The Declaration of Independence
“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 impelthem to the separation.”
The term “the law of nature” was a very specific term coined by Sir EdwardCoke…
Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634)
“The law of nature is that which God at the time of creation of the nature ofman infused into his heart, for his preservation and direction…the moral law,called the law of nature.”
This same term was later used by William Blackstone who wrote a law textbook. If you were a lawyer, as was Thomas Jefferson, you studied Blackstone.
William Blackstone
“…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…This law of nature…dictated by God Himself is, ofcourse, 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 incontrary to this; and such of them as are valid derive all their force, and all their authority…from this original.”
“Upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation,depend all human laws; that is to say, no human laws should be suffered to contradict these.”
- Commentaries on the Law (A lawtextbook / 2,500 copies sold in America prior to the Revolutionary War)
"Natural law" is God's law.