only to discern the Reasonableness of all Vertue and Morality which is their Duty and Ornament as they are Men but also they may here see the true Foundations of Civil Government and Property which they are most obliged to understand because as Gentlemen they are born to the greatest Interest in them both I need add no more to give you Assurance that I freely consent to your Printing of this Book and am Your affectionate Friend Ric. Peterborough The Contents of the First Chapter A Brief Repetition of the Preface That the Law of Nature can only be learnt from the Knowledge of a God and from the Nature of Things and of Mankind in general § 1. A state of the Question between us and the Epicureans and Scepticks § 2. The method proposed in what manner we are to enquire into the Nature of things and of mankind in order to prove certain general Propositions that shall carry with them the Obligation of Natural Laws § 3. The Soul supposed to be rafa Tabula without any innate Idea's Our method proposed of considering God as the Cause of the World and all Things and humane Actions as subordinate causes and effects either hindring or promoting our common Happiness and Preservation § 4. All the Laws of Nature deduceable from hence as so many practical Propositions and all our observations or knowledge of it reduceable to one Proposition of the highest Benevolence of rational Beings towards each other as the summ of all the Laws of Nature and what is meant by this Benevolence § 5. What things are necessary to be known or supposed in order to the knowledge of this universal Benevolence § 6. The Connexion of the Terms of this Proposition proved and what is to be collected from thence The true happiness of single Persons inseparable from that of Mankind The general Causes of its Happiness to be considered in the first place § 7. Therefore no Man's particular Happiness can be opposed or preferred before the Happiness of all other rational Beings The contrary practice unreasonable and unjust § 8. Yet that this Proposition cannot be of sufficient efficacy till we have proposed the Common Good of Rationals for the great End of all our Actions § 9. The Effects of this Proposition not prejudiced by the ill use of Men's Free-wills § 10 11. By what steps and degrees the Knowledge of this Common Good comes to be conveyed into our minds from the nature of things § 12. First Natural Observation that in our free use and enjoyment of all the outward Necessaries of Life and in our mutual administring them to each other consists all men's happiness and preservation from whence also proceeds a Notion of the Common Good of Rationals § 13. That Men are able to contribute more to the good and happiness of those of their own kind than any other Creatures § 14. Nothing a surer help and defence to Mankind than the most sincere and diffusive Benevolence § 15. Nor any thing more destructive to it than their constant Malice and Ill-will § 16. That these Principles are as certain as any in Arithmetick and Geometry notwithstanding the supposition of Men's free-will § 17. Yet that they are only Laws as proceeding from God the first Cause and as establish'd with fit Rewards and Punishments § 18. That from these natural and general Observations we attain to a true knowledge of the Causes of all Men's happiness and that by the Laws of Matter and Motion these Causes act as certainly as any other § 19,20 Hence arises a true notion of things naturally and unalterably good or evil § 21. That Men's natural Powers and the things necessary for life can neither be exerted nor made use of contrary to the known rules of Matter and Motion § 22. Some Conclusions deduceable from hence as that we chiefly concern our selves about those things and actions that are in our Powers § 23. No man self-sufficient to procure all things necessary for his own preservation and happiness and therefore needs the good-will and assistance of others § 24. None of these necessaries for Life can produce the Ends design'd but as they are appropriated to Man's particular uses and necessities for the time they make use of them § 25. From whence arises the Right of Occupancy or Possession which may be exercised even during a natural Community of most things § 26. That as this natural Division and Propriety in things is necessary to the preservation of particular Persons so it is also of Mankind considered as an aggregate Body § 27. That these Principles destroy Mr. H's Hypothesis of the Right of all Men to all things in the state of nature § 28. The necessity of a farther Division and Appropriation of things now Mankind is multiplyed on the Earth § 29. No Man hath a Right to any thing any farther than as it conduces or at least consists with the common good of rational Beings § 30. The knowledge of these natural Causes and Effects alike certain in a natural as civil State with a brief Recapitulation of the Grounds and Arguments insisted on in this Chapter § 31. The Contents of the Second Chapter MAN to be considered as a natural Body as an Animal and also as a rational Creature Some Observations from the first of these Considerations as that humane Bodies and Actions are subject to the same Laws of Matter and Motion with other things § 1 2. No Actions or Motions more conducive to Man's happiness than what proceed from the most diffusive Benevolence § 3. Mankind considered as a System of natural Bodies doth not make any considerable difference between them when considered as voluntary Agents endued with sense but that they rather act more powerfully thereby § 4. Men's greatest security from Evils and hopes of obtaining Good depends upon the good-will and voluntary Assistance of others § 5. Several natural Conclusions drawn from these Observations § 6. The like being found true in animate as well as inanimate Bodies will make us more sollicitous towards the general good of those of our own kind § 7. That loving or benevolent Actions towards each other constitute the happiest state we can enjoy and also it is ordained by a concourse of Causes that all rational Beings should be sensible of these Indications § 8. This proved from several natural Observations as 1. That the bulk of the Bodies of Animals being but narrow the things necessary for their preservation can be but few and most of them communicable to many at once and so requires a limited self-love consistent with the safety and happiness of others § 9. 2. That Creatures of the same kind cannot but be moved to the like affections towards others as towards themselves from the sense of the similitude of their natures § 10. Animals do never deviate from this natural state but when they are seized with some preternatural Disease or Passion which as oft as it happens are absolutely destructive to
Case proposed unless first all those Effects which may proceed from it in all its various Circumstances be duly considered and compared together So that the Contemplation both of the Causes on which Men's Safety and Happiness depends as also of the Effects which may be produced by their joint or concurring Forces and Endeavours must necessarily lead our Minds first to the Consideration of all other Men and next of our selves as a very small part of Mankind And in the next place that we proceed to contemplate this System of Things called the Visible World but more especially GOD as its Creator and Governour according to the Method laid down in the Introduction to this Discourse the Idea's of which being duly considered and digested in our Minds we may draw from thence certain Conclusions by which we may judge or determine what Humane Things and Actions are certainly and necessarily conducing to the Common Good and Happiness of all Rational Beings and in which every particular Person 's Felicity or Well-being is contained as a part thereof and in which Rational Dictates or Conclusions I shall hereafter prove this Law of Nature to consist § 5. No body I suppose will think it necessary to the matter in hand that I should here make Physical Disquisitions into the Natures of all Things that are the Objects of our Senses that being the Business of profess'd Naturalists It is sufficient for us to shew That all the Rules of Moral Philosophy and the Laws of Nature may be at last resolved into certain natural and easie Observations gathered from common Experience or else into certain Conclusions established upon the known Principles of Mathematicks and Physicks by which I do not only mean all those natural Laws of Matter and Motion in Bodies but also the Operations of our own Souls as far as we are able to know or enquire into them From all which by the Order of Natural Causes we may be led to the Knowledge of GOD their Creator and Ordainer and so may acknowledge Him as the only Cause of all these excellent Effects since this Nature of Things doth as well suggest to our Minds the Idea of a Creator as of the Things created and so supplies us with sufficient matter from which we may deduce all the Laws of Nature as so many true Practical Propositions though it is only the Knowledge of the First Cause or Creator that can stamp any Authority or Obligation upon them Now although there may be many Things collected from our Knowledge of several Beings in the World that may serve for our Moral Instruction and the cultivating of our Manners yet I shall for Brevity's sake only select some of the most material of them and such as may serve to explain our short account of the Law of Nature which notwithstanding several Authors have so much enlarged upon it I think may very well be reduced to this single Proposition viz. The most universal Love or most diffusive Benevolence of all Rational Beings towards each other constitutes the happiest State they can be capable of So that their Endeavour of the Common Good by this Benevolence is the sum of all the Laws of Nature and in which they are all contained Note That by this Love or Benevolence I do not mean only a fruitless Desire or Well-wishing but an active Affection exerting it self in all the Acts of Piety towards God Duty towards Parents Kindness and Gratitude towards our Country Friends and Relations and of Charity and Humanity towards all the rest of Mankind as often as any opportunity offers it self § 6. In the making out of which Description of the Law of Nature it is here needless to inquire into the Nature of our Souls and the manner of our Knowledge and Understanding since the former hath been so Learnedly perform'd by the Reverend Dr. Ward late Bishop of Salisbury and the latter so exactly done already in English by the above mentioned Author of the Essay of Humane Vnderstanding I shall only briefly suppose upon his Principles that our Souls do 1. From the very birth by degrees receive Idea's drawn from outward Objects by our Senses 2. That it is their faculty from divers single Notions or Idea's put together to come to make complex ones that is to make divers Propositions or Conclusions not only concerning their own inward Actings but also about all those outward Objects with which they are daily conversant and which may tend to the finding out the readiest means of attaining to and preserving themselves in the happiest State and Condition they are able to acquire These things being suppos'd it were needless to trouble you with any farther descriptions of this Love or Benevolence since every Person cannot but be sufficiently sensible of its Nature Degrees and various Operations that will but make any Self-reflection upon his own Inward Affections § 7. But as for the due Connexion of the Terms of this Proposition in which its Truth does chiefly consist it seems to me plain enough It being no more than to affirm That our endeavour of procuring all the good things in our Power and which are most conducing to our own preservation and Happiness and of all other Rational Beings is the best or chiefest thing that all Persons can do to render both themselves and all others as happy as their Natures will permit or can require and that there is no surer or more powerful means to be discovered by us whereby we may obtain a full enjoyment of all the good things of this Life and the hopes of that to come than by endeavouring our own Felicity in Conjunction with that of others So that from what I have already advanced the Reader may Collect these two Propositions 1. That the Foundation of all our Natural Happiness consists in an habitual determination of the Will to the utmost of its Ability and Perfection whereby we may be always ready and prepared to endeavour this Common good of Rationals 2. That the true Happiness of each Individual Person cannot be separated from that of other Rationals since the whole doth not differ from all its parts taken together so that this Proposition concerning this general or diffusive Benevolence is thus to be understood viz. Not to mean or only intend what any single or a few Persons may perform towards the procuring of their own private Happiness or that of their own Party or Faction distinct from that of the rest of Mankind but what all particular Persons may jointly contribute to render themselves and others happy that is what each of them may rationally perform towards the obtaining this Common Felicity For it ought first to be known in general what all Men are able to do or not to do towards any common end such as is the common happiness of Rationals and then what it is possible for any particular Person in this or that Case to perform for example towards his own private happiness as separate from
but rather that of the aggregate Body of Mankind subordinate to GOD as the Head of Rational Beings in this Natural System or Commonweal establish'd by Natural Laws For the good of an aggregate Body is nothing else but the Chiefest Good that can accrue to all its Parts or the Individual § 22. Having now found out from the Nature of Things by what means our Minds can receive the Idea's of a Common Natural Good and Evil and these no less certain and stable than those by which the Causes of Generation and Corruption are exhibited to them I come next to consider That that Matter and Motion in which the Powers of Humane Bodies as well as other Parts of this Visible World consist and exert themselves after a limitted manner and have a finite Quantity and certain Bounds beyond which they cannot act from which Principles flow those known Laws of Natural Bodies as that they cannot be at once in divers Places and therefore cannot be moved towards contrary Points at the same time or so as to be subservient to the contrary Wills of divers Persons at once but are so bounded and determined in their Natures as to be only ordered or disposed of according to the Will of one Person alone or else of divers consenting or conspiring to the same End or Design For if Men should think thus to make use of them they would be so far from conducing to their Benefit or Preservation that they would only tend to their Hurt and Destruction since if the Stronger had a Right to take from the Weaker by Strength and the Weaker from the Stronger by Cunning and Surprize any of these Necessaries of Life which he was once possessed of yet when he had them he could be no more assured that he should keep them than he was that last possessed them since one Stronger or more Cunning than himself may yet come and serve him as he had done the other before and so on 'till all Men that enjoy'd them should be destroy'd and the Things contended for perish without use So that there could remain neither any Owner nor Thing to be owned § 23. From all which that hath been now laid down I shall draw some Conclusions of great moment to our Subject as 1. From this Knowledge of the Nature of Things and especially of our own Humane Nature we may learn that somuch celebrated Distinction of the Stoicks between the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. those Things which are in our own Power and Disposal such as are the voluntary Motions and Inclinations of our Bodies and Minds and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the Things out of our Power such as are those Corporeal Motions so violent and irresistible which we daily observe to proceed from the Nature and Frame of the World which we weak Creatures are not able to resist and from whose irresistible Force all things here below are in a perpetual flux whence also there happens to us Men a perpetual vicisfitude of Things as well Adverse as Prosperous as also of Maturation Decay and Dissolution So that this Distinction if duly observed will be of singular use as well in forming our Manners as governing our Affections For from hence we are taught not to expect any other or greater Happiness as a Reward of all our Labours and Endeavours than what may proceed from a prudent Management of our Rational Faculties and from those External Helps which we may expect Divine Providence will afford us in its governing the World by which means we may befreed from those fruitless Labours and Endeavours to which Men's vain Fears and groundless Hopes so often transport them Nor shall we too much afflict our selves for those Evils which either do now or may hereafter without our own Faults inevitably befal us whence the greatest part of those Troubles and Molestations which are wont to proceed from Grief Anger and Discontent at our present Fortunes or Conditions may by our Prudence or Patience be prevented Neither are we hereby only directed to the avoiding of Evils but here is also chalked out to us a more short and compendious method by which we may by degrees attain to those two greatest Blessings which can be enjoyed by us in this Life the Culture of our own Minds and the Government of our Passions § 24. I need not prosecute this Subject any farther but shall proceed to take notice of those obvious Observations to our Purpose viz. That it is evident from common Experience That the natural Forces or Powers of any one Person are too weak scanty and inconsiderable towards the obtaining all that Happiness he desires and is capable of to procure which he still wants the Help and Assistance of many other Persons and Things to render his Life safe pleasant or contented And further that it is in the Power of any one of us to contribute many Things towards the use of others of our own kind which we do not need our selves and which though of no use to us yet may be of singular use to their Happiness or Preservation But since we are certain from those known Bounds of our Power that we are not able to compel all those by force whose Assistance we stand in need of to co-operate with us towards this our main End and Design viz. Happiness there can be no surer Means or safer Defence left us than that by a constant offering and affording those Necessaries of Life together with our Assistance to others as often as it lies in our Power we may thereby probably render them likewise Benevolent and Helpful to us in the like Necessities or Occasions So that this Benevolence or Charity is only a constant Will and Endeavour of acting thus sincerely and diffusively whenever any Opportunity offers it self and that even in those Cases in which it may oftentimes be probably foreseen that no return can be immediately expected from the Person to whom the Benefit is done since however it still contributes to the general Good of Mankind of which that Person we so benefit is a Member Which general Benevolence doth not yet hinder but that we may bestow and exercise a larger share and higher degrees thereof towards those from whom our own long Acquaintance and nearer Relation may persuade us to hope for larger Returns of Friendship § 25. Whence we may in the next place observe That if our Assistance and other Things in our Power certainly contribute to the Use or Benefit of others they can only perform this as they are assign'd or appropriated to the particular Persons that are to make use of them according to some certain time and place So that if Right Reason prescribe a Use of Things and Humane Helps as necessary for the Happiness and Preservation of Mankind it as necessarily prescribes that this Use of these Things should be appropriated to them that are thus to use them for the time they stand in need of them and according
