right understanding of Moral Philosophy nay Christianity itself But for a Conclusion to the Preface I have also made some Additions wherein I have shewn your Principle of Endeavouring the Common Good is not a new Invention but that which several Great Men had before delivered as the only firm Rule by which to try not only all our Moral Actions but all Civil Laws whether they are right and just that is agreeable to right Reason or not And I have also concluded it with a set of Principles very necessary to be understood for the proving the Truth of all Natural Religion and the Law of Nature tho' the two last alone are the Subject of your Lordship's Book as well as of my Abridgment of it But to speak more particularly of the Discourse itself since I here design no more than an Epitome I hope your Lordship will not take it ill if I have omitted most of your rare Instances and Parallels drawn from the Mathematicks many of which are above the capacity of common Readers tho' therein your Lordship hath shewn your self a Great Master and have confined my self only to such plain and easie Proofs and natural Observations as Men of all capacities may understand So also if in the Chapter of Humane Nature I have left out divers curious Anatomical Observations wherein the Structure of Mens Bodies differs from that of Beasts if I thought they were at all questionable or doubtful or such as did not directly tend to the proving that Mens Bodies are fitted and ordained by God for the Prosecution of the Common Good of others of their own Kind above all other Creatures I have also made bold to contract the Chapters in your Work into a lesser number having disposed the substance of them into other places or else quite omitted some as not so necessary to our purpose As for example I have placed most of the Matter of the third Chapter De bono naturali partly in the explanation of the word Good in our Description of the Law of Nature in the third Chapter reserving what remained of it to the second part for the Confutation of that Principle of Mr. H. That no Action is Good or Evil in the State of Nature So likewise for the fourth Chapter De Dictaminibus Practicis I have set down the Substance of it omitting the Mathematical Illustrations in our second Chapter of Humane Nature So also the sixth Chapter entituled De iis quae in Lege Naturali continentur And the seventh and eighth De Origine Dominii Virtutum Moralium I have partly disposed the substance of them into the first Chapter of the Nature of Things but chiefly into your fourth Chapter reducing all the Laws of Nature and Moral Vertues therein contained into this one Principle of Endeavouring the Common Good of Rational Beings But as for your last Chapter viz. that part of it which contains the Consectaria or Consequences deducible from the foregoing Chapters in relation to the Law of Moses and all Civil Laws I have made bold to omit since it is plain enough that all the Precepts of the Decalogue do tend either in the first Table to the Honour and Glory of God in his commanding himself to be the sole Object of our Worship and that without any Images of himself or else in the second Table to our Duties towards others wherein the highest Vertue and Innocence are prescribed And so likewise that all the Laws of the Supreme Civil Powers have no Authority but as they pursue this Great Rule or Law of Nature of procuring the Common Good of Rational Beings that is the Honour and Worship of God and the Peace and Happiness of their Subjects and of Mankind in general And whereas your Lordship hath here also solidly and briefly confuted many Gross Errors in Mr. H.'s Morals as well as Politicks some of those Confutations I have made use of in the second Part viz. those that relate to that Author 's Moral Principles which if they are false his Politick ones will fall of themselves To conclude I must beg your Lordships Pardon if I have made bold to alter your Method as to your Confutation of Mr. H.'s Principles For whereas you have thought fit to do it in the Body of your Work and as they occurred under the several Heads you treat of since I perceiv'd the placing your Answers after that manner did disturb the Connexion and Perspicuity of the Discourse I thought it better to cast those Answers into a distinct part digested under so many Heads or Propositions in the order in which they stand in Mr. H.'s Books de Cive and Leviathan where the Reader if he pleases may compare what I have quoted out of him And I hope your Lordship will not take it amiss in me if to render the Work more pleasant and grateful to common Readers and that it may not look like a bare Translation I have added several Notions and Observations some of my own knowledge and others out of History and the Relations of Modern Travellers concerning the Customs of those Nations commonly counted Barbarous who yet by their amicable living together without either Civil Magistrates or written Laws serve sufficiently to confute Mr. H.'s extravagant Opinion That all Men by Nature are in a State of War I have likewise presumed to add those Aphorisms of Good and Evil contained in Bishop Wilkins's Treatise of Natural Religion and Dr. Moor's Enchiridion Ethicum that the Reader may see them all at once tho' I confess they are most of them to be found tho' dispersedly in your Lordship's Work I have also inserted some things in answer to the Objections at the end of the first Part out of that noble contemplative Philosopher Mr. Lock 's Essay of Humane Vnderstanding since he proceeds upon the same Principles with your Lordship and hath divers very new and useful Notions concerning the Manner of Attaining the Knowledge of all Truths as well Natural as Divine and the Certainty we have of them But I fear I have trespass'd too much upon your Lordship's Patience by so long an Epistle and therefore shall conclude with my Prayers for your Lordship's Happiness and Health since I am confident you cannot but prove more useful for the common good of our Church and State in this high and publick Station to which Their Majesties have thought fit to call you than you could have been in a more private Condition And I hope your Lordship will look upon this Dedication as a small Tribute of Gratitude which all the World must owe you for your Learned and not Common Undertakings of which Obligation none ought to be or indeed is more sensible than My LORD Your Lordship 's most faithful and humble Servant JAMES TYRRELL THE PREFACE TO THE READER By way of INTRODUCTION I Suppose you are not ignorant that the Study of Moral Philosophy or the Laws of Nature was preferred by Plato Aristotle Socrates and Tully the wisest
of the Heathen Philosophers above all other knowledge whether Natural or Civil and that deservedly as well in respect of its usefulness as certainty since it was to that alone as most agreeable to the Natural Faculties of Mankind that Men before they were assisted by Divine Revelation owed the Discovery of their Natural Duties to God themselves and all others as Cicero hath shewn us at large in those three excellent Treatises De Officiis De Finibus and De Legibus And tho' I grant we Christians have now clearer and higher Discoveries of all Moral Duties by the Light of the Gospel yet is the Knowledge of Natural Religion or the Laws of Nature still of great use to us as well for the confirmation as illustration of all those Duties since by their Knowledge and the true Principles on which they are founded we may be convinced that God requires nothing from us in all the practical Duties of revealed Religion but our reasonable Service that is what is really our own interest and concerns our good and happiness to observe as the best and most perfect Rule of Life whether God had ever farther enforced them or not by any revealed Law And tho' I do not deny that our Saviour Jesus Christ hath highly advanced and improved these Natural Laws by more excellent and refined Precepts of Humility Charity and Self-denial than were discovered before by the wisest of the Heathen Philosophers especially as to the greater assurance we have of that grand Motive to Religion and Vertue the immortality of the Soul or a Life either eternally happy or miserable when this is ended Yet certainly it was this Law of Nature or Reason alone by which Mankind was not only to live but also to be judged before the Law given to Moses and it must be for not living up to this Natural Light that the Heathens shall be condemned who never yet heard of Christ or of a revealed Religion and so cannot as St. Paul expresly declares to the Romans believe on him of whom they have not heard Rom. 10.14 And therefore the same Apostle in the first Chapter of the same Epistle appeals to the knowledge of God from the things that are seen that is the Creation of the World as the foundation of all Natural Religion and their falling notwithstanding this knowledge into that gross Idolatry they professed as the only reason why God gave them up to their own hearts lusts because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned v 21. And so likewise in the second Chapter the Apostle farther tells them that when the Gentiles who have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves shewing the work of the Law written in their hearts that is the Law of Nature or Reason as the main substance or effect of the Mosaical Law And that it is by this Law alone that they shall be judged mark what immediately follows Their consciences bearing witness and their own thoughts or reasonings as it is rather to be rendred in the mean while accusing or excusing each other And indeed the Apostle supposes the Knowledge of God as a Rewarder of Good Works as the foundation of all Natural as well as revealed Religion and the first Principle of saving Faith as appears in his Epistle to the Hebrews Chap. 11. v. 6. But without faith it is impossible to please him for he that comes unto God must first believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of all them that diligently seek him But I need speak no more of Natural Religion and how necessary it is to the true Knowledge of the Revealed since the Reverend and learned Dr. Wilkins Late Bishop of Chester hath so well perform'd that Noble Vndertaking in that excellent Posthumous Treatise published by the Reverend Dr. Tillotson now Lord Archbishop of Canterbury to which nothing needs to be added by so mean a Pen as mine But since the Laws of Nature as derived from God the Legislator are the foundation of all Moral Philosophy and true Politicks as being those which are appealed to in all Controversies between Civil Soveraigns and also are the main Rules of those mutual Duties between Soveraigns and their Subjects It is worth while to enquire how these Laws may be discovered to proceed from God as a Legislator Now whereas this can only be done by one of these two ways viz. Either from the certain and manifest Effects and Consequences that proceed from their observation Or 2dly From the Causes from which they are derived The former of these hath been already largely treated of by others especially by the most learned Hugo Grotius in his admirable Work De Jure Belli Pacis And by his Brother William in that small Posthumous Treatise De Principiis Juris Naturalis And by the Iudicious Monsieur Puffendorf in his learned Treatise De Jure Naturae Gentium As also by our own Countryman Dr. Sharrock Who have all undertaken to prove their certainty from their general belief and reception by the wisest and most civilized Nations in all Ages To which we may also add the learned Mr. Selden in that most elaborate Work De Jure Gentium juxta placita Hebraeorum And as I do acknowledge that those Great Men have all deserved very well in their way so I think none deserves greater commendation than that excellent Work of Grotius the Elder which as it was the first in its kind so it is worthy of enduring as long as Vertue and Iustice shall be in esteem among Mankind And tho' the Objections which are wont to be brought against this Method of proving the Laws of Nature are not of so great moment as to render it altogether fallacious or useless as some would have it to be yet I freely acknowledge they can chiefly serve to convince Men of sincere and honest minds and who are naturally disposed to Vertue and right Reason So that I conceive it were more useful as well as certain to seek for a firmer and clearer Demonstration thereof from a strict search and inquisition into the Nature of things and also of our own selves by which I doubt not but we may attain not only to a true Knowledge of the Laws of Nature but also of that true Principle on which they are founded and from whence they are all derived But it will not consist with the narrow bounds of a Preface to propose and answer all the Objections that may be made against their Method of proving the Law of Nature from the Consent of Nations neither perhaps can it be done at all to the universal satisfaction even of indifferent persons since it may be still urged by those that do not admit them that altho' some Dictates of Right Reason may be indeed approved of by our Vnderstandings and
or Felicity of the People And sure this could have no Foundation but as the Felicity of any particular People or Nation is contained in general or the common Good and Happiness of rational Beings And tho' I grant that our Faculties are not fitted to pierce into the internal Fabrick and real Essences of Bodies as the above-mentioned Author of the Essay of humane Understanding hath very well observed Yet in the same place he also grants That the Knowledge we have of them is sufficient to discover to us the Being of a God and of a Divine Providence and that the Knowledge of our selves and the Nature of other things are sufficient to lead us into a full and clear Discovery of our Duty towards him as being the great Concernment of our Lives and that it becomes us as rational Creatures to employ our Faculties about what they are most adapted to and follow the direction of Nature where it seems to point us out the way So that it is highly reasonable to conclude that our proper Employment lies in moral rather than natural Truths And therefore the same Author hath in his Fourth Book and Third Chapter pag. 274. this Passage The Idea of a supream Being infinite in Power and Wisdom whose Workmanship we are and on whom we depend and the Idea of our selves as understanding rational Creatures being such as are clear to us these would I suppose if duly considered and pursued afford such Foundations of our Duty and rules of Action as might place Morality amongst the Sciences capable of Demonstration wherein I doubt not but from Principles as incontestable as those of the Mathematicks by necessary Consequences the measures of Right and Wrong might be made out to any one that will apply himself with the same indifferency and attention to the one as he doth to the other of these Sciences And in the Twelfth Chapter of the same Book he saith p. 325. This gave me the Confidence to advance that Conjecture which I suggested Chap. 3. viz. That Morality is capable of Demonstration as well as Mathematicks For the Idea's that Ethicks are conversant about being all real Essences and such as I imagine have a discoverable Connexion and Agreement one with another So far as we can find their Habitudes and Relations so far we shall be possessed of certain real and general Truths And I doubt not but if a right method were taken a great part of Morality might be made out with that clearness that could leave to a considering Man no more reason to doubt than he could have to doubt of the Truth of any Propositions in Mathematicks which have been demonstrated to him And I am confident our Author hath found out this only right method and made use of the fittest Demonstrations for the Proof of this Principle of the common Good of rational Beings as the Sum of all natural Laws so that I hope you will have no cause to doubt but that he hath as fully demonstrated it to be so as if he had given us so many Mathematical Demonstrations of it But since as in the Mathematicks there are required certain Principles or Postulatums which must be taken for granted before its professors are able to demonstrate any thing from them so we shall reduce all we have to say on this Subject into Six plain Postulata the Three first of which having been already made out by others both in Latin and English I shall wave the Proof of them and shall confine my self wholly to the Three last The Propositions are these 1. That there is one Infinite most powerful intelligent Being which we call God who is the Author and Creator of the Vniverse or World 2. That God as he hath created so he likewise governs and preserves this World consisting of Bodies and Spirits by certain corporeal Motions and Dictates of Reason by which Spirits act as the chief Instruments of his Providence 3. That God thereby maintains and preserves all his Creatures and farther designs the Happiness and Preservation of such of them as are sensible as far as their frail and mortal Natures will admit and that Power which God hath given to mankind over them 4. That of all Animate or sensible Creatures God hath made Man alone to be conscious of his own Existence and also that it is more particularly his Duty to act as his subservient Instrument not only for his own private Good and Happiness but also for the common Good of all rational Beings 5. That this knowledge of God's Will as our Duty is plainly discovered to us from the Being and Nature of God as also of our selves and of those things without us which he hath made necessary for our use and Preservation 6. That these Dictates or Conclusions of right reason all tending to one great End viz. the common Good of rational Beings in which our own is contained being given us by God as a Legislator for the well governing or right ordering of our Actions to this End constitute the Law of Nature as being established by sufficient Rewards and Punishments both in this Life and in that to come TO THE BOOKSELLER THE Learned Authour of this Treatise sent it to me then being in a Private Station above a year ago but then concealed his Name from me either through his great Modesty or because in his Prudence he thought that if I knew him I might be biassed in my judgment by the Honour which I am obliged to have to his Family and especially to his Grandfather by his Mother's side the most Learned Primate of Ireland Wherefore I read the Book without any respect to the unknown Writer and considered only the Merits of the Performance Thus I found that he had not only well translated and epitomized in some places what I had written in Latin but had fully digested the chief things of my Design in a well chosen Method of his own with great Perspicuity and had added some Illustrations of his own or from other Learned Authours with a Philosophical Liberty which I must needs allow For this Reason I judged that the then unknown Authour had give too low a Title to his Book and that I was to esteem him a good Hyperaspistes or able Second in this Combat for Truth and Justice rather than a Translater or Epitomizer of what I had written This obliged me to enquire diligently after the Authour's Name and Quality and then I soon obtained the Favour and Honour of a more intimate Conversation with him Hereby I soon found that I might safely leave the Maintenance of that good Cause in which I was engaged to his great Abilities and Diligence And I hope that since this Learned Gentleman hath conquer'd the Difficulties of the Search into the Rise of the Laws of Nature now many of our younger Gentry will be encouraged to follow him in the way which this his Treatise makes plain before them For from thence they may receive assistance not
unto and which is most inseparably conjoyned with his own particular Conservation and Happiness But whereas God hath Created other Creatures to act for their own present Satisfaction and Preservation without any consideration of that of others He hath made man alone not only able to contribute to the good and Preservation of his own kind but hath also made him sensible of this Ability and I shall farther shew in this Discourse that he hath laid a sufficient Obligation on him to exert it § 22. Another faculty of the Rational Soul and only proper to Man as a sociable Creature is That of Speech or expressing our Notions by significant Words or Sounds which though it be not born with us yet however may be reckoned amongst the Natural faculties of Mankind as well as going with two legs since we find no Brute Creatures capable of it though divers of them are endued with Tongues like ours and that divers Birds can pronounce whole Sentences yet have they no notion of what they say whereas there is no Nation though never so Barbarous but hath the use of Speech And to shew you farther how natural some sort of Speech is to Mankind I have heard of two young Gentlemen that were Brothers and I knew one of them my self who though born deaf and consequently dumb yet by often and long Conversation with each other came to frame a certain Language between themselves which though it seemed perfect Gibberish to the standers by yet by the sole motion of their Lips and other signs they perfectly understood each other which was likewise evident from this that in the dark they were not able to converse at all So that this faculty seems to have been bestowed by God on Mankind not for his Preservation as a meer Animal Since divers Brutes are able to subsist for more years without it and therefore seems to be intended to render Man a Sociable Creature and who was by this Faculty to benefit others of his own kind as well as himself for we are not only hereby able to impose certain Arbitrary names to particular things but having first framed Universal Idea's can likewise give names to them as to this general Idea applicable to all particular Men in the World we can give the name of Man and herein consists the main difference between Men and Brutes and not in Ratiocination alone Since I suppose even Brutes have right Idea's of those Objects they have received by their Senses and can likewise inferr or reason right about them As when a Dog by often seeing his Master take down his stick before he goes abroad does thence argue when ever he does so that his going abroad will follow expressing his Joy by barking and leaping yet we cannot find that Brutes have any general or complex Idea's much less names for them having no more but a few Ordinary signs whereby to express their present Appetites and Passions but the main benefit of Speech seems to respect others more than our selves since we are hereby able to instruct them in many Arts and Sciences necessary for their Happiness and Preservation and also to advise and admonish them in all Civil and Moral Duties and there is scarce any one so Brutish who is not sensible that in the exercise of this Faculty consists one of the greatest pleasures of Humane Life viz. Conversation and supposing Men in a state of War I do not see how they could ever well get out of it again were it not for Treaties and Articles of Peace but must like game Cocks and Bulls fight it out till one side were either quite destroyed or forced to run away and quit that Territory or Country where they Liv'd § 23. Nor can we omit another great benefit we receive from Speech viz. the Invention of Letters by which we are not only able to Register our present Thoughts for our own remembrance but can likewise Profit and Instruct not only the present but also all future Generations by Books or Writings as we do now make use of the Knowledge and Experience of those who dyed some Thousands of Years before we were born But since Mr. H. and others have made some Objections against the benefit of Speech and Letters as that they tend oftentimes to promote false Opinions and War amongst Mankind Granting it to be so it is no more an Objection against the benefits we receive by them than it were to say that the Air Water or Food the only means of Life are hurtful to Mankind since by the necessary course of Nature or else our own Intemperance they often become the causes of Plagues Surfeits and divers other diseases whereby Mankind is destroyed Yet since that Author hath made the use of Speech one great Reason why Men cannot live so peaceably as Brutes and therefore fansies they must be in a Natural state of War I shall therefore referr the Answering it to the Second Part since my Intention is not here to Argue but Instruct § 24. Men do also far exceed Brutes in their Rational or discoursive Faculty as appears in the Knowledge of Numbers or Collecting divers single things into one Total Summ which we call Arithmetick so necessary for all Affairs of a Civil Life and the Duties of distributive Justice And though I grant it is an Art and that divers Barbarous Nations want that exact knowledge of it which we have yet by reckoning upon their fingers they have a sufficient use of it as much as is necessary for their purpose or business and if they did but apply their Minds to it I doubt not but that they would arrive to the same perfection in Arithmetick as we do But I look upon this Faculty as peculiar to Mankind since we cannot perceive Brutes to have any knowledge of it Thus if from Bitches or Sows you take away never so many of their Young ones yet if you leave them but one or two they do not miss the rest which shews that they have no Idea's of Numbers whatever they may have of Quantity § 26. To this Observation may likewise be added as a Consequence thereof that Faculty so proper to Mankind of measuring the quantities of Bodies the distances between them and the Proportions they bear to each other which Science we call Geometry or Mathematicks which Arts were certainly invented by Man as a Creature intended for a Sociable Life since on some of these depend most Trades all Commerce Architecture Navigation and most of the Rules of distributive Justice with other Arts needless here to be set down So that whoever will but seriously reflect upon the excellency of these Sciences as well in the certainty of their Demonstrations as in the vast and Stupendious effects they produce cannot but acknowledge that our Rational Faculty exceeds that of Brutes by many degrees § 27. But there yet remain behind two of the greatest Prerogatives of Man's Soul and in respect of which alone he is made a sit
within that Law But in Humane Laws because they may enjoyn something amiss there a Right is often left to us to chuse rather to bear the Penalty than to obey them because we are obliged rather to obey GOD than Man in case they command any Action contrary to the Divine Law whether Natural or Revealed § 8. For the further clearing of this I shall premise somewhat to explain this Word Obligation which the Civilians thus define Obligatio est vinculum Iuris quo quis astringitur debitum persolvere That is an Obligation is that Bond of Law whereby every one is obliged to pay his Debt or Due Which Definition doth well include all sorts of Obligations if by the Word Ius or Law we understand that Law whose Obligation we propose to define So that by vinculum Iuris in this Definition we understand that Bond or Tye of the Law of Nature by which every one is obliged to pay this natural Debt i. e. to perform that Duty which he owes to GOD his Creator by reason of his own Rational Nature or else to undergo those Punishments which are ordained for his Disobedience or Neglect So that there is a twofold Tye or Obligation in all Laws the one active in the Debt or Duty the other passive in a patient submission to the Punishment in case of any wilful neglect or omission thereof Of both which we shall speak in their order § 9. But you are first to take notice That none can oblige us to do or forbear any Action but such who have a right to Command us So that this Obligation proceeds from that just Right of Dominion which a superiour Power hath over us and our Actions and as far as we are subject to others we are so far under an Obligation to their lawful Commands which obliges us to a discharge of that Debt or Duty we owe them that is when we are obliged to do or forbear any Action from the Will or Command of a Supreme Power or Legislator to whom when sufficiently made known to us we are bound to yield Obedience to the utmost of our Power And herein consists the Obligation or Duty viz. in the Conformity of our Actions to a Rule such as is declared by the Will of the Legislator So that all our Obligation to the Laws of Nature is at last resolved into that absolute Dominion which GOD as he is the Great Creator and Preserver of Mankind hath over us For I cannot understand a Right especially of Dominion to be invested or seated in any Supreme Power but by virtue of something which may be called at least analogically a Law 2. That every Dictate of the Divine Wisdom concerning Matter fit to be established by a Law is such a Law And so Cicero the best Master of Language speaks towards the end of his First Book de Legibus 3. That the Eternal Wisdom of GOD contains eminently or analogically in it all that we can know to be Natural Law 4. But to know that it is Natural Law or the Dictate of true Reason concerning the fittest means to the best End or greatest Good it is necessary to this purpose That the Supreme Government of all Things and especially of Rational Creatures should be in him who is most able and willing to pursue and attain that greatest End that is it must be setled in GOD. 5. So that by this Dictate of Eternal Wisdom or of performing all Things for the best End the Soveraignty becomes his Right and our Knowledge that this Dictate of Eternal Wisdom is in him assures us That this Right is immutably fix'd and vested in him 6. Although in the method of investigating the Laws of Nature as they subsist in our Minds the first Law respects the End and this concerning the Means comes in the second place Yet in our Thoughts concerning GOD we know that infinite Wisdom comprehends all these Dictates together and therefore that the Dictate or Law setling Universal Dominion in GOD is co-eternal with him and so is as early in his Nature as the first Natural Law the Obligation of which we are establishing in this Chapter And here arises the difference between a Moral Obligation which is that we now treat of and a Civil one or that by which we are obliged to Laws in Civil Governments the former being in respect to GOD's immediate Will as the Supreme Legislator whereas all the Duty we owe to our Civil Magistrates Parents and Masters c. is only in subordination to GGD's Will so declared unto us and who hath ordained this Obedience for his own Worship and Glory and in order to the Common Good of all Humane Societies and Commonwealths that is of Mankind in general § 10. Yet I think notwithstanding all we have said of the Force and Nature of this Obligation it may well enough consist with the natural Freedom of Man's Will since all these Considerations do still but excite not necessitate Him to act one way or other For it is still left in his Power either to chuse that which is absolutely the best in obeying this Will of God or else to preferr a less present Good before it in the satisfaction of his Appetites or Passions And herein likewise consists the difference between an Animal Good or Evil and a Moral one the former being those natural Means conducing to each Man's preservation or destruction considered as a mere Animal without any respect to God as their Author or the Common Good of Rationals as their Rule The latter that is of all Humane Moral Actions or Habits considered as agreeable or disagreeable unto the Laws of Nature ordained by God as a Legislator and made known to Man in order to the Common Good of Rational Beings so that they are thus morally Good or Evil only in respect of their Conformity or Disagreement with the Will of God and as their Observance or Neglect brings either Good or Evil that is Happiness or Misery upon us in this Life or in that to come From whence you may observe the necessity of putting God in all our descriptions or definitions of the Law of Nature as the Author thereof For were it not for his existence in whose divine Intellect the Idea's of Moral Good and Evil are eternally established and into whose will so ordaining them they are ultimately to be resolved Mr. H.'s or rather Epicurus's Assertion would certainly be true That there is nothing morally Good or Evil in its own Nature And it may here be also observed That the great omission of divers Writers on this Subject in not placing God as the Cause or Author of the Law of Nature in their definitions hath been perhaps the main if not only Reason of that false Assertion That the Laws of Nature are not properly so 'till they are established by the Authority of the Supreme Civil Power so on the other side if it be made evident That God Wills or Commands all Men should
endeavour the Common Good of Rationals as the greatest they are capable of it must necessarily follow That we lie under a sufficient Obligation by all the Tyes of Duty and Gratitude to concurr with God's Will and Design in pursuing and endeavouring this great End § 11. But since God hath thought fit to make Man a Creature consisting of two different and distinct Parts or Principles a Soul and a Body both capable of Good and Evil i. e. of Rewards and Punishments I come now to the other part of this Duty or Obligation by which we are bound by all the Rational Motives or Rewards that Man's Nature is capable of to observe this great Law and deterred by all the contrary Evils or Punishments from neglecting or transgressing it In order to which I shall lay down these plain Axioms drawn from the Nature of Moral Good and Evil which you may find in the Learned Bishop Wilkin's excellent Discourse of Natural Religion Axiom 1. That which is morally good i.e. agreeable to the Will of God is to be desired and prosecuted and that which is evil i. e. contrary to his Will is to be avoided Ax. 2. The greater congruity there is in any thing to the Reason of Mankind and the greater tendency it hath to promote or hinder the Perfection of Man's Nature in the endeavour of the Common Good so much greater degrees it hath of moral Good or Evil and according to which we ought to proportion our Inclinations or Aversions thereunto Ax. 3. So that it is suitable both to the Reason and Interest of Mankind that all Persons should submit themselves to God's Will upon whom they depend for their Happiness and Well-being by doing such Things as may render them acceptable to Him and avoiding those contrary Actions which may provoke his Displeasure that is in short in prosecuting the Common Good of Rational Beings Ax. 4. Hence the Rational Nature and the Perfections belonging to it being more Noble than the Sensitive a moral Good is to be preferred before an animal Pleasure and that which is morally evil is more to be avoided than that which is merely animal Ax. 5. A present animal Good may be parted with upon a probable Expectation of a greater future moral Good Ax. 6. A present Evil is to be endured for the probable avoiding of a greater though future Evil. But since all the Rewards which God can bestow upon us for our observing this fundamental Law of endeavouring the Common Good of Rationals does only amount to the truest and highest Happiness that Man's Nature is capable of it is fit that we sufficiently state that Happiness and wherein it consists For the clearing of which I shall lay down these two plain Propositions § 12. Prop. 1. That which gives or constitutes the Essence of any thing and distinguisheth it from all other things is called the essential form of that thing Prop. 2. That State or Condition by which the Nature of any thing is advanced to the utmost perfection which it is capable of according to its kind is called the Chief End Good or Happiness of such a Being Thus for Example to give you a Scale drawn from the Nature of those Beings we know to be endued with Life or Motion 1. The Nature of Plants consists in having a vegetative Life by which they receive Nourishment and Growth and are enabled to multiply their kind The utmost Perfection which this kind of Being is capable of is to grow up to a state of Maturity to continue unto its natural Period and to propagate its kind 2. The Nature of Brutes besides what is common to them with Plants consists in their being endued with Faculties whereby they are capable of apprehending external Objects and of receiving Pain or Pleasure from them in order to their own Preservation and the propagation of their Species The utmost Perfection of these consists in mere sensitive Pleasures i. e. of doing and enjoying such Things as are grateful to their Appetites and Senses But the Nature of Man besides what is common to him with Plants and Brutes both in the vegetative and sensitive Life consists in the Faculty of Right Reason whereby he is made capable of understanding the Law of Nature and of its Rewards and Punishments either in this Life or that to come to induce him to their Observation and deterr him from the transgression of them Which Sentiments as no Creature in this visible World except Man does partake of so his Chief Good or Happiness consists in the improvement and perfection of this Faculty that is in such Actions as are most agreeable to Right Reason and as may best entitle him to the Divine Favour and afford him the greatest Assurance of a lasting Happiness both in this Life and after it is ended So that all the Actions of Man considered as voluntary and subject to the Law of Nature and thereby capable of Rewards and Punishments are called Moral as being directed by God the Supreme Legislator to the greatest and most excellent End viz. the Common Good of Rational Beings § 13. Having laid down these Principles of moral Good and Evil in order to the setling and clearing the Nature of this Obligation and wherein it consists I shall in the next place particularly declare the Sanction of this Law viz. those Rewards which God hath ordained for the Observation of this Law of Nature of endeavouring the Common Good and those Punishments he hath appointed for its Breach or Transgression But I have already laid down That all Obligation upon the Soul of Man arises properly from the Commands of some rightful Superior Power that is such a one who hath not only force sufficient to inflict what Evils he pleases upon the Disobedient but who hath also given us just Grounds or Reasons wherefore he requires us to determine the natural Liberties of our Wills according to his Pleasure both which whenever they meet in any Supreme Power and that he hath once signified his Will to us ought to produce in our Minds not only fear to offend but also a love of and obedience to his Commands The former from the Consideration of his irresistible Power The latter from their own intrinseck Goodness as also from all those Motives which ought to persuade us to perform his Will For as one who hath no other Reason than down-right force why he will have me perform and submit to his Commands whether I will or no may indeed so far terrifie me that to avoid a greater Evil I may think it best to obey him yet that fear once removed there will then remain nothing that can hinder me from acting according to my own rather than his Will or Humour So on the other side he who can give me never so good Reasons why I ought to obey him yet if destitute of Power to inflict any Punishment upon me for my Disobedience such his Commands may without any outward inconvenience be neglected by
Health of the whole Body So from the knowledge of this Order of divers subordinate Goods and the proportion which any one of them bears to the Common or Greatest Good may easily be deduced how much the Well-being or Happiness of every single Person may contribute to that of the whole Family the Felicity of a Family to that of a Commonwealth that of a Common-weal to the Happiness of all Nations and of all these considered together what proportion they may bear to the Common Felicity of Mankind So that hence you may be easily satisfied how much the knowledge of this one Truth conduces to our right prosecution of this great End and indeed Sum of all the Laws of Nature § 25. Lastly which yet ought rather to have been put in the first place of all let us consider the chief and principal of all the moral Vertues Love or Piety towards God expressed in all the Acts of Divine Worship as Prayer Praise Thanksgiving c. This must needs be a Vertue since it does that which is highly grateful and pleasing to God the Head of all Rational Beings and speaking after the manner of us Men performing somewhat Good and agreeable to his Divine Nature and which also in respect of our selves makes us most happy not only by rendring the Deity propitious to us but also by a nearer spiritual approach and conversation with it in those holy Exercises it puts us in the happiest state we can be capable of in this mortal Life and so makes us more able to perform the great End of our Creation viz. Our contributing to the Common Good of Rational Beings § 26. I have been the larger in laying down and explaining this Law as a Measure or Standard of all good Actions to the end that we should esteem all Good or Evil not as it more or less profits or hurts our own particular Bodies alone but as it may more or less add to or detract from this Common Good So that in comparing of all Goods together whether Natural or Moral we ought still to look upon that as the greatest Good which conferrs most and that to be the least which contributes least to this great End which is therefore to be desired or prosecuted by us with proportionable Affections and Endeavours From whence also may be drawn a general and powerful Remedy against all those inordinate Passions proceeding from excessive Self-Love by which Men are most commonly drawn to hurt or injure others For a Man who thus governs himself will not extravagantly desire any of these outward Things nor suffer his Soul to be disturbed by the consciousness of any Crime who judges nothing truly Good but what really conduces to the common Good of Rationals § 27. Thus I hope I have demonstrated the true Reasons and Grounds of Moral Good and Evil or of Vertue and Vice and have endeavoured to render Moral Philosophy or the true Knowledge of the Laws of Nature a practical Science and not merely Speculative or Notional like that of the Stoicks who whilst they allowed nothing to be really good but Vertue or Evil except Vice and kept such a pother to extol the real Good of the former and declaim against the certain Evil of the latter yet by not giving us the true Reasons or Grounds why Vertue should be embraced and Vice avoided they rendred their Philosophy merely speculative and only fit for those idle Porches in which they declaimed scarce having any farther influence upon the Actions of Life when either their own Affections or any powerful outward Temptation did at any time prompt them to act contrary thereunto For Vertue is only to be esteemed as the highest or most perfect Good not as it is a well-sounding Word or that fills our Minds with some vain empty Notions but as it determines our Actions to their utmost influeence upon the Common Good of Rational Beings which is the only true Piety as consisting in the Performance of the Commands and Will of God by the imitation of his Divine Goodness and Beneficence § 28. So that I shall conclude this Chapter with Dr. Parker's excellent Consideration on this Subject and which being better than any thing that I can now think of I shall make bold to give it you almost in his own Words with a little alteration So that it is now demonstratively certain by induction of Particulars according to the method we have now taken that every Vertue hath some natural Efficacy to promote the Common Good of Rationals and is no otherwise a Vertue but as it contributes to this great End and that each Man 's true private Interest and Happiness is therein contained and inseparably connected with it by the necessary order of Nature i. e by the Contrivance and Wisdom of Divine Providence So that nothing can be more evident than that its Author commands all his Rational Creatures that are capable of any knowledge of his Will and sence of their Duty to act suitably to that Order of Things which he hath established in the World and to that Declaration of his Will which he hath made by that Establishment in order to the bringing about this great End of the Common Good of Rational Beings CHAP. V. Containing an Answer to such Objections as may be made against the Law of Nature thus explained and reduc'd into this Proposition Of Endeavouring the Common Good of Rational Beings with a Conclusion proving this to be the sum of all Laws whether Natural or Revealed § 1. SInce there are two sorts of men who according to their several Principles and Inclinations may make different Objections against this our Method of proving and deducing the Law of Nature and contracting it into this sing'e easie Proposition of our endeavouring the common good of Rational Beings I shall therefore divide them into Platonists or Epicureans Those who put the whole stress of their belief of the Laws of Nature upon innate Ideas or Principles of Moral Good and Evil imprest by God upon mens Souls and who I doubt not may have a true zeal though without knowledge for this Common Good which is more than I can promise for those who falâ—ing into the other extream will not acknowledge that we can have any true or certain notion or idea of this Common Good so as to make it the main end of all our Actions I shall therefore in the first place consider those Objections that may be made by the former sort of Men whose first Objection may be this That it is most suitable to the goodness of God to imprint upon the minds of men certain Characters and Notions of himself and also of those Moral Duties which he requires of them and not to leave them in the dark and in doubt about things of so great a Concernment to them since by that means he would not only have secured himself of that Worship and Veneration which is due from so Intelligent a Creature as Man
with those of all other men and finding them to agree in the same Wants general Properties and desires of like things necessary for life and an aversion to others destructive to it we can thereby certainly determine what Things or Actions will conduce not only to our own happiness and preservation but to all others of our own Kind From whence there arises a clear Idea of the Common Good of Mankind since as I have already proved one peculiar Faculty of human Nature different from that of Beasts is to abstract universal Ideas from particular things and then to give general Names to those Ideas which though they are but Creatures of our own understanding and not existing out of our own Brains yet are for all that true Ideas of the general Natures of those things from whence they are taken and as for the general Names of them if there were not real notions in our minds agreeable to the nature of those things from whence they were taken and that before any Names imposed upon them they would indeed be non-sense or meer empty Sounds without any Ideas to support them But the before-cited Author of the Essay of Humane Vnderstanding Book II. Chap. 24. grants That the Mind hath a power to make complex collective Ideas of Substances which he so calls because such Ideas are made up of many particular Substances considered together as united into one Idea and which so joined are looked on as one v. g. the Idea of such a collection of men as make an Army though consisting of a great number of distinct Substances is as much one Idea as the Idea of a Man And the great collective Idea of all Bodies whatsoever signified by the name World is as much one Idea as the Idea of any the least particle of matter in it it sufficing to the unity of any Idea that it be considered as one Representation or Picture tho made up of never so many particulars And he likewise farther grants That it is not harder to conceive how an Army of Ten thousand men should make one Idea than how a Man should make one Idea it being as easie to the mind to unite into one the Idea of a great number of men to consider it as one as it is to unite into one particular all the distinct Ideas that make up the composition of a Man and consider them altogether as one Therefore I can see no reason why any man by considering the nature of all the Men in the World may not only have a true Idea of all Mankind but also of the things or means that may produce their common good or happiness as well as a General of an Army of 100000 men can have a true Idea of that collective Body of Men and order all things necessary for their common safety and preservation And if Mr. Hobs's Assertion be true That there is nothing universal but Names his beloved Sciences of Arithmetick and Geometry would also be false and uncertain since they only considering Numbers Lines and Figures in general and collecting universal Ideas from thence do raise true Rules or Axioms in those Sciences from those universal Ideas though there be nothing really existing in Nature out of our own Brains but Units and single bodies And therefore Mr. H. is mistaken when he will have nothing to have any real Existence in nature but single things as if our abstract Idea's of Universals were Nothing because they are not Bodies But if these general Idea's are true as agreeing with the things from whence they are taken it will also follow that they have a real existence and consequently may have Names given them whereby to signifie and represent them to our own minds and those of others we converse with So that whatsoever we find to contribute to the Preservation Happiness and Perfection of all the men we know or have heard of we may as certainly conclude to be naturally good for all Mankind and so a much greater good than that of any one particular Person which Mr. H. himself acknowledges in his Treatise De homine Chap. 11. § 14. where treating of the Degrees of Good which of them are greater or less he plainly declares that to be a greater good coeteris paribus which is so to more men than that which is so to fewer So that if the Rational and free use of a man's Will consists in its consent with that true judgment the Understanding makes concerning those things that agree in one Common Nature and if we can thereby truly judge or determine what things are necessary or beneficial for the Natures of all other men as well as our own I see no reason why we may not desire that they should also enjoy the like good things with our selves and likewise endeavour as far as lies in our power to procure it for them since it is also a Duty imposed upon us by God and that we lie under sufficient obligations to do it we have already proved In short This Common Good of Rationals being thus made known to us may very well be proposed as the end of all our Moral Actions and being the greatest we can desire or imagine the Understanding judging aright cannot but determine that this Knowledge and Desire will more conduce to the Happiness and Perfection of our Human Nature than that of any lesser Good So that if this be greater than any other Good we can come to the knowledge of it will likewise prove to be the greatest and noblest end men can propose to themselves And Mr. H. himself is also sometimes sensible of this Common Good when in the 31 Chap. of his Leviathan in the last Page he hath made in his Latin Translation this Addition That he doth not despair that this Doctrine of his being become more acceptable by custom will at length be received bono publico for the Common Good So that it seems he presages his Doctrine will come one day to be beneficial not only to one particular State or Commonwealth but for the Common Good of all men who are with him yet in the State of Nature And if Mr. H. hath so perfect a Notion of the Common Good of all Nations I think there will be no great difference but in Words between that and the Common Good which we maintain § 15. But to come to a conclusion I hope notwithstanding all that hath been objected to the contrary it hath been sufficiently made out that not only all the Moral Virtues are contained in and may be reduced to this one Principle Of endeavouring the Common Good of Rational Beings But that likewise all the Laws of Nature which are but the Exercise or Practice of these particular Vertues upon their due Objects may be also reduced into this single Proposition since they all of them respect either a man's Duty towards God by a dué worship of him or else towards himself in the exercise of Temperance c. or else
be the same infinite good and wise Disposer and Governour of the whole System of rational Beings and this our benevolence by giving him Glory Love Reverence and Obedience fulfils all the Duties of humanity towards those of our own kind which answers both the Tables of the moral or natural Law and in this consent of our minds with the divine Intellect consists that compleat harmony of the Vniverse of intellectual Beings The great influence of these Principles upon all the parts of natural Religion may be more fully express'd and made out by these following considerations 1. The voluntary acknowledgment and consent of our minds to the Perfections of the divine Nature and Actions include the agreement and concurrence of our chief Faculties viz. The understanding and will therewith and moreover naturally excite all our Affections to comply with them and so strongly dispose us in our future Life and Actions to compose our selves to the imitation thereof to the utmost of our Abilities particularly these Principles naturally produce in us First Praises and Thanksgivings to God private and publick for goods already done to our selves or others wherein the Essence of Prayer is contained 2. Hence also arise Hope Affiance or Trust in God which I willingly acknowledge is fullest of assurance when founded not only on observations or past experience of Providence but hath also revealed promises annex'd relating to future Good 3. To conclude when our Acknowledgment and high esteem of the divine Attributes move us to the imitation thereof we must needs thereby arise to those high degrees of Charity or the endeavour of the greatest publick good which we observe in God to prosecute and such Charity imports not only exact Iustice to all but that overflowing bounty tenderness and sympathy with others beyond which humane Nature cannot arrive because these not only harmoniously consent with the like Perfections in God but also co-operate with him to the improvement of the finite parts of the rational System whereof he is the infinite yet Sympathizing head who declares he takes all that is done to the Members of this intellectual Society as done to himself Nevertheless I profess my self to understand this Sympathy or compassion in God in such a Sence only as it is understood in Holy Writ for that infinite concern for the good of his best Creatures which is contained in his infinite goodness and is a real perfection of his Nature not implying any mistake of others for himself nor any capacity of being lessened or hurt by the power of any mans malice but yet fully answers nay infinitely exceeds that solicitous care and concern for the good of others which Charity and Compassion work in the best of men In short if the Reader will take the pains to peruse the Three first Chapters of this Discourse he will find that we have in explaining the terms of this Proposition not only given a bare interpretation of Words but also have proposed the true Notions and Natures of those things from whence they are taken as far as is necessary for our purpose and may observe that by one and the same labour we have directly and immediately explained the Power and necessity of those humane Actions which are required to the common Happiness of all men and also to the private good and necessity of particular Persons Altho' it seemed most convenient to use such general words which may in some Sence be attributed to the Divine Majesty and to have done it with that Design that by the help of this Analogy thus supposed not only our obligation to Piety and Vertue but also the Nature of Divine Iustice and Dominion may be from hence better understood But as for what concerns the form of this Proposition it is evident that it is wholly practical as that which determines