ears the
character of an eternal law, in so far as it is ordained by God to
the government of things foreknown by Him.

Reply Obj. 2: Promulgation is made by word of mouth or in writing;
and in both ways the eternal law is promulgated: because both the
Divine Word and the writing of the Book of Life are eternal. But the
promulgation cannot be from eternity on the part of the creature that
hears or reads.

Reply Obj. 3: The law implies order to the end actively, in so far as
it directs certain things to the end; but not passively--that is to
say, the law itself is not ordained to the end--except accidentally,
in a governor whose end is extrinsic to him, and to which end his law
must needs be ordained. But the end of the Divine government is God
Himself, and His law is not distinct from Himself. Wherefore the
eternal law is not ordained to another end.
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SECOND ARTICLE [I-II, Q. 91, Art. 2]

Whether There Is in Us a Natural Law?

Objection 1: It would seem that there is no natural law in us.
Because man is governed sufficiently by the eternal law: for
Augustine says (De Lib. Arb. i) that "the eternal law is that by
which it is right that all things should be most orderly." But nature
does not abound in superfluities as neither does she fail in
necessaries. Therefore no law is natural to man.

Obj. 2: Further, by the law man is directed, in his acts, to the end,
as stated above (Q. 90, A. 2). But the directing of human acts to
their end is not a function of nature, as is the case in irrational
creatures, which act for an end solely by their natural appetite;
whereas man acts for an end by his reason and will. Therefore no law
is natural to man.

Obj. 3: Further, the more a man is free, the less is he under the
law. But man is freer than all the animals, on account of his
free-will, with which he is endowed above all other animals. Since
therefore other animals are not subject to a natural law, neither is
man subject to a natural law.

_On the contrary,_ A gloss on Rom. 2:14: "When the Gentiles, who have
not the law, do by nature those things that are of the law," comments
as follows: "Although they have no written law, yet they have the
natural law, whereby each one knows, and is conscious of, what is
good and what is evil."

_I answer that,_ As stated above (Q. 90, A. 1, ad 1), law, being a
rule and measure, can be in a person in two ways: in one way, as in
him that rules and measures