Aquinas Natural Law - Primary and Secondary Precepts

Primary Precepts

Primary and secondary precepts are there to assist humans in deciding whether or not an act leads
towards God. This depends on whether the actions fit the purpose that humans were made for. The
first primary precept is to preserve life the self and the innocent. This is supported by the Bible in
(Exodus: 20:13) which says you shall not murder. The next is to reproduce which is supported by the
Bible in (Genesis 1:28) which says be fruitful and multiply. The third is to acquire knowledge which
humans have a natural inculcation for because we want to know everything we can about the universe
and it makes sense because it is vital that the next generation knows and understand the primary
precepts. The fourth is to live in an ordered society which is supported by the Ten Commandments
which are all about living in an ordered society. The final primary precept is to worship God which is
supported by the (Gospel of Mark 12:30), O Israel the Lord our God, the lord is one, you shall Love the
Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The
primary precepts do not change as Natural Law is written in the hearts of every man.

Secondary Precepts

Secondary precepts are rulings about things that we should or shouldn’t t do because they uphold, or
fail to uphold the primary precepts. Aquinas deduces the secondary precepts from the primary ones.
Reproduction is a primary precept. The purpose of human genitals is reproduction. Therefore,
Masturbation is considered wrong as it does not lead to a new life, doesn’t t fulfill its purpose and
doesn’t t glorify God. Having heterosexual intercourse with one’s partner is good as it involves using the
genitalia for their purpose, to pursue the primary precept of reproduction, and so it leads towards God
as an end and the action itself glorifies God.

Aquinas Natural Law - Primary and Secondary Precepts - ReligiousStudies resource. (n.d.).

https://www.tutorhunt.com/resource/25917/#:~:text=The%20primary%20precepts%20do

%20not,the%20hearts%20of%20every%20man.&text=Secondary%20precepts%20are

%20rulings%20about,precepts%20from%20the%20primary%20ones.
 DIVINE LAW

The Divine Law, which is discovered through revelation, should be thought of as the Divine equivalent
of the Human Law (those discovered through rational reflection and created by people). Divine laws
are those that God has, in His grace, seen fit to give us and are those “mysteries”, those rules given by
God which we find in scripture; for example, the ten commandments. But why introduce the Divine Law
at all? It certainly feels we have enough Laws. Here is a story to illustrate Aquinas’s answer.

A number of years ago I was talking to a minister of a church. He told me about an instance where a
married man came to ask his advice about whether to finish an affair he was having. The man’s
reasoning went as follows — “I am having an affair which just feels so right, we are both very much in
love and surely God would want what is best for me! How could it be wrong if we are so happy?”

In response, the minister opened the Bible to the Ten Commandments and pointed out the
commandment that it says that it is wrong to commit adultery. Case closed. The point of this story is
simple. We can be confused and mistaken about what we think we have most reason to do and because
of this we need someone who actually knows the mind of God to guide us, and who better to know this
than God Himself. This then is precisely what is revealed in the Divine Law.

In response, the minister opened the Bible to the Ten Commandments and pointed out the
commandment that it says that it is wrong to commit adultery. Case closed. The point of this story is
simple. We can be confused and mistaken about what we think we have most reason to do and because
of this we need someone who actually knows the mind of God to guide us, and who better to know this
than God Himself. This then is precisely what is revealed in the Divine Law.

Dimmock, M., & Fisher, A. (n.d.-b). Chapter 4. Aquinas’s Natural Law Theory.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

https://books.openedition.org/obp/4422?

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