8. omit 28 p. 254. In the Preface stand r. stands In the Introduction omit Men p. 2. l. 8. omit his p. 8. l 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 13. Agreeably r. agreeable p. 14. l. 8. Author's r. Author p. 16. l. 11. Principles r. Principle p. 17. l. 8. omit to after and submitted r. subscribed p. 16. l. 20 21. or r. and l. 5. omit more l. 13. His Obedience r. Disobedience l. 16. p. 19. Omit all after we p. 22. l. 9. Or r. on p. 24. l. 10. They r. Men p. 27. l. 9. Sic r. Cic p. 36. l. 25. Weight r. height p. 38. l. 4. Omit the after of p. 44. l. 20. THE Grounds and Foundation OF Natural Religion ASSERTED CHAP. I. A Law of Nature antecedent to Revelation AND first for the Divine Authority of a Law of Nature antecedent to Revelation I shall appeal to the Voice of Scripture as an Argument to those that own the Truth and Divinity of it For when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by Nature the Things contained in the Law these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves which shew the Work of the Law written in their Hearts their Conscience also bearing Witness and their Thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another Rom. 2.15 16. It 's manifest when our Apostle tells us of a Gentile Law engraven on the Heart here is a Law distinguished from a Law of Revelation For the Gentiles having not the Law no doubt the revealed Law of God and particularly the Jewish Law are a Law unto themselves It was not a Law that rested on Patriarchal Revelations or a Law given by Inspiration but a Law engraven on the Heart peculiar to Heathens or Men in a pure State of Nature and consequently no revealed Law For by virtue of it they did by Nature not Grace the things contained in the Law that is upon the Evidence and Convictions of Natural Reason not on the Authority of any external Revelations For whilst the Gentiles did by Nature the things contained in the Law they shew the Work of the Law written in their Hearts that is they had a Rule of Action implanted in the very Frame and Constitution of their Natures which answered to all the Designs and Intentions of a Law or rather carried in it all the Properties as well as Force and Efficacy of a Law For the Work and Business of a Law is to prescribe between Good and Evil Just and Unjust to direct us in the precise Line of Duty and enforce the Observance of it by suitable Rewards and Punishments and if the Gentiles have this by Nature they are in a strict and proper Sense a Law unto themselves even without the concurrence of Revelation Indeed the Apostle elegantly represents the Force and Authority as well as Sanction of the Law when he tells us that Conscience gives testimony to this Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as it were confirms and ratifies it as a Law or Rule of Action which answers to the first Office of Conscience by the Learned called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sanction follows from the second Office of Conscience call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which consists in the Application of our Actions to the Rule and passing Sentence upon ourselves for it and their Thoughts mean while accusing or excusing one another From the words it's manifest there is a Law of Nature or a Rule of Action given by God by which he at least originally design'd to govern Mankind antecedent to all positive Laws whether Divine or Humane Nay it 's not only a Law designed for Man in his original Frame but a Law that maintains its Force and Authority even in the lapsed State of Mankind For it 's manifest the Apostle speaks of the Gentiles as they then lay and all the World too in a depraved corrupted State They were undoubtedly under a Law tho' without any revealed Law and that too under the highest force and efficacy of it For the Apostle expresly determines the case For as many of the Gentile World as have sinned without Law shall also perish without Law v. 12. However thus far it is indisputably evident that the Heathen World was under a Law or an Indispensable Rule of Action or Duty and we are abundantly assur'd that it was distinct from any revealed Law since Scripture in other places expresly fixes the Duties of Natural Religion in an evidence that results from the Works of Providence the Dictates of Natural Reason not in any revealed Traditions Thus St. Paul and his Associate speaking of the Gentile State Nevertheless he left not himself without Witness no doubt sufficient to instruct them in their Duty in that he did good and gave us Rain from Heaven and fruitful Seasons filling our Hearts with Food and Gladness Acts 14. v. 17. And again The Wrath of Heaven is revealed against all ungodliness because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewed it unto them For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made Rom. 1.18 19 20. I know the learned Dr. Hammond appropriates this latter Passage to the Gnosticks but against the whole current of Commentators And indeed the Context both before and after carries such peculiar Characters in it as renders it absurd to fix it upon any but the Heathen World If so it 's evident they are the things that are made and Rain and fruitful Seasons that are Witnesses and shew forth to us that which may be known of God or the lines of Natural Religion So that the Works of Nature and Providence are our Instructors not the Voice of Revelation Here 's not the least Hint of any Traditional Conveyances the Works of Nature carry an Evidence in them but they are the Reflections of Natural Reason upon them that draw the Conclusion and form a Duty from them so that whatever Difficulties or Impossibilities some Men may suggest from the Imperfections and Weaknesses of Natural Reason in decyphering a Law of Nature it 's evident the Sacred Oracles have given it no other Foundation or Original And this is Conviction sufficient to silence all other Arguments in those that subscribe to the Truth and Divinity of them And for those that reject it I shall pursuant
the Freedom of his own Will and had Ingenuity and Integrity enough to prosecute it then I will grant that he may challenge a Freedom or Liberty of acting according to his own Will without being accountable to any one till his own voluntary Compact had made him so But then such a sufficiency as this must supersede the necessity of all Civil Government or positive Laws Certainly then if Man after the utmost pretences to Reason has not a sufficiency of Reason at all times to instruct himself in the Line of Duty no more than Integrity to adjudge his own Actions conformable to the Line of Duty we may with very good Reason conclude that Maturity of Reason does not cancel the Bonds of Filial Obedience or to have respect to the instance before us admit the Children of Adam to an equal State of Liberty with himself that is in his own Language To challenge an Executive Power in the Exercise of Laws of Nature as much as their Father as well as Prescribe to their own Will and regulate their Actions These are positions that can no way be reconciled with the necessity of civil Government under the most improv'd State of Reason and that Dominion which by the Laws of the Creation God had invested him with for God having made Government necessary for the Support of Grown Men and actually Invested Adam with a Right of Dominion Reason must determine without the breach of Humane Freedom that the Dominion of Adam was Originally designed to extend as far as was necessary to the Regulation and Conduct of Humane Actions as well by Laws as Counsel Indeed the original Mistake is lodged in the Notion of Civil Government compared with Humane Freedom as if Humane Freedom or Natural Liberty were in the very Notion of it inconsistent with Government or as if it were a Breach of Natural Liberty to be placed under the Conduct of that without which Man with all his Reason cannot Subsist much less be Happy Now it is visible tho' Government implies a Power of imposing and enforceing Laws yet the Original Design of it was the Happiness of Mankind in the Regulation of their Lives and Actions according to the Laws of God whether Natural or Revealed It is true the Institution of such a Power may imply an absolute Trust and whether this Trust is forfeited and accountable when the Original Ends of Government are Violated is another Question But it is Indisputable these are the only true ends of Government And I think no one can affirm that the direct Methods to Happiness are Breaches of Humane Freedom yea rather they are the only Expedients to preserve it and therefore I can see no Rights in the Exercise of Humane Reason or Freedom founded on it to Exempt the Children of Adam from that Civil Jurisdiction that Results from his Paternal Power And now I presume there is enough offered to Reject the pretence of an unlimitted Freedom I have enlarged more plentifully upon it because it is the Foundation of that State of Equality upon which Compact is made the first Principle of Civil Government for this reason I shall offer a few Arguments more to represent the Absurdity of it § 5. And first if Children coming to the exercise of Reason are not only discharged from their Paternal Allegiance but acquire a State of Freedom equal to their Father as this Position directs Sect. 66. Then the Children of Adam had an unquestionable Right to erect a Government over his Head or at least upon Non-compliance to Exclude him from the Benefits of it and in a word to drive him forth from his own Territories since Civil Governments always challenge a Power to Banish those that refuse to pay Allegiance to them That the Children and Descendants of Adam could act thus is evident for as they were in a State of Freedom and Equality they could enter into a Compact at Pleasure and consequently Establish a Government upon a Majority against their Fathers It 's highly Probable the Children of our First Parent were acted by so deep a sense of Duty as would prevent them from the Executing their pretended Privilege but I am perswaded were a Set of Men under the Influence of this Author's Principles placed in a State of Nature under their Natural Father the Resentments which the Discipline of their Education might give them would easily engage them to bandy together at such a rate as to Erect a Government upon his Head and if they did not call the Old Gentleman to an account for Male-Administration yet upon Non-compliance they might think themselves obliged to withdraw those small remains of Respect which this Gentleman has assigned him However it is manifest this Position will Vindicate the Lawfulness of the Project and therefore it can be no Crime to apply it to the Father of Mankind and his immediate Descendants But now what can be more Unnatural than this is Can Man pretend the least Reverence or Respect upon such a Horrid Treason as this Men may Harangue on the Formalities of Respect as long as they please but certainly it is some Pretensions to Authority that can preserve a Filial Reverence that is truly valuable that is such a Reverence as expresses it self in a chearful Obedience to all just and reasonable Commands § 6. But to draw towards a Conclusion this Notion of Freedom carries another Absurdity in it as Injurious to the Civil Power as it is to the Patriarchal for in order to assert the Notion this Author is forced to Discard the Notion of Natural Allegiance and place every one in a State of Liberty upon their arrival at Years of Discetion till they shall Recognize the Governing Power by an express or tacit Consent An express Consent he fixes in Promises or Oaths of Allegiance and a tacit Consent in the Possession or Enjoyment of any part of the Dominions of any Government Chap. 8. Sect. 119. Part. 2. And further adds that a Tacit Consent only produces a Temporal Allegiance So that in case he quits his Possession by Donation Sale or otherwise he is at Liberty to go and Incorporate himself in any other Common-Wealth or agree with others to begin a new one in Vacuis locis in any part of the World they can find Free or Unpossessed Sect. 121. Now certainly these are Positions that cannot well be consistent with the safety of any Government for it is manifest they give a Latitude for Rebellion as well as Disertion For first The Descendants of the Liege Subjects of any Government do not yield a Tacit Consent even after they arrive at Years of Discretion by Living and Subsisting upon the Blessings of it unless they possess or enjoy some parts of its Dominions so that not only the Adult Children that Live under their Parents without a Settlement but even the Poor or Labouring part of a Nation or even all that are not the true Proprietors of Estates still remain in a State of
first it must contain all the principles of a free Action Secondly The Springs and Principles of Freedom are to move in conjunction with the natural Frame and interests of the things themselves and consequently a Moral Good always presupposes and includes a Natural Good I 'm sensible here are others that are not content with this portion of Moral Good and therefore they add a third Ingredient from whence it chiefly takes its denomination For they define it to be the Conformity of an Action to a Rule or Decree of a Law-giver and consequently it includes first a principle of Freedom secondly a Natural Goodness or an intrinsick Rectitude of the Action in all its relations and thirdly the binding Authority of a Law that engages us to embrace it from the Will and Pleasure of a Law-giver But now if the Authority of a Law-giver be the true measure of Moral Goodness it makes a Moral Law or Duty and a Moral Good to be the same thing whereas a Moral Law or Duty seems to be the Complement of a Moral Good The one is a choice of things from their relation and consent to Moral ends and purposes the other from a binding Authority superadded to them In Moral Duties the Law-giver is to prescribe in Conformity to these ends and the Moral Agent is to choose and determine himself by them in Conformity to the Will and Authority of the Law-giver but a Moral Good seems to be only the choice of a Natural Good without considering it as the Command or Appointment of a Sovereign Authority But the denominations of things are often Arbitrary and may be extended or lessened without any injury to Truth as long as the Latitude of such denominations is fixed and agreed upon and therefore we ought not to be concerned at any Terms of Art or Modes of Expression as long as there 's an Agreement in the nature of things CHAP. XIII Of the true measures of Moral Goodness § 1. IN order to a further display of the nature of Moral Goodness it will not be improper nor useless to consider the true measure of Moral Goodness And first I think Pleasure whether of Body or Mind cannot be any true measure of Moral Goodness Thus much the Observations already made on a Vitiated Mind abundantly evince For certainly a Vitiated Mind and Conscience may conceive an undisturbed Satisfaction and delight in the foulest Enormities and yet it 's absurd to pronounce 'em Moral Goods For notwithstanding any pleasure of Mind that accompanies them they are still to be ranked among Moral Evils Indeed I cannot conceive how Pleasure and Pain can be the measure of Natural Good for the Mind may certainly lie under wrong apprehensions of things and consequently conceive a pleasure and satisfaction in real Evils and therefore it seems to be highly improper to pronounce Pleasure the true and only measure of Natural much more of Moral Good No certainly the true measure of Natural Good is to be taken from the Original Frame and Constitution or ends and interests of things and the exact Agreement or Adapting of them to each other pursuant to it When things are thus adapted no doubt but a true pleasure of Mind results from them for God has so graciously adapted things to our Welfare and Happiness and Established such a strict Harmony and Agreement between us and every Natural Good that concerns us that there 's a powerful Pleasure flows from it at least according to the Original Oeconomy or Frame of things but yet Pleasure seems to be a consequent rather than a measure or constituent Principle of Natural Good especially since there may arise this Pleasure of Mind when the true ends and interests of things are perverted witness the case of an Erroneous Judgment or Conscience and therefore I think a late Author has not well expressed himself when he tells us That things are Good and Evil only in Reference to Pleasure and Pain Essay concerning Human Understanding Cap. 20. Sect. 2. or as he more fully delivers himself in another place Good and Evil are nothing but Pleasure and Pain or that which occasions or produces Pleasure or Pain in us Book 2. Cap. 28. Sect. 5. § 2. Secondly The conformity of our Actions to a Law abstracting from the Intrinsick rectitude of the Subject matter of it cannot be the true measure of Moral Good As the forecited Author too apparently suggests when he tells us Moral Good and Evil is only the conformity or disagreement of our Voluntary Actions to some Law whereby Good and Evil is drawn on us from the Will and Power of the Law-maker Lib. 2. Cap. 28. § 5. If this definition is designed thus far certainly the best Argument against such a position is one by this Author advanced on another Occasion He Labours to prove that the foulest Enormities have obtained in whole Nations and Societies of Men upon a Law of Fashion Opinion or Reputation but certainly the conformity of an Action to such a Law can by no Means give it the Character or Denomination of Moral Good This must indeed destroy all real Distinction between Good and Evil and render the moral endowments of the Mind as Arbitrary and Precarious as the outward Dress of the Body It 's true an Action performed by a voluntary Agent in Confomity to a Rule is undoubtedly a Moral Action But it does not hereby necessarily become a Moral Good unless the Rule be good or the Intrinsick matter of the Action be so For without these Limitations it may be as much a Moral Evil as if it interfered with an Established Rule So that I cannot but dissent from Mr. Lock when he places the Notion of Moral Good and Evil in the conformity or disagreement of a Voluntary Action to a Rule tho' it be no more than a Rule or Law of Fashion I grant it Establisheth the Idea of a Moral Action but a Moral Action is either good or bad and therefore the Idea of Moral Goodness cannot rest upon the conformity of an Action to such a Rule but on the Intrinsick Goodness of the Action or Rectitude of such a Rule § 3. But to proceed There are others who place the foundation of Moral Good in the Conformity of Moral Actions to our Rational Natures as fitted for Society and consequently proportion the degrees of Moral Good as they serve more or less the ends of Society Indeed it cannot be denyed but that the Great and Wise God hath given us a being and Nature not only peculiarly framed for Society but to be supported by it and consequently whatever accords with the Rational Nature of Man born to Society is undoubtly a Moral Good but 't is visible Man in his Original Frame bears a threefold Relation to wit Frame in Relation to God his own Being and that of his Neighbours from whence arises a threefold Moral Good Now the Agreement of Actions to our Rational Natures as created for Society may present us with
