grant God

over his children, over thofe of his own fpecies; and fo he was not made ruler, or monarch, by this charter. 2. That by this grant gave him not private dominion over the inferior creatures, but right in common with all mankind; fo neither was he monarch, upon the account of the property here given him.

§. 25. 1. That this donation, i. Gen. 28. gave Adam no power over men, will appear if we confider the words of it: for fince all pofitive grants convey no more than the exprefs words they are made in will carry, let us fee which of them here will comprehend mankind, or Adam's pofterity; and those, I imagine, if any, muft be thefe, every living thing that moveth: the words in Hebrew are, 'n i. e. Beftiam Reptantem, of which words the fcripture itself is the best interpreter: God having created the fishes and fowls the 5th day, the beginning of the 6th, The creates the irrational inhabitants of the dry land, which, v. 24. are defcribed in these words, let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind; cattle and creeping things, and beafts of the earth, after his kind, and, v. 2. and God made the beafts of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth on the earth after his kind: here, in the creation of the brute inhabitants of the earth, he first speaks of them all under one general name, of living crea

tures,

tures, and then afterwards divides them into three ranks, 1. Cattle, or fuch creatures as were or might be tame, and fo be the private poffeffion of particular men; 2. n which, ver. 24, and 25. in our Bible, is tranflated beafts, and by the Septuagint Ongia, wild beafts, and is the fame word, that here in our text, ver. 28. where we have this great charter to Adam, is tranflated living thing, and is also the fame word ufed, Gen. ix. 2. where this grant is renewed to Noah, and there likewife tranflated beast. 3. The third rank were the creeping animals, which ver. 24, and 25. are comprised under the word, non, the fame that is used here, ver. 28. and is translated moving, but in the former verfes creeping, and by the Septuagint in all thefe places, EрTETά, or reptils; from whence it appears, that the words which we tranflate here in God's donation, ver.28. living creatures moving, are the fame, which in the hiftory of the creation, ver. 24, 25. fignify two ranks of terreftrial creatures, viz. wild beafts and reptils, and are fo understood by the Septuagint.

§. 26. When God had made the irrational animals of the world, divided into three kinds, from the places of their habitation, viz. fifhes of the fea, fowls of the air, and living creatures of the earth, and thefe again into cattle, wild beafts, and reptils, he confiders of making man, and the dominion he should have over the terreftrial world, ver. 26. and

then

then he reckons up the inhabitants of these three kingdoms, but in the terrestrial leaves out the fecond rank or wild beafts: but here, ver. 28. where he actually exercises this defign, and gives him this dominion, the text mentions the fishes of the fea, and fowls of the air, and the terrestrial creatures in the words that fignify the wild beafts and reptils, though tranflated living thing that moveth, leaving out cattle. In both which places, though the word that fignifies wild beasts be omitted in one, and that which fignifies cattle in the other, yet, fince God certainly executed in one place, what he declares he defigned in the other, we cannot but underftand the fame in both places, and have here only an account, how the terrestrial irrational animals, which were already created and reckoned up at their creation, in three diftinct ranks of cattle, wild beafts, and reptils, were here, ver. 28. actually put under the dominion of man, as they were defigned, ver. 26. nor do these words contain in them the leaft appearance of any thing that can be on over another, to Adam over be wrefted to fignify God's giving to one man his pofterity.

§. 27. And this further appears from Gen. ix. 2. where God renewing this charter to Noah and his fons, he gives them dominion over the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the fea, and the terreftrial creatures, expreffed by

יה

and wild beafts and reptils, the fame words that in the text before us, i. Gen. 28. are tranflated every moving thing, that moveth on the earth, which by no means can comprehend man, the grant being made to Noah and his fons, all the men then living, and not to one part of men over another : which is yet more evident from the very next words, ver. 3. where God gives every every moving thing, the very words used, ch. i. 28. to them for food. By all which it is plain that God's donation to Adam, ch. i. 28. and his defignation, ver. 26. and his grant again to Noah and his fons, refer to and contain in them neither more nor lefs than the works of the creation the 5th day, and the beginning of the 6th, as they are fet down from the 20th to 26th ver. inclufively of the 1ft ch. and fo comprehend all the fpecies of irrational animals of the terraqueous globe, tho' all the words, whereby they are expreffed in the hiftory of their creation, are no where ufed in any of the following grants, but fome of them omitted in one, and fome in another. From whence I think it is past all doubt, that man cannot be comprehended in this grant, nor any dominion over thofe of his own fpecies be conveyed to Adam. All the terreftrial irrational creatures are enumerated at their creation, ver. 25. under the names beafts of the earth, cattle and creeping things; but man, being

being not then created, was not contained under any of those names; and therefore, whether we understand the Hebrew words right or no, they cannot be supposed to comprehend man, in the very fame history, and the very next verfes following, especially fince that Hebrew word which, if any

in this donation to Adam, ch. i. 28. must comprehend man, is fo plainly used in contradiftinction to him, as Gen. vi. 20. vii. 14, 21, 23. Gen. viii. 17, 19. And if God made all mankind flaves to Adam and his heirs by giving Adam dominion over every living thing that moveth on the earth, ch. i. 28. as our author would have it, methinks Sir Robert fhould have carried his monarchical power one step higher, and fatisfied the world, that princes might eat their fubjects too, fince God gave as full power to Noah and his heirs, ch. ix. 2. to eat every living thing that moveth, as he did to Adam to have dominion over them, the Hebrew words in both places being the fame.

§. 28. David, who might be fuppofed to understand the donation of God in this text, and the right of kings too, as well as our author in his comment on this place, as the learned and judicious Ainsworth calls it, in the 8th Pfalm, finds here no fuch charter of monarchical power, his words are, Thou haft made him, i. e. man, the Son of man, a little lower than the angels; thou madeft him to have dominion over the works of thy bands; thou haft put all

things