Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	call_v	law_n	moral_a	1,184	5	9.0839	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96725	The law of laws: or, The excellency of the civil lavv, above all humane lavvs whatsoever. Shewing of how great use and necessity the civil law is to this nation. / By Ro: Wiseman, Dr of the civil law.	Wiseman, Robert, Sir, 1613-1684.	1657 (1657)	Wing W3113; Thomason E889_3	165,799	209

the reason of it had not been evident to those whose judgements were so conformable as never to disagree therein CHAP. VII That they are great advantages which a Nation has by ruling by such a Law as is rationall THe governing and judging by that Law which Reason teacheth us cannot but be effectuall unto that Nations great good that observes 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 at Ma gistratuum con temptum sequun tue populi sediti osae voces adve sus 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 carry 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 to much as they doe because no 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 bononon solū metu poenarū verùm etiā proemiorū quoque exhortatione efficere cupientes veram nist fallor philosophiam non simulatam affectantes saves 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 defend 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 quod vel nos commaculet solos sayes d D. l. 10. Cujacius 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 omnes leget

liveth for as a Civil Law being the act of a whole body politick doth therefore over-rule each severall part of the same body so there is no reason that any one Common-wealth of it selfe should to the prejudice of another annihilate that whereupon the whole world hath agreed for which cause the Lacedaemonians forbidding all accesse of strangers into their Coasts are in that respect both by i Lib 2. Cont. Appion Josephus and k Lib. 9. de sanand Graec. affect Theodoret deservedly blamed as being enemies to that hospitality which for common humanities sake all the Nations on earth should embrace And the Roman Civil Law is of singular use to teach and instruct in this Law too Grotius the Ornament of his Age and Nation for learning and wisdome undertaking in his most singular Book De juri belli Pacis to set down the severall heads of that Law which serves to direct those great transactions of Peace and Warre between Nation and Nation and to reconcile their differences professes to have borrowed towards the perfecting of that admirable worke much from the Books of the Civil Law because saith he l In Prolegom Rationes saepe optimas suppeditant ad demonstrandum id quod juris est naturae eidem juri neque minus gentium juri testimonium saepe praebent They often make very clear discoveries of what is the Law of Nature and doe give frequent instances both of that and of the Law of Nations also And indeed the Law of Nations is no more then that naturall Reason which Nations doe owe and are bound to render each to other whilst they correspond and act together be it in Peace or Warre and but the very same which private men ought to practice amongst themselves in their private dealings Which moved Mt. Hobbs m Lib. de Civ cap. 14. art 4. when for illustration sake he divided the Naturall Law in naturalem hominum naturalem civitatum into that of private Men and that of Nations to adde that praeoepta utriusque eadem sunt sed quia civitates semel institutae induunt proprietates hominum personales n L 76. Dig. de Judic l. 56. dig de Usufrust Popule respectu tetius generis humant privatorum locum obtinent G●ot Mare lib. c. ● lex quam loquentes de hominum singulorum officio naturalem dieimus applicata totis civitalibus nationibus five gentibus vocatur jus Gentium The precepts of both are but one and the same but saith he because severall Common-wealths once setled are but as so many private men the same Law which in reference to single men we terme Naturall being applyed to whole States Nations and people is call'd the Law of Nations their duties being indeed both alike for what one man ought to render to another the same ought one Nation to render to another also So that although what ever we read of in the Text of the Civil Law was not intended by the Roman Legislators to reach or direct beyong the bounds of the Roman Empire neither could they prescribe any Law to other Nations which were in no subjection to them and even those Lawes that doe treat of Military matters Prisoners of Warre Embassies and such like doe but direct what Order Discipline shall be kept among their own Souldiers and how if any of them be taken by the Enemy they forfeit the right of Citizens for the time of their captivity but shall upon returne be restored and how free from being Sued or molested Embassadours that come from their own Provinces not from forreigne States to Rome should be and so all those constitutions and such like have still looked homewards and no further as o Lib 1. de jur Bill cap. 1. Albericus Gentilis has truly observed Yet since there is such a strong stream of Natural Reason continually flowing in the Channell of the Roman Lawes and that there is no affaire or businesse known to any part of the World now which the Roman Empire dealt not in before and their Justice still provided p A Romanis ad omnes populos Juris faecialis totiusque justitiae fontes purissimi manarunt Bodin de rep lib. 5. cap 6. for what should hinder but that the nature of affaires being the same the same generall rule of Justice and dictates of Reason may be as fitly accommodated to forreigners dealing with one another as it is clear they have been by the Civilians of all ages as to those of one and the same Nation when one common Reason is a guide and a light to them both for it is not the Persons but the Case and the Reason therein that is considerable altogether How came the old Law given to the Jewes to be in some measure obligatory to the Christians coming so long after and to be of force still and will be as long as the World endures but because besides the ceremoniall and judiciall part thereof which was observable by the Jewes onely and is now abrogated in as much as it had but a temporary cause of Gods ordaining it there was also a Naturall and a Morall part incorporated in it which all Nations and Men are bound to fulfill and keep and can never cease Haec pars legis vivit sayes q De Legib lib 9. cap. 11. nu 22. Suarez non tamen quia legis Moysis pars sed quia naturae lex est novae legis pars vivetque in sempiternum This part of the Law remains in force but not because it was a part of Moses his Law but because it was given first by Nature and the new Law has since confirmed it and the authority thereof shall remaine for ever So and in like manner there is in the Roman Civil Law a circumstantiall and a positive part which was a Law to the Romans and by them to be obeyed but neither of force or use to others being made for that people climate and government onely But there is in it too a Law whereunto by the light of Reason men find themselves bound in that they are Men a Law by composition for multitudes and politick societies of Men to be guided by a Law that may be applyed to the communion and fellowship of all Mankind or divers Nations linked in amity and friendship together and this part of the Law is naturall perpetuall belonging not to the Romans onely but to all Nations and Men neither can it have any cause of change when that which gave it its first institution remaineth for ever one and the same Yet as the Civil Law is Roman it is of no validity but as it is naturall only for as it was Roman it extended not beyond the bounds of the Roman Empire nor did it take care for any other People or Nation but the Roman onely nor could the commanding power thereof endure longer then the Empire it selfe lasted But when it treats and discusses such matters as are