an Idea of those Moral Goods that respect our Being in it self or as it stands supported by Society but it cannot give us an Idea of Moral Good with respect to God our Creator and consequently this Notion cannot be an adequate measure of Moral Goodness § 4. Having said thus much Negatively it remains that we endeavour to State it in a positive way or determine what is the true and adequate measure of Moral Goodness And first it 's universally allowed that Moral Good implies a Relation in the Nature of it It 's a good in respect of something else and consequently there must be some fixed Standard to examine and state the Proportions it bears to it and this Standard may not improperly be called a measure of Moral Goodness Again Moral Good which we are now concerned with respects the Actions of Men and since the Actions of Men with respect to a Threefold Relation which we bear towards God our own Beings and our fellow Creatures pass under three several Denominations the measure of Moral Good must extend to each of ' em With Submission then I presume the proper measure of Moral Good must be taken from the Original Frame Ends and Interests of our Beings we are acted by invincible propensions I mean those of self preservation and desire of happiness that will engage us to examine and consider 'em and the experiment will furnish us with a measure to determine the Goodness of all our actions in our several intercourses with God our own Beings or our fellow Creatures It 's certain there can no action be truly Morally Good but what is conformable to our Original Frame and the prime Ends and Interest of our Beings and what is really thus conformable is really and truly Morally Good and consequently the Frame Ends and Interest of our Being must be a proper Standard of Moral Goodness God has been graciously pleased to give us a Being like himself the great exemplar of all Perfection and Goodness and he has annexed such Ends and Interests to it as will lay a Foundation for Actions that result from his blessed Nature so that the whole line of Moral Duty is by the Laws of our Creation made to consist in Actions that are peculiarly consonant to our Natural Frame in all its Capacities and Relations The Features and Complexion of every duty are taken from our selves and by a Physical Efficiency add Glory Strength and Beauty to us and therefore nothing can be so true a measure of Moral Goodness as the pure Frame Ends and Interests of our Beings As for those that place Moral Goodness in the conformity of our Actions to a Law it 's certain that the Truth and Authority of this Law where Revelation is wanting must first be tryed by the Frame Ends and Interests of our Beings Reason can make an estimate no other way and consequently all other measures of Moral Goodness must at last resolve into this CHAP. XIV Of the Eternal and Unalterable distinctions of Moral Goodness FRom what has been laid down and Concluded it 's evident there 's an unalterable distinction between Good and Evil. Now certainly whereinsoever we fix the Notion of Moral Good whether 't is the imbracing of a Natural Good by Rational motives and convictions arising from the Intrinsick Nature of the Thing the proper Springs of a free Agent or whether 't is in pursuance to the Will and Authority of a Lawgiver it 's abundantly concluded the Lines of Moral Good are fixed and unalterable For it 's manifest that Moral Good always includes a Natural Good and Natural Good is evidently Established in the frame of Created Nature and consequently if the frame of Nature is unalterable Moral Good must be so too Nay we may advance further yet the great creator of all things tho' in himself the most absolute and free Agent yet was governed by the dictates of his own Infinite Wisdom and Goodness and consequently the whole frame of created Nature is Established according to the model of the divine perfections If therefore Natural Good necessarily results from the Natural frame of Things and their subserviency and agreements with each other and Moral Good necessarily includes a Natural Good in it Moral as well as Natural Goodness is as unalterable as the divine Perfections and consequently is in the highest sence eternal and unalterable From hence we way observe how monstrously absurd is that position advanced by a set of Men who first outlived all Moral Good before they thought of the Notion that there 's no distinction between Good and Evil that all the Impressions of the Mind are to be resolved into mere Habits Established in Example or Education and consequently the Good and Evil of all Actions besides that which results from the Determination of positive Laws whether Humane or Divine is nothing else but a Law of Fashion or Opinion It 's abundantly concluded God has given us a peculiar Frame and thereby Established certain Ends and Interests suitable to it And consequently what really accords with the true Ends and Interests of our Being is that we call a Natural Good and what directly clashes and interseres with them is a Natural Evil. It 's concluded God has endued us with powers and faculties that if duely exerted will discover to us the true Frame Ends and Interests of our Natures and how all external things affect 'em and are more or less Subservient to 'em and after this he has endued us with a power to chuse and pursue what is truly Subservient to these ends The very frame and condition of our Natures as they are to be supported with outward succours and conveniencies and the sense of pleasure and pain stampt upon our Natures and the desire of the one and satisfaction in enjoying it and the dread of the other and the uneasiness in suffering it are proper and effectual Springs to set all our natural Powers on work and fix 'em on their proper Ends and Objects and all this proves a moral Capacity to pursue and embrace that which we call Moral Good and unless our Natural Powers and Faculties are regulated by the Laws and Principles of natural Good it 's impossible the Action should obtain the Character of moral Good It must be confessed that the biass of Animal sensations or pleasures is so impetuous in corrupted nature that it often hurries us on to the pursuit of every thing that strikes a present Relish without considering whether it accords with the true Ends and Interests of our Beings at least in that measure or manner we seek to enjoy them Again it 's possible the Mind by force of Habit as well as power of Education and the Fashion of a Country may be sunk so deep into Carnality and so tinged with brutal Enjoyments as to be not only disabled from making the least Enquiry into the true Ends and Interests of its Being but to receive an undisturbed Satisfaction in the practice of
enim virtus est non quae relinqueret naturam sed quae tueretur Ib. Lib. 4. § 15. In homine Summa omnis Animi est in Animo Rationis ex qua virtus est quae Rationis Absolutio definitur Ib. Lib. 5. § 14. Virtus eadem in homine ac Deo est est autem Virtus nihil aliud quam perfecta ad Summum perducta natura est igitur homini cum Deo similitudo Lib. de Leg. § 8. So that Vertue was never esteemed that precarious Thing this Author has Suggested the publick Reputation of any Action was never the measure of Vertue but Right Reason and the Frame Ends and Interests of our Beings else it 's impossible Vertue in Men should be the same with Vertue in God and Men to resemble God in it as this Author excellently expresses himself From all this it 's manifest that Vertue was rather esteemed the Standard or Measure of Praise than Praise of Vertue and that Honour or Praise was never extolled or appealed to but as it is the Product of Vertue and a kind of reward to it Thus much this Author could not be Ignorant of when the Moralist explains the very passage he has cited almost with the same Breath and makes it a description of the chiefest Humane Good that consists in Vertue or is attained by it Quod ipsum sit optandum per se à Virtute profectum vel in ipsâ virtute situm suâ sponte laudabile Tusc Quaest lib. 2. § 20. If this will not content him I shall refer him to another passage that speaks out what I have already asserted and will instruct him that Vertue is the Measure of Praise not Praise of Vertue Omnis honos omnis admiratio omne studium ad virtutem ad eas actiones quae virtuti sunt consentaneae refertur Eaque omnia quae aut ita in animis sunt aut ita geruntur uno nomine honesta dicuntur Lib. 5 de Fin. § 21. This if I mistake not is to define Honour by Vertue not Vertue by Honour or Reputation as Mr. Lock would have it Upon the whole then I presume it appears that this Law of Opinion has no more foundation in the received principles of Morality than there 's necessity for the invention that it practises as much injustice upon the ancient Advocates for Morality as it discovers Impertinence or Evil design in the Author and in a Word it 's so miserably destitute of Solid Argument or Principle to support it that nothing but the fashionable Immoralities of a degenerate Age can assert its truth or Authority CHAP. XVI Of the Nature of Conscience in General I Shall not much enlarge on the Notion of Conscience which imports the knowledge of the Line of Duty and a directing Power or Faculty to consider the Nature of those Actions we are about to execute by applying 'em to the Line of Duty This is a truth so well known that no one can dispute it that allows the use of Reason or make us creatures that can act by a Law or are capable of being Governed by it The principal enquiry then is concerning Conscience with respect to past Actions And first it's a truth I presume universally agreed upon that Man is endued with a Power of Retaining and reflecting on his own actions The retentive Faculty is abundantly maintained upon the Power of Memory and the Power of Reflection is founded in the very Power of Reason For to Reflect and Animadvert upon our thoughts is undoubtedly an Act of Reason and Thought And therefore as Man acts upon Thought Deliberation and Argument he cannot but be conscious that he thinks deliberates and argues and consequently that he acts pursuant to it Indeed I presume to think deliberate and Act and to consider or know that we think deliberate or act thus and thus are two distinct acts of the Mind but whether we think and deliberate and reflect upon our Thoughts in the same or different Moments is no way prejudicial to the Doctrine of Consciousness To proceed then as we can reflect so we can animadvert upon the nature of past Actions for those very faculties that enable us to deliberate and judge of the Nature of an Action before it is executed will enable us to pass as clear if not much better judgment upon it after 't is over For then we view it in all its Aspects Circumstantials and Appendages Now certainly Conscience contains both these Powers in it I mean a Power of Recollecting and a Power of Animadverting on the Nature of our past Actions for without such inspecting Powers it 's impossible there can be any such thing as Conscience But then that which gives us the principal and formal Notion of Conscience is a Power of trying the Nature of our Actions by some Law or Rule of Action Whatever the Nature of Moral Good and Evil may be I mean whether it consists in the conformity of our Actions to a Law or Rule or their disagreement from it certain I am the Acts or Powers of Conscience imply the examination of an Action with reference to a Law or indispensable Rule of Action whereby it carries the appearance of a Duty or not a Duty For Conscience undoubtedly implies a Condemning and absolving Faculty in it and these are exercised with respect to Duty and Duty arises from the Obligation of a Law So that Conscience is undoubtedly the measure of our Actions by a Law Indeed this is so much the formal Notion of Conscience that it runs thro' all the instances and exercitations of Consciences for they are no otherwise distinguished than by the different Laws that Regulate them as from a Law of Nature Law of Revelation or Civil Polity But then in order to the passing an Absolution or Censure on our Actions and our selves for them by a Rule there must be a Power of Acting Conformable to this Law or Rule for without this the Action with its Effects and Consequences cannot be imputed to us This is implyed in the very notion of a Law being a Rule proposed to Rational Creatures that have a Power to Act or not Act on Rational Motives and Convictions so that Conscience contains a great many different movements or workings in it First A Power of Retaining Secondly A Power of Animadverting or Reflecting on past Actions Thirdly A Power of applying and comparing them with a Law or Rule Fourthly A Power of discerning the Truth Goodness or Equity of the Rule Fifthly The Obligation and Authority of it and Lastly A Power of ascribing the Action to our selves by acknowledging a Power of Acting in Conformity to this Rule whereby the Good or Evil Guilt or Merit of the Action may be some way imputed to us So that Conscience may be justly defined to be the Judgment we pass upon our own Actions whether past or present as scanned and measured by a Law But now tho' a Law in general is assigned for
its Truth and Divinity its Intrinsic Goodness and Purity by an Appeal to the Precepts of Natural Religion The Believer must grant That if Custom Education and an unaccountable Tradition give Birth to all the prevailing Principles of Morality the Argument of the Intrinsic Purity of any Religious Precepts will fall to the ground and when the Deist has beat him from this Fortress he 'll easily perswade him that all the rest is Cheat and Imposture The Believer having then thus far resigned his Notions of Morality will now come into Play and do an equal Piece of Service to the Deist and himself too by making both Converts to Atheism and Irreligion For when the Morality and Religion of Mankind is wholly to be resolved into Custom Education and the Mode and Habits of Ancestors and Contradictions in Principles of Morality produced as a Confirmation of the Notion what can more effectually subvert the eternal Distinctions of Good and Evil and as a Consequent of it introduce and establish a Law of Fashion as the only Measure and Standard of Vertue I will not positively fix these Designs on all those that have espoused the Notion It 's sufficient to my present Business that it carries a manifest Tendency towards the Promotion of 'em or that it gives a Foundation to the Impious and Prophane to establish their lewd Schems of Infidelity It cannot therefore be unseasonable to assert the Divine Authority and Original of Natural Religion and that too not only by way of Vindication of such an important Truth but as it serves the Cause of Christianity against the Attempts of Deists and Vnbelievers These are Conclusions so natural and obvious that I 'm perswaded the natural Tendency of the Doctrin with an undisturbed Toleration will too fatally demonstrate the Power and Efficacy of ' em But yet whilst we endeavour to obviate one growing Error it ought to be consider'd whether such Endeavours do not prepare the way for introducing and confirming another more dang'rously pernicious For if God has establish'd a Law of Nature antecedent to Revelation as an indispensable Rule of Duty and Action to Mankind and enabled 'em to discover and embrace it as such the Deist will conclude there can be no Necessity for a Revealed Religion and consequently resolve it into a Contrivance of some Designing Men an Artificial System of certain Creed-makers as a late Author has Characteriz'd a certain Order of Men to secure an Empire as well as Maintainance from the silly Populace I must confess this is the great Goliah the Champion-argument which Infidelity has recourse to to assail the Faith of the Living God once delivered to the Saints But certainly this is a lewd Attempt for Men to think to Demonstrate against a plain Matter of Fact by putting their Adversaries upon demonstrating the Necessity of such a Matter of Fact This is to advance our own shallow Understandings above the Sphere of Infinite Wisdom and Reason since we are resolved not only to pronounce the most solemn Transactions of Providence useless but reject the Truth and Certainty of 'em because a biass'd Judgment is resolved not to account for the Ends and Designs of ' em But certainly the Reasons and Necessity of things are sufficiently asserted by resolving 'em into the Decrees and Proceedings of infinite Wisdom If Revealed Religion is not from God the Unbeliever has an easier Task to detect the Forgery If the Believer contends for a Divine Original why should it not be tryed upon its proper Evidence I mean as all matters of Fact are But I am perswaded the Apprehensions of a certain Defeat oblige the Infidel to decline this Challenge For it 's well known the most avow'd Enemies to Revelation even Julian himself could never dispute the Evidences of Christian Truth I mean the Performance of Miracles However since the modern Unbeliever seems to plume himself in the Successes of this Argument I shall for once allow the Objection and venture the whole Merits of the Cause in demonstrating the Expediency and Necessity of Divine Revelation § 1st Now in order to this it will be requisite to make a short Survey of the Original State and Condition of Mankind both before and after the Fall for by this means we may make a more exact Estimate of the Capacities and Attainments of Mankind in matters of Knowledge as well as Practice It will readily be granted That as God originally established a Line of Duty in the very Frame of our Natures so He undoubtedly created us with Faculties to enable us to discern or comprehend every Part or Branch of it It 's true Laws of Nature were never presented to the View of the Mind by an Angelic sort of Intuition without Ideas passing thro' the Animal part But yet Reason will oblige us to conclude That the Glory of an Almighty Creator and the Express Image of his Person came forth of his Hands pure and spotless All his Powers Faculties and Appetites were correct and regular Those native Passions and Propensions which are now too often the Parents of Disorder and Confusion were no doubt originally constant Attendants and faithful Handmaids to the Powers of Reason That Love and Zeal that Complacency and Delight which are now fatally chain'd to sensual Enjoyments were originally engaged and devoted to the Entertainments and Exercises of a spiritual rational Mind Our chiefest Flights of Zeal and Love were no doubt directed on the Improvement of Knowledge and the Disquisition of Truth And certainly here 's a solid Foundation for Truth For here are not only native Passions and Propensions which serve as Springs to engage the Mind in the closest Researches after Truth but the whole Frame of the animal Part being thus correct the Images of Things must needs be presented to the View of the Mind in their native Shapes and Proportions without the least Paint or Disguise and consequently the Mind could act and display herself in the largest Train of Deductions without the least Trippings or Miscarriages So that Man in his Original Frame was enabled to lay in a wonderful Stock of substantial Knowledge and make a clear Discovery of the full Line of Duty But besides it 's highly consonant to Reason to imagin as the Great Creator of the World had adorned his Image and Representative with all desirable Perfections so he had not only entitled but invested him with special Favours and Blessings as well Spiritual as Temporal For we must not suppose that the placing him in Paradise only implies an actual Fruition of the whole Circle of Temporal Felicities but the Dispensation of such Spiritual Blessings and Favours as are suitable to Human Nature whilst it rested on this side Heaven and was not immediately instated in the Beatific Vision Whilst Man retained his primitive Innocence he was no doubt a very choice Favourite in the Eyes of his Maker and consequently we must conclude that he enjoyed constant Communications and Intercourses with him For
into Bogs and a thousand Miscarriages and therefore we cannot think it unnecessary to be secured from such fatal Hazards and Difficulties by having a Digest of Laws laid before us that remain as an unquestionable Standard of Duty What tho' the common Exigencies and Necessities of Nature the Frame and Condition of our Beings by the Light of natural Reason will direct us to the Ground-work of Morality and natural Religion it can be no Argument that the Light of natural Reason can enable us to raise the Superstructure that is either to accommodate those Laws we can discover to the Cases and Instances of humane Life so as to reduce 'em to Practice at least so as to answer the true Ends and Intentions of Living or to discover other Laws that are the Consequences of prime Laws of Nature and indispensably necessary to the Conduct of Humane Life to the disposing us for that State of Happiness for which God has originally design'd us much less to render our Services truly acceptable to God Certainly if we reflect on those inextricable Clogs Obstructions and Encumbrances wherewith corrupted Nature appears to be encompassed we must pronounce it impossible that the Powers of natural Reason should carry us thus far It 's certain tho' natural Reason may present most of the Fundamental Laws of Nature in a rough Draught yet nothing but Revelation is able to give 'em their finishing Strokes and their proper Graces and Perfections and display 'em in their Consequences Appendages and Deductions I mean such as are absolutely necessary to the Ends and Purposes of living well and attaining to a State of Happiness And therefore if natural Reason cannot pretend to furnish us in these Cases she must subscribe to the Necessity of Revelation Indeed I am perswaded natural Reason by a constant Habit of Thinking and a solemn Attention and Application of Mind may make very lucky Conjectures very ample Discoveries at least upon probable Evidences and Convictions in very important Truths But God knows as the Frame of Man now stands we must attribute such mighty Performances to a Work of Time to the Labours and Observations of Ages they can only be the Product of a few working Brains that by a peculiar Genius have sequestred themselves from secular Affairs and consecrated their Thoughts to the Observations of Humane Nature and yet the Whole at last amounts no higher than a few general Maxims or Positions formed from a happy Conjunction of their own Thoughts and the Observations of their Ancestors and these often clash and interfere with those of their Brethren and consequently can carry no higher Authority or Character than Learned Conjectures And now since Reason and Experience demonstrate as well as dictate the Truth of these things a revealed Canon seems to be absolutely necessary for the Conduct of Mankind or the Attainment of that Happiness which the Light of natural Reason in a State of Innocency would have otherwise secured A Revealed Canon was necessary to silence the immortal Disputes of the Learned as well as inform the Illiterate at an easie Expence of Time and Thought A Revealed Canon was necessary to give the most elaborate Discoveries of Reason the Authority of Laws in as much as it was necessary they should be ushered into the World with the highest Credentials of Divinity and established upon competent and express Rewards and Punishments But to conclude this Argument Notwithstanding the utmost Attainments of Human Reason I can see nothing to supersede the Necessity of Revelation but what will as effectually set aside the Necessity of Human Laws and Civil Government It 's certain That Laws of Nature discoverable by natural Reason answer the general Ends and Intentions of Civil Government and describe the great Lines of Right and Wrong Justice and Equity they assert the Rights of Property as well as the Obligations of private Compacts If therefore these general Notices be not sufficient for the Conduct of Human Life even in secular Affairs we cannot imagine that the Discoveries of Natural Reason should reach the whole Line of Duty with respect to God Ourselves and Neighbour In a word since after the highest Pretences to a natural Light it was necessary to constitute Civil Governments and entrust Men of Thought and Parts to work off a Body of Laws for the Conduct of Mankind in temporary Concerns by the nicest Consults Debates and Observations how much more necessary is it to receive a Digest of Laws from an Infalible and Unerring Hand to secure an Eternal as well as Temporal Happiness § 4. Thus far we have advanc'd the Necessity of Revelation in order to the Discovery of the Line of Duty but there is something more behind to improve the Argument For it 's certain we have hitherto represented the fairest Part of the Landskip of Human Nature I mean as it lies in a degenerate State It 's certain it is not only clog'd with those native Encrumbrances and Propensions derived from the Loins of our Ancestors that weigh down the Activity of the Mind but we are all unfortunately brought forth in Impotence and consequently are forced to suck in the Superstition and Absurdities as well as Impieties of our Parents of the present as well as past Ages These must unavoidably grow up together with our Reason and improve with the Strength and Vigour of our Bodies so that when we arrive to the Use of Reason we have not only native powerful Propensions but as violent Prejudices to grapple with In the first Age of the World where Men enjoyed the Instructions of our first Parent the Laws of Good and Evil Virtue and Vice were clear and legible the Stream was pure and untainted when it just issued forth from the Fountain but by length of Tract it gathered Filth and Mud for every Age was a Common-shore to transmit all its Vices and Irregularities This was the case of the old World as it is of a great part of this at this day of miserable Indians as well as hardned Antediluvians the Imaginations of whose Hearts by this means were to do evil continually and their Vnderstandings being past feeling were incurably darkned Now certainly when Men happen to be born under such an unfortunate Climate where instead of living they seem to be buried in an invincible State of Ignorance how is it possible they can ever be reduced to a Sense of Duty or act like Men or Reasoning Beings till they are enlightned by the convincing Beams of Revelation Whilst their Minds are enclosed in this State of Egyptian Darkness no Wonder if in the Sacred Language they should grope or seek after the Lord if happily they might feel him ought and find him tho' he be not far from every one of us and certainly if the Case of some poor Wretches in the World was so desperate that they might easily miss the Discovery of a Law-giver it 's impossible they should form a Body of Laws as an indispensable Rule of