concerning the certain effects of humane Actions But it is also to be noted that altho' the words conduces or renders in either of these Propositions are put in the present Tense Yet it is not limited to any time present but abstracts from it And because its truth doth chiefly depend upon the Identity of the whole with the parts it is as plainly true of all future time and is as often used by us in this Discourse with respect to future as well as present Actions And therefore this Proposition is more fit for our purpose because built upon no particular Hypothesis for it doth not suppose men born in a Civil State nor yet out of it neither see any Kindred or Relation to be among men as derived from the same common Parents as we are taught by the Holy Scriptures since the obligation of the Laws of Nature is to be demonstrated to those who do not yet acknowledge them Neither on the other side doth it suppose as Mr. H. doth in his de Cive a great many men already grown and sprung up out of the Earth like Mushrooms But our Proposition and all those things which we have deduced from it might have been understood and acknowledged by the first Parents of mankind if they had only considered themselves together with God and their Posterity which was to come into the world Neither may it less easily be understood and admitted by those Nations which have not yet heard of Adam and Eve Neither may it be amiss to observe concerning the Sence of this Proposition that in the same words in which the Cause of the greatest and best effect is laid down there is also delivered in short the means to the chiefest end because the effect of a rational Agent after it is conceived in its mind and that it hath determined to bestow its endeavours in producing it is called the End and the Acts or Causes by which it endeavours to effect it are called the means and from this observation may be shown a true method of reducing all those things which Moral Philosophers have spoken about the means to the best end into natural Theorems concerning the Power of humane Actions in producing such Effects and in this form they may more easily be examined whether they are true or not and may be more evidently demonstrated so to be and also we may hence learn by the like Reason how easily all true knowledge of the force of those natural Causes which we may any way apply to our use does suggest fit Mediums for the attaining of the end intended and so may be applyed to Practice according to occasion Lastly from thence it appears that either of these Propositions which we have now laid down do so far approach to the nature of a Law as they respect an end truly worthy of it viz. The common good of all rational Beings or else if you please to word it otherwise the Honour or Worship of God conjoyned with the common Good and Happiness of mankind And tho' it doth not yet appear that this Proposition is a Law because the Lawgiver is not yet mentioned nevertheless I doubt
only to discern the Reasonableness of all Vertue and Morality which is their Duty and Ornament as they are Men but also they may here see the true Foundations of Civil Government and Property which they are most obliged to understand because as Gentlemen they are born to the greatest Interest in them both I need add no more to give you Assurance that I freely consent to your Printing of this Book and am Your affectionate Friend Ric. Peterborough The Contents of the First Chapter A Brief Repetition of the Preface That the Law of Nature can only be learnt from the Knowledge of a God and from the Nature of Things and of Mankind in general § 1. A state of the Question between us and the Epicureans and Scepticks § 2. The method proposed in what manner we are to enquire into the Nature of things and of mankind in order to prove certain general Propositions that shall carry with them the Obligation of Natural Laws § 3. The Soul supposed to be rafa Tabula without any innate Idea's Our method proposed of considering God as the Cause of the World and all Things and humane Actions as subordinate causes and effects either hindring or promoting our common Happiness and Preservation § 4. All the Laws of Nature deduceable from hence as so many practical Propositions and all our observations or knowledge of it reduceable to one Proposition of the highest Benevolence of rational Beings towards each other as the summ of all the Laws of Nature and what is meant by this Benevolence § 5. What things are necessary to be known or supposed in order to the knowledge of this universal Benevolence § 6. The Connexion of the Terms of this Proposition proved and what is to be collected from thence The true happiness of single Persons inseparable from that of Mankind The general Causes of its Happiness to be considered in the first place § 7. Therefore no Man's particular Happiness can be opposed or preferred before the Happiness of all other rational Beings The contrary practice unreasonable and unjust § 8. Yet that this Proposition cannot be of sufficient efficacy till we have proposed the Common Good of Rationals for the great End of all our Actions § 9. The Effects of this Proposition not prejudiced by the ill use of Men's Free-wills § 10 11. By what steps and degrees the Knowledge of this Common Good comes to be conveyed into our minds from the nature of things § 12. First Natural Observation that in our free use and enjoyment of all the outward Necessaries of Life and in our mutual administring them to each other consists all men's happiness and preservation from whence also proceeds a Notion of the Common Good of Rationals § 13. That Men are able to contribute more to the good and happiness of those of their own kind than any other Creatures § 14. Nothing a surer help and defence to Mankind than the most sincere and diffusive Benevolence § 15. Nor any thing more destructive to it than their constant Malice and Ill-will § 16. That these Principles are as certain as any in Arithmetick and Geometry notwithstanding the supposition of Men's free-will § 17. Yet that they are only Laws as proceeding from God the first Cause and as establish'd with fit Rewards and Punishments § 18. That from these natural and general Observations we attain to a true knowledge of the Causes of all Men's happiness and that by the Laws of Matter and Motion these Causes act as certainly as any other § 19,20 Hence arises a true notion of things naturally and unalterably good or evil § 21. That Men's natural Powers and the things necessary for life can neither be exerted nor made use of contrary to the known rules of Matter and Motion § 22. Some Conclusions deduceable from hence as that we chiefly concern our selves about those things and actions that are in our Powers § 23. No man self-sufficient to procure all things necessary for his own preservation and happiness and therefore needs the good-will and assistance of others § 24. None of these necessaries for Life can produce the Ends design'd but as they are appropriated to Man's particular uses and necessities for the time they make use of them § 25. From whence arises the Right of Occupancy or Possession which may be exercised even during a natural Community of most things § 26. That as this natural Division and Propriety in things is necessary to the preservation of particular Persons so it is also of Mankind considered as an aggregate Body § 27. That these Principles destroy Mr. H's Hypothesis of the Right of all Men to all things in the state of nature § 28. The necessity of a farther Division and Appropriation of things now Mankind is multiplyed on the Earth § 29. No Man hath a Right to any thing any farther than as it conduces or at least consists with the common good of rational Beings § 30. The knowledge of these natural Causes and Effects alike certain in a natural as civil State with a brief Recapitulation of the Grounds and Arguments insisted on in this Chapter § 31. The Contents of the Second Chapter MAN to be considered as a natural Body as an Animal and also as a rational Creature Some Observations from the first of these Considerations as that humane Bodies and Actions are subject to the same Laws of Matter and Motion with other things § 1 2. No Actions or Motions more conducive to Man's happiness than what proceed from the most diffusive Benevolence § 3. Mankind considered as a System of natural Bodies doth not make any considerable difference between them when considered as voluntary Agents endued with sense but that they rather act more powerfully thereby § 4. Men's greatest security from Evils and hopes of obtaining Good depends upon the good-will and voluntary Assistance of others § 5. Several natural Conclusions drawn from these Observations § 6. The like being found true in animate as well as inanimate Bodies will make us more sollicitous towards the general good of those of our own kind § 7. That loving or benevolent Actions towards each other constitute the happiest state we can enjoy and also it is ordained by a concourse of Causes that all rational Beings should be sensible of these Indications § 8. This proved from several natural Observations as 1. That the bulk of the Bodies of Animals being but narrow the things necessary for their preservation can be but few and most of them communicable to many at once and so requires a limited self-love consistent with the safety and happiness of others § 9. 2. That Creatures of the same kind cannot but be moved to the like affections towards others as towards themselves from the sense of the similitude of their natures § 10. Animals do never deviate from this natural state but when they are seized with some preternatural Disease or Passion which as oft as it happens are absolutely destructive to
the Gospel of Jesus Christ reducible to this one Proposition of Endeavouring the Common Good and that this was the great design of Christ's coming into the World § 17 18. A Conclusion of the whole § 19. TO THE BOOKSELLER THE Learned Authour of this Treatise sent it to me then being in a Private Station above a year ago but then concealed his Name from me either through his great Modesty or because in his Prudence he thought that if I knew him I might be biassed in my judgment by the Honour which I am obliged to have to his Family and especially to his Grandfather by his Mother's side the most Learned Primate of Ireland Wherefore I read the Book without any respect to the unknown Writer and considered only the Merits of the Performance Thus I found that he had not only well translated and epitomized in some places what I had written in Latin but had fully digested the chief things of my Design in a well-chosen Method of his own with great Perspicuity and had added some Illustrations of his own or from other Learned Authours with a Philosophical Liberty which I must needs allow For this Reason I judged that the then unknown Authour had given too low a Title to his Book and that I was to esteem him a good Hyperaspistes or able Second in this Combat for Truth and Justice rather than a Translater or Epitomizer of what I had written This obliged me to enquire diligently after the Authour's Name and Quality and then I soon obtained the Favour and Honour of a more intimate Conversation with him Hereby I soon found that I might safely leave the Maintenance of that good Cause in which I was engaged to his great Abilities and Diligence And I hope that since this Learned Gentleman hath conquer'd the Difficulties of the Search into the Rise of the Laws of Nature now many of our younger Gentry will be encouraged to follow him in the way which this his Treatise makes plain before them For from thence they may receive assistance not only to discern the Reasonableness of all Vertue and Morality which is their Duty and Ornament as they are Men but also they may here see the true Foundations of Civil Government and Property which they are most obliged to understand because as Gentlemen they are born to the greatest Interest in them both I need add no more to give you Assurance that I freely consent to your Printing of this Book and am Your affectionate Friend Ric. Peterborough OF THE Law of NATURE And its OBLIGATION CHAP. I. Of the first Means of discovering the Law of Nature viz. the Nature of Things § 1. HAving in the Introduction to this Discourse shewn you those several Methods by which divers Authors have endeavoured to prove a Law of Nature and having also given my Reasons tho' in short why I cannot acquiesce in any of them as laying too weak Foundations whereon to raise so great and weighty a Building and having likewise given you the only true Grounds by which it can as I suppose be made out viz. from the Existence of a GOD declaring his Will to us from the Frame of the World or by the Nature of all Things without us as also from our own Natures or that of Mankind in general we by the Power of our natural Faculties or Reasons drawing true Conclusions from all these This being premised I shall now proceed particularly to declare in the first place what I understand by the Frame of the World or Nature of Things in order to the proving the Existence and Obligation of the Law of Nature and that it is really and truly a Law obliging all Persons of Years of Discretion and sound Minds to its Observation Which being performed I shall then proceed to our own Nature as included in that of all Mankind § 2. But though the ancient as well as modern Scepticks and Epicureans have of old and do still at this day deny the Existence of any Law of Nature properly so called yet I suppose that we are both sufficiently agreed what we understand by this Term since we both thereby mean certain Principles of immutable Truth and Certainty which direct our voluntary Actions concerning the election of good and the avoiding of evil Things and so lay an Obligation as to our external Actions even in the state of Nature and out of a Civil Society or Common-weal That such eternal Truths are necessarily and unavoidably presented to and perceived by Men's Minds and retained in their Memories for the due ordering or governing of their Actions is what is here by us affirmed and by them as confidently denied And I farther conceive That the Actions so directed and chosen are first known to be naturally good as productive of the greatest publick Benefits and afterwards are called morally Good because they agree with those Dictates of Reason which are here proved to be the Laws or Rules of our Manners or voluntary Actions So also the Evil to be avoided is first the greatest natural Evil which afterwards for the like Reason is called Moral § 3. Therefore that the Existence of such Propositions may more plainly appear and be demonstrated to the Understandings of all indifferent Readers it is necessary that we first carefully consider the Nature of divers Things without us as also that of Mankind and what we mean by Good and Evil whether Natural or Moral Lastly we shall shew what those general Propositions are which we affirm carry with them the Force or Obligation of Natural Laws as declaring their Exercise or Performance necessary to the compassing of an End that ought to be endeavoured or sought after in order to our true and greatest Happiness § 4. Nor let it seem strange that I suppose the Nature of divers Things about which we are daily conversant ought first to be looked into and considered For I will here suppose the Soul or Mind of Man to be at first rasa Tabula like fair Paper that hath no connate Character or Idea's imprinted upon it as that noble Theorist Mr. Lock hath I suppose fully proved and that it is not sensible of any thing at its coming into the World but it s own Existence and Action but receives all its Idea's afterwards from such Objects as it hath received in by the Senses So that our Understandings being naturally destitute of all Notions or Idea's we cannot comprehend how they can operate unless they be first excited by outward Objects And indeed how can we understand what may be helpful and agreeable or else hurtful and destructive to Men's Minds and Bodies unless we first consider as far as we are able all the Causes as well near as remote which have made constitute and still preserve Mankind or else may tend to its destruction either for the time present or to come Nor indeed can it be understood what is the fittest and best Thing or Action any Person can perform in a
that of all others though such cases being Indefinite cannot be certainly or distinctly known § 8. But indeed the care of any particular Persons or a few Men's happiness is rendred useless for the present nor can be hoped for the future if it is sought by opposing or postponing the happiness of all other Rationals because the mind being thus affected a main and essential part of its own felicity must needs still be wanting viz. That inward Peace of Conscience proceeding from a solid Reason and true Prudence always constant and agreeable to it self For whilst such a Person resolves to act by one rule towards himself and by another towards all others who are of the same Nature and therefore need and require the same things with himself he must needs contradict his own Reason and so wants that true Joy and Satisfaction constantly springing in the mind of a Just Benevolent and Good-natur'd Person from the sense of another's good and happiness when promoted or procured by himself So that it is impossible for any Man to be truly happy who not only neglects the necessary causes thereof God and all other Men on whose Help and Assistance his true Happiness and Well-being wholly depends but also provokes them to his certain ruine and destruction so that there is no surer way which can bring any Man to the attaining his own particular Happiness but that which leads him also to endeavour the Common Good of all other men as well as his own § 9. But I here acknowledge that this Proposition concerning Universal Benevolence cannot be of sufficient efficacy for the due ordering our Actions and correcting our Manners until we have first propos'd to our selves this Common Good of Rational Beings viz. Our own Felicity in conjunction with that of others as our main end and that we are convinced that the various Acts contain'd under this general Love or Benevolence are the only true means to procure it The truth of which Proposition is in the first place to be made manifest to us in the next all those other Propositions that can be deduced from thence such as are those less general ones which determine concerning the Natural Power of Fidelity Gratitude Paternal and Filial Affection as also of all other particular Vertues necessary for the obtaining any part of this humane Felicity for as well the whole truth of this Proposition as of all those which follow from thence depend upon the Natural and Necessary Power of such Actions as real Causes producing such Effects § 10. And though perhaps it may at first sight seem to detract from their certainty that they depend upon such an uncertain Cause as Man's Will Yet however it suffices for their truth and certainty that whenever such voluntary Causes shall exert themselves such Effects will certainly be produced Thus in Arithmetick we freely Add and Subtract that is we can choose whether we will perform those Operations or not but if we reckon truly we shall always find the Total equal to all the particulars either Added or Subtracted And there is a like certain and true Connexion between all the Causes and Effects which can be known in any other Science And this I have likewise imitated in this Treatise of Moral Philosophy by reducing all the parts of which it consists to this one Head or Summ viz. Love or Benevolence which Idea I shall improve by enquiring into its several Kinds and shewing the necessary Connexion of this or that particular Action with the Common Good of Rationals which ought to be the great end sought for by us § 11. But since our voluntary Actions alone can be govern'd by Reason and those only which concern intelligent Agents are to be considered in Morals it is evident that from none of all these Actions we can frame a higher or more comprehensive Idea than this of Universal Benevolence which comprehends the willing and endeavouring of all good things and the removal or hindring of all evil ones from those Objects about which it is conversant And this Benevolence extends its self to all Moral Actions as well those of considering and comparing divers goods with each other as of inquiring into the means by which they may be produced nor is it more certainly true that the Addition of several numbers makes a Summ Total than that this Benevolence produces a general good effect to all those towards whom we exert it Thus it is as certain that Piety Fidelity Gratitude paternal and conjugal Affection together with filial Duty make up the chief and constituent parts of this Benevolence as that Addition Substraction Multiplication and Division are several parts of Arithmetick so that it is no material Objection That this Universal Benevolence may be prejudiced or lessened by the wickedness or ill-nature of Men. So that the great end or Summ of the Law of Nature cannot be thereby generally obtain'd as it ought any more than it is an Objection against the certainty or usefulness of Arithmetick or Geometry that some Men should through Lazyness and Inadvertency altogether neglect their Rules or make false Conclusions from those Sciences or should through Ignorance or prejudice deny their certainty So likewise it is in the Science of Morality as contain'd in the Law of Nature which is chiefly imploy'd in weighing and taking a true account of those humane Powers that contribute to the Common Good of Rational Beings which since they may vary somewhat in so great a variety of possible Cases he may be said and that deservedly to have well performed this task who first affirms in general that all those Powers are comprehended under the most general and diffusive Benevolence though he may be able afterwards more particularly to demonstrate that a just division of things Fidelity Gratitude and all the other vertues are contain'd under it and also shew in what Cases they become useful to this end by which means Religion and humane Society with all other things which may render Men's lives happy and safe will be certainly improved and advanced And herein consists the Solution of that most useful Problem concerning the Common good of Rationals procur'd by the most diffusive Benevolence which Moral Philosophy teaches us to search after Nor is the truth or authority of such Precepts at all prejudic'd or diminisht though very many Persons will not obey them or will set themselves to oppose them since this only can be the consequence of it That they will thereby lose their own happiness and perhaps may draw others by their false reasons into the same misery and so I doubt not on the other side but that Men would think themselves oblig'd to perform all the Acts that constitute this Benevolence if they were but once convinced that so great and noble an end as the Common Good of Rational Beings and in which their own happiness is likewise contained will be certainly procured thereby and cannot be had by any other or contrary means
glad if any of Mr. H's Disciples could shew us any sufficient Reason for that Opinion § 17. So that these things which I have now laid down concerning the Natural means of Men's happiness do appear so evident from our common Reason and daily Experience that they are of like certainty with the Principles of Arithmetick and Geometry in all whose Operations there are still supposed certain Acts depending upon our free humane Faculties and yet neither of these Sciences are rendred the more uncertain from the supposition of Men's Free-will whether they will draw Lines or cast up Sums or not since it suffices for their truth and certainty that there is an inseparable Connexion between such Acts which are supposed to be in our Power to exert and all the effects sought for To the finding of which both the pleasure annexed to their Contemplation and the various uses of Humane Life do at once invite us And in the like manner the truth of all Moral Knowledge is founded in the Immutable Coherence between the highest Felicity which Humane Power can attain to with those Acts of universal Benevolence that is of Love towards God and Men and which exerts it self in all the particular moral Vertues yet in the mean time these two things are still supposed That Men desire and seek the highest Felicity they are capable of and also That they are able to exercise this Benevolence not only towards themselves but God and Men as partakers with them of the same Rational or Intelligent Nature This I have thought fit to add to prevent all those Cavils which Mr. H's Disciples are used to make against Morality from the necessity of our Wills § 18. But before I proceed farther to inquire into the Nature of things I desire you to remember what I have already hinted in the Introduction to this Discourse That this truth concerning the efficacy of Universal Benevolence for the Preservation and Happiness of Rational Beings as also all other Propositions alike evident and contained under it do all proceed from God as the first Cause and Ordainer of all things and consequently of our Humane Understanding and of all truths therein contained And since these Rules drawn from the Natures of things tend to the procuring God's End and Design viz. The Preservation and Happiness of Mankind and also that it hath pleased Him to annex certain natural Rewards to the Observation of these Dictates of Reason and Punishments to their Transgression so that they thereby becoming apt and sufficient for the due ordering of our Thoughts and governing our Actions towards God our selves and all others as I shall farther make out in this Discourse I see nothing wanting to give it the Essence and Vigour of a Law And I shall farther shew before I have done that under this general Rule of endeavouring the Common Good of Rational Beings or Universal Benevolence is contained Piety towards God and the highest Good-will or Charity towards Men and is the Summ both of the Moral Law of Moses and of the Gospel of our Saviour Iesus Christ. § 19. These Things being thus proposed in general I come now more particularly to shew that a due Observation and Knowledge of these natural Things without us will truly and clearly teach us what Operations or Motions of them are good or evil for all other Men as well as our selves and also shew us how necessarily and unalterably all these Things are produced for Natural Knowledge searches into the true Causes of that Generation and Corruption which daily happens to all Natural Bodies and especially to Men and so can demonstrate the necessary coherence of these Effects with their Causes and therefore those Causes that help to generate or preserve Men and that make them live happily in this Life are Natural Goods as the Causes of their Misery and Dissolution are Natural Evils And it then as plainly follows That by this Knowledge we can as certainly demonstrate and foretell what Things are naturally Good or Evil for all Mankind as for any single Person § 20. Therefore we may truly conclude That the Knowledge of all these Effects which either Nature or Humane Industry can produce for Men's Food Clothing Habitation and Medicine is part of this Natural Knowledge To which we may also add the understanding of all other Humane Operations and of the Effects proceeding from thence for the Uses of Humane Life For although the voluntary Actions of Men as they exert themselves towards Things without them do not work exactly after the same manner as meer Mechanick Motions viz. from the Pulsion or Motion of other Bodies but either from their Reasons or Wills yet since all the outward Motions we exert receive their Measure and Force from the Natural Powers of Humane Bodies which are of the same Nature with others and so must perform their Natural Functions as they are regulated by the necessary Laws of Matter and Motion much after the same manner as other Natural Motions it is evident that these voluntary Actions whenever they are thus exerted are regulated by the same Natural Laws And it is commonly known how much Men's Industry by the various Motions of their Bodies which a Philosopher can easily resolve into mechanick ones does contribute to their own and other Men's Preservation by providing and administring Victuals Cloths Physick Houses c. In performing which Effects Men's Strength and Skill in Husbandry Building Navigation and other manual Trades are chiefly employ'd Nor are the Liberal Arts absolutely free from these Laws of Motion since by the help of certain sensible Signs and articulate Notes or Marks as Words Letters or Cyphers the Minds of Men come to be endued with Knowledge and directed in most of their Civil and Moral Duties I have only thought fit to hint thus much concerning Humane Actions considered as meer Natural Things existing without us but I shall treat more fully of them in the next Chapter when I come to treat of the Nature of Man considered as a voluntary Agent § 21. Hence it plainly appears That all these Natural Things and the mutual Helps by which they are procured may be certainly known and foreseen by us to be naturally and unalterably Good that is tending to the Preservation and Happiness of Mankind And for the same Reason all those contrary Causes or Motions by which Men's Bodies are weakened or destroyed by lessening or taking away the Necessaries and Conveniences of Life such as Food Rayment Liberty Quiet c. And also those Actions by which Vertue and Knowledge may be rooted out of Men's Minds and Errours and unbridled Passions destructive to the Common Good of Mankind introduced into their Rooms are necessarily and in their own Nature Evil. Therefore when we determine of Natural Goods or Evils according to the Law of Nature we are not only to consider the Preservation of a few particular Persons since the Punishment nay Death of these may often conduce to the Common Good