established there is therein contained the largest and most diffusive Society between divers Nations or Commonweals and the truest Love and Benevolence between all the Members of the same Commonweal as also between particular Families So that there may be hence demonstrated and determined the certain Rules and Measures of true Piety towards God as distinguish'd from Impiety and Superstition and also of all other Vertues towards Men which must be first truly known and applied to their right Objects that the Names of these Vertues when falsly imposed on Actions contrary to the Laws of God and Nature may not deceive us For it is hence evident That all the parts of universal Justice and Benevolence viz. all the particular Vertues contained under them are only commanded in order to this Common Good because it is manifest by Experience That such Just and Benevolent Actions are always endued with a natural Power of procuring and promoting the Common Peace and Happiness of divers Nations and Commonweals as also of lesser Societies and particular Persons of all which considered in their due order and subordination to each other this Common Good of Mankind is made up and consists § 21. And farther it may be hence clearly shewn what is that Right Reason by which every prudent Man ought to prescribe to himself a just Mediocrity in all his moral Actions for it only consists in practical Propositions proposing or declaring to us this great End and also shewing us all the means in our Power whereby we may attain it which are those that in the first place prescribe the Rules of Piety and Divine Worship both private and publick 2. Those that concern the Society and Commerce of divers Nations and Commonweals 3. All positive Laws whether Civil or Domestick tending to the Good of the Civil Society wherein we live 4. True and rational Conclusions drawn from Knowledge or Experience either of our selves or others concerning the natural Efficacy of Things and Actions all which are at last resolved into the natural Power of such Humane Actions as may either benefit or hurt Mankind considered apart or in an aggregate Body as in a Family or Nation since Experience doth not with less certainty teach us what kind of Actions are beneficial or hurtful to Mankind then it shews what sort of Diet will either nourish or destroy us Nor is it more difficult to understand the Truth of this Proposition That a right or equal Distribution of all Things necessary for Life is requisite to the Common Good and Happiness of Mankind than it is to know in Physick That it is necessary for the Life and Health of an Animal that a due proportion of Nourishment be equally distributed to all its Parts or Members both which Truths are grounded on the same natural Principles viz. That the same Things which preserve the whole do also preserve all its parts and vice versa the same Things which preserve all the Parts or Members do likewise serve to the Conservation of the whole which being evident from true Principles is a Science taught by Experience drawn from the Nature of Things § 22. And thâ—â— from the immutable Efficacy of Corporeal Causes of this sort for the production of their Effects on all Humane Bodies depends all the Certainty and Knowledge of Natural Philosophy and Physick So likewise from their immutable Influence or Powers on Humane Actions for the Conservation of particular Persons Families and Commonweals proceeds all the Certainty of those practical Propositions called Natural Laws which constitute Moral Philosophy shewing and determining the Nature of all Vertues and Vices Nor is that variety of Actions which may be prescribed to Persons in distinct Families or Commonweals and under various Circumstances of Life more repugnant to the constant Care of preserving all the Parts or Members which contribute to this great End than the diversity of Diety and ways of living peculiar to divers Climates Ages or Constitutions of Men's Bodies are to the constant Care that all Men have of preserving their own Lives and Healths according to the several Necessities of their Natures For as in these we cannot by doing whatever we will promote this End but Nature hath put some limits thereunto although our weak Understandings cannot attain to a nice or mathematical exactness in assigning them as we may live long and healthfully enough without weighing our Meat and Drink like Lessius so we may likewise procure the Common Good as far as lies in our Power although we do not always perform that which is absolutely or simply best in all Cases it is as much as God the Legislator requires if we truly endeavour it and contribute as far as we are able unto this great End § 23. In the last place I shall here repeat what I have before laid down That this Common Good of Rationals as it is a Collection of all natural Goods and the greatest of all others so it is the true Standard of all other Goods either natural or moral So that by our comparing them with this we may truly determine whether they are greater or less than each other and so whether they are principally to be desired and sought after or to be postponed to other greater Goods Likewise the same measure where the proportion of these Goods is taken gives us a true estimate of all the contrary Evils and so shews us what is more or less to be avoided or repented of § 24. We may also hence learn what degrees of Passions or Affections are lawful for it is certain That only such a proportion of Affections are required as are congruous to our Rational Nature and exactly answering the true Estimate of those good or evil Things by which they are excited but since the Government of our Appetites and Passions is a thing of so great moment as that on which all our Vertue and Happiness as far as it is in our Power depends which Government proceeds from our knowledge of a true measure of all Goods and Evils according to which they are to be judged therefore I shall be the larger in explaining what I have a little before laid down viz. That the Common Good ought to be the Standard of all our Affections and Passions as being so ordained by God and determined by the Nature of Things which is evident in that we have demonstrated this Common Good to be that great End to whose prosecution all Men are naturally obliged by the Will of God as a Legislator who must have given us the knowledge of any thing as Good or Evil to little purpose unless he had also given us a Rule by which we might judge of the several measures or degrees of this Goodness So that this Common Good being once established as a certain Measure or Standard for this End the Good of each particular Person will bear such a proportion to that of the whole Body of Rationals as the Soundness of any one Member does to the
by the due observation of Justice and Charity or the most diffusive Benevolence towards others of our own Kind according to the Order we have already laid down in the former Chapter All which is but our endeavouring to procure as far as we are able this Common Good of Rational Agents 'T is true Mr. H. in his Lev. Chap. 13. contracts all the Laws of Nature into this short and easy Rule which he says is intelligible even by the meanest capacities viz. Do not that to another thou wouldest not have done to thy self Which Rule tho' very true and the same in effect which was given by our Blessed Saviour himself yet without the consideration of the Common Good of Mankind would too often fail For if this Rule were strictly and literally to be understood no Prince Judge or other Magistrate could condemn a Malefactor to death for in so doing he did that to another which he would not have done to himself in the like State Since he himself as well as the Criminal he condemns would then desire to be pardoned if he could But indeed the reason why all Judges and other inferior Officers of Justice are excused from the observation of this Rule in their publick Capacities is Because they do not then act as private persons but as publick Representatives or Trustees with whom the Common Good and Peace of the whole Kingdom or Commonwealth is intrusted which as I have already shewn makes but a small part of the Common Good of all Rational Agents § 16. There are likewise others who reduce the Laws of Nature into this single Rule or Precept Preserve or do good to thy self and any other innocent persons as to thy self Which tho' I grant to be a true Rule as containing our Saviour's Epitome of the Commandments of the Second Table Love thy Neighbour as thy self Yet doth it not express the Reason or Principle on which it is founded for we have no reason to love our Neighbour but as they partake of the same Common Rational Nature with our selves and that our doing them good doth conduce to the preservation and happiness of the whole Body of Mankind of which that person as well as our selves are but small parts or Members Nor have we any particular obligation to endeavour our own particular Good but as it conduces to and is part of the Common Good of Mankind § 17. And as the whole Law of Nature so likewise the Revealed Law given from God by Moses to the Iews and intended in due time to be made known to all Mankind tends to no other end than this great Law of endeavouring the Common Good of Rational Agents For all the Precepts of the First Table of the Decalogue which prescribe our Duty towards God and which our Saviour hath so excellently well contracted into this single Precept Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength c. contain nothing more than this great Rule For as God before he thought fit to create the World and whilst there was yet no Creature to worship or serve him was not then less happy or perfect so neither now he hath created them is he the happier if we worship him or the more unhappy if we omit it For man being created as an Object for the Divine Goodness to exert it self upon it must necessarily follow that all the Precepts of the First Table as well as of the Second are in some sort intended for Man's Good and Happiness as well as God's Honour and Service So that even that Great Commandment of keeping holy the Seventh day which most chiefly respects God's own Glory and Service did also promote the Good and Happiness not only of the Iews God's particular Subjects but also of all Mankind whensoever this Law should be discovered to them So that tho' it commands the dedicating of that day to the Worship and Service of God and is observed in obedience to his Commands Yet even in this he does not design his own Glory and Honour alone nay according to Saint Austin Our Good only but also our Good and Happiness which is then most perfect and compleat when we bestow our time in the contemplation of his Infinite Perfections and Goodness towards us and in rendring him thanks for his unspeakable Benefits So that though I grant he hath made and ordained us for his Service yet he hath so constituted our Nature as to make our highest happiness inseparably connected with all the particular Acts of his Worship And therefore our Saviour reproves the Iews when they found fault with him for suffering his Disciples to pluck the Ears of Corn on the Sabbath day expresly telling them That if they hâ—d known what this means I will have mercy and not sacrifice they would not have condemned the guiltless for the Son of Man i. e. not Christ alone but every Christian is Lord even of the Sabbath-day And in St. Mark That the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath Thereby teaching us that the Sabbath it self was also instituted for Man's sake and that in cases of necessity he is Master of it And so likewise our Saviour himself by chusing to do his greatest Miracles of healing on the Sabbath-day hath taught us that the performance of acts of Charity and Mercy on that Day is a great and necessary part of God's Service § 18. But as for the Precepts of the Second Table I need not insist upon them because our Saviour himself hath contracted them all even that of honouring our Parents into this short Precept Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Which is no more than to bid us endeavour the common good of Mankind to the utmost of our power So that as this Law of the most diffusive Benevolence of Rational Agents contains the Sum of all the Laws of Nature as also of the Moral Law contained in the Ten Commandments so likewise is it the Sum of the whole Gospel delivered by our Saviour Christ and his Apostles For as one great design of our Saviour's coming into the World was by his most excellent Precepts and Examples to exalt the Law of Nature to a higher perfection than what Men by the common use of Reason could generally attain to so likewise was it one of the main designs of his coming to restore the Law of Moses to its Primitive Purity and Perfection and to free it from those false Interpretations and Traditions with which the Pharisees had corrupted it For whereas they had confined the observation of that Command of loving our Neighbours only to outward Acts or at least restrained it only to those of their own Nation or Religion our Saviour Christ commands a greater perfection and forbids even so much as the thoughts or desires of Murder Adultery c. And whereas the Iews did suppose that they were not obliged to shew Acts of Charity or
not but you will find in the Body of this Discourse that it hath all things necessary to render it so viz. God considered as a Legislator and his Will or Commands sufficiently declared to us as a Law from the very constitution of our Natures as also of other things without us and likewise established by sufficient Rewards and Punishments both in this life and the next neither do we suppose it can be more evidently proved that God is the Author of all things than that he is also the Author of this Proposition concerning the common good of rational Beings or concerning his own Honour and Worship conjoyned with the common Good of mankind And tho' I confess we have been more exact and have dwelt longer upon the Rewards that we may expect from the observation of this Law than upon the Punishments which are appointed for the breach of it and tho' I know the Civilians have rather placed the Sanction of Civil Laws in Punishments than Rewards yet I hope we have not offended tho' we a little deviate from their Sense and make it part of the Sanction of this Law that it is established by Rewards as well as Punishments since it seems more agreeable to the Nature of things whose foot-steps are strictly to be followed to consider the positive Idea's of Causes and Effects in our minds and which do not receive either Negations or Privations by our outward Senses and our Affections ought rather to be moved by the Love or Hopes of a present or future Good than by the Fear or hatred of the contrary Evil For as no man is said to Love Life Health and those grateful motions of the Nerves or Spirits which are called corporeal Pleasures because he may avoid Death Sickness or Pain but rather from their own intrinsick Goodness or Agreeableness with our humane Natures so likewise no rational Man desires the Perfections of the mind to wit the more ample and distinct knowledge of the most noble Objects the most happy State of rational Beings can only give him and all this not only that he may avoid the mischiefs of Ignorance Envy and Malevolence but because of that great Happiness which he finds by experience to spring from such vertuous Actions and Habits and which render it most ungrateful to us to be deprived of them and so the Causes also of such Privations are judg'd highly grievous and troublesome From whence it also appears that even Civil Laws themselves when they are established by Punishments e. g. by the fear of Death or loss of Goods if we consider the thing truly do indeed force men to yield obedience to them from the love of Life or Riches which they find can only be preserved by their observation So that the avoiding of Death and Poverty is but in other words love of Life and Riches as he who by two Negatives would say he would not want Life means no more but that he desires to enjoy it To which we may likewise add that Civil Laws themselves ought to be considered from the end which the Law-makers regard in making them as also which all good Subjects design in observing them to wit the publick Good of the Commonwealth part of which is communicated to all of them in particular and so brings with it a natural Reward of their obedience rather than from the Punishments they threaten by whose fear some only are deterred from violating them and those of the worst and most wicked sort of Men. But tho' we have shewn that the Sum of all the Precepts or Laws of Nature as also of the Sanctions annexed to them are briefly contained in this Proposition yet it s Subject is still but an endeavour to the utmost of our Power of the common Good of the whole System of rational Beings this limitation of the utmost of our Power implies that we do not think our selves capable of adding any thing to the Divine Perfections which we willingly acknowledge to be beyond our Power So that here is at once exprest both our Love towards God and Good will to mankind who are the constituent parts of this System But the Predicate of this Proposition is that which conduces to the good of all its singular Parts or Members and in which our own Happiness is contained as one part thereof Since all those good things which we can do for others are but the Effects of this endeavour so that the Sum of all those Goods of which also our own Felicity consists can never be mist of either in this Life or a better as the Reward of our obedience thereunto So to the contrary Actions Misery in this Life or in that to come are the Punishments naturally due But the Connexion of the Predicate with the Subject is both the Foundation of the truth of this Proposition and also a Demonstration of the natural Connexion between this obedience and the Rewards as also between the Transgression and the Punishments From whence the Readers will easily observe the true Reason for which this practical Proposition and all others which may be drawn from thence do oblige all rational Creatures to know and understand it whilst other Propositions suppose Geometrical ones tho' found out by right Reason and so are Truths proceeding from God himself yet do not oblige men to any Act or Practice pursuant to them but may be safely neglected by most Men to whom the Science of Geometry may not be necessary whereas the Effects of the endeavour of the common Good do intimately concern the Happiness of all mankind upon whose joynt or concurrent Wills and Endeavours every single mans Happiness doth after some sort depend so that this Endeavour can by no means be neglected without endangering the losing all those hopes of Happiness which God hath made known to us from our own Nature and the Nature of things and so hath sufficiently declared the Connexion of Rewards and Punishments with all our Moral Actions from whose Authority as well this general Proposition as all others which are contained in it must be understood to become Laws So that from the terms of this Proposition it is apparent that the adequate and immediate effect of our thus acting and concerning which this Law is established is whatever is grateful to God and beneficial to Men that is the natural Good of all the parts of the whole System of rational Beings Nay further is the greatest of all Goods which we can imagine or perform for them since it is greater than the like good of any particular part or Member of the same System And farther it is thereby sufficiently declared that the Felicity of particular Persons is derived from this happy State of the whole System as the Nutrition of any one Member of an Animal is produced by a due Distribution of the whole Mass of Blood diffused through all the parts of the Body From whence it appears that this Effect must needs be the best since it
shews us that not the private Felicity of any single Man is the principal end of God the Legislator or ought to be so of any one who will truly obey his Will and by a Parity of reason it also appears that those humane Actions which from their own natural force and Efficacy are apt to promote the common Good are certainly better than those which do only serve the private Good of any one Man and that by the same proportion as a common Good is greater than a private So likewise those Actions which take the nearest way to attain this effect as an End are called Right because of their natural Similitude with a right or straight line which is always the shortest between the two Terms But the same Actions when compared with a Natural or positive Law as a rule of Life or Manners and are found conformable to it are called morally good and also right that is agreeable to the Rule but the Rule it self is called right or straight as it shews the nearest way to the End But I shall referr you for the clearer Explication of these things to what we have farther said concerning them in the Discourse its self especially in the Second part wherein we prove against Mr. H's Principle that there is a true Natural and Moral Good antecedent to Civil Laws But however it may not be amiss to give you in short the method which we take to prove that this Law of endeavouring the common Good is really and indeed and not Metaphorically a Law 1. This general Supposition being premised That all particular Persons who can either promote or oppose this common Good are parts of that whole Body of mankind which is either preserved or prejudiced by their endeavours We shall not now descend to the particular Proofs as they are drawn from the Causes of such Actions of which we have partly treated in the Chapter of humane Nature and partly from their natural Effects and Consequences of which we have largely discoursed in the Chapter of the Obligation of the Law of Nature as also in the Second part in our Observation on Mr. H's Principles all which may nevertheless be reduced to these plain Propositions 1. As I have observed it is manifest that our Felicity or highest Reward is essentially connected by God the Legislator with the most full and constant exercise of our natural Powers employed about the noblest Objects and greatest Effects they can be capable of as proportioned to them from whence it may be gathered that all men endued with these Faculties are naturally obliged under the penalty of losing or missing of this their Happiness to exercise those Powers about the worthiest Objects viz. God and Mankind Nor can it be long doubted whether our Faculties may be more happily exercised in maintaining Friendship or Enmity with them for I think it is certain there can be no Neutral State in which God and Men can neither be beloved nor hated or in which we can stand so far Neuters as neither to do things gratefull nor ungratefull to them But if it be granted that there is a manifest Necessity if we will be truly happy of preserving Amity both with God and Men here is thereby presently declared the Sanction of this general Law of Nature which we are now enquiring into for this alone establishes all Natural Religion and also all those things which are necessary to the Happiness and preservation of Mankind which are besides Piety towards God 1. A peaceable Commerce and Agreement of divers Nations which are treated of by the Law of Nations which is but a Branch or subordinate Member of this great Law of Nature 2. The Constitution and Conservation of a Civil Society or Common-wealth which is the Scope of all Civil Laws And 3. The Continuance of Domestick Relations and private Friendships concerning which the general Rules of Ethicks as also the more particular ones of Oeconomies do prescribe And therefore we have put together many things in the Chapter of humane Nature by which all particular Persons of sound Minds are some way rendred capable of so large a Society and are either more nearly or remotely disposed to it And we do here intreat the Reader that he will not consider those things each of them singly or apart but all together since from all of them conjoyned he may raise a sufficient Argument to prove the Existence and evince the Sanction of this most general Law of Nature and that Men will necessarily fail of their Happiness which chiefly consists in the Adequate or proper Exercise of their rational Faculties unless they will exercise them in cultivating this Amity or Love both with God and Men to which Ends they are before all other Animals particularly adapted But from the Effects of such Actions conducing to the Common good of Rational Beings we have also further shewn in the Chapter of the Obligation of the Laws of Nature that this Sanction by sufficient Rewards and Punishments is most commonly connected with such Actions And it is manifest that in the first place God as the best and wisest of Rational Beings is to be loved and honoured by such Actions or Endeavours as that the Goods and Fortunes of all innocent Persons of what Nation soever are thereby secured as far as lies in our Power and all things profitable for particular Persons procured according to the Proportion they bear to the good of the whole Body of Mankind so that this Law will not permit any thing to be done which the Care of the whole doth not allow Nor can any thing be supposed more worthy a rational Creature and from whence greater Effects can proceed than a Will always propeuse towards the good of this whole Body governed by the Conduct of a Right Vnderstanding Therefore since it can certainly be foreknown that such Effects will follow from this Endeavour no Man can be ignorant that all the Ioys and present Comforts of true Piety are therein contained together with the hopes of a blessed Immortality besides those many Conveniencies of Peace and commerce with those of other Nations and all those Emoluments both of Civil and Domestick Government and private Friendships which are connected with this Endeavour as the common Rewards thereof and which cannot by any Means within our Power be otherwise obtained So that he who neglects the Care of the Common good doth also reject the true Causes of his own Felicity and embraces those of his Misery as a Punishment due to his Folly In short since it is manifest from the Nature of things that the highest Happiness which we can procure for our selves proceeds from our Care both of Piety to God and Love and Peace with Men. And that the Endeavour of these can only be found in his Soul who truly studieth the common Good of all Rational Beings it is also evident that the greatest Rewards that any one can acquire are necessarily connected with this Endeavour
