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"Lord, for this is right;" and to the Coloffians, "Children, obey your parents in all things, for this "is well pleafing unto the Lord." *

By the Jewish law, difobedience to parents was, in fome extreme cafes, capital. Deut. xxi. 18.

*Upon which two phrafes, "this is right," and "for this is "well pleafing unto the Lord," being used by St. Paul in a sense perfectly parallel, we may obferve, that moral rectitude and conformity to the divine will, were, in his apprehenfion, the fame.

MORAL

MORAL PHILOSOPHY.

воок IV.

DUTIES TO OURSELVES.

T

HIS divifion of the subject is retained merely for the fake of method, by which the writer and the reader are equally affifted. To the subjec itself it imports nothing; for the obligation of all duties being fundamentally the fame, it matters little under what clafs or title any of them are confidered. In ftrictness, there are few duties or crimes, which terminate in a man's felf; and, fo far as others are affected by their operation, they have been treated of in fome article of the preceding book. We have reserved however to this head the rights of felf-defence; alfo the confideration of drunkenness and fuicide, as offences against that care of our faculties, and prefervation of our perfon, which we account duties, and call duties to ourfelves.

CHAP.

CHA P. I.

THE RIGHTS OF SELF-DEFENCE.

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T has been afferted, that in a state of nature we might lawfully defend the most insignificant right, provided it were a perfect determinate right, by any extremities which the obftinacy of the aggreffor made neceffary. Of this I doubt; because I doubt whether the general rule be worth fuftaining at fuch an expence, and because, apart from the general confequence of yielding to the attempt, it cannot be contended to be for the augmentation of human happiness, that one man fhould lofe his life or a limb, rather than another a penny-worth of his property. Nevertheless, perfect rights can only be distinguished by their value; and it is impoffible to afcertain the value, at which the liberty of using extreme violence begins. The perfon attacked muft balance, as well as he can, between the general confequence of yielding, and the particular effect of resistance.

However, this right, if it exift in a ftate of nature, is fufpended by the establishment of civil fociety; because thereby other remedies are provided against attacks upon our property, and because it is neceffary to the peace and fafety of the community, that the prevention, punishment, and redrefs of injuries be adjusted by public laws. Moreover, as the individual is affifted in the recovery of his right, or of a compenfation for it, by the public ftrength, it is no lefs equitable than expedient, that he should fubmit

fubmit to public arbitration, the kind as well as the measure of the fatisfaction which he is to obtain.

There is one cafe in which all extremities are juftifiable, namely, when our life is affaulted, and it becomes neceffary for our prefervation to kill the affailant. This is evident in a flate of nature; unlefs it can be shown, that we are bound to prefer the aggreffor's life to our own, that is to fay, to love our enemy better than ourselves, which can never be a debt of justice, nor any where appears to be a duty of charity. Nor is the cafe altered by our living in in civil fociety; because by the fuppofition, the laws of fociety cannot interpofe to protect us, nor by the nature of the cafe compel reftitution. This liberty is reftrained to cafes, in which no other probable means of preferving our life remain, as flight, calling for affiftance, difarming the adverfary, &c. The rule holds, whether the danger proceed from a voluntary attack, as by an enemy, robber, or affaffin; or from an involuntary one, as by a madman, or perfon finking in the water, and dragging us after him; or where two perfons are reduced to a fituation, in which one or both of them must perith; as in a shipwreck, where two feize upon a plank, which will fupport only one: although, to fay the truth, thefe extreme cafes, which happen feldom, and hardly, when they do happen, admit of moral agency, are scarcely worth mentioning, much less debating.

The inftance, which approaches the nearest to the preservation of life, and which feems to justify the fame extremities, is the defence of chastity.

In all other cafes, it appears to me the fafeft to confider the taking away of life as authorized by the law of the land; and the person who takes it away, as in the fituation of a minifter or executioner of the law.

In which view, homicide, in England is justifiable:

1. To prevent the commiffion of a crime, which, when committed, would be punishable with death. Thus it is lawful to fhoot a highwayman, or one attempting to break into a house by night: but not fo if the attempt be made in the day-time: which particular diftinction, by a confent that is remarkable, obtained alfo in the Jewish law, as well as in the laws both of Greece and Rome.

2. In neceffary endeavours to carry the law into execution, as in fuppreffing riots, apprehending malefactors, preventing escapes, &c.

I do not know that the law holds forth its authority to any cafes befide thofe which fall within one or other of the above descriptions; or that after the exception of immediate danger to life or chastity, the deftruction of a human being can be innocent without that authority.

The rights of war are not here taken into the ac

count.

CHAP.

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