THE FOUNDERS' WORLDVIEW
OUR DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
THE LAWS OF NATURE AND OF NATURE'S GOD
The men of the First Continental Congress are among those called the Founding Fathers or the Founders. On July 4, 1776, they unanimously published the words
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
This first sentence of the American Declaration of Independence proclaims the unique embodiment of The Law above our nation's written laws. The Founders appealed to the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God as the ultimate legal authority for doing two things: (1) to dissolve the political bands connecting the people of the United States of America with England, and (2) for the people of our nation to assume a separate and equal station among all the other powers of the earth.
William Blackstone's 1753 treatise Commentaries on the Laws of England was widely read and understood throughout the colonies. The Founders applied the governing principles found in the treatise. Blackstone defined
Law, in its most general and comprehensive sense, signifies a rule of action; and is applied indiscriminately to all kinds of action, whether animate or inanimate, rational or irrational.
When any "rule of action" or law is "applied indiscriminately", it is uniform. Blackstone continues
Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws of his Creator, for he is entirely a dependent being...as man depends absolutely upon his Maker for everything, it is necessary that he should in all points conform to his Maker's will. This will of his Maker is called the law of nature...;
When He created man, and endued him with freewill to conduct himself in all parts of life, he laid down certain immutable laws of human nature, whereby that freewill is in some degree regulated and restrained, and gave him also the faculty of reason to discover the purport of those laws.
Within the context of Creation, the Creator has established "immutable" or fixed laws uniformly applied to His creatures. Romans 1:20 says this law of nature holds man to account because "His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse."
This law of nature, being co-eval with mankind and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this; and such of them as are valid derive all their force, and all their authority, mediately or immediately, from this original.
Here, Blackstone asserts that the law of Nature began at the same time that man was created (the meaning of "co-eval"). Second, this law of nature is not only fixed and uniform, but it is also universal. Third, because all human laws acquire their validity from the law of Nature, it necessarily stands as the ultimate legal authority everywhere. The laws of Nature and of Nature's God constitute the law above Man's written law. Pray for the restoration of this law to our nation!
© Neil F. Markva
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