Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Now Available: ‘Of the Law of Nature’ by Matthew Hale
Now Available: ‘Of the Law of Nature’ by Matthew Hale
May 4, 2025 7:14 AM

Legal historian Sir Matthew Hale has been described as “one of the greatest jurists of the mon law.” Yet during his lifetime (1609-1676), he chose not to publish most of his legal writings, going so far as toprohibitsuch publication in his will.

Against these wishes, many manuscripts were copied and circulated by other lawyers after his death. One such work, Of the Law of Nature, was written on multiple hand copies, and now, for the first time ever, it is available via CLP Academic.

As itstitle indicates, the treatise explores the natural law, its discovery and divine origin, and how it relates to both biblical and human laws. Hale’s close connection between law and theology also demonstrates the importance of natural law to early modern legal thought.

The work was most likely written as a series of private meditations and reflections by Hale, giving it a unique, free-flowing style. Hale also bringsa unique theological background and perspective to the topic, as editor David Sytsma explains in the introduction:

Sometime between writing the Discourse (ca. 1639–1641) and the Law of Nature (ca. 1668–1670) Hale’s religious perspective underwent a shift in the direction of Arminianism away from the Calvinism of his youth…In a manuscript likely written in the late 1650s, Hale still affirmed the traditionally Calvinist belief that the light of nature is insufficient for salvation. But after the Restoration he moved toward an Arminian soteriology which understood the gospel of the new covenant as offering forgiveness of sins by a condition of imperfect, sincere obedience.He also came to affirm the monly associated with Arminianism, that virtuous pagans could be saved through obedience to the natural law (discussed below). In the last years of his life Hale professed that “Points controverted between the Arminians and Calvinists” regarding God’s decrees, his influence on the human will, the resistibility of grace, and so forth were impossible to determine and of “inconsiderable moment.” …Whether or not Hale changed his mind in the last year of his life, the soteriology present in his Law of Nature is clearly representative of his Arminian turn.

Among Hale’s contributions is his discussion of the function of human conscience in applying the natural law. Sytsma explains howHale’s treatment of conscience fits with the traditional Reformed and Thomistic approach to this topic:

In his Law of Nature, Hale describes “conscience” as that which persuades a person of the divine obligation of the natural law and applies the natural law to particular circumstances. This application takes place by means of a syllogism, wherein right reason supplies the major premise of the general rule and conscience provides the minor premise of a particu­lar circumstance and then draws a conclusion either of absolution or condemnation . . . . In this description of conscience, Hale maintains strong continuity with Reformed scholasticism, which typically described the conscience as the application of a practical syllogism. Although it is unclear from Law of Nature whether Hale viewed conscience precisely as a faculty, habit, or act of the soul (a point of scholastic debate), elsewhere he clearly placed con­science under the nature of the soul’s acts (as distinct from faculties and habits). This view of conscience as an act was recognized by Hale’s contemporaries as both distinctively Thomistic and the mon opinion” of Reformed theologians. It is therefore probable that, despite a passing reference to “faculty of Concience” . . . , Hale’s description of the “actings” of the conscience in Law of Nature . . . reflects this mon” Thomistic and Reformed position that he expresses in his other writings.

For more on Hale’s historical context and contribution, and for the full work itself, purchaseOf the Law of Naturein its first ever release.

Add it to your bookshelf on Goodreadshere.

Check out other titles in theSources in Early Modern Economics, Ethics, and Lawseries for more English translations and editions of formative but previously inaccessible texts in the realm of economics, ethics, and law. Subscribe to CLP’smailing listor follow CLP onFacebookorTwitterfor updates on ing titles.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
PBR: Cinematic Christians
No, conservative and Christian are not synonymous, but in the context of the cultural impact of Hollywood, there’s a lot of overlap. For Christians interested in engaging this field by pursuing both technical and moral excellence, there is an outstanding organization called Act One. ...
Notre Dame, Georgetown and President Obama
The Detroit News published a column yesterday that I wrote about Catholic identity and the controversies sparked by President Obama’s visit to Georgetown and his planned speech at Notre Dame. National Review Online also published a variation of the same column last week under the title, The Catholic Identity Crisis. Here’s the Detroit News column: President Barack Obama made an ment on economics during his April 14 speech at Georgetown University. “We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile...
PBR: Conservatives and Hollywood
One of the more interesting discussions at last week’s Heritage Foundation Resource Bank meeting in Los Angeles was the “Hollywood Conversations” session with screenwriter and novelist Andrew Klavan and Lionel Chetwynd, a writer, producer and director. Both men pleaded with the gathering of conservatives — social, political, economic — to stop beating up on Hollywood ad nauseam and to do more to support good work by conservatives. Here’s the gist of the argument from a recent Klavan interview on Big...
World Malaria Day, Bishop John and the P.E.A.C.E. Plan
And if bed nets or any other foreign interventions are to do significant and lasting good, charitable enterprises will need to rediscover the importance of subsidiarity, of humans on the ground in relationship with other human beings, as opposed to government-to-government aid transfers that often do more harm than good. One person who speaks forcefully to this issue is Rwandan Anglican Bishop John Rucyahana … Read More… Saturday is World Malaria Day, which each year draws attention to the scourge...
PBR Review: As We Forgive
Catherine Claire Larson’s book As We Forgive: Stories of Reconciliation from Rwanda is an exploration of forgiveness and reconciliation in the years following the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Fifteen years ago this month, a plane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down on a return trip from Tanzania, sparking widespread ethnic violence across the country. By the time the civil war was declared over on July 18, 1994, between 800,000 and 1 million Rwandans had been killed....
PBR: Film and the Felix culpa
We e guest blogger Bruce Edward Walker, Communications Manager for the Property Rights Network at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. This week’s PBR question is: “How should conservatives engage Hollywood?” It is true that liberal depictions of dissolute and immoral behavior are rampant in modern cinema and justified as the desired end of hedonistic tendencies, but conservative critics too e across as cultural scolds, vilifying films and filmmakers for not portraying reality as conservatives would like to see it....
PBR: Klavan on a ‘New American Culture’
Writer Andrew Klavan, picking up on a theme he addressed at Heritage Resource Bank, posted an essay titled “Toward A New American Culture” on his Pajamas Media blog, Klavan on the Culture. Excerpt: We need to build a New American Culture, and turn our backs on the culture of the state. We need to stop according respect or credence to reviews and awards that are used as social engineering tools to force the culture into anti-American state worship. We need...
PBR: Enterprise and Interdependence
It is our pleasure to e guest ramblings on the PowerBlog, and we are happy to feature this contribution from Catherine Claire Larson, author of As We Forgive, the subject of this week’s PBR question. I wasn’t able to include it all in my book, but I’ve been greatly impressed by the groups which are wedding reconciliation work with micro-enterprise. World Relief has an essential oil business that is enabling Hutu and Tutsi to work in munity, Indego has their...
Acton Commentary – “Earmarks: Don’t Mend Them, End Them”
In this piece John Pisciotta, a professor of economics at Baylor University, offers a number of sound reasons for getting rid of earmarks on appropriations bills, including their tendency to invite corruption. “Those who seek them are tempted to skirt the law to win favor with a legislator so as to be graced with an earmark,” he writes. “We should not be surprised that a handful of former members of Congress now receive free room and board at federal prisons.”...
Acton Commentary: “Despotism – The Soft Way”
Sam Gregg marks the 150th anniversary of the death of Alexis de Tocqueville whose great work “Democracy in America” warned about the dangers of fortable servility. “The American Republic,” Tocqueville wrote, “will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” Read mentary at the Acton website ment on it here. ...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved