unpunished since this may very well consist with the Publick Peace and safety of the People and may also tend to the Publick good of the Commonwealth since it might not only make men more careful of their Goods but might also serve to make those Boys more crafty secret and undertaking in greater matters when they should come to be men which as Plutarch tells us was the main reason why Licurgus made this Law But does it therefore follow that either the Lacedemonians or Egyptians might have made it Lawful for Thieves and Robbers to assault all mens Persons and take away their Goods by Force or to Rob men of those things such as Food and Rayment which are absolutely necessary for Human Life or that such a Law could ever have been made practicable or have been observed without the absolute dissolution of the Civil Government Whereas if Mr. H. had but considered the distinction between that Natural and Civil Property which we have made out in the first Chap. of the preceding Discourse he had never fallen into this Error of supposing all Theft or Robbery whatsoever to become Lawful if once ordained so by the Supreme Power § 3. I shall give you but one instance more from the Laws of our own Kingdom by which it is enacted That whoever shall relieve a way going Beggar shall forfeit Ten shillings to the Poor of the Parish which Law was made for the Publick Good and to prevent Wandering Idleness and Beggary in the Poorer sort of People But doth it therefore follow that it might be Lawful for the King and Parliament to make a Law against all Charity or Relief of the Poor whatsoever So that you may see that no Civil Laws whatsoever can lay any obligation upon mens Consciences but as they either regard the publick Good of the Commonwealth or the more general good of all Rational Beings § 4. But whether Mr. H. fell into this Error for want of a due knowledge and consideration of this great Law of Nature or else out of a desire to flatter all Civil Sovereigns is hard to determine though it be very suspitious that he did it rather out of design than ignorance since he teaches us in his de Cive and Lev. That Princes being free from all Promises and Compacts to their Subjects may dispose of their Lives and Fortunes at their pleasure and therefore can do them no injury though they treat them never so cruelly because he is in respect of them still in the state of Nature by which means he at once endeavours to destroy all Virtue and Goodness in Princes and all Reverence and Respect in the minds of their Subjects and makes no difference between a Nero or Caligula and a Trajan or an Antonine And consequential to this he likewise makes the will of the Supreme Power though perhaps but one single man to be the only measure of Good and Evil Just and Unjust So that whatever he Commands or Forbids must immediately be look'd upon as Good or Evil because he hath Commanded it or Forbidden it by which means Princes would have no other Rules left them of their Moral or Politick Actions but their own Arbitrary Humours or Wills Which if it were so men would be in a much worse condition under the Power of this irresistible Leviathan than they were in the state of Nature since a man is in more danger as to his Life and Fortune who is at the Mercy of one Cruel and unreasonable man who commands an Hundred thousand men than he who was before in danger of the violence of an Hundred thousand single men in the state of Nature since it was Lawful for him to have provided for his own security by combination with others which in a Civil state it is upon his Principles unlawful to do though I confess not being true to them he leaves every man a Right of self-defence or Resistance even under a Civil Government whenever he is strong enough to Rebel or Resist the Magistrate by which means he takes away with one hand all that he had before bestowed with the other § 5. But I think I have now sufficiently exposed the Falseness as well as Wickedness of those Principles And though I will not be so uncharitable as to affirm that either Mr. H. or all his Followers either did or would always act according to them yet as Cicero long since observed in his Offices they have more reason to thank the natural goodness and generosity of their own Natures than the Doctrines they have embraced if they do not But if I have been too tedious in the performance I hope the Reader will pardon me if these pernicious Principles are sufficiently Confuted at last since it is impossible for any man to judge of their Truth or Falsehood without first considering the Author's Opinion in his own words and then strictly examining the reasons he brings for them which could not well be contracted into a less compass But having not only I hope laid foundations for a more solid building in the precedent Discourse but also cleared off that Rubbish in this second Part that might obstruct its Evidence in the minds of all Candid and indifferent Readers I shall therefore beseech God the great Ruler of mens