[Footnote 703: "And finally," continues the minister, "I exhort & charge you to beware lest you give place to the Devil, so as to take Occasion from the Licence now given you, to be lifted up with _Pride_, and thereby fall under the Displeasure, not of Man only, but of God also; for, it is written, that God resisteth the Proud, but he giveth Grace to the humble.
"I shall now conclude w^{ th} _Prayer_ for you, that you may become good Christians, and that you may be enabled to conduct as such; and in partic^r, that you may have Grace to behave suitably towards each Other, as also dutifully towards your Masters & Mistresses, not w^{ th} Eye-Service, as Men-pleasers, but as y^e serv^{ ts} of Chr^t, doing y^e will of God from y^e heart." Published by MOORE, _Slave Marriages in Mass._: in DAWSON'S _Hist. Mag._, 2d series, V, 137.]
Through this ingenious device, it is clear, the permanence of the slave's nuptial bond, with all his connubial and family rights, was made absolutely dependent upon his owner's will.
ECCLESIASTICAL RITES AND THE RISE OF CIVIL MARRIAGE IN THE SOUTHERN COLONIES
[BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE XIII.--For Virginia the chief materials have been drawn from Hening's _Statutes at Large_ (Richmond, 1809-23), and the laws comprised in _Acts of the Assembly_ (fol., Williamsburg, 1769). The third volume of O'Callaghan, _Documents Rel. to the Col. History of New York_, has an interesting memorial of the bishop of London written in 1677; and there are some references to marriage in Strachey, _For the Colony in Virginea Britannea: Lawes Diuine, Morall, and Martiall_, being "Dale's Code" (London, 1612): in Force, _Tracts_, III; Spotswood, _Letters_, constituting Vols. I and II, new series, of the _Collections of the Va. Hist. Soc._ (Richmond, 1882-85); Beverley, _History of Virginia_ (reprint, Richmond, 1855); and the acts of the assembly of 1619 contained in the _Colonial Records of Virginia_ (Richmond, 1874). Cooke, _Virginia_ (Boston, 1884), gives a curious proclamation of Governor Wyatt for the regulation of courtship. In Vol. IV of the _Va. Magazine of Hist. and Biog._ (Richmond, July, 1896) there is a unique "Marriage Agreement" which throws some light on the economic affairs of the provincial household; and further illustrations of domestic and social customs may be found in Goodwin, _The Colonial Cavalier_ (Boston, 1895); and Fiske, _Old Virginia and Her Neighbors_ (Boston, 1898).