For the same reason no man in any cause ought to be received for arbitrator to whom greater profit,or honour,or pleasure apparently ariseth out of the victory of one party than of the other:for he hath taken,though an unavoidable bribe,yet a bribe;and no man can be obliged to trust him.And thus also the controversy and the condition of war remaineth,contrary to the law of nature.
And in a controversy of fact,the judge being to give no more credit to one than to the other,if there be no other arguments,must give credit to a third;or to a third and fourth;or more:for else the question is undecided,and left to force,contrary to the law of nature.
These are the laws of nature,dictating peace,for a means of the conservation of men in multitudes;and which only concern the doctrine of civil society.There be other things tending to the destruction of particular men;as drunkenness,and all other parts of intemperance,which may therefore also be reckoned amongst those things which the law of nature hath forbidden,but are not necessary to be mentioned,nor are pertinent enough to this place.
And though this may seem too subtle a deduction of the laws of nature to be taken notice of by all men,whereof the most part are too busy in getting food,and the rest too negligent to understand;yet to leave all men inexcusable,they have been contracted into one easy sum,intelligible even to the meanest capacity;and that is:Do not that to another which thou wouldest not have done to thyself,which showeth him that he has no more to do in learning the laws of nature but,when weighing the actions of other men with his own they seem too heavy,to put them into the other part of the balance,and his own into their place,that his own passions and self-love may add nothing to the weight;and then there is none of these laws of nature that will not appear unto him very reasonable.
The laws of nature oblige in foro interno;that is to say,they bind to a desire they should take place:but in foro externo;that is,to the putting them in act,not always.For he that should be modest and tractable,and perform all he promises in such time and place where no man else should do so,should but make himself a prey to others,and procure his own certain ruin,contrary to the ground of all laws of nature which tend to nature's preservation.And again,he that having sufficient security that others shall observe the same laws towards him,observes them not himself,seeketh not peace,but war,and consequently the destruction of his nature by violence.
And whatsoever laws bind in foro interno may be broken,not only by a fact contrary to the law,but also by a fact according to it,in case a man think it contrary.For though his action in this case be according to the law,yet his purpose was against the law;which,where the obligation is in foro interno,is a breach.
The laws of nature are immutable and eternal;for injustice,ingratitude,arrogance,pride,iniquity,acception of persons,and the rest can never be made lawful.For it can never be that war shall preserve life,and peace destroy it.
The same laws,because they oblige only to a desire and endeavour,mean an unfeigned and constant endeavour,are easy to be observed.For in that they require nothing but endeavour,he that endeavoureth their performance fulfilleth them;and he that fulfilleth the law is just.
And the science of them is the true and only moral philosophy.For moral philosophy is nothing else but the science of what is good and evil in the conversation and society of mankind.Good and evil are names that signify our appetites and aversions,which in different tempers,customs,and doctrines of men are different:and diverse men differ not only in their judgement on the senses of what is pleasant and unpleasant to the taste,smell,hearing,touch,and sight;but also of what is conformable or disagreeable to reason in the actions of common life.Nay,the same man,in diverse times,differs from himself;and one time praiseth,that is,calleth good,what another time he dispraiseth,and calleth evil:from whence arise disputes,controversies,and at last war.And therefore so long as a man is in the condition of mere nature,which is a condition of war,private appetite is the measure of good and evil:and consequently all men agree on this,that peace is good,and therefore also the way or means of peace,which (as I have shown before)are justice,gratitude,modesty,equity,mercy,and the rest of the laws of nature,are good;that is to say,moral virtues;and their contrary vices,evil.Now the science of virtue and vice is moral philosophy;and therefore the true doctrine of the laws of nature is the true moral philosophy.But the writers of moral philosophy,though they acknowledge the same virtues and vices;yet,not seeing wherein consisted their goodness,nor that they come to be praised as the means of peaceable,sociable,and comfortable living,place them in a mediocrity of passions:as if not the cause,but the degree of daring,made fortitude;or not the cause,but the quantity of a gift,made liberality.
These dictates of reason men used to call by the name of laws,but improperly:for they are but conclusions or theorems concerning what conduceth to the conservation and defence of themselves;whereas law,properly,is the word of him that by right hath command over others.But yet if we consider the same theorems as delivered in the word of God that by right commandeth all things,then are they properly called laws.