hearts and affections That what we have said in this Treatise may have that good effect as if not to produce yet at least to increase true Piety towards God and good Will and Charity among men FINIS Books Printed for Richard Baldwin STate Tracts Being a farther Collection of Several Choice Treatises relating to the Government From the Year 1660 to 1689. Now Published in a Body to shew the Necessity and clear the Legality of the Late Revolution and our present Happy Settlement under the Auspicious Reign of Their Majesties King William and Queen Mary Mathematical Magick Or The Wonders that may be performed by Mechanical Geometry In Two Books Concerning Mechanical Powers and Motions Being one of the most Easie Pleasant Useful and yet most neglected part of Mathematicks Not before treated of in this Language By I. Wilkins late Lord Bishop of Chester The Fourth Edition Bibliotheca Politica Or a Discourse by way of Dialogue Whether Monarchy be Iure Divino Collected out of the most Approved Authors both Ancient and Modern Dialogue the First Dialogue the Second Whether there can be made out from the Natural or Revealed Law of God any Succession to Crowns by Divine Right Dialogue the Third Whether Resistance of the Supream Power by a whole Nation or People in cases of the last Extremity can be Justified by the Law of Nature or Rules of the Gospel Dialogue the Fourth Whether Absolute Non-Resistances of the Supream Powers be enjoined by the Doctrine of the Gospel and was the Ancient Practice of the Primitive Churh and the constant Doctrine of our Reformed Church of England The Speech of the Right Honourable Thomas Earl of Stamford Lord Gray of Grooby c. at the General Quarter-Sessions held for the County of Leicester at Michaelmas 1691. His Lordship being made Custos Rotulorum for the said County by the late Lord Commissioners of the Great Seal Truth brought to Light Or The History of the First 14 Years of King Iames the I. In Four Parts I. The Happy State of England at His Majesty's Entrance The Corruption of it afterwards With the Rise of particular Favourites and the Divisions between This and other States abroad II. The Divorce betwixt the Lady Francis Howard and Robert Earl of Essex before the King's Delegates authorized under the King 's Broad Seal As also the Arraignment of Sir Iervis Yelvis Lieutenant of the Tower c. about the Murther of Sir Thomas Overbury with all Proceedings thereupon and the King 's gracious Pardon and Favour to the Countess III. A Declaration of His Majesty's Revenue since he came to the Crown of England with the Annual Issues Gifts Pensions and Extraordinary Disbursements IV. The Commissions and Warrants for the burning of two Hereticks newly revived with two Pardons one for Theophilus Higgons the other for Sir Eustace Hart. The Memoirs of Monsieur Deageant Containing the most secret Transactions and Affairs of France from the Death of Henry VI. till the beginning of the Ministry of the Cardinal de Richlieu To which is added a particular Relation of the Arch-bishop of Embrun's Voyage into England and of his Negotiation for the Advancement of the Roman Catholick Religion here together with the Duke of Bukingham's Letter to the said Archbishop about the Progress of that Affair which happened the last Years of K. Iames I. his Reign Faithfully Translated out of the French Original The Present State of Christendom consider'd In Nine Dialogues between I. The present Pope Alexander the VIIIth and Lewis the XIV II. The Great Duke of Tuscany and the Duke of Savoy III. King Iames the Second and the Marescal de la Fuillade IV. The Duke of Lorrain and the Duke of Schomberg V. The Duke of Lorrain and the Elector Palatine VI. Lewis the XIVth and the Marquis de Louvois VII The Advoyer of Berne and the Chief Syndic of Geneva VIII Cardinal Ottoboni and the Duke de Chaulnes IX The Young Prince Abafti and Count Teckely A New Plain Short and Compleat French and English Grammar whereby the Learner may attain in few Months to Speak and Write French Correctly as they do now in the Court of France And wherein all that is Dark Superfluous and Deficient in other Grammars is Plain Short and Methodically supplied Also very useful to Strangers that are desirous to learn the English Tongue For whose sake is added a Short but very Exact English Grammar The Second Edition By Peter Berault * Dr. Ioh. Lock Vide Chap. des Pensees Morales Book 8. chap. 3. Vid. his Essay concerning Humane Vnderstanding Book I. Chap. 11. * Vide The Preface to De Cive Vid. Mezeray's Hist. in the Life of this Prince Leviath Part I. Chap. 12. * Vid. Dr. Parker's Demonstration of the Law of Nature pag. 24. Demonstration of the Law c. pag. 23. Credendum est totum qd colitur Deus homini prodesse non Deo De Civit. Dei Lib. X. Cap. 5. Matt. 12.7 8. Mark 2.27 Luk. 10.30 V◠Jo. Lerius Hist. Brasil as also the French History of the Caribbè Islands * Vid. Dr. Parker's Ecclesiastical Policy Chap. 4. p. 126 127. Vi. Diog. Laert. in vita Epicuri Stat 7. Jacobi Cap. 7.
