14. Again the _civil law_, according to its two-fold manner of publishing, is of two sorts, _written_ and _unwritten_. By _written_, I understand that which wants a voice, or some other sign of the will of the legislator, that it may become a law. For all kind of laws are of the same age with mankind, both in nature and time; and therefore of more antiquity than the invention of letters, and the art of writing. Wherefore not a _writing_, but a _voice_ is necessary for a _written law_; this alone is requisite to the _being_, that to the _remembrance_ of a law. For we read, that before letters were found out for the help of memory, that _laws_, contracted into metre, were wont to be sung. The _unwritten_, is that which wants no other publishing than the voice of nature or natural reason; such are the _laws of nature_. For the natural law, although it be distinguished from the civil, forasmuch as it commands the will; yet so far forth as it relates to our actions, it is civil. For example, this same, _thou shalt not covet_, which only appertains to the mind, is a natural law only; but this, _thou shalt not invade_, is both natural and civil. For seeing it is impossible to prescribe such universal rules, whereby all future contentions, which perhaps are infinite, may be determined; it is to be understood that in all cases not mentioned by the _written laws_, the _law of natural equity_ is to be followed, which commands us to distribute equally to equals; and this by the virtue of the _civil law_, which also punisheth those who knowingly and willingly do actually transgress the _laws of nature_. [Sidenote: That the natural laws are not written laws, neither are the sentences of lawyers or customs laws of themselves, but by the consent of the supreme power.] 15. These things being understood, it appears, first, that the _laws of nature_, although they were described in the books of some philosophers, are not for that reason to be termed _written laws_: and that the writings of the interpreters of the laws, were no laws, for want of the supreme authority; nor yet those _orations of the wise_, that is to say, _judges_, but so far forth as by the consent of the supreme power they part into custom; and that then they are to be received among the _written laws_, not for the custom’s sake, (which by its own force doth not constitute a law), but for the will of the supreme commander; which appears in this, that he hath suffered his _sentence_, whether equal or unequal, to pass into custom. [Sidenote: What the word _sin_, taken in its largest sense, signifies.]