Political Writings by John Locke

Author:John Locke
Language: eng
Format: epub

JOHN i.o c k e : p o l i t i c a l w r it in g s therefore, looking on God as a being infinite in goodness as well as power, we cannot imagine he hath made anything with a design that it should be miserable, but that he hath afforded it all the means o f being happy that its nature and state is capable of. And though justice be also a perfection which we must necessarily ascribe to the Supreme Being, yet we cannot suppose the exercise o f it should extend further than his goodness has need o f it for the preservation o f his creatures in the order and beauty o f that state that he has placed each of them in; for since our actions cannot reach unto him, or bring him any profit or damage, the punishments he inflicts on any o f his creatures, i.e. the misery or destruction he brings upon them, can be nothing else but to preserve the greater or more considerable part, and so being only for preservation, his justice is nothing but a branch o f his goodness, which is fain by severity to restrain the irregular and destructive parts from doing harm; for to imagine God under a necessity o f punishing for any other reason but this, is to make his justice a great imperfection, and to suppose a power over him that necessitates him to operate contrary to the rules o f his wisdom and goodness, which cannot be supposed to make anything so idly as that it should be purposely destroyed or be put in a worse state than destruction (misery being as much a worse state than annihilation, as pain is than insensibility, or the torments o f the rack less eligible than quiet sound sleeping): the justice then o f God can be supposed to extend itself no further than infinite goodness shall find it necessary for the preservation o f his works.

15: ‘Inspiration’ (Journal, 3 April 1681) Religion being that homage and obedience which man pays immediately to God, it supposes that man is capable o f knowing that there is a God, and what is required by and will be acceptable to him, thereby to avoid his anger and procure his favour. That there is a God, and what that God is, nothing can discover to us, nor judge in us, but natural reason. For whatever discovery we receive any

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