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
unto and which is most inseparably conjoyned with his own particular Conservation and Happiness But whereas God hath Created other Creatures to act for their own present Satisfaction and Preservation without any consideration of that of others He hath made man alone not only able to contribute to the good and Preservation of his own kind but hath also made him sensible of this Ability and I shall farther shew in this Discourse that he hath laid a sufficient Obligation on him to exert it § 22. Another faculty of the Rational Soul and only proper to Man as a sociable Creature is That of Speech or expressing our Notions by significant Words or Sounds which though it be not born with us yet however may be reckoned amongst the Natural faculties of Mankind as well as going with two legs since we find no Brute Creatures capable of it though divers of them are endued with Tongues like ours and that divers Birds can pronounce whole Sentences yet have they no notion of what they say whereas there is no Nation though never so Barbarous but hath the use of Speech And to shew you farther how natural some sort of Speech is to Mankind I have heard of two young Gentlemen that were Brothers and I knew one of them my self who though born deaf and consequently dumb yet by often and long Conversation with each other came to frame a certain Language between themselves which though it seemed perfect Gibberish to the standers by yet by the sole motion of their Lips and other signs they perfectly understood each other which was likewise evident from this that in the dark they were not able to converse at all So that this faculty seems to have been bestowed by God on Mankind not for his Preservation as a meer Animal Since divers Brutes are able to subsist for more years without it and therefore seems to be intended to render Man a Sociable Creature and who was by this Faculty to benefit others of his own kind as well as himself for we are not only hereby able to impose certain Arbitrary names to particular things but having first framed Universal Idea's can likewise give names to them as to this general Idea applicable to all particular Men in the World we can give the name of Man and herein consists the main difference between Men and Brutes and not in Ratiocination alone Since I suppose even Brutes have right Idea's of those Objects they have received by their Senses and can likewise inferr or reason right about them As when a Dog by often seeing his Master take down his stick before he goes abroad does thence argue when ever he does so that his going abroad will follow expressing his Joy by barking and leaping yet we cannot find that Brutes have any general or complex Idea's much less names for them having no more but a few Ordinary signs whereby to express their present Appetites and Passions but the main benefit of Speech seems to respect others more than our selves since we are hereby able to instruct them in many Arts and Sciences necessary for their Happiness and Preservation and also to advise and admonish them in all Civil and Moral Duties and there is scarce any one so Brutish who is not sensible that in the exercise of this Faculty consists one of the greatest pleasures of Humane Life viz. Conversation and supposing Men in a state of War I do not see how they could ever well get out of it again were it not for Treaties and Articles of Peace but must like game Cocks and Bulls fight it out till one side were either quite destroyed or forced to run away and quit that Territory or Country where they Liv'd § 23. Nor can we omit another great benefit we receive from Speech viz. the Invention of Letters by which we are not only able to Register our present Thoughts for our own remembrance but can likewise Profit and Instruct not only the present but also all future Generations by Books or Writings as we do now make use of the Knowledge and Experience of those who dyed some Thousands of Years before we were born But since Mr. H. and others have made some Objections against the benefit of Speech and Letters as that they tend oftentimes to promote false Opinions and War amongst Mankind Granting it to be so it is no more an Objection against the benefits we receive by them than it were to say that the Air Water or Food the only means of Life are hurtful to Mankind since by the necessary course of Nature or else our own Intemperance they often become the causes of Plagues Surfeits and divers other diseases whereby Mankind is destroyed Yet since that Author hath made the use of Speech one great Reason why Men cannot live so peaceably as Brutes and therefore fansies they must be in a Natural state of War I shall therefore referr the Answering it to the Second Part since my Intention is not here to Argue but Instruct § 24. Men do also far exceed Brutes in their Rational or discoursive Faculty as appears in the Knowledge of Numbers or Collecting divers single things into one Total Summ which we call Arithmetick so necessary for all Affairs of a Civil Life and the Duties of distributive Justice And though I grant it is an Art and that divers Barbarous Nations want that exact knowledge of it which we have yet by reckoning upon their fingers they have a sufficient use of it as much as is necessary for their purpose or business and if they did but apply their Minds to it I doubt not but that they would arrive to the same perfection in Arithmetick as we do But I look upon this Faculty as peculiar to Mankind since we cannot perceive Brutes to have any knowledge of it Thus if from Bitches or Sows you take away never so many of their Young ones yet if you leave them but one or two they do not miss the rest which shews that they have no Idea's of Numbers whatever they may have of Quantity § 26. To this Observation may likewise be added as a Consequence thereof that Faculty so proper to Mankind of measuring the quantities of Bodies the distances between them and the Proportions they bear to each other which Science we call Geometry or Mathematicks which Arts were certainly invented by Man as a Creature intended for a Sociable Life since on some of these depend most Trades all Commerce Architecture Navigation and most of the Rules of distributive Justice with other Arts needless here to be set down So that whoever will but seriously reflect upon the excellency of these Sciences as well in the certainty of their Demonstrations as in the vast and Stupendious effects they produce cannot but acknowledge that our Rational Faculty exceeds that of Brutes by many degrees § 27. But there yet remain behind two of the greatest Prerogatives of Man's Soul and in respect of which alone he is made a sit
