SEEM. XXV.) C$RTSTIAIJ MORA-ITY, VIZ. JUSTICE, &C. 41f which I proposed, and that is to shew how far the light of nature dictates to us the duty of common justice, and what arguments may be drawn from thence to influence men to be honest. I. If we consider the natural right that every man bath to keep that which belongs to him, it will appear that this is the gift of God as the God of nature. God, the common author of all our beings, requires that this right be held sacred and inviolable. I shall not run back to ancient ages; to trace the ori_ gina.l grounds of property, or how men became entitled to any of their possessions: It is sufficient for me, that every man is born into this world with a right to his life, to his limbs, to his liberty and safety, and to the good things of this world which he possesses according to the laws of nature, and of the nation where he is born. He has a right also that these should be secure from the hands of injustice and violence, unless he himself be some way concerned in the practice of injury to his fellow- creatures. That man therefore who offers injustice or violence to his neighbour in his body, or his soul, or estate, he robs him of his natural right which God hath given him, and which the law of nature secures to him : He sins against the God of nature, the common Father of mankind; and his conscience hath reason to expect that the God of nature, who is just and righteous, will avenge the mischief done to his injured creatures. Let it be always observed and excepted here, that the great God himself, considered merely as the God of na- ture, and where he has not hound himself by promise reserves a right to resume what he has given, and espe- cially when his creatures have made a forfeiture of their blessings by sinning against their Maker: But this does not authorize men to deprive one another of their pos- sessions, unless he has appointed them from heaven the executioners of his vengeance by a most evident and in- fallible commission particularlygiven by God himself; as in the case of the Israelitesspoiling the Egyptians of their borrowedjewels, and depriving the Canaanites of their lands and their lives: But I know not any instance of that kind ever since. . II. If we consider the need that every man stands in of the help of his fellow- creatures, justice and honesty
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