Action Who can therefore dispute the Necessity of a Revealed Dispensation when Mankind is reduced to such forlorn and dismal Circumstances any more than suppress and disown the surprizing Graces and Mercies of it § 5. Bur further we may demonstrate the Necessity of Revelation from certain Defects in Natural Religion that are only to be supplyed by Revelation and by this means we shall confirm and strengthen the preceding Arguments And first the Necessity of Revelation discovers it self in the Notion and Worship of a GOD It 's well known though the Consideration of our own Frame and of those things without us may by the Light of natural Reason induce the Belief of a God and at least give us an imperfect Idea of his excellent Nature yet certainly the latter is not to be attained but by Men of Thought and Observation The unthinking Vulgar are ready to resemble the Godhead by Gold or Silver or Stone graven by Art and Man's Device But after the nicest Discoveries that natural Reason can pretend to we can no where find the Godhead represented in its true Graces and Perfections but in the Book of Revelation Again tho' Natural Reason must dictate that God is to be worshipped yet to calculate the precise Way and Manner of it seems to exceed the Sphere of its Activity To worship God in a spiritual Manner by Prayer and Thanksgiving seems extremely reasonable because highly consonant to his blessed Nature but yet had Revelation been silent Reason that is so much immersed in Sense and sensible Objects would never have carryed us much above the gross and scandalous Ways and Rites of Heathen Worship The whole World in these Cases lay in Ignorance and Superstition and therefore the Purity and Honour of God seems to induce a kind of Necessity or Obligation on him to make a Reform by a revealed Dispensation It 's his Prerogative to determine what Worship his Creatures shall pay him and the actual Determination of it is the Business of Revelation Again The Necessity of Revelation is abundantly expressed in the Enforcements of Divine Laws For tho' natural Reason might inform us that Rewards and Punishments are the inseparable Consequents of the Observance or Violation of Laws yet it can never pretend to state the Nature or Measure of 'em and yet this seems absolutely necessary to a due Enforcement of Laws to secure an Obedience agreeable to the general Intention of ' em It 's the Prerogative of every Law-giver to assign proper Rewards and Punishments and if the Supreme Law-giver of Mankind has not done it in a State of Nature it 's highly necessary he should do it under a State of Revelation Lastly I would fain know whether natural Reason can make a compleat and convincing Discovery of the History of the Creation or that of the Fall and the dismal Consequences of it of the Order of Spirits and particularly of the Malevolence of the wicked One and his Associates of the Nature of the Soul and its Immortality and of the Nature and Certainty of a Future State These are certainly Things of the highest Importance in the Affairs of Religion and tho' natural Reason and a nice Thread of Thought might advance a great many noble Speculations yet we find the Learned discoursing of some of 'em as a kind of happy Presages rather than establish'd Truths Nescio quomodo inhaeret in mentibus quasi Saeculorum quoddam Augurium futurorum Sic. Tusc Quaest Lib. 1. Tit. 4. p. 350. And certainly nothing besides the special Communications of Heaven could settle such weighty Points of Philosophy These alone were only able to silence the Eternal Disputes and Distractions of the Heathen Schools The World view'd 'em but thro' a Glass darkly but Revelation presents 'em Face to Face The World in these Cases was like the Men of Sodom struck with Blindness and groping for the Door the Key of Knowledge They are the Beams of Christianity that are only powerful enough at once to melt off the Scales and convey a full Ray of Light into the Soul It 's a Peculiar of the Christian Institution to display the Nature and Certainty of a future and exceeding Recompence of Reward and bring Life and Immortality to Light through the Gospel It 's another Peculiar to present Mankind with a true Landskip of ' emselves and the Miseries of their former Condition to display the indefatigable Attacks of the Prince of the Power of the Air the Spirit that worketh powerfully in the Children of Disobedience and the true Methods of fencing against him Are not these Discoveries of the highest Importance Are they not indispensably necessary to render us Favourites of Heaven to secure Peace and Safety in this World and to conduct us to the Regions of Happiness in another If these things are so to dispute the Necessity of Revelation is a greater Argument of the Iniquity of our Will than Judgments since it is not want of Evidence or Conviction but the weight of Baseness and Ingratitude that obliges us to reproach and quarrel with our Great Creator for his inestimable Mercies § But further another Argument of the Necessity of Revelation will arise from the Mischiefs which the Fall has brought on Mankind in reference to Practice Indeed here an Original Corruption does sufficiently signalize it self here it discovers its Strength and Authority in a very remarkable manner For it 's the general Complaint of Mankind that the Animal Propensions weigh down the Soul to that degree that she is not able to pursue those Duties which she plainly discovers to be such The most exalted Heathen Moralists the most improved Asceticks always confessed their Impotence in Matters of Practice they freely acknowledged that their Actions fell infinitely short of their Informations or the Line of Duty The Orator has long since observ'd That the wisest Sages among the Greeks as well as Latins could discourse and write upon Virtue after a magnificent Manner tho' they shamefully miscarried where it was to be reduced to Practice Quibus cum facere non-possent loqui tamen scribere honeste magnifice licebat Cic. Orat. pro. Coelio p. 448. Ed. Lond. So that it was not the Knavery of Priests in filling the Heads of their People with false Notions of the Deity and their Worship with foolish Rites or in excluding Reason from having any thing to do with Religion that obstructed the Progress of Virtue as a late Author on every turn has suggested See Reasonableness of Christianity p. 257 264. but the Corruptions of Human Nature that rendred the best Rules and Instructions almost useless But now since Mankind seems to be placed under moral Impossibilities of acting pursuant to the Lines of Duty it 's absolutely necessary such Provisions should be made as might put them into a Condition to bring their Actions in some Measure up to the Line of Duty And certainly nothing less can secure so great a Work than a written Code and those Methods
of the Senses as well as that of the Mind The outward Senses in most Cases are a kind of Perspectives to the Mind and the Mind must certainly receive its Notices from the Impressions which outward Objects make upon them and if Objects make an Impression upon the outward Senses suitable to the Nature of 'em they must do the same upon the Mind too So that the first Act of the Mind that of Perception must necessarily be regular and unalterable for 't is a Faculty of receiving the Impressions of outward Objects and of framing Idea's suitable to the nature of 'em insomuch that where the Object is rightly applied and attended to the Idea is as certain and unalterable as Colours to the Eye or Heat and Cold to the Touch. But now as the Powers of Perception are certain and unalterable so are the Powers of Reason at least in the original frame of ' em For Reason being nothing but the comparing of two or more Idea's to gain a third or form certain Conclusions and Deductions from 'em as long as the Perception is regular and correct Reason must be so too especially where there 's a due Application of the Object or Idea and attention of Mind too Indeed that the Reason of Mankind is fixt and certain or acts in a true and regular Sphere is evident from a Complication of Arguments As 1st It cannot be imagined why Reason shou'd not be established upon certain Rules and Measures as well as all other Powers of the Creation and it 's a manifest Reproach cast upon the Author of Nature to allow that the Laws and Appetites of the Vegetative and Animal Part of the World should be fix'd and regular and that the Powers and Faculties of the Rational Part of the Creation a random kind of Ordinance altogether precarious and uncertain But then whosoever allows God to be the Author of our Beings God to be the Standard of Wisdom and Reason and the Reason of Mankind to be an immediate Transcript of it must conclude that Reason is established upon fix'd Measures and Principles For God is unalterable in all his Measures and Workings his Wisdom and Reason is uniform and invariable consistent with it self and that Reason he has imparted to any of his Creatures and consequently the Reason of Mankind must correspond with all this in a lower degree or proportion So that where all Impediments are removed where Idea's or Objects are presented to the View of the Mind and the Mind closely attends to 'em the Appearance of Things must be the same every-where I mean in every Intelligent Being The Reason of one Man must be the Reason of every Man and the Reason of Men must be the Reason of God and Angels too This perhaps would be allowed to be an unquestionable Truth had Man retained the Primitive Lustre and Perfection of all his Intellectual Faculties or were not false Idea's suggested and true ones disguised by the Corruptions and Exorbitances of the Animal Part. But certainly this does not destroy but perplex the Workings of Reason it discovers the Imperfections and Difficulties not the Uncertainty of Reason the Mind is by this means often call'd off and deprived of that Application and Attention which is indispensably required in the Disquisition of Things and particularly in the Discovery as well as Observance of all Laws But when these are secured I mean when there 's a due Application and Attention maintain'd Reason will be the same in a depraved and degenerate State as it was in a State of Innocence Indeed I 'm perswaded the true Reason why Man under a degenerate State is so much affected in his Intellectuals is the Violence and Exorbitance of the Animal Appetites whereby the Mind is called off from deliberating the true Nature of Things and consequently determins in conformity to 'em upon any plausible Suggestions and Appearances or if she has conceived true Idea's yet they are in a great measure suppress'd and stifled by the Impulses of Lust and she carried away by the powerful Overtures of a present Pleasure But I do not find that the Mind in this State is absolutely disabled from discerning the true Nature of Things or Actions The Sallies of the Animal Part are not always so powerful but there are certain Minutes or Intervals wherein she may attend to and deliberate upon peculiar Objects and consequently compare and form just Conclusions according to the Measures of right Reason So that we may without Derogation to any State of Grace affirm That we are not under absolute Impossibilities in Decyphering the Line of Duty by strict Reasonings though we may be destitute of Native Strength to maintain an Uniform or Steady Practice Thus much the Christian Institutions warrant and confirm when the Heathen World is concluded under Actual Sin and as many as have sinned without Law are doomed to perish without Law For no one will be damned for Impossibilities But after all should we allow that the OEconomy of Reason in this lapsed State is very much shaken and dissolved so that all our Reasonings are very precarious and uncertain yet we cannot but conclude that it was originally established upon fixed Rules and Principles and consequently that we were formed by an Intrinsick Power and Efficacy to exert every Faculty in such a manner as wou'd enable us to answer all those Ends and Designs that God hath laid upon us as Men and Reasonable Creatures And this is sufficient to expose the Assertion of our Adversaries that will have all our Notices enter the Soul as it were by Chance that is by Revealed Tradition Education or Instruction It 's manifest they do not reject our Attainments of this kind upon the Argument of Native Depravities but upon the Argument of Native Imperfections In as much as the Soul being Rasa Tabula is equally prepared to receive contradictory Impressions and consequently its Native Powers and Faculties imply nothing but a Capacity to receive the Informations or Instructions of others Upon the whole then since it 's concluded that the original OEconomy of Reason is even in a lapsed State only vailed and sully'd not wholly defac'd we may still affirm that the Soul retains a Faculty of Thinking and Reasoning in an established way Insomuch that when Objects are fairly presented to the Mind and the Mind dwells and deliberates upon 'em she will still be determin'd according to the Nature Properties and Agreement or Disagreement of the things ' emselves And therefore we are thus far advanced towards a Law of Nature that we are acted by a Principle which serves to steer and direct us in the disquisition of the Subject-matter of a Law or Rule of Action and that too such a Rule as serves as a Law not only to particular Persons but to the whole Species For since it is concluded that Man is acted by a Principle that naturally Thinks Perceives and Reasons and this Thought Reason and Perception is founded upon uniform
Immoralities or to speak in other Terms the Seeds of this kind of Corruption are certainly lodged in the Propensions and Habits of the Animal Part. For that which has such an Ascendent over us to command us to Act in favour of it will infallibly influence our Judgments This is so obvious that in wilful Enormities I mean such as were first committed against the Convictions of the Mind the Power of Animal Propensions Assiduity of Practice and a kind of Natural Intimacy or Familiarity resulting from it has at last engaged Reason itself to appear as an Advocate for it and very often it makes such elaborate Researches for Arguments to support the Cause that at last it declares for the Justice and Innocence of it and asserts it upon Principle and inward Conviction I am perswaded and can without breach of Charity or Justice affirm That the Growth of the foulest Heresies in the Christian World is to be placed in this Original Men have so long given the full Reins to Pride Ambition Covetousness or other vitious Lusts and Propensions that they have called in their whole Stock of Parts and Learning and made Converts to their Judgments to support them or revenge their Disappointments And now upon this Bottom we may silence all Objections brought from the absurd and Heterodox Opinions of certain Moralists and Philosophers For it 's highly probable they were at first but exquisite Apologies to Patronize importunate Passions and confirm'd Practices and consequently can be no real Prejudices to a Law of Nature Indeed the impure Doctrine of the Gnosticks may be as well admitted a just Plea against the Truth and Purity of Christianity and the Evidences for both as some few lewd Doctrines of Philosophers against the Certainty of a Law of Nature upon the Evidences of Natural Reason § 2. But to enlarge a little on this part of the Objection it 's well known that the foulest and most absurd Opinions charged on particular Philosophers are by others recorded as an eternal Mark of Infamy and Reproach due to 'em and consequently they are by no means a just Balance to the substantial Reasonings of others in deciphering Laws of Nature We might add to all this how unjust a Measure the Practices of Mankind is of their real Notices of Moral Good an Argument too fatally demonstrated under a Christian Dispensation and consequently tho' the Generality of Philosophers liv'd in Opposition to Laws of Nature and some few taught contrary to 'em yet it 's no just Consequence to place Laws of Nature above the Researches of Natural Reason I am perswaded some of the Instances presented in a late Conference * See Conference with a Theist Part 2. p. 56 to p. 64. do not fall under the Character of prime Laws of Nature and consequently do not reach the Author's Design It 's very well known Plato's Model for Peopling his Common-wealth was not by a Community of Women without Limitations from the Civil Power But for the precise Limitations in this matter as well as the manner of Worshiping God whether by Sacrifices and corporeal Representations I presume it 's the business of Revealed Religion to fix and determine As for his Instance of Masculine Venery Zeno and his Followers pronounced it indifferent I presume it was a previous Practice that had made it appear so And yet St. Paul speaks of some of these unnatural Whoredoms as things scarce named among the Gentiles 1 Cor. 5.1 But it were highly to be wished that some Nations in the Confines of Christendom had wholly escaped the Contagion so that if such vile Practices in a State of Nature may be an Argument against Laws of Nature antecedent to Revelation it will be of Force against written Revelations Since Laws of Nature founded in the Dictates of natural Reason may be as easily violated as any written Law Certainly such avowed Practices may with greater force of Reason be allowed against a Law that pretends to no higher Authority than Revelation or supported by Tradition Lastly As for the Grecian Piece of Cruelty in exposing Children to the Mercy of Beasts and Travellers without remorse I presume the Practice was not frequent because it must be the Concern and Interest of every Government to suppress it But it 's well known the Christian World is not wholly freed from such Monsters who I am afraid are acted by no other Dread but what the Apprehensions of a Discovery and the Penalties of the Law extort from them However this is an Instance so absolutely repugnant to the common Bowels of Humanity that it as effectually disproves those Earnings which natural Instinct discovers in the whole Order of Brutes towards their own Off-spring as that natural Reason discovers the same Earnings to be a point of Duty to Mankind In one word the Cruelties of Heathens is no more an Argument that natural Reason doth not teach the contrary than the Barbarity of some particular Christians an Argument that Christianity does not exhort to Bowels of Compassion and a Parental Care towards their own Off-spring But to return A second Cause of Error is certain Prejudices or Prepossessions imprinted on the Mind by Example and Education The Cause and Origin of Error already given presents us with the Propensions and Bias of Humane Nature and consequently how liable the World is to be overspread with Error At least Matter of Fact informs us how wide the Actions of Men deviate from the Line of Duty so that it may truly be said of the Heathen World That the Imaginations of their Hearts is to do Evil continually Certainly then where a Contagion extends itself not only to the Judgments but Practices of Mankind and not only corrupt Principles but vitious Examples prevail in Parents Guardians and Tutors the Minds of their Descendents will be deeply impregnated with pernicious Prejudices and Prepossessions They are implanted among the first and earliest Impressions even before the Powers of Reason exert themselves This I am confident is the Case of the uncultivated Regions of Mankind And certainly when Reason comes to exert it self under such a fatal Bias no wonder if she often falls into very gross Miscarriages And yet this is the inevitable Portion of Mankind that are brought forth in a State of Impotence as well in Mind as Body and can hardly arrive to any Growth in Reason before they arrive to a Maturity in Body But now these things being laid together and admitted it 's very unjust to reject the Divine Oeconomy of Laws of Nature antecedent to Revelation because the unavoidable Prepossessions of some Men have carried them besides the Mark so as to contradict the general Lines of Duty For it 's apparent were Men to enter the World in the Strength and Power of Reason without the Clog and Encumbrance of antecedent Prepossessions as in the Instance already given See Chap. 1. Sect. 2. It 's impossible but the Fundamental Line of Duty must present it self to the
