Two ways of keeping the moral law: as to the matter of the work, and as truly good
Thesis I. According to the common doctrine of the Protestants, the precepts of the moral and natural law can be kept in two ways. The first is absolute: as to the matter of the work, that is, as to doing the work considered in itself. The second is the way required if an action is to be truly good and upright in God's sight.
To keep the law as to the matter of the work is to do what the law commands in general, or to abstain from what it forbids: to help the needy, honour one's parents, refrain from murder, theft and adultery, without regard to the principle the work flows from or the end it is referred to. For an action to be truly good and upright, it must in addition be done from a proper principle and be referred to the end God requires. If these circumstances are missing, the action is judged vicious before God and takes on the nature of sin.
Latin
THESIS I. LEGIS Moralis & naturalis praecepta, juxta communem Protestantium Doctrinam, duobus modis observari possunt. Primum absolute, quoad operis materiam, sive quoad effectionem operis ipsius in se considerati. Deinde eo modo qui necessarius est, ut actio vere & in oculis Dei bona & honesta sit. Legem quoad operis materiam servare, est facere quod lex in genere praecipit, aut abstinere ab eo quod prohibet; Ut egenti subvenire, parentes honorare, ab homicidio, furto & adulterio abstinere, non habita ratione principii a quo fluit, aut finis ad quem tale opus refertur. Sed ut actio vere bona & honesta sit, requiritur praeterea ut ex debito principio fiat, & in finem quem Deus exigit referatur. Quae circumstantiae si desint, actio coram Deo vitiosa censetur, & peccati naturam induit.