The rules of prudence in general, like the laws of the stone tables,
are for the most part prohibitive. _Thou shalt not_ is their
characteristic formula: and it is an especial part of Christian
prudence that it should be so. Nor would it be difficult to bring
under this head, all the social obligations that arise out of the
relations of the present life, which the sensual understanding (το
φρονημα της Σαρκος, Romans viii. 6.) is of itself able to discover,
and the performance of which, under favourable circumstances, the
merest worldly self-interest, without love or faith, is sufficient to
enforce; but which Christian Prudence enlivens by a higher principle,
and renders symbolic and sacramental. (Ephesians v. 32.)