This then is the general signification of law, a rule of
action dictated by some superior being: and, in those
creatures that have neither the power to think, nor to
will, such laws must be invariably obeyed, so long as
the creature itself subsists, for its existence depends
on that obedience. But laws, in their more confined
sense, and in which it is our present business to
consider them, denote the rules, not of action in
general, but of human action or conduct: that is, the
precepts by which man, the noblest of all sublunary
beings, a creature endowed with both reason and
freewill, is commanded to make use of those faculties in
the general regulation of his behavior
.
Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be
subject to the laws of his creator, for he is entirely a
dependent being. A being, independent of any other, has
no rule to pursue, but such as he prescribes to himself;
but a state of dependence will inevitably oblige the
inferior to take the will of him, on whom he depends, as
the rule of his conduct: not indeed in every particular,
but in all those points wherein his dependence consists.
This principle therefore has more or less extent and
effect, in proportion as the superiority of the one and
the dependence of the other is greater or less, absolute
or limited. And consequently, as man depends absolutely
upon his maker for every thing, 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. For
as God, when he created matter, and endued it with a
principle of mobility, established certain rules for the
perpetual direction of that motion; so, 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.

Considering the creator only as a being of infinite
power, he was able unquestionably to have prescribed
whatever laws he pleased to his creature, man, however
unjust or severe. But as be is also a being of infinite
wisdom, he has laid down only such laws as were founded
in those relations of justice, that existed in the
nature of things antecedent to any positive precept.
These are the eternal, immutable laws of good and evil,
to which the creator himself in all his dispensations
conforms; and which he has enabled human reason to
discover, so far as they are necessary for the conduct
of human actions. Such among others are these
principles: that we should live honestly, should hurt
nobody, and should render to every one his due; to which
three general precepts Justinian1 has reduced the whole
doctrine of law.

Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, Vol. 1.

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