By the Eternal Law is meant, not any code that has been promulgated by God in the form of positive or statute law, but the supreme exemplar of all created life, existing eternally in the mind of God. These rules of life are not decrees, but are the ideas of God, or the knowledge which His infinite wisdom has of all creatures and of the mode of life suitable for each one of them. In other words the Eternal Law is God Himself in one particular aspect: for all that is in God is God. Each creature reproduces some one of the innumerable facets of the Infinity of God; so that all the beauty, utility and harmonious adaptation of things arise from the fact that they are conformable to the divine idea, or to the law of their being which is in God, or that they resemble God. In a more special sense, the Eternal Law means God as the model of the moral perfection of rational creatures. This law of divine right reason has always existed, it has a necessary existence, it is immutable, it cannot cease or change, it is independent of promulgation as a positive law. Be grateful for the wonderful advantage you enjoy in having this supreme law so fully promulgated to you. You are in no darkness or uncertainty as to your rule of life, the nature of human perfection, and the means and the time when it will be fully accomplished. This benefit you receive from your religion.
