CHAP. I. Of MAGISTRACY.
I. RELATION is nothing else but that State of Mutual Respect and Refe∣rence, which one Thing or Person has to another.
II. Such are the Relations of Father and Son, Husband and Wife, Master and Ser∣vant, Magistrate and Subject.
III. The Relations of a Father, Husband and Master, are really distinct and diffe∣rent; that is, one of them is not the other; For he may be any one of these, who is none of the rest.
IV. This distinction proceeds from the different Reasons, upon which these Re∣lations are Founded.
V. The Reason or Foundation, from whence arises the Relation of a Father, is from having Begotten his Son, who may as properly call every Old Man he meets his Father, as any other Person whatsoever, excepting him only who Begat him.
VI. The Relation of an Husband and Wife is founded in Wedlock, whereby they mutually consent to become one Flesh.
VII. The Relation of a Master is founded in that Right and Title which he has to the Possession, or Service, of his Slave or Servant.
VIII. In these Relations, the Name of Father, Husband, and Master, imply Sove∣raignty and Superiority, which varies notwithstanding, and is more or less Absolute, according to the Foundation of these several Relations.
IX. The Superiority of a Father is founded in that Power, Priority and Dignity of Nature, which a Cause hath over its Effect.
X. The distance is not so great in Wedlock, but the Superiorty of the Husband over the Wife, is like that of the Right hand over the left in the same Body.
XI. The Superiority of a Master, is an absolute Dominion over his Slave, a Limi∣ted and Conditionate Command over his Servant.
XII. The Titles of Pater Patriae, and Sponsus Regni, Father of the Country, and Husband of the Realm, are Metaphors and improper Speeches: For no Prince ever Begat a whole Country of Subjects; nor can a Kingdom more properly be said to be Married, than the City of Venice is to the Adriatique Gulph.
XIII. And to shew further, that Magistracy is not Paternal Authority, nor Monarchy founded in Fatherhood; it is undeniably plain, that a Son may be the Natural Sove∣raign Lord of his own Father, as Henry the second had been of Jeffery Plantagenet, if he had been an Englishman; which, they say, Henry the Seventh did not love to think of, when his Sons grew up to Years. And this Case alone is an Eternal Confutation of the Patriarchate.
XIV. Neither is Magistracy a Martial Power, for the Husband may be the Obedient Subject of his own Wife, as Philip was of Queen Mary.