vour to prove, from the nature of man, and the genius of civil fociety. The general appetite of self-preservation being most indispensable to every animal, nature hath made it the strongest of all. And though, in the rational, this faculty alone might be fuppofed fufficient to answer the end, for which that appetite is bestowed on the others, yet, the better to fecure that end, nature hath given man, likewise, a very confiderable share of the fame instinct, with which she hath endowed brutes fo admirably to provide for their prefervation. Now whether it was fome plaftic Nature that was here in fault, which Bacon fays, knows not how to keep a mean*, or, that it was all owing to the perverse use of human liberty, certain it is, that, borne away with the luft of gratifying this appetite, man, in a state of nature, foon ran into very violent exceffes; and never thought he had sufficiently provided for his own being, till he had deprived his fellows of the free enjoyment of theirs. Hence, all thofe evils of mutual violence, rapine, and flaughter, which, in a state of nature, where all are equal, muft needs be abundant. Becaufe, though man, in this ftate, was not without a law, which exacted punishment on evil doers, yet, the administration of that law not being in common hands, but either in the perfon offended, who being a party would be apt to inforce the punishment to excefs; or elfe in the hands of every one, as the offence was against all, and affected the good of each not immediately or directly, would be executed remiffly. And very often, where both these executors of the law of nature were difpofed, the one to be impartial, and the other not remifs in the adminiftration of juftice, they would yet want fufficient power to enforce it. Which together would fo much inflame the evils above mentioned, that they would foon become as general, and as intolerable, as the Hobbeift represents them in that state to be, were it not for the reftraining principle of RELIGION, which kept men from running into the confufion necef * Mcdum tenere nefcia eft. Augm. Scient. farily farily consequent on the principle of inordinate felf-love. But yet Religion could not operate with fufficient efficacy, for want, as we obferved before, of a common Arbiter, who had impartiality fairly to apply the rule of right, and power to enforce its operations. So that these two PRINCIPLES were in endless jar; in which, Juftice generally came by the worst. It was therefore found neceffary to call in the CIVIL MAGISTRATE as the Ally of Religion, to turn the balance. Jura inventa metu injufti, fateare neceffe eft, Thus was Society invented for a remedy against injustice; and a Magiftrate, by mutual confent, appointed, to give a fanction "to that common measure, to which, reafon teaches us, that "creatures of the fame rank and fpecies, promifcuously born to "the fame advantages of nature and to the ufe of the fame fa"culties, have all an equal right*." Where it is to be observed, that though fociety provides for all thofe conveniences and accommodations of a more elegant life, which man must have been content to have lived without, in a state of nature; yet it is more than probable that these were never thought of when Society was first established +; but that they were the mutual violences and injustices, at length become intolerable, which fet men upon contriving this generous remedy: Because Evil felt hath a much stronger influence on the mind than Good imagined; and the means of removing the one is much easier difcovered, than the way to procure the other. And this, by the wise difpofition of the Creator; the avoiding pain * Locke. + Though the judicious Hooker thinks thofe advantages were principally intended, when man first entered into fociety: this was the cause, says he, of mens uniting themselves at firft into politique focieties. Eccl. Pol. 1. i. § 10. pag. 25. 1. 1. His mafter Ariftotle, . though extremely concise, seems to hint, that this was but the secondary end of civil fociety, and that That was the first, which we make to be fo. His words are: yivoμém pòv ky tê Savivıxır, Soa dì rẽ tỷ v. Pol. lib. i. cap. 2. p. 396. B. Tom. III. Faris. 1639. fol. being neceffary to our nature; not fo, the procuring pleasure. Befides, the idea of those unexperienced conveniencies would be, at beft, very obfcure: and how unable men would be, before trial, to judge that Society would bestow them, we may guess by observing, how little, even now, the generality of men, who enjoy these bleffings, know or reflect that they are owing to fociety, or how it procures them; because it doth it neither immediately nor directly. But they would have a very lively sense of evils felt; and could fee that Society was the remedy, because the very definition of the word would teach them how it becomes fo. Yet because civil Society fo greatly improves human life, this improvement may be called, and not unaptly, the fecondary end of that Convention. Thus, as Ariftotle accurately observes in the words below, that which was at first conftituted for the fake of living, is carried on for the fake of happy living. This is