unpunished since this may very well consist with the Publick Peace and safety of the People and may also tend to the Publick good of the Commonwealth since it might not only make men more careful of their Goods but might also serve to make those Boys more crafty secret and undertaking in greater matters when they should come to be men which as Plutarch tells us was the main reason why Licurgus made this Law But does it therefore follow that either the Lacedemonians or Egyptians might have made it Lawful for Thieves and Robbers to assault all mens Persons and take away their Goods by Force or to Rob men of those things such as Food and Rayment which are absolutely necessary for Human Life or that such a Law could ever have been made practicable or have been observed without the absolute dissolution of the Civil Government Whereas if Mr. H. had but considered the distinction between that Natural and Civil Property which we have made out in the first Chap. of the preceding Discourse he had never fallen into this Error of supposing all Theft or Robbery whatsoever to become Lawful if once ordained so by the Supreme Power § 3. I shall give you but one instance more from the Laws of our own Kingdom by which it is enacted That whoever shall relieve a way going Beggar shall forfeit Ten shillings to the Poor of the Parish which Law was made for the Publick Good and to prevent Wandering Idleness and Beggary in the Poorer sort of People But doth it therefore follow that it might be Lawful for the King and Parliament to make a Law against all Charity or Relief of the Poor whatsoever So that you may see that no Civil Laws whatsoever can lay any obligation upon mens Consciences but as they either regard the publick Good of the Commonwealth or the more general good of all Rational Beings § 4. But whether Mr. H. fell into this Error for want of a due knowledge and consideration of this great Law of Nature or else out of a desire to flatter all Civil Sovereigns is hard to determine though it be very suspitious that he did it rather out of design than ignorance since he teaches us in his de Cive and Lev. That Princes being free from all Promises and Compacts to their Subjects may dispose of their Lives and Fortunes at their pleasure and therefore can do them no injury though they treat them never so cruelly because he is in respect of them still in the state of Nature by which means he at once endeavours to destroy all Virtue and Goodness in Princes and all Reverence and Respect in the minds of their Subjects and makes no difference between a Nero or Caligula and a Trajan or an Antonine And consequential to this he likewise makes the will of the Supreme Power though perhaps but one single man to be the only measure of Good and Evil Just and Unjust So that whatever he Commands or Forbids must immediately be look'd upon as Good or Evil because he hath Commanded it or Forbidden it by which means Princes would have no other Rules left them of their Moral or Politick Actions but their own Arbitrary Humours or Wills Which if it were so men would be in a much worse condition under the Power of this irresistible Leviathan than they were in the state of Nature since a man is in more danger as to his Life and Fortune who is at the Mercy of one Cruel and unreasonable man who commands an Hundred thousand men than he who was before in danger of the violence of an Hundred thousand single men in the state of Nature since it was Lawful for him to have provided for his own security by combination with others which in a Civil state it is upon his Principles unlawful to do though I confess not being true to them he leaves every man a Right of self-defence or Resistance even under a Civil Government whenever he is strong enough to Rebel or Resist the Magistrate by which means he takes away with one hand all that he had before bestowed with the other § 5. But I think I have now sufficiently exposed the Falseness as well as Wickedness of those Principles And though I will not be so uncharitable as to affirm that either Mr. H. or all his Followers either did or would always act according to them yet as Cicero long since observed in his Offices they have more reason to thank the natural goodness and generosity of their own Natures than the Doctrines they have embraced if they do not But if I have been too tedious in the performance I hope the Reader will pardon me if these pernicious Principles are sufficiently Confuted at last since it is impossible for any man to judge of their Truth or Falsehood without first considering the Author's Opinion in his own words and then strictly examining the reasons he brings for them which could not well be contracted into a less compass But having not only I hope laid foundations for a more solid building in the precedent Discourse but also cleared off that Rubbish in this second Part that might obstruct its Evidence in the minds of all Candid and indifferent Readers I shall therefore beseech God the great Ruler of mens hearts and affections That what we have said in this Treatise may have that good effect as if not to produce yet at least to increase true Piety towards God and good Will and Charity among men FINIS Books Printed for Richard Baldwin STate Tracts Being a farther Collection of Several Choice Treatises relating to the Government From the Year 1660 to 1689. Now Published in a Body to shew the Necessity and clear the Legality of the Late Revolution and our present Happy Settlement under the Auspicious Reign of Their Majesties King William and Queen Mary Mathematical Magick Or The Wonders that may be performed by Mechanical Geometry In Two Books Concerning Mechanical Powers and Motions Being one of the most Easie Pleasant Useful and yet most neglected part of Mathematicks Not before treated of in this Language By I. Wilkins late Lord Bishop of Chester The Fourth Edition Bibliotheca Politica Or a Discourse by way of Dialogue Whether Monarchy be Iure Divino Collected out of the most Approved Authors both Ancient and Modern Dialogue the First Dialogue the Second Whether there can be made out from the Natural or Revealed Law of God any Succession to Crowns by Divine Right Dialogue the Third Whether Resistance of the Supream Power by a whole Nation or People in cases of the last Extremity can be Justified by the Law of Nature or Rules of the Gospel Dialogue the Fourth Whether Absolute Non-Resistances of the Supream Powers be enjoined by the Doctrine of the Gospel and was the Ancient Practice of the Primitive Churh and the constant Doctrine of our Reformed Church of England The Speech of the Right Honourable Thomas Earl of Stamford Lord Gray of Grooby c. at the General Quarter-Sessions held for the County of Leicester at Michaelmas 1691. His Lordship being made Custos Rotulorum for the said County by the late Lord Commissioners of the Great Seal Truth brought to Light Or The History of the First 14 Years of King Iames the I. In Four Parts I. The Happy State of England at His Majesty's Entrance The Corruption of it afterwards With the Rise of particular Favourites and the Divisions between This and other States abroad II. The Divorce betwixt the Lady Francis Howard and Robert Earl of Essex before the King's Delegates authorized under the King 's Broad Seal As also the Arraignment of Sir Iervis Yelvis Lieutenant of the Tower c. about the Murther of Sir Thomas Overbury with all Proceedings thereupon and the King 's gracious Pardon and Favour to the Countess III. A Declaration of His Majesty's Revenue since he came to the