Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	law_n	obedience_n	require_v	3,312	5	7.2188	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62673	An essay concerning the laws of nations, and the rights of soveraigns with an account of what was said at the council-board by the civilians upon the question, whether Their Majesties subjects taken at sea acting by the late king's commission, might not be looked on as pirates? : with reflections upon the arguments of Sir T.P. and Dr. Ol / by Mat. Tindall ...	Tindal, Matthew, 1653?-1733.	1694 (1694)	Wing T1300; ESTC R4575	22,311	37

can such a Person claim these Privileges or for what Reason should Mankind pay them to him more than to other private Persons Are these Privileges like the Charms or indelible Characters the Papists say are inseparable from the Persons of their Priests which whatever it be in Ecclesiasticals is no small Bigotry and Phanaticism in Civil Affairs And it is the height of Folly Madness and Superstition to believe that the People who have entrusted some one amongst them with Power for no other end but for protecting them can upon no account whatever resume it To speak somewhat against this Notion cannot be unseasonable or impertinent because it is not only the Foundation of these false Notions which I endeavour to confute but of almost all others that concern the Rights of Soveraigns The only innate Principle in Man is to seek his own Happiness and consequently it is his Duty to pursue it otherwise God would not have imprinted it so deeply on his Mind that it is impossible for him not to desire it and it is the Source of all his Actions and the Foundation of his Duty to God and to Man there being no Reason why a Man should be obliged to do any thing that no way promotes his Happiness which as to this Life considering his Weakness and Infirmities he is not able to procure without the Aid and Assistance of others which as the only way to obtain he ought to be as ready to assist them and do by them as he expects they should do by him and as it is evident the Duty Men owe to one another tends to the Happiness of each individual Person so the neglect of it would be to the Loss and Detriment of each particular and the more any one is obliged the more zealous he ought to be to make sutable Returns because there is no Vertue that more encourageth People to do Good to one another and consequently is more beneficial to Man than Gratitude And this is the Reason of the Duty that Children for the sake of their Being and Education owe to their Parents The Relation between Parents and Children is called a Natural Relation because it does not come by Compact and Agreement as all others do which Men enter into for their own sakes and where-ever they oblige themselves to serve others either by the Labour of the Mind or Body it is for some sutable Return and in all Relations of Life there are reciprocal Duties for the sake of which alone Men entred into them and consequently designed to oblige themselves no longer to them than they receive these Returns It is repugnant to that natural Equality that is amongst Men that all should be due of one Side and nothing of the other In all Relations the Duties are conditional and can oblige no longer than they are performed on both sides because each Party would not have bound himself but for the sake of the Return Where Numbers enter into any Relation with a single Person as when they engage to pay him Obedience there it is most evident that they would never part with their Liberties and give to a single Person so great Power over them but for the sake of some sutable Return which can be no other than the Protection they receive by Government which was the sole Motive Reason and Design of their becoming Subjects nor can they be presumed to intend any thing but their common Good nor to pay Obedience upon any other Terms or Conditions but for the Protection they are to receive nay had it been possible for Men to design it they were morally incapable of binding themselves contrary to their Common Good and Prosperity Though Protection cannot be had without Obedience yet Obedience is only the Means and in order to Protection which is the End for which alone Obedience is due and where that End cannot be had all Ties are absolutely broken And this has been the Sense and Practice of Mankind who have always submitted to new Governors when their old Ones became uncapable to protect them But the Reason is much stronger when instead of protecting they design to oppress and ruin them then their own Good which at first was the sole Reason of their Obedience does as much oblige them to oppose them as ever it did to submit to them The Doctrine of Absolute Obedience is inconsistent with the Goodness of God and the Love he has for Man and is destructive of the End Intent and Design of God's Laws which is Man's Happiness For God who is infinitely happy in himself could have no other Motive but Man's Happiness in those Rules he has given him to walk by and for that Reason has made it a Duty in him to help the Poor and Miserable relieve the Oppressed and Distressed and do all manner of Kindnesses and good Offices to one another Can it then be presumed that he required Obedience