their natures § 11. All Creatures express a delight in the society of others of the same kind some cases or intervals wherein Nature seems to act otherwise no contradiction to this general Rule § 12. All Animals impelled by the natural Constitution of their parts to a Love of those of a different Sex and to a natural Affection to their Offspring § 13. All Animals take delight in the sweeter Passions of Love Ioy Desire c. as helpfull to their natural Constitution whereas the contrary Passions when inordinate are highly destructive to it § 14. Mr. H. cannot deny these natural Propensions and therefore is forced to suppose somewhat in Man's nature that renders him more unsociable than Brutes § 15. Other peculiar Observations relating to Man whereby he is made more capable of promoting the common good as first from the greater quantity of Brains in Men than in Brutes § 16. 2. From the natural Constitution of their Bloud and Spermatick Vessels from whence arises a Necessity of Marriage and of a more constant and lasting Love to their Offspring § 17. 3. From the wonderfull structure of Men's hands it is proved that this Instrument was given us for some more noble use than bare self-preservation § 18. Lastly From the upright posture of Men's bodies and way of motion § 19. The next Set of Observations tending to prove Men more fitted for the promoting of this common good is taken from the natural and peculiar faculties of Men's Souls above those of Brutes And 1. from that of deducing effects from their Causes and vice versa especially in that of distinguishing of real or natural from apparent Goods § 20. What is understood by us by a natural or moral Good or Evil. Certain Axioms for the plainer understanding their Nature and Degrees § 21. How we arrive to an Idea of a species or kind of Creatures and also to a notion of the general or common good of Mankind § 22. Speech and the Invention of Letters peculiar faculties of Man's nature § 23. And the great Benefits arising from thence in order to the common good § 24. Men do infinitely exceed Beasts in their discursive Faculties as also in the knowledge and use of Numbers § 25. As also in the Power of Vnderstanding the different Quantities and Proportions between Bodies which we call Geometry § 26. The two great remaining Prerogatives of humane Souls Freedom of Will as to moral Actions and the Knowledge of a God § 27 28. What knowledge we can have of his Attributes which can never be truly understood but with respect to their great End the Prosecution of the common good of the Vniverse § 29. The Contents of the Third Chapter A Brief recapitulation of the former Chapters and a summing up all those Observations into a general Proposition of God's Willing and Commanding the Common Good of rational Beings as the main End of all our Actions § 1. A brief Explanation of the Terms of our Description of the Law of Nature and that words are not always essential to Laws § 2. That all moral Truths or Duties as declared by God are contained in this one Proposition of Endeavouring the common good certain Principles laid down for the proving it § 3 4 5 6. That this being once discovered to us we lie under a sufficient Obligation to observe this Proposition as a natural Law with the Explanation of the Term Obligation and who hath Authority to oblige us § 7 8 9. Yet that this Obligation may well consist with the freedom of our wills the difference between a mere animal and a rational or natural Good the neglect of which distinction is the Cause of Epicurus and Mr. H's Errors § 10. The last part of the Obligation to this Law viz. its Sanction by Rewards and Punishments certain Axioms necessary to be known in order to the right understanding the true nature of a moral Good or Evil and of Man's true happiness and perfection with its difference from that of other Beings § 11. That though all moral Obligation does not consist in Rewards or Punishments Yet that by reason of the weakness of humane Nature it is insignificant without them with a Scale of Nature shewing the difference between Vegetables and inanimate Bodies and between Men and Brutes § 12. The strictest Sanction and consequently Obligation to all Laws consists in Rewards and Punishments duly distributed God's right of Dominion not to be resolved into his irresistible Power § 13. The internal Rewards ordained by God in Nature are first the inward satisfaction of the Soul and also the pleasure all men take in the exercise of the sweeter passions of Love c. § 14 15. The external Rewards are all the like returns of this Benevolence from others with the praise or commendation of all good men together with the peace and protection of the civil Government § 16 17. Lastly from God Soundness of mind and body with all those outward blessings he usually bestows on the peaceable and vertuous with a Solution to the difficulty why God often afflicts Good men § 18. The internal Punishments ordained by God for the transgression of this Law are the absence or privation of the former good things which is an Evil and a Punishment § 19. Errour and being governed by the Passions a real Evil and an internal Punishment § 20. 3. That such evil Actions cannot but be often displeasing to the Person that doth them § 21. 4. That Vices and Crimes seldom come alone but let in a train of others of the same kind or worse along with them § 22. 5. That such an Offender cannot get out of this state when he will at least not without the trouble of Repentance § 23. 6. The fear of Punishment both from God and Man § 24. The external Punishments are 1. The Evils thot happen to the body from violent and unsociable Passions § 25. The 2d Those returns of hatred or contempt which all such men must expect from others § 26. The 3d. Returns of revenge from those they have injured § 27. Lastly Those Punishments which are often inflicted by the civil Powers all which natural Punishments Mr. H. himself acknowledges to be ordained by God § 28. That where these Punishments fail in this Life they will be supplied by others infinitely more grievous and durable in that to come § 29. A brief recapitulation of this Chapter that this Proposition of our Endeavouring the common good c. is truly a Law as containing all the Conditions requisite thereunto § 30. The Contents of the Fourth Chapter A Brief repetition of what hath been said in the first Chapter That no man can have a right to preserve his own Life but as it conduces to the common good c. That in all Societies the good of the lesser part must give place and be subordinate to that of the greater § 1. That a due consideration of this Law will lead us to a
glad if any of Mr. H's Disciples could shew us any sufficient Reason for that Opinion § 17. So that these things which I have now laid down concerning the Natural means of Men's happiness do appear so evident from our common Reason and daily Experience that they are of like certainty with the Principles of Arithmetick and Geometry in all whose Operations there are still supposed certain Acts depending upon our free humane Faculties and yet neither of these Sciences are rendred the more uncertain from the supposition of Men's Free-will whether they will draw Lines or cast up Sums or not since it suffices for their truth and certainty that there is an inseparable Connexion between such Acts which are supposed to be in our Power to exert and all the effects sought for To the finding of which both the pleasure annexed to their Contemplation and the various uses of Humane Life do at once invite us And in the like manner the truth of all Moral Knowledge is founded in the Immutable Coherence between the highest Felicity which Humane Power can attain to with those Acts of universal Benevolence that is of Love towards God and Men and which exerts it self in all the particular moral Vertues yet in the mean time these two things are still supposed That Men desire and seek the highest Felicity they are capable of and also That they are able to exercise this Benevolence not only towards themselves but God and Men as partakers with them of the same Rational or Intelligent Nature This I have thought fit to add to prevent all those Cavils which Mr. H's Disciples are used to make against Morality from the necessity of our Wills § 18. But before I proceed farther to inquire into the Nature of things I desire you to remember what I have already hinted in the Introduction to this Discourse That this truth concerning the efficacy of Universal Benevolence for the Preservation and Happiness of Rational Beings as also all other Propositions alike evident and contained under it do all proceed from God as the first Cause and Ordainer of all things and consequently of our Humane Understanding and of all truths therein contained And since these Rules drawn from the Natures of things tend to the procuring God's End and Design viz. The Preservation and Happiness of Mankind and also that it hath pleased Him to annex certain natural Rewards to the Observation of these Dictates of Reason and Punishments to their Transgression so that they thereby becoming apt and sufficient for the due ordering of our Thoughts and governing our Actions towards God our selves and all others as I shall farther make out in this Discourse I see nothing wanting to give it the Essence and Vigour of a Law And I shall farther shew before I have done that under this general Rule of endeavouring the Common Good of Rational Beings or Universal Benevolence is contained Piety towards God and the highest Good-will or Charity towards Men and is the Summ both of the Moral Law of Moses and of the Gospel of our Saviour Iesus Christ. § 19. These Things being thus proposed in general I come now more particularly to shew that a due Observation and Knowledge of these natural Things without us will truly and clearly teach us what Operations or Motions of them are good or evil for all other Men as well as our selves and also shew us how necessarily and unalterably all these Things are produced for Natural Knowledge searches into the true Causes of that Generation and Corruption which daily happens to all Natural Bodies and especially to Men and so can demonstrate the necessary coherence of these Effects with their Causes and therefore those Causes that help to generate or preserve Men and that make them live happily in this Life are Natural Goods as the Causes of their Misery and Dissolution are Natural Evils And it then as plainly follows That by this Knowledge we can as certainly demonstrate and foretell what Things are naturally Good or Evil for all Mankind as for any single Person § 20. Therefore we may truly conclude That the Knowledge of all these Effects which either Nature or Humane Industry can produce for Men's Food Clothing Habitation and Medicine is part of this Natural Knowledge To which we may also add the understanding of all other Humane Operations and of the Effects proceeding from thence for the Uses of Humane Life For although the voluntary Actions of Men as they exert themselves towards Things without them do not work exactly after the same manner as meer Mechanick Motions viz. from the Pulsion or Motion of other Bodies but either from their Reasons or Wills yet since all the outward Motions we exert receive their Measure and Force from the Natural Powers of Humane Bodies which are of the same Nature with others and so must perform their Natural Functions as they are regulated by the necessary Laws of Matter and Motion much after the same manner as other Natural Motions it is evident that these voluntary Actions whenever they are thus exerted are regulated by the same Natural Laws And it is commonly known how much Men's Industry by the various Motions of their Bodies which a Philosopher can easily resolve into mechanick ones does contribute to their own and other Men's Preservation by providing and administring Victuals Cloths Physick Houses c. In performing which Effects Men's Strength and Skill in Husbandry Building Navigation and other manual Trades are chiefly employ'd Nor are the Liberal Arts absolutely free from these Laws of Motion since by the help of certain sensible Signs and articulate Notes or Marks as Words Letters or Cyphers the Minds of Men come to be endued with Knowledge and directed in most of their Civil and Moral Duties I have only thought fit to hint thus much concerning Humane Actions considered as meer Natural Things existing without us but I shall treat more fully of them in the next Chapter when I come to treat of the Nature of Man considered as a voluntary Agent § 21. Hence it plainly appears That all these Natural Things and the mutual Helps by which they are procured may be certainly known and foreseen by us to be naturally and unalterably Good that is tending to the Preservation and Happiness of Mankind And for the same Reason all those contrary Causes or Motions by which Men's Bodies are weakened or destroyed by lessening or taking away the Necessaries and Conveniences of Life such as Food Rayment Liberty Quiet c. And also those Actions by which Vertue and Knowledge may be rooted out of Men's Minds and Errours and unbridled Passions destructive to the Common Good of Mankind introduced into their Rooms are necessarily and in their own Nature Evil. Therefore when we determine of Natural Goods or Evils according to the Law of Nature we are not only to consider the Preservation of a few particular Persons since the Punishment nay Death of these may often conduce to the Common Good
and obvious Observations from the Nature of those things without us which we daily stand in need and make use of as may serve to prove after what manner we ought to make use of them and whence that Right arises we have to them I come now to make the like Observations from the Nature of Mankind in order to the proving that we are designed by God for the Good and Preservation of others besides our selves and that in the doing of this we procure as far as lies in our Power the Good and Happiness of all Rational Beings in which our own is likewise included To perform this task I shall first take notice of those Qualities or Properties that belong to man 1 as a meer Natural Body 2 such as belong to him as an Animal 3 such as are peculiar to him as a Rational Creature endued with a higher and nobler Principle than Brutes viz. an Immortal Soul § 2. To begin with the first of these it is evident that as a Natural Body he is endued with these Properties common to all other Natural Bodies First that all his motions in which his Life Strength and Health consist do all proceed from God the first and Original or Cause of them and are necessarily complicated with and depend upon the motions of innumerable other Bodies among which the Corporeal motions of others which do often limit and restrain our own are first and chiefly to be considered 2 That from them as from other Bodies motion may be propagated Indefinitely and which does not perish but concur with other motions to perpetuate the Succession of things that is contribute to the conservation of the Universe and as the former teaches us that a particular end viz. our own Preservation depends upon our Common or joynt Forces or Natural Powers so this latter instructs us that such Powers and motions of particular Persons are often most Beneficial and conducing to the Common Good of all men The first of these Conclusions forbids us to hope for or endeavour our own private Good or Happiness as separate and distinct from that of all others and so excites us to seek the Common Good of Rationals as the Original of our own particular Happiness The other Conclusion shews that this endeavour of the Common Good can never prove in vain or to no purpose since it concurrs with the Will of God and conduces to the Preservation of the Universe and of all Humane Creatures therein contain'd and farther that in each complicated motion as well in that towards which divers Causes concurr for the Preservation of any Body for a certain time as also in that whereby each particular Body concurrs to the Conservation of the whole System There is a certain order still observed whereby some motions are necessarily determined by others in a continual Series or Succession all which are yet governed or over-ruled by the motion of the whole System of Natural Bodies And although this sort of Contemplation may seem remote from common use yet is it not to be contemned as altogether unprofitable in Humane Affairs for it makes us more distinctly perceive from some certain general Principles how necessary a constant and certain order is amongst those Causes that Act from Corporeal forces so that many of them may each in their order Successively concurr to an effect foreseen or designed by us and farther shews us a rule how we may certainly judge what Cause does more or less contribute to the Effect sought for or desired so that from the Natural Power of these Causes their Order Dignity or Power in respect to each Effect are to be determined and judged of and we are taught from the Nature of things as well what Causes are to be most esteemed for those good Effects they have or may produce as also which are most diligently to be sought for the obtaining those ends which we desire and by which means it may be also known that those Causes which Philosophers call Universal viz. God the first Cause and the motion of the Celestial Bodies as proceeding from Him are the Original Causes of the Common Good or Happiness of Mankind a part of which we either always do actually or can hope to enjoy § 3. But omitting those Motions which are not in our Power to influence or alter it is certain that among the things which are in either our Power to do or forbear those voluntary Humane motions proceeding from an Universal Benevolence of all Men towards all others are the principal Causes of their Common Happiness and in which every one's private Good is included Since from this source proceed all those Actions by which Men's Innocence and Fidelity towards each other are preserved as also by which Humanity Gratitude and almost all the other Vertues are exerted and performed after as certain a manner as the Natural motions of the Spirits Bowels Nerves and Joynts in an Animal do wholly proceed from the motion of the Heart and Circulation of the Blood which judgment or determination being taken from the Nature of things duly considered should without doubt cause us to yield Obedience to all the Laws of Nature as contributing to this Common Good of Rational Agents and may make us also diligently to take care that the same be observed by others so that there may be nothing wanting that can be done by us whereby we may not be rendered as happy as our frail Natures in this will allow since right reason can propose no higher or nobler End than this of all our moral Actions § 4. Yet whilst we compare the Aggregate Body of mankind as far as we can Act by Corporeal force with the Natural Systems of other Bodies I am not unmindful of the manifest difference there is between them viz. That all the Effects of meer Corporeal Systems are produced by the Contiguity and immediate Operation of Bodies moving upon others that are to be moved by them without any Sense Deliberation or Liberty which are only to be found in Humane Actions in whose Motions and Operations on each other though a great difference often intervenes yet for all that it is evident that the Corporeal Powers of Men when exerted are subject to the same Laws of motion with other Bodies and that divers Men may often cooperate to one certain Effect relating to the Good or Hurt of others so that there is the same necessity of a Subordination between Humane motions as there is between those of other Bodies And I must here farther take notice that Men have frequent opportunities of meeting together and also many other means by which they may hurt or help each other by Words Writing or other Actions So that if we consider the Nature of Mankind in the whole course of their Lives it ought to be considered as one entire System of Bodies consisting of several particular parts So that nothing almost can be done in Relation to any Man's Life Family or Fortune which doth
