Vegetable and animal life are governed by laws more numerous indeed than thole of motion, 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 nutrition, digeftion, fecretion, and all other branches of vital œconomy; are not left to chance, or the will of the creature itfelf, but are performed in a wonderous manner, and guided by unerring rules laid down by the Great Creator. In those beings who have neither the power to think nor to will, thefe rules muft be invariably obeyed fo long as the being itfelf fubfifts, for its exiftence depends on that obedience: and thefe general rules thus dictated by the Superior Being, and collected from the facts which thefe relations produce, are denominated THE GENERAL LAWS OF NATURE, §. 2. Of the Laws of Human Nature. MAN, confidered as a phyfical or mechanical being, Montefq. Sp. is, like other bodies, under the guidance and domi- of Laws, 4. nion of the general laws of nature; but he is alfo a free and intelligent being, neceflarily endued, from his fituation in the chain of created things, with both power to think, and liberty to twill. 1. Comm. 41. Subject, however, from the finite nature of his Cumberland's conftitution, to ignorance and error, the Creator, in Law of Nat. his infinite goodnefs, has eftablifhed certain immutable rules of human action or conduct, founded on thofe relations of juftice that exifted in the nature of things antecedent to any pofitive precept, in which are contained the moral duties he indifpenfably requires from his creature MAN, in the general regulation of his behaviour (a); and on the practice of (a) Burlamaq. which all his happinefs depends (b). Thefe are the 225; Such, among others, are thefe principles; "that we fhould live honestly, fhould hurt nobody, and render to every one "his due;" to which three geneal precepts JUSTINIAN has re (b) Puffendorf, 8. eternal 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 at (c) Taylor's leaft as they are neceffary for human actions (c), by Elem. of Civil enduing the human mind with the faculty of seeing, 1. Burl. 156. comparing, examining, judging, and pronounGrotius, 1o. cing (d) the moral deformity of moral neceffity that (d) Cumb. L. there is in any act, according to its fuitableness or unTay. El.C.L fuitablenefs to a reasonable nature. Law, 99, 105. of N. 94 105. Burlamaqui, The dictates therefore of Right Reason, exercised in fuch a manner as God who communicated it intended it should be employed, are called, TнE LAWS OF HUMAN NATURE*. Thefe laws are alfo defined to be certain propofitions of unchangeable truth, which direct que voluntary actions, without chu. fing good or refufing evil, and impofe an obligation to external actions, even without civil laws. Cumberland's Laws of Nature, 39. §. 3. Of the Laws of Religion. SINCE the exercise of Right Reason brings us 1. vol. p. 160. acquainted with God as a felf-existent being, and fovereign lord of all things, and in particular as our Creator, Preferver, and Benefactor, it follows, that we ought to acknowledge his abfolute perfection, and our own dependance. This acknowledgment, by a natural confequence, infpires the mind with fentiments of refpect, love, fear, and admiration for the divine excellencies of our Maker, and with an entire fubmiffion to his will, and teaches us to honour, love, adore, and obey him. Love and gratitude cannot be refufed to a Being fupremely beneficent; the fear of offending him is a natural effect of the idea we entertain of his juftice and power; and obedience cannot but follow from the knowledge of his legitimate authority over us, and of his wifdom and bounty in conducting us by the road the most agreeable to our nature and happiness. The affemblage of these fentiments, deeply engraven in the heart, is called-PIETY. A mind penetrated with pious fentiments, will naturally find itself difpofed to speak and act in the manner manner which reafon points out as more conformable to the divine will and perfections; and the rules of conduct which reafon and piety fuggeft, constitute the first principles of the doctrines of MORALITY. But befide this manner of honouring God by following the precepts of morality, a good mind will confider it a pleafure and a duty, not only to ftrengthen in itself thefe fentiments, but to excite them in others. Hence external worship, as well public as private, is derived; and the duties pointed out by the performance of this worship, which attaches man to God, and to the obfervance of his laws, by thofe fentiments of refpect, love, fubmiffion, and fear, which the perfections of a Supreme Being, and our entire dependance on him as an all-wife and all bountiful Creator, are apt to excite in the human mind, conftitute what we diftinguish by the name of-NATURAL RELIGION. And if human reafon were clear and perfect, unruffled by paffions, unclouded by prejudice, unimpaired by difeafe or intemperance, MAN would require no other guide to difcover