§. 170. First, then, paternal or parental power is nothing but that which
parents have over their children to govern them, for the children's good, till
they come to the use of reason, or a state of knowledge, wherein they may be
supposed capable to understand that rule, whether it be the law of Nature or
the municipal law of their country, they are to govern themselves by —
capable, I say, to know it, as well as several others, who live as free men
under that law. The affection and tenderness God hath planted in the breasts of
parents towards their children makes it evident that this is not intended to be
a severe arbitrary government, but only for the help, instruction, and
preservation of their offspring. But happen as it will, there is, as I have
proved, no reason why it should be thought to extend to life and death, at any
time, over their children, more than over anybody else, or keep the child in
subjection to the will of his parents when grown to a man and the perfect use
of reason, any farther than as having received life and education from his
parents obliges him to respect, honour, gratitude, assistance, and support, all
his life, to both father and mother. And thus, it is true, the paternal is a
natural government, but not at all extending itself to the ends and
jurisdictions of that which is political. The power of the father doth not
reach at all to the property of the child, which is only in his own disposing.