Crown of England with the Annual Issues Gifts Pensions and Extraordinary Disbursements IV. The Commissions and Warrants for the burning of two Hereticks newly revived with two Pardons one for Theophilus Higgons the other for Sir Eustace Hart. The Memoirs of Monsieur Deageant Containing the most secret Transactions and Affairs of France from the Death of Henry VI. till the beginning of the Ministry of the Cardinal de Richlieu To which is added a particular Relation of the Arch-bishop of Embrun's Voyage into England and of his Negotiation for the Advancement of the Roman Catholick Religion here together with the Duke of Bukingham's Letter to the said Archbishop about the Progress of that Affair which happened the last Years of K. Iames I. his Reign Faithfully Translated out of the French Original The Present State of Christendom consider'd In Nine Dialogues between I. The present Pope Alexander the VIIIth and Lewis the XIV II. The Great Duke of Tuscany and the Duke of Savoy III. King Iames the Second and the Marescal de la Fuillade IV. The Duke of Lorrain and the Duke of Schomberg V. The Duke of Lorrain and the Elector Palatine VI. Lewis the XIVth and the Marquis de Louvois VII The Advoyer of Berne and the Chief Syndic of Geneva VIII Cardinal Ottoboni and the Duke de Chaulnes IX The Young Prince Abafti and Count Teckely A New Plain Short and Compleat French and English Grammar whereby the Learner may attain in few Months to Speak and Write French Correctly as they do now in the Court of France And wherein all that is Dark Superfluous and Deficient in other Grammars is Plain Short and Methodically supplied Also very useful to Strangers that are desirous to learn the English Tongue For whose sake is added a Short but very Exact English Grammar The Second Edition By Peter Berault * Dr. Ioh. Lock Vide Chap. des Pensees Morales Book 8. chap. 3. Vid. his Essay concerning Humane Vnderstanding Book I. Chap. 11. * Vide The Preface to De Cive Vid. Mezeray's Hist. in the Life of this Prince Leviath Part I. Chap. 12. * Vid. Dr. Parker's Demonstration of the Law of Nature pag. 24. Demonstration of the Law c. pag. 23. Credendum est totum qd colitur Deus homini prodesse non Deo De Civit. Dei Lib. X. Cap. 5. Matt. 12.7 8. Mark 2.27 Luk. 10.30 V◠Jo. Lerius Hist. Brasil as also the French History of the Caribbè Islands * Vid. Dr. Parker's Ecclesiastical Policy Chap. 4. p. 126 127. Vi. Diog. Laert. in vita Epicuri Stat 7. Jacobi Cap. 7.
Imprimatur Guil. Lancaster R. P. D. Henrico Episc. Lond. Ã Sacris Domest Mar. 14. 1691 2. A BRIEF DISQUISITION OF THE Law of Nature According to the Principles and Method laid down in the Reverend Dr. Cumberland's now Lord Bishop of Peterborough s Latin Treatise on that Subject AS ALSO His Confutations of Mr. Hobbs's Principles put into another Method WITH THE Right Reverend Author's Approbation LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Richard Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane 1692. TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD RICHARD Lord Bishop of PETERBOROUGH My LORD HAving many Years agon when your Learned and Judicious Treatise of the Laws of Nature was first published carefully perused it to my great satisfaction I also thought it necessary to make an Epitome or Abridgment of it as well for my own better Remembrance as that I believed it might be also useful as an Introduction to Ethicks for some near Relations of mine for whom I then designed it These Papers after they had lain by me several Years I happened to shew to some Friends of mine and in particular to the Honourable Mr. Boyle who so well approved of the Undertaking that they encouraged me to make it publick as that which might give great satisfaction to those of the Nobility and Gentry of our own Nation as well as others of a lower rank who either do not understand Latin or else had rather read Epitomes of greater Works than take the Pains to peruse the Originals Which Task tho' not very grateful to me yet I was prevailed with to undertake and to look over those Papers again and add several considerable Passages out of the Treatise itself and this not for Fame's sake or the honour of being thought an Author since I was satisfied that nothing of that nature could be due to one who does not pretend to more than to Translate or Abridge another Man's Labours Yet I am willing in pursuance of your Lordship's Principle to sacrifice all these little private Considerations to the Publick Good as being sensible that in the Trade of Learning as in other Trades divers who cannot be Inventors or chief Merchants may yet do the Publick good service by venting other Mens Notions in a new dress especially since I have also observed that things of this kind if well done and with due acknowledgment to the Authors from whence they are borrowed as they have proved beneficial to those whose Education or constant Employments in their own Professions will not give them leave to peruse many Volumes written perhaps in a Language they are no great Masters of so also they have not failed of some Commendation from all Candid Readers Thus Monsieur Rohault's Abridgment of Des Cartes's Philosophy and Monsieur Bernier's of Gassendus's to mention no more have been received with general Applause not only by all Ingenious Men of the French but also of our own Nation who understand that Language And the Learned and Inquisitive Dr. Burnet hath thought an Undertaking of this kind so useful for our Nobility and Gentry as to give us his own elegant Translations or rather Abridgments in English of his two ingenious Treatises of the Theory of the Earth And I doubt not but your Lordship would have done somewhat in this kind with this admirable Work of yours had not the constant Employments of your Sacred Function as well as your other severe and useful Studies hindred you from it But perhaps it may be thought by some that this Task hath been very well performed already by Dr. Parker late Bishop of Oxford in his Treatise entituled A Demonstration of the Laws of Nature and therefore needs not be done over again But to this I shall only say that as he hath borrowed all that is new in that Work from your Lordship's Book so it is with so slight an acknowledgment of that Obligation that since he owns himself beholding to you for no more than the first Hint or main Notion no wonder if he hath fallen very short of the Original from whence he borrowed it both in the clearness as well as choice of the Arguments or Demonstrations and in the particular setting forth of those Rewards and Punishments derived by God's appointment from the Nature of Men and the Frame of Things which can only be done according to that exact Method your Lordship hath there laid down Tho' I confess there is one thing that is particular in that Authors Undertaking viz. That excellent Account he there gives us of the great Differences and Uncertainties among the most famous of the Heathen Philosophers concerning Mans Soveraign Good or Happiness chiefly for want of the certain belief of a future state and that clear conviction we now have that Mens chiefest Good or