of the greatest of Authors, fays, That a Man, who is in this State of Ignorance, fhall not fin mortally, tho he commit Murder, and tho he 'thinks (mark this) at the fame time, that he does Ill (z). So that if a Man kill another, if he kill his Father, his Mother, his Brothers, his Sifters, his Mafter, his King, tho his Confcience tells him he does a wicked Action, he will not fin, provided he has the Happiness of being ignorant that there is a God. Who can have patience to hear fuch Doctrine, and not cry out against the Blafphemy and Impiety of it? This we did. But Clement XI. instead of giving ear to Complaints fo juft, has fent us has fent us a Bull which favours and supports those detestable Doctrines: and, because we cou'd not refolve to receive this Bull, the Pope declared us * entirely feparate from his Charity, and from that of the Holy Roman Church: In a word, he has excommunicated

us.

Let none imagine that the Jefuits difown the impious Doctrine of their Father Arriaga; on the contrary, he is a Man of whom they give a pompous Character. • He has deferv'd, say they, in the Bibliotheque of their Writers, (a) on account of the Delicacy of his Wit, the Excellency of his Doctrine, and his laudable Virtues, to be plac'd among the chief Luminaries of the So•ciety,'

(z) Ergo talis homo ignorans Deum non peccabit mortaliter etiamfi alium occidet, & putet fe malefacere. In his Theological Courfes, Vol. i. Tract. of the Unity of God and the Trinity, Difp. 2. Sect. 3, p. 31.

* See the Letters which begin with the Words Paftoralis Officii.

(a) Vir omnium judicio ob fubtilitatem ingenii, Doctrinæ præftantiam, & Virtutis commendationem, inter prima Societatis lumina merito collocandus, p. 729.

But

But by the way, If one of the brightest Luminaries of thofe Fathers is but Darkness, how * thick must be the Darkness of the whole Society? Yet, 'tis to this very Society that Clement XI. refers us by his Conftitution, because he only authorises the Doctrine which thofe Fathers have had the rashness. to teach.

But, to confound both the Conftitution and its Author, with all the Jefuits and the other Advocates for Ignorance, there needs nothing more than to set down what Cicero fays in his Treatife of Laws. He as much exalts human Nature, as all those ignorant Doctors have debased it; and efpecially as to what concerns the Knowledge of God, which is one of the Advantages that distinguishes us from other Animals. Our Soul (fays that Pagan) comes immediately from God; (b) and this perfectly coeleftial Origination gives us a right to fay, that we belong to the Gods, by virtue either of Confanguinity or Kindred, or, as he had faid a few Lines higher, we are of one and the fame Family with them, and our Genealogy is the fame; (obferve that they are the fame Terms which St. Paul us'd in his Sermon in the middle of Areopagus.) And, continues CiC cero, of all the numerous Species of living Creatures, Man alone has any Idea of the Divinity; and among Men, there is no Nation, how fierce or favage foever, but knows there must be

* Matthew vi. 33.

(6) Animum effe ingeneratum a Deo; ex quo vere vel ag natio nobis cum cœleftibus, vel genus, vel ftirps appellari poteft (paulò fupra) ut homines Deorum agnatione & gente teneantur; itaque ex tot generibus nullum eft animal præter hominem, quod habeat notitiam aliquam Dei; ipfifque in hominibus nulla gens eft, neque tam immanfueta, neque tam fera, quæ non etiamfi ignorer qualem habere Deum deceat, tamen habendum fciat. Cicero lib. 1. Leg.

a

a God, how unacquainted foever he may be • with the Attributes which characterise him."

CHAP. II.

Of the invincible Ignorance of the Law of Nature,

WE

E concluded the foregoing Chapter with the Declaration, even of a Pagan, that there is no Nation, how barbarous and fierce foever, but knows there must be a God: We fhall now fee, that, according to this fame Pagan, there is no Man but has fome knowledge of the Law Natural, and confequently of the principal Dutys which that Law prescribes to us.

Nature, fays Cicero, has not only given Mankind Reafon in general, but has also beftow'd upon them right Reafon, which is nothing lefs 'than a Law, as far as it commands or forbids any thing (a). Common Senfe, fays be, in another place (b), has fketch'd out the firft Notices ' of things in the Soul, and has given us a general Knowledge of them; according to which we rank what is Honourable under Virtue, and what is Scandalous under Vice.'