to Arbitrary Power which brings Poverty Misery and Desolation on a Nation If it be Duty to relieve the Poor and Oppressed it must as much so to hinder People from falling into that miserable Condition which they cannot prevent except they have a Right to oppose Arbitrary Power And if it be a Duty to promote the Publick Good which they cannot do if they are obliged to submit to Arbitrary Government it must be their Duty to oppose it In short there is no Duty that a Man owes to his Neighbour or himself but does oblige him to oppose Arbitrary Government and so does that Honour and Duty which Man owes to his Maker which cannot more be shown than in imitating him by promoting the Good and Happiness of his Fellow-Creatures He that does not love his Brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen But the endeavouring to enslave his Brother is no Argument of any great Love he bears him Absolute Obedience tends to the Dishonour of God as it naturally tends to introduce gross Ignorance and Superstition which perhaps is the chief Reason that some Men so highly promote it because then they may be the better able to impose what selfish Doctrines they please and tyrannize over the Consciences of their Brethren The promoting Absolute Obedience is a much greater Crime than the encouraging any Rebellion whatever because a Civil War though during the time it lasts is very sharp yet it cannot especially in a Country where there are no fortified Places continue long and a Nation may flourish and be happy again But if once Arbitrary Government be introduced upon the Principles of Passive Obedience Peoples Miseries are endless there is no prospect or hopes of Redress Every Age will add new Oppressions and new Burdens to a People already exhausted If he by God's Command was to be cursed that removed his Neighbour's Land-mark what Curses must they deserve that make it their Business to remove all the Bounds Fences and Securities that People have not only for their Lands but their Liberties and Lives and prostrate them at the Feet of a single Person If it be so great a Crime that upon no account as they pretend it is lawful to change the Person that has the Executive Power how much greater must their Crimes be that destroy the Constitution and subvert the whole Government and set up a new one that is infinitely worse This I think is sufficient to show that the People have a Right especially in a limited Government where they are Subjects no farther than the Laws require to defend their Liberties and Privileges and that a King by endeavouring to ruin and enslave them has lost all the Ties he had to their Obedience and has no longer a Right to command them and they may then place the Administration of their Affairs in other Hands which when they have done what reason have they to allow him that designed to ruin and enslave them greater Privileges than any other private Person who never intended them any Mischief Or what reason have other Nations to allow him those Privileges which they cannot without Injury to themselves pay to any but those that have summum Imperium But to return Dr. Waller and Dr. Nuton who also attended did not declare their Opinions Dr. W. excused himself that he had not time to consider the Question and Dr. N. said it was against his Conscience or words to that effect to have a Hand in Blood I suppose with this tacit Reserve except it were in hopes of being Advocate of the Admiralty whose Business it is if prosecuting Pirates and Malefactors may be called so to have a Hand in Blood But to conclude I hope I have sufficiently proved what I designed and have not only answered all the Objections that were then made but have obviated whatever can reasonably be urged to the contrary FINIS

AN ESSAY Concerning the LAWS of NATIONS AND THE RIGHTS of SOVERAIGNS With an Account of what was said at the Council-Board by the Civilians upon the Question Whether their Majesties Subjects taken at Sea acting by the late King's Commission might not be looked on as Pirates With REFLECTIONS upon the ARGUMENTS of Sir T. P. and Dr. Ol. By Mat. Tindall Doctor of Laws LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane 1694. AN ESSAY Concerning the LAWS of NATIONS AND THE RIGHTS of SOVERAIGNS THE Malice of the Jacobites is so restless that it omits no Opportunity to raise Stories though never so false and improbable scruples at no Means tho never so Base and Dishonourable to reflect upon and expose the Government What have they not said against it for designing to try as Pirates those who accepted Commissions from the late King to take the Ships and Goods of Their Majesties Liege Subjects So strangely afraid are they that People should be discouraged from disturbing the Trade and Commerce of the Nation And to make what they report the more colourable and the injustice of trying them contrary as they say to the known Laws of Nations apparent they have every where dispersed false Accounts of what was said by those Civilians who when consulted by the Privy Council upon this Question Whether Their Majesties Subjects taken at Sea acting by the late King's Commission might not be looked on as Pirates were of Opinion that by the Laws of Nations they ought to be so Whose