tain immutable laws of human nature, whereby that freewill is in ſome degree regulated and reſtrained, and gave him alſo the faculty of reaſon 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 pleaſed to his creature, man, however unjuſt or ſevere. But as he is alſo a being of infinite wiſdom, he has laid down only ſuch laws as were founded in thoſe relations of juſtice, that exiſted in the nature of things antecedent to any poſitive precept. Theſe are the eternal, immutable laws of good and evil, to which the creator himſelf in all his diſpenſations conforms; and which he has enabled human reaſon to diſcover, ſo far as they are neceſſary 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 Juſtinian[1] 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 attained than by a chain of metaphyſical diſquiſitions, 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 inſeparable 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 conſtitution and frame of humanity, that we ſhould want no other prompter to enquire after and purſue the rule of right, but only our own ſelf-love, that univerſal principle of action. For he has ſo intimately connected, ſo inſeparably interwoven the laws of eternal juſtice with the happineſs of each individual, that the latter cannot be attained but by obſerving the former; and, if the former be punctually obeyed, it cannot but induce the latter. In conſequence of which mutual connection of juſtice and human felicity, he has not per-
- ↑ Juris praecepta ſunt haec, honeſte vivere, alterum non laedere, ſuum cuique tribuere. Inſt. 1. 1. 3.