Happiness consists in God's Love and Favour towards them As also his observation That notwithstanding all that can be said of the Natural Rewards of Vertue and Punishments of Vice nothing but the reasonable hope and expectation of Happiness in a Life to come can in all Cases bear us up under all the Miseries Sorrows and Calamities of this And herein I must own I agree with him and therefore hope your Lordship will pardon me if I have in the ensuing Discourse insisted somewhat more particularly upon these future Rewards and Punishments which I doubt not may very well be proved from Reason and the necessity of supposing them in order to the asserting and vindicating God's Justice and Providence Tho' I grant that the Gospel or Divine Revelation hath given us more firm grounds for this our Belief than we had before by the mere light of Nature But supposing this Work of Bishop Parker never so well performed as I do not deny but it hath all the advantages of a Popular and Gentile Stile and that neat Turn he gives to all his Writings and therefore I have not scrupled to transcribe out of his Discourse one or two Passages where I thought either his way of urging your Lordship's Arguments or the close summing them up was not to be mended by any other Pen Yet since as I have already observed the whole is not done from your Lordship's Work and is also too concise and full of Digressions and besides wants your solid Confutations of Mr. H.'s Principles it seems necessary that another Treatise more exact in the kind should be published as more agreeable to your Lordship's Original Whether this which I now present you with be such I must submit to your Lordship's and the Reader 's judgment But since I have undertaken this difficult Province with your Lordships approbation it is fit that I give you as well as the Reader some account of the Method I have followed in this Treatise and wherein it differs from yours First then to begin with the Preface The substance of it is wholly yours except the Introduction concerning the usefulness of the Knowledge of the true Grounds of the Law of Nature in order to a
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
Gratitude as well as by Interest to return those again whenever they are lawfully required of us though I grant for the Honour of the Gospel that the firmest Encouragements and greatest Reward we Men can have for exposing nay losing our Lives for the Benefit or Service of the Common-wealth is that Happiness we may justly expect in another Life after this These things seem evident to us as resembling that Method whereby we are naturally taught that the Health and Strength of our whole Body is preserved by the good Estate of its particular Members in its receiving Food and Breath Although sometimes Diseases may breed within the Body or divers outward Accidents as Wounds Bruises and the like do happen to it from without which may hinder the particular Members from receiving that Nourishment which is necessary for them And we are taught after the same Manner by the Acts immediately promoting the common good that the Happiness of particular Men which are the Members of this natural System may no less certainly be expected nor are less naturally derived from thence than the Strength of our Hands doth proceed from the due State of the whole Mass of Bloud and nervous Iuice Though we confess that many things may happen which may cause this general Care of the whole Body of Mankind not always to meet with the good Effect we desire so that particular Persons may certainly infallibly enjoy all the Felicity they can hope for or expect Yet this is no Argument against it any more than that the taking in of Air and Aliments however necessary for the whole Body should prevent all those Accidents and Distempers it is subject to since it may happen as well by the violent and unjust Actions of our fellow Subjects like the diseased Constitution of some inward part or by the Invasion of a foreign Enemy like a Blow or other outward Violence that good Men may be deprived in this Life of some Rewards of their good Deeds and may also suffer divers outward Evils Yet since these are more often repelled by the Force of Concord and Civil Government or are often shook off after some short Disturbances either by our own private Power or else by that of the Civil Sword as Diseases are thrown off by a healthfull Crisis or Effort of Nature So that notwithstanding all these Evils Men are more often recompenced with greater Goods partly from the Assistance of others but chiefly from that of Civil Government or else of Leagues made with Neighbouring States From whence it is that Mankind hath never been yet destroyed notwithstanding all the Tyranny and Wars that Men's unreasonable Passions have exercised and raised in the World and that Civil Governments or Empires have been more lasting than the most long lived Animals From all which it is apparent that the deprived Appetites of divers Men or those Passions which do often produce Motions so opposite to the common Good ought no more to hinder us from acknowledging the Natural Propensions of all the rest of Mankind considered together to be more powerfully carried towards that which we every Day see may be procured thereby viz. The Conservation and farther Perfection of the whole Body of Mankind than that divers Diseases breeding in the parts of Animals or any outward Violence should hinder us from acknowledging that the Frame of their Bodies and the Natural Function of their parts are fitted and intended by God for the Conservation of Life and the Propagation of their Species But that we may carry on this Similitude between a living Body and its particular Members with the whole Body of Mankind and all the Individuals contained under it a little farther I will here give you Monsieur Pascal's Excellent Notion concerning this common Good as it is published in those Fragments Entituled Les Pensees de Monsieur Pascal since it both explains and confirms our Method He there supposes That God having made the Heavens and the Earth and divers other Creatures not at all sensible of their common Happiness would also make some rational Beings which might know him and might make up one Body consisting of rational Members and that all Men are Members of this Body so that it is necessary to their happiness that all particular Men as Members of this Body conform their particular Wills to the Vniversal Will of God that governs the whole Body as the Head or Soul thereof And though it often happens that one Man falsly supposes himself an independent Being and so will make himself the only Centre of all his Actions yet he will at last find himself whilst in this State separated from the Body of rational Beings and who not having any true Principle of Life or Motion doth nothing but wander about distracted in the uncertainty of his own Being but if ever he comes to a true knowledge of himself he will find that he is not that whole Body but only a small Member of it and hath no proper Life and Motion but as he is a part thereof So that to regulate our Self-love every Man ought to imagine