all human Ordinances, that is, to discern and distinguish Right from Wrong, Equity from Iniquity, Droit from Tort, Jus from its opposite Injuria, &c. This universal faculty of discernment perhaps will be better known and more readily acknowledged under the title of Conscience; for by that natural instinct of Conscience every individual knows when he does amiss, and is thereby rendered responsible before God and Man for all his actions!
And as all natural Faculties may be improved by the rudiments of Art and Science, so even the NATURAL FEELINGS OF CONSCIENCE may be rendered more sensible, tender, and distinguishing, by a proper Knowledge of the Elements or leading Precepts of the Law eternal.
The remainder of the Tract consists in a recital and application of such general Maxims as must be allowed, by all persons of common Sense, to be the necessary Conclusions of Reason, and are therefore to be esteemed Laws of Nature, such as no Power on Earth can have any authority to counter act; and the said general Maxims or Rules of Reason and natural Law are accordingly by our Law-writers, with great propriety, esteemed the first Foundation of the English Law (
