Exercitations concerning the name, original, nature, use, and continuance of a day of sacred…

§. 15 By the Law of Nature then I intend, not a Law which our Nature gives unto all our Actions; but a Law given unto our Nature, as a Rule and Measure unto our Moral Actions. It is Lex naturae Naturantis, and not naturae naturatae. It respects the ⟨p. 143⟩Efficient Cause of Nature, and not the Effects of it. And this respect alone can give it the Nature of a Law; that is an obliging Force and Power. For this must be always from the Act of a Superior; seeing Par in Parem jus non habet; equals have no Right one over another. This Law therefore is that Rule which God hath given unto humane Nature, in all the individual partakers of it, for all its Moral Actions, in the state and condition wherein it was by him created and placed, with Respect unto his own Government of it, and Judgement concerning it; which Rule is made known in them and to them, by their inward constitution, and outward condition, wherein they were placed of God. And the very Heathens acknowledged, that the common Law of Mankind was Gods Prescription unto them. So Tully, 2. de Legib. Hanc video sapientissimorum fuisse sententiam, Legem neque hominum ingeniis excogitatam; neque scitum aliquod fuisse populorum, sed aeternum quiddam quod universum mundum regeret, imperandi prohibendique sapientia. Ita principem legem illam & ultimam, mentem dicebant omnia ratione cogentis, aut vetantis Dei. Take this Law therefore actively, and it is the will of God commanding; take it passively, and it is the conscience of man complying with it; take it instrumentally, and it is the inbred notions of our minds, with other Documents from the works of God proposed unto us; The Supreme Original of it, as of all Authority, Law, and Obligation is the Will of God, constituting appointing, and ordering the nature of things. The means of its Revelation is the Effect of the Will, Wisdom, and Power of God, creating man and all ⟨p. 144⟩other things wherein he is concerned, in their Order, Place, and Condition; And the Observation of it, as far as individual Persons are therein concerned, is committed to the care of the Conscience of every man, which naturally is the minds acting it self towards Gods as the Author of this Law.

§. 15 By the Law of Nature then I intend, not a Law which our Nature gives unto all our Actions; but a Law given unto our Nature, as a Rule and Measure unto our Moral Actions. It is Lex naturae Naturantis, and not naturae naturatae. It respects the