Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	action_n	law_n	moral_a	1,065	5	9.0930	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48871	An abridgment of Mr. Locke's Essay concerning humane [sic] understanding; Essay concerning human understanding	Locke, John, 1632-1704.; Wynne, John, 1667-1743.	1696 (1696)	Wing L2735; ESTC R23044	115,066	330

disagreement of Mens voluntary Actions to a Rule to which they are referred and by which they are judged of These may be called Moral Relations It is this Conformity or Disagreement of our actions to some Law whereby Good or Evil is drawn on us from the Will and Power of the Law-maker and is what we call Reward or Punishment that renders our Actions Morally Good or Evil. Of these Moral Rules or Laws there seem to be three sorts with their different ensorcements First The Divine Law Secondly Civil Law Thirdly The Law of Opinion or Reputation By their Relation to the First our Actions are either Sins or Duties To the Second Criminal or Innocent to the Third Vertues or Vices 1st By the Divine Law I mean that Law which God has set to the Actions of Men whether promulgated to them by the light of Nature or the voice of Revelation That God has given a Law to Mankind seems undeniable since he has First A Right to do it we are his Creatures Secondly Goodness and Wisdom to direct our Actions to what is best Thirdly Power to enforce it by Reward and Punishment of infinite Weight and Duration This is the only true Touchstone of Moral Rectitude and by which Men judge of the most considerable Moral Good or Evil of their Actions That is Whether as Duties or Sins they are like to procure them Happiness or Misery from the Hands of the Almighty 2 ly The Civil Law is the Rule set by the Common-wealth to the Actions of those that belong to it This Law no body over-looks the Rewards and Punishments being ready at hand to enforce it extending to the protecting or taking away of Life Liberty and Estate of those who observe or disobey it 3ly The Law of Opinion or Reputation Vertue and Vice are Names supposed every where to stand for Actions in their own Nature Right and Wrong As far as they are really so applied they so far are co-incident with the Divine Law But it is visible that these Names in the particular instances of their application through the several Nations and Societies of Men are constantly attributed only to such Actions as in each Countrey and Society are in Reputation or Discredit So that the measure of what is every where called and esteemed Vertue and Vice is the approbation or dislike praise or blame which by a tacit Consent establishes it self in the Societies and Tribes of Men in the World whereby several Actions come to find Credit or Disgrace amongst them according to the Judgment Maxims or Fashions of the place That this is so appears hence That tho' that passes for Vertue in one place which is elsewhere accounted Vice yet every where Vertue and Praise Vice and Blame go together Vertue is every where that which is thought Praise-worthy and nothing else but that which has the allowance of publick Esteem is called Vertue These have so close an Alliance that they are often called by the same name 'T is true Vertue and Vice do in a great measure every where correspond with the unchangeable Rule of Right and Wrong which the Laws of God have established because the observation of these Laws visibly secures and advances the general Good of Mankind and the neglect of them breeds Mischief and Confusion and therefore Men without renouncing all Sense and Reason and their own Interest could not generally mistake in placing their commendation and blame on that side that deserved it not They who think not Commendation and Disgrace sufficient motives to engage Men to accommodate themselves to the Opinions and Rules of those with whom they converse seem little skill'd in the History of Mankind The greatest part whereof govern themselves chiefly by this Law of Fashion The penalties that attend the breach of God's Laws are seldom seriously reflected on and those that do reflect on them entertain Thoughts of future reconciliation And for the punishment due from the Laws of the Common-wealth Men flatter themselves with the hopes of Impunity But no Man escapes Censure and Dislike who offends against Fashion nor is there one of ten thousand stiff and insensible enough to bear up under the constant dislike and condemnation of his own Club. Morality then is nothing but a Relation to these Laws or Rules And these Rules being nothing but a collection of several simple Ideas The conformity thereto is but so ordering the Action that the Simple Ideas belonging to it may correspond to those which the Law requires By which we see how Moral Beings and Notions are founded on and terminated in the Simple Ideas of Sensation and Reflection For example Let us consider the Complex Idea signified by the word Murder First from Reflection we have the Ideas of Willing Considering Purposing Malice c. Also of Life Perception and Self-motion Secondly from Sensation we have the Ideas of Man and of some Action whereby we put an end to that Perception and Motion in the Man all which Simple Ideas are comprehended in the word Murder This collection of Simple Ideas being found to agree or disagree with the esteem of the Country I have been bred in and to be held worthy of praise or blame I call the Action Vertuous or Vicious If I have the Will of a Supreme Invisible Law-maker for my Rule then as I suppose the Action commanded or forbidden by God I call it Good or Evil Sin or Duty If I compare it with the civil-Civil-Law of my Country I call it Lawful or Unlawful a Crime or no Crime Moral Actions may be considered Two ways First as they are in themselves a collection of Simple Ideas in which Sense they are positive absolute Ideas Secondly As Good or Bad or Indifferent in this respect they are Relative it being their conformity or disagreement with some Rule that makes them be so We ought carefully to distinguish between the positive Idea of the Action and the reference it has to a Rule both which are commonly comprehended under one name which often occasions confusion and misleads the Judgment It would be infinite to go over all sorts of Relations I have here mentioned some of the most considerable and such as may serve to let us see from whence we get our Ideas of Relations and wherein they are founded CHAP. XXIX Of clear obscure distinct and confused Ideas HAving shewn the Original of our Ideas and taken a view of their several sorts I shall offer some few other Considerations concerning them The First is that some are clear others obscure some distinct and others confused Our Simple Ideas are clear when they are such as the Objects themselves from whence they were taken did in a well-ordered Sensation or Perception present them Whilst the Memory retains them thus and can produce them so to the Mind when it has occasion to consider them they are clear Ideas Our Complex Ideas are clear when the Ideas that go to their Composition are clear and the Number and Order of