Example than Nature I desire them to shew me any Nation in the World so barbarous that doth not go upon two Legs as well as we And though Children 't is true before they can go must crawl yet it is not upon their Hands and Feet but Knees For a Man's Legs as is notorious to Anatomists are so much longer than his Arms and are likewise so set on that they cannot be brought to move in Right-Angles with the Arms or Fore-legs as in Brutes And though I grant that some Beasts as Apes Monkeys and Bears can sometimes go upon their Hind-feet yet is not this constant but as soon as the present Necessity is over they soon return to their natural posture To conclude I think I may leave it to any indifferent Reader to judge whether from all these natural Observations from the Frame of Humane Bodies and the Nature of their Passions it doth not evidently appear That Man's Happiness and Subsistence in this Life was not designed by GOD to depend upon his own particular sensual Pleasure or the meer satisfaction of his present Appetites and Passions restrained to himself without any Consideration of others of his own Kind but was rather intended for the Common Good and Preservation of the whole Species of Mankind § 20. Having now dispatched those natural Observations that may be drawn from the Constitution or Frame of Man's Body in order to the rendring him capable of serving the Common Good in the propagation of his Species I shall proceed to the next Head before laid down viz. those Excellencies or Prerogatives of the Humane Soul or Mind and in which he excels all other Creatures And in the first place Mr. H. very well observes That it is peculiar to the Nature of Man to be inquisitive into the Causes of the Events they see and that upon the sight of any thing that hath a beginning to judge also that it had a Cause which determined the same to begin when it did And also whereas there is no other Felicity amongst Beasts but the enjoying their daily Food Ease and Lust as having little or no foresight of the time to come for want of Observation and Memory of the Order Consequence and Dependance of the Things they see Man alone observes how one Event hath been produced by another and therein remembers the Antecedence and Consequence Whence he certainly must be endued with a larger Capacity for observing the natures of Things without himself and is also able to make more curious and exact Searches into their Causes and Effects than the most sagacious Brutes who though they are endued with some few Appetites or Inclinations towards those Things that are necessary for their Preservation and an Aversion for others that are hurtful to them yet this seems to proceed from some natural instinct or impression stampt by GOD on their very Natures and not from Reason or Deliberation As young Wild-Ducks they say will run away from a Man as soon as they are hatch'd and Chickens know the Kite though they never saw her before and this not from any Experience or Rational Deduction But as for Man it is his Faculty alone to proceed from some known Principles to draw Rational Deductions or Conclusions which were not known before The exercise of which Faculty we call Right Reason or Ratiocination which though I grant is not born with him and so is not a Property belonging to him as a meer Animal since we see Children 'till they come to some Years and Fools and mad Folks act without it so long as they live yet is it not therefore Artificial as some would have it since all Persons of Years of Discretion and who will give themselves leisure to think may attain to a sufficient degree of it for the well-Government of their Actions in order to their own Preservation and the discovering that Duty they owe to GOD and the rest of Mankind Which Notions being peculiar to Man and also common to the greater part of Mankind either from Men's own particular Observations or Rational Deductions or else from the Instructions of others who themselves first found out such Rational Conclusions and taught them to their Children or Scholars with their first Elements of Speech come in process of time having forgot when those early Notions were first instill'd into them to be taken for connate Idea's So that I doubt they have been by too many who have not well considered their Original mistaken for Idea's or Notions impressed by GOD upon their Souls But leaving this of which others have said enough it cannot be denied but that from this Faculty of deducing Effects from their Causes Man hath been always able to find out sufficient Remedies for his own natural Weakness by the Invention of several Arts such as Physick and Chyrurgery for his Preservation and Cure when sick or hurt And also those of a more publick Nature such are the Knowledge of Policies or the well-Government of Common-weals of Navigation Warfare or the Art Military for his Happiness and defence as a Sociable Creature So that though Man is born naked and without those natural defences and Weapons with which divers Brutes are furnished by Nature yet by the power of this Faculty he is able not only much better to secure himself from the violence and injury of the Weather by providing himself with Cloths Houses and Victuals before-hand since Nature hath not made him to live like Beasts upon those Fruits of the Earth which it spontaneously produces but can also tame subdue and kill the strongest fiercest and cunningest Brutes and make them subservient to those Ends and Designs for which he pleases to employ them So likewise from this Faculty of Judging of Consequences from their Antecedents and foreseeing the Probability or Improbability of future Events he thereby distinguishes between real and apparent Goods that is between such Things that may please for the present and do afterwards hurt him and those which though they may seem displeasing for a time yet may after do him a greater Benefit which Principles since they contain Foundations of all Morality and the Laws of Nature which we now treat of it will not be amiss here particularly to set down as the Grounds of what I have to say on this Subject § 21. First It hath been already proved That every Animal is endued with a Natural Principle whereby it is necessarily inclined to promote his own Preservation and Well-being yet not excluding that of others of their own Kind that therefore which most conduces to this end is called a natural Good and on the contrary that which is apt to obstruct and hinder it is evil Among which Goods and Evils there are several kinds or degrees according as Things are endued with more or less fitness or power to promote or hinder this End All which may be reduced to these plain Maxims or Propositions as I have taken them out of Dr. Moor's Enchiridion
Subject of the Law of Nature The first is freedom in Actions or the power of doing or forbearing any Action which does not only consist in indifferent things as when a Man of two different Objects chuses which of them he pleases but is also able to chuse a greater Good before a less and does likewise often preferr though unjustly a present less Good grateful to his Senses before a greater Good approved of by his Reason yet however it cannot be denyed but that Man by the power of his Reason is able to move and excite his Passions of Love and Pity when he sees Objects that require his help and assistance Nay can also by deliberation command and over-rule those domineering Passions of Lust Anger and Revenge c. When they happen to prompt him to Actions that are contrary to his own true Good and that of the rest of Mankind And lastly Man being capable to comprehend all particular goods and to add them together into one Sum viz. the Common and General Good of Rationals as the best and most noble End he can imploy himself about is also able to divert his thoughts from his own private pleasure and profit alone and fix them upon the care of his Relations and Friends or the more publick Good of his Country And though I grant it is difficult exactly to explain after what manner we exert this Faculty since the Nature and Actings of the Rational Soul are very abstruse yet I appeal to every Man 's own Heart whether he does not find in himself not only a Liberty to do or forbear indifferent Actions such as going abroad or staying at home but likewise such as are certainly better by a Rational estimate if he will but give himself time to consider and weigh the Nature and Consequence of them or else to what purpose is he sorry Or why does he repent the having done any foolish wicked or rash Action Since if all Actions were absolutely necessary it were as idle and insignificant as if he should be sorry that he were not made a Prince rather than a private Person or instead of a Prince that he was not an Angel So that certainly God would not then have endued Man with these two Properties peculiar to him viz. That of Conscience or a Reflection upon the Good or Evil of his own Actions and that of Repentance or Sorrow for having done amiss altogether in vain since both were needless if all Actions were a-like necessitated § 28. But the last and highest Faculty and whereby Man's Nature is chiefly distinguished from that of Brutes is when by the force of his Reason acting by the method and means here describ'd he becomes sensible of the existence Providence and other Perfections of the Deity from whence we may inferr that it is highly improbable if not impossible that this most Wise and Powerful Being which we call God should have Ordained any Power or Faculty in Man's Soul to no purpose If therefore He hath Endued Man alone of all his Creatures with the Knowledge of his own Existence and Attributes as far as is necessary for us Finite Creatures to conceive of them since I grant we are not able to comprehend Infinite Perfections it is not likely that God should endue Man alone with this so excellent a Knowledge for so useless an End as bare Speculation which alone is of no great Use or Benefit either to himself or the rest of Mankind whose Good and Happiness God chiefly intended in their Creation So that indeed we cannot apprehend any End more worthy his Divine Wisdom and Goodness in Creating us capable of these Idea's than what is Practical that is as it some way serves to direct our Actions as free and voluntary Agents towards the obtaining our own Good and Happiness Conjoyn'd with that of other Rational Beings Nor can any Actions render us more Happy than those that testifie our high Veneration of God's Infinite Perfections and a deep Sense of his Goodness towards us and whereby we may be disposed to an entire Obedience to his Laws whether Natural or Reveal'd whenever they are made known to us so that if it can be prov'd that these Dictates of right reason called the Laws of Nature derive their Authority from God as a Law-giver and were intended by Him for the Happiness and Preservation of Mankind and as Rules whereby he would have us direct all our Actions to this great End there can be no doubt but we lie under a sufficient Obligation to observe them and to prove this will be the next and greatest part of our task § 29. But before I undertake this it will not be amiss to Treat a little concerning those Attributes of the Deity as far as we can have any Idea's of them since from the consideration of the Nature of things and also of our own Humane Nature we cannot but be carry'd on to consider the Nature of God Himself and if from the Creation of the Universe we cannot but conceive Him of Infinite Power so from His Acting and Ordaining all things for the best and Worthiest End we may likewise affirm Him to be also Infinitely Wise and Good so that His Infinite Power always Acting for the best and wisest Ends is still so limitted by His Infinite Wisdom and Goodness that it cannot Act any thing destructive to the Common Good of Rational Beings of which Himself is the chief and from hence proceeds the certainty of the Law of Nature as also our perpetual Obligation to it For as I will not affirm that God could not have made the World and the Things therein after another manner than He hath done so since He hath made it in the Order we now find it this great Law of Nature of endeavouring and procuring the Common Good of Rational Beings is of the same Duration with that of the Universe it self and so consequently of constant and perpetual Obligation in respect of Himself and all those whom He hath Ordained to be His Subordinate means or Instruments to procure it especially as Men whom He hath made Conscious of our Duty and able to Co-operate with Him for this Great and Excellent End CHAP. III. Of the Law of NATURE and that it is reducible to one single Proposition which is Truly and Properly a LAW as containing all things necessary thereunto § 1. HAving already in the Two former Chapters from the Great Book of Nature that is as well that of things without us as of our selves in particular and of Mankind in general made several Observations for the proving of this Proposition That Man was Ordain'd by God for a Sociable Creature whose Being Preservation and Happiness was to depend upon the Assistance and Good-will of God his Creator as also those of his own kind I come in the next place to shew That every one is oblig'd to a return of the like Benevolence to others for we can by no means be better assured of