himself but one small part of this Body of Mankind composed of so many intelligent Members and to know what Proportion of Love every Man oweth himself let him consider what Degree of Love the Body bears to any one small single part and so much Love that part if it had sense ought to bestow upon it self and no more All Self-love that exceeds this is unjust So far this sagacious contemplative Gentleman thought long since though I confess he doth not proceed to shew in what manner the Good of every individual Person depends upon the Happiness of the whole Body of Mankind as our Author hath here done though no doubt he was excellently well fitted to do it if he had lived to reduce those excellent Thoughts into a set Discourse We have delivered in this Epitome the Summ of that Method by which we have enquired into the Sanction of the Laws of Nature in which we have considered all the Felicity naturally flowing from good Actions as a Reward annexed to them by God the Author of Nature and their Loss or contrary Evils that follow them as a Punishment naturally flowing from their Transgression And indeed our Method seems very much confirmed from the common Consent of Mankind since all Men of however different Opinions concerning moral Principles do yet agree in this that good Actions ought still to be encouraged by Rewards and evil ones to be restrained by Punishments in this all Sects of Philosophers however quarrelling among themselves do agree As also the Founders of all Religions and the Makers of all Civil Laws have made this their main Foundation Nay those who would seem most to neglect all Rewards and would deduce all Vertues from Gratitude alone yet find it necessary to acknowledge this Gratitude to proceed from the Memory of Benefits receiv'd But sure it still argues as much Love towards
knowledge of the reason and grounds of all the particular Laws of nature § 2. And also that all moral Vertues are contained under this one Law of endeavouring the common good That Prudence is nothing but the knowledge of our duty in order to the graet End the Common Good as Constancy in the prosecution of it is therefore true fortitude § 3. That Temperance or Moderation in all corporeal Pleasures is no otherwise a Vertue than as it conduces to the happiness and preservation of Mankind That under Love and Benevolence are contained the Vertues of Innocence Meekness c. § 4 5. Equity a Vertue as it promotes the common good of mankind § 6. The same proved likewise of Iustice since nothing can be called ours either by natural or civil Laws but as it conduces to this great End and a natural and civil Property necessary thereunto the one in a natural state the other in a civil society § 7. From Property arises the necessity of Contracts Promises Gifts c. all which are still to be governed by this great Law § 8. From this natural Property arises the Vertue of Moderation setting bounds to inordinate self-love in order to the common good Frugality no otherwise a Vertue than as it renders us not burthensome not injurious to others § 9. The natural Love of Parents to their Children to be exercised and limitted with respect to the common good § 10. All the rest of the moral Vertues such as Temperance Frugality c. more particularly explained to proceed from the same original and not to be understood without it § 11. The same more particularly applyed and made out in every particular Vertue which constitutes Iustice § 12. All the homolitical Vertues i. e. such as respect conversation or the due use of speech explained after the same manner with a like respect to the common good § 13 14 15. Self-love and Self-preservation only lawfull in order to this End § 16. Some farther Explanations of the nature of Temperance and wherein it consists § 17. That part of it called Chastity a Vertue only as it tends to the good and propagation of mankind § 18. Another part of it viz. Modesty in seeking of riches honour c. Vertues only as they limit our self-love from pretending to more than we have need of or deserve in order to the common good § 19. That a regard to this great Rule runs through all the moral Vertues which are all of them contained under the most diffusive Benevolence towards rational Beings § 20. Right Reason explained to be only a due consideration of this End in all moral actions towards God or Men and that the knowledge of these moral rules is as certain as that of the knowledge of any other natural causes and effects concerning the preservation of Animals § 21. And that from their true understanding proceeds all the certainty we can have of natural Laws notwithstanding there may be a sufficient latitude left us for indifferent actions § 22. The Common Good as it is a collection of all other goods so it is a true standard or measure of them as shewing what goods are to be sought for or desired before others § 23. It is only to be learnt from hence what degrees of passions or affections are lawfull that is consistent with the Common Good and consequently thereby to judge of the several degrees and proportions of goodness and happiness § 24. Piety towards God a Vertue as it conduces to the common good and happiness of rational Beings § 25. Nothing a Good but as it contributes to this great End § 26. The reason of this disquisition into the true grounds of Good and Evil as being that which makes all moral Philosophy a practical Science and not merely speculative like that of the Stoicks § 27. A brief Conclusion out of Dr. Parker's Demonstration of the Laws of Nature § 28. The Contents of the Fifth Chapter THE Objections of two sorts of Men Platonists and Epicureans against this Notion of the Common Good the Objections of the former to be first considered their first Objection That it is more suitable to God's goodness to imprint certain Innate Idea's of good and evil on our minds § 1. Answer thereunto out of Mr. Lock 's Essay c. § 2. A farther Answer from St. Paul That the visible things of the Creation are a sufficient proof of the Being of a God and of the Laws of Nature § 3. The laboriousness of our Method no material Objection § 4. An explicit Idea of this Common Good not always necessary to its observation § 5. Another Objection against our Method That it makes every man's obligation to endeavour this Common Good to arise from its being chiefly good to himself Answer That this if it be considered will prove a mistake though I grant our Obligation to it as a Law cannot extend farther than as it concerns our happiness or misery § 6 7. A Reply to the Objections of the Epicureans The first Objection That it seems not suitable to God's goodness c. to permit this great End of the Common Good to depend upon the unreasonable Passions and Lusts of mankind Answ. That God intended Man for a voluntary Creature to be moved by moral Evil as well as Good and that God notwithstanding all this restrains his Actions by his infinite Power and Providence § 8 9. Second Objection If this Law of Nature is so easie to be known how comes it to pass that so many Nations seem wholly ignorant of it many living without any knowledge of a God or of a moral Good or