of Good and Evil. The Mistake I think is obvious from a very few Considerations tho' God has implanted Faculties of Reason which if rightly exercised and applied will discern Things as they really are and pronounce certain Matters or Things indispensable Rules of Action Yet since there 's a fatal Bias on our Natures and these Faculties do not Act necessarily nor are Things always duly presented to their View nor do they yield a due Attention to 'em Notions may be impressed that may almost overturn the very Frame of Nature or destroy the natural Appearances of Good and Evil Vice and Vertue and therefore Men may by the Bias of Education Custom and irregular Appetites come to espouse the most horrid Impieties for Heroick Vertues may practise the grossest Enormities not only with Approbation but an Opinion of Merit I 'm sure Christianity supposes little less when we are assured of Seared Consciences when the Mind or Vnderstandings as well as Consciences may be defiled Tit. 1.3 when the Understanding may be darkned to that degree as to be past Feeling and to give us up to work all Vncleanness with greediness And in a word when we are instructed that Men may be abandoned by God and consequently may be given up to walk in the Vanity of their Minds to vile Affections and to work all Vncleanness This may be the Case of private Persons and of publick Societies too and no doubt it is the Case of the miserable Indians at this Day as it was once of the Seven Nations And when such invincible Ignorance and Impiety has over-spread a Land and is become an established Rule of Life to Parents Governours and Tutors it must without some distinguishing Overtures of Grace be entailed and transmitted to Posterity But yet for all this the Argument of Universal Consent as to Laws of Nature and established Rules of Morality cannot justly be Arrained we may as well question Man to be a Reasonable Creature at least on the Authority of Universal Consent because there are some Fools and Ideots or a Creature of Symetry and Proportion because there are some Monsters in the World as argue against an Universal Consent because the Barbarity of some Nations contradict it It 's true Mr. Lock endeavours to take off the force of the Argument since he seems to call the Judgment of other Nations that have preserved the great Lines of Laws of Nature the private Perswasions of a Party whilst we esteem 'em the only Dictates of Right Reason B. 1. Cap. 3. § 20. But I hope those vile Practices he has transcribed from those that only retain the Figure of Men are not to pass for the Dictates of Right Reason nor they the Men of Right Reason And consequently their Votes or Opinions are not to be received against that Universal Consent we contend for for certainly when we appeal to Universal Consent we cannot be supposed to appeal to Monsters Apostates Reprobates or Devils and yet there may be whole Nations that will fall under one of these Characters Again It 's possible that natural Powers and Faculties may be so far abused as to lose their native Vigour and Activity so that Men may live in a State of Inconsideration and Thoughtlessness and become as Ignorant and Careless of every Thing but what the Example and Custom of their Country suggests as the unthinking Brute that perisheth And this may be the case of Tribes of Men as well as private Persons and no doubt is the case of the uncultivated Negro's and therefore it would be highly absurd to take in their Judgments and Opinions to make up that Universal Consent we contend for § 2. Upon the whole then when we have recourse to Universal Consent for the Proof of a Law of Nature it only implies an Appeal to those Nations or People that in the Judgment of improved Reason have passed under the Character of Polished or Civilized or that have been justly supposed in some measure to have exerted those Powers and Faculties in Thought and Observation which God has implanted in the original Frame and Constitution of Mankind And certainly we have always had the joynt Consent of such Nations for most of those Rules and Precepts which in the strictest Sense are esteemed Laws of Nature I 'm sure they have signified or declared it in the most unquestionable Way or Manner Inasmuch as they have been selected for the general Subject of civil Laws and the Practice of 'em enforced by certain civil Penalties or Sanctions And certainly this is the strongest Argument or Presumption for Laws of Nature that may be since we cannot imagine why distinct Nations and Societies of Men established upon different Maxims and Rules of Policy as well as Models of Government should conspire in the Subject-matter of so many Laws unless they were by the Light of Reason discoverable to Mankind as indispensable Rules of Action And thus I hope I have satisfied the Demands of all reasonable Enquirers in proving a Law of Nature antecedent to Revelation or positive Humane Laws CHAP. IV. Reflections on some Passages in the Conference with a Theist Part 2. § 1. HAving in some measure drawn the Line and laid the Foundation of natural Religion or Laws of Nature antecedent to Revelation I cannot but discover my Dissatisfactions with the Opinion of a late Author that places the Whole of natural Religion in the Authority of Revelation that will allow it no other Original but Revelation and no other Means of Conveyance and Preservation but Oral Tradition See Conference with a Theist Part 2. Page 32. 36. Indeed this seems to be a Notion advanced without well considering the Nature Probability or Consequences of it For first the manner of its Conveyance by Oral Tradition which this Author was forced to admit of seems to expose it as a groundless Conjecture I know he endeavours to remove the Force of this Argument by telling us That the Duties that pass under the Characters of Laws of Nature are so natural to the Vnderstanding so easie to be embraced by it and upon Proposal seem so to be extreamly Vseful to Mankind that they must be assented to and can never be mistaken or forgot p. 36. And consequently there was not the least necessity of any written Records But certainly this is a Confession which if well considered should have directed him to the very Notion he labours to expose For if Laws of Nature are so natural and obvious to the Understanding that they must be assented to he might very well have allowed that their extream Usefulness to Mankind would have prompted and enabled Reason to have made the Discovery without borrowing the whole from Revelation Certainly if Reason by its own intrinsic Light and Activity could not go thus far he must suppose the Souls of Men tho' God's express Image and Representative to be the most imperfect impotent Parts of the Creation But then that Laws of Nature are not so easily assented
to or can never be mistaken or forgot I should have thought his own Remarks upon the Lives and Doctrines of Philosophers and in a word on the Manners and Notions of the Heathen World had been a sufficient Confutation Most of these we must suppose received something from his imaginary Line of Tradition and therefore since he has made 'em so basely to pervert the Rules of it he might have justly concluded that Providence who knew well what was in Man must have judged it necessary to have inculcated Laws of Nature either by frequent Visions or committed them to Writing as well as the other parts of his revealed Will. And therefore his own Objection seems to stand good against him on his own Principles That Tradition is not so proper a means to convey Morality by to Mankind because of its liableness to Corruption and that it would have been more sensibly vitiated than we find it is had it descended by this Method And truly the Objection carries force in it for were Humane Reason so desperately Impotent as the Picture he seems to have presented the World with represents I cannot conceive what Service a few blind Oral Traditions would have done to preserve the least Footsteps of Morality But to examine the Truth of the Conjecture under the Instance he has given that of the Indian Indeed it 's very notorious the Regions of the Indian World are reduced to the lowest Ebb of Humanity and lodged under the grossest Cloud of Ignorance there being not much left but Humane Shape to introduce a Thinking Mind to believe they are endued with Humane Souls But as for those small Remains of Morality were they to submit to a strict Examination I 'm perswaded we should hardly find them Resolving 'em into the Advice or Commands of their Fathers and Grandfathers or pretending a Succession from the great Parent of Mankind Adam This is certainly an Account as unknown and unthought of as native Inscriptions or a Rationale founded in a large train of Consequences But yet tho' 't is ridiculous to imagin that such illiterate Mortals should resolve every Term or Notion into its Simple Ideas especially such as a late Author has projected yet I do not question but they would offer at something from the Intrinsic Nature of the things themselves that would determine and engage their Choices something that would in some measure bespeak them Men and Reasonable Creatures I will grant that Opinion as well as Practice may be often established upon Custom and publick Example without accounting for the Nature or Reason of the Things themselves But then Custom conducts us to some Original that is not very remote where we may find it established on the highest Convictions and Evidences of Reason and it may be no less than what are sufficient to establish a Law of Nature But it seems highly absurd that the whole Body of Laws of Nature or the indispensable Rules of Action to Mankind should rest upon no other Foundation but a few Instructions delivered to our First Parents and these transmitted thro' all the Periods of Time and all the Revolutions of States and Kingdoms into all the Corners of the Earth upon the volutary Reports of those that lived before us As for the Case of the poor Indians I 'm abundantly satisfied they are so little sensible of any Conveyance of this Nature and such insuperable Obstructions against the Success or Preservation of it that they might on this account justly plead invincible Ignorance to every Law of Nature and consequently free ' emselves from that severe Sentence of Perishing without Law because they really Sinned without the least Apprehension or Conscience of a Law Thus far as to the Improbability of the Conveyance by Oral Tradition § 2. I shall in the second place offer something as to the Truth of the Position that Laws of Nature take their Rise from Revelation And first I think it manifestly contradicts the revealed Canon And for this I shall refer this Reverend Author to the Arguments I have advanced from Scripture and particularly to the Passage he has cited and my Explication pursuant to the whole Body of Commentators and the best Modern Divines upon it Indeed he would make the World believe he has taken off the Force of it and established his own Notion by a parallel Text of Scripture And these Words which I command thee this Day shall be in thine Heart and thou shalt Teach them diligently to thy Children c. Deut. 6. v. 6 7. Whereas it 's manifest the holy Spirit speaks of Laws Revealed and Recorded and the writing in the Heart implies nothing but a treasuring 'em up in the Mind a Commitment of them to the Memory and in a Word nothing but what the blessed Mother of our Lord did on another Occasion when she laid up his heavenly Sayings in her Heart It expresses a Duty incumbent upon us to commit the Laws of God to our Minds and Consciences to rivet 'em in our Hearts and Affections so to Meditate upon them that we may perform and keep them and instruct others in them But the Epistle to the Romans expresses a quite different thing It expresses a Law distinct from a Revealed Law and fixes the Distinction in the different manner of Promulgation on the Tables of the Heart so that if 't is not done by native Inscriptions it must by natural Powers and Faculties But further the Canon of Scripture does not only pronounce this Notion false and groundless but I presume it has been in some measure demonstrated to be so For if Man is originally endued with such Faculties as by a native Activity can exert ' emselves in the Discovery of Laws of Nature there can be no Foundation for erecting an uncertain Scheme of Oral Tradition § 3. But to proceed to the Consequences of this Position And first It 's very well known the Patrons of this Notion directly overturn the received Distinctions of Natural from Revealed Religion and Natural from Positive Laws The Distinction was always founded in the different Origin of these Laws The latter being given by special Revelation but the former discovered by the Workings of Natural Reason But now both must derive from Revelation and consequently there can be no other Distinction but what may be among written Revealed Laws in as much as one Revealed Law or Precept in its Intrinsic Nature may be better adapted to the View and Perception of Humane Understanding than others or at least no other Distinction but what lies between Oral and Written Traditions But to conclude this Argument This Notion seems to shake or overturn the eternal Distinctions of Moral Good and Evil founded in the very Frame and Nature of Things together with the OEconomy of Natural Conscience For it 's manifest it weakens the Authority of Natural Religion by placing such important Laws and Precepts upon the slender Credit of Oral Traditions Indeed there are so many Difficulties and
Mind with the first Lineaments of its Being And therefore there seems to be no visible Necessity for having Recourse to Innate Ideas or Inscriptions And certainly if Innate Ideas are serviceable to Mankind they must be so in order to supply the Defects of Reason and consequently they seem to be exempt from the Disquisitions of Reason For if Innate Ideas are to be examined and judged on by the Workings of Reason Reason itself I mean the Decrees and Deductions of it will answer all the Ends and Designs of a reasonable Being as effectually as if a Digest of Laws were originally recorded on the Mind If this be true as I think it 's in some measure demonstrated to be the Doctrine of Innate Principles must be laid aside since we cannot conceive that a wise Creator should establish any Ordinance without some special Ends and Uses annexed to it I mean such as are not served any other way If it be said that Reason exercises no Jurisdiction in this Affair then I 'm afraid Innate Inscriptions will rather endamage than advance Religion and Morality For then every one will be apt to obtrude his own Fancies and wild Suggestions for native Inscriptions and consequently Mankind must be exposed to all the Extravagancies of Enthusiasm in the Oeconomy of Nature as well as that of Grace so that whatsoever any one has the boldness to affirm or fancy to be written on the Heart must immediately pass an Obligation on all Mens Actions and the Finger of God shall be pleaded to the Subversion of the common Principles of Morality as the Spirit of God has been to the Subversion of the Peace and Unity of the Church When all things then are thus fairly laid together we may with greater appearance of Reason conclude That our Ideas and Principles are acquired as well as the more remote Deductions of Science and that 't is their intimate Agreement with the Ends and Interests or common Frame and Necessity of our Nature that gives 'em the appearance of native Impressions In a word then tho' the sacred Language seems to favour the Notion yet it may be justly resolved into Metaphor or Figure and import no more than an Allusion to the general Custom of promulging Laws in Tables or Writing Inasmuch as God has originally endued us with Powers and Faculties to discover a Rule of Action and Law to Govern ourselves by in the common Exigences of Human Nature as clearly as if he had Engraven it on Tables of Stone CHAP. VII Of the different Degrees of the Evidence of Laws of Nature IT will easily be granted that Laws of Nature carry a different Evidence in proportion to the Subject-matter of 'em and the several Workings of Reason in the Disquisition of ' em Some Laws discover ' emselves by a single Consequence or a short train of Consequences whilst others rest upon an Evidence that is wrought by several Gradations or a large Series of Consequences or Deductions The primary Laws of Nature are those which represent the principal Duties we owe to God or those which concern our own Persons or the Persons of our Neighbours For those that arise from our own or our Neighbours Property are certainly more elaborate and remote I shall illustrate these Observations by a single Instance in each of ' em And first To Reverence and Worship the Supreme Being which we call God is certainly a Fundamental Law of Nature because it necessarily arises from that Relation we bear to God For the most obvious Notion of a God and a bare Assent to this single Proposition that God is our Creator and we his Creatures from whom all that we have or belongs to us is immediately derived must by a direct and immediate Consequence demonstrate that we are obliged to empty our Souls before him in the most solemn Acts of Homage and Reverence Indeed as for the manner of Divine Worship tho' Natural Reason by a train of Arguments might determine it so as to be some way acceptable to God yet to establish it in Perfection is certainly the business of Revealed Religion But that God is to be Worshipped is a Duty lodged in the most simple Workings of Reason Again That God has enjoyned Temperance as a Duty arises not only from the prime and most obvious Ends of our Being but from the Doctrine of Self-preservation and the necessary Methods of Subsistence so that allowing the clear Dictates of Reason in the Mind of our great Creator to be a Rule of Duty a single Inference will demonstrate Temperance to be a Duty Again as to those Laws which concern the Person of our Neighbours such I mean as prohibit Murder or other Violations of their Persons it 's visible the Consideration of the Methods of our Subsistence whereby we are necessitated to rely on the Succours of our Fellow-creatures will instruct us that God did not allow us to assassinate and destroy 'em the very Suggestions of Self-preservation will oblige us to make the Conclusion Again the Consideration of being Fellow-creatures and a peculiar of a Sovereign Creator and as such under his immediate Conduct and Disposal will instruct us that we have no right to their Lives without a special Commission from him Lastly The early Discoveries which we find in ourselves of Love Tenderness and Compassion and the Earnings which are implanted towards our own Flesh and Blood will direct us that God intended we should place a certain Measure of these native Passions and Propensions on those that are descended from us or are compounded of the same Ingredients and formed in the same Mould and consequently he could never authorize us to commit Violence or Cruelties on their Persons so absurd is the Hypothesis of the Leviathan that projects a State of Nature to be an absolute State of War But to proceed to the last Instance that of outward Goods and Possessions which engages the principal Laws and Measures of Justice Thus to Steal is no doubt a Violation of natural Justice and consequently a Violation of a Law of Nature but yet this rests on the Force and Authority of a Law antecedent to it I mean that of Property and consequently it implies several Conclusions or Deductions before we discover the Authority or Obligation of it Thus to detain or invade a Neighbour's Property contrary to Compact is certainly an Act of Violence done to a Law of Nature but yet it demands a Proof of the Obligations of Compact or voluntary Promises as well as of the Authority of Property before the Law can be decyphered It cannot be denyed but these are Laws of Nature because natural Reason by close Researches and regular Conclusions may discover their Obligations I 'm sure it can be no Objection that they result from voluntary Intercourses and Transactions among Mankind I mean Compacts or Bargains for the Necessities of Nature dictating such Transactions is a sufficient Indication of their Divine Authority and Obligation and consequently whatever
immediately Results from 'em must obtain the same Authority and Obligation as well as Character But yet it 's manifest when Laws of Nature are to be supported by a Train of Consequences the Evidence is not so direct and convincing because in these Cases the Mind is more fatally exposed to Miscarriages Upon the whole then it appears that Laws of Nature rest upon very different Degrees of Evidence And now thus much being agreed and concluded it may by these Measures be more exactly discerned which are to be esteemed Laws of Nature and which not so which Fundamental or de primo Dictamine Naturae and which not so and consequently the Necessity of forming a compleat Scheme of Laws of Nature seems to be wholly superseeded CHAP. VIII Of the Foundation of God's Right of Dominion and our Duty of Allegiance as a Law-giver § 1. HAving asserted the Authority of Laws of Nature by fixing it in the Author of Nature it naturally directs me to enquire into the Original and Foundation of those Obligations we owe to God or how we are obliged to the Observance of his Laws But before I proceed to a direct Determination of this Matter I shall make some Returns to what I find in a late excellent Discourse concerning the Power and Right of Obliging and particularly as applied to God He labours to prove that the Right and Power of Obliging is the same especially with respect to God and therefore after a great many Arguments concludes From all which it follows that whereever there is a Right of Obliging and where there is an absolute uncontroulable Power of Obliging there is for that very reason a Right also See The Certainty and Necessity of Religion in general Page 100. Whether these Assertions are true or no will appear by and by First I cannot but Premise that Right and Power happening to accompany each other in the Exercise of 'em no more than Heat and Light in the Sun is no Argument that they are not two distinct things conceived under two distinct Ideas or Notions Secondly Tho' a Right and Power of Obliging are both eternally invested in God yet it 's no more an Argument that they imply the same thing than that the Attributes of Infinite Power and Justice are the same Nay further tho' a Right of Obliging may by a Train of Consequences follow from a Power of Obliging or on the contrary a Power of Obliging from a Right of Obliging yet it 's no more an Argument of their Identity than that a rational Soul and Thought are the same because a rational Soul implies a Power of Thinking And therefore tho' an absolute uncontroulable Power may infer a Right of Obliging so that for that very Reason there may be a Right of Obliging yet they may be as distinct as Power and Truth But to consider both in their received and established Ideas or Notions Now certainly were we to appeal not only to the best Moralists but to the common Sense of Mankind they would unanimously concur in two different Descriptions And I 'm perswaded they differ as much as a Raparee or Tyrant from a lawful Prince as much as doing a thing Rightfully or upon a just Authority and doing a thing by Violence For Violence argues a Power of Punishing as well as a rightful Execution of Punishment both indeed attain the same end that is engage an Obedience but upon different Measures and Principles A Power of Obliging in the strict Notion of it is only concerned for securing an Obedience without considering the Justice or Injustice of the Action but a Right of Obliging implies an Obedience established on a just Authority or Foundation if there be any such thing as Justice distinct from Power In a word A Right of Obliging implies the Title of a Superior to Obedience and consequently a Title to enforce it by suitable Rewards and Punishments but a Power of Obliging neither implies a Title to the one nor other Thus an Usurper may have as absolute a Command of Rewards and Punishments to oblige or secure an Obedience as the most rightful Sovereign yet he certainly wants an Authority to enforce an Obedience by the Weight and Terror of Punishment and if he doth enforce it he exercises Power but not Right Again A rightful Sovereign may retain a Title to an Obedience and to the Exercise of Rewards and Punishments to enforce it but he may want a Power to exert his Right as in the Case of Rebellion or general Defection The Notion is clear and indisputable when applied to the civil Power on Earth and it carries the same Evidence and Force in it when applied to the absolute independent Power of Heaven For tho' Power and Right by reason of the infinite Perfections of the Divine Nature are Inseparable in God and in Man not so yet the Ideas or Notions of Right and Power whether in God or Men are formed upon the same Measures and Principles yea as much as the Notions of Justice Reason or Purity allowing Infinity and Perfection in God which cannot be given to Men. § 2. Having thus far asserted the Distinction of a Right of Obliging from a Power of Obliging I shall proceed a little further and consider whether the Right of Obliging as a true and proper Law-giver consists in nothing else but in a Power of contributing to our Happiness or Misery by special Rewards or Punishments Thus much seems to be asserted in the Discourse already cited for we are told That no one has a Right or Power of Obliging another to act such a particular Way he prescribes any further than he has a Power of contributing to the Happiness or Misery of that Being he so Prescribes to and that God can no otherwise induce an Obligation upon Men to Obey him than by making 'em know that he has it in his Power to render them Happy or Miserable Page 95. But certainly that a Right of Obliging as a Law-giver does not consist in a Power of Rewarding and Punishing is evident from uncontroulable Arguments As first It cannot be denied but an Equal that can challenge no Right of Dominion over us may upon some special Circumstances be invested with such a Power of Rewarding and Punishing as to engage us to Pursue and Imbrace what he dictates to us and yet such a Power does not give him any Right of Dominion over us or induce an Obligation of obeying him as a proper Superiour A Friend may propose Rewards to determine us to any particular Way in Matters of Counsel or Interest and yet not induce a binding Authority upon us like that of a Law A Friend or Neighbour may by Rewards or Favours be empowered to contribute so highly to our Happiness as to induce not only Obligations of Gratitude but the Exercise of other social Vertues and yet they do not establish a Right of Sovereign Authority upon us In a word A Robber Usurper Assassin or the Devil himself may have
