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

combined and united; so that that which is the one's is the other's: their meums and tuums are confounded together, and their fortunes make a common stock wherein they are partners with one another, and are entitled to the promiscuous use and enjoyment of it. And being sharers in the same interest, they ought to be mutually helpful, and bear a part of each other's cares and burdens: for when they are both entitled to the same fortunes and interests, it is by no means just that the one, like a slothful drone, should dwell at ease in the hive, and devour the honey, whilst the other, like a laborious bee, goes forth, and toils to gather it. These are the common rights and dues which husband and wife owe to one another. But then the husband having the superiority, hath a right to be reverenced and obeyed by his wife in all things that are fair and honest, to be entertained with a gentle behaviour, addressed to with soft entreaties, and treated with a sweet compliance: and therefore for a woman to behave herself perversely towards her husband, to control his will in indifferent matters, and if he will not yield, to teaze and weary him with her sour looks, or clamorous words, or provoking deportment, is not only a great dishonour to her own head, but a high and shameful injustice, for which she must one day account to God, as well as for her other iniquities. And then, on the other hand, the wife being no otherwise inferior to the husband than the body is to the soul, or the bosom to the head, ought not to be treated by him as his slave and servant, but as a part of himself, i. e. with all lenity and forbearance, tenderness and complaisance; and, as Plutarch saith," the husband's em

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pire over the wife ought to be soft and cheerful," to be alloyed and sweetened with the greatest condescension and officiousness: and that soul is not more unrighteous to its body, that starves, or macerates, or evil entreats it, than the husband is to his wife, who behaves himself churlishly, sourly, or imperiously towards her. Col. iii. 19. Husbands, love your wives, saith the apostle, and be not bitter against them: i. e. Be not morose and rough, stern and severe in your carriage towards them; but be sure you use them with all that honourable regard, prudent compliance, and endearing familiarity, that is due to them as they are parts of yourselves.

5. There is the relation of friend and friend, which I put next to that of husband and wife, because it is next to it in respect of nearness and affinity. For friendship is the marriage of souls, and interests and counsels, the union or exchange of hearts, the clasp of mutual affections, or true loveknot that ties men's hearts and minds together. For as for the matter of friendship, it is love and charity; but as for the form of it, it is charity appropriated to such particular persons; so that charity is friendship in common, and friendship is charity enclosed. In a word, charity is friendship expanded, like the force of the sun when he rises above the horizon, and shines upon the world; but friendship is charity contracted, like the rays of that glorious light drawn into the centre of a burning-glass, and made more warm and active by their union. When therefore men have contracted particular friendships, and espoused their souls and minds to one another, there doth from thence arise a new relation between them, beyond what common charity creates; from

which new relation there accrue new rights to the related parties. For mutual friendship is not a metaphysical nothing, created merely for contemplation, for such as are contracted in its holy bands to stare upon each other's faces, and make dialogues of news and prettinesses, or to look babies in one another's eyes; but it is a substantial and important virtue, fitted for the noblest purposes, to be an alloy to our sorrows, an ease to our passions, a discharge of our oppressions, a sanctuary to our calamities, a counsellor of our doubts, a repository of our secrets, and an improvement of our meditations; a champion to our innocence, and an advocate for our interest both with God and men: to these brave purposes serves every real friendship; and without these, it is only the empty name and shadow of friendship. When therefore men combine and unite together in this close and near relation, they give each other a right to themselves to all the above-named uses and purposes, to be guides and comforts to each other in their doubts and sorrows, monitors and remembrancers in their errors and oblivions, shelters and refuges in their oppressions and calamities, and faithful trustees and secretaries to each other's confidences and thoughts. These are the great rights of friendship, which whosoever detains or withholds from his friend is a false and unjust correspondent in that brave and noble relation: for when we mutually contract particular friendship with one another, it is to these great purposes, or it is not friendship; and when to these purposes we have once joined hands, and struck particular amities with one another, we are bound by the ties of common honesty and justice, so far as we are able, to make good our