Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	bind_v	law_n	nature_n	1,568	5	5.4669	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

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