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
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
Gentlemen with whom I have to do may laugh at all Divine Revelation not accept of any Proofs as sufficient but what can be brought from meer Natural Reason I shall therefore answer them in their own way and shall first of all grant That God might if he had thought fit have created Man without any possibility of sinning and have determined him only to that which is morally good But then God hath not created a Man but quite another Creature For he having made Man to consist of two different Principles a Body and a Soul the one to be driven on by Sensual Appetites and Passions the other to be governed by Reason It was necessary that he should be carried towards Good or Evil as one or other of these should prevail So that considering what sort of Creature God hath made us he hath done all he needed to do towards the good and happiness of Mankind Supposing that he hath created us and deals with us as free voluntary Agents endued with a freedom of choice either to deliberate upon the consequence and nature of all our Moral Actions before we do them and either to act according to the Rules of Right Reason or else clean contrary thereunto that is wholly at random or by chance which is unworthy our Rational Nature § 9. So that God having thus left the greatest part of man's happiness in his own power either to be obtained by endeavouring this common good or else missed of or lost by his own neglect of it It is not to be wondered if mens unreasonable Appetites and Passions looking no farther than their present Pleasures or outward Advantages do often carry them away without any consideration of those future but as certain and greater evils which may follow them in the whole course of their lives By which abuse of mens natural Freedom I grant the good and happiness of Mankind is very much disturbed and diminished Therefore it is no wonder that tho' God's will be sufficiently declared against such Actions it is not more often observed and followed nor could God have ordered things better or otherwise than they are unless he should have made man with out all freedom of choice and have determined his Will only to one sort of Actions which had rendered him quite another Creature and incapable of those rewards and punishments which are absolutely necessary for the government of man as he is made by God a free voluntary Agent Secondly Tho' God hath thus made us free Agents but that by the ill use of our Faculties we become more prone to evil Actions than good ones Yet it must still be acknowledged God's Infinite Power and Providence hath set such limits to the unruly Appetites and Passions of wicked men that tho' it must be confessed that by private Violence Wars and Persecutions for Religion they do more mischief to Mankind than all the Savage Beasts Earthquakes or Plagues in the World ever did Yet this is but in some few particular Places or Countries at a time and God hath so restrained these Passions and Lusts not only by Natural Divine and Civil Laws but also by necessary ill consequences that follow such Actions that it is not often that such men can accomplish their wicked designs with that success and pleasure they propose to themselves And in those Countries where these Violences are acted the Scene often alters And in those Countries where Civil-Wars and Persecution for Religion have not only very much disturbed the Common Peace and Happiness but also diminished the number of the Inhabitants God doth often think fit either through mens weariness of Wars or by the sudden death of a Cruel and Ambitious Prince who was the chief cause of it again to restore peace and happiness to these Kingdoms or Countries where Civil-Wars and Persecutions had before so cruelly raged and so long prevailed So that notwithstanding all that can be objected against God's intending the good and happiness of Mankind it is certain that from the beginning of the World to this day he hath preserved it in the same State as he hath also done all other Species of Creatures So that we may boldly affirm the number of men in the world rather increases than diminishes tho' it may please God for the correction or extirpation of some extremely wicked and incorrigible Nations to permit them to be oppressed diminished or quite destoyed by Forreign Force Civil Wars or Domestick Tyranny § 10. A Second Objection that may be brought by those of Epicurean Principles is That if the Being of a God and the certainty of the Laws of Nature be so easy to be found out and discovered by mens Natural Reasons and Observations how it comes to pass that there are some whole Nations in the World who have as we know of no Notions at all of a God or a Moral Good or Evil as Travellers report of those Negroes who inhabit near the Bay of Soldania not far from the Cape of Good-Hope who also fell their Children for Slaves to those that will give most for them As also others in the West and East-Indies that make War upon and devour all Strangers they can take Prisoners Others as in the Isle of Formosa rendring abortive all Children that the Mothers conceive before they are thirty years old Others in the West-Indies and in Africa stealing from Strangers whatsoever they can lay their hands on It were tedious to relate all the particular Instances of this kind Whosoever desires to see more of them may consult the Learned Author of the above-mentioned Essay of Human Understanding Book the I. Chap. III. § 9. besides what he may himself collect from his own reading or observation So that it may be urged that if these People are part of Mankind and therefore Rational Creatures how it comes to pass that they should not be able as well as we to come to the knowledge of a God and of those Natural Laws which we suppose to be given to Mankind § 11. To all which I shall reply not by denying as some do the matters of Fact themselves which is an easy but too positive a way of confutation but shall take them at present for granted since they are delivered to us by many Authors of sufficient credit And therefore first of all I think I may safely affirm That tho' these Instances may be of considerable weight against those who found all our Knowledge of the Laws of Nature upon certain Innate Principles or the common consent of Mankind Yet they will prove nothing against us who have I hope made out the certainty and obligation of this Law from more evident Principles So that the contrary belief or practice of divers Nations in the World is no more an Argument against the Being of a God or of the Laws of Nature than their ignorance in Arithmetick and Geometry is against the certainty or usefulness of those Sciences these people being most of them not able