 Although Leibniz never wrote a systematic ethical treatise, in his view theology is a type of jurisprudence, a science of law (NE, p. 526). And Leibniz contributed a systematic work to the field of theology, namely, the Theodicy (1710), the only large-scale philosophical work that he published during his lifetime. Given that Leibniz the natural theologian and metaphysician is, at the same time, a moral philosopher, ethics has a central place in his philosophical system. No divisions exist among the nominally different fields. Thus the view that he never wrote a systematic ethical treatise is not true without qualification. Moreover, the fact that he views theology as a science of law provides some insight into the character of his ethics. He offers a natural law theory, and, like other such theories, its basic structure consists of a theory of the good and a theory of law. Compliance with the principles spelled out in the latter is necessary and sufficient to achieve the good. Since, according to Leibniz, God is the measure of the good, the primary directive of his ethics is that one ought to imitate divinity as far as possible.