Evil § 10. Answer This Objection is of no more weight against the Certainty of this Law than it is against that of Arithmetick and Geometry but that if they are guilty of this ignorance it proceeds either from the Loss of the Tradition of the Creation or else from want of time or opportunities to consider these things § 11. Men's not making a due use of their faculties in discovering these Truths no objection against their certainty § 12. The last Objection That this Notion of the Common Good is a mere Platonick Idea without any reality in Nature § 13. This Objection in vain if it be considered That this Notion of the Common Good is made up of particulars and that from thence arises an Idea of a common or general Good which though a complex one is as true and real as any other and as agreeable to the Nature of things farther proved from Lock 's Essay and that Mr. H. himself cannot deny the Truth of this Notion § 14. Mr. H's great Rule of doing as you would be done by signifies nothing without respect to the Common Good of Mankind § 15. So neither that of preserving a Man's self or any other innocent person unless as it conduces to the Common Good of Mankind § 16. Not only the whole Law of Nature but the revealed Law of Moses and
Occupancy or Possession since it is evident That this more exact Property or Dominion consisting in a stricter and more limitted use of these Things hath a greater efficacy in order to the Happiness and Preservation of that Nation or part of Mankind which have thus agreed to it than the bare Occupancy or Possession of these Things had before such a Division made or agreed upon nor can it now be altered however perhaps hard and unequal it may prove to some particular Persons since it will always conduce to the Happiness and Tranquility of each particular Civil Society or Commonweal that it should continue as it doth than it should be still altered according to every Man 's particular Fancy or Interest since such a Change can never be made without inconceivable Discontents and Civil Dissentions which would quickly end in open Violence and Hostility § 30. So that from these Principles here laid down there is no Right conferred upon any Man of doing whatever his own wild Fancy or unbounded Appetite may prompt him to but only what he shall according to right Reason truly judge necessary to his own or Family's Happiness and Preservation in order to the Common Good of Mankind Therefore I here desire you to take notice that whatever Right we enjoy even to the things most necessary for our Preservation it is founded if not in the Precept yet at least permission of this great Law of Nature of endeavouring the Common Good of Rational Beings when we truly judge according to the Nature of things concerning the means necessary and conducing to this great End so that it can never be proved that any one hath a right of Preserving himself unless it be first made out how this Right of Self-preservation conduces to or at least consists with this Common Good Since no Rational Man can ever believe that God intended the Preservation much less the Sensual Pleasures of any one Man as the Sole End of His Creation Which Principle being once established as the Foundation and Original of all the Natural or Civil Rights we enjoy our own natural Powers and Rights will appear so limitted thereby that we cannot without injury and injustice violate or invade the Rights of others much less break out into open War against them without just Cause nay all those Arguments by which any one Man can assume a Right to Preserve himself by the Law of Nature will likewise be of the same force to prove that he ought to Preserve others also and that it can never become lawful for us in any State to rob Innocent Persons of what is necessary for their Well-being and Preservation but rather on the contrary that all Men's natural Rights should be secured from the mischiefs of unreasonable Violence and War and Contention which natural Security in a Civil State or Commonweal is highly improved and encreased by the Assistance of Humane Skill and Industry according to the established Laws of Property or Dominion § 31. I have spoken thus much concerning the necessary Connexion between the particular Actions above mentioned and the Common Good of Mankind that by considering their relation to this Great End the Nature of all Humane Actions may more certainly be known and predetermined Since the Dependance of natural Effects on their Causes are absolutely necessary and immutable for as well in the state of Nature or Community as of Civil Society or separate Property those Humane Actions which cause or procure that the minds of all other Persons should not be prejudiced by Errors Lyes or Perfidiousness nor their Bodies hurt nor their Lives Goods Fames and Chastities violated or taken away and also by which a grateful return is rendred to those that have done us good or in short all those Actions by which the true happiness of any one Man or more is procured without injury to others as they always were so they ever will be the certain Causes of the Common Good and Happiness of Mankind and are therefore distinguished by the Titles of moral Vertues as I shall more at large demonstrate in this Discourse when I come to shew how all moral Vertues are derived from and at last resolved into this Principle of the Common Good of Rational Beings But least the variousness of the Observations treated of in this Chapter and their Independance upon each other should render them perplext and consequently unconvincing to Common Readers who may not be able to carry so long a train of consequences in their minds I shall contract what hath been now said into these few plain Propositions 1. That though all particular men are mortal and but of a short duration yet that God hath still preserved mankind without any sensible failure or decay 2. That in Order to this God hath made man to be propagated by Generation and also to be preserved by divers outward means which we call necessaries of Life 3. That these Natural means can no way answer this End but as they are allowed or appropriated to the uses and occasions of particular Persons during the time they stand in need of them and so cannot at the same time answer the different or contrary desires and necessities of divers men endeavouring to use these things after contrary or different manner 4. That the taking away those necessaries of Life which another is rightly possessed of doth not only cause the ruine and destruction of that Person and his Family who were thus possessed of them but by causing a perpetual strife among Mankind will render these things uncapable of being made use of at all for their Common Good and Preservation 5. That such a Strife if prosecuted to the utmost will certainly end in the destruction not only of particular Persons and Nations but of all mankind contrary to God's design 6. From all which we may Rationally collect that God designs the Preservation and Happiness of Mankind as also of all Individual Persons as parts of it as far as their frail and mortal Natures will permit and in subordination to the good of the whole body thereof 7. That therefore there are no surer means to procure this great End of the Common Good of Mankind than an Universal Benevolence towards Rational Beings consisting First in Divine Love or Piety towards God and in Respect of Men not only in permitting each other quietly to enjoy all the necessaries of Life but also in making a settled division of them to others so as to be appropriated to several mens uses or occasions which dictates being given us by God as a rule of all our moral Actions in the exercise of which is contained our truest Happiness as in its violation our greatest Misery is therefore truly and properly a Law and indeed the Summ of all the Laws of Nature CHAP. II. Observations and Conclusions drawn from the consideration of Humane Nature and Right Reason as also from the Nature of God § 1. HAving in the former Chapter drawn such easie
