Secondly, from sensation we have the collection of
those simple sensible ideas which are to be found in a man, and of
some action, whereby we put an end to perception and motion in the
man; all which simple ideas are comprehended in the word murder.
This collection of simple ideas, being found by me to agree or
disagree with the esteem of the country I have been bred in, and to be
held by most men there worthy praise or blame, I call the action
virtuous or vicious: if I have the will of a supreme invisible
Lawgiver for my rule, then, as I supposed the action commanded or
forbidden by God, I call it good or evil, sin or duty: and if I
compare it to the civil law, the rule made by the legislative power of
the country, I call it lawful or unlawful, a crime or no crime. So
that whencesoever we take the rule of moral actions; or by what
standard soever we frame in our minds the ideas of virtues or vices,
they consist only, and are made up of collections of simple ideas,
which we originally received from sense or reflection: and their
rectitude or obliquity consists in the agreement or disagreement
with those patterns prescribed by some law.
15. Moral actions may be regarded either absolutely, or as ideas
of relation. To conceive rightly of moral actions, we must take notice
of them under this two-fold consideration.
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