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
A66733	The law of laws, or, The excellencie of the civil law above all humane laws whatsoever by Sir Robert Wiseman ... ; together with a discourse concerning the oath ex officio and canonical purgation.	Wiseman, Robert, Sir, 1613-1684.; Lake, Edward, Sir, 1596 or 7-1674.	1664 (1664)	Wing W3113A; ESTC R33680	273,497	368

the same for we see the whole world and each part thereof so compacted that as long as each thing performeth onely that worke which is naturall unto it it thereby preserveth both other things and also it selfe Contrariwise let any principall thing as the Sun the Moon any one of the Heavens or Elements but once cease or faile or swerve and who doth not easily conceive that the sequell thereof would be ruine both to it selfe and whatsoever dependeth on it As therefore the obedience of other Creatures unto the Law of Nature is the stay of the whole World so nothing is more effectuall to the upholding of any communion amongst men then to command the peoples obedience to nothing more then what Nature and Reason prompts them to and to determine their Rights by Rules which themselves cannot gainsay for when the judgements of a people are satisfied in the Reason and Justice of that which is commanded either by their own understandings or as they are taught by more knowing men they sit down in a quiet and contented submission and looking upon their Governors with the greatest Reverence and Honor they obey without complaining and thereby the publick peace is also secured But when the Lawes of a Nation that should be most clear and rationall are wrapt up in a strange language delivered in termes most intricate and the matter thereof not intelligible by any degree of true Reason or Learning the people are presently possest with a jealousie that their dearest rights and most pretious interests may miscarry under them and their surest possessions snatcht from them under pretence of a Law which they cannot discerne any Justice or Reason in till at last they fall into open rage and distemper thereby disturbing the publick peace and oft times shaking the very Government it selfe in their fury a Legum ac M● gistratuum con temptum sequun tu● popul sed●ti osae voces adversus priucipes ipsos conjurationes ac defectiones Bodin de rep l. 3. c. 1. for there is no bondage like to the slavery of the Judgement and the captivity of the Will neither is there any greater occasion or ground of fear then when a man is constrained to tread such steps where his understanding cannot guide him But especially for ones fortune or personall safety to be exposed to danger in such unknown and undiscernable wayes it must needs draw on a greater distemper in the minde because of the great consequence thereon depending Moreover when the dictates and proceedings of Law are rationall we are much assisted by our Reason in a conformity and obedience to them even when we doe not exactly know the Law it selfe and we doe not so soon slip into danger or mischiefe under it when we have an inward guide to direct us in the way we are to walk in but when we are to walk in a path we know not in any kind and to observe rules which we cannot understand it is then that we wander out of one Labyrinth into another till mischiese and the penalty of the Law surprizeth us unawares Besides Lawes that curry in them honest rationall and clear principles are as so many lessons for the people to fashion their lives and actions by whose nature and manners will be much tempered by the discipline of the Law they live under for since it is the onely guard and security that they have for their lives and fortunes they will be studious in it inquisitive after it and attentive to it and so whilst they study and learne the Law to keep themselves and their estates in safety at the same time they also learn all the duties of a Morall life and suck in the truest principles of practicall integrity and civill conversation And this amongst many others hath been one very powerfull inducement to Christian Nations to receive and cherish the use of the Civil Law so much as they doe because to humane Law or Learning does so well teach men to be just vertuous innocent in all the actions of this life as that Law doth Iustitiam colimus boni aequi notitiam profitemur aequum de iniquo separantes licitum ab illicito discernentes bonosnon solū metu poenarū verùm etiā proemiorū quoque exhortatione efficere cupientes veram nisi fallor philosophiam non simulatam affectantes sayes Vlpian b L. 1. dig de Just jur in the name of all the Lawyers We adore Justice and the knowledge of Right and Equity is our profession dividing Equity from what is unequall discerning lawfull things from unlawfull aiming to make men vertuous as well by rewarding them where they doe well as punishing them when they doe ill teaching such wisdome if I mistake not saith he as is not for shew and ostentation but is true solid and substantiall For Cujacius explaining the last words of that Law makes it the proper office of a Lawyer to teach men to bridle their Lusts and Appetites to study the common good to desend their own to keep their desires hands and eyes from the goods of others which are but the lessons of a true Philosopher Likewise the summe and substance of all that a man owes morally either to himselfe or others is comprized in the three generall precepts of the Civil Law Honestè vivere alterum non laedere suum cuique tribuere c L 10 dig de Just Jur. Parag. 1. To live soberly not to hurt another to give every one his own The first duty concernes our own selves and is the fruit of Modesty forbidding us to doe any thing whereby we may seem lewd or vitious nor to shew any kind of dissolutenesse either in our speech habit or manners and to refraine from any act qu●d vel nos commaculet solos sayes d D. l. 10. Cuja●ius that is which may stain our persons though none be privy to it but our selves The other two are the proper effects of Temperance and Justice and owing to others whom we are to live converse and deal with teaching us to abstain from theft violence rapine and injury to render back to all men what we have of theirs or doe owe them reward to vertuous actions and to evill punishment and to make full satisfaction for dammage or detriment done to others through our meanes Again though Laws very rarely continue when the stare of Government comes to be quite changed as it fell out in the Roman state at first long before the time of the Civil Law where e L. 2. Dig. de Orig. Jur. Pomponius writes that Exactis Regibus omues leges Regiae ex leverunt iterumque caepit Popul●● Romanus incerto magis jure consuetudine aliqua uti quàm perlata lege idque prope viginti annis p●ssus est Kings being driven out of the Empire their Lawes presently ceased and the people of Rome did again begin to be governed partly by arbitrary discretion and partly by custome rather then

contra fecerint quam polliciti professique sunt quidvis potius tulisse quam leges They that did promulgate to the people pernicious and unjust Laws since they did clean contrary to that that they alwayes promised and professed to doe they might better be thought to enact any thing else then Laws And though it be never or very rarely seen that any State doth suffer any law to passe them which doth directly crosse the chiefe and fundamentall Lawes of Nature or which opposes the first and main principles of common Reason as to give direct licence to Atheisme Theft Adultery Homicide invading of the rights or possessions of others Breach of Faith or Covenants Rebellion against Magistrates Disobedience to Parents abandoning of Children or such like for this were too odious and detestable and would presently dissolve all society and government Yet the care of a Legislator doth not determine here but must extend further also if they will have their Laws to be of one complexion and likenesse and all to agree with the Lawes of Nature and the Dictates of sound Reason for to each of those first and fundamental principles there are divers inferiour things and actions appertaining which doe mediately or immediately depend upon and refer unto them standing some in a nearer others in a remoter distance from them but all so knit and conjoyned with the first and main principle to which they are subordinate and do as it were wait upon that if any of them be setled by a Law or practised otherwise then they ought to be the first and great principle also by consequence is violated broken or at least an occasion offered to violate and break it and therefore the Legislators care must be to settle these inferior and subordinate things also in such wise as that they may not encounter with any chief or fundamental rule of Nature to which they may have any reference or application For instance That Parents should educate their Children and supply them with maintenance is a Law proceeding from Nature And though no humane Law was ever found that discharged Parents of such their duty yet if a Law shal leave it free to a Parent when he dyes to give away all from his own Children to a stranger or to dispose of all to one child without making any provision for the rest is not that fundamentall Law of Nature thereby consequentially infringed and broken By the Roman Law therefore which does strictly tye all Parents to this Duty f Co. de Alend Liber there is such a proportion due to Children out of their Parents estates when they dye as the Parents but upon certain causes just and true cannot give away from them which was the third part if there were four children or under or half of the whole substance if there were more amongst them all the rest they might freely give away to whom they pleased And this the Law made so sure to them that though the Father for some offence did suffer Death and his Estate was confiscate yet half the Estate should goe to the Children notwithstanding Ne alieno admisso graviorem poenam luerent quos nulla contingeret culpa g Lib. 7. dig de Bon. damna●● Lest the Fathers fault should prove a sharper