aforegoing be observed So that we are taught from the real Natures of things as well as that of Inanimate Bodies after what manner and to what Degree we ought to pursue our own particular Happiness that is only as it conduces to and is included in that of the Common Good of Rational Agents So we are hence also instructed what Actions are prescribed or forbid by the Laws of Nature since such Actions only are thereby commended as promote this great End and the contrary Actions forbidden which disturb or hinder it which is also supposed by all Princes and States in their Deliberations and Treaties of Peace it being that in which they all agree as contributing to their Common Safety and Preservation viz. That the Powers of all the several states concerned should be so justly moderated and equally balanced that none may destroy or oppress each other Thus between neighbouring Nations not Subject to the same Common Power it is chiefly provided in all their Leagues and Treaties that the Forces of each particular Common-wealth should be so equally balanced by the Assistance and Support of their Consederates and Allies that it should be impossible for any one of them to swallow up or destroy another but that there should be still left to each of them Power and means sufficient to preserve themselves and their Subjects in Peace and Safety as being the main ends for which they were at first ordained by God and Instituted by Men. § 7. And as it is proper to all Natural Bodies that whilst they persevere in their own motion there is likewise a necessity they should also contribute and be subservient to the motions of innumerable other Bodies from the general Laws of motion for the Conservation of the Universe and which Rule being also found true in Animals it seems to admonish us not only as meer Animals but rational Agents that we contribute our particular endeavours towards the general Good or Preservation of all those of their own Kind since it is not only a possible effect but also such a one as depending upon Causes so perfect and certain we may with reason believe that it will endure to the end of the World But if we farther add to these Observations those things that distinguish Animate from Inanimate Bodies they will yet more strongly convince us and make us see more sufficient reasons wherefore not so much concerning our selves with other Corporeal Beings we should be chiefly sollicitous in giving our assistance to those of our own Kind First then the Nature of Animate is distinguished from that of Inanimate Bodies by such a fit disposition of parts and an apt conformation of their Natural Organs as suffices for their Generation Sensation Imagination Affections Nourishment and also all spontaneous motions And it is by these Actions that all sorts of Animals endeavour their Conservation and Happiness for the time that is appointed them and thereby procure the Preservation of the whole Species § 8. But I shall not dwell too long upon these common obvious things which are so evident in themselves but shall from hence deduce something more material to our purpose viz. that from the same intrinseck Constitution of all Animals whereby they are determined to this Endeavour of Preserving themselves there are besides given manifest Declarations that Loving and Benevolent Actions towards those of their own Kind are also necessary for their own defence and constitute the happiest State of Life they can enjoy And likewise that it is farther ordained from the same concourse of External and Internal Causes that all Rational Agents cannot but be sensible or mindful of these Indications The first of these Conclusions contains the Sense and Sanction of the Law of Nature as the latter regards its Promulgation or the manner whereby it comes to be made known to us I shall explain each of them in their order § 9. It is therefore first to be observed That the corporeal Bulk even of the largest Animals is contained within a small and narrow compass as also that the space of Time wherein they can live or be preserved is not long From whence it follows That but a few Things and a small quantity of them are really necessary for their Nourishment and Preservation or where there is need of a Concurrence of more of them they are only such as may be freely communicated to many at once whence they are naturally led to desire but a few particular Things but daily stand in need of divers others in common whose use may yet be well communicated to many at once without exhausting their store such as are the free Enjoyment of Air Light Fire Water c. And farther if we consider the Structure of their Bodies we may observe That the same superficies of the Skin which hinders the effusion governs also the Circulation of the Blood and does at the same time fix bounds to those Appetites and Necessities by which they are urged to seek their own Preservation So that those few Things that suffice to repair the vital Flame which daily consumes are likewise sufficient not only for the Conservation of their life and natural strength but also for inabling them to contribute their Help and Assistance to others of the same kind And lastly the Structure and Capacity of the Vessels in which their Aliment is digested and of those that convey the Chyle as also of the Veins and Arteries that receive it being but narrow require but a small quantity to fill them So that I think no Brute can be guilty of Mr. H's Errour of judging or desiring all Things whatever as necessary for its own Preservation since from the intrinseck and constituent Parts of all Animals it plainly appears That but a few Things suffice to allay their Hunger and Thirst and to prevent the Injuries of the Weather And if so few Things are necessary for their Happiness and Preservation they may very well leave the rest of those Products which the Earth so plentifully brings forth to be enjoyed by others of their own kind since the finite quantity of their Bodies limitting their Appetites to the desiring and their Powers only to the using a few necessary Things From this Use and Necessity there arises a natural Division or Appropriation of Things amongst divers Animals of the same kind as I shewed before in the last Chapter The allowance or permission of which Distribution is the Foundation of all that mutual Concord and Benevolence amongst them and which their Nature requires for their Preservation So that if this innate Love or Desire of Self-preservation in Animals be limited after the manner we have now described this once satisfied there can be no Reason why they should withstand or obstruct the Conservation of others of the same kind either by hindring their Enjoyment of those Things which they themselves do not need or in refusing to lend them their Help and Assistance when there is occasion and that it
it is evident That their Off-spring can neither be generated or preserved unless those of different Sexes do for some time maintain Peace and a Co-habitation with each other which in many others of them continues much longer than the bare time of Generation viz. for the whole season of Coupling and Breeding up of their young ones and in divers others as Doves Pigeons c. This Affection continues like Marriage as long as their Lives And that Creatures are excited to generate their like from the same natural Causes for which their own Preservation is procured appears from this anatomical Observation that part of the same nutritious Juice passes into the Nourishment of the Body and the rest to the Propagation of Seed and the whole Circulation of the Blood with the Causes that produce and promote it as the muscular force of the Heart and that strange and wonderful Artifice of the Valves in the Veins do by one and the same Action serve for the particular Nutrition of the Animal and also perform the more publick Duty of Propagation of the Species whilst it does at the same time send down part of that matter to the Spermatick Vessels out of which the Seed is produced § 13. But leaving the nicer Disquisition of these anatomical Observations to Naturalists and Physicians I shall only add this one Observation That it is evident that all Animals are by these means impelled to the Love of those of a different Sex and also of their own Off-spring and so are brought to impart some of that Self-love with which they are first endued to others of their own kind from an irresistible instinct of Nature And hence it is truly observed of Men That after they are married and have got Children they are more prone to and sollicitous after Peace than before but that this desire of Propagation disposes Men to a greater Affection towards those of the Female Sex is so evident that it needs no proof But since Mr. H. and others of his Opinion do grant these Observations concerning the natural Propensions of Creatures to be true but are wont to evade them by affirming That they only proceed from the sole Love of their own Pleasure and Satisfaction and that all the Actions proceeding from thence tend to no higher end than the Love and Preservation of themselves as I do not in this part of the Discourse intend to dispute so have I not omitted to answer this Objection in the last Chapter which is designed on purpose for answering all those Objections that can well be made against our Definition of the Law of Nature § 14. The last general Observation to be drawn from the Nature of Living Creatures may be taken from that Sweetness and Pleasure they take and enjoy in those Actions and Passions that tend to the Common Good of their own Kind since it is very well known to Naturalists that in those sweeter Passions of Love Desire Hope Joy especially when employed about any great Good towards others the vital Motions of the Blood and Heart are then highly helped and promoted So that the Veins and Arteries are filled with a milder and nobler Juice whilst brisker and more active Spirits are thereby generated and the Circulation of the Blood and consequently all the other animal Functions are more easily and nimbly performed So that by those very Affections by which they do good to Animals of their own Kind they themselves are also satisfied and delighted and as far as they feel this naturally rooted in their very Natures they must needs incline to these Affections so highly conducing to their own Happiness and Preservation whereas on the contrary in Hatred Envy Fear and that Sadness and Ill-humour which necessarily springs from those sour and immoderate Passions the Circulation of the Blood is obstructed and the Heart rendred more heavy and unapt to motion So that it thereby expels the Blood with greater difficulty in its Systole from whence proceeds meagerness and paleness of the Countenance with innumerable Inconveniencies to the whole Oeconomy of the Body but chiefly in the Functions of the Brain and Nerves such as are those Diseases which are attributed to the Spleen deep Melancholy and Discontent But these things being rather of a medicinal Consideration I shall but only just mention them though the Writings of Physicians may yield us divers Examples of such who have hastened their own Fate through immoderate Envy and Regret that they could not satisfie their Malice or Revenge of which I may chance to give you a taste when I come to consider the Sanction of the Law of Nature by Punishments proceeding from the undue and immoderate exercise of those Passions § 15. But as Mr. H. and his Disciples cannot deny these Natural Propensions in Brute Creatures towards mutual Concord so they have no other way to evade these Instances but by supposing some things in Man's Nature that render him worse Natur'd and more unmanageable than Bears Wolves c. That so being naturally in a perpetual state of War they can no way be kept from destroying each other but by some Common Supreme Power set over them to keep them all in awe which Arguments and the Answers to them since by their length they would too much perplex the Connexion of this Discourse I shall refer you to the Second part wherein I hope I have made it appear that there is nothing in Man's Nature considered as an Animal that ought to be governed by right Reason and in which alone he excels other Creatures that can lay any necessity upon him of being more fierce and unsociable than Brutes § 16. Having now dispatched these common and easie Observations concerning Man considered as a meer Body and also such as concern his Nature as an Animal tending to prove that the endeavour of the Common Good of his own Species was one great End and Design of God in His Creation I come in the next place to consider those particulars in which the Nature of Man excels that of Brutes and whereby he is rendred much more capable than they of promoting and performing this great End viz. the Common Good of Rational Agents which I shall divide into two Heads either those belonging to the Body or else to the Soul or Mind as to the former though there are divers Anatomical Observations made by curious Anatomists and Learned Physicians concerning the differences between the Constitution of the inward parts or vessels in Men and Brutes yet I shall take notice of no more than what are absolutely necessary to our purpose and which may serve to shew what are the natural Causes of that Excellency and Superiority that is commonly found in Humane Intellects above those of Brutes The first of which Observations may be drawn from the large quantity of brains which is found in Humane Bodies and which bears a much greater proportion in respect of their bulk than in any other Creatures for though the weight
of an ordinary Humane Body does seldom exceed above a fourth part of that of a Horse or Bull yet for the motion and government of so much a smaller Body Nature hath allowed him near double the quantity of brains viz. about the weight of four or five pounds so that there is eight times as much brains appointed for the government of the like bulk in a Man as in an Ox or Horse And though the Carcases of the largest Sheep and Hogs do often weigh near as much as a Humane Body yet their brain is not above an eighth part of the weight in proportion to ours which seems to be thus ordain'd by Nature that by reason of the greater largeness of the Vessels the Animal Spirits should be prepared in greater plenty and also have more room to work and so should become more lively and vigorous in Man than in other Creatures since all the Nerves do either spring from the brain or else from the Spinal Marrow which is continuous and of the same substance with it whence it may follow that this larger quantity and consequently greater strength of brain in a Man above other Creatures was intended to serve him to direct and govern that greater variety of Motions and Actions depending thereupon with a more exact care and deliberation § 17. A second Observation to prove that Man is a Creature ordained by God for a fuller and more constant Association with those of his own Kind which also tends to the promoting of the Common Good of his Species than other Creatures may be taken from the natural Constitution of his Blood and Spermatick Vessels by which his Appetite to Copulation is not confined as in most other Creatures to some certain times but are equally the same at all seasons of the Year from whence proceeds a desire of Marriage or a constant Cohabitation with one or more Women from whence must likewise follow a more constant generation of their Off-spring and a more lasting care of them when generated and brought forth For whereas Brutes quit the care of their Young and drive them away from them as soon as ever they are able to shift for themselves Man alone loves and cherishes his Off-spring and continues his love and care of them as long as they Live and still loves them the more the longer they have continued with them and the more care and pains they have bestowed on their Education and so likewise Man is the only Creature we know of that makes any returns for this care by Acts of Duty and Gratitude towards his Parents for as for the Gratitude of Storks to their Sires or Dams when old I look upon it as an old Fable § 18. Lastly I shall consider the wonderful Frame and Structure of the Hand in Man which though I grant it not peculiar to him alone all Creatures of the Ape or Monky kind having their fore-paws very like it and in many Actions using them to the same ends both in feeding themselves and carrying their Young ones yet since we see our Hands were not given us instead of Feet to go upon as in them we may justly conclude that they were Fram'd for some Higher and Nobler Use than our bare Preservation or the hurting or destroying of others Since if God had ordained them only for this end sharp Teeth Claws and Horns would have done much better and would have saved us the trouble of making Swords Spears and such like Instruments not only of self-preservation but destruction whereas we find that by the help of our Hands directed by our reason we are able to do much more than any of those weak silly Animals can do with their Paws since they cannot serve them to make any of those ordinary Instruments or Utensils of Life which even the most Barbarous Nations cannot be without or so much as to administer to each other many of those ordinary helps and assistances which Men by means of their Hands do daily afford each other So that if we consider the Ordinary use of these Members especially in labouring Men and Mechanicks we shall find that they do not only serve for their own Sustenance and Preservation but also for the benefit and maintenance of many others of their own kind who cannot well Subsist without the manual Labour of others And though I grant this noble Instrument the Hand is often abused by wicked and violent Men to make unjust Wars and commits Murders and Robberies and by lesser Thieves to pick Pockets Pilfer c. and that without this they could never commit such Villainies yet doth it not follow that their Hands were bestowed upon them by God for that end Since if He intended the Common Good and Happiness of Mankind as His great end He never could intend that these Instruments should be made use of to a quite contrary design viz. their Ruine and Destruction So that whoever will but strictly consider all this cannot but confess that we are made and ordained to depend upon each others assistance and that Man was Created for a higher purpose than his own single Self-preservation § 19. Which may be farther made out from the natural Constitution of Humane Nature as that no Man is born Self-sufficient or able to procure all things necessary for his bare Subsistence much less for a quiet or pleasant Life but needs the Assistance of others to breed him up whilst an Infant or to tend him when he is sick old or unable to help himself or if it be sometimes possible for a time yet it must be with great hardship and scantiness that any Man 's own single Labour unassisted with the Help of others can provide himself all the Necessaries of Life Whence first arises another necessity of Marriage in the state of Nature which is the Contract of a Man and a Woman to live together for the propagation of their Species and breeding up of their Off-springs and also for mutual Help and a joint Provision of the Necessaries of Life for themselves and them And secondly a necessity of a Man's living in concord or society with all other Men especially those of his own Nation or Commonwealth So that it is evident the chief Happiness and Well-being of Mankind depends upon their mutual administration of these Things as often as need shall require that is upon Acts of the highest Love and Benevolence in order to the Common Good To all which may be added another Observation of the great difference in the Frame of Men's Bodies from those of Brutes in the upright posture of their progressive motion Man alone going upon two Legs whereas most other terrestrial Animals go upon all four whereby Men have the constant use of their Hands both to help and assist themselves and others to a much greater degree and in a much more powerful manner than what Brutes are able to perform But whereas some Atheists have alledged That this Posture proceeds rather from Custom and