what the Law of Nature directs in every circumftance of life. But the fe- Puffendorf, . ductions of intereft and mistaken felf-loye, the prejudices of infancy, the errors of education, and the evil habits of life, obfcure the cleareft dictates of Right Reafon; and by the fuggeftions of fenfe he is Montef Sp. of hourly hurried away from his moral duty by a thou- L. 5. fand impetuous paffions, and is inceffantly tranfgreffing the laws established to promote his real happiness. Such a being is every inftant in danger of totally forgetting the precepts of his Creator. The Divine 1. Com. 42. Providence therefore, in compaffion to the frailty, the imperfections, and the blindnefs of human reafon, hath been pleafed at fundry times, and in divers manners, to remind him of his duty by the laws of religion, and to difcover and enforce its precepts by an immediate and direct revelation. The doctrines thus delivered, which are to be found only in the holy fcriptures, are called THE LAWS OF REVEALED RELIGION, B 4 MæviiProdro. Fulb. L. of RELIGION, and appear on comparison to be really a part of the original Law of Nature. Upon these two foundations, the Law of Nature and the Law of Revelation, depend all human laws; for being coeval with mankind, and dictated by God himself, they are of course fuperior in obligation to any other, and are binding all over the globe, in all countries and all times: no human laws, therefore, are of any validity if contrary to thefe; and fuch of them as are valid, derive all their force and all their authority, mediately or immediately, from this original. §. 4. Of the Law of Nations. IN defining the Laws of Nature and Religion, we have confidered mankind in their individual and natural capacities, as unconnected with any other conTayl. El. 129. dition of fociety than that which refults from a ftate merely gregarious. Hobbes de In this fituation, however, human nature cannot Cive, c. 14. long fubfift. Mankind, from a fenfe of their own Eden's Prin. of weakness, foon perceive that their mutual dependBenal Laws, 3. ence upon each other is neceffary to their mutual Montefq. Sp. of Laws, 7. Eden, 1. Puffendorf, bk. 7. c. 1. Ff. 1. 1. 9. 1. Bl. Com. prefervation. The confcioufnefs of this neceffity, conjoined to the natural fondnefs of the fpecies for fociety, becomes an inftinctive principle of union, and induces them to quit the unlimited but precarious enjoyments of individuals, for the greater fecurity and more permanent advantages which REASON points out as capable of being derived from the formation of a collective body, and the establishment of fociety. When fociety is once formed, government results of courfe; rules of conduct and covenants are then introduced; and the moral duties of benevolence, juftice, and adherence to compacts, become as evident to the human understanding, as they are effential to human happiness. But as it is imponible for the whole race of mankind to be united in one great fociety, they muft necef 43. neceifarily divide into many; and form separate states, commonwealths, and nations, entirely independent of each other, and yet liable to a mutual intercourfe. As none of thefe ftates, however, will acknowledge a fuperiority in the other, the law by which this intercourfe is to be regulated, cannot be dictated by either. THE LAW OF NATIONS, therefore, is a fyftem 4. Bl. Com. of rules deducible by natural reafon from the princi- 66, 67 ples of natural juftice, and established by univer fal confent among the civilized inhabitants (a) of the world, in order to decide all difputes, to regulate all ceremonies and civilities, and to enfure the obfervance of juftice and good faith in that intercourse which muft frequently occur between them and the individuals belonging to each; or they depend upon mutual compacts, treaties, leagues, and agreements between the refpective communities; in the conftruction of which there is alfo no judge to refort to but the law of nature and reafon, being the only one in which all the contracting parties are equally converfant, and to which they are all equally fubject. (a) "All countries," fays Montefquieu, "have a law of nations, not excepting the Iroquois themfelves, though they devour their prifoners; for they fend and re ceive Ambassadors, and understand §. 5. Of Political Law. ples of Politi THE primitive and original fociety which nature See Burlamaeftablished among men, was a ftate of equality and qui's Princiindependence, in which each individual poffeffed the cal Law, ch-2liberty of difpofing of his perfon and his property after the manner he judged moft convenient to his happiness, on condition of his acting within the limits of the Law of Nature, and of his not abufing it to the prejudice of other men: and if mankind, during the time they lived in natural fociety, had ex actly conformed to nature's laws, nothing would have been wanting to compleat their happincis; nor would there |