Ì60 THE IMPPR0VEMENT OP THE Minn. while he is reading to his pupils these parts of the christian re- ligion, to give them notice how far the light of nature or mere reason will instruct us in these doctrines and duties, and how far we are obliged to divine revelation and scripture, for clearing up and establishing the firm foundations of the one, for affording us superior motives and powers to practise the other, for raising them to more exalted degrees, and building so glorious a super- structure upon them. XXIII. The study of natural religion, viz. The knowledge of God and the rules of virtue and piety, as far as theyare dis- covered by the light of nature, is needful indeed to prove the truth of divine revelation or scripture, in the most effectual man- ner : but after the divine authority of scripture is established, that will be a very sufficient spring from whence the bulk of man- kind may derive their knowledge of divinity or the christian re- ligion, in order to their own present faith and practice, and their future and eternal happiness. In this sense theology is a science necessary for every one that hopes for the favour of God and the felicity of another world ; and it is of infinitely more importance than any of the arts and sciences, which belong to any of the learned professions here on earth. XXIV. Perhaps it will be thought necessary I should say something concerning the study of the civil law or the law of na- ture and nations. If we would speak with great justness and propriety, the civil law signifies the peculiar law of each state, county or city : but what we new usually mean by the civil law, is a body of laws composed out of the best of the Roman and Grecian laws, and which was in the main received and observed through all the Roman dominions for above twelve hundred years. The Romans took the first grounds of this law fromwhat they call the twelve tables, which were the abridgments of the laws of Solon at Athens, and of other cities in Greece, famous for knowledge and wisdom ; to which they added their own an- cient customs of the city of Rome, and the laws which were mule there. These written laws were subject to various inter- pretations, whence controversies daily arising, they were deter- mined by the judgment of the learned ; and these determinati- ons were what they first called jus civile. All this by degrees grew to a vast number of volumes; and therefore the emperor Justinian, commanded his chancellor Trihonian to reduce then) to a perfect body, and this is called the body of the civil law. XXV. But that which is of most importance for all learned men to be acquainted with is the law of nature, or the knowledge ofright andwrong among mankind, whether it be transacted between single persons or communities, só far as common reason and the light of nature dictate and direct. This is what Puffen-
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