Foundational Law Quotes V

“The Moral Law . . .
being contained under two heads,
the one of which simply enjoins us to worship God
with pure faith and piety,
the other to embrace men with sincere affection,
is the true and eternal rule of righteousness prescribed to the men of all nations and of all times.
. . .
Each nation has been left at liberty to enact the laws
which it judges to be beneficial,
still these are to be tested by the rule of charity,
so that while they vary in form,
they must proceed on the same principle.
Those barbarous and savage laws, for instance,
Which conferred honor on thieves,
allowed the promiscuous intercourse of the sexes,
and other things even fouler and more absurd,
I do not think entitled to be considered as laws,
since they are not only altogether abhorrent to justice,
but to humanity and civilized life.
. . .
Now, as it is evident that the law of God which we call moral,
is nothing else than the testimony of
natural law,
and of that conscience
which God has engraven on the minds of men,
the whole of this equity of which we now speak
is prescribed in it.
Hence it alone ought to be the aim, the rule, and the end of all laws.
Wherever laws are formed after this rule,
directed by this aim, and restricted to this end,
there is no reason why they should be disapproved by us, however much they may differ from the Jewish law, or from each other.”

- John Calvin