Example than Nature I desire them to shew me any Nation in the World so barbarous that doth not go upon two Legs as well as we And though Children 't is true before they can go must crawl yet it is not upon their Hands and Feet but Knees For a Man's Legs as is notorious to Anatomists are so much longer than his Arms and are likewise so set on that they cannot be brought to move in Right-Angles with the Arms or Fore-legs as in Brutes And though I grant that some Beasts as Apes Monkeys and Bears can sometimes go upon their Hind-feet yet is not this constant but as soon as the present Necessity is over they soon return to their natural posture To conclude I think I may leave it to any indifferent Reader to judge whether from all these natural Observations from the Frame of Humane Bodies and the Nature of their Passions it doth not evidently appear That Man's Happiness and Subsistence in this Life was not designed by GOD to depend upon his own particular sensual Pleasure or the meer satisfaction of his present Appetites and Passions restrained to himself without any Consideration of others of his own Kind but was rather intended for the Common Good and Preservation of the whole Species of Mankind § 20. Having now dispatched those natural Observations that may be drawn from the Constitution or Frame of Man's Body in order to the rendring him capable of serving the Common Good in the propagation of his Species I shall proceed to the next Head before laid down viz. those Excellencies or Prerogatives of the Humane Soul or Mind and in which he excels all other Creatures And in the first place Mr. H. very well observes That it is peculiar to the Nature of Man to be inquisitive into the Causes of the Events they see and that upon the sight of any thing that hath a beginning to judge also that it had a Cause which determined the same to begin when it did And also whereas there is no other Felicity amongst Beasts but the enjoying their daily Food Ease and Lust as having little or no foresight of the time to come for want of Observation and Memory of the Order Consequence and Dependance of the Things they see Man alone observes how one Event hath been produced by another and therein remembers the Antecedence and Consequence Whence he certainly must be endued with a larger Capacity for observing the natures of Things without himself and is also able to make more curious and exact Searches into their Causes and Effects than the most sagacious Brutes who though they are endued with some few Appetites or Inclinations towards those Things that are necessary for their Preservation and an Aversion for others that are hurtful to them yet this seems to proceed from some natural instinct or impression stampt by GOD on their very Natures and not from Reason or Deliberation As young Wild-Ducks they say will run away from a Man as soon as they are hatch'd and Chickens know the Kite though they never saw her before and this not from any Experience or Rational Deduction But as for Man it is his Faculty alone to proceed from some known Principles to draw Rational Deductions or Conclusions which were not known before The exercise of which Faculty we call Right Reason or Ratiocination which though I grant is not born with him and so is not a Property belonging to him as a meer Animal since we see Children 'till they come to some Years and Fools and mad Folks act without it so long as they live yet is it not therefore Artificial as some would have it since all Persons of Years of Discretion and who will give themselves leisure to think may attain to a sufficient degree of it for the well-Government of their Actions in order to their own Preservation and the discovering that Duty they owe to GOD and the rest of Mankind Which Notions being peculiar to Man and also common to the greater part of Mankind either from Men's own particular Observations or Rational Deductions or else from the Instructions of others who themselves first found out such Rational Conclusions and taught them to their Children or Scholars with their first Elements of Speech come in process of time having forgot when those early Notions were first instill'd into them to be taken for connate Idea's So that I doubt they have been by too many who have not well considered their Original mistaken for Idea's or Notions impressed by GOD upon their Souls But leaving this of which others have said enough it cannot be denied but that from this Faculty of deducing Effects from their Causes Man hath been always able to find out sufficient Remedies for his own natural Weakness by the Invention of several Arts such as Physick and Chyrurgery for his Preservation and Cure when sick or hurt And also those of a more publick Nature such are the Knowledge of Policies or the well-Government of Common-weals of Navigation Warfare or the Art Military for his Happiness and defence as a Sociable Creature So that though Man is born naked and without those natural defences and Weapons with which divers Brutes are furnished by Nature yet by the power of this Faculty he is able not only much better to secure himself from the violence and injury of the Weather by providing himself with Cloths Houses and Victuals before-hand since Nature hath not made him to live like Beasts upon those Fruits of the Earth which it spontaneously produces but can also tame subdue and kill the strongest fiercest and cunningest Brutes and make them subservient to those Ends and Designs for which he pleases to employ them So likewise from this Faculty of Judging of Consequences from their Antecedents and foreseeing the Probability or Improbability of future Events he thereby distinguishes between real and apparent Goods that is between such Things that may please for the present and do afterwards hurt him and those which though they may seem displeasing for a time yet may after do him a greater Benefit which Principles since they contain Foundations of all Morality and the Laws of Nature which we now treat of it will not be amiss here particularly to set down as the Grounds of what I have to say on this Subject § 21. First It hath been already proved That every Animal is endued with a Natural Principle whereby it is necessarily inclined to promote his own Preservation and Well-being yet not excluding that of others of their own Kind that therefore which most conduces to this end is called a natural Good and on the contrary that which is apt to obstruct and hinder it is evil Among which Goods and Evils there are several kinds or degrees according as Things are endued with more or less fitness or power to promote or hinder this End All which may be reduced to these plain Maxims or Propositions as I have taken them out of Dr. Moor's Enchiridion
endeavour the Common Good of Rationals as the greatest they are capable of it must necessarily follow That we lie under a sufficient Obligation by all the Tyes of Duty and Gratitude to concurr with God's Will and Design in pursuing and endeavouring this great End § 11. But since God hath thought fit to make Man a Creature consisting of two different and distinct Parts or Principles a Soul and a Body both capable of Good and Evil i. e. of Rewards and Punishments I come now to the other part of this Duty or Obligation by which we are bound by all the Rational Motives or Rewards that Man's Nature is capable of to observe this great Law and deterred by all the contrary Evils or Punishments from neglecting or transgressing it In order to which I shall lay down these plain Axioms drawn from the Nature of Moral Good and Evil which you may find in the Learned Bishop Wilkin's excellent Discourse of Natural Religion Axiom 1. That which is morally good i.e. agreeable to the Will of God is to be desired and prosecuted and that which is evil i. e. contrary to his Will is to be avoided Ax. 2. The greater congruity there is in any thing to the Reason of Mankind and the greater tendency it hath to promote or hinder the Perfection of Man's Nature in the endeavour of the Common Good so much greater degrees it hath of moral Good or Evil and according to which we ought to proportion our Inclinations or Aversions thereunto Ax. 3. So that it is suitable both to the Reason and Interest of Mankind that all Persons should submit themselves to God's Will upon whom they depend for their Happiness and Well-being by doing such Things as may render them acceptable to Him and avoiding those contrary Actions which may provoke his Displeasure that is in short in prosecuting the Common Good of Rational Beings Ax. 4. Hence the Rational Nature and the Perfections belonging to it being more Noble than the Sensitive a moral Good is to be preferred before an animal Pleasure and that which is morally evil is more to be avoided than that which is merely animal Ax. 5. A present animal Good may be parted with upon a probable Expectation of a greater future moral Good Ax. 6. A present Evil is to be endured for the probable avoiding of a greater though future Evil. But since all the Rewards which God can bestow upon us for our observing this fundamental Law of endeavouring the Common Good of Rationals does only amount to the truest and highest Happiness that Man's Nature is capable of it is fit that we sufficiently state that Happiness and wherein it consists For the clearing of which I shall lay down these two plain Propositions § 12. Prop. 1. That which gives or constitutes the Essence of any thing and distinguisheth it from all other things is called the essential form of that thing Prop. 2. That State or Condition by which the Nature of any thing is advanced to the utmost perfection which it is capable of according to its kind is called the Chief End Good or Happiness of such a Being Thus for Example to give you a Scale drawn from the Nature of those Beings we know to be endued with Life or Motion 1. The Nature of Plants consists in having a vegetative Life by which they receive Nourishment and Growth and are enabled to multiply their kind The utmost Perfection which this kind of Being is capable of is to grow up to a state of Maturity to continue unto its natural Period and to propagate its kind 2. The Nature of Brutes besides what is common to them with Plants consists in their being endued with Faculties whereby they are capable of apprehending external Objects and of receiving Pain or Pleasure from them in order to their own Preservation and the propagation of their Species The utmost Perfection of these consists in mere sensitive Pleasures i. e. of doing and enjoying such Things as are grateful to their Appetites and Senses But the Nature of Man besides what is common to him with Plants and Brutes both in the vegetative and sensitive Life consists in the Faculty of Right Reason whereby he is made capable of understanding the Law of Nature and of its Rewards and Punishments either in this Life or that to come to induce him to their Observation and deterr him from the transgression of them Which Sentiments as no Creature in this visible World except Man does partake of so his Chief Good or Happiness consists in the improvement and perfection of this Faculty that is in such Actions as are most agreeable to Right Reason and as may best entitle him to the Divine Favour and afford him the greatest Assurance of a lasting Happiness both in this Life and after it is ended So that all the Actions of Man considered as voluntary and subject to the Law of Nature and thereby capable of Rewards and Punishments are called Moral as being directed by God the Supreme Legislator to the greatest and most excellent End viz. the Common Good of Rational Beings § 13. Having laid down these Principles of moral Good and Evil in order to the setling and clearing the Nature of this Obligation and wherein it consists I shall in the next place particularly declare the Sanction of this Law viz. those Rewards which God hath ordained for the Observation of this Law of Nature of endeavouring the Common Good and those Punishments he hath appointed for its Breach or Transgression But I have already laid down That all Obligation upon the Soul of Man arises properly from the Commands of some rightful Superior Power that is such a one who hath not only force sufficient to inflict what Evils he pleases upon the Disobedient but who hath also given us just Grounds or Reasons wherefore he requires us to determine the natural Liberties of our Wills according to his Pleasure both which whenever they meet in any Supreme Power and that he hath once signified his Will to us ought to produce in our Minds not only fear to offend but also a love of and obedience to his Commands The former from the Consideration of his irresistible Power The latter from their own intrinseck Goodness as also from all those Motives which ought to persuade us to perform his Will For as one who hath no other Reason than down-right force why he will have me perform and submit to his Commands whether I will or no may indeed so far terrifie me that to avoid a greater Evil I may think it best to obey him yet that fear once removed there will then remain nothing that can hinder me from acting according to my own rather than his Will or Humour So on the other side he who can give me never so good Reasons why I ought to obey him yet if destitute of Power to inflict any Punishment upon me for my Disobedience such his Commands may without any outward inconvenience be neglected by
besides himself and that he doth truly observe the Laws of Nature towards himself by a temperate and a rational Life As also towards his Neighbour by observing that great Rule of doing as he would be done by in all cases towards others I say such a man tho' never so simple and ignorant in other things doth really contribute his share of endeavour towards procuring the common good And tho' he may not distinctly know all the true reasons and grounds of his own Actions yet if he thus lead his Life and observe all these Rules tending to this End I doubt not but that he will meet with all those Rewards intended by God for Vertuous Actions provided he have never heard of or at least wilfully refused the more perfect Law of the Gospel delivered by our Saviour Jesus Christ when duly proposed to him Thus a Countrey Carpenter may deserve sufficient Wages and Commendation if he can build a House and honestly perform his Work according to those few practical Rules he hath learnt tho' he doth not understand all the Principles of Geometry or Architecture according to which all that he hath wrought may easily be demonstrated to him if he will but take the pains to understand them § 6. There is another Objection which this sort of men may make against our Method of finding out and demonstrating this great Law of Nature in that I make every man's obligation to endeavour it to arise from its being good or evil to himself alone whereby it may seem as if we supposed the honour of God and the common good of mankind were to be postponed and made subservient to the happiness of any particular person To satisfie which Scruple I do in the first place affirm that we do not intend any such thing since we have all along endeavoured to establish the quite contrary Doctrine For I assert that no man hath any Right properly so called to his own Life or Being but in order and as it conduces to the honour and service of God and the common good of mankind I shall therefore now more distinctly declare how these tho' some may think them contrary to each other do very well consist In the first place therefore I desire you to take notice that our Natural Obligation to this Law is not discovered by us in the same order and method as it is constituted by God in the nature of Things for our weak finite Understandings when acting without the assistance of Divine Revelation do slowly enough at first attain to the knowledge of Individual or Single Things and thence taking rise from such common effects as are most obvious to our Senses proceed to their more obstruse Causes until at length discovering one Infinite Being called God to be the first Cause and Creator of all things We from thence collect not only what is his Nature but also what is his Will whereby we do not only find that he is the best and most perfect Being But that as such he willeth and procures the good and preservation not of some few Singulars alone but of the whole Species of Mankind And lastly that he would have us men cooperate as subordinate tho free Agents to this End as the greatest and worthiest we can undertake Which tho' it be the last thing we come to the knowledge of yet is that which is first and chiefly intended by God as the principal object of our Knowledge and the main End of all our Moral Actions So that it seems evident this knowledge of our selves and of things thus learnt from experience and observation was intended by God only to serve as steps to raise us to that larger knowledge and nobler desire of pursuing the common good of Rationals as the sum of all our Moral Duties And that our Wills and Affections towards this end are not to be regulated or directed in the same order by which this common good comes to be discovered i. e. with a respect to our selves alone but from a true judgment concerning the measures of that natural good and perfection therein contained So that tho' we are at first indeed excited to the procuring our own happiness as the prime and most natural motive of all our Actions yet we come at last upon better consideration to discover that this happiness of ours is contained in our endeavours of the Common good of Rational Beings and is inseparable from it as the conservation of any of our particular Members is contained in the health and preservation of the whole Body § 7. And this Proposition that every single man's good is contained in the common-good proves indeed that the sanction of this general Law is by rewards and punishments to Every single man But that Every is not to be restrained to my self or any one man alone but extends alike to each other man or all men Since it is evident that these words Every man collectively taken amount to all men as every part collectively taken signifies the whole And tho' the main end intended by God the Legislator from such Rewards and Punishments are obedience to his Laws and the preservation of Mankind as his Subjects which are indeed of much greater value to him than the happiness of any one single person Yet will it not detract from the perfection or sincerity of this obedience if from the consideration of a man 's own particular happiness or misery he thereby comes to consider and understand that God hath commanded him to pursue an higher and nobler end than that alone yet to which his own happiness or misery are inseparably connected § 8. I come in the last place to these objections that may be made by men of quite contrary Principles and who will not acknowledge that we either can or ought to propose this common good as the Sum of all the Laws of Nature and the main end of all our Moral Actions Their first objection may be this That it seems not suitable to God's Infinite Goodness and Power and Wisdom in the Government of Mankind if he did really intend its good and happiness as we here suppose to permit so great a Design to be so often disturbed if not quite frustrated in divers parts of the World by the various Passions and unreasonable Appetites of so many violent wicked and unjust men which if Mankind is well considered do make up the greatest part of this Aggregate Body In answer to this objection I might tell those that make it that the true original of that depraved State of Mankind and from which all that Disorder which we now find in Humane Nature is derived was the Fall of Adam the first Father of Mankind who thereby conveyed a weakness of Reason and that prevailing Power which we feel in our sensual Appetites and Passions to all his Posterity whereby man is become very prone to Evil and too apt to transgress the Laws of Nature But I shall not insist upon this because the
with those of all other men and finding them to agree in the same Wants general Properties and desires of like things necessary for life and an aversion to others destructive to it we can thereby certainly determine what Things or Actions will conduce not only to our own happiness and preservation but to all others of our own Kind From whence there arises a clear Idea of the Common Good of Mankind since as I have already proved one peculiar Faculty of human Nature different from that of Beasts is to abstract universal Ideas from particular things and then to give general Names to those Ideas which though they are but Creatures of our own understanding and not existing out of our own Brains yet are for all that true Ideas of the general Natures of those things from whence they are taken and as for the general Names of them if there were not real notions in our minds agreeable to the nature of those things from whence they were taken and that before any Names imposed upon them they would indeed be non-sense or meer empty Sounds without any Ideas to support them But the before-cited Author of the Essay of Humane Vnderstanding Book II. Chap. 24. grants That the Mind hath a power to make complex collective Ideas of Substances which he so calls because such Ideas are made up of many particular Substances considered together as united into one Idea and which so joined are looked on as one v. g. the Idea of such a collection of men as make an Army though consisting of a great number of distinct Substances is as much one Idea as the Idea of a Man And the great collective Idea of all Bodies whatsoever signified by the name World is as much one Idea as the Idea of any the least particle of matter in it it sufficing to the unity of any Idea that it be considered as one Representation or Picture tho made up of never so many particulars And he likewise farther grants That it is not harder to conceive how an Army of Ten thousand men should make one Idea than how a Man should make one Idea it being as easie to the mind to unite into one the Idea of a great number of men to consider it as one as it is to unite into one particular all the distinct Ideas that make up the composition of a Man and consider them altogether as one Therefore I can see no reason why any man by considering the nature of all the Men in the World may not only have a true Idea of all Mankind but also of the things or means that may produce their common good or happiness as well as a General of an Army of 100000 men can have a true Idea of that collective Body of Men and order all things necessary for their common safety and preservation And if Mr. Hobs's Assertion be true That there is nothing universal but Names his beloved Sciences of Arithmetick and Geometry would also be false and uncertain since they only considering Numbers Lines and Figures in general and collecting universal Ideas from thence do raise true Rules or Axioms in those Sciences from those universal Ideas though there be nothing really existing in Nature out of our own Brains but Units and single bodies And therefore Mr. H. is mistaken when he will have nothing to have any real Existence in nature but single things as if our abstract Idea's of Universals were Nothing because they are not Bodies But if these general Idea's are true as agreeing with the things from whence they are taken it will also follow that they have a real existence and consequently may have Names given them whereby to signifie and represent them to our own minds and those of others we converse with So that whatsoever we find to contribute to the Preservation Happiness and Perfection of all the men we know or have heard of we may as certainly conclude to be naturally good for all Mankind and so a much greater good than that of any one particular Person which Mr. H. himself acknowledges in his Treatise De homine Chap. 11. § 14. where treating of the Degrees of Good which of them are greater or less he plainly declares that to be a greater good coeteris paribus which is so to more men than that which is so to fewer So that if the Rational and free use of a man's Will consists in its consent with that true judgment the Understanding makes concerning those things that agree in one Common Nature and if we can thereby truly judge or determine what things are necessary or beneficial for the Natures of all other men as well as our own I see no reason why we may not desire that they should also enjoy the like good things with our selves and likewise endeavour as far as lies in our power to procure it for them since it is also a Duty imposed upon us by God and that we lie under sufficient obligations to do it we have already proved In short This Common Good of Rationals being thus made known to us may very well be proposed as the end of all our Moral Actions and being the greatest we can desire or imagine the Understanding judging aright cannot but determine that this Knowledge and Desire will more conduce to the Happiness and Perfection of our Human Nature than that of any lesser Good So that if this be greater than any other Good we can come to the knowledge of it will likewise prove to be the greatest and noblest end men can propose to themselves And Mr. H. himself is also sometimes sensible of this Common Good when in the 31 Chap. of his Leviathan in the last Page he hath made in his Latin Translation this Addition That he doth not despair that this Doctrine of his being become more acceptable by custom will at length be received bono publico for the Common Good So that it seems he presages his Doctrine will come one day to be beneficial not only to one particular State or Commonwealth but for the Common Good of all men who are with him yet in the State of Nature And if Mr. H. hath so perfect a Notion of the Common Good of all Nations I think there will be no great difference but in Words between that and the Common Good which we maintain § 15. But to come to a conclusion I hope notwithstanding all that hath been objected to the contrary it hath been sufficiently made out that not only all the Moral Virtues are contained in and may be reduced to this one Principle Of endeavouring the Common Good of Rational Beings But that likewise all the Laws of Nature which are but the Exercise or Practice of these particular Vertues upon their due Objects may be also reduced into this single Proposition since they all of them respect either a man's Duty towards God by a dué worship of him or else towards himself in the exercise of Temperance c. or else
