SECTION THE SECOND. OF THE NATURE OF LAWS IN GENERAL, LA AW, in it's most general and comprehenfive fenfe, fignifies a rule of action; and is applied indifcriminately to all kinds of action, whether animate or inanimate, rational or irrational. Thus we fay, the laws of motion, of gravitation, of optics, or mechanics, as well as the laws of nature and of nations. And it is that rule of action, which is prescribed by fome fuperior, and which the inferior is bound to obey. THUS when the fupreme being formed the universe, and created matter out of nothing, he impreffed certain principles upon that matter, from which it can never depart, and without which it would ceafe to be. When he put that matter into motion, he established certain laws of motion, to which all moveable bodies must conform. And, to defcend from the greatest operations to the smallest, when a workman forms a clock, or other piece of mechanism, he establishes at his own pleasure certain arbitrary laws for it's direction; as that the hand fhall describe a given space in a given time; to which law as long as the work conforms, fo long it continues in perfection, and anfwers the end of it's formation. If we farther advance, from mere inactive matter to vegetable and animal life, we fhall find them ftill governed by laws; more numerous indeed, but equally fixed and invariable. The whole progrefs of plants, from the feed to the root, and from thence to the feed again;-the method of animal nu trition, trition, digeftion, fecretion, and all other branchesof vital oeconomy;-are not left to chance, or the will of the creature itself, but are performed in a wondrous involuntary manner, and guided by unerring rules laid down by the great creator. THIS then is the general fignification of law, a rule of action dictated by fome fuperior being: and, in those creatures that have neither the power to think, nor to will, fuch laws must be invariably obeyed, so long as the creature itself fubfifts, for it's existence depends on that obedience, But laws, in their more confined fenfe, and in which it is our prefent business to confider them, denote the rules, not of action in general, but of human action or conduct; that is, the precepts by which man, the nobleft of all fublunary beings, a creature endowed with both reafon and freewill, is commanded to make use of thofe faculties in the general regulation of his behaviour. MAN, confidered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws of his creator, for he is entirely a dependent being. A being, independent of any other, has no rule to purfue, but fuch as he prescribes to himself; but a state of dependence will inevitably oblige the inferior to take the will of him, on whom he depends, as the rule of his conduct: not indeed in every particular, but in all thofe points wherein his dependence confifts. This principle therefore has more or lefs extent and effect, in proportion as the fuperiority of the one and the dependence of the other is greater or less, abfolute or limited. And confequently, as man depends abfolutely upon his maker for every thing, it is neceffary that he should in all points conform to his maker's will. For THIS will of his maker is called the law of nature. as God, when he created matter, and endued it with a principle of mobility, eftablished certain rules for the perpetual direction of that motion; fo, when he created man, and endued him with freewill to conduct himself in all parts of life, he laid down certain immutable laws of human nature, whereby C 4 whereby that freewill is in fome degree regulated and reftrained, and gave him alfo the faculty of reafon to discover the purport of those laws. CONSIDERING the creator only as a being of infinite power, he was able unquestionably to have prescribed whatever laws he pleafed to his creature, man, however unjuft or severe. But as he is also a being of infinite wisdom, he has laid down only fuch laws as were founded in those relations of justice, that exifted in the nature of things antecedent to any positive precept. Thefe are the eternal, immutable laws of good and evil, to which the creator himself in all his difpenfations conforms; and which he has enabled human reafon to discover, fo far as they are neceffary for the conduct of human actions. Such among others are these principles: that we should live honestly, should hurt nobody, and should render to every one his due; to which three general precepts Juftinian has reduced the whole doctrine of law. BUT if the discovery of these first principles of the law of nature depended only upon the due exertion of right reason, and could not otherwise be obtained than by a chain of metaphyfical difquifitions, mankind would have wanted some inducement to have quickened their inquiries, and the greater part of the world would have rested content in mental indolence, and ignorance it's infeparable companion. As therefore the creator is a being, not only of infinite power, and wisdom, but also of infinite goodness, he has been pleased so to contrive the conftitution and frame of humanity, that we should want no other prompter to inquire after and pursue the rule of right, but only our own felf-love, that univerfal principle of action. For he has fo intimately connected, fo infeparably interwoven the laws of eternal juftice with the happiness of each individual, that the latter cannot be attained but by obferving the former; and, if the former be punctually obeyed, it cannot but induce the latter. In confequence of which mutual connection of justice and human felicity, he a Juris praecepta funt haec, bor fe vivere, alterum non la dere, fuum cuique tribueres Inft. 1. 1. 3. has has not perplexed the law of nature with a multitude of abftracted rules and precepts, referring merely to the fitness or unfitness of things, as fome have vainly furmifed; but has graciously reduced the rule of obedience to this one paternal precept, "that man should pursue his own true and substan"tial happiness." This is the foundation of what we call ethics, or natural law. For the feveral articles into which it is branched in our fyftems, amount to no more than demonftrating, that this or that action- tends to man's real happiness, and therefore very juftly concluding that the performance of it is a part of the law of nature; or, on the other hand, that this or that action is destructive of man's real happiness, and therefore that the law of nature forbids it. THIS law of nature, being coeval with mankind and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe in all countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this; and fuch of them as are valid derive all their force, and all their authority, mediately or immediately, from this original, BUT in order to apply this to the particular exigencies of each individual, it is ftill neceffary to have recourse to reafon: whose office it is to difcover, as was before obferved, what the law of nature directs in every circumstance of life; by confidering, what method will tend the most effectually to our own substantial happiness. And if our reafon were always, as in our first ancestor before his tranfgreffion, clear and perfect, unruffled by paffions, unclouded by prejudice, unimpaired by disease or intemperance, the task would be pleasant and eafy; we fhould need no other guide but this, But every man now finds the contrary in his own experience; that his reafon is corrupt, and his understanding full of ignorance and error. THIS has given manifold occafion for the benign interpofition of divine providence; which, in compaffion to the frailty, the imperfection, and the blindness of human rea fon, fon, hath been pleased, at fundry times and in divers manners, to discover and enforce it's laws by an immediate and direct revelation. The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and they are to be found only in the holy fcriptures. These precepts, when revealed, are found upon comparison to be really a part of the original law of nature, as they tend in all their confequences to man's felicity. But we are not from thence to conclude that the knowlege of these truths was attainable by reafon, in it's prefent corrupted fate; fince we find that, until they were revealed, they were hid from the wifdom of ages. As then the moral precepts of this law are indeed of the fame original with those of the law of nature, fo their intrinfic obligation is of equal ftrength and perpetuity. Yet undoubtedly the revealed law is of infinitely more authenticity than that moral system, which is framed by ethical writers, and denominated the natural law. Because one is the law of nature, expressly declared fo to be by God himself; the other is only what, by the affiftance of human reason, we imagine to be that law. If we could be as certain of the latter as we are of the former, both would have an equal authority: but, till then, they can never be put in any competition together, UPON these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation, depend all human laws; that is to fay, no human laws fhould be fuffered to contradict thefe. There are, it is true, a great number of indifferent points, in which both the divine law and the natural leave a man at his own liberty; but which are found neceffary for the benefit of society to be restrained within certain limits. And herein it is that human laws have their greateft force and efficacy: for, with regard to fuch points as are not indifferent, human laws are only declaratory of, and act in fubordination to, the former. To inftance in the cafe of murder: this is exprefsly forbidden by the divine, and demonftrably by the natural law; and from thefe prohibitions arifes the true unlawfulness of this crime. Thofe human laws that annex 2 punishment to it, do not at all increafe it's moral guilt, or fuperadd |