a subject; for sovereign power being ordained by God for a public good, to guard and defend the innocent, to shelter and relieve the oppressed, to fence and propagate true religion, and adjust and balance private rights and interests; every subject hath a right to be protected by it, so far as it is able, in his person and legal rights, in his just liberties and privileges, and sincere profession of true religion : and that sovereign who doth not employ his power to these purposes, but through wilful and affected error or ignorance imposes a false religion on his people, or betrays, oppresses, or enslaves them himself, or permits others to do it either out of malice or carelessness, is an injurious invader of their rights and properties; and though he be not accountable to any earthly tribunal, shall one day answer for it at the tribunal of God.

2. There is the relation of subordinate magistrates to the sovereign and people: such are the judges and justices, the governors of towns, cities, and provinces, and the like; who, by virtue of that authority which is stamped upon them, and which they derive, as I told you, from God, who is the head and spring of all power and dominion, have by virtue of that a right to be honoured, and reverenced, and obeyed by the people, according to the degree and extent of their authority. For whereever it is placed, authority is a sacred thing, as being a ray and impress of the divine majesty, and as such may justly claim honour and reverence from all men; and whoever contemns the lowest degree of it, offers an affront to the highest. He who contemns subordinate magistrates who are vested with

the king's authority, doth therein contemn the king; and he who contemns the king, who is vested with God's authority, doth therein contemn God. Whatsoever therefore the personal faults and defects of magistrates may be, men ought to consider that their authority is a sacred thing, and, as such, challenges their reverence and obedience by an unalienable right; and that therefore to behave themselves frowardly, stubbornly, or irreverently towards a lawful magistrate, is to detain from him his rights, and offer an unjust affront to his character; which, how good soever they may be in other instances, doth in this bespeak them highly dishonest and injurious. And as the relation of subordinate magistrates entitles them to the people's reverence and obedience, so the relation which the prince and people bear to them, entitles them both to their fidelity, vigilance, and justice. For subordinate magistrates are the king's trustees for himself and his people; and in their hands he deposits the honour, security, and rights of his own crown and dominion, together with the safeguard and protection of the just and legal rights of his people. So that upon their acceptance of this trust, by which they engage themselves faithfully to discharge it, the king acquires a right to their faithful and vigilant care to see that his authority be reverenced, his laws obeyed, his person, government, and properties secured; the people acquire a right to be protected by them in their persons, reputations, liberties, and estates; and so far as they are wilfully failing either towards the king or the people in any of these matters, they do unjustly detain the king's or the people's rights, or

both; they betray the trust committed to them, falsify their own engagements, and, under the mask of authority, are public robbers of mankind.

3. There is the relation of pastors and people : for since, out of his tender care to the souls of men, God hath instituted an order of men to administer to them those holy ordinances by which he conveys his grace and Spirit, to instruct them in their duties, admonish them of their errors, and warn them of their dangers, and guide them to eternal happiness; there doth from hence arise a near and sacred relation between the people and their respective guides and pastors. They are joined together by the ties and obligations of religion, which gives them a mutual right in one another; and which gives the pastor a right to be diligently attended to by the people in his religious ministrations; to be construed in the best sense, and fairly treated and complied with in all his pious reproofs and admonitions; to be honoured and reverenced for his work's sake; to partake with the people in their temporals, as they do with him in his spirituals; and to be supported by them, according to their ability, with a fair and honourable maintenance: and they who are wanting to their pastor in any of these particulars, deprive him of that which is as much his right in conscience as any thing can be theirs in law. And then as for the people, they have also a right to have holy things duly and regularly administered to them by their pastor, to be taught and instructed by him with wholesome doctrine and example, to be prudently admonished of their faults and dangers, and counselled and advised by him in all their spiritual straits and exigencies; and he who is wilfully failing in the

faithful discharge and payment of these dues is a thief and a robber of his people's souls; that so far as in him lies rifles them of that which ought to be dearer to them than their estates or lives, even the bread of life, without which they cannot live, but must starve and perish for ever; and if they do, it is by his unjust neglect to render them their dues, and their blood will be required at his hands.

4. There is the relation of husband and wife, who having mutually bestowed themselves upon each other, and sealed the deed by matrimonial vow, are thereby interwoven into one another, and morally compounded into one person. For marriage is an union of persons, and incorporation of two into one by moral ties and ligaments. So that between husband and wife there is the nearest and dearest union that can be between two natural persons; they are each other's property and enclosure, having by mutual vows made over and exchanged themselves for one another, by virtue of which they have a mutual right in each other's person, and cannot bestow themselves away from one another without being guilty of the most outrageous injustice. For the husband is one half of the wife, and the wife of the husband; and therefore whenever they alienate themselves from each other, they rob one another of one half of themselves. And it is this that doth so much enhance the sin of adultery beyond that of simple fornication; because when the husband disposes his body to another woman, or contrariwise, he is not only guilty of an unbounded, rambling lust, which is the proper malignity of simple fornication, but also of a foul and monstrous injustice. For he having made himself his wife's

by promise and vow, cannot give away himself from her without being impiously injurious, without robbing God of his vow, and robbing her of himself, for whom she exchanged herself. And consequently they who endeavour to seduce the wife from the husband, or the husband from the wife, are guilty of a horrid injustice, in attempting to rob God and man of that which is most dear and precious to them, and to break through vows and sacred fences to trespass on their neighbour's enclosure, which, how common soever it may be in this degenerate age, is certainly one of the blackest villainies in nature. And as husband and wife have a mutual right to each other's persons, so they have also to each other's dearest love and affection: for no relation doth so nearly entitle and interest persons in one another as that of marriage; nor consequently that gives them so great a right and title to each other's hearts and affections. Matt. xix. 5. For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they two shall be one flesh : and then, No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, saith the apostle, exhorting to matrimonial love, Eph. v. 29. Husband and wife are one by a moral union of persons; and therefore for them to hate and abuse one another would be as unnatural as for a man to hate and tear his own flesh. Again; as they have a mutual right to each other's persons and affections, so they have also to each other's help and assistance. Hence the apostle calls them yokefellows, implying, that they ought to draw together, and mutually assist one another in their common concerns and interests. For in the union of their persons their interest is