone. Ex 19. Afterward it was preserved by the Jews in the ark of the covenant, in the holy of holies of the tabernacle and the temple, and, spreading from the Jews among other nations, it forms the indispensable and immovable foundation of all social order and well-being. For, though the Decalogue has the form of a law, it is what its history proves it to be — something more than mere rules of conduct. It is a revelation of the nature of God: "Ye shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy," Lev 19:2; and therefore Christ says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." See Ten Commandments. The ceremonial law, prescribing the forms of Hebrew worship, public and private, the modes and times of sacrifice, fast, purification, prayer, festivals, etc., rested on this moral law and formed a transition to the political or civil law. Many of its ordinances — for instance, those relating to diet and purification — had a social, a sanitary purpose besides their religious meaning. By this ceremonial

law the Hebrews were formed into a nation distinct from all other nations, and every single feature of the ritual served to remind them that they were the chosen people of God. Though God was certainly the God over all nations, he was by a special covenant the God of Israel. The ceremonial law was to the Jews an awful duty, and at the same time a magnificent promise. Its whole character was typical, prophetical. Its whole bearing pointed toward Christ, and when Christ came it was thereby fulfilled and abolished, for "we are not under the law but under grace." Rom 6:14-15; Acts 7:4, Song 4:6; Gal 3:13, Gal 4:25; 2 Sam 5:18. The political or civil law of the Mosaic constitution, which made the Hebrews a people and founded a state, was, as all political or civil laws must be, simply the expression of a certain stage of historical development, and as such subject to the historical laws of growth, decay, and destruction. But this civil law was in perfect harmony with the moral and ceremonial law, and was formed throughout in accordance with the same principles — the principles of theocracy. Civil law is confined to certain relations between man and man. Nevertheless, at every point of the political order of the Hebrew state, a direct reference is made to God as the King. The basis of the whole system is the absolute sovereignty of God, and the principle according to which all the details are worked out is, first, the relation between each individual and God, and then the relation between individual and individual. This is evident, for instance, from the ordinances relating to property. In the Roman republic all land was held by the state; in the feudal monarchies of mediaeval Europe all land was held by the king: in the theocracy of the Hebrews all land belonged to Jehovah: "The land is mine, and ye are strangers and sojourners with me." Lev 25:23. Hence the payment of tithes, Lev 27:23-26; the offering of the first-fruits, Deut 26:1-10; the impossibility of alienating landed property, the ground reverting at the jubilee year to its original possessor, etc. But not only the land was the absolute property of Jehovah; also the persons of the Israelites belonged to him. Hence the dedication and ransom of the first-born, Ex 13:2-13; the payment of the half shekel at the numbering of the people" as a ransom for their souls to the Lord," Ex 30:11-16; the very limited power which a master held over Hebrew slaves. Lev 25:39-46. etc. Though the law, in the widest sense of the word, denoting the whole Mosaic constitution, stands before us a wonderful system both with respect to completeness and with respect to consistency, it is nevertheless essential to its full understanding to remember that, just as it came itself to prepare the way for the gospel, it too has had its precursors and had the way prepared for it by the Abrahamic covenant and its promises. That, on the whole, much of the materials of the Mosaic legislation existed before the time of Moses may be inferred from the penalties against murder and adultery. Gen 9:6; Gen 38:24; from the Levirate law, Gen 38:8; from the distinction of clean and unclean animals, Gen 8:20; and from the probable observance of the Sabbath. Ex 16:23, Gen 1:27, 1 Chr 2:29: comp. Gen 2:3.

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. In general, a rule of being or of conduct, established by an authority able to enforce its will; a controlling regulation; the mode or order according to which an agent or a power acts.

2. In morals: The will of God as the rule for the disposition and conduct of all responsible beings toward him and toward each other; a rule of living, conformable to righteousness; the rule of action as obligatory on the conscience or moral nature.

3. The Jewish or Mosaic code, and that part of Scripture where it is written, in distinction from the gospel; hence, also, the Old Testament. What things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law . . . But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Rom. iii. 19, 21.

