Selected quad for the lemma: nation_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nation_n	common_a	law_n	nature_n	4,741	5	6.4472	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48197	A letter to a member of Parliament, shewing, that a restraint on the press is inconsistent with the Protestant religion, and dangerous to the liberties of the nation	Tindal, Matthew, 1653?-1733.; Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.	1698 (1698)	Wing L1680; ESTC R10914	22,249	32

when they are left to themselves without any Clergy at all are more likely not only to judg for themselves but to make a truer and a more impartial Judgment than when they are permitted to know the Sentiments of the Clergy but of one Sect who then may impose on them what ever out of Interest they think fit 5. One Reason why God hath so formed Mankind that each alone without the help of others cannot well subsist is to oblige them to mutual love and kindness and to contribute to one anothers happiness And they want each others assistance for things of the Mind as well as of the Body For a Man would be in a miserable state of Darkness and Ignorance were it not for the Light that others afford him and therefore they are obliged to increase as much as they can each others Knowledg especially in Religion which they can no otherwise do than by communicating to one another what they think is the Truth and the Reason by which they endeavour to prove it To oblige Men to do this God has not only implanted in them a strong desire to find out Religious Truth but as great an inclination to teach others what they apprehend to be so and there is no Man who believes a Doctrine to be true but would be very glad to get it owned by others Whosoever therefore endeavours to hinder Men from communicating their Thoughts as they notoriously do that are for restraining the Press invade the natural Rights of Mankind and destroy the common Ties of Humanity If we must early and late according to the Wise Man's direction seek after Wisdom as after a hidden Treasure I cannot see how it will become the Wisdom of a Nation to endeavour by a Law to hinder us from knowing more than the scanty Measure a Party-Licencer will afford us Not only the Light of Nature but the written Word Levit 19. 17. 1 Thess. 5. 14. Heb. 3. 13. obliges every one Lay as well as Clergy to exhort warn rebuke and use all means possible to bring his mistaken Brother into the right way which he can no otherwise do than by first judging himself what is right and wrong and then by using Arguments to perswade him whom he judges in the wrong to desist from it And if as the Scripture supposeth no Man can neglect to do this without hating his Brother every one has a right to print his Sentiments as the best if not the only way to exhort rebuke reprove Myriads of Brethren at the same time In short in all Ages the greater Mens Zeal hath been towards God and the more inflamed their Love to their Neighbours the more they have thought it their Duty tho with the hazard of their Lives to communicate to others what they judged to be the Truth And all Sects how different so ever in all other things do agree in thinking themselves bound thereto as to the greatest Act of Charity and consequently there is no Sect that hinders others from publishing what they believe to be Truth but sins against the natural and revealed Law and breaks that golden Rule the Foundation of all Morality of doing as they would be done unto For tho they look upon it as impious and tyrannical for any to hinder them from imparting to others those Doctrines they judg to be true yet they themselves would hinder all others who have as much right to judg for themselves and are as much obliged to communicate to others what they judg to be a Religious Truth What can be more inhumane as well as ungrateful than to punish that Person who out of love to Truth and charity to the Souls of his Brethren bestows his Time perhaps to the detriment of his Health and Fortune in publishing what he judges to be for their eternal Good If this be a just Reward for such an Undertaking I cannot see how the Clergy can deserve such Riches and Honours for doing but the same thing that is for instructing others in that they judg to be true Nothing can be more unbecoming the Dignity of a rational Nature than to bar up the way to religious Knowledg and Wisdom which Men have no way to propagate but by offering one another Reasons and Arguments And there can be no Pretence to hinder Men from doing this by restraining the Press but what will as strongly forbid them doing it any other way In a word Men have the same right to communicate their Thoughts as to think themselves and where the one is denied the other is seldom used or to little purpose For Men as they are more or less hindred from communicating their Thoughts are more or less stupid and ignorant and their Religion more or less corrupted And this is not only true with relation to Mahometans and Pagans who suffer no Printing at all except the Chinese whose Knowledg above other Eastern Nations seems to be owing to that Art tho among them wonderfully rude and imperfect but with respect to Christians amongst whom one would think it almost impossible considering what Light and Knowledg the Gospel brought into the World that any should be so grosly ignorant and superstitious as the Papists are or that the Christian Religion should be so much depraved as it is amongst them and what is this owing to but the denying the People the Liberty of the Press and all other ways of freely debating matters of Religion And had it not been for this Invention whereby men had such an easy way of communicating their Thoughts nothing but a second Revelation could have freed them from that mass of Ignorance and Superstition the Christian World lay under and which was every day increasing and does still remain in a very high degree in those Countries that groan under Restraint as Portugal Spain Italy which last sutably to the Freedom once it enjoyed abounded with Men eminent in all Learning and Knowledg as well as Vertue and Bravery and that it is so much degenerated now the Climate and the make of their Bodies being still the same is owing to nothing but that Priest-craft which forbids all Freedom contrary to the practice of antient Rome where to think on what one had a mind to and to speak ones thoughts as freely as to think them was looked on as one of the chief Blessings of a Free Government It 's not only in Popish but in Protestant Countries too that according to the Restraint Men lay under Ignorance Superstition and Bigotry does more or less abound Denmark Sweden and several other Countries are undeniable Instances of this and it cannot be otherwise for there is little difference between having no Reason and not exercising it And it 's evident that the Clergy themselves are not only more knowing and reason much better but are much more sober careful and exemplary where liberty of Debating is allowed than where denied From what has been urged I think I may safely conclude that Men if they