their Persons and Goods against them This proved also from the great Contention arising among men from strife of wit And lastly from many desiring the same thing at once Sect. 1. Answer None but Fools and wicked Men can have a desire to hurt those that have done them no injury so that this does not reach all men nor yet that even these have a will to hurt all men alike but only those that stand in their way or whose Goods they desire Self-defence argues no desire of hurting others Sect. 2. Answer to his 2d Argument from mens contention of wit difference of Opinion no real ground of mens destroying each other Sect. 3. Answer to his Argument from mens desire to think well of themselves and to contemn others viz. That this Observation doth not reach all men but only those foolish and unreasonable men he describes Sect. 4. Answer to his Argument from many men desiring the same thing at once This tho true among Brutes and wicked and unreasonable Men yet doth not reach all Mankind since Reason dictates the contrary God hath bestowed enough of the necessaries of life among Mankind in the state of Nature so that they need not fight for them Sect. 5. Heads of the Fourth Principle That Nature hath given to all men a right to all things Mr. H's Argument proposed That all men having a Right to preserve themselves have also a Right to judge of the means of their own preservation therefore whatever they think conduces thereunto they have a Right to let it be what it will Profit being here the only measure of Right Sect. 1. Answer Mr. H's Argument reduced into a Syllogisme shews That all men have not a right to all things but only so many of them as they shall think necessary for their own preservation Yet even here that mens false Judgment concerning the means cannot give them a right to all things whatever tho judging never so unreasonably Sect. 2. Farther proved from Mr. H's own Definition of right Reason Right never used properly but with respect to some Law acknowledged by Mr. H. himself in his Treatise De Cive Mr. H's Errors and Contradictions of himself about the use of the word Right Reason Sect. 3. Not true that in a Commonwealth the publick Reason or Law thereof is always to be taken for Right or that no man can distinguish true Reason from false but by comparing it with his own Mr. H's Argument reduced into a Syllogism whereby it appears That the major is false Mens false Judgments or Reasons cannot alter the nature of things nor can give them a right to all things Sect. 4. Mr. H's Error in this matter whence it proceeds Sect. 5. No Rule of deciding any doubt or difference in the state of Nature but the nature of things or consent of the Parties concerned Sect. 6. Humane Nature will ever acknowledge a difference between Right and False Reason and that according to Mr. H's own definition of it Sect. 7. But to evade this Difficulty M. H. supposes all men to be necessarily evil or to be so by Nature The Argument of the Author of Tractatus Theologico politicus to the same effect That whatever Action though never so wicked or unreasonable any man doth he hath a right to do it because he could act no otherwise at that time Sect. 8. Those Arguments refuted Necessity never called a Right that word being never used but with respect to Men capable of Reason and Deliberation Men of sound Minds and mature Age can never plead Ignorance nor be excused if they voluntarily give themselves up to be governed wholly by their own Appetites and Passions Sect. 9 10. Mr. H's Excuse That in the state of Nature and where there is no Legislator Mens Passions are no sins Answered Since there is no State either Natural or Civil wherein God ceases to be a Legislator or that the Laws of Nature are not properly Laws Sect. 10. Mr. H's Artifice in taking away all Freedom from Mankind and making all Actions necessary whereby he destroys all the grounds of Moral Good and Evil his contradicting himself when he acknowledges this Right of all men to all things to be unprofitable since himself before makes Utility to be the measure of all Right The Heads of the Fifth Principle That in the state of Nature whatsoever any one doth to another is no injury Mr. H's Arguments for this That in the state of Nature there are no Laws where there is no Law there is no Injustice where there is no Injustice there is no Injury Iustice and Injustice no Faculties either of the Body or Mind for Injustice supposes some Propriety or Dominion which cannot be supposed in this State The same Opinion held by Epicurus long ago Sect. 1. Answer The Dictates of Right Reason or the Laws of Nature are the Laws of God and therefore give every man a right to his Life and all means necessary thereunto So that whatever a man enjoys by the Right of Nature it must be Injury and Injustice to take it away And Mr. H. himself agrees that to be injurious which is repugnant to Right Reason that is to any known Truth that may be collected from thence He likewise acknowledges the Dictates of Right Reason to be the Laws of Nature and therefore must confer a right to every man to their Lives and all the Necessaries thereof Sect. 2. Yet Mr. H. when he is hard prest cannot deny but that there may be injury done to another in the state of Nature as when a Son kills his Father but hath this Subterfuge that a Son cannot be understood in the State of Nature to his Father This Opinion confuted That every man owes the like gratitude to any other who should maintain and educate him as to his Father and it would be as much injury to hurt the one as the other Sect. 3. This Argument in his Lev. false and precacarious For if God in the State of Nature is truly a Legislator then the Laws of Nature are truly Laws but this is already proved Sect. 4. The Heads of the Sixth Principle That nothing is Good or Evil in the State of Nature Mr. H's Reason for it That every Man in the State of Nature makes his own Iudgment or Appetite the Rule of Good and Evil which are ever understood with respect to the Party that uses them and that in the State of Nature is either every man 's own self or in a Civil of the Persons that represent the Commonwealth Sect. 1. This he explains Physically in his Human Nature from the different Motions which those Objects produce in the Brain proceeding from mens different Temperaments Sect. 2. Answer Mr. H's uncertainty and looseness in his Notions of Good or Evil observed Sect. 3. That notwithstanding the variety of Tempers or Humours or the different Genius of particular Nations in some Customs c. yet they for the most part agree in certain Notions
that proceeding from God and established by sufficient Rewards and Punishments it hath all the Conditions required to a Law That the defect of other Writers in not taking the like Method hath been the cause of Mr. H's and others falling into this Error This Law not being given in any Sâ—t form of Words no Objection against its certainty or plainness Sect. 2. This Law of Nature being to be collected from our own Natures and that of things is capable of being known even by persons born deaf and dumb Mr. H. acknowledges these Laws to be properly so as proceeding from God His allowing that those Laws oblige only to a desire or endeavour of the Mind that they should be observed a meer Evasion Answer to his Objection of the want of Rewards and Punishments he himself having obviated this by confessing in his Lev. that they are established by natural Rewards and Punishments If the Law of Nature is not properly a Law then there are no natural Rights properly so call'd Sect. 3. Answer to his main Reason That we are not obliged to external Acts for want of sufficient security That if this were a sufficient Objection then neither Civil Laws would oblige Divine Punishments as certain as Humane Sect. 4. That mens greatest Security consists in a strict observation of all the Laws of Nature Mr. H. in some places acknowledges That if we do not observe the Laws of Nature we shall fall into other Evils besides those that proceed from the violence of Men. Sect. 5. Two Reasons proposed shewing the falseness of this Argument of Mr. H. The one the Declaration of all Civil Sovereigns concerning mens Innocency till accused The other from Mr. H's own Concession of a much greater Insecurity that will follow from their non-observation viz. a War of all men against all which is the most miserable State of all others Sect. 6 7. The Heads of the Tenth Principle That the Laws of Nature are alterable at the will of the Civil Sovereign That this is but a consequence of his former Principle That nothing is good or evil in the state of Nature his Arguments for this Principle Because it proceeds from Civil Laws that every man should have distinct Rights to himself as also should not invade those of others it follows that these Precepts Thou shalt honour thy Parents Thou shalt not kill c. are Civil Laws and that the Laws of Nature prescribe the same things yet implicitely for the same Law commands all Compacts to be observed and that to yield obedience when obedience is due was covenanted at the Institution of the Commonwealth and therefore whatever Civil Sovereigns command concerning these things must be obeyed since they alone can appoint what shall be yours or anothers or what shall be Murther Theft c. Sect. 1. Nothing written by Mr. H. more wickedly or loosely nor wherein he more contradicts himself than in this Principle The main foundations of which are already destroyed No Compacts made at the Institution of any Commonwealth which can be of greater force than the Law of Nature The dreadful Consequences that will follow from the contrary Principle Mr. H. allowing even Idolatry it self to be lawful if commanded by the Supream Powers That the Secondary Laws of Nature can never contradict or alter those that are prior to them as more conducing to the Common Good though Civil Laws may restrain or enlarge several particular Instances His Example of the Lacedemonian Boys answered Sect. 2. A Concluding Instance in answer to this from that Law of ours against relieving wandring Beggars Sect. 3. Uncertain whether Mr. H. broached this dangerous Doctrine out of ignorance or design of flattering Civil Sovereigns yet that by this he endeavours to destroy all Vertue and Goodness in Princes and all obligation of Obedience in Subjects whenever they are strong enough to rebel Sect. 4. The Conclusion containing an Apology for the length of these Confutations Sect. 5. The Second Part Wherein the Moral Principles of Mr. Hobbs's De Cive Leviathan are fully Considered and Confuted INTRODUCTION § 1 THough perhaps it may not seem unnecessary after so much as hath been said to prove the certainty and constant obligation of the Law of Nature of endeavouring the Common Good of all Rational Beiâ—gs more particularly to confute the Principles of Epicurus and his Follower Mr. H. it being a true Maxim in other Sciences as well as Geometry Rectum est Index sui obliqui Yet since those Authors have not only poisoned the World with their pernicious Tenets but have also endeavoured to support them with the specious appearances of Reason and Argument it may be expected that we should say somewhat in answer to these Reasons and Arguments Mr. H. the Reviver of those Principles in this Age hath brought in his Book De Cive Leviathan to maintain and support them And therefore I have thought fit to add some Considerations and Confutations of them as far as they contradict the Principles we have here laid down and rather to put them here all together at the end than in the Body of our Treatise of the Law of Nature since there they would not only have interrupted the Coherence of the Discourse it self but would have also disturbed and taken off the minds of the ordinary Readers for whom I chiefly intend it from a due consideration of the truth and connexion of the things therein contained And therefore I have thought fit rather to cast them all together into a distinct part by themselves since if you are Master of that former Part of this Discourse you will easily perceive not only the Falshood and Absurdity of Mr. H's Principles but that it was from his Ignorance or Inconsideration of this great Principle of the Common Good of Rational Beings that he first fell into those Errors and made private Self-preservation not only the first motive which had been true enough but also the sole end of all Moral Actions which is altogether false and below the dignity not only of a Philosopher but a Man I have therefore gone through all his Moral Principles in order and as for his Politick ones if these are false they will need no other Confutation and I have reduced them into certain Heads or Propositions and have truly given you this Sum of Arguments that no man may find fault with me for misrepresenting his Opinions PRINCIPLE I. Man is not a Creature born apt for Society § 1. MR. H. in his Philosophical Elements or Treatise De Cive Chap. 1. § 2. lays down and maintains this Principle and gives certain specious Reasons for it which because they are somewhat tedious and divers of them very trivial I shall rather chuse to contract them than be at the trouble of transcribing all that he hath loosely enough laid down for the maintenance of this Assertion referring you if you doubt whether I rightly represent his meaning to the Author himself in the place
above-cited He there in the first place supposes that Man is not a Sociable Creature because it could not be otherwise in Nature but only by accident for if Man loved Man naturally there could be no reason given why every one should not love every one alike as being alike Man or why he should rather frequent those in whose Society Honour and Profit is conferred rather on himself than others Therefore we do not by nature seek Companions but to be either honoured or profited by them These in the first place but those in the second And this he thinks he hath sufficiently proved by shewing us for what end men herd together and what they do when they are met for if they come together for Commerce-sake every one minds not his Companion 's but his own Interest If for Publick Affairs there arises a certain Court-friendship having more of mutual fear than love from whence often Faction but never Good-will is produced If for the sake of Mirth and Pleasure every one is wont to please himself in those things which raise laughter from whence he may as it is the nature of what is ridiculous by the comparison of another's weakness or infirmity become more acceptable to himself And he there proceeds to shew from several Observations he had made in the Companies he had kept That all men that converse together either for the sake or the instruction of others do only seek Company for their own profit or glory and not the good of others that is for the love of himself not of his Companions And therefore since Man can never seek Civil Society only out of a desire of glory and although the Profits and Conveniences of life may be encreased by mens mutual assistance yet since that may be much better procured by a dominion over others than by their Society no body can doubt but that men are more vehemently carried by their Nature when fear is removed to dominion than Society therefore it is to be laid down for a Principle That the original of all great and lasting Societies did not proceed from the mutual Benevolence of Men but their mutual Fear And by Fear as he tells us in the Annotation to this Paragraph he doth not mean only to be frightned but under that word Fear he comprehends any prospect of a future Evil as to distrust suspect beware and to provide that they may not fear to be also the part of those who are afraid § 2. Having given you the Author's Sense and in great part his own words I shall now proceed to make some Observations upon them and in the first place must observe That the main strength of his Arguments consists in the ill or false use of these words unapt for Society For if he only understands by them that Men are born actually unapt for Civil Society because they are Infants or else unexperienced of the Evils proceeding from the Wants thereof this is indeed a great discovery and worthy a Philosopher that Children or People without experience are not able to understand the meaning or force of Compacts or are unable immediately to enter into a Civil State Nor is his Reason any better That though Infants and persons of full Age though unexperienced partake of Human Nature yet being thus unapt for Society Man is not made fit for it by Nature but Discipline § 3. From whence I observe That he only takes the measure of Humane Nature from those Passions which precede the use of Reason Experience and Discipline And as they first and chiefly shew themselves in Children and Fools or persons unexperienced Whereas according to the Opinion of the best Philosophers we suppose the truer nature of Man ought rather to be taken from his utmost Perfection viz. his Reason or the power of deducing Effects from their Causes by which alone he is distinguished from Brutes And so the Will may incline us to those things which Reason shall judge most fit and convenient for our Natures And therefore Mr. H. doth very absurdly to oppose Experience and Discipline to Nature since whatever men learn by either of these they must still attain to it by the force of their Rational Natures and those Faculties of Reason and Speech which Brutes are not capable of And therefore the nature of a Creature is best judged of from the utmost Perfection it attains to As the Nature of a Plant is not to be taken from its first appearance or as soon as ever it peeps out of the Earth but from its utmost state of perfection when it comes to bear Flowers Seed or Fruit. And even that Experience to which Mr. H. attributes all our Reason he himself grants to be a natural and not acquired Power See his Leviathan Chap. 8. where treating of Intellectual Vertues he hath these Words The Intellectual Vertues are of two sorts Natural and acquired By Natural I mean not that which a man hath from his Birth for that is nothing else but sense wherein men differ so little from one another and from brute Beasts as it is not to be reckoned amongst the Virtues But I mean that Wit which is gotten by use only and experience without method culture or Instruction § 4. To conclude this Head I desire those Gentlemen of his Opinion to take notice That all Philosophers and Writers of Politicks as well as Mr. H. were not ignorant how unfit Infants and Grown Persons without experience or labouring under any unruly Passion were to enter into Leagues or Compacts or to perform any of the Duties of a Civil Society But yet for all that they supposed man to be born for those ends which by the force of his Rational Nature he may at last attain to unless something preternatural such as are those disorderly Passions or Diseases of the Mind intervene And Iuvenal's Saying is as old as true Non aliud Natura aliud Sapientia dictat And sure it is a childish Inference and favours more of Sophistry than true Philosophy to say Men are born Infants and therefore unapt for Civil Society Since any Country Fellow could have taught him better who thinks his Son born apt to be a Plough-man or a Grasier though he knows he will not be able to hold the Plough until he is twelve or thirteen years of age Nor yet to understand Grazing until he is able to ride and go to Market § 5. But let us now more particularly examine the Reasons this Author there gives us why Man is a Creature naturally unapt for Society which he will have to be only by accident Because if one man loved another naturally as man there could be no reason why every man should not love every man alike or wherefore he should rather frequent those in whose company he is most likely to get Honour and Profit Therefore we do not naturally seek Companions i. e. for their own sakes but either to gain Honour or Prosit by them These in the first place
