CHAPTER IX.

1. The law over sovereigns, salus populi. 2. That sovereigns ought to establish the religion they hold for best. 3. That to forbid unnatural copulation, promiscuous use of women, &c. is the law of nature. 4. That to leave man as much liberty as may be, &c. is the duty of a sovereign by the law of nature. 5. Meum and tuum, to be set out to the subjects, distinct from one another, &c. a duty of sovereigns by the law of nature. 6. An extraordinary power for judging the abuses of magistrates, necessary, &c. 7. The suppressing of popularity, &c. necessary, &c. 8. The instruction of youth, &c. necessary, &c. 9. Avoiding of unnecessary war, a necessary duty of the sovereign, &c.

1. Having hitherto set forth how a body politic is made, and how it may be destroyed, this place requireth to say something concerning the preservation of the same, not purposing to enter into the particulars of the art of government, but to sum up the general heads, wherein such art is to be employed, and in which consisteth the duty of him or them that have the sovereign power. For the duty of a sovereign consisteth in the good government of the people. And although the acts of sovereign power be no injuries to the subjects who have consented to the same by their implicit wills, yet when they tend to the hurt of the people in general, they be breaches of the law of nature, and of the divine law; and consequently, the contrary acts are the duties of sovereigns, and required at their hands to the utmost of their endeavour, by God Almighty, under the pain of eternal death. And as the art and duty of sovereigns consist in the same acts, so also doth their profit. For the end of art, is profit; and governing to the profit of the subjects, is governing to the profit of the sovereign, as hath been showed Part II. chapter V.