it in his Power to inflict such Punishments as will determine any Man to Act as he prescribes and yet this Power gives no Right or Title to our Obedience no more than a Right to inflict those Punishments that will enforce it It will easily be granted that a Power of Punishing or Rewarding and consequently of contributing to our Happiness or Misery are the only proper Motives of a rational Obedience but I cannot conceive how they can be the Ground of Obedience that is due to a Superior For nothing can be the Ground of Obedience but such a Dependence as entitles a Being to impose things upon us by way of Precept or Command and authorises him to inflict Punishments when his Commands are not fufilled or executed so that the Ground or Obligation of Obedience due to Laws is antecedent to a Power of Rewarding or Punishing since it must not give Right to a Power of imposing Precepts or Commands but to a Power of inflicting Punishments Indeed the Miscarriages of this Notion seem to arise by not distinguishing the Ground of Obedience from its proper Motives I will easily grant that few would be perswaded to yield an Obedience to Commands that are disagreeable to any thing about 'em were there no Power of contributing to their Happiness or Misery by Rewards or Punishments and therefore nothing can more effectually engage an actual Obedience with the Dissolute and Irreligious than a Power of contributing to their Happiness or Misery by Rewards or Punishments but I cannot think that a bare Power of dispensing Rewards or Punishments can represent the Right of Obedience or in the Language of this Author the Right of Obliging another no more than the Right of Dispensing those Rewards or Punishments we have in our Power This is an Assertion that carries so much Evidence in it that it holds every way For were any Subject placed in such Circumstances that neither Rewards nor Punishments were left to oblige him to yield an Obedience yet he may for all this acknowledge his Superior's Right to his Obedience Thus in the Case of a general Defection tho' the Rightful Sovereign is divested of a Power of Rewarding and Punishing the Rebels enjoying an absolute Possession of both yet their Ambition Revenge or Success may not carry 'em to such a pitch of Insolence but they may still be forced secretly to own their Sovereign's Right to their Allegiance as well as Right to that Power of dispensing Rewards and Punishments which they have wrested from him and particularly a Right of Punishment due to their unnatural Defection Again I question not but the very Devils in Hell tho' they know and feel the irreversible Sentence passed against 'em and consequently have no Motive left to ingage their Obedience are forced to recognize their Fealty or acknowledge God's Right of Dominion over them in obliging 'em to serve and obey him and his Right in passing that very Sentence they actually suffer for not obeying him For in this Sense they certainly believe and tremble insomuch that their very Belief seems to be an Instrument to enhance their Misery To conclude this Argument I can freely grant that there cannot be a Right of Obliging without a Right of Rewarding or Punishing because as has already been observed the Right of Rewarding or Punishing is founded in a Right of Obliging but there may be a Power of Rewarding and Punishing without a Right of Rewarding much less of Obliging In one word the recognising a Right of Obliging or a Title to Obedience is only an Assent of the Mind to a particular Truth and tho' the Power of Rewarding or Punishing are the only proper Arguments to secure an Obedience yet I hope there may be other Reasons or Arguments to engage this Assent besides the Power of Rewarding or Punishing or of contributing to our Happiness § 3. Having thus offered my Reasons why I Dissent from this Author before I determine wherein the Right of Obliging consists I shall offer something against Mr. Hobbs's Notion He indeed carries the thing somwhat higher for he peremptorily affirms That the Right of God's Sovereign Authority over Mankind rests merely upon his irresistible Power a sola potentia irresistibili De Cive cap. 14 15. And to confirm the Notion he further affirms That one Man might have challenged a Right over the whole Off-spring of Mankind had he been endued with a Sufficiency of Power to have resisted the united Force of his Fellow-Creatures or at least protected them and himself Mansisset igitur ipsi jus dominii in caeteros omnes propter potentiae excessum qua se illos conservare potuisset Pursuant to this he tells us § 7. That our Obligations of Obedience are founded in our native Impotence and Fear a metu sive Imbecillitatis propriae respectu Divinae potentia conscientiae I must confess there seems to be a near Affinity between this and the Notion already excepted against tho' this seems to be carried much further and more palpably beyond the Mark. For that admits a Power of Rewarding as well as Punishing and consequently includes an Obedience mixed with Love as well as Fear but this fixes all upon the Power of Punishing and consequently places all upon Fear or some Glympses of Hope without any foundation for Love Indeed this is a Notion which deserves rather Contempt and Scorn than a formal Reply For it levels us with the unthinking Brutes that perish by making Fear and that too the most servile part of it a fear of Punishment the only Spring of Human Actions This we see is the Sovereign Principle of his Religion as well as Politicks but it has been more than once learnedly confuted as concerned in the latter and it 's so absur'd as applyed to the former that it scarce deserves the least Notice much less a Confutation I shall therefore dismiss this Notion with a few Observations First It 's observable that the Arguments brought to support it are directed to prove the proper Motive of our Obedience not God's Right and Sovereignty to it or in other terms to enforce an Obedience not to represent the Right or Duty of Obedience Secondly It is observable that Arguments suggested against the last Notion must carry an equal Force against this But in a word I think no considering Person can discern any Consequence between a bare Power of punishing a Sett of Men and a Right of imposing Laws and demanding Obedience to 'em and if 't is false in a finite Power it must be so in infinite for there is no difference besides original and delegated infinite and limited neither of which alter the nature of Things Notions or Consequences so that infinite Power in punishing as such or as it barely implies an infinite Power or Ability to punish no more gives the Idea or Denomination of a Right of punishing much less a Right of imposing Laws than a finite delegated Power doth § 4. It remains that I
endeavour to represent wherein the precise Nature of a rightful Dominion Obligation or Obedience with respect to God and his Laws consists And I shall enlarge something more freely upon it because all delegated Right of Dominion and Obedience entirely depends upon it Thus if we suppose civil Government founded in Compact the Right of Dominion and Obedience must rest upon the Authority of Compacts as 't is a Law of Nature and an indispensable Duty to Observe and keep 'em but the observance of 'em cannot be an indispensable Duty but by some Right and Authority lodged in the Author of Nature that pronounces 'em such Thus if civil Government takes its Rise from a Paternal Right Conquest Immemorial Prescription or Possession the Right of Dominion or Obedience invested in the civil Power must rest on the Authority of some Divine Law either natural or revealed ratifying or confirming their Claims or Titles and the Authority of this Law must rest on some Right which God challenges to impose such a Law so that the Authority of every sort of rightful earthly Power is founded in a Divine Right in vertue of which it is stiled the Ordinance of God since all their Right of Dominion or Authority derives from a Supereminent Right in God Now this is an absolute Demonstration of the Absurdity of the Hobbists Notion that Matters of Religion receive their Obligation from the State or civil Power and consequently induce an absolute Obedience This puts an eternal Silence to the Dispute Whether we are to yield an Obedience to the Laws of the State before the Laws of God or whether the Laws of the State are to be obeyed against the Laws of God For certainly since God is the Fountain of all Power and Authority the Duties of Religion are ultimately determined by God as well as receive their Obligation from God so that the civil Power that derives all Authority from God can only exert a Power in matters of Religion where God has not interposed or placed it in other hands but it 's the greatest Absurdity in Nature to pretend a supereminent Power to that of God when the whole any Man can pretend to immediately derives from God But to return First then the true Original of God's Right of Dominion or Right of Obliging us undoubtedly results from his creative and preserving Power That that Being which by an absolute independent Power gives Being to another has a Right to give Laws or fix the Measures and Rules of his Being seems to be a Maxim that carries a kind of Self-evidence in it I 'm sure it 's the very Argument advanced in the Sacred Canon Rom. 9.20 21. Nay but O Man who art thou that repliest against God shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made me thus Hath not the Potter power over the Clay of the same lump to make one Vessel unto Honor and another unto Dishonor It 's well known the Design of the Argument is to represent a supereminent Right in God even such as might justly authorise him to assign those Allotments to Mankind which his infinite Goodness would never suffer him to execute and consequently it must demonstrate a Right of giving Laws to those Creatures to whom he gave a Being But to pursue the Argument upon the Reasons of it It 's on all Hands allowed that a Right of Dominion is founded in Property and the more absolute the Property is the more unquestionable is the Right of Dominion That Property is the Foundation of Obedience or a Right of Obliging both in respect of God and Men this Author freely owns in another place pag. 126. And yet he labours to wave it in the place before us as will appear more fully by and by His Concessions are these All the Reasons and Grounds of our Obedience to Men and of their Right of Obliging us are Power Goodness and Property But God has all these Titles to our Obedience in the highest degree possible for by giving us our entire Being and every thing that belongs to our Nature 't is plain that he has a greater Property in us by this Act of Creation or Production than can accrue to any Man by Conquest Purchase Covenant or any other way whereby Men come to have a Propriety in one another I think the Argument is carried so full and clear that it seems not capable of an Improvement It 's certain there is no Property so absolute as that which results from a creative preserving Power For Creation makes the Property absolute independent and unborrowed every Spring and Movement every Power or Faculty every Interest or Happiness either actually possess'd or capable of being enjoy'd is an absolute Property of a Creator for all that is within or without us when he first set us forth into the World was originally wrapped up and in time issued forth of his infinite Power and Wisdom the whole Stock of Materials came out from him and when 't is all returned back he has but his own And is it not lawful to do what one will with his own Subordinate Proprietors indeed may be limited as to the exercise or use of what they have a Propriety in but an absolute independent Proprietor is to account to no one We may therefore in the Language of our Saviour expostulate who shall give unto him that which is thus his own Luke 16.12 Again a preserving Power especially such as is peculiar to God seems to advance or at least corroborate the Propriety he challenges in us As our Beings took their rise from another and were formed by the Hands of an Almighty Creator we are by a necessity of Nature or the origiginal Frame and Condition of our Nature Beings perpetually dependent so that Reason as well as Revelation instructs us that in him we live move and have our Beings He did not form and bespeak us into Being and after the finishing Stroke put us wholly out of his Hands with an intrinsick Power of Self-subsistence but the same Power concurs to continue our Beings that was required to form us into Being for every Breath of Life even our very Soul and that Reason which seems to give us Authority to act for ourselves nay the whole Cargo of Happiness and every Span and Minute of it perpetually hangs on the preserving Power of a mighty Creator So that we may Expostulate in the Language of an Apostle What hast thou that thou didst not receive 1 Cor. 4.7 Especially since we have received nothing but what carries appearance of having not received it in as much as it still rests on the preserving Power of the Donor Now what can establish a Right of Dominion or a Right of Obliging if a Property so absolute so independent so inseparable and so peculiar as this will not do it Not only the uncontroverted Notions of Mankind but the first Workings of Reason will subscribe to it Can Reason disown that Right by which it
moves and acts and subsists Nay to advance a little further this Gentleman in another place ingenuously confesses that there are certain natural Propensions or Dispositions in the Soul that close in with particular Actions before Reason can well exert it self p. 122. And certainly the present Notion of a Right of Dominion founded in a creative preserving Power will be immediately embraced by the same original Propensions for I 'm perswaded could the Mind feel the Idea of such a Power upon her in an Instant there would such an inward Impulse like a natural Instinct arise that must discover a tacit tremendous kind of Assent to a Right of Fealty and Allegiance before Reason could draw forth into a shread of Arguments to induce it Indeed the Title to a Right of Dominion is so indisputable that Reason cannot suggest any thing that can pretend to limit the exercise of it besides God's own immense and unchangable Attributes and Perfections And therefore tho' I will not dispute the Power of God whether he could give his Creatures such Laws as must make 'em eternally miserable for did his Power extend thus far his infinite Wisdom Purity and Goodness must suspend the exercise of it otherwise if these could admit of it I can see nothing that we can have recourse to either as our own or from others that could give Right or Foundation to dispute the Authority of ' em The Nature and Tendency of 'em might very well obstruct the Observance of 'em but still there would be no real Foundation exclusive of the Goodness and Purity of God to cancel the Authority of ' em However these may be Niceties and therefore it 's by no means material to adjust or settle ' em It 's abundantly sufficient that a creative preserving Power is an ample Foundation to establish a Right of Dominion and Obligations of Obedience with respect to those Laws which God at any time has enjoyned us or his infinite Purity Goodness or Wisdom shall suffer him to enjoyn us For as long as his blessed Attributes and Perfections regulate the divine Decrees there can be no Laws imposed but what directly tend to the Happiness and welfare of his Creatures § 5. But further we may consider the creative Power of God as in reality it is an incomparable Blessing or Benefit For we cannot imagin but an act of Creation was an effect of infinite Wisdom and Goodness as well as Power I 'm sure the distinguishing Marks of Favour God has placed on Man beyond the other parts of the Creation in stamping him with his own Image and framing him for a Life and Action like himself abundantly demonstrate that infinite Goodness conspired with infinite Power in his first Production It cannot then be denied but a Fund of Benefits was raised in the first Principles of his Being And certainly the first Notices of Reason instruct us that Benefits imply an Obligation to Duty and a Right in the Benefactor to challenge it and therefore unless God after he had given us a Being had done any thing to cancel that Interest which the Blessings of our Creation gave him in us he has a Right to our Obedience without the addition of new Favours or Rewards and consequently a Power of contributing further to our Happiness by dispensing fresh Rewards cannot be required to establish a Right of Obliging But I must freely confess that the receipt of Benefits only induces an Obligation to make suitable Returns for what is received when this is done the Obligation ceases and consequently it cannot infer such general Obligations of Obedience as are implied in a legislative Power or a Power of imposing Laws It 's true where there is a continued Succession of Benefits and where the very Laws ' emselves bring in new Benefits it must needs perpetuate our Obligations and render 'em as universal as those that arise from a legislative Power And this being the true Case between God and us I mean in respect of his Laws a Right of Duty and Obedience may be founded in that Fund of Benefits he has heaped on us But yet this is a further Demonstration that the true and fundamental Right of Dominion and Obedience flows from God's creative Power whereby he hath made us and not we ourselves And that this Argument of Benefits and all others concenter with if not derive from it In a word this establisheth such an unquestionable Right of Dominion and Obedience that were there no other to support it it 's alone sufficient to give the great Creator of the World a Right to Govern Mankind by Laws and enforce the Observance of 'em by suitable Rewards and Punishments § 6. It now remains that I consider what is said by this Author in Opposition to God's Right of Sovereignty from his creative Power His Words are these It is not his great and supereminent Power in creating Men and giving them Being which is solely in itself the Ground and Foundation of his Title to their Obedience His Argument is For was Misery the certain unalterable Condition of their Being without End or Decrease how could the Author of their Being be imagined to oblige 'em to obey his Commands Now before I give a direct Answer I cannot but remark that it seems to be disingenuous or unfair to argue upon important Matters by Suppositions that contradict the thing in Fact that never were in Fact and that involve a Complication of Absurdities that they ever should be so such I take to be the Creation of Man to an unalterable State of Misery without a Possibility of an End or Decrease for this Way of arguing often serves to confound rather than illustrate or discover Truth But 2dly An Instance ought to have been assigned against the binding Authority of a creative Power that implies a Power in God of contributing to our Happiness or Misery otherwise it concludes nothing against a creative Power as 't is now established no more than it advances his own Hypothesis But if Man is created to an infinite and irreversible State of Misery then God has no longer a Power in this Case of contributing to his Happiness or Misery and consequently can be no Argument against a Right of Dominion founded in a creative Power that admits of infinite Rewards as well as Punishments 3dly The Instance given seems to discard Man from being the proper Subject of a Law For 't is in vain to give Laws to a Being that is irreversible and infinitely happy or miserable since Laws in this Case can turn to no manner of End or Improvement we may as well suppose a Man infinitely and irreversibly happy and this implies infinite Perfection I mean as much as a finite Nature is capable of and then God will not only be disabled from adding to his Happiness by new Rewards but new Laws 4thly The Force of this Instance only extends to determine the Motives not the Right of Obedience or in a word what will engage