but those in the Second c. In answer to which I grant indeed that particular persons when they joyn with others in any Society or Company do usually consider some peculiar end either of Profit or Pleasure which may thence redound to themselves Yet doth it not therefore follow that Man is not a Creature designed by God for Society or that he is not obliged by the Laws of Nature or right Reason to be friendly and sociable even to those from whom no present advantage can be expected For tho' it be granted that men either from a peculiar agreement of dispositions or that they suppose they can sooner obtain some particular end or advantage in some mens Conversation than others and do therefore prefer such mens Company before others yet does not this prove That man is not naturally a Sociable Creature Since he himself grants That men can neither live comfortably nor be so much as bred up or preserved without the help and society of others Therefore if he is determined to the end viz. happiness and self-preservation he is likewise as necessarily determined to the means viz. Society And his inclination to this or that man's company more than others is no more an Argument against our Natures requiring Society than if I should argue That because I love Mutton better than Veal therefore it is not from my nature but only by accident that I am ordained to preserve my life by eating And as for the instances which he gives to let us see with what intent men meet together from what men do when they are met It is plain that Mr. H. here confounds that natural Society which is absolutely necessary for man's preservation with these particular Clubs or Companies which men keep for their greater pleasure or advantage And though I have already granted that some mens particular profit or pleasure may be promoted or increased by frequenting some mens Companies rather than others as suppose there be a greater agreement of Dispositions or that we have been more used to this or that man's Company by Education or long acquaintance c. And though it be likewise granted that a man does more frequent their Company among whom he finds most honour and profit Since every man may lawfully pursue his own pleasures and advantages if he knows rightly how to judge of it Yet this doth not at all contradict man's sociable nature provided the Common Bonds of Society be not broken and disturbed by any mans more particular Interests or Inclinations and God has not so designed us to good for others as that we should neglect all care of our selves but that this sociableness is therefore to be observed by mankind that by a mutual communication of humane assistances and other natural goods between divers persons we may more conveniently promote our own pleasure or advantage jointly with that of others Since a mutual love and benevolence is to be observed among men though not otherwise related to each other than by the common relation of Humanity and with whom we may preserve a sufficient concord by doing them good rather than hurt whenever it lies in our power And though a man when he joyns himself with some particular Company will in the first place consider his own pleasure or profit before that of his Companions Yet ought he not so to consult his private advantage as that the good of the Civil Society or of Mankind in general be thereby prejudiced by injuring any of its particular Members And a man as well in Natural as Moral and Civil Actions may propose his own pleasure or profit in the first place though he may also intend some higher or nobler end of his thus acting Thus a man who intends to marry may lawfully propose to himself his own pleasure and satisfaction though the great end of Marriage and which he may also chiefly intend be the propagation of Mankind So likewise a Master or Tutor that instructs others may lawfully propose to himself his own profit or advantage thereby though he may also ultimately intend the instruction of his Scholars or Pupils that is the Common Good of Mankind as the great end of his taking that Profession So likewise in Civil Societies or Commonwealths a man may propose to himself his own Security Profit or Honour as a reason why he bestows his time and labour or ventures his life in the service of the Publick And yet he may farther propose to himself the love of his Countrey or the good of the Common-wealth as the great End of his Actions § 6. So that it is to little purpose which Mr. H. alledges That the original of the greatest and most lasting Societies to wit Commonwealths did not proceed from mutual Good-will but mutual Fear the Word Fear being used for any fore-sight or precaution of a future Evil. For we are not here considering the original of Civil Societies but of that natural sociableness among men which we look upon as most necessary and agreeable to the nature of man though some particular men being also sensible how obnoxious they were to the Injuries of those who sought their own pleasure or profit without any consideration of the interest or good of others did to prevent them unite themselves together in that stricter League of Amity called Civil Society So that this Common Amity or Benevolence cannot be omitted to be first supposed even in the very constitution of Common wealths Since those who founded them must have been before united either by some natural relation and a mutual confidence in or benevolence towards each other although perhaps others might afterwards out of fear of their Power or a liking of their Government be compelled or allured to joyn or associate themseves with them § 7. But as for those Instances Mr. H. gives us of those that seek Society only to censure the Lives and Actions of other men thereby to gain Glory to themselves from the Follies or Infirmities of those they converse with Such sort of Conversation consisting for the most part of some idle ill-natured men who count themselves Wits and have little else to do but to speak ill of and censure others does not concern the major part of Mankind who needing each others Society for more necessary occasions have commonly other Business to discourse of when they meet § 8. As for the rest of those things he says That the Necessaries of life may be much better procured by dominion over than by the Society of others that is altogether false and precarious since no man by his own single strength and without the voluntary help or society of others could ever yet subdue and make Slaves of all other men he met with And therefore if any man ever increased his natural power or advantage over others it was not by vertue of his own sole power or strength but by mens deference to his Valour or Vertue when they chose him for their Head or Leader or
else that they followed him and obeyed his Commands as their Father or Grandfather out of reverence to his Wisdom or Gratitude for his Benefits § 9. To conclude He himself there objects that men cannot grow up or live contentedly without the society and assistance of others And therefore cannot deny but men desire the society of each other their Nature compelling them thereunto But to come off from this Objection he will have nothing called Society but Commonwealths which says he are not meer Meetings but Leagues for making of which Compacts are necessary And therefore still argues that Infants and those that are unexperienced are uncapable of them c. Upon which I shall only observe That Mr. H. imposes upon himself and others by confounding that first and most natural amity and sociableness of Persons of one and the same Family as of Husband and Wife Parents and Children c. towards each other with that artificial Society which proceeding wholly from Compacts we call a Commonwealth So likewise he imposes on his Readers in the use of the words Nature and Natural as I have partly shewn already for by these words is commonly understood either something that is by Nature inseparably proper to its subject as to a Fish to swim and other things are natural and proper to a Creature not as a meer Animal but as of such a Species and at such an Age as for a Man to go upon two Legs and speak Lastly It sometimes signifies an aptness in a Subject to receive some farther perfection by culture and discipline with which Nature intended it should be endued So the Earth is intended by Nature for the production of Vegetables yet it doth not naturally bring forth all Plants in all places alike without Plowing or Setting yet are not these Plants so sown or set less natural for all that So likewise I have already proved that whatever perfection we attain to by the power of our Reason or Experience it is not less natural notwithstanding PRINCIPLE II. All Men by Nature are equal § 1. WHich he thus undertakes to make out in the Chapter last cited § 3. The cause of mutual Fear consists partly in mens natural equality partly in their mutual Will of hurting from whence it happens that we are neither able to expect security from others nor yet afford it to our selves For if we consider Men grown up and take notice how frail the Frame of a Man's Body is which failing all his force strength and wisdom fails together with it and how easie it is for any the most weak to kill the strongest Man there is no reason that any man trusting in his own strength should suppose himself superior by Nature to others For those are equal who are able to do the like things against each other but those who can do the greatest thing that is take away life are able to do like or equal things to each other therefore all men are by nature equal that unequality which now is being introduced by Civil Laws § 2. Before I answer which I shall first make these Concessions and Limitations First I grant That all Civil unequality of â—â—rsons is introduced by Civil Laws 2 dly â—â—at there is also such a natural equality among Men that there is nothing which one man can arrogate to himself as a Man but by the same reason which he judges it fit or necessary for himself he must also judge it alike fit and necessary for another man who stands in like need of it Thus if Victuals Cloaths and Liberty are things necessary for his own being and preservation they are likewise equally necessary for the well-being and preservation of all other men and consequently that they have a like right to them from which natural equality proceeds that great Rule of the Law of Nature To do to others as we would have others do to us And in this sense I agree with him that all men are equal so that in this sense it is so far from being a cause of war or dissention among men that it rather perswades to amity and concord Yet doth not this equality hinder but that there is notwithstanding a natural unequality of strength or power amongst men both in body and mind since any man that doth but observe the great difference there is in both the strength and understanding of some persons above others but will grant that there is as great or greater difference between some men and others than there is between some Brutes supposing Apes or Elephants and men in understanding Yet does there not any natural equality follow from the Reason Mr. H. here gives us That those are equal that are able to do the like things to each other to wit take away their lives For besides that there are some born maimed and cripled or else so void of understanding as not to have either the will or ability to hurt or kill others and if a Coward and a stout man are to fight or a very weak man and a strong will any man say that they are an equal match And this Mr. H. tells us That it is easie for the weakest to kill the strongest man he grants it must either be by chance cunning or surprize I grant indeed it may happen by chance and yet this will not make the match to be equal any more than it is in Cockfighting where the Gamesters will lay five to one on such a Cock's side against another set down to fight with him and though perhaps the weaker Cock may happen to kill the stronger by a chance stroke yet no man will therefore affirm that both these Cocks were equal by nature the same may be said of Men. But it may be replied That there is a great difference between Men and Beasts since though Brutes cannot yet a Man weaker in body or mind than another he would be revenged of may join or combine with one as wise and strong as his Adversary and then they will be an equal Match in point of strength If this were a good Argument it would prove more or rather contrary to that for which it is designed for this weaker man may combine with one as strong and wise as the other and then the odds will be apparently on the weaker man's side But if I should grant the utmost that can be asked that both these mens wit and strength taken together are still but an equal match to the other may not this wiser and stronger man as well also combine with others as wise and strong as himself and then will not the unequality be much greater than it was before And as for cunning or surprize it signifies as little since the stronger man may be as cunning as the other and may have also as good luck in surprising him at unawares but it is indeed a very trivial Argument to prove this natural equality because those are equal that are able to do the like things to
the nature of this Being before others Which effects likewise discover to us the hidden powers and intrinsick natures of things These strike upon our Senses and beget a knowledge in us of those things from whence they flow which Goods I grant may be different according to the divers natures of those Beings which they respect Thus a suitable Soyl Air and Moisture are naturally good for Plants because they are agreeable to their nature and are necessary for their preservation growth and perfection So likewise convenient Food Health and Liberty are naturally good for an Animal since they serve for their preservation and happiness as long as they continue to live So likewise That is also good for man which preserves and encreases the powers of his Mind and Body without doing hurt to or prejudicing any others of his own kind nor doth the mind of Man make these Rules concerning the nature of one or a few Creatures of a sort but is able from the knowledge it hath of singulars to make certain general Propositions or Conclusions concerning what is good or evil for the whole Species or Kind whose nature he hath enquired into because since there is the same general nature in every one of the Individuals of this or that Kind the true happiness of one or more of them being once known it is easie likewise to know what share and kind of happiness is to be desired by all of them For it is apparent That the improvement of the Understanding in knowledge and the government of the Will by sedate and regular Affections as also the health and vigour of the Body in which the true happiness of any particular man does chiefly consist do also comprehend if universally considered the common happiness of all men that ever have been or shall be born which also may be affirmed concerning the means to these natural Goods and which are required as necessary to all Mankind such as Food Exercise Sleep and the like And this because of the identity between the parts and the whole that is between the nature of any one or more men with that whole Systeme of Rational Agents comprehended under the general Name and Idea of Mankind From whence it also follows that whatsoever doth good to one member or part of this aggregate Body all the rest being unhurt or unprejudiced thereby may be truly said to do good to the whole aggregate Body of Mankind which Consideration may excite us to a due care of our selves provided it be not prejudicial to others from a consideration of the common Good of Mankind Analogically unto this we may also judge that to promote the efficacy of God's Natural Right to rule our selves and all other rational Creatures is to perform a thing good or grateful to God as Supream Governour of the World and this we do by a due care to promote obedience to his own Laws either in our selves or others And therefore though we so far agree with Mr. H. that that may be called good which is agreeable to any other Being and so must be meant relatively yet doth not this always refer to the Appetite of him that desires it nor yet to the irrational Opinions of any one or more men if they judge contrary to the Rules and Principles of Nature or Reason And therefore though a Wench that hath the Green-Sickness by reason of her depraved Appetite may fancy Tobacco-pipes or Charcoal to have an excellent relish and so to be good for her yet will not her thinking so make them become a wholsome nourishment The like may be said of any Actions or Vices which a Vicious or unreasonable man may take pleasure in such as Drunkenness Whoredom c. which howsoever they may please him at the present yet will certainly in time destroy him in this life or in that to come And therefore it is not true which Mr. H. here lays down That all Good and Evil is only to be taken in respect of him whom at that time it pleases or displeases Whereas every rational Man ought first rightly to judge what things are good and then to desire them because they are really so that is because their natural powers or effects are really helpful or agreeable to our Nature And to consider a private Good as that which profits one person and a common Good as it profits many And that not because it is at that instant desired and approved of out of a depraved Appetite or wanton humour it being only the part of Brutes Mad-men and Fools to measure the goodness of Things or Actions by their present Lusts without any government of Reason or thoughts of the future § 6. But Mr. H. himself doth sometimes talk more soberly and though he doth here as also elsewhere inculcate That every thing is either good or evil according to the opinion of the Person that so judges it in the state of Nature or else in a Civil State of the Person that represents the Common-wealth yet in his Leviathan Chap. 30. when he reckons up the Offices of the Civil Soveraign he makes one of the chiefest to be the making of good Laws Now he there tells us A good Law is that which is needful for the good of the People and withal perspicuous and a little farther he thus goes on And therefore a Law that is not needful having not the true end of a Law is not good A Law may be conceived to be good when it is for the benefit of the Sovereign though it be not necessary for the People but it is not so where you see the good of the People which is certainly that which is common to many is here acknowledg'd by him and proposed as the main end of the Legislator's Duty But this end being thus proposed the true nature of it is first to be known and determined before the Law can prescribe what is good or evil for the People So likewise Chap. 14. § 4. of his De Cive speaking concerning the Rules of right Judgment in a Civil State he tells us That since it is impossible to prescribe any Vniversal Rules whereby all Controversies which will be infinite may be judged it is still understood in every case pretermitted by the written Laws that the Law of natural Equity is to be followed Where you see he grants that the Laws of natural Equity may be known and followed And that divers more Cases may be determined from thence than can be by the Civil Laws themselves but we do only so far contend with him that some Rules of Equity may be so evidently and naturally known that all honest and sincere men cannot at all differ about them though in the mean time we freely grant That there are divers things so indifferent that no human Reason can universally determine that it is more necessary for the common Good that a thing be done or a Case judged this way rather than the other § 7. Having stated what we
mean by a natural Good and Evil I shall now give a right notion of a moral Good and how it differs from the former A moral Good is those voluntary Actions and Habits which are conformable to the Law of Nature or Reason considered as given by God as a Law-giver for a Rule of all our Humane or voluntary Actions For there are many natural Goods that conduce to a man's happiness which are not morally good nor are commanded by any Law Such as are quickness of Wit Learning Strength of Mind and Body c. On the other side I suppose that no Action of the Will can be commanded by God and so morally good which doth not by is own nature as well as from the Will of God the Legislator conduce to the happiness of Mankind The not taking notice of which distinction between natural and moral Goods hath been the occasion of another great Error in Mr. H. when he makes that which seems good to every man 's own self to be the only object of his desires as he doth in his De Cive Cap. 1. Art 2. which he likewise more fully expresses in Cap. 3. Artic. 21. Every one is presumed to seek that which is good for himself but that which is just only by accident and for peace sake viz. That which is just he will only have to regard another's good which he supposes no man will seek unless it were for fear of those Evils which proceed from a state of War But all he says only tends to prove that men are so framed that it is repugnant to their Nature and so absolutely impossible for them to mind or desire any thing unless for their own particular worldly profit and glory as he hath laid down in those Principles we have already considered § 8. But I cannot but take notice that Mr. H. himself in his Treatise De Homine published after his De Cive Cap. 12. § 1. seems not at all to approve of this ill humour in men by these words We confess that it may so fall out through the ill use of his free will that a man of a narrow Soul may consider nothing but himself and so may desire nothing but what he judges for his own private advantage And in the same Treatise Cap. 11. § 14. where he doth purposely consider which is the greater or lesser amongst Goods he plainly confesses That it is a greater good which benefits more persons than that which doth good to fewer § 9. But giving him leave to contradict himself as much as he will yet notwithstanding all that he hath said to the contrary I doubt not but all rational and good men are of a more generous Spirit who do not only esteem that to be good which is good for themselves alone but also whatsoever tends to the conservation happiness and perfection of Mankind And whatsover they thus esteem to be good that they will also desire wish for and contribute their utmost endeavour to procure for others as well as themselves Nor do I see any reason to hinder but that whatsoever I find agreeable to any mans Nature I may do my endeavour as far as lies in my power that he may obtain it But this much I must freely confess That if men do not propose to themselves one common End or Effect viz. the common good of Rational Agents whose Causes whether efficient or perfective should be before-hand agreed on to be Good and those that hinder its production Evil the words Good and Evil will always be equivocal various and uncertain being still to be taken in as many different Senses as there are particular Men. So that whatsoever Action or thing is called good by any one man because it serves his turn that other men if it crosses their desires will be sure to call evil which is incongruous to Reason and to the Communication of knowledge among men which is the main end of Speech Whereas if the words Good and Evil are applied to those things which concern the nature of Rational Beings in general they will have a certain and determinate sense and signification which will not only be constantly true and intelligible but prove most useful and profitable to all Mankind and that we are not only capable of understanding but also of contributing our Endeavours for the procuring of this Common Good and are also under a sufficient obligation thereunto is I hope fully made out in the Fourth Chapter of the precedent Discourse where we expresly treat of the Law of Nature and its obligation PRINCIPLE VII That the State of Nature is a State of War § 1. ALL the Principles that Mr. H. hath hitherto laid down have been only in order to the establishing this Darling Principle of the natural state of War But since we have already in our Answer to his former Principles shewn their falshood and absurdity If those Foundations be ill laid the Superstructure must needs be infirm and therefore I shall omit all that he hath in his De Cive inferred from those false Principles and shall only apply my self to what he hath in his 13th Chapter of his Leviathan given us a-new for the proof of this Principle and which doth not depend upon the former For here he derives this natural State of War from Three Principal Causes in the nature of Man First Competition Secondly Diffidence Thirdly Glory The first makes man invade for Gain The second for Safety and the third for Reputation The first use Violence to make themselves Masters of other Mens persons Wives Children and Cattel The second to defend them The third for Trifles as a word a smile a different Opinion and any other sign of undervaluing either directly in their persons or by reflection on their Kindred their Friends their Nation their Profession or their Name Hereby it is manifest That during the time men live without a Common Power to keep them all in awe they are in that condition which is called War as is of every man against every man For War consists not in Battel only or the Act of Fighting but in a tract of time wherein the will to contend by Battel is sufficiently known And therefore the notion of time is to be considered in the nature of War as it is in the nature of Weather For as the nature of Foul-weather lies not in a shower or two of Rain but in an inclination thereto of many days together So the nature of War consists not in actual fighting but in the known disposition thereto during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary All other is Peace § 2. In answer to which I must first take notice That Mr. H. in his Leviathan deduces this Right of War of all men against all from other Principles than he doth in his De Cive Chap. 1. § 12. where from the supposed right of all men to all things he deduces a war of all men against all and which renders it
