Restitution is threefold.
Secundum idem, in identitie, when the very same thing is restored which is wrongfully gotten.
Secundum æquale, when there is so much for so much in quantity restored, the goods unjustly gotten being sold or lost.
Secundum possibile, when restitution is made according to that which a man hath, not being able to satisfie the whole.
Restitution in identitie, was, and is principally required. Whence it is, that if the theft, whether Ox or Sheep, were found alive upon a man, he restored but double, Exod. 22. 4. but if they were killed or sold, then five Oxen were restored for an Ox, and four sheep for a sheep, Exod. 21. 1. The Jews were so precise in this kind, that if they had built an house with a beam or piece of Timber unjustly gotten, they would pull down the house, and restore the same beam or piece to the owner.[580] From this the Prophet Habakkuk doth not much dissent: The stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it, Habak. 2. 11.
[580] David Kimchi.
Among the Jews he ought to be sold that was not of sufficient worth to make restitution, Exod. 22. 3. And Augustine[581] saith of Christians, That he which doth not make restitution according to his ability, never repented. And, Non remittetur peccatum, nisi restituatur ablatum.
[581] Aug. Epist. 54.
Talio. This was a punishment in the same kind, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot, Deut. 19. 21.