Catalogue of Laws of Nature Several Attempts of this kind have been made by eminent and learned Hands some with great Success and to all imaginable Satisfaction It 's sufficient if I have in some Measure prepared a Key that will unlock the Cabinet and so far let us into the Book of Nature that we may by the Workings of natural Reason discover the great Lines of Laws of Nature and judge which are to be ranked into the number and which esteemed positive But since the whole Hypothesis is advanced without any regard to relative Characters and consequently the Original and Obligation of relative Duties are not so directly measured by it I shall take the Liberty of enquiring into those which God in his Providence has made so important in the Affairs of Men I mean those between Parents and Children And first of a parental Love and Affection Indeed this is a Passion so deeply impressed on the Frame of the Soul that it powerfully discovers itself thro' all the Parts of the Animal World To love our own Off-spring seems to be the Effects of a natural Instinct or Propension that as violently exerts itself as the Spark that flies upwards The Moral Vertuoso's of the present Age are here shamefully foiled in projecting their Scheme For tho' they may labour to stifle the Evidences of other Laws that bespeak them to be the pure Workings of Nature the Testimony which the sensitive Order of Creatures bears to this of natural Affection renders their Attempts wholly unsuccessful It might have been replied That a parental Affection expressed in the Care of their own Off-spring is only a fashionable Imployment set on foot to perpetuate their own Names and Memories but when the lower Order of Creatures that want Faculties to form any such foresighted Projections discover an equal Share of Concern Industry and Compassion they as well as we must conclude that it 's the Effect of some peculiar Propensions wove in with the Frame and Constitution of our Beings Indeed the Fondness Vigilance Labour and Industry that unthinking Brutes exercise towards there own Off-spring cannot be resolved into any thing but a powerful Sympathy and Earning which God hath implanted in them as they bear their own Image and Representations or rather as they are the Effects of their own most intimate Powers and Faculties and carry their own Principles of Life Blood and Spirits in 'em or in a word as they imply the most sensible Expansion and Propagation of their own Natures And here I cannot well forbear a short Digression If it be enquired how these inward Motions are excited I think it may be safely replied Not by Reason or a formal Inference for no Inference can be made even from particular Objects but by the help of abstract Ideas or general Notions or Maxims and a Power of comparing and distinguishing two or more things together Thus Suppose a Lioness by Reason were to conclude that this and not another to wit a second third or fourth Whelp is her own Off-spring she must compare the Off-spring in certain Lineaments and Features or other sensible Qualities with the Idea she had before conceived she must compare this with the Idea she has of those she rejects and after a strict Agreement with the former and a palpable Disagreement with the latter she cannot come to a rational Assent without some abstracted Ideas of Identity and Diversity or without the help of two general Maxims that where the present Object exactly agrees with the Idea before conceived it is the same and where the present Object differs from the Idea which another particular Object yields it cannot be the same but another This is the Analysis of the most simple Reasoning and of a narrower compass too than some of Mr. Lock 's Complex Ideas and therefore I cannot but wonder how he upon his Definition of Reason can assign Reason to Brutes especially when he denies them a Power of abstracting or compounding or forming Complex Ideas and allows them a Power of comparing only in a very inferior Degree See Essay B. 2. Cap. 11. and B. 4. Cap. 17. But to return It 's visible these inward Motions of Tenderness and Compassion are excited by the Emanation of certain Particles peculiar to the Off-spring of each respective Kind or Order of Brutes chiefly affecting the Sense of Smelling And hence the silly Brute exercises the same Fondness towards her Sister's Off-spring nay even towards one of another Order in case the difference in Form Smell Shape or Proportion is not too notorious Hence we may presume the Affection dwindles and wears off as these Particles that accompanied the Off-spring from the Womb decay in Power and Efficacy and consequently that by a Law of Providence they retain 'em till they are capable of providing for their own Subsistence From all this it 's indisputably evident that a parental Affection is implanted in the very Frame and Constitution of Unthinking Brutes And therefore since Providence has instituted the same Laws and Methods for bringing Mankind into the World with those he has assign'd to Brutes we must conclude that he has created 'em with the same original Propensions and as he has given 'em nobler Powers and Faculties as Springs and Movements to every Action so we must conclude that these Propensions in Men are set on Work after a different manner from those in Brutes They are not acted by pure Sensations but by the Powers of Reason added to 'em for when a Child is represented to the Mind to be the most lively Exertion of our vital Powers and Faculties to be Bone of our Bone and Flesh of our Flesh the first Assent to such an Idea must actuate these native Propensions into all the Offices of Love Care and Tenderness These are but the natural Sallies of that Affection which we were created with towards ourselves for no one as yet ever hated his own Flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it So that a parental Affection is so much a Law of Nature that the first Suggestions of Reason excite to the exercise of it A single Conclusion commands an Assent to the Duty and at the same time kindles or actuates the Affections into a Practice suitable to it Indeed it 's a Law that so apparently results from the Frame of Humane Nature that it carries the Appearance of being Innate and in one word for Man to love and cherish his Off-spring is certainly the Result of an innate Propension but the exercise of it from the consideration of the close Affinity it bears to his own Flesh and Blood is a Work of Reason This seems to be a Law truly written in our Hearts for if we ever think or reason upon the Subject Nature will command a practical Assent to it Indeed Reason does not more carefully dictate the Law than Nature both within and without conspire to enforce the Practice of it for if the first Workings of Reason powerfully excite a paternal
Truth and Divinity of the Sacred Oracles must own it as such since we find it expresly assigned as an Argument of the Duty Hearken unto thy Father that begat thee Prov. 23. ver 22. But then when we consider that we did not only take our Rise from the Loins of a Parent but drew all our Blessings thro' his Care and Inspection and that God by a special Decree enjoyned it upon 'em as an indispensable Duty it 's an evident Confirmation of the fundamental Title that of Generation and an unquestionable Argument that God intended to induce indispensable Obligations of Obedience upon it And truly he that considers and allows God's Right of Dominion to be founded in his creative preserving Power must allow a subordinate Right of Dominion in him whom he has made the immediate Instrument and Substitute for displaying the Glory and Wonders of it Thus far I presume it 's abundantly evident that the Obligations of Filial Duty and Obedience rest upon an unquestionable Foundation That which remains is to consider the Extent of 'em and this will best be performed by applying 'em to the first Parent of Mankind from whom the Notion will present itself as it lies in its original Model And certainly we may in the first place affirm That Filial Duty and Obedience doth not barely consist in any external Ceremonies or Instances of Respect nor even those that terminate in Obligations to succour and relieve a Parent under Want or Distress but it extends to the Regulation of our Lives and Actions by Commands and Laws in all the Parts and Instances of Human Life § 4. From what has already been offered I think it may with force of Reason be affirmed That the first Parent of Mankind is by God invested with a Sovereign Power over his Off-spring to prescribe Laws for the Conduct of their Lives and Actions in all Cases and Emergencies pursuant to the Laws of God whether natural or revealed or where God has no way interposed to the contrary And pursuant to this it 's an uncontroverted Truth that the Patriarchs rightfully exercised the Priestly Function till God interposed by a positive Institution and constituted a standing Order of Men to wait on his Altar this is so agreeable to the Divine Will that though private Persons cannot preside in the public Worship of God without an Intrusion of the Priestly Office yet every Parent by Divine Designation and Appointment is still a kind of Priest within the District of his own Family And certainly if a Paternal or Patriarchal Power originally includes a Priestly Power I can see no Reason to dispute the Authority of a Kingly Power And agreeable to this History assures us that the Kings of Egypt as well as other Governments originally exercised a Sacerdotal as well as Civil Jurisdiction But to proceed The Business or Design and Authority of the supreme Power or in a word of all those delegated Powers which God hath or ever will establish among Mankind is to prescribe Laws for the Regulation of our Lives and Actions in all Cases and Emergences And if Government and positive Human Laws by the Laws of Nature and the Frame of our Beings are absolutely necessary to the Conduct of Mankind in a State of Nature as well as Grace we have all the Reason in the World to conclude that this Power and Authority was originally lodged in the paternal Power of Adam over his own Off-spring It 's certain the Prerogatives of the Supreme Power do not extend to the wresting away real Rights and Immunities which the Laws of Nature or Revelation give us for their original Institution is to advance the Wellfare and Happiness of Mankind by securing and enforcing the observance of them and therefore since it is indisputably concluded that an authoritative Power is lodged in the Fatherhood there is no Obstruction in the Nature of the Thing but the Paternal Power of Adam might extend to the imposing such Laws as are fitted to answer these Ends and Purposes Indeed God's making Government necessary seems to advance his Paternal Power to all the Rights and Prerogatives of it unless he had established it upon another Foundation by some express Law for God having created the Off-spring of Adam with the strongest Propensions of Obedience to him as a Father God having established an Obedience upon the same Principles upon which he challenges our Obedience we must conclude that a Right of Obedience accrews to Adam as a Father in all those Cases wherein God has made it necessary for Mankind to be governed by Laws And since God has made it necessary for the Off-spring of Adam and in them the Off-spring of Mankind even by the highest Necessity that of Nature and Existence to live by Society and to be governed by Laws in order to the enforcement of the Laws of God whether Natural or Revealed and in them in order to the Security of the Wellfare and Happiness of Mankind the Paternal Power of Adam must originally extend to all the Prerogatives of delegated Power so that by vertue of his Characters which God brought him into the World under he 's to all Intents and Purposes God's immediate Vice-gerent unless some positive and express Law had signified the contrary In a word a Necessity arising from the Frame and Order of Nature is in a State of Nature the proper Evidence for Divine Designation and Appointment or indeed for any Law of Nature and therefore since Civil Government is thus far necessary Reason will dictate God's Intentions in placing it that is according to the Order of Nature or where he has placed the principal Marks of Authority or Supremacy Indeed the Notion is founded on Arguments so clear and convincing that natural Reason dictates an Allegiance as forcibly from a Paternal Power as that of Compact tho' there were nothing in the Nature of the former that interferes with the Hypothesis of the latter for an Allegiance which derives from Compact must rest upon the Authority of Compact whereby it becomes indispensably binding to all the Ends and Purposes of Civil Government And I think natural Reason upon the received Laws of the Creation as clearly fixes an Allegiance in the Paternal Power as a Law of God and Nature as it pronounces the Maintainance of such Compacts a Law of God or Nature But then if upon Matter of Fact or the revealed Methods of the Creation there is any thing repugnant to such a Compact the Authority of a Paternal Allegiance cannot be rejected Now we profess and believe that Adam was the Father of Mankind for even the Woman of whom the rest of his Progeny was to be Born by an Omnipotent Power issued forth of him and since it 's concluded That for this Reason as well as for the Offices of his Paternal Function a real Superiority as well as a Right of Allegiance is derived to him we must conclude that his Off-spring could not challenge a Right of Compact any
sufficient to secure the Ends of Government and consequently a Coercive Power to Punish any from within or without that invade the Peace of it But 3dly To support his own Hypothesis and avoid the Political Authority of the Paternal Power he affirms That tho' the Duties of Honour and Respect are Eternal yet the commanding Power is Temporary and ceases with Nonage or Minority See § 64 67 69 c. That when this Power expires Children are in as absolute a State of Freedom as the Father and that too not only in respect to the Father's Authority but of the Civil Government This is the Substance of several Sections and it 's very visible that his chiefest Arguments are raised upon Paternal Power as 't is exercis'd under the established Governments of the World which is a Fallacy already detected But to make some Returns according to Method and Order The Duty of Children I 'm persuaded in the full Extent of it is of eternal Obligation where 't is not superseeded by a higher Law that of Society upon which account alone as is already observed part of it by the Reason and Necessity of Things devolves upon the Supreme Power Indeed if what has been asserted carries Evidence and Truth in it the Duty of Children must be Eternal It has been abundantly proved That the Ground or Foundation of Filial Duty and Obedience is Eternal viz. That of Generation and an unchangeable Affection resulting from it And if the Ground of Obligation is eternal the Duty must be so too But to proceed the Word of God seems express in this Matter for we are not only enjoyned to Honour but Obey our Parents Now it 's well known Obedience supposes a decretory Power or commanding Authority and the Precept not being given under any Limitations that make it Temporary I cannot discern by what Authority this Gentleman pronounces it Temporary Indeed I cannot imagine how any one that receives the Holy Scriptures for the Word of God can safely pronounce the Duty of Filial Obedience Temporary for we there find it established and enforced upon such ample Provisions that we must believe God designed to perpetuate the Obligations of it The time would fail me to collect all the Passages that manifestly favour this Notion I shall therefore touch on a few that are very remarkable And first the Power of Blessing and Cursing exercised by the Patriarchs is a considerable Evidence of the Perpetuity of the Duty It 's well known the Patriarchs constantly exercised this Power and their Descendents as conscienciously acknowledged it It was a Sense of this Power that made Jacob Expostulate before he embraced his Mother's Expedient My Father peradvanture will feel me and I shall be to him as a Deceiver and I shall bring a Curse upon me and not a Blessing Gen. 27. v. 12. It 's certain the Patriarchs challenged an indisputable Right to exercise this Power for tho' Jacob had obtained the Blessing by an ungenerous Artifice or Stratagem yet Isaac thought himself obliged to confirm it I have blessed him yea and he shall be blessed v. 33. A most convincing Argument truly that this Right of Blessing and Cursing was founded in a Divine Original and certainly there needs nothing more to demonstrate the Divine Will and Pleasure than the inseparable Effects and Consequences of his Power since we find that the Blessings or Curses of Parents as infallibly pursued their Children as they were dispensed Thus the Blessing of Isaac attended Jacob and the Curses of Noah pursued his Son Canaan Cursed be Canaan a Servant of Servants shall he be unto his Brethren Gen. 9. v. 25. Now certainly a Provision of such special Powers can carry no less a Design in it than the perpetuating of a Filial Reverence and Duty If God had not design'd to establish an Immortal Power and Authority in the Parent why should he confer such distinguishing Marks of Sovereignty and Dominion Can we imagin that such a tremendous Power was exerted purely to secure an Obedience during Minority and a ceremonious Reverence afterwards exclusive of a commanding Authority No certainly this is a Conjecture that runs counter to all the Accounts of Time for the Obedience of Children in the first Ages of the World was as remarkable as the Parents Commands after a State of Maturity and indeed it could proceed from nothing less than a just Sense of an indeleble Character and Authority as well as Power to enforce it But further the Duty and Obedience of Children is so far from being any wise Temporary that God has given his own express Promises to perpetuate the Obligation St. Paul has long since observ'd that Children obey your Parents is the first Commandment with Promise Ephes 6.1 2. And certainly where the Sanction is peculiar or extraordinary the Obligation of the Command must bear a proportion to it and where God has discover'd himself so eminently solicitous to enforce the Duty by special Rewards as well as Punishments we may conclude he intended to perpetuate it Thus far the Suffrage of Scripture seems clear and indisputable But if all this will not convince I shall refer this Author to the Story of Jonadab the Son of Rechab out of the very Mouth of the Prophet The Command or Prohibition was against drinking of Wine as well as building of Houses which seems to be an Abridgment of the Natural Liberties of Mankind and consequently if the Commanding Power of Parents ceases with Nonage it may very well do so in Cases of this Nature But instead of this we find the Obligation asserted by a Complication of Arguments Jonadab advances the Command by virtue of a Parental Power and Authority Ye shall drink no Wine neither ye nor your Sons for ever that ye may live many Days where ye be Strangers Jer. 35. v. 6 7. The very Commandment with Promise And the Rechabites were possessed with as deep a Sense of its Obligation for when the Prophet by the Command of God tryed their Fidelity the only Argument of their Non-compliance was the Command of their Father Jonadab and the Prospect of Inheriting the Blessing annexed to the Command Thus have we obeyed the Voice of Jonadab our Father and done all that Jonadab our Father commanded us v. 8 9. But this is not all for the Obligation of the Command is not only recognised by Men even those that were immediately concerned in it but by God himself for he does not only annex the Promise of the Command to the Observance of it Because ye have obeyed the Commandment of Jonadab your Father and kept all his Precepts Therefore Jonadab the Son of Rechab shall not want a Man to stand before me for ever v. 18 19. But expresly represents that eternal Obedience that is due to his Commands by it for this was God's Design in obliging the Prophet to try the Rechabites Constancy and Perseverance by setting Cups and Pots full of Wine before them and commanding them to Drink and
