Again, how will you prove out of this definition that you, or any man else, hath the power of a minister, if it be not given him by him that is the sovereign of the commonwealth? For seeing, as I have now proved, it is from him that you must derive your ministry, you can have no other power than that which is limited in your orders, nor that neither longer than he thinks fit. For if he give it you for the instruction of his subjects in their duty, he may take it from you again whensoever he shall see you instruct them with undutiful and seditious principles. And if the sovereign power give me command, though without the ceremony of imposition of hands, to teach the doctrine of my _Leviathan_ in the pulpit, why am not I, if my doctrine and life be as good as yours, a minister as well as you, and as public a person as you are? For _public person_, primarily, is none but the civil sovereign, and so secondarily, all that are employed in the execution of any part of the public charge. For all are his ministers, and therefore also Christ’s ministers because he is so; and other ministers are but his vicars, and ought not to do or say anything to his people contrary to the intention of the sovereign in giving them their commission. Again, if you have in your commission a power to excommunicate, how can you think that your sovereign who gave you that commission, intended it for a commission to excommunicate himself? that is, as long as he stand excommunicate, to deprive him of his kingdom. If all subjects were of your mind, as I hope they will never be, they will have a very unquiet life. And yet this has, as I have often heard, been practised in Scotland, when ministers holding your principles had power enough, though no right, to do it. And for administration of the sacraments, if by the supreme power of the commonwealth it were committed to such of the laity as know how it ought to be done as well as you, they would _ipso facto_ be ministers as good as you. Likewise the right of ordination of ministers depends not now on the imposition of hands of a minister or presbytery, but on the authority of the Christian sovereign, Christ’s immediate vicar and supreme governor of all persons and judge of all causes, both spiritual and temporal, in his own dominions, which I believe you will not deny. This being evident, what acts are those of yours which you call _authoritative_, and receive not from the authority of the civil power? A constable does the acts of a constable _authoritatively_ in that sense. Therefore you can no otherwise claim your power than a constable claimeth his, who does not exercise his office in the constabulary of another. But you forget that the Scribes and the Pharisees sit no more in Moses’ chair.