Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A36485
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A discourse concerning the signification of allegiance, as it is to be understood in the new oath of allegiance
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Downes, Theophilus, d. 1726.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing D2082; ESTC R1366
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36,235
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28
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are in the same sense reciprocally bound to defend the Honour and Dignity of the Sovereign it may be understood likewise from the Feudal Laws whereby the Vassal was obliged to a Military defence of his Lord and from the Municipal Laws of this Kingdom also which oblige all the Subjects that are capable to take up Arms for the King when need shall require This therefore was the Defence to which capable Persons were sworn in that abrogated Oath and others were obliged to give him that assistance which they were able everyone to the utmost of his Power in his respective Capacity as the express Words of the Oath do require Thus have I given a brief Account of the several Forms of swearing Allegiance which have been successively required of all the Subjects of this Kingdom and upon the whole I think it sufficiently appears that the Laws have been always Uniform and constant in obliging the Subjects to an Allegiance that requires not a peaceable Subjection only but also an actual assistance of our Sovereign to the utmost of our Power against all Persons and all Attempts whatsoever without any exception And this is lastly included in the Obligation of Natural Allegiance also which is not so called meerly because the Persons obliged by it are such as have their natural Birth within the King's Dominions For Persons born without the Realm may be his natural Subjects as are the Children of Embassadors born beyond Sea and the Children of Aliens born within the Kingdom are not therefore Natural Subjects of the King So that the meer Circumstance of Birth does not entitle any one to the Priviledges of a Natural Subject nor consequently bind him to all the Duties of Natural Allegiance But it is therefore called Natural in our Laws because as great Lawyers have affirm'd it is founded upon the Law of Nature which gives the Sovereign Power a Right to the Allegiance of every one who is born under the Jurisdiction of it As every Son is born a Subject to his Parents and is by the Law of Nature obliged to honour and obey assist and support them So also is he born a Member of the Body Politick and by consequence a Subject to the Soveraign of it and accordingly by the same eternal Law is bound to pay all Faithful Service and Obedience to him when he is in a Capacity to perform them By the Law of Nature here I mean that light of reason which is given us by the Author of Nature to direct us in all our actions and this light when it is sufficiently attended to and not darkned with Passions will clearly shew us how we should demean our selves in the several capacities and relations we stand in As it shews us what Obedience and Fidelity a Servant owes to his Master a Wife to her Husband and a Son to his Father so it plainly directs us what Duties every Member of a Civil Community owes to the Supreme Governor of it and that this Law of Nature directs us to pay the highest degree of Allegiance to him viz. an active assistance to the utmost of our power is evident both from reason and from the common consent and practice of almost all civilized Mankind the two only ways of demonstrating any Law of Nature And first it seems evident from these following reasons 1. Because such assistance is absolutely necessary to preserve the head of the Community and consequently the whole Body also for to every Political Body a Sovereign Head is so Essential as that it cannot possibly exist without it And therefore since the natural reason of all Men does dictate the necessity of entering into Societies it must likewise teach them the necessity of contributing their actual assistance for the preservation of those Societies and consequently of that Sovereign power which is Essenâ—ial to the very Being of them 2. Because every Subject has received actual Protection and in effect his very Life and Being from the Sovereign Power For not only Property and all the Blessings of it but the Conservation of even Life it self are derived from Civil Government and therefore both Justice and Gratitude do oblige us to do all we can to preserve the Being and the Rights of that Sovereign Power from which we derive our own Our Parents are the Instruments of our natural Production and for that reason we are ever obliged â—o honour and support them though they prove never so unnatural to us because it will be always true that we have received our Being from them and the Obligation of that benefit will last as long as our lives Such is our Obligation to the Sovereign Power We have received our Lives and Properties from it and it will be always true that we owe them to it and therefore though it become never so Tyrannical still the Obligation of obeying and assisting it will remain Our gratitude must continue as long as we enjoy the benefit and civil oppression can no more abâ—olve Subjects from their Allegiance than Domestick Cruelty can discharge Children from the Duty of Obedience 3. It may be proved also from the Obligations of Equity and Justice which are certainly founded in the Law of Nature Now the grand Fundamental Rules of Justice are these That we do to others as we would be done to our selves and that we give to every one his due and by both these equitable Rules all Subjects are bound to assist and support their Sovereigns By the former because every Subject does expect an actual Protection of his Person and Property from the Sovereign power and that when he is disabled from contributing his assistance to support it and therefore he is bound in Equity to give the like assistance to his Sovereign in times of necessity and even when he cannot actually exert his Power for the protection of his Subjects It is also due by the latter because the Sovereign has a Right to such assistance of his Subjects I will not here say by the Law of Nature for that is the thing which I am proving but by the positive Civil Laws of this Kingdom The Law of Nature requires that every Man should enjoy his Rights and that is truly a Man's Right which is such by a Politick Law and therefore since the Kings of England by the Political Laws of this Kingdom have a Right to the actual assistance of their Subjects to deny it them is a violation not only of those Laws but even of the Law of Nature also But 4. There is yet a higher reason for it which respects the Author of all Sovereignty For even the Light of Nature doth teach us that an infinite Being made the World and that he still governs it that from Him all lawful Dominion is derived and that Kings are his Ministers and Vicegerents And hence it is obvious to infer that every Subject is bound not only to submit but also to support and defend them because it is every Mans
