How did Thomas Aquinas's idea of natural law influence the lawmakers and philosophers of the Enlightenment?

The work of Thomas Aquinas was the first attempt to develop the Christian doctrine of the state on the basis of the Aristotelian Politics. He returned to the ancient notions of law and the state, recognized the importance of Roman law and the interpretation of the natural character of the state. The eternal law is enclosed in God, and the natural law is a reflection of the eternal law in the human mind. Natural law prescribes to strive for self-preservation and procreation, obliges to seek the truth (God) and respect the dignity of people. The concretization of the natural law is the human (positive) law. Its purpose is to force people to avoid evil and achieve virtue by force and fear. His philosophical and legal views were further developed in the Tomist and neo-Thomistic concepts of natural law.

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