Of these moral rules or laws, to which men generally
refer, and by which they judge of the rectitude or pravity of their
actions, there seem to me to be three sorts, with their three
different enforcements, or rewards and punishments. For, since it
would be utterly in vain to suppose a rule set to the free actions
of men, without annexing to it some enforcement of good and evil to
determine his will, we must, wherever we suppose a law, suppose also
some reward or punishment annexed to that law. It would be in vain for
one intelligent being to set a rule to the actions of another, if he
had it not in his power to reward the compliance with, and punish
deviation from his rule, by some good and evil, that is not the
natural product and consequence of the action itself For that, being a
natural convenience or inconvenience, would operate of itself, without
a law. This, if I mistake not, is the true nature of all law, properly
so called.
7. Laws. The laws that men generally refer their actions to, to
judge of their rectitude or obliquity, seem to me to be these
three:- 1. The divine law. 2. The civil law. 3. The law of opinion
or reputation, if I may so call it. By the relation they bear to the
first of these, men judge whether their actions are sins or duties; by
the second, whether they be criminal or innocent; and by the third,
whether they be virtues or vices.
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