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
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
necessary for the Common Good and Preservation and consequently that of all Mankind Sect. 4. A more certain Account of Good and Evil as well Natural as Moral than what Mr. H. hath given us Sect. 5. Mr. H. notwithstanding all he hath said to the contrary acknowledges a Common Good in the state of Nature Sect. 6. The difference between a Natural and a Moral Good and wherein it consists The confounding of these the great cause of Mr. H's Errours in this Matter Sect. 7. Mr. H. sometimes blames this narrow Humour in some men that desire nothing but their own private advantage and likewise confesses that that is a greater good which benefits more persons than what doth good but to a few Sect. 8. That notwithstanding all what Mr. H. hath said to the contrary all rational and good men must acknowledge that to be good which tends to the happiness and preservation of Mankind and which likewise may any ways contribute to effect it That if we do not make the Common Good of Rational Agents the End of all our Actions all our Notions about Moral as well as Natural Good will be various and uncertain Sect. 9. The Heads of the Seventh Principle That the State of Nature is a State of War That all Mr. H's precedent Principles tend only to prove this darling one If therefore those are well answered this Principle must fall His New Reasons in his Leviathan proposed He deduces this state of War from Three Causes in the Nature of Man 1st Competition 2dly Diffidence 3ly Glory Each of which do in their turns make men fall together by the ears A state of War not only that of actual fighting but all that time wherein mens Inclination to it may be certainly known illustrated by a Simile of rainy Weather Sect. 1. Answer to this Argument 'T is first observed that Mr. H. differs in his manner of proving the necessity of this state of War differs in his Leviathan from that in his De Cive Since he here only supposes such a War to be lawful without any other proof Sect. 2. 2 d. Observation That this Author in his Argument here proposed doth still take the Natural state of Man only from his Passions without any consideration of Reason or Experience which is contrary to what he had before laid down when he made Experience any of the Faculties of the Mind Yet that none of these Passions do necessarily and uninevitably hurry men into a State of War Sect. 3. That none of these Persons if governed by Reason ought to incite men to War and that Reason can never perswade men to fall together by the ears out of Competition Sect. 4. That Diffidence of others can never if duly considered be any Motive to make War with all men since such a War is not only destructive in its own nature but also impracticable Sect. 5. Mr. H. appeals to experience of what men do for their own security answered as also his Simile from the Weather Sect. 6 He himself grants that there was never actually throughout the World such a state of War as he describes His instances from the Savage People of America make rather against than for him proved by Authorities of Travellers Sect. 7. His Instance from the practice of Sovereign Powers proved to be of no force Sect. 8. Answer to his Argument from the Passion of Glory which doth not inevitably hurry men to War since it is more often mastered by other greater Passions as Fear of Death Desire of things necessary c. Observation That the same Passions which excite men to War do also with him at other times perswade them to Peace and that those Passions are really the more strong that do so Sect 9. Mr. H's Argument from certain Peculiarities in Humane Nature why men cannot live as sociably with each other as Brutes The 1st Competition for Honours c. Answer No Argument to be drawn from this in the state of Nature Sect. 10. His 2d Reason answered That the Common Good among Brutes differs not from the Private as it does among Men. Sect 11. Answer to his 3d. Instance That Creatures not having the use of Reason do not find fault with the Administration of the Commonwealth That this can be no Argument in the state of Nature before Common-wealths are instituted c. Sect. 12. Answer to his 4th Reason That Brutes have not the use of Speech and so cannót make Good seem Evil and Evil Good Men not in a worse condition than Brutes by reason of Speech but rather in a better Sect. 13. Answer to his 5th Reason That Brutes do not distinguish between Injury and Damage whereas it is otherwise in men Sect. 14. Answer to his last Reason That the agreement of Brutes is natural but in Men artificial Sect. 15. So much granted Mr. H. That men are tormented with divers Passions which Beasts are not And so on the other side men are endued with other Passions which move them more strongly to Concord Sect. 16. A farther Consideration of the absurdity and Inconsistency of this Hypothesis of a Natural state of War Sect. 17. The Heads of the Eighth Principle That mutual Compacts of Fidelity are void in the state of Nature but not so in a Common-wealth His Reason for it Because where Covenants are made upon a mutual trust of future Performances either Party may chuse whether he will perform or not because he is not sure that the other will perform his Part also And of this he is the sole judge But that it is otherwise in a Civil State where there is a Common Power to compel either of them that refuse Sect. 1. The reason apparent why he supposes Civil Sovereigns always in a state of War Sect. 2. Upon these Principles it is altogether in vain for Princes or States to make any Leagues or Treaties of Peace with each other This Notion gives them also a Right of putting to death or making Slaves of Embassadors and all others that come into their Dominions Sect. 3. That upon this Principle of Mr. H's if Compacts do not bind in the state of Nature neither will they be of any force in a Civil State if either all or the major part of the Contractors should have all at once a mind to break them upon pretence that either others do not perform their Parts or that they fear they will not do it Sect. 4. Mr. H. far exceeds his Master Epicurus in this Evil Principle Sect. 5. The Heads of the Ninth Principle The Law of Nature is not truly a Law unless as it is delivered in the Holy Scripture His Reasons for it That though they are Dictates of Reason yet that for want of a Legislator and of sufficient security for those that shall observe them they are not Laws but as delivered in Scripture Sect. 1. That it hath been already proved that this Law of endeavouring the Common Good is the sum of all the Laws of Nature and
