The difference and division of the laws, has been made in divers manners, according to the different methods, of those men that have written of them. For it is a thing that dependeth not on nature, but on the scope of the writer; and is subservient to every man’s proper method. In the Institutions of Justinian, we find seven sorts of civil laws: 1. The _edicts_, _constitutions_, and _epistles of the prince_, that is, of the emperor; because the whole power of the people was in him. Like these, are the proclamations of the kings of England. 2. _The decrees of the whole people of Rome_, comprehending the senate, when they were put to the question by the _senate_. These were laws, at first, by the virtue of the sovereign power residing in the people; and such of them as by the emperors were not abrogated, remained laws, by the authority imperial. For all laws that bind, are understood to be laws by his authority that has power to repeal them. Somewhat like to these laws, are the acts of parliament in England. 3. _The decrees of the common people_, excluding the senate, when they were put to the question by the _tribune_ of the people. For such of them as were not abrogated by the emperors, remained laws by the authority imperial. Like to these, were the orders of the House of Commons in England. 4. _Senatus consulta_, the _orders of the senate_; because when the people of Rome grew so numerous, as it was inconvenient to assemble them; it was thought fit by the emperor, that men should consult the senate, instead of the people; and these have some resemblance with the acts of council. 5. _The edicts of prætors_, and in some cases of _ædiles_: such as are the chief justices in the courts of England. 6. _Responsa prudentum_; which were the sentences, and opinion of those lawyers, to whom the emperor gave authority to interpret the law, and to give answer to such as in matter of law demanded their advice; which answers, the judges in giving judgment were obliged by the constitutions of the emperor to observe: and should be like the reports of cases judged, if other judges be by the law of England bound to observe them. For the judges of the common law of England, are not properly judges, but _juris consulti_; of whom the judges, who are either the lords, or twelve men of the country, are in point of law to ask advice. 7. Also, _unwritten customs_, which in their own nature are an imitation of law, by the tacit consent of the emperor, in case they be not contrary to the law of nature, are very laws. [Sidenote: Another division of law.] Another division of laws, is into _natural_ and _positive_. _Natural_ are those which have been laws from all eternity; and are called not only _natural_, but also _moral_ laws; consisting in the moral virtues, as justice, equity, and all habits of the mind that conduce to peace, and charity; of which I have already spoken in the fourteenth and fifteenth chapters.