§ 1.
Therefore the Law was both a discipline to them, and a prophecy of things to come. For God indeed did at first admonish them by the precepts of nature, which He gave at the beginning, fixed in men; i.e., by the Ten commandments (which if a man fulfil not, he hath no salvation): and required no more of them. As Moses saith in Deuteronomy:1 These are all the words which the Lord spake unto all the assembly of the children of Israel in the mountain, and He added nothing; and He wrote them in two tables of stone, and gave them unto me; in order that such as will follow Him might keep the commandments.2 But when they turned themselves to the making of a calf,3 and in their minds turned back into Egypt, desiring to be slaves instead of free, they received, as due to their desire, the rest of that slavery, not indeed cutting them off from God, but ruling them with a yoke of slavery: as also saith the Prophet Ezekiel, rendering the reasons why such a Law was given:4 And their eyes were after the desire of their own heart, and I gave them precepts which were not good, and statutes wherein they shall not live. And Luke too wrote concerning Stephen, who was first elected by the Apostles to the Diaconate, and first slain for the testimony of Christ, that he thus spake of Moses:5 He indeed received the commandments of the living God, to give unto you; whom your fathers would not obey, but rejected Him, and in their heart turned back into Egypt, saying to Aaron, Make us gods to go before us; for as to Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has happened to him. And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. And God turned, and gave them up to worship the hosts of Heaven; as it is written in the Book of the Prophets, Have ye offered unto Me sacrifices and oblations forty years in the wilderness, O House of Israel? And ye have received the Tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them; evidently implying, that the Law such as it was, was not given them by another god, but by the very same: meet for their condition as slaves. Wherefore also in Exodus He saith unto Moses, I will send out Mine Angel before thee, for I will not go up with thee,6 for thou art a stiffnecked people.
§ 2.
And not this only, but certain precepts also were ordained unto them by Moses because of their hardness, and unwillingness to submit themselves: as the Lord declared, when they had said unto Him,7 Why then did Moses command to give a writing of divorce, and to send away the wife? telling them,8 These things he permitted you, because of the hardness of your heart, but from the beginning it was not so done. Wherein He both makes excuse for Moses, as a faithful servant, and confesses one God Who at the beginning created male and female, and rebukes them as hard and disobedient. And accordingly they received from Moses the precept of divorce suited to their hardness.
And why say we this of the Old Testament? since in the New also the Apostles are found doing the same for the aforesaid cause:9 as in Paul’s well known expression, But this say I, not the Lord:10 and again, But this I say by way of indulgence,11 not by way of commandment. And again,12 But concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, but I give counsel, as having obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. Yea, and in another place he saith, Lest Satan tempt you through your incontinence.13
If then even in the New Testament we find the Apostles allowing certain precepts, in a way of indulgence, because of the incontinence of certain persons, lest such persons, becoming hardened, entirely despair of their salvation, and fall away from God; we must not wonder, if in the Old Testament also the same God would have something of the same sort practised for the good of His people, enticing them by the aforesaid rules, that so they may keep hold of the salvation which is in the Ten Commandments, and be detained thereby from returning to idolatry, and not fall away from God, but learn to love Him with all their heart.
If again some, because of the disobedient and lost Israelites, call the Teacher of the Law weak; they will find in that calling which appertains to us,14 that many indeed are called, but few chosen; and that there are wolves within,15 though outwardly clad with sheepskins: and that the liberty and freewill which always was in man, hath ever been retained by God, as well as His own way of moral suasion: that such as obey Him not, may be justly judged, because they did not obey; and that such as have obeyed and believed Him, may be honoured with incorruption.