further feen from fact. For we find thofe favage nations*, which happen to live peaceably out of fociety, have never once entertained a thought of coming into it, though they perceive all the advantages of that improved condition, in their civilized neighbours, round about them. Civil Society thus eftablished, from this time, as the poet fings, abfiftere bello Oppida cœperunt munire, & ponere leges, Ne quis fur effet, neu latro, neu quis adulter. But as before bare RELIGION was no preservative against moral diforders fo now, SOCIETY alone, would be equally unable to prevent them. : I. 1. For firft, its laws can have no further efficacy than to reftrain men from open tranfgreffion; while what is done amifs in * See § V. iv. 2. where it is fhewn, how it might happen that men, in a state of nature, might live together in peace: though we have there given the reasons why they very rarely do. private, private, though equally tending to the public hurt, efcapes their animadverfion; and man, fince his entering into Society, would have greatly improved his practice in this fecret way of mifchief. For now an effectual fecurity being provided against open violence, and the inordinate principle of felf-love being still the fame, fecret craft was the art to be improved; and the guards of Society invit ing men to a careless fecurity, what advantages this would afford to those hidden mischiefs which civil laws could not cenfure, is easy to conceive. 2. But, fecondly, the influence of civil Laws cannot, in all cafes, be extended even thus far, namely, to restrain open tranfgreffion. It caimot then, when the fevere prohibition of one irregularity threatens the bringing on a greater: and this will always be the cafe when the irregularity is owing to the violence of the sensual appetites. Hence it hath come to pass, that no great and opulent Community could ever punish fornication, in fuch a fort as its ill influence on Society was confeffed to deferve: because it was always found, that a fevere reftraint of this, opened the way to more flagitious lufts. 3. The very attention of civil Laws to their principal object occasions a further inefficacy in their operations. To understand this we must confider, that the care of the State is for the WHOLE, under which individuals are confidered but in the fecond place, as acceffaries only to that whole; the confequence of which is, that, for the fake of the Aggregate, individuals are sometimes left neglected; which happens when general, rather than particular views ingross the public attention. Now the care of Religion is for PARTICULARS; and a Whole has but the fecond place in its concern. But this is only touched upon to fhew, in paffing, the natural remedy far the defects here explained. 4. But this was not all, there was a further inefficacy in human Laws: the Legislature, in enquiring into the mutual duties of Citizens, arifing from their equality of condition, found thofe duties to be of two kinds: the first, they intituled the duties of PERFECT OBLIGATION; because civil Laws could readily, and commodioufly, and were, of neceffity, required to enforce their obfer-, vance. The other they called the duties of IMPERFECT OBLIGATION; not, that morality does not as ftrongly exact them, but because, civil Laws could not conveniently take notice of them; and, that they were fuppofed not fo immediately and vitally to affect the being of Society. Of this latter kind are gratitude, hofpitality, charity, &c. Concerning fuch, civil Laws, for these reasons, are generally filent. And yet, though it may be true, that these duties, which human Laws thus overlook, may not fo directly affect Society, it is very certain, that their violation brings on as fatal, though not so swift destruction, as that of the duties of perfect obligation. A very competent judge, and who alfo fpeaks the fentiment of Antiquity in this matter, hath not scrupled to say : " Ut "fcias per fe expetendam effe grati animi adfectionem, per fe fugienda res eft ingratum effe: quoniam nihil æque concordiam hu"mani generis diffociat ac diftrahit quam hoc vitium *. 66 5. But ftill further, befides these duties both of perfect and imperfect obligation, for the encouraging and enforcing of which civil Society was invented; Society itfelf begot and produced a new fet of duties, which are, to speak in the mode of the Legislature, of imperfect obligation: the firft and principal of which is that antiquated forgotten virtue called the LOVE OF OUR COUNTRY. 6. But laftly, Society not only introduced a new fet of duties, but likewise increased and inflamed, to an infinite degree, thofe inordinate appetites, for whose correction it was invented and introduced like fome kind of powerful medicines, which, at the very time they are working a cure, heighten the malignity of the dif cafe. For our wants increafe, in proportion as the arts of life adBut in proportion to our wants, fo is our uneafiness ;-to our uneafiness, so our endeavours to remove it-to our endeavours, so the weakness of human reftraint. Hence it is evident, that in vance. ..i VOL. I. * Seneca de Benef. lib. iv. I cap. 18. a STATE |