punishment to them that offended not except the fault were Treason in which case for terror to others they lost all Vt chari●as liberorum amiciores parentes reip redderet h Lib. 8. dig quod metus caus sect fin That their very affection to their Children knowing how greatly they were like to suffer after them might make them timorous how they so offended Likewise if the Parent shall make no Will nor make any disposition of his Estate in his life time but dye intestate if when one of the Children hath entred upon his Fathers Estate though by lawfull Aathority the Law of a State shall adjudge the whole Inheritance unto him and not admit any of the rest of his Brethren and Sisters how many soever they be to divide or to have any share with him neither in reall Estate nor personal surely this is a contradiction to that Original Law of Nature that bindes Parents to provide for all those that are of the same Flesh Blood with them for what themselves cannot doe being dead their Estates ought to performe The Civil Law therefore making no difference between Land and Goods nor between Eldest and Youngest nor Male and Female divides the whole Estate reall and personal equally amongst the Children Ratio naturalis quasi lex quaedam tacita liberis parentum haereditatem addicit velut ad debitam successionem eos vocando sayes i D. l. 7. Dig. de Ben. damn l. 7. Dig. si Tab. testam null s 1. Paulus There is as it were a secret Law made by Nature her selfe that settles the Parents Estate upon the Children calling them to succeed as in their proper right And Omnia quae nostra sunt liberis nostris ex voto paramus sayes k Lib. 50. Dig. de B●u libert sect 2. Tryphoninus All that we doe possesse we professedly destine to our Children Neither does it give one childe any advantage against the rest that he has first lawfully got into possession for he has but thereby made himself subject to be sued by the rest to come to a Partition with them l Tot. Tit. dig Co. Famil creise for Action to divide being once brought the Judge is told by m Lib. 25. sect 20. Dig. Eod. Paulus what he must doe Index familia erciscundae nihil debet indivisum relinquere The Judge of a Partition ought to leave nothing undivided A Law then that forbids Parents to cast off the care of their Children as nature does does not agree with Nature nor with it selfe neither if it does not as the Civill Law does make its other constitutions suitable and put it out of the power both of Parents and Children by fraudulent wayes to make their grand Law of Nature and Dictate of Reason fruitlesse and of no effect Likewise it is not sufficient that the Law of a State has not declared any thing against Honour Reverence and awful respect which Nature it selfe has enjoyned Children to yeild unto their Parents except it does dispose and order the actions and demeanour of Children answerable to that very duty for if a State shall give Children a freedome to bring like actions and accusations against their Parents as against others or to Marry without their consent or to give in evidence against them or shall not punish them when they offer violence to their Parents or speak reproachfully against them the reverential respect so due by Nature to Parents will soon be turned into contempt and scorn The Civil Law therefore has not onely said Filio semper honesta sancta persona patris videri debet n Lib. 9. dig● obseq parent pat●on p●aestand The person of a Parent

in their mutuall transactions when such a numberlesse number of them came before their own Judicatories they chiefly minded the regulation of such matters the Lawes that are now extant being almost wholly taken up in them and handling the publick very sparingly for of the fifty books of the Digests nine and forty do almost wholly consist of these private controversiall things They have taken up likewise all the Code saving a little of the first book of it the three last Books of all The Institutes are altogether spent herein excepting that one Title De publicis Judiciis which is the last of all Hereof Cujacius and Duarenus render this reason Ideo neglectum est jus publicum say they quod parum videretur ejus cognitie singulis esse necessaria quòd de rebus privatis frequentiores essent lites quodque rarò de jure publico interrogaretur Therefore by the Roman Laws so little was declared concerning the publick because the knowledge of such matters was so little necessary for private men and for that most suits were brought for differences betwixt one subject and another as also because little advice was asked upon that which concerned the generall welfare There is nothing therefore upon which a Controversie may be raised in our dealings with one another in this life but to cast the right where it ought to go there may be found out in the study of the Civil Law that which though it was a Law to the Romans only yet has it the force of profound pure solid reason to all other men so perfect absolute and so rational a Systeme is it of all humane affaires and dealings whatsoever