第21章 Of the other Lawes of Nature(7)

XXXI.All Writers doe agree that the Naturall Law is the same with the Morall.Let us see wherefore this is true.We must know therefore,that Good and Evill are names given to things to signifie the inclination,or aversion of them by whom they were given.But the inclinations of men are diverse,according to their diverse Constitutions,Customes,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 doe,necessary it is there should be discord,and strife:They are therefore so long in the state of War,as by reason of the diversity of the present appetites,they mete Good and Evill by diverse measures.All men easily acknowledge this state,as long as they are in it,to be evill,and by consequence that Peace is good.They therefore who could not agree concerning a present,doe 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 followes 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)Vertues.The Law therefore,in the means to Peace,commands also Good Manners,or the practise of Vertue:And therefore it is call'd Morall.

XXXII.But because men cannot put off this same irrationall appetite,whereby they greedily prefer the present good (to which,by strict consequence,many unfore-seen evills doe adhere)before the future,it happens,that though all men doe agree in the commendation of the foresaid vertues,yet they disagree still concerning their Nature,to wit,in what each of them doth consist;for as oft as anothers good action displeaseth any man,that action hath the name given of some neighbouring vice;likewise the bad actions,which please them,are ever entituled to some Vertue;whence it comes to passe that the same Action is prais'd by these,and call'd Vertue,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 goodnesse of actions to consist in this,that it was in order to Peace,and the evill in this,that it related to discord,they built a morall Philosophy wholly estranged from the morall Law,and unconstant to it self;for they would have the nature of vertues seated in a certain kind of mediocrity betweene 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 vertue,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,then I owe him.The Lawes of Nature therefore are the summe of Morall Philosophy,whereof I have onely delivered such precepts in this place,as appertain to the preservation of our selves against those dangers which arise from discord.But there are other precepts of rationall nature,from whence spring other vertues:for temperance also is a precept of Reason,because intemperance tends to sicknesse,and death.And so fortitude too,(that is)that same faculty of resisting stoutly in present dangers,(and which are more hardly declined then overcome)because it is a means tending to the preservation of him that resists.

XXXIII.But those which we call the Lawes of nature (since they are nothing else but certain conclusions understood by Reason,of things to be done,and 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)Lawes,as they proceed 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 Lawes:for the sacred Scripture is the speech of God commanding over all things by greatest Right.