Reasons besides all the dirt imaginable that they have thrown on their Persons they have so represented by altering or leaving out what was most material as to make them appear ridiculous The Duty I owe to the Publick since no better Pen has attempted it will oblige me to give an impartial Account of the whole Proceeding which will be sufficient to wipe off all the Lies and Calumnies they have dispersed and to perswade all impartial Persons that those who were taken acting by the late King's Commission at Sea ought by the Law of Nations to be condemn'd as Pirates But that the Reader may better apprehend and judge of the Reasons that were urged on both sides and of the Question it self it will be necessary to shew what the Law● of Nations are and how far Kings and other Supream Governours are concerned in them The Laws of Nations are certain Rules and Customs observed by Nations in their entercourse with one another which upon the account of their evident and common Profit as they are necessary for their maintaining a mutual Correspondence have been constantly practised by them and are esteemed as Sacred They are built upon no other Foundation than the general Good of Societies to which a mutual Correspondence that could not be upheld but by observing these Rules is highly necessary The several Legislative Powers of Nations never enacted such Laws nor have all other Nations Authority to oblige any Sovereign Independent State which can no otherwise be bound to observe these Rules but as they tend to the mutual good of Societies So that the Law of Nations and Nature is in effect the same The Law of Nature I mean that part of it which concerns the Duty of Man to Man is nothing else but that mutual Aid and Assistance which by reason of their common Necessities one Man owes to another without the observance of which Mankind could not well subsist Which Law as it respects the duty of single Persons to one another is call'd the Law of Nature but as it respects Men collectively as they are Bodies Politick and the relation they have to one another as such is called the Law of Nations who in respect of one another are in the State of Nature and in their mutual correspondence are bound by no other Laws but those of Nature Though it is generally affirmed by Authors that there are many things which are meerly Positive and in themselves Indifferent that are part of the Law of Nations yet they no way endeavour to prove it or pretend to show how long any thing must be practised or among how many Nations to make it an Universal standing Law to all Nations In a Civil Society Customs grow into Laws because it is the Will of the Supream Powers they should Customs are their presumed or unwritten Will which they by their express Will may alter as they please But amongst different Nations there is no Common Legislative Power but every Nation is at liberty to act as it pleases Nor can any Nation be presumed to tie it self up further than their own or the Common Good of Societies do require it Nor can they by any Customs though of never so long continuance if they are in their Nature indifferent be any longer bound than they please provided they publickly declare that as they intend not to use them any longer themselves so they leave others the same liberty A Nation it is true ought not lightly to change what they have generally practised it looks like affecting Singularity and being as it were out of the Fashion but if they do they break no Law But I dare be positive that there is no Custom except what is obligatory by the Law of Nature that is Universally received but in different parts of the World different Customs have obtained and even among the same Nations at different times different Practices which are frequently changed without any Violation of the Law of Nature And there is nothing meerly positive but where Precedents may be brought on both sides which sheweth the thing may or may not be done without injury to the Law of Nations Among the Heads of the Positive Law of Nations That concerning Ambassadors is reckoned one of the chiefest Yet what is more different than the Customs of Nations or the Opinions of Learned Men about those Rights that belong to Ambassadors further than they are deducible from the Law of Nature by which Law the Persons of Ambassadors ought to be inviolable even when sent to Enemies because Peace could not be made or preserved or Differences composed which the Law of Nature requireth should be done except those that are sent on such Errands should not only be safe but also be permitted to treat with Freedom and procure as Advantageous Terms as they can for the Interest of the Nation that imployeth them What is more than this or is not necessary for the Ends they are sent any Prince may refuse it them provided he be willing his Ambassadors should be treated after the same manner and not only to Ambassadors of Soveraign Princes but to any that are sent by private Persons as by Merchants upon the account of Trade if Princes will admit them to treat they must allow them what is necessary in order to it And further than this nothing of certainty can be drawn from the Practice of Nations Nay Grotius who is the great Asserter of the Positive Law of