the measure of Conscience it cannot be imagined that every thing we fansie or are pleased to assign for the mark or scope of our Actions must pass for the true Law or Measure of Conscience It 's certain Custom Education Example or the Reputation of an Action gained by Numbers and a Loose Degenerous Age cannot be a Law or Measure of Conscience No the Passions Prejudices or By-interests of particular Persons the Superstitious Fears Enthusiasm or Diabolical Suggestions of too many may as well challenge the Character of Laws as any that have yet been mentioned But to determine this matter in a few words If we enquire into the true measure of Conscience according to its Original Frame it 's certain the Law of God whether Natural or Reveal'd is to be esteemed the only proper measure For none but a Sovereign Creator can be the Lord of Conscience all other Powers and Authorities being only special Deputations from him and that Duty and Obligation that results from their Laws rest upon a Divine Deputation that gives being to their Character as well as Authority CHAP. XVII Reflections on Mr. Lock 's Description of Conscience THE Nature of Conscience being thus stated I cannot but reflect a little on Mr. Lock 's Account of Conscience when he tells us That it is nothing else but our own Opinion of our own Actions and this Opinion sounded in a Perswasion however got as from Education Company or the Customs of a Country See Lib. 1. Chap. 3. § 8. This to speak the least I think is a very loose and imperfect Definition of Conscience And to say 'T is nothing else but an Opinion however got seems to Suggest as if God had Instituted no fixed Rule of Conscience but that it is to be resolved into little else but Custom Company and Education In a word it 's a Description calculated purely for an Erroneous Conscience that has no other Foundation but present Convictions whether true or false I will not deny but that an erroneous vitiated Conscience is in a large sence stiled Conscience and that Custom or Education may give being to such a Conscience but then it 's in Scripture distinguished by the Denominations of a weak or defiled Conscience I will grant that it is a measure of Action to those that labour under it because as God has formed us Reasonable Creatures we are to Act upon Rational Motives and Convictions He has given us no other measure of Action as Men and therefore the present Light or Convictions we are under are the immediate Springs and Principles of Action for to Act Blindfold or without Reason or in contradiction to it must overturn the Frame of our Beings and the Practice of all Moral Vertue But yet God has set a sufficient mark upon an erroneous Conscience by charging Sin on the Error where-ever a Man can be charged with Neglect as to the means of Information On this Account St. Paul assures us that the impure or those that are under an erroneous Conscience are Polluted as well in Mind as Conscience Tit. 1 15. So that an erroneous Conscience being never a direct Rule at least not any of God's Forming nay being a Rule occasioned by our selves that enhances our Guilt rather than Merit it is not but in a very improper and extended Sence to pass under the Denomination of Conscience at least without some distinguishing Characteristick annexed that the Divine Oeconomy of Conscience may not suffer by it I am sure it is Conscience founded on the true Law or Rule of Conscience according to the Divine Establishment of it that this Author should have Animadverted on as a proof of Innate Ideas not a Fictitious Conscience And certainly it is a very imperfect account of such a Conscience to affirm that in the true and proper Sence of it it is nothing but our own Opinion of our own Actions tho got by Custom Company or Education certainly the Foundation of Conscience ought not to have been omitted which arises from the Conformity of our Actions to the proper Rule or Law of Conscience the Law of God CHAP. XVIII Of the Foundation and Authority of Natural Conscience in the original Oeconomy of it HAving offered thus much concerning the Nature of Conscience we may easily represent the Foundation and Authority of natural Conscience By Natural Conscience I mean a Conscience that exerts it self in a State of Nature antecedent to a State of Revelation And certainly there 's a Conscience Established by God upon an unalterable Foundation even in this State For it 's already concluded that Man in his Original Frame is capable of Acting by certain Established Rules It 's concluded that these Rules are discovered to him as the special Institution of God binding them upon him as his proper Laws and indispensible Measures of Action It 's concluded that God has Created him with a Power of applying all his Actions to a Rule and a Power of Judging whether his Actions accord with or deviate from this Rule and a Power of adjudging himself accountable to God for the violation of this Rule and consequently a necessity of acquitting or condemning himself by this Rule In a Word it 's concluded that these Rules are eternal and unalterable being founded in the Original Frame Ends and Interests of Created Nature therefore since these are Truths established upon the clearest Evidence and Convictions there 's a natural Conscience resulting from the Frame of our Beings and founded upon the most uniform and unalterable Measures and Principles It 's visible God has framed us as exquisitely apprehensive of the violation of the Line of Duty and of being accountable to him for it as sensible of Torment and Misery So that the workings of Conscience can never be destroyed they will unavoidably break in upon us at one time or other and fill us with Horror and Confusion Tho' it cannot be denied but that Habit and Custom may engender a false Light or Sense of Things and consequently a false conscience either by mistaking the Nature and Composition of our Actions or the Rules of 'em by making a false application or a false Rule yet it 's concluded there 's a Conscience Established in the Original Frame or Nature of Things and tho' it may for some time be suppressed or stifled yet we can never secure it from returning upon us CHAP. XIX The Truth and certainty of Conscience Demonstrated against the Latitudinarian and Unbeliever NOw certainly if what has been already asserted carries force and evidence in it there needs nothing more to discover the falsehood not to say Senseless Impudence of a prevailing position That Conscience is nothing else but certain Superstitious Fears contracted and rivetted by the Power of Education for it 's visible the Laws of Conscience are an Institution of God himself as certain and unalterable as the distinctions of Good and Evil nay as certain and unalterable as the Frame and Order of Nature It 's
For first it must be confessed whilst Lust and exorbitant Appetites maintain their Ground a biassed Judgment at least cannot escape being chained to their Interest but these seem to depend upon the Health and Vigour of the Animal part As this is shocked or enervated whether thro' Age or sickness so these must decline and suffer Disgrace And therefore as the hear of Lust expires so the Judgment or Understanding will in proportion be discharged from her Fetters she will view things with a new aspect not thro' the Steams of Lust and as it were thro' a Glass darkly but Face to Face and in their naked Shapes and Features and consequently our Reflections on past Actions will be formed upon new Measures and Principles she 'll be able to discern the true Ends and Interests of Humane Nature and thereupon bring all her Actions to the Test of this Rule and this cannot fail to beget new Perswasions and Convictions according to the primitive Oeconomy of Conscience so that it is not a fit of Melancholy the effect of depauperated Spirits no otherwise than a an expiring Vapour is the cause of Light which before it obstructed but the returns of Natural Conscience acted upon a right Basis and exerting it self according to that frame in which it was created Thus much the Latitudinarian may discern from the Natural efficacy of Things But besides all this he may very well allow this wonderful change to be in some measure compleated by the concurrence of supernatural causes If God upon a long train of unrelenting impiety has at last consigned a Man over to irretrievable destruction I would fain know why he may not suffer the Devil or some of his Spiritual Crew to display before his Mind a Scheme of his past Actions No one can question but that Order of Spirits can converse with Spirits or make their applications to a Spiritual Being and consequently that he can if permitted excite such Motions and suggest such Ideas as will revive the most considerable minutes of our whole Lives and enable us to bring 'em to a new Test and view 'em in their proper Lineaments and proportions and consequently as they appear to clash with the Line of Duty plunge a Soul into the most direful Agonies and Convulsions This is but a kind of Anticipation of that future misery which I 'm confident he will be the Instrument to enhance upon all Reprobate Sinners But on the other hand if the patience and long-suffering of God extends to the leading a Soul to repentance who can dispute the Divine Influences of the Holy Spirit in bringing all past Actions to our remembrance He can discover such minute circumstances as will recover lost Ideas He can excite such Meditations and Thoughts as will suggest the true Rule of Action and Line of Duty and consequently such as will necessitate the Mind to pass Sentence on every Action pursuant to it It 's an Undisputed Truth that the Holy Spirit can move and excite the Powers of the Soul by a spiritual kind of Converse as effectually as the Rhetorick and perswasives of fellow Creatures that must be Transmitted by Sounds thro' material Organs and Vehicles This is an Assertion so clear and indisputable that I can see no reason why those ministring Spirits the blessed Angels by the divine Appointment may not be allowed capable of maintaining Intercourses of this nature even with this lower World since it only places their Power upon a level with accursed Spirits who have on all hands a Power attributed to 'em of influencing the Souls as well as Bodies of Men. And certainly God whose infinite Knowledge and Wisdom enables him to adapt all his divine Succours to sutable Seasons and Opportunities could not exert 'em better than when the Animal Part is disabled by Age Sickness or other humane Calamities And certainly its highly agreeable to the divine Wisdom when a Change of Mind and Conscience is wrought to give 'em a deep sense of their Folly and Error and consequently to throw 'em into the severest Agonies and Convulsions before he raises 'em up by his special Restoratives the refreshings of the Lord. And now certainly we have foundation enough to answer for the Contradictions of Conscience and at the same time assert the Divine Oeconomy of it This is an Hypothesis cannot be disputed in a state of Revelation And tho' in a state of Nature God has not covenanted to govern Mankind by spiritual Succours or the Effusions of his Holy Spirit on the hearts of Men yet I do not find he has any where bound himself to the contrary and it s highly probable his infinite Goodness and Wisdom may sometime incline him to dispense his Favours on this part of his Off-spring and consequently contribute to the Establishment of Conscience upon its true foundation I mean according to the primitive Model and Oeconomy of it CHAP. XXI Of the Evidence of future Rewards and Punishments from the Presages of Natural Conscience THat Mankind was Originally Formed and Created under the Conduct of a Law and that Rewards and Punishments are ascertained to the Observance or Violation of this Law has already been proved beyond any just colour of Dispute That which remains is to fix the Stage where this great Scene shall be displayed and a Formal Distribution Transacted Now I am perswaded it will be easily granted that Rewards and Punishments cannot well be Executed in this State of Life For first the Established Coercive Powers of this World can by no means pretend to it they can determine nothing beyond the Surface or External parts of the Action And these must be handed to them upon the evidence of Senses the Authority of Circumstances and the Veracity of Men and Sinners so that very often the Innocent is Sentenced to Act his Part in Sufferings in the room of the Guilty By this means the substantial parts of the Action lie Dormant and escape the most subtle Remarks and Censures of Mankind so that there may be a Thousand whited Sepulchres which indeed appear beautiful outward but are within full of dead Mens Bones and of all uncleanness But this is not all for must we not admit a vast Scroul of Enormities that the nicest observations can never pretend to reach or fathom some that are sheltered by Studied Retreats and Privacies others by passing no further than Thought or Intention and the inward Workings of the Mind so that it 's impossible that any thing less than an infinite Power or a Searcher of Hearts and Reins can pretend to state the Deservings of Men and adjust an Allotment of Rewards and Punishments in proportion to them Indeed an All-wise Creator that knoweth the very Thoughts long before is abundantly qualified to finish his Dispensations of this kind even in this Life But yet in Crimes that are Publick and Notorious we sometimes see the Authors pass off the Stage of the World without any visible Marks of Divine Vengeance at least
such as we may Read from others It 's true God may Reward or Punish by secret steps or motions and by a train of Causes and Events but yet these are Methods not so agreeable to the Designs of infinite Wisdom in Rewarding or Punishing in this World for when they are dispensed at a distance and after an invisible manner they cannot influence the Offender or the Publick because by this means they cannot well be resolved into the direct and immediate causes of them and consequently the great design of such Dispensations is in a great measure lost or stifled But now since it is concluded that the Violation of Laws does not only infer a Right of Punishment but that Punishment will infallibly follow upon the Violation of Laws we may from hence further conclude that there 's another World assigned by God for a final and strict Distribution of Rewards and Punishments And certainly since God is a God of Justice and has decreed Punishments as well as Rewards we must conclude that his last Distributions will be Acted upon the nicest Rules of Justice and consequently proportioned according to the true Intrinsick Nature of every Action without Prejudice or Partiality or the least Respect of Persons These are truths that follow in direct and easie consequences from the nature of the things themselves But then if we allow the Divine Oeconomy of Conscience it 's impossible we can reject the evidence of them That God should Establish a Register of our Actions in the very Frame of our Natures is an uncontroulable Argument that he has Created us to some solemn Tribunal Nay further that God should not only Create us with retentive Powers and Faculties whereby we keep a kind of Diary of past Actions but implant certain absolving and condemning Powers upon them whereby we are necessarily possessed with Apprehensions of Guilt and Punishment or Favour or Reward It 's a clear Indication there will be a Tribunal erected where these Divine Powers will display and exert themselves to the utmost pitch of Activity The Latitudinarian may if he pleases bring Disgrace upon them by resolving them into Superstitious Fears and the Biass of Education but I 'm perswaded it is unexceptionably proved there 's the Finger of God in ' em And therefore we must conclude that the Powers of Natural Conscience are only a kind of Vicegerent or Substitute that acts for a time by way of Restraint on the one hand and Encouragement on the other but at last she must give up all her Reports and resign to a Supreme Judicature she must as it were deliver up the Kingdom unto God and appear as a Witness rather than a Judge These are the Natural Consequences and Original Designs and Uses of such Divine Powers for unless these be admitted it 's impossible we should account for them as the Ordinances of an infinitely Wise Creator But further that which most powerfully demonstrates a State of Future Rewards and Punishments is the Efforts of Conscience towards the last Periods of Life That the Powers of Conscience should awake and grow Strong and Vigorous when the Animal Powers grow Faint and Languid that her Apprehensions should be clear and Piercing her Resentments Rigid and Severe and her Exultations full of Joy and Consolation when the powers of Animal Nature are sunk and wasted and ready to Expire is an Infallible Demonstration that we are Acted by a Principle highly distinct from Matter from Flesh and Blood or Animal Spirits or in a word a Principle that will Live and Act after this Earthy Tabernacle is dissolved Indeed when we consider that the Reflections of a well spent Life discover themselves at the point of Death when the Passions of the Animal Part are sunk and wasted in the most grateful Applauses and substantial Satisfactions so that the whole World and all its Charms and Beauties appear flat and empty before it what can a reasoning Mind conclude but that 't is a Harbinger to some future Rewards It implies a deep presension of some future Blessings that shall be conferred upon us by a Sovereign Power as a Recompence of that Labour of Love we have entertained for his Name 's sake On the other hand when we consider those insupportable Gripes and Convulsions more bitter than the Pangs of Death that are the fatal conclusion of a dissolute impenitent Life when we consider that the Tempest arises and grows loud and clamorous in proportion to the decays of Nature and tho' that cracks and groans and sinks yet this will not be appeased we must conclude that there are convictions that will be carried into another State and not only torment but impeach every impenitent Criminal before some other Tribunal Indeed were there no certainty of Rewards and Punishments annexed to the violation or observance of Laws or were there an exact distribution made in this World or in a Word were there no real discovery of a divine Oeconomy of Conscience then we must think of some other Method to dispel the Vapour But since these are proved upon the highest evidences and Demonstrations we must conclude that such black presages are the prologue to future Miseries to certain Allotments that will be the Award of some future Reckoning These are Evidences so clear and undenyable that if the Latitudinarian will still persist I 'm confident his only conviction will be an actual perception of the Fruits of his dissolute Life and his Impregnable Infidelity CHAP. XXII How far Conscience shall be a Measure of the Divine Justice in the distribution of future Punishments NOw since it 's abundantly demonstrated that there 's a divine Oeconomy of Conscience and that it rests on the unalterable measures of moral Goodness or the original nature of things themselves we may with force of reason conclude that our past Actions shall be chiefly tried by this Original Standard It may indeed be objected That no other Conscience can be the measure of any Man's Condemnation but his own nor upon any Actions than those he was conscious of when committed The first part of the Objection is certainly an uncontroverted truth for when God puts any man on his Tryal upon the Evidence of Conscience it must certainly be his own and not another's Conscience but yet it 's highly probable our Consciences will not be such as they were when enslaved by vitious Habits and Dispositions but reformed according to the divine Occonomy of Conscience and consequently the Original Standard of Conscience will become our own and appear as Evidence against us It 's highly evident from what has already been suggested that the Consciences of Men in another World will be fixed on a new bottom It 's highly probable that all the Minutes of every Action together with the Natures and Reasons of the Line of Duty will be displayed and presented to the view of the mind so that there will not be only a new discovery of lost Idea's Thoughts and Actions but of
their incompatibility with the Line of Duty nay there will be a discovery of the Reasons and Original of all Miscarriages the Mind will plainly discern the Error and Absurdity of former Convictions she will confess that the violence and importunity of Lust or a habit of Thoughtlesness or Inconsideration was the true and genuine cause of 'em and consequently the frame and Oeconomy of Conscience will not only be altered according to the Intrinsick Nature of things and received as every Man 's own proper Conscience but it will discover Sin and Guilt in the erring Conscience and charge the mischief of it upon its proper owner where-ever the Errors appear to be contracted from the neglect of means of Information For certainly as God has endued us with Faculties to instruct us in the Line of Duty so he has made us capable of attaining it in that Course and Order which he has established and consequently of pursuing and embracing such Means as are truly conducive to the attainment of it and therefore when proper Means are instituted or proposed or as it were lie before us in the common road of Thinking the Mischiefs or iniquity of an Action by the Laws of Conscience will be imputed to us tho' it was committed with a perswasion of its Innocence because the Order of Nature and the Laws of Humane Action are as much perverted by acting without the use of established means as contrary to inward Convictions and tho' the Action in the precise nature of it is not willfully wicked yet the neglect of Means may be justly esteemed willfull and consequently the Effects and mischiefs of the Action justly imputed I will not deny but there are thousands of miserable Wretches in the World under such fatal Circumstances that they seem to be placed out of the reach of due Means of Information but to judge precisely of this seems to be a peculiar of the searcher of Hearts and Reins However I am perswaded the common Exigences and Necessities of Humane Nature will instruct Mankind in the most fundamental Rules of Natural Religion and yet God will charge nothing upon us but where he can convince our Conscience of notorious Neglects and in this case it 's consonant to the Rules of Justice that Sentence should be passed not according to former but present Convictions Indeed it can never be imagin'd that the great Judge of all the Earth in his final Awards to Mankind will erect a Tribunal that had not its Original from him I mean from the Convictions of an erroneous Conscience and therefore since it is demonstrated that new Sentiments and Convictions will break in upon the Mind even to the charging of Guilt upon those Neglects which were the immediate source of false Convictions we may justly conclude that the judicial Proceedings of the Great Day shall be established upon a regulated Conscience I mean according to the Divine Oeconomy of it and consequently it is not the Plea of former Convictions nor want of consciousness when Enormities were committed that will be sufficient to exempt any Man from the jurisdiction of it For these may be resolved into Personal Neglects and Personal Neglects are alone sufficient to derive a Guilt upon us As for the want of consciousness it 's a branch of the Objection not yet replied to and therefore I shall make some few Remarks upon it And first it 's certain as long as Enormities are committed upon personal Neglects as in the case of Drunkenness it is not necessary the Mind should be conscious of the whole process when actually committed It 's abundantly sufficient if upon a representation of Circumstances we shall at last be forced to own them or ascribe the Commission of 'em to our selves for this will bring us under the dominion of Conscience at the last day Certainly we may with as much force of Reason plead an Exemption from the guilt of Enormities which thro' tract of time were wiped off the Table of the Mind as deny to account for Enormities which when committed we were not conscious of when it was some former Enormity had disabled us from being conscious of 'em whereas it can only be required in both cases that proper and competent Methods are contrived to make us conscious at the last day so as to pronounce our selves the Authors of 'em for when this is done Conscience will determine as effectually as if our present and past Convictions were consonant to each other Upon the whole then it 's visible it is not the present state of any Man's Conscience any farther than it accords with the Divine Oeconomy of Conscience no more than any present Act of Consciousness that will be received for a final measure of the Goodness or Evil of our Actions and consequently of a final Condemnation or Deliverance but Conscience founded on the express Laws of God the sole Rule of Duty and the Agreement or Disagreement of our Actions with them I would not be mistaken as if I intended to streighten or fix Limits to the infinite Mercies of God there 's nothing but his own infinite Purity Truth or Justice can at any time divert his Mercies but yet I think it 's evident that we shall be judged for our Actions as they are in their own Nature and that too on the Awards of a rectified Conscience where-ever an erroneous Conscience can be charged with Guilt No one can dispute the Guilt of an Erroneous Conscience where the Error is propagated thro' willfull Enormities or manifest Neglects Thus far the sacred Canon is express and clear when we are told in the case of Error that the Mind and Conscience is defiled Tit. 1.15 And certainly where-ever there is Defilement there must be Guilt and where-ever there is Guilt there is at least Punishment due And I presume it 's sufficiently demonstrated that lost Ideas will be revived that every Action will appear in its proper Dress and consequently the whole Oeconomy of Conscience will be changed If what has already been offered be not conclusive the State of the Wicked after Condemnation will infer it Now certainly whoever allows the divine Oeconomy of Conscience must allow a future Judgment and if there 's a future Judgment and Men to be judged by their Consciences the most Hardened Unrelenting Sinner will be brought to a clear apprehension of the Line of Duty and by this means forced to own the Justice of his Sentence tho' his Conscience was seered and past feeling it shall now recover a double Force and retain the quickest apprehension of Things and Conscience thus enforced and armed with fresh Power and Vigour shall be the eternal Instrument of increasing the Torments of the damned Since then Conscience shall be thus regulated in Order to enhance and perpetuate their Misery we may justly conclude that it's Regulation will commence at the great Tribunal in Order to ratify the sentence of Condemnation and certainly since it must be allowed that Conscience will be
