2. Faith and justice not owned as principles by all men.
Whether there be any such moral principles, wherein all
men do agree, I appeal to any who have been but moderately conversant in the history of mankind, and looked
abroad beyond the smoke of their own chimneys. Where is that practical truth that is universally received, without
doubt or question, as it must be if innate? Justice, and keeping of contracts, is that which most men seem to agree
in. This is a principle which is thought to extend itself to the dens of thieves, and the confederacies of the greatest
villains; and they who have gone furthest towards the putting off of humanity itself, keep faith and rules of justice
one with another. I grant that outlaws themselves do this one amongst another: but it is without receiving these as
the innate laws of nature. They practise them as rules of convenience within their own communities: but it is
impossible to conceive that he embraces justice as a practical principle, who acts fairly with his
fellow-highwayman, and at the same time plunders or kills the next honest man he meets with. Justice and truth
are the common ties of society; and therefore even outlaws and robbers, who break with all the world besides,
must keep faith and rules of equity amongst themselves; or else they cannot hold together. But will any one say,
that those that live by fraud or rapine have innate principles of truth and justice which they allow and assent to?