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This knowledge of Good and Evil was discovered, even by the Gentiles, to be a divine attribute [1], though they were unacquainted, probably, with the occasion of its being engrafted in human nature. It must therefore appear, that the agreement or assent of mankind to the moral and eternal Laws of God (which the Baron and other Civilians commonly call “the Laws of Nature”) may very fairly be presumed and admitted as a natural effect of the human understanding, whenever any of the said Laws are mentioned; for, all persons, who have any reflection,must
- ↑ Cicero calls this natural knowledge of Good and Evil, Law. “Lex” (says he in his first Book De Legibus) “est ratio summa, insita in natura, quæ jubet ea quæ facienda sunt, prohibetque contraria; eadem ratio cum est in hominis mente confirmata et confecta Lex est.” And, in his third Book De Officiis, where he is speaking again of natural Reason, he calls it a Divine Law. — “Ipsa nature ratio, quæ est Lex divina et humana.” — And elsewhere he more particularly declares it to be a Divine Attribute. — “Recta, et a numine Deorum tracta ratio” And he mentions this attribute again in his second Book “De Natura Deorum.” where he speaks of prudence, or “the choice of Good and rejection of Evil,” as a universal Law, common to God and man. “Sequitur ut eadem sit in his (Diis) quæ in genere humano, ratio, eadem veritas utrobique sit, eademque Lex; quæ est recti præceptio pravique depulsio. Ex quo intelligitur, prudentiam quoque, et mentem a Diis ad homines, pervenisse,” &c.
