The Connection with the Preceding Commonplace, § 1.
The connection with the preceding commonplaces.
§ 1. It is fitting to follow our explication of the moral Law with an examination of the ceremonial and forensic laws. These are nothing other than specific appendices to the moral Law, streams drawn from the spring of decorum and equity, special ordinances that uniquely concern the Jewish church and state. They are fairly numerous, to the point that the rabbinic scholars ([Talmud], bk. Makoth, chapter which begins Hi sunt flagellandi, etc.) list as many positive commands as they think there are parts in the human body, that is, 248; and as many commands of prohibition as there are days in a year, that is, 365. The ceremonial laws are exercises of the First Table, because they define the external conditions for the worship of God that was commanded in the First Table. The forensic laws are exercises of the Second Table, because they likewise define the external conditions for how righteousness was to be practiced toward men as commanded in the Second Table.