(4) Quibus enim ratio naturâ data eft, iifdem etiam recta ratio data eft; ergo & Lex quæ eft recta ratio in jubendo & vetando. Cic. de Leg. lib. 1.

(6) Nam & communis intelligentia nobis notas res efficit, eafque in animis noftris inchoavit, ut honesta in virtute ponantur, ip vitiis turpia. Cic. ibid.

4

'Tis

'Tis this fame Common Senfe, or this Natural Light, which has implanted in all Men, of what Nation foever they are, uniform Sentiments to approve Good, and reject Evil. For, in what Country, as Cicero fo justly obferves, is not Courtefy, Generosity, a Senfe of Favours, and Gratitude efteem'd? And where is the Place in ⚫ which the Proud, the Mischievous, the Cruel and Ungrateful, are not defpis'd and hated (c)? The Law natural is therefore a first Reason imprinted in Nature, which prefcribes what Things are to be done, and forbids the Things not to be done. And it was neceffary there fhould be a Law of this kind (d), which, by declaring against Vice, and taking the part of Virtue, might be the Spring of thofe Precepts we have • need of for a Good Life."

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But let no one imagine that Cicero confounds the Law Natural with the Pofitive Law. The Law he treats of here, is not a Law written upon a Plate, or a Stone, but 'tis right Reafon imprefs'd and feal'd by an immortal Nature, in an immortal Spirit (e). Thus, fays he, our greatest Philo

(c) Quæ autem natio non comitatem, non benignitatem, non gratum animum, & beneficii memorem diligit? Quæ fuperbos, quæ maleficos, quæ crudeles, quæ ingratos non afper natur, non odit Cic. ibid.

(d) Vitiorum emendatricem Legem effe oportet, commendatricemque Virtutum, ut ab ea vivendi Doctrina ducatur. Cic. ibid.

(e) Hanc igitur video Sapientiffimorum fuiffe Sententiam, Legem neque hominum ingeniis excogitatam, neque fcitum aliqued effe populorum, fed æternum quiddam quod univerfum mundum regeret, imperandi, prohihendique fapientiâ. Ita principem Legem illam & ultimam mentem effe dicebant omnia ratione aut cogentis aut vetantis Dei; ex qua illa Lex quam Dii humano generi dederunt, recte eft laudata. enim ratio ad jubendum & ad deterrendum idonea. Cic. de Leg. lib.z.

Eft

fophers were unanimously of this Opinion, that the Law of Nature is not a human Invention, nor any thing like the common Laws, but fomething Eternal, which regulates the Universe by the Wisdom of its Commands and Prohibitions. They therefore faid that this firft and laft Law, is the Mind of God himself, commanding or forbidding all things by Reason. And 'tis ⚫ from this Law, that the Law which the Gods have given to Mankind derives its Worth; for 'tis no other than Reafon which commands Good, ' and forbids its contrary. Therefore, says Cicero, in another place (f), whoever fhall attain to the "Knowledge of himself, will immediately perceive fomething in him that is Divine, namely this Reafon which commands Good, and forbids its 'contrary. He will confider his Mind as an Image of the Divinity confecrated in a Temple; and in this View of it, he will be continually doing ' and thinking fomething which is worthy of the 'Gods, who have made him fo great a Prefent.' To be plain,

Man finds what he is by those Lineaments which are fo natural to us, and which fo juftly characterife us; and, with Thanksgiving to Him who is the Principle of his Reason, he contemplates the Difference he has made betwixt him and other Animals. For what Creature but Man knows that he ought not to do to another, what he wou'd not have done to himfelf; and how many Dutys are contained in that which Reafon difcovers to us? What Creature but Man is fenfible that 'tis better to be a faithful, tender, compaffionate,

(f) Qui feipfum novit primum aliquid fentiet fe habere divinum ingeniumque in fe fuum ficut fimulacrum aliquod dedicatum putabit, tantoque munere Deorum, femper dignum aliquid & faciet & fentiet. Cic. de Leg. lib. I.

3

upright,