Neither are we able to prize or esteeme the singular benefit that hath grown unto the world by the Roman Civil Law being still extant as the value thereof deserveth For the precepts of Nature and the rules of Natural Reason whereof it aboundeth are either such as we of our selves could not easily have found out and then the benefit is not small to have them readily set down to our hands or if they be so clear and manifest that no man indued with reason can easily be ignorant of them yet the Law as it were borrowing them from the school of Nature to prove other things lesse manifest and to induce a necessary consequence of something which were in it self more hard and dark unlesse it should in such sort be cleared the very applying of them unto cases particular is not without most singular use and profit many wayes for mens instruction Besides be they plain of themselves or obscure the evidence of so renowned a Law added unto the natural assent of reason concerning the certainty of them doth not a little authorize and confirm the same Wherefore in as much as our actions are conversant about things beset with many circumstances which cause men of sundry wits to be also of sundry judgments concerning that which ought to be done beneficial it cannot but seem that the rule of Civil Law has herein helped our infirmity whereby we do so well understand what is right and just and what otherwise Though the first principles of the Law of Nature are easie and discerned generally by all men yet concerning the duty which Natures law doth require at the hands of men in a number of things particular so far hath the natural understanding even of sundry whole Nations been darkned that they have not discerned no not grosse injustice and injury to be so Whereby it appeareth how much we are bound to admire the profound wisdome and even honour the memory of the Roman Lawgivers who have delivered such a Law to the world a Law wherein so many things are laid open cleare and manifest as a light which otherwise might have been buried in darknesse not without the hazard or rather not with the hazard but with the certain losse of the rights of many men and nations For albeit there is in the Civil Law as there is and must be in all Lawes whatsoever a very great intermixture of such things as are established by the voluntary determination and proceed from the meere will and pleasure of those that have ordained them who might limit Times Places Forms Actions Rewards punishments difference Persons might order and dispose of all Circumstances in what way and manner they pleased as the Nature Manners Government and Occasions of the Roman people most required without any respect to common and universall Reason and are therefore neither obligatory nor usefull to any other State or Nation as they were to the Roman yet there is in it a rational and natural part also which belongs unto men as men or to men as they live in politick society consisting of such common and natural notions and so abstracted from such circumstances which should change and alter it that it is alwayes permanent alike known to all men or at least to the wiser sort of men obligatory and useful every where And never was there any Humane Law that abounded so much with this as the Civil Law doth it being to be found every where about the whole Law though intermixed with that which is meerely positive proper and usefull for that State and none else or at least not fitting to be made a Rule for all people By Natural and Rational I understand that which our own natural understanding allowes as good or disallowes as evil though there were no Law to forbid the one or to prescribe the other And this was the same which St. Paul a Rom. 2.14 expresses to be the guide of the Gentiles that is of all men naturally The Gentiles which have not the Law doe by nature the things contained in the Law which shews the work of the Law written in their hearts Also that which is commonly received and practised by all men In re consensio omnium gentium lex naturae putanda est b Cicer. Tusc l. 1. what all Nations agree on is to be esteemed natural Quod mundus probat non audeo improbare sayes Baldus c Consild 4. Consil 496. I dare not question that which is generally allowed of Likewise I account that natural and rational which is necessary and behoofefull for those that lead their lives in any well-ordered state of government and without which we take away all possibility of a sociable life in the world Further that justice may well be esteemed natural and rational which is squared by and accommodated to the nature of the thing in question as it is defined and as it generally passes in the account of all or at least the most knowing men Neither do I account that only to be natural rational which was so when the first foundations of the world were laid man became in habitant thereof for then all things were common and men were not gathered into civil societies neither was there any distinction of Nations nor any Cōtracts no waging War nor leading