an Instrument of future Condemnation as well as Misery we must conclude that it will be one and the same Conscience acted by the same Measures and Principles and of the same Extent and Latitude and consequently a Conscience cleared from all Error and Mistake Partiality or Connivance and in a Word a Conscience established according to the Divine Oeconomy of it the Law of God and the eternal Measures of Moral Goodness and Duty This is that Candle of the Lord as the Wiseman expresses it that will display its Light into the deepest recesses of the Heart and Search into the inward parts of the Belly Prov. 20.27 In a Word it will be the inward Voice or Word of God quick and powerful and Sharper than any two Edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and of the Joynts and Marrow and is a discerner of the Thoughts and intents of the Heart Heb. 4.12 § 2. From what hath been said it may not be improper to make some further Remarks upon Mr. Lock 's Notions of Conscience It 's observable Mr. Lock makes Consciousness and Conscience the same and Conscience to consist in nothing else but our own Opinions of our own Actions and pursuant to this he affirms that in personal Identity which he makes to consist in Consciousness is founded all the Right and Justice of Favour Rewards and Punishment Book 2. c. 27. § 18. But certainly the Conscience that will prevail in the great day will not be any Opinions we have entertained of Actions when Committed tho' taken up at large No we shall then be acted by no other Opinions but those of a regulated Conscience and they shall sit as Judges even over former Opinions that were engendered by Neglect or Carelessness and nothing but invincible Ignorance or sincere Repentance can deliver us from its Dominion This is indisputably evident from the Regulations of Conscience that shall be made according to the divine Oeconomy of it whereby our Opinions of past Actions shall not be measured by former Convictions but by the conformity of our Actions to the true Line of Duty or means of Information Again that consciousness which some Men might be under when Enormities were committed cannot be the foundation of future Punishment but that Consciousness of past Actions which will arise from a regulated Conscience For it is concluded that we may become conscious of Enormities committed of which we were not conscious when committed and conscious of others by wrong Measures and Convictions but it will be that Consciousness and those Convictions we are under at the Great Tribunal and result from a regulated Conscience that will be the measure of a final Absolution or Condemnation And certainly if Mr. Lock will not suffer his Notions to be guarded by these limitations he must pardon me if I cannot comply with 'em or cannot but esteem 'em dangerous and false On this account I cannot suffer an Instance that seems to interfere with what is asserted pass off without a few Remarks Mr. Lock in order to the establishing his Notion of Personal Identity brings in Enormities committed in Dunkenness of which a Man is not conscious and places them upon a level with those committed by a Man in his sleep making him no more answerable for the one than the other He indeed makes the Drunkard in this case obnoxious to the Civil Laws for no other reason but Because in these cases they cannot distinguish what is Real from what is Counterfeit and so the Ignorance in Drunkenness or Sleep is not admitted as a Plea But in the great Day wherein the Secrets of all Hearts shall be laid open it may be reasonable to think no one shall be made to Answer for what he knows nothing of but shall receive his Doom his own Conscience accusing or excusing him See Sect. 22. Book 2. Chap. 27. Here are a great many Passages that look with a very evil Aspect and therefore I shall say something to each in their order And first I think this Author has drawn a very unjust Parallel between Crimes committed in Sleep and Dunkenness It 's well known that Sleep is a thing entailed on us as a Law even a Law established in the frame of our Beings and commences upon the necessities of corruptible Nature and therefore if Mischief accidently follows it cannot well be imputed because it is founded in a Cause or Principle that is inseparable from Humane Nature or rather is an Appendage of the most necessary Powers of it that set us on a level with Brutes and consequently the Actions that flow from it cannot be imputed But I hope this Author cannot plead a necessity of Nature for Drunkenness A quantity of generous Liquor may sometimes be required for the actuating the Spirits but never to intoxicate unman or drown the Reason In a word Drunkenness argues a willful neglect in humane Conduct and as such is an Act of a free Agent and consequently the Actions that flow from it tho' destitute of Choice or Deliberation are justly imputed For in order to the imputing or charging an Action upon us it is not necessary that it should proceed from the free exercise of Reason or previous Deliberation at the very Moment when Committed It is sufficient that it 's owing to a Cause that is to be esteemed truly Deliberate and Wilful If this were not so it 's impossible any Sin of Ignorance can be Culpable a Position so wide from the line of Christian Duty that every Heathen Moralist will teach this Author the Absurdity of it I shall for once Refer him to Aristotle because he has culled out the case of Drunkenness to confirm the Doctrine He assures us Ignorance is Punishable whenever the cause of it can be charged upon us and for this Reason pronounces Crimes committed in Drunkenness liable to double Punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ethic. ad Nichom Lib. 3. Chap 7. But to proceed As for the practice of Civil Governments in punishing Crimes committed when Disguised by Drink he has shamefully Misrepresented it when he Suggests that the only Reason is because they cannot distinguish what is Real from what is Counterfeit and so the Ignorance in Drunkenness or Sleep is not admitted as a Plea It 's a known truth that Civil Judicatures take cognizance of nothing but the outward Act and when this appears they constantly ascribe the internal Principles of the Action Knowledge and Freedom where the Criminal is under no Natural Disabilities so that the Reasons that induce them to proceed to Censure in cases of this Nature can be no other but those which this excellent Moralist has assigned for every such Criminal has 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tho' he was not Master of himself when the Fact was committed yet he is Acted by a Principle that made him Master of the cause of it and consequently the Government may exercise a Right of Punishment Again
first workings of Reason and the prime Laws of Nature would be as legible to the Eye of the Mind as they would be to the outward Senses when graved on Tables of Stone But now as the Case stands I mean with regard to a degenerate State the Objections before us prove no more than the Miscarriages of Reason but do not overturn that Frame or Model which God hath established So that Reason in her Enquiries after a Law of Nature appears to be placed under great Difficulties but yet Laws of Nature may for all this be the Product and Workings of natural Reason CHAP. III. Of the Argument of Vniversal Consent HAving now in some measure Answered what I proposed which was to prove a Law of Nature antecedent to Revelation and rescued the Hypothesis from the Objections that threatned it before I dismiss this Argument I shall offer something in reference to what a late Author has advanced against the Argument of Universal Consent under colour of exploding innate Ideas or practical Principles but will serve as well against a Law of Nature § 1. And first it 's very observable This Gentleman has industriously amassed together all the Filth and Off-scouring of a reprobate Mind and a defiled Conscience and of a People that seem'd to be abandoned by God and consequently nursed up in a universal Impiety He has sent us to all the Creeks and Corners of Barbarity under the Verge of Heaven to see Rapes Murders and the vilest Incests practised with universal Approbation and Allowance yea rather with an Opinion of Vertue and Merit to see whole Nations or Tribes of Men living without God in the World without any Foot-steps of Worship or so much as a Name for God Lock 's Humane Vnderstanding B. 1. Cap. 3. § 9. And upon all this concludes That there is scarce that Principle of Morality to be named or Rule of Vertue to be thought on those only excepted that are absolutely necessary to hold Society together which commonly too are neglected betwixt distinct Societies which is not somewhere or other slighted and condemned by the general Fashion of whole Societies of Men governed by practical Opinions and Rules of living quite opposite to others § 10. And the Argument drawn from all this is levelled against universal Consent and innate Principles For thus the Author § 9. Where then are those innate Principles of Justice Piety Gratitude Equity Chastity or where is that universal Consent that assures us there are such inbred Rules And certainly the Argument carries the same Force against a Law of Nature and the eternal Distinctions of Good and Evil For may not the Latitudinarian in Triumph demand Where is that universal Consent that assures us there are Laws of Nature or indispensable established Rules of Morality Nay to have recourse to his Methods of Arguing since contrary practical Principles are asserted by whole Nations as the avowed Rules of Living since Remorse in some attends the vilest Enormities whilst others think they merit by 'em may not we expostulate Where are those natural Measures of Right and Wrong those natural Distinctions of Good and Evil See § 9 10 11. Certainly these are Deductions as strong and cogent as those against innate Principles I am sure they will pass for such in the Judgment of some Men that caress Mr. Lock 's Doctrine concerning Innate Ideas since he is not content to explode all innate practical Principles but assigns no other Foundation or Original besides Custom Education the Superstition of a Nurse or the Authority of an Old Woman See § 22 23 26. This Author in a Letter to the Learned Bishop of Worcester observes That the Foundation of all Religion and genuine Morality being established in the Belief of a God no Arguments that are made use of to work the Perswasion of a God should be invalidated page 113 114. And certainly Reason should have obliged him to have used the same Caution not only in invalidating Arguments that are advanced to prove a Law of Nature the true ground of Morality but in advancing Arguments that do not more directly destroy the Doctrine of innate Ideas than a Law of Nature It 's true were the Doctrine of innate Ideas or practical Principles no way to be disproved but by exposing the Conceipt of universal Consent the Method had been very pardonable but this Author confesses that were the Argument admitted it proves no Idea or Principle to be innate B. 1. Cap. 2. § 3. And therefore I am afraid he was acted by no good Design to muster up all his Forces against an Argument that does him no Disservice especially when his Methods of attacking it are more fatal against the whole Body of Morality But to make some Returns to these Harangues I shall not now consider how far practical Principles may be said to be innate this will fall in its proper place but I think we have no reason to cashier the Argument of universal Consent which if there is any such thing must be a considerable Evidence of a Law of Nature and the irreconcilable Distinctions of Good and Evil. And first I think Mr. Lock needed not to have sent us to Africa and the Indies to the most rude and uncultivated Parts of the World to explode the Doctrine of an universal Consent as to Chastity Humanity and other moral Vertues For the sacred Canon if he will allow it to be Authentick would have furnished him with national Enormities that were as much the Fashion of their Countries and the approved Rules of Living as any he has produced Did not the seven Nations practise the vilest Incests was it not a piece of Devotion to sacrifice there Off-spring to Moloch See Rev. 18. Ezek. 23. and in a word to practise a thousand Abominations As for particular Nations that had not so much as a Name of God if in reality there were any such I think they were not more remarkable than those that had not God in all their Thoughts And when the vilest Immoralities are produced with a national Esteem and Approbation I think they are not worse than those St. Paul has charged the Heathen World with in more places than one who being past Feeling have given themselves over to Lasciviousness to work all Vncleanness with greediness See Ephes 4. v. 18 19. Rom. 1. v. 20 25. and yet I think there can be no just Authority against an Universal Consent as to Laws of Nature or Practical Principles If this were so Universal Consent may be as well rejected in the Proof of Rational Faculties or at least in the Establishment of Reason and Truth upon any certain Foundation and consequently they are to be resolved into meer Chance or Fortune for the Contradictions recorded by St. Paul to the plain Rules of Morality are as absolute Contradictions to the Allowance or Supposition of Rational Faculties and the natural Frame and Foundation of Reason as they are to Laws of Nature or the natural Features
Sense of 'em that a Right of Punishment is never disputed tho' the Penalty is not expresly annexed Thus far then at least we are advanced unless we can deny a Sovereign Creator a Right of exercising a legislative Power we must allow him a Right of executing Punishments upon the Violation of his Laws as well as a Power of rewarding the Observance of them § 2. But now the Certainty of Divine Punishments as well as Rewards pursuing all his Laws even Laws of Nature is evinced from indisputable Authorities Few will be forward to dispute the Certainty of Rewards and therefore I shall consider it purely with respect to Punishments And 1st That God will dispence certain Punishments upon the Violation of any Law of Nature follows from the general Ends and Intentions of all Law-givers especially the Supreme Divine Law-giver that gave Being to every Soul that is capable of receiving a Law as well as Laws to govern them by Now no Law-giver can ever give Laws to others without designing for some special Ends and Purposes to have them executed and observed Without this it's absurd for a Law-giver to engage in enacting Laws or trouble his Subjects with the Burden that arises from the Imposition of them In a word it 's to act in vain or to no purpose an Imputation that cannot without Horror and Blasphemy be charged upon God who is always governed by the unchangeable Dictate of infinite Wisdom Therefore since we must conclude that the Sovereign Lord of all the World is acted with the deepest concern to have his Laws executed since Punishment is the best Expedient to enforce the Execution of 'em and since Punishment is due upon the Violation of 'em it must follow that Punishment will attend the Violation of ' em § 3. But 2dly The Certainty of Punishment discovers itself from the Nature of these Laws with relation to those Beings to whom they are given Now it 's already concluded That Laws of Nature arise from the established Frame and Condition of our Beings and Concenter with the prime Ends and Interests of ' em The Observance of Laws of Nature bring natural Rewards along with 'em sufficient to recommend 'em to the Choices of reasoning Beings and the Violation of 'em implies a Renuntiation not only of the common Rules of Prudence but Self-preservation the necessary Instinct of sensitive unthinking Beings And therefore when Laws of Nature are violated there seems no Room or Foundation left to excite or work upon infinite Mercy Indeed did God act like an Egyptian Task-master and not only require Brick without Straw but continue the Tail upon the greatest Sweat and Drudgery merely to exert an absolute Sovereignty and Dominion he might sometimes be melted into Compassion when a poor Vassal happens to fall short of the Line of Duty but now the Violation of them implies the highest Aggravations of Folly and resolved Iniquity and therefore we cannot imagine that any thing can induce an infinitely wise Creator to suspend any Punishments he can justly execute § 4. But 3dly Let us consider the Nature of the Command with respect to God that gave them Now certainly since it is concluded That Laws of Nature or Dictates of Nature take their Rise from the Author of Nature they are not only established according to the original Frame of created Nature but according to the infinite Purity and Holiness of God They are the express Image of his Person and the Brightness of that infinite Mind with whom there is no Shadow of Darkness or Impurity On this Account the Violation of Laws of Nature is not only an Affront committed against the Majesty and Sovereign Authority of God but a gross Aspersion upon his infinite Purity and Holiness and consequently it must engage him in the deepest Resentments So that Punishment is now no more an Act of Sovereignty but an Act of Justice to wipe off the Dirt that is by this means cast upon his infinite Purity If He 's of purer Eyes than to behold much less to cohabit with Iniquity certainly he must be armed with the highest Resentments even such as will answer the Character he has given of himself for our God is a consuming Fire And therefore though his infinite Love and Mercy might sometimes engage him to remit the Punishment that is due to the Violation of a known Law yet his infinite Justice will not suffer him till he has satisfied the Demands of his infinite Purity and Holiness In one word whosoever seriously surveys the Actions of the Almighty will plainly discover how directly all his Laws result from the whole Circle of his Divine Attributes and therefore it 's a senseless Project to set up his Mercy against his Justice Purity and Goodness and thereupon promise our selves an Exemption from Punishment It 's evident therefore that Laws of Nature as well as all other Laws are guarded with Punishments suitable to the Nature of ' em And if God is not concerned to vindicate his Authority he 'll certainly be concerned to vindicate his infinite Purity and Goodness and therefore we may conclude tho' Hand joyn in Hand the Disobedient shall not go unpunished I will not pretend to fix a Standard of Punishment for Offences committed against Laws of Nature I mean with respect to the Nature Degrees or Continuance of them for tho' there are a great many Arguments that might suggest very considerable Discoveries in these matters yet I think they were in a great measure Secrets lodged in the Hands of God till he thought fit to reveal himself in Cases of this Nature this being the proper Business of Revelation It 's sufficient to Believers and Christians that he has now done it beyond all dispute or cavil Again I will not pretend to conclude every particular Soul that acts against Laws of Nature under the Vengeance of Heaven Punishment no doubt will be proportioned according to the means of Information and there may be certain Cases in a State of Nature where invincible Ignorance may be a Plea at the Bar of Justice to particular Persons but yet the Actions of Men are intricate and Humane Knowledge shallow and of a narrow compass and therefore we must leave these as Secrets to the Discerner of Spirits and that Candle of the Lord I mean every Man 's particular Conscience It 's sufficient that the Violations of Laws of Nature antecedent to Revelation render Mankind obnoxious to Punishments and that all the Reason in the World instructs us God will infallibly inflict them And therefore it 's the Concern of Mankind either to live in the Observance of 'em or to appear with a more substantial Defence than I can think of lest they bring themselves into an irreversible State of Condemnation CHAP. X. Of the Original of Parental Duty Love and Affection and filial Reverence and Duty § 1. IT was not my Design to descend to Particulars no more than to present the World with an exact List or