Choosing the Law

'Sed in lege Domini fuit voluntas ejus, et in lege ejus meditabitur die et nocte.' Hoc est, beatus ille qui haec faciat consilio, ratione, prudentia; potest enim et parvulus non per virtutem, sed per impossibilitatem et inscientiam delinquendi ab iis quae dicta sunt, abstinere. Potest et irrationabili pecudi convenire, cui nulla vis consilii, nullus sensus erroris est. Hoc est ergo quartum quod sequitur, in quo definitio beati viri a pecude discernitur; quia vir sapiens subditus legi est voluntate, non necessitate. Plurimum enim refert; quia in voluntate mercedis est fructus: in necessitate, dispensationis obsequium. Ita enim docuit nos Apostolus dicens: ' Si volens hoc ago, mercedem habeo: si invitus, dispensatio mihi credita est.'  Ordo autem conveniens, ut primo diligas legem, secundo ut mediteris. Qui diligit, ex voluntate facit mandata legis; qui timet, invitus observat. Hanc disciplinam docendi etiam Dei justitiam in lege accepimus. Sic enim scriptum est: 'Audi, Israel: Dominus Deus tuus, Deus unus est.' . Et 'Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo, et ex tota anima tua, et ex tota virtute tua. Et erunt verba haec quae ego praecipio tibi hodie, in corde tuo, et in anima tua: et demonstrabis ea filiis tuis, et loqueris eis sedens in domo, et ambulans in itinere, et in quiete, et in vigilia. Et alligabis ea in signum in manu tua, et erunt monilia ante oculos tuos: et scribes ea super limina in domiciliis tuis et in januis tuis.'  Et infra: ' Et nunc, Isreal, quid abs te postulat Dominus Deus tuus, nisi ut diligas Dominum Deum tuum et ambulans in omnibus viis ejus' Sanctus Ambrosius Mediolanensis, Enarrationes In XII Psalmos Davidicos , Enarratio in Psalmum I

'But in the law of the Lord is his will and in his law he will meditate day and night.'1 That is, blessed is he who acts with deliberation, with reason, with prudence, for it is possible not through virtue to abstain from those things to be avoided but through ignorance to be apart from them. It is possible to come to the state of an irrational animal, in which there is no power of deliberation, no sense of error. This is therefore another thing by which we distinguish a blessed man from cattle, for a wise man is beneath the law voluntarily not by necessity, for, as in many things, in freedom is the fruit of reward and in necessity is the fulfillment of a charge. Thus the Apostle teaches: ' If I willingly do this, I have my reward, if unwilling, it is credited to me as executing a charge' 2. The order came that first you should love the law, second that you meditate upon it. He who loves willingly keeps the commandments of the law, he who fears is obedient unwillingly. And this teaching of God we have received in the Law, for it is written. 'Hear, Israel, The Lord your God is one God.'3 And then: 'You shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart and your whole soul and with all your strength. And these words which I give to you today should be in your heart and in your soul, and you shall teach them to your sons and you shall speak of them sitting and walking on the way and resting and watching. And you shall bind these things as a remembrance in your hand and they shall be as a necklace about your eyes and you shall write them above the threshold of your houses and your doors.'4 And further on: ' And now Israel, what from you does the Lord command but that you love the Lord your God and walk in all His ways.' Saint Ambrose, Commentary on the Psalms, Psalm 1 1 Ps 1.2 2 1 Cor 9.17 3 Deut 6.3 4 Deut 6. 5-9 5 Deut 10.12