by the due observation of Justice and Charity or the most diffusive Benevolence towards others of our own Kind according to the Order we have already laid down in the former Chapter All which is but our endeavouring to procure as far as we are able this Common Good of Rational Agents 'T is true Mr. H. in his Lev. Chap. 13. contracts all the Laws of Nature into this short and easy Rule which he says is intelligible even by the meanest capacities viz. Do not that to another thou wouldest not have done to thy self Which Rule tho' very true and the same in effect which was given by our Blessed Saviour himself yet without the consideration of the Common Good of Mankind would too often fail For if this Rule were strictly and literally to be understood no Prince Judge or other Magistrate could condemn a Malefactor to death for in so doing he did that to another which he would not have done to himself in the like State Since he himself as well as the Criminal he condemns would then desire to be pardoned if he could But indeed the reason why all Judges and other inferior Officers of Justice are excused from the observation of this Rule in their publick Capacities is Because they do not then act as private persons but as publick Representatives or Trustees with whom the Common Good and Peace of the whole Kingdom or Commonwealth is intrusted which as I have already shewn makes but a small part of the Common Good of all Rational Agents § 16. There are likewise others who reduce the Laws of Nature into this single Rule or Precept Preserve or do good to thy self and any other innocent persons as to thy self Which tho' I grant to be a true Rule as containing our Saviour's Epitome of the Commandments of the Second Table Love thy Neighbour as thy self Yet doth it not express the Reason or Principle on which it is founded for we have no reason to love our Neighbour but as they partake of the same Common Rational Nature with our selves and that our doing them good doth conduce to the preservation and happiness of the whole Body of Mankind of which that person as well as our selves are but small parts or Members Nor have we any particular obligation to endeavour our own particular Good but as it conduces to and is part of the Common Good of Mankind § 17. And as the whole Law of Nature so likewise the Revealed Law given from God by Moses to the Iews and intended in due time to be made known to all Mankind tends to no other end than this great Law of endeavouring the Common Good of Rational Agents For all the Precepts of the First Table of the Decalogue which prescribe our Duty towards God and which our Saviour hath so excellently well contracted into this single Precept Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength c. contain nothing more than this great Rule For as God before he thought fit to create the World and whilst there was yet no Creature to worship or serve him was not then less happy or perfect so neither now he hath created them is he the happier if we worship him or the more unhappy if we omit it For man being created as an Object for the Divine Goodness to exert it self upon it must necessarily follow that all the Precepts of the First Table as well as of the Second are in some sort intended for Man's Good and Happiness as well as God's Honour and Service So that even that Great Commandment of keeping holy the Seventh day which most chiefly respects God's own Glory and Service did also promote the Good and Happiness not only of the Iews God's particular Subjects but also of all Mankind whensoever this Law should be discovered to them So that tho' it commands the dedicating of that day to the Worship and Service of God and is observed in obedience to his Commands Yet even in this he does not design his own Glory and Honour alone nay according to Saint Austin Our Good only but also our Good and Happiness which is then most perfect and compleat when we bestow our time in the contemplation of his Infinite Perfections and Goodness towards us and in rendring him thanks for his unspeakable Benefits So that though I grant he hath made and ordained us for his Service yet he hath so constituted our Nature as to make our highest happiness inseparably connected with all the particular Acts of his Worship And therefore our Saviour reproves the Iews when they found fault with him for suffering his Disciples to pluck the Ears of Corn on the Sabbath day expresly telling them That if they hâ—d known what this means I will have mercy and not sacrifice they would not have condemned the guiltless for the Son of Man i. e. not Christ alone but every Christian is Lord even of the Sabbath-day And in St. Mark That the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath Thereby teaching us that the Sabbath it self was also instituted for Man's sake and that in cases of necessity he is Master of it And so likewise our Saviour himself by chusing to do his greatest Miracles of healing on the Sabbath-day hath taught us that the performance of acts of Charity and Mercy on that Day is a great and necessary part of God's Service § 18. But as for the Precepts of the Second Table I need not insist upon them because our Saviour himself hath contracted them all even that of honouring our Parents into this short Precept Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Which is no more than to bid us endeavour the common good of Mankind to the utmost of our power So that as this Law of the most diffusive Benevolence of Rational Agents contains the Sum of all the Laws of Nature as also of the Moral Law contained in the Ten Commandments so likewise is it the Sum of the whole Gospel delivered by our Saviour Christ and his Apostles For as one great design of our Saviour's coming into the World was by his most excellent Precepts and Examples to exalt the Law of Nature to a higher perfection than what Men by the common use of Reason could generally attain to so likewise was it one of the main designs of his coming to restore the Law of Moses to its Primitive Purity and Perfection and to free it from those false Interpretations and Traditions with which the Pharisees had corrupted it For whereas they had confined the observation of that Command of loving our Neighbours only to outward Acts or at least restrained it only to those of their own Nation or Religion our Saviour Christ commands a greater perfection and forbids even so much as the thoughts or desires of Murder Adultery c. And whereas the Iews did suppose that they were not obliged to shew Acts of Charity or
there hath been some signs or tokens of hostility expressed § 7. Yet he grants there was never such a condition of War as this that he describes generally all over the World But that there are many places where men live so now and Instances in many savage People of America where except the Government of small Families the concord whereof depends on Natural Lust they have no Government at all and live at this day in that brutish manner he hath before described But were it so as he affirms that brutish way of living which is in too many Particulars practised by these Savage People both in Affrica and America where they have almost lost all knowledge of a God or of a Moral Good and Evil Ought the Practice of such Barbarous People to be of sufficient Authority to prove that they live according to the true state of Human Nature or that they have a right to live and act thus in all things they thus unreasonably practice But had this Author read any true or exact relations of those Places in America he mentions he might have found that in many of those Nations even where there is no Civil Power to keep them in awe and tho' they have no other Government in time of Peace but that of the Fathers or Heads of Families Yet doth not their concord wholly depend upon Natural Lust For besides the Government of Husbands over their Wives and those conjugal Duties and Services which their Wives yield them in these Places Parents are more fond of their Children and Children again are more dutiful and kind to their Parents and take more care of them when they are sick or old than they commonly do with us And though there be no Common Power to keep them in awe yet having no Riches but the meer necessary Utensils of Living nor any Honours except Military to contend for and which are not obtained without great hardships and sufferings and having also few Words of contempt or disgrace among them whole Towns nay Nations have lived together for many Ages in sufficient Amity and Concord without ever falling together by the ears And if there be any Murthers and Adulteries committed among them every particular person injured or else the Relations of the Party slain are their own Judges and Executioners the mutual fear of which joyned with the Natural Peaceable Temper of the People causes fewer of those Crimes to be committed among them than with us where there are Laws and Publick Officers appointed to punish all such Injuries And for the Truth of this I refer you to two Authors of undoubted Credit viz. Lerius in his History of his Navigation to Brazil Chap. 18. and the French Author of the Natural History of the Caribbè Islands Part. 2d Chap. 11. and § 19. besides other Authors on this Subject whom you may consult in Purchas's Pilgrimes in his Volume of America And though these People have often Wars with their Neighbours yet is it not with all but only some particular Nations with whom they have constant Wars and eat them when they can take them Prisoners Yet do they at the same time maintain Peace with all others So remote is it from Truth that any Nation in the World can live and subsist by maintaining a constant War against all others Nor did I ever hear of any more than one People or Nation in the West-Indies near Carolina called the Westoes that made this Fatal Experiment by making war upon all their Neighbours one after another till they were in a short time reduced from 7000 Fighting Men to 700 and were afterwards quite extirpated by those Nations they had injured Which Relation I receiv'd from a Gentleman of Quality who hath a considerable Interest in those parts So impossible a thing it is for Mankind to subsist or be preserved a year together in Mr. H's imaginary State of War §. 8 Nor is his other Instance from the Actions of Kings and Persons of a Soveraign Authority any better whom he makes like Gladiators Having their Weapons pointing and their eyes fixed on each other That is their Forts Garrisons and Guns upon the Frontieres of their Kingdoms and continual Spies upon their Neighbours which is a posture of War Where I may first observe that he doth not directly affirm That all Princes are in a State but only in a Posture of War which I grant is both lawful and necessary Since no Prince or Common-wealth can be secure that his Neighbours will constantly observe the Laws of Nature and not invade his Territories without any just cause given Yet I think no Prince or other Supreme Power whom he makes the only Judges of Good and Evil will be so wicked or unreasonable to affirm that they have a natural right to invade the Territories Lives and Estates of all Neighbouring Princes and their Subjects much less when they have made Leagues or Compacts of Peace with each other that they are not obliged to observe them only for prevention that they may not do the like to them and break their Compacts first For that he himself confesses to be absolutely contrary to the Laws of Nature and of Right Reason But that upon Mr. H's Principles such Compacts being made in the meer State of Nature and without any Common Power to see them observed do not at all oblige I shall shew you more particularly by and by § 9. I come now to his last Passion viz. Glory for which he would have all men to be naturally in a State of War But admitting that divers men look that their Companions should value them at the same rate as they do themselves and upon the least signs of Contempt or undervaluing naturally endeavour as far as they dare to extort a greater value from their Contemners which amongst them that have no Common Power to keep them quiet may be enough to make them destroy each other Yet doth not this hold true in every man for even among those that labour under this Passion of Vain-glory there are many in whom fear of others is a much more predominate passion and such will rather take an affront than venture to beat or kill another to revenge it Since the hazard is certain but the Victory supposing the person every way his equal uncertain And if this Vain-glory may be so far mastered by another stronger Passion why may it not also be overpowered by Reason For a rational man will consider that he cannot force men to have a better esteem of his Words or Actions by fighting every one that shall declare their dislike of them or else knows that he is not at all the worse for the foolish censures of unreasonable men or that he is obliged to take for an affront whatsoever every scurrilous impertinent Fellow shall intend so And he himself doth here likewise suppose that there are other as strong Passions that incline men to Peace as fear of Death desire of such things