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Chapter III: Of the rule of human actions, and the true principle of the law of nature
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51 u c h a p t e r i i i u Of the rule of human actions, and the true principle of the law of nature. section lx Such, we have already seen, is the nature of our free actions, that they must have a rule to direct them (§4); there we likewise shewed that a rule could not serve the purposes of a rule, if it be not streight or right, certain, evident, and invariable, and have external as well as internal obligation . Let us now enquire a little more accurately what this rule is which hath all these properties essential to a rule for human, free, moral actions.* * Let us not confound the rule of human actions with the principle of natural law. The former is what philosophers call the (principium essendi) because it constitutes the principle or source of obligation to us. By the latter we understand principium cognoscendi, i.e. the principle, the truth or proposition from which our obligation to any action appears or may be deduced. These are different, even with regard to civil states. For the source or principle of the obligation under which all the members of any state whatsoever lie, is the will of the supreme authority in that state, and that is also the rule to which every member of a state is obliged to conform himself. But if it is asked whence or how that supreme will may be known, in every state you will be referred to its laws; and therefore, these are likewise in every state the sole and adequate principle or source of knowledge with respect to civil duties and obligations. Of what nature or kind the rule of human action must be. 52 the laws of nature and nations section lxi The rule of human actions must either be within us or without us. If it be within us, it can be none other but either our own will, or our understanding and conscience. Butneither of thesefacultiesisalwaysright, neither of them is always certain, neither of them is always the same and invariable; wherefore neither any of them, nor both of them together, can be the rule of human actions; whence it follows that the rule of human actions is not to be found in ourselves; but if there be any such, it must be without us. section lxii Now without us exist other created beings, and likewise a God, the author of all things which exist. But since we are enquiring after a rule of human actions, carrying with it an external obligation (§9) and made known or promulgated to all mankind by right reason (§11); and since external obligation consists in the will of some being, whose authority we acknowledge (§9), there being no other whose authority we are obliged more strictly to acknowledge than the infinitely perfect and blessed God (§10); and seeing he alone can promulgate any thing to us by right reason, of which he is the author, it follows, by necessary consequence , that the will of God must be the rule of human actions, and the principle or source of all natural obligation, and of all virtue.* section lxiii That this ruleis right cannotbedoubted,sinceaninfinitelyperfectBeing cannot will what is not perfectly good and right: it must be a certain rule, since reason discovers it to all men; and it must be unvariable, because the will of God can no more change, or be changed, than God himself, * We therefore fall in with the opinion of the celebrated Sam. a Cocceis, who in his dissertations already cited (§10) has demonstrated this truth by solid arguments, and likewise defended it against objections and censures with great judgment and The rule of human actions is not to be found in us, but without us. It is to be found in the will of God. The will of God is a right, certain, and constant rule. [44.193.29.184] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 07:23 GMT) book i, chapter iii 53 or right reason, by which it is discoverable. Finally, it must be obligatory, since God hath the justest claim and title to our obedience; and men have no reason or right to decline his authority, and cannot indeed if they would. Hence at the same time it is evident, that every will of God is not the rule of human actions, but his obligatory will only.* section lxiv Since therefore the obligatory will of God, which we have shewn...