duty to support that Government which God himself has established over him 2. It is evident also from the universal practice and consent of almost all Nations This might be evinced from an Induction of particulars But I think it will not be denied by any that where-ever Civil Government has been established and in what from soever it has been always thought the Duty of every good Citizen or Subject to adhere to the Sovereign power of his Country against all his Enemies and even to adventure his own life for the preservation of it And hence it is that there is hardly any Government in the World wherein every individual Person that is capable of bearing Arms is not obliged upon some great occasions personally to assist the Sovereign Power and hazard his life in its defence And this is a manifest Indication that the Duties of Allegiance were first taught Men by the Light of Nature since the universal exacting of them can be ascribed to nothing else but such an universal Principle Wherefore Dr. Sanderson had reason to affirm That the Bond of Allegiance doth not arise Originally from the Oath of Allegiance but it is so intrinsecal proper and essential a Duty and as it were fundamental to the relation of a Subject quà talis as that the very name of a Subject doth after a sort import it insomuch that it hath thereupon gained in common Usage of Speech the stile of Natural Allegiance Whence he affirms these Inferences will follow 1 That the Bond of Allegiance whether sworn or not sworn is in the nature of it perpetual and indispensable 2. That it is so inseparable from the relation of a Subject that tho' the exercise of it may be for some time suspended by a prevailing force yet it cannot be so absolutely removed but that it still remaineth virtually in the Subject and obligeth to an actual exercise of it upon all fit occasions 3. That no Subject of England that hath either by taking the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance acknowledged or otherwise believeth that the Sovereign Power to whom his Natural Allegiance is due is the King his Heirs and lawful Successors can without sinning against his Conscience enter into any Covenant Promise or Engagement or do any other Act whatsoever whereby either to transfer his Allegiance to any other Party to whom it is not of Right due or to incapacitate himself to perform it to his lawful Sovereign when it may appear serviceable to him And what was asserted by this great Casuist is for the substance of it deliver'd by the great Oracle of the Law who in the aforementioned Case reports that these Positions were debated and resolved on by all the Judges First That the Ligeance of the Subject is due by the Law of Nature Secondly That the Law of Nature is part of the Law of England Thirdly That the Law of Nature was long before any Municipal Law. Fourthly That it is immutable It appears says he by demonstrative reason that Ligeance of the Subject to the Sovereign was before any Municipal or Judicial Laws First For that Government and Subjection were long before any Municipal Laws Secondly It had been in vain to have prescribed Laws to any but to such as owed Ligeance before frustr à enim feruntur leges nisi subditis obedientibus Seeing then that Ligeance is due by the Law of Nature it follows that the same cannot be altered or taken away For albeit Municipal Laws have in several times and places imposed several punishments for Breach of the Law of Nature yet the Law of Nature it self never was nor could be changed and this says he appears plainly and plentifully in our Law-Books And afterwards he argues thus upon the same Principle Whatsoever is due only by Law and Constitution of Man may be alter'd but naturally the Ligeance of the Subject to the Sovereign cannot be alter'd therefore it is not due only by the Law and Constitution of Man. And again Whatsoever is due by the Law of Nature cannot be altered but Allegiance is due by the Law of Nature therefore it cannot be alter'd Thus far that famous Lawyer and thus far have I consider'd the signification of Allegiance as it is founded in the Laws and explained by Lawyers I am further to consider it as a word of vulgar signification also and as it is taken and understood by the Generality of the People of this Nation For all the Subjects of this Kingdom being obliged by Law and immemorial Custom to swear Allegiance to their Sovereign it is not credible they should be ignorant of the true meaning of it Those Law terms in which few are concern'd are by few understood but such as are of universal concernment must of necessity be also universally understood Who knows not the meaning of Parliament Jury Assizes that is of any understanding The word Allegiance is of more near and universal concernment to all Men it is therefore presum'd that no Subject can be ignorant of it The Oaths themselves which the Subjects have ever been enured to have sufficiently taught them the Duties intended by it That they must pay due Obedience to the King that they must never assist his Enemies that they must uphold his Crown and sometimes adventure even their Lives and Fortunes in his Service Thus much Nature it self does teach them as it teaches Children to discharge the same Duties towards Parents But there is no need of proving a thing to be that which it is Most certain it is that all Men of tolerable understanding even among the common People do know that all these Duties are included in true Allegiance Ask any Man of common sense whether he who has sworn true Faith and Allegiance to K. W. does not violate his Oath if at any time he assist K. J. to dethrone him Whether he is not bound to be faithful to him against all his Enemies To discover all the designs of K. J. against him that shall come to his knowledge And when it is in his power and necessity requires it to contribute his actual Assistance also to oppose his Recovery of the Crown I make no Question but he will answer that his Allegiance binds him to all this and that he is plainly perjur'd if he does not perform it The Understandings of the common People as they are not capable of those Subtilties which men of Learning are enur'd to so are they seldom perverted with those nice and sophistical Distinctions by which men of Subtilty perplex things plain and easie in themselves A Mechanick and a Peasant apprehend what Motion is and what is Perjury as well as the acutest Philosopher or the deepest Divine and they know what Allegiance and Faithfulness imply as well as the ablest Lawyer and if you go about to blunder their understandings with Distinctions and Objections they are but where they we 〈…〉 and will still clearly apprehend what they understood before And if