CHAP. III. The laws of nature are some an act agreeable state of men wherein they are not practised by others. We are obliged yet, in the interim, to a readiness of mind to observe them, whensoever their observation shall seem to conduce to the end for which they were ordained. We must therefore conclude, that the law of nature doth always and everywhere oblige in the internal court, or that of conscience; but not always in the external court, but then only when it may be done with safety. 28. But the laws which oblige conscience, may times broken by be broken by an act not only contrary to them, but to those laws. also agreeable with them; if so be that he who does it, be of another opinion. For though the act itself be answerable to the laws, yet his conscience is against them. The laws of nature and eternal. 29. The laws of nature are immutable and are immutable eternal: what they forbid, can never be lawful; what they command, can never be unlawful. For pride, ingratitude, breach of contracts (or injury), inhumanity, contumely, will never be lawful, nor the contrary virtues to these ever unlawful, as we take them for dispositions of the mind, that is, as they are considered in the court of conscience, where only they oblige and are laws. Yet actions may be so diversified by circumstances and the civil law, that what is done with equity at one time, is guilty of iniquity at another; and what suits with reason at one time, Briefly, in the state of nature, what is just and unjust, is not to be esteemed by the actions but by the counsel and conscience of the actor. That which is done out of necessity, out of endeavour for peace, for the preservation of ourselves, is done with right, otherwise every damage done to a man would be a breach of the natural law, and an injury against God, is contrary to it another. Yet reason is still the CHAP. III. same, and changeth not her end, which is peace and defence, nor the means to attain them, to wit, those virtues of the mind which we have declared above, and which cannot be abrogated by any custom or law whatsoever. vours to fulfil the laws of ua ture, is just. 30. It is evident by what hath hitherto been He who endea said, how easily the laws of nature are to be observed, because they require the endeavour only, (but that must be true and constant); which whoso shall perform, we may rightly call him just. For he who tends to this with his whole might, namely, that his actions be squared according to the precepts of nature, he shows clearly that he hath a mind to fulfil all those laws; which is all we are obliged to by rational nature. Now he that hath done all he is obliged to, is a just man. law is the same with the moral. 31. All writers do agree, that the natural law is The natural the same with the moral. Let us see wherefore this is true. We must know, therefore, that good and evil are names given to things to signify the inclination or aversion of them, by whom they were given. But the inclinations of men are diverse, according to their diverse constitutions, customs, opinions; as we may see in those things we apprehend by sense, as by tasting, touching, smelling ; but much more in those which pertain to the common actions of life, where what this man commends, that is to say, calls good, the other undervalues, as being evil. Nay, very often the same man at diverse times praises and dispraises the same thing. Whilst thus they do, necessary it is there should be discord and strife. They are, therefore, so long in the state of war, as by reason CHAP. III. of the diversity of the present appetite, they mete good and evil by diverse measures. All men easily acknowledge this state, as long as they are in it, to be evil, and by consequence that peace is good. They therefore who could not agree concerning a present, do agree concerning a future good; which indeed is a work of reason; for things present are obvious to the sense, things to come to our reason only. Reason declaring peace to be good, it follows by the same reason, that all the necessary means to peace be good also; and therefore that modesty, equity, trust, humanity, mercy, (which we have demonstrated to be necessary to peace), are good manners or habits, that is, virtues. The law therefore, in the means to peace, commands also good manners, or the practice of virtue; and therefore it is called moral. Whence it comes to concerning the law, is not the livered by philo ing the virtues. 32. But because men cannot put off this same pass, that what irrational appetite, whereby they greedily prefer hath been said the present good (to which, by strict consequence, same with what many unforseen evils do adhere) before the future: hath been de- it happens, that though all men do agree in the sophers concern- commendation of the foresaid virtues, yet they disagree still concerning their nature, to wit, in what each of them doth consist. For as oft as another's good action displeaseth any man, that action hath the name given of some neighbouring vice; likewise the bad actions which please them, are ever intituled to some virtue. Whence it comes to pass that the same action is praised by these, and called virtue, and dispraised by those, and termed vice. Neither is there as yet any remedy found by philosophers for this matter. For since they could not observe the goodness of actions to consist in this, that it was in order to peace, and the evil in this, CHAP. III. that it related to discord, they built a moral philosophy wholly estranged from the moral law, and unconstant to itself. For they would have the nature of virtues seated in a certain kind of mediocrity between two extremes, and the vices in the extremes themselves; which is apparently false. For to dare is commended, and, under the name of fortitude is taken for a virtue, although it be an extreme, if the cause be approved. Also the quantity of a thing given, whether it be great or little, or between both, makes not liberality, but the cause of giving it. Neither is it injustice, if I give any man more of what is mine own than I owe him. The laws of nature, therefore, are the sum of moral philosophy; whereof I have only delivered such precepts in this place, as appertain to the preservation of ourselves against those dangers which arise from discord. But there are other precepts of rational nature, from whence spring other virtues; for temperance, also, is a precept of reason, because intemperance tends to sickness and death. And so fortitude too, that is, that same faculty of resisting stoutly in present dangers, and which are more hardly declined than overcome; because it is a means tending to the preservation of him that resists. ture is not prop Holy Scripture. 33. But those which we call the laws of nature, The law of na (since they are nothing else but certain conclusions, erly a law, but as understood by reason, of things to be done and it is delivered in omitted; but a law, to speak properly and accurately, is the speech of him who by right commands somewhat to others to be done or omitted), are not in propriety of speech laws, as they pro VOL. II. E CHAP. III. ceed from nature. Yet, as they are delivered by God in holy Scriptures, as we shall see in the chapter following, they are most properly called by the name of laws. For the sacred Scripture is the speech of God commanding over all things by greatest right. The natural and moral law is divine. CHAPTER IV. THAT THE LAW OF NATURE IS A DIVINE LAW. 1. The natural and moral law is divine. 2. Which is confirmed in Scripture, in general. 3. Specially, in regard of the fundamental law of nature in seeking of peace. 4. Also in regard of the first law of nature in abolishing all things to be had in common. 5. Also of the second law of nature, concerning faith to be kept. 6. Also of the third law, of thankfulness. 7. Also of the fourth law, of rendering ourselves useful. 8. Also of the fifth law, concerning mercy. 9. Also of the sixth law, that punishment only looks at the future. 10. Also of the seventh law, concerning slander. 11. Also of the eighth law, against pride. 12. Also of the ninth law, of equity. 13. Also of the tenth law, against respect of persons. 14. Also of the eleventh law, of having those things in common which cannot be divided. 15. Also of the twelfth law, of things to be divided by lot. 16. Also of appointing a judge. 17. Also of the seventeenth law, that the arbiters must receive no reward for their sentence. 18. Also of the eighteenth law, concerning witnesses. 19. Also of the twentieth law, against drunkenness. 20. Also in respect of that which hath been said, that the law of nature is eternal. 21. Also that the laws of nature do pertain to conscience. 22. Also that the laws of nature are easily observed. 23. Lastly, in respect of the rule by which a man may presently know, whether what he is about to act, be against the law of nature, or not. 24. The law of Christ is the law of nature. 1. THE same law which is natural and moral, is also wont to be called divine, nor undeservedly; as well because reason, which is the law of nature, is |