of the Question you like beft, it will not be lefs true and demonftrable, that the natural Difpofition of Humanity inclines you to Society, Tenderness and Compaffion, and to all Duties that depend thereon.

EVEN though fome Exceptions to this might be found among the innumerable Individuals that have made and still make up the Mafs of Mankind, all the reft would concur in a Difapprobation of any contrary Sentiment; they would declare it inhuman, and rectify it if poffible; and if it could not be rectified, they would punish the Authors of it, and quite feclude them from Society. Will any one dare to deny a Fact fo.notorious and common among Men ?

Now, if there is a general Law for Nature, there is also a special one for Mankind; and it is the latter that conftitutes the Law of Nations, and which, abftracted from any previous Convention, binds and obliges all Nations, and all People, to help one another to the fame Advantages, and mutually give each other the fame Honours, as Brothers of one Family. It is in Confequence of this

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neral

neral and fovereign Law, that all Societies are authorized to hold together, in order to employ Force against Rebels, and punish them by War and Slavery, and fuch Defolation as attends the fame, whenever they dare to trample upon those facred Laws of Mankind.

TH

CHA P. III.

HESE two original and fupreme Laws muft, in all Ages, have been productive of particular Laws, more or lefs extensive and durable, according as Nature and Humanity required it, both being liable to confiderable Changes through the Weakness and Defect of Matter. The grofs Exhalations from their Fund of Corruption, would at last have eclipsed the two Laws I am speaking of, had not the Author and Protector of Nature, who is alfo the Father and Guardian of Men, taken Care to draw these two architectonick Laws from behind the Clouds and Mifts which hid them from mortal Eyes. This is the Occasion and the Neceffity of the divinely revealed Law, and the fole and principal Source of all human Laws, which cannot acknowledge any other Foundation

H

Foundation than the Law of Nature and Humanity, adapted to Times and Places, to the Weaknefs, Cuftoms and Conveniencies of Men.

I HOPE I have, in the first Part of this Work, fufficiently fhewn the Contradictions and Obfcurities in which Men have involved the Source of Laws, and how they have concealed from themselves the most effential Truths, in fpight of the Efforts of Nature and Humanity, to preferve within their Breafts the Ground and the Subftance thereof. I even flatter myself to have proved, that it cannot be lawful to any one to rely on his own Discernment, nor on the Knowledge of other Individuals, to penetrate into and investigate the Laws of Nature and Humanity, and diffipate the Mifts in which they are involved, in Confequence of Man's Corruption. So that unless the fupreme Deity himself intervene by his paternal Care, to enlighten and strengthen us in this painful Tafk, we can make no Progrefs in it: All our Efforts to this Purpose would be fruitlefs, and probably pernicious, as is evident by the great Number of Differtations on Nature and Humanity, published within

within these thirty Years by the pretended Free-Reafoners.

IN fine, I doubt not but a little Reflection. on the Multiplicity and Variety of human Laws, with which we are beset on every Side, will force us to confefs, 1. That Man is very fick, fince he requires fo many different Medicines, and such extraordinary Regimens, to preserve him. 2. That all this does not produce the intended Effect, fince new Prescriptions are always wanting, to repair the Defect of the preceding Medicines. 3. That our Expectations from all those we might yet invent, are no better grounded. And, 4thly, that were they all laid afide and abolished, the World would immediately fall into the moft deplorable and fatal Chaos imaginable, and in less than one Generation be irrecoverably loft.

THIS is what the wifeft Legiftators and moft celebrated Civilians have unanimously confeffed in their learned Works; and to difpute it with them, would be downright Madness. And yet it cannot be denied, that all human Laws, or, at leaft, the greatest Part

of them, are an Emanation from the Law of Nature and Humanity, but fo confused and uncertain, that Corruption has been very frequently taken for Nature, and Prejudice for Humanity. And hence it is, that it is no Rarity to find Laws among Mankind that favour Vice and give a Sanction to Crimes: So that the Evil goes on increafing without End or Measure, unless the extreme Damage accruing from it rouze Mankind, and urge them to shake off this tyrannical and cruel Yoke, in order to fubmit to another, which fometimes is not worth the Trouble of an Exchange.

BUT even though the Emanation were good, and the Fund from whence the human Law is derived were pure Nature itself, we could not expect much from it; for in paffing through fuch corrupt Hands as those of mortal Men, it cannot fail of contracting Stains and Impurities in the Execution: Therefore they cannot avoid rectifying and purifying it now and then, and giving it a new Degree of Activity and Strength, that it may produce its Effects. Hence it is, that even the revealed Law has been liable to Reforms, and to

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