4. In human government:

5. An organic rule, as a constitution or charter, establishing and defining the conditions of the existence of a state or other organized community.

6. Any edict, decree, order, ordinance, statute, resolution, judicial, decision, usage, etc., or recognized, and enforced, by the controlling authority.

7. In philosophy and physics: A rule of being, operation, or change, so certain and constant that it is conceived of as imposed by the will of God or by some controlling authority; as, the law of gravitation; the laws of motion; the law heredity; the laws of thought; the laws of cause and effect; law of self-preservation.

8. In matematics: The rule according to which anything, as the change of value of a variable, or the value of the terms of a series, proceeds; mode or order of sequence.

9. In arts, works, games, etc.: The rules of construction, or of procedure, conforming to the conditions of success; a principle, maxim; or usage; as, the laws of poetry, of architecture, of courtesy, or of whist.

10. Collectively, the whole body of rules relating to one subject, or emanating from one source; -- including usually the writings pertaining to them, and judicial proceedings under them; as, divine law; English law; Roman law; the law of real property; insurance law.

11. Legal science; jurisprudence; the principles of equity; applied justice. Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing else but reason. Coke. Law is beneficence acting by rule. Burke. And sovereign Law, that state's collected will O'er thrones and globes elate, Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill. Sir W. Jones.

12. Trial by the laws of the land; judicial remedy; litigation; as, to go law. When every case in law is right. Shak. He found law dear and left it cheap. Brougham.

13. An oath, as in the presence of a court. [Obs.] See Wager of law, under Wager. Avogadro's law (Chem.), a fundamental conception, according to which, under similar conditions of temperature and pressure, all gases and vapors contain in the same volume the same number of ultimate molecules; -- so named after Avogadro, an Italian scientist. Sometimes called Ampère's law. -- Bode's law (Astron.), an approximative empirical expression of the distances of the planets from the sun, as follows: -- Mer. Ven. Earth. Mars. Aste. Jup. Sat. Uran. Nep. 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 0 3 6 12 24 48 96 192 384 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --- ---4 7 10 16 28 52 100 196 388 5.9 7.3 10 15.2 27.4 52 95.4 192 300 where each distance (line third) is the sum of 4 and a multiple of 3 by the series 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, etc., the true distances being given in the lower line. -- Boyle's law (Physics), an expression of the fact, that when an elastic fluid is subjected to compression, and kept at a constant temperature, the product of the pressure and volume is a constant quantity, i. e., the volume is inversely proportioned to the pressure; -- known also as Mariotte's law, and the law of Boyle and Mariotte. -- Brehon laws. See under Brehon. -- Canon law, the body of ecclesiastical law adopted in the Christian Church, certain portions of which (for example, the law of marriage as existing before the Council of Tent) were brought to America by the English colonists as part of the common law of the land. Wharton. -- Civil law, a term used by writers to designate Roman law, with modifications thereof which have been made in the different countries into which that law has been introduced. The civil law, instead of the common law, prevails in the State of Louisiana. Wharton. -- Commercial law. See Law merchant (below). -- Common law. See under Common. -- Criminal law, that branch of jurisprudence which relates to crimes. -- Ecclesiastical law. See under Ecclesiastical. -- Grimm's law (Philol.), a statement (propounded by the German philologist Jacob Grimm) of certain regular changes which the primitive Indo-European mute consonants, so-called (most plainly seen in Sanskrit and, with some changes, in Greek and Latin), have undergone in the Teutonic languages. Examples: Skr. bhatr, L. frater, E. brother, G. bruder; L. tres, E. three, G. drei, Skr. go, E. cow, G. kuh; Skr. dha to put, Gr. ti-qe`-nai, E. do, OHG, tuon, G. thun. -- Kepler's laws (Astron.), three important laws or expressions of the order of the planetary motions, discovered by John Kepler. They are these: (1) The orbit of a planet with respect to the sun is an ellipse, the sun being in one of the foci. (2) The areas swept over by a vector drawn from the sun to a planet are proportioned to the times of describing them. (3) The squares of the times of revolution of two planets are in the ratio of the cubes of their mean distances. -- Law binding, a plain style of leather binding, used for law books; -- called also law calf. -- Law book, a book containing, or treating of, laws. -- Law calf. See Law binding (above). -- Law day. (a) Formerly, a day of holding court, esp. a court-leet.

