The other difficulty attaches to works of virtue as to interior acts:  for instance, that a virtuous deed be done with promptitude and pleasure.  It is this difficulty that virtue solves:  because to act thus is difficult for a man without virtue:  but through virtue it becomes easy for him.  In this respect the precepts of the New Law are more burdensome than those of the Old; because the New Law prohibits certain interior movements of the soul, which were not expressly forbidden in the Old Law in all cases, although they were forbidden in some, without, however, any punishment being attached to the prohibition.  Now this is very difficult to a man without virtue:  thus even the Philosopher states (Ethic. v, 9) that it is easy to do what a righteous man does; but that to do it in the same way, viz. with pleasure and promptitude, is difficult to a man who is not righteous.  Accordingly we read also (1 John 5:3) that “His commandments are not heavy”:  which words Augustine expounds by saying that “they are not heavy to the man that loveth; whereas they are a burden to him that loveth not.”

Reply Obj. 1:  The passage quoted speaks expressly of the difficulty of the New Law as to the deliberate curbing of interior movements.

Reply Obj. 2:  The tribulations suffered by those who observe the New Law are not imposed by the Law itself.  Moreover they are easily borne, on account of the love in which the same Law consists:  since, as Augustine says (De Verb.  Dom., Serm. lxx), “love makes light and nothing of things that seem arduous and beyond our power.”

Reply Obj. 3:  The object of these additions to the precepts of the Old Law was to render it easier to do what it prescribed, as Augustine states [De Serm.  Dom. in Monte i, 17, 21; xix, 23, 26].  Accordingly this does not prove that the New Law is more burdensome, but rather that it is a lighter burden. ________________________

QUESTION 108

OF THOSE THINGS THAT ARE CONTAINED IN THE NEW LAW
(In Four Articles)

We must now consider those things that are contained in the New Law:  under which head there are four points of inquiry: 

(1) Whether the New Law ought to prescribe or to forbid any outward works?

(2) Whether the New Law makes sufficient provision in prescribing and forbidding external acts?

(3) Whether in the matter of internal acts it directs man sufficiently?

(4) Whether it fittingly adds counsels to precepts?
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FIRST ARTICLE [I-II, Q. 108, Art. 1]

Whether the New Law Ought to Prescribe or Prohibit Any External Acts?

Objection 1:  It would seem that the New Law should not prescribe or prohibit any external acts.  For the New Law is the Gospel of the kingdom, according to Matt. 24:14:  “This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world.”  But the kingdom of God consists not in exterior, but only in interior acts, according to Luke 17:21:  “The kingdom of God is within you”; and Rom. 14:17:  “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but justice and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.”  Therefore the New Law should not prescribe or forbid any external acts.