Morality is

applicable to

5. We may add the circumstances of time, place, &c. which are alfo capable of making the good or bad actions furpafs one another in excellence or badnefs. We have borrowed thefe remarks from one of Barbeyrac's notes on Puffendorf".

XIII. Let us obferve, in fine, that morality is perfons as attributed to perfons as well as actions; and as acwell as ac- tions are good or bad, juft or unjuft, we fay likewife of men, that they are good or bad, virtuous or vicious.

tions.

A virtuous man is he that has a habit of acting conformably to the laws and his duty. A vicious man is one that has the oppofite habit.

Virtue therefore confifts in a habit of acting according to the laws; and vice in the contrary habit.

I faid that virtue and vice are habits. Wherefore to judge properly of these two characters, we fhould not stop at fome particular and tranfitory actions, we ought to confider the whole feries of the life and ordinary conduct of man. Hence we should not rank among the number of vicious men, those who through weakenefs or otherwise, have been fometimes induced to commit bad actions; as those who in particular cafes have done fome acts of virtue, do not merit the title of honest men. There is no fuch thing to be found in this world as virtue in every respect complete; and the weakness infeparable from man, requires we should not judge him

* See the Law of nature and nations, book I. chap. 8. §. 5. not. 1.

with

with full rigor. As 'tis allowed that a virtuous man may, through weakness and furprize, commit fome unjust actions; fo 'tis but right we fhould likewise own, that a man who has contracted feveral vicious habits, may notwithstanding, in particular cafes, do fome good actions, acknowledged and performed as fuch. Let us not fuppofe men worse than they really are, but take care to diftinguish the feveral degrees of iniquity and vice, as well as those of probity and virtue.

The End of the firft Part.

THE

THE

PRINCIPLES

OF

NATURAL LA W.

******************************* PART II.

Of the Law of NATURE.

In what the law of nature confifts, and that there is fuch a thing. First confiderations drawn from the existence of God and his au•thority over us.

I.

Α

this fecend

FTER having fettled the general Subject of principles of law, our business is part. now to apply them to natural law in particular. The questions we have to examine in this fecond part are of no less importance than to know, whether man, by his nature and conftitution, is really fubject to laws properly fo called? What are these

Whether

there are any natural laws.

laws? Who is the fuperior that imposes them? By what method or means is it poffible to know them? From whence refults the obligation of obferving them? What confequence may follow from our negligence in this respect? And, in fine, what advantage on the contrary may arise from the obfervance of these law?

II. Let us begin with a proper definition of the terms. By natural law we understand, a law that God impofes on all men, and which they are able to discover and know by the fole light of reafon, and by attentively confidering their state and nature.

Natural law is likewife taken for the fyftem, affemblage, or body of the laws of nature.

Natural jurifprudence is the art of attaining to the knowledge of the laws of nature, of explaining and applying them to human actions.

III. But whether there be really any natural laws, is the first question that presents itself here to our inquiry. In order to make a proper answer, we must afcend to the principles of natural theology, as being the first and true foundation of the law of nature. For when we are asked, whether there are any natural laws, this question cannot be refolved but by examining the three following articles. 1. Whether there is a God? 2. If there is a God, whether he has a right to impofe laws on man? 3. Whether God actually exercifes his right in this refpect, by really giving us laws, and requring we should square thereby our actions? These three points will furnish the fubject of this and the following chapters.

IV. The