14. The day named in a mortgage for the payment of the money to secure which it was given. [U. S.] -- Law French, the dialect of Norman, which was used in judicial proceedings and law books in England from the days of William the Conqueror to the thirty-sixth year of Edward III. -- Law language, the language used in legal writings and forms. -- Law Latin. See under Latin. -- Law lords, peers in the British Parliament who have held high judicial office, or have been noted in the legal profession. -- Law merchant, or Commercial law, a system of rules by which trade and commerce are regulated; -- deduced from the custom of merchants, and regulated by judicial decisions, as also by enactments of legislatures. -- Law of Charles (Physics), the law that the volume of a given mass of gas increases or decreases, by a definite fraction of its value for a given rise or fall of temperature; -- sometimes less correctly styled Gay Lussac's law, or Dalton's law. -- Law of nations. See International law, under International. -- Law of nature. (a) A broad generalization expressive of the constant action, or effect, of natural conditions; as, death is a law of nature; self-defense is a law of nature. See Law, 4. (b) A term denoting the standard, or system, of morality deducible from a study of the nature and natural relations of human beings independent of supernatural revelation or of municipal and social usages. -- Law of the land, due process of law; the general law of the land. -- Laws of honor. See under Honor. -- Laws of motion (Physics), three laws defined by Sir Isaac Newton:

15. Every body perseveres in its state of rest or of moving uniformly in a straight line, except so far as it is made to change that state by external force. (2) Change of motion is proportional to the impressed force, and takes place in the direction in which the force is impressed. (3) Reaction is always equal and opposite to action, that is to say, the actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal and in opposite directions. -- Marine law, or Maritime law, the law of the sea; a branch of the law merchant relating to the affairs of the sea, such as seamen, ships, shipping, navigation, and the like. Bouvier. -- Mariotte's law. See Boyle's law (above). -- Martial law.See under Martial. -- Military law, a branch of the general municipal law, consisting of rules ordained for the government of the military force of a state in peace and war, and administered in courts martial. Kent. Warren's Blackstone. -- Moral law,the law of duty as regards what is right and wrong in the sight of God; specifically, the ten commandments given by Moses. See Law, 2. -- Mosaic, or Ceremonial, law. (Script.) See Law, 3. -- Municipal, or Positive, law, a rule prescribed by the supreme power of a state, declaring some right, enforcing some duty, or prohibiting some act; -- distinguished from international and constitutional law. See Law, 1. -- Periodic law. (Chem.) See under Periodic. -- Roman law, the system of principles and laws found in the codes and treatises of the lawmakers and jurists of ancient Rome, and incorporated more or less into the laws of the several European countries and colonies founded by them. See Civil law (above). -- Statute law, the law as stated in statutes or positive enactments of the legislative body. -- Sumptuary law. See under Sumptuary. -- To go to law, to seek a settlement of any matter by bringing it before the courts of law; to sue or prosecute some one. -- To take, or have, the law of, to bring the law to bear upon; as, to take the law of one's neighbor. Addison. -- Wager of law. See under Wager.

Synonyms: Justice; equity. Law, Statute, Common law, Regulation, Edict, Decree. Law is generic, and, when used with reference to, or in connection with, the other words here considered, denotes whatever is commanded by one who has a right to require obedience. A statute is a particular law drawn out in form, and distinctly enacted and proclaimed. Common law is a rule of action founded on long usage and the decisions of courts of justice. A regulation is a limited and often, temporary law, intended to secure some particular end or object. An edict is a command or law issued by a sovereign, and is peculiar to a despotic government. A decree is a permanent order either of a court or of the executive government. See Justice.

Part of speech: verb (v.)

Same as Lawe, v. t. [Obs.]

Part of speech: interjection (interj.)

An exclamation of mild surprise. [Archaic or Low]