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
it is thus naturally determined Nor will he allow any difference by Nature between men and other Creatures neither between men endued with Reason and those that have not yet attained the use of it neither between Fools and Madmen and others that are of sound Vnderstanding and his Reason is this For whatever any Creature doth by the force of its Nature it doth it by the highest Right viz. because it acts as it is by Nature determined neither is it able to act otherwise Therefore among men whilst considered as living under the meer Empire of Nature as well he that doth not yet understand Reason or hath not acquired a habit of Virtue lives by the highest Right according to the Laws of his own Appetite as well as he that directs his Life according to the Rules of Reason So that as a Wise-man hath a Right to all things that Reason dictates or of living according to its Rules So likewise the ignorant and foolish hath a like right to all things which their Appetites desire So that every man's Natural Right is not determined by Right Reason but by Power and Appetite For all men are not naturally ordained to operate according to the Laws of Reason but on the contrary are born ignorant of all things and before they come to know the true Rules of life or acquire a habit of Vertue a great part of their life slips away tho' they are never so well educated And therefore he concludes that whatever any one does in order as he thinks to his own preservation or the satisfaction of Sensual Appetites whilst he is in this meer state of Nature it is lawful because the only Rule he hath to act by § 9. Having given you all that can be said for this wicked as well as foolish Opinion in their own words I shall now endeavour to confute it In the first place therefore I observe that this which they call the right of Nature and which Mr. H. defines to be a state of perfect Liberty is in their sense no other than that of absolute necessity And therefore I shall leave it to the Reader to judge how properly this word Right belongs to Brutes Infants and Fools For the Word Right is used by those that treat of Ethicks only in respect of reasonable men as capable of deliberation and judgment and endued with freedom of Action and so subject to Laws For to call that necessity by which Fishes devour each other and Mad-men beat their Keepers a Right were as proper to talk of a Right of Stones to fall downwards no Philosophers but these ever using the word Right for necessity but a liberty left by the Law of Nature of acting according to Reason 2ly The last Author confounds the nature of Beasts Fools and Mad-men who have no knowledge of a God or sense of a Moral Good and Evil with that of rational Creatures who are ordained for greater ends and to be governed by a higher Law than that of meer Appetite or Passion And I desire these Gentlemen to shew us that such unreasonable Appetites and Passions do necessarily and unevitably carry men to act constantly according to them so that the men had then no power left to oppose resist or restrain them and tho' we grant that Children are not yet sensible and Fools and Mad-men are never perhaps capable of the Laws of Reason or Nature and so cannot be subject to them nor are to be esteemed amongst voluntary Agents Yet doth it not follow that those that are of Mature Age and sound Minds and so cannot plead invincible ignorance of the Laws of Nature but out of their own wilful humour or unreasonable Appetites neglect to know or learn or through wilful ignorance transgress it should claim the like exemption For though we are not angry with Children or natural Fools if they cry for or take away any thing they see and pity mad people even while they are outragious with those that tend them Yet have we not the same forbearance and pity for men of sound Minds and mature Age if they do the like unreasonable things and govern themselves by no other Law but their own unreasonable Appetites and Passions Since it was in their power both to have known and acted otherwise and to have deliberated and judged whether it were not better for them to forbear such evil Acts than to do them § 10. Neither can invincible ignorance be any excuse as to them for though perhaps they may not have Brains fit for the Mathematicks or are not able to deduce all the Laws of Nature from their true Principles yet by the Precepts of others as well as their own Reason and the observation of their own Natures as well as other mens they might easily have learnt all the Duties of an honest man that is their Duty towards their Neighbour by that Golden Rule of doing as they would be done by And their Duty towards themselves by endeavouring their own true happiness and preservation by the only means tending thereunto viz. Without injuring others and doing their Duty towards God in reverencing him and obeying his Will when discovered to them also in endeavouring to the utmost of their power the Common Good of Mankind and all which Principles have been ever so natural to men that they have in all Ages acknowledged them to have still remained the same Therefore Mr. H. as also the Author of the Treatise last mentioned are very much mistaken so directly to oppose our knowledge of the Laws of Nature to the Rational Nature of Man as if he were so much beholden to Art for them that he could never have acquired them himself without teaching which were all one as to say That because most men learn Arithmetick therefore it is so absolutely besides or above Nature that no man ever attained it of himself which is contrary both to Reason and Experience since both Arithmetick and Geometry as also Ethicks must have been natural to those that first taught them But I have already sufficiently proved by Mr. H's own Concession That Reason and Experience are as natural to Humane Nature as Hunting is to Dog 's tho in both of them there is required both Exercise and Experience to learn it § 11. Nor doth Mr. H's Excuse which he gives us in the 13th Chapter of his Leviathan signify any thing viz. That mens Passions in the state of Nature are no Sins nor the Actions which proceed from them as long as they see no Power which can prohibit them For neither can a Law be known before it be made neither can it be made till they have agreed upon a Legislator To which may be easily answered that Mr. H. all along proceeds upon this False Supposition That God is not a Legislator without Divine Revelation nor that the Laws of Nature are properly his Laws both which Assertions if they have been proved false in the preceding Discourse it will certainly follow that
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