CONTENTS ON DIVINE MORALITY. XXXVII. The same subject continued......... 197 XXXVIII. The Justice of God.................. 211 XXXIX. The Blessedness of God............. 230 XLII. The same subject continued............... 275, XLIII. The nature of Prayer. On private, family and public prayer........... XLIV. On Public Worship........ XLV. On Religious Establishments. The ad- LECTURE XXV. HAVING Considered the social duties of a private kind, or the duties which result from the principal relations in human life, whether natural or voluntary, we are now arrived at that part of our course in which we are to treat on political duties, or the duties flowing from the combinations of mankind into larger societies, bound together by common laws, under the direction of the same magistrates or governors. Each relation, or private society, brings with it its peculiar duties or obligations. But there is one moral habit which is necessary to be cultivated in every society, both private and public, and of which all the other social virtues are branches, namely, Justice, which is usually defined a constant and strict regard to the rights of others. In order to have clear ideas on this interesting and copious subject, it is necessary to consider the nature of rights, of laws, and of government. By a right then I mean, authority from God, for the enjoyment of any particular thing, or for the performance of any particular action; that is to say, such an authority to enjoy the thing, or to perform the action, as to exclude the right of interference on the part of other men. Right and Obligation are reciprocal; that is, where there is a right in one person, there is a corresponding obligation upon others. If one man has a right to an estate, others are obliged to abstain from it. If Parents have a right to reverence from their Children, Children are obliged to reverence their Pa |