PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

- . . -
BOOK II.
- -------- ~--- ------ - - .- -~ - --
Moral Obligatio/Ie
CHAPTER I.
THE QUESTION, WHr .AM I OBLIGED TO
KEEP MT WORD! CONSIDERED.
WHY am I obliged to keep my word? •
Because it is right, says one. Because it is agreeable
to the fitness of things, says another. Because
it is conformable to reason and nature, says a third.
Because it is conformable to truth, says a fourth.
Because it promote,s the public good, says a fifth.
Because it is required by the will of God, concludes
a sixth.
U poil which different accounts, two things are observable:
.
First, That they ~1l ultimatel!. ~~i_ncj~.
The fitness of things, means their fitness to pro~
duce happiness: the nature of things, means that
actual con$titution of the wor:ld, by which some
things, as such and such actions, for example, produce
happiness, and others misery: reason is the principle,
by which we discover or judge of this constitution:
«uth is this judgment expressed or drawn out into
propositions. So that it necessarily comes to pass,
that what promotes the public happiness, or. happiness
upon the whole, is agreeable to tbe fitness of
things, to nature, to reason" and to truth: and snell