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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
particularly
given by
God himself;
as
in the case
of
the
Israelites
spoiling the Egyptians
of their
borrowed
jewels,
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