and that mens natural propensions to a Benevolence towards others are not so strong in men as in other Animals So that I shall leave it to the impartial Reader whether upon a due consideration of his Answers and our Replies he will conclude as this Author doth in his Treatise de homine chap. 10. That men do exceed Wolves Bears and Serpents in Cruelty and Rapacity who are not rapacious beyond hunger which if he had affirmed of some men who are degenerated from all sentiments of humanity had not been much amiss but to affirm it of all mankind in general is too severe and false a censure to be let pass Whereas it must be at the worst acknowledged That no general Propositions can be made concerning the particular Passions and Humours of all men since there is not only a greater difference of Wit but also a greater variety of Passions and Inclinations amongst men than brutes and that not only among whole Nations but particular persons For all the kinds of brutes have almost the like Inclinations and are governed by the like passions and appetites so that if you know one of them you almost know them all but in mankind so many men so many Minds and so many almost several Humours and Dispositions And which is more the same man doth not only differ from others but also oftentimes from himself and that which at one time he mightily loves and approves of at another he abhors and condemns § 16. Yet so much I shall grant Mr. H. That men are tormented with many Passions unknown to Brutes such as are Coveteousness Ambition Vain-glory Envy Emulation or Strife of Wit with the Sense of which Brutes are not at all concerned all which I confess do extremely hinder mens natural Peace and Concord So on the other side he hath not only several other Passions that as strongly persuade him to seek and observe them yet God hath also endued him with reason whereby from the consideration of his own Nature and of other things he may attain a knowledge of his Deity and be thereby led to discover that all the Laws of Nature are not only bare dictates of Reason but are also Laws truly established by the Will of God the Legislator for his own Honour and the Happiness and Preservation of Mankind but so far I shall agree with Mr. H. that in any Country where men live without any knowledg of a Law either natural or reveal'd that in all those places they are in as bad or worse state than Brutes can be imagined to be § 17. To conclude I cannot but take notice that Mr. H's Hypothesis labours under these great Absurdities First He supposes that in the State of Nature a man's Reason tells him that his Self-preservation cannot be obtained without this War against all men but afterwards finding by experience the fatal Evils and Mischiefs proceeding from this kind of Life to have also by his reason found out and then proposed those Conditions of Peace called Laws of Nature in order to his own Happiness and Self-preservation as if right Reason could ever dictate contradictory or opposite means to this same end such as are a State of War and a State of Peace a neglect and violation of all the Laws of Nature as lawful and necessary for a man's safety in the State of Nature and a strict observation of them when once entered into a Civil State for the same design Secondly This Hypothesis is highly derogatory to the Goodness and Providence of God for if he were the Author and Creator of Mankind as certainly he was then whoever believes this Hypothesis must also believe that God contrived things so ill that unless his Creatures had been more cunning and provident than himself they must of necessity like the Earth-born Brethren in Ovid's Metamorphosis have perished by each others hands as soon as they were made So that the preservation and well-being of Mankind would be entirely attributed to their own Wit and Cunning and not to God's Goodness or Providence who must have sent his Creatures into the World in such an evil state as should oblige them first to seek their own mutual Ruin and Destruction as the way to their Preservation So that Mankind must owe all the happiness and comfort of their Lives not to their Creator but themselves since with him the Laws of Nature whereby they are preserved were not given or established by God their Legislator but are only so many Rules of Art or humane Wit like other Inventions of mens contriving and still suppose man to be departed from that natural state of War in which God put him into an Artificial one of Peace of his own making But certainly the Deity that made us if we suppose him Good and Wise made us not to be miserable as Mr. H. himself confesses we must have been had we continued in this state of War So that to suppose God made us and left us in that condition it is directly to deny our Creator's Goodness And then if we suppose him wise we cannot imagine that he would frame a sort of Creatures only to destroy themselves unless we can believe his only design was to sport himself in their folly and madness in beholding them by all the ways and arts of Force and Fraud contriving their own mutual Destruction And therefore if the Creation of Man were the product of the Divine Wisdom and Goodness his Natural State must have been that of Peace and not such a Condition as that which this Author supposes Lastly Mr. H. doth himself ingeniously confess that he believes there was never actually such a state of War as he supposes and describes And therefore tho I grant it is both lawful and usual for natural Philosophers who not being able through the imbecility of our humane Faculties to discover the true nature and essences of Bodies or other Substances do therefore take a liberty to seign or suppose such an Hypothesis as they think will best suit with the nature of the things themselves of which they intend to treat and from thence to frame a body of natural Philosophy or Physicks as Aristotle of old and Monsieur Des Cartes in our age have performed Yet can we not allow the same liberty in moral or practical Philosophy as in speculative And therefore such a precarious Hypothesis as this of a natural state of War is by no means to be admitted as the necessary consequence of that natural Right which every man hath to preserve himself For whether we consider Mankind to have been together with the world generated from all eternity as Aristotle and the more modern Platonists did believe or else to have sprung out of the earth like Mushrooms as Epicurus of old and Mr. H. in his De Cive suppose or else as we according to the Divine Revelation of the holy Scriptures do believe That Mankind was at first propagated from one Man and one Woman created for
that purpose by God Now let us at present suppose which of these we please to be the true Original of Mankind we cannot from thence with any reason conclude that it was at any time such a state of War of all men against all for if according to the first Hypothesis we suppose Mankind to be Eternal they were likewise from all Eternity propagated by distinct Families and divided into several Nations and Common-wealths as they are at this day But if it be objected that those distinct Nations or Commonwealths were always such from all Eternity Then it will likewise follow that they were also from all Eternity in the same state they now are that is not of War but Peace But we shall further shew the absurdity of that Supposition before we have concluded our Considerations upon this Head So on the other side if we proceed upon the Epicurean Hypothesis of Mankind's springing out of the Earth if we do not likewise suppose them to have been made like Game-Cocks or those Earth-born men I have already mentioned who presently fell a fighting and destroying each other without any Cause it will not do the business And therefore let us now with Mr. H. suppose these men being all made of equal strength both of body and mind it is plain that they must be at first in a state of Peace before they could ever fall together by the Ears so then the state of Peace was Prior in Nature to that of War and also more agreeable to Human Nature 2 dly Supposing these Earth-born men to have been all rational Creatures and equal in strength and cunning they would never have entered into a state of War and have fallen a cutting each others Throats without some just Cause or Provocation first given For if they were all equal every man would consider each of his Fellows as of a like ability with himself and that if he struck him first without any cause he would be as well able to resist and make his party good with him as he could be to hurt him the fear of which would have rather caused Peace than War Since whoever struck first could not be sure of the Victory And if any two should have fallen to Cuffs this could be no reason for all the rest to have also fallen together by the Ears since there was no cause why they should suppose a Will or Inclination in each other to War till they had expressed it by some outward signs so that this natural Equality among men and mutual fear of each other which Mr. H. supposes to be the chief causes of War would certainly have rather inclined these men to Peace But if we follow the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures it is then certain That all Mankind being derived from one Man and one Woman their Children could never be in this state of war towards their Parents by Mr. H's own confession much less could the Parents ever be so unnatural towards their Children who were made out of their own Substance nor yet could the Brothers or Sisters who partake of the same Human Nature derived from their Common Parents and who were bred up together from their Infancy in a state of Peace and Amity be rationally supposed presently to have fallen together by the ears without any other cause or provocation given than Mr. Hs Passions of mutual distrust and desire of glory Therefore when after the Fall of Adam man's Nature was degenerated into that state we now find it wherein mens Passions I own do too often domineer over their Reason and that Cain through Malice and Envy slew his Brother as we read in Genesis Of this state of War as it is the first Example of man's Degeneracy so it is also of God's dislike and punishment of this cruel Sin of Murther which is indeed but the effect of this Author's state of War But I beg the Reader 's pardon if I have been too prolix in the confutation of this Principle this being the main foundation of all those Evil and False Opinions contained in this Author 's Moral and Political Works if therefore this is throughly destroyed all that is built upon it will fall of it self But since Mr. H. hath by his Supposition of certain Compacts or Covenants undertaken to shew a Method how men got out of this wretched state of War in which let us see whether his next Principle answers the Designs he proposes PRINCIPLE VIII § 1. That mutual Compacts of Fidelity in the State of Nature are void but not so in a Commonwealth WHich Principle he expresses and proves at large in his de Cive cap. in these words But those Covenants that are made by Contract where there is a mutual Trust neither party performing any thing presently in the state of Nature if any just Fear shall arise on either side are void For he who first performs because of the evil disposition of the greatest part of men only studying their own profit no matter whether by right or wrong betrays himself to the lust of him with whom he contracts For there is no reason that any man should perform first if it is not likely that the other will perform afterwards which whether it be likely or not he who fears must judge as it is shewn in the former Chapter Art 9. I say things are thus in the state of nature but in a Civil state where there is one who can compel them both he who by Contract is first to perform ought first to do it For since the other may be compelled the reason ceases for which he feared the other would not perform Which Principle is somewhat otherwise expressed in his Lev. chap. 14. which since it differs something from the other in the manner of expression I shall likewise give in you his own words If a Covenant be made wherein neither of the Parties perform presently but trust one another in the condition of mere nature which is a condition of War of every man against every man upon any reasonable supposition it is void but if there be a common Power set over them both with right and force sufficient to compel performance it is not void for he that performeth first hath no assurance the other will perform afterwards because the mere bonds of words are too weak to bridle mens Ambition Avarice Anger and other Passions without the fear of some coercive Power which in the condition of mere Nature where all men are equal and judges of the justness of their own fears cannot possibly be supposed and he which performs first doth but betray himself to his enemy contrary to the Right he can never abandon of defending his life and means of living § 2. You may now more plainly see the reason why he supposes in the foregoing Chapter That all Kings and persons of Soveraign Authority are always in a posture or state of War which he more plainly expresses in his de Cive chap. 10. §
not some way or other either benefit or prejudice those things which are most dear to others also as the motion of any one Body in the System of the World Communicates it self to many others For that great Prerogative of Knowledge and Understanding with which Man is endued supplies the Contiguity required for motion in other Bodies Men being often excited to Action by certain Arbitrary signs or words by which they understand what hath been done by others in places far distant So also our Intellect apprehending a likeness of Desires and Aversions between those of the same Species with it self as to things necessary or hurtful to Life as also being able to remember other Men's Actions towards themselves or those they love are from thence excited to hope for or expect the like things from them and are also provoked to a requital when occasion is offered Such Properties being plainly Natural and constant in Humane Nature are no less efficacious to excite Men to such Actions or motions than a mutual contact between Bodies is to Communicate motion between all the parts of any Corporeal System § 5. From which Natural Observations it is plainly manifest that particular Men may hence Learn that both their greatest Security from Evil and all their hopes of obtaining any Good or Assistance from others towards making themselves Happy doth truly and necessarily depend upon voluntary Actions proceeding from the Benevolence of others who do likewise themselves stand in need of the like means for their Happiness and Safety From whence we easily perceive that these mutual Helps and Assistances of Men towards each other are highly beneficial to all of them and answer that Concourse of Natural Bodies and that Cession or giving place to each other which is so necessary for the performance of their motions So that from this necessity of these mutual helps it as necessarily follows that he who would consult his own Happiness and Preservation should procure as far as he is able the Good will and Assistance of others since he cannot but be sensible that he is able to afford and perform to others divers like Offices of kindness and so is able to conspire with the whole System of Rational Beings towards the same End viz. the Common Good of Rational Beings and that on the contrary the weak and inconsiderable forces of any one Man are not sufficient to compel so many others each of them equal if not Superiour to himself both in Wit and Power to yield him their help and assistance to their own prejudice whether they will or no which would prove as impossible as that a hundred pound weight placed in one Scale of a Balance should bear down several other hundred weights put on the opposite Scale So likewise the force and cunning of any single Person is of no sufficient Power or Force against the several Necessities Counsels and Endeavours of innumerable others towards their own and the Common Good without any consideration of his particular Happiness alone Therefore it is manifest from this natural Balance of Humane Powers that men may be more certainly induced by our Benevolence or Endeavour of the Common Good to yield us those things and assistances we stand in need of than by using force or deceit which Mr. H. supposes even the Good and Vertuous may lawfully exercise in the State of Nature as the only natural means of Self-preservation in his Imaginary State of Nature § 6. So that from these Natural Observations concerning all the means necessary to the Conservation of the Corporeal Universe and of the several sorts of Beings therein contained we may draw these conclusions 1. That all things are so disposed that not the least quantity of matter and motion can ever be lost but the same Species of Animals are still continued and are rather encreased than lessened notwithstanding all the opposition of the cruel Passions and unruly Appetites of some other Animals so that in this perpetuity of matter and motion by a continual succession of things the Natural Good or Conservation of the Corporeal Universe consists and towards which it is carried according to the immutable Laws of motion nor can there be any sufficient reason given why the Conservation of Mankind may not be looked upon as established by as certain and natural a Power of Causes as the Successive Generations of any other Creatures since they depend alike upon the lasting Nature of the Corporeal Universe and agree in all the Essentials of Animals And certainly the Addition of a Rational Soul to our Bodies does very often put us in a better Condition than that of Brutes but can never make us in a worse which will be evident to any Man that considers the benefits which accrew to our Bodies from the Government of our Reason and which do abundantly recompense some inconveniencies which may happen to them from the errours of our minds Nay it is most certain that its errours concerning Food Pleasure and other things which concern the Preservation of our Bodies proceed from the Soul 's yielding against the Admonitions of Reason to Carnal Appetites and Corporeal or Animal Passions 2. That the matter and motion of all Bodies as also of Men considered only as such do Mechanically or whether they will or no promote the motion of that of the Corporeal Universe since the motion of all particular Bodies is determined by the general motion of the whole System In short our Judgments concerning the necessary means of the Happiness of Mankind may be convinced from these Natural causes operating after the same manner and by the same Natural Laws by which the Corporeal Universe is preserved since they consist in these two Rules 1. That the endeavours of particular Persons towards their own Preservation are as plainly necessary for the Conservation of the whole Species of Mankind as the mechanick motions of particular Bodies are to the general motion of the whole Corporeal System 2. That the Powers of particular Persons by which they defend themselves against the force of others should be so equally Balanced as that like the motion of other Bodies none of them should be destroyed or lost to the Prejudice or Detriment of the whole Somewhat like which is seen in all the motions of the Corporeal System of the World which proceed from its Plenitude and the mutual Contact of Bodies and so extend themselves through the whole mass of matter but it is the proper Talent of Humane Reason and Understanding to observe that each Man 's particular Happiness does depend upon the voluntary Actions of other Rationals after a much nobler manner even when they are far distant and can therefore take care that all Humane Actions may in like manner conduce to the Common Good of Rational Agents as the motions of all Bodies do to the Conservation of the whole Corporeal System which will be truly performed if in all voluntary Actions which respect others those two Rules