No enactment or statute of God or man, is morally obligatory, only as it is declaratory, and an application of this only law. No being can make law. God's existence and nature are necessary. Moral law is that course of action which is in conformity with the laws of his being. It is, therefore, obligatory upon him.
Law is that course of action demanded by the nature and relations of moral beings.
Neither the will of God, nor of any other being, can make law, or be obligatory any farther than it is declaratory of what the law of nature is. The true idea of government is that kind and degree of control, the object and tendency of which is, to promote the highest good. The rule, conformity to which is essential to the promotion of the highest good, is founded in the nature, and relations, and circumstances of all the parties concerned, entirely independent of the will of any being. The business of the ruler, is to declare and enforce this rule. Thus far his will is obligatory, and no farther.