In the _civil_ (which to Hobbes is the only meaning of the _social_) state, the laws of nature are superseded, by being supposed taken up into, the laws of the Sovereign Power.
VI .-- As regards Religion, he affirms the coincidence of his reasoned deduction of the laws of Nature with the precepts of Revelation.

He makes a mild use of the sanctions of a Future Life to enforce the laws of Nature, and to give additional support to the commands of the sovereign that take the place of these in the social state.
Among the numberless replies, called forth by the bold speculations of Hobbes, were some works of independent ethical importance; in particular, the treatises of Cumberland, Cudworth, and Clarke.
Cumberland stands by himself; Cudworth and Clarke, agreeing in some respects, are commonly called the _Rational_ moralists, along with Wollaston and Price (who fall to be noticed later).
RICHARD CUMBERLAND.

[1632-1718.] Cumberland's' Latin work, _De Legibus Naturae, disquisitio philosophica contra Hobbium instituta_, appeared in 1672.

The book is important as a distinctly philosophical disquisition, but its extraordinarily discursive character renders impossible anything like analysis.

His chief points will be presented in a fuller summary than usual.
I .-- The STANDARD of Moral Good is given in the laws of Nature, which may all be summed up in one great Law--_Benevolence to all rational agents_ or the endeavour to the utmost of our power to promote the common good of all.