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kind increase and multiply, fhould rather himself give them all a right to make use of the food and raiment, and other conveniences of life, the materials whereof he had so plentifully provided for them; than to make them depend upon the will of a man for their fubfiftence, who should have power to destroy them all when he pleased, and who, being no better than other men, was in fucceffion likelier, by want and the dependence of a scanty fortune, to tie them to hard fervice, than by liberal allowance of the conveniences of life to promote the great defign of God, increase and multiply: he that doubts this, let him look into the abfolute monarchies of the world, and fee what becomes of the conveniences of life, and the multitudes of people.

§. 42. But we know God hath not left one man fo to the mercy of another, that he may ftarve him if he please: God the Lord and Father of all has given no one of his children fuch a property in his peculiar portion of the things of this world, but that he has given his needy brother a right to the furplufage of his goods; fo that it cannot juftly be denied him, when his preffing wants call for it and therefore no man could ever have a juft power over the life of another by right of property in land or poffeffions; fince it would always be a fin, in any man of estate, to let his brother perifh for want of affording him relief out of his plenty. As justice

juftice gives every man a title to the product of his honeft induftry, and the fair acquifitions of his ancestors defcended to him; fo charity gives every man a title to fo much out of another's plenty, as will keep him from extreme want, where he has no means. to fubfift otherwife and a man can no more justly make use of another's neceffity, to force him to become his vaffal, by with-holding. that relief, God requires him to afford to the wants of his brother, than he that has more ftrength can feize, upon a weaker, mafter him to his obedience, and with a dagger at his throat offer him death or flavery.

§. 43. Should any one make fo perverse an ufe of God's bleffings poured on him with a liberal hand; fhould any one be cruel and uncharitable to that extremity, yet all this would not prove that propriety in land, even in this cafe, gave any authority over the perfons of men, but only that compact might; fince the authority of the rich proprietor, and the subjection of the needy beggar, began not from the poffeffion of the Lord, but the confent of the poor man, who preferred being his fubject to starving. And the man he thus fubmits to, can pretend to no more power over him, than he has confented to, upon compact. Upon this ground a man's having his ftores filled in a time of fcarcity, having money in his pocket, being in a veffel at fea, being able to fwim, &c. may as well be

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the foundation of rule and dominion, as being poffeffor of all the land in the world; any of thefe being fufficient to enable me to fave a man's life, who would perish if fuch affiftance were denied him; and any thing, by this rule, that may be an occafion of working upon another's neceffity, to fave his life, or any thing dear to him, at the rate of his freedom, may be made a foundation of fovereignty, as well as property. From all which it is clear, that though God fhould have given Adam private dominion, yet that private dominion could give him no fovereignty; but we have already fufficiently proved, that God gave him no private dominion.

CHAP.

V.

Of Adam's Title to Sovereignty by the Subjection

TH

of Eve.

§. 44. HE next place of fcripture we find our author builds his monarchy of Adam on, is iii. Gen. 26. And thy defire fhall be to thy bufband, and he fhall rule over thee. Here we have (fays he) the original grant of government, from whence he concludes, in the following part of the page, Obfervations, 244. That the fupreme power is fettled in the fatherhood, and limited to one kind of government, that is, to monarchy. For let his premises be what they will, this is always the conclufion; let rule, in any text, be but once named, and presently abfolute monarchy

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narchy is by divine right established. If any one will but carefully read our author's own reasoning from thefe words, Obfervations, 244. and confider, among other things, the line and pofterity of Adam, as he there brings them in, he will find fome difficulty to make sense of what he fays; but we will allow this at prefent to his peculiar way of writing, and confider the force of the text in hand.

The words are the curfe of God upon the woman, for having been the first and forwardeft in the disobedience; and if we will confider the occafion of what God fays here to our first parents, that he was denouncing judgment, and declaring his wrath against them both, for their difobedience, we cannot fuppose that this was the time, wherein God was granting Adam prerogatives and privileges, invefting him with dignity and authority, elevating him to dominion and monarchy: for though, as a helper in the temptation, Eve was laid below him, and fo he had accidentally a fuperiority over her, for her greater punishment; yet he too had his fhare in the fall, as well as the fin, and was laid lower, as may be feen in the following verfes; and it would be hard to imagine, that God, in the fame breath, should make him univerfal monarch over all mankind, and a day-labourer for his life; turn him out of paradife to till the ground, ver. 23. and at the fame time advance him to a throne, and all the privileges and cafe of abfolute power.

§. 45.

§. 45. This was not a time, when Adam could expect any favours, any grant of privileges, from his offended Maker. If this be the original grant of government, as our author tells us, and Adam was now made monarch, whatever Sir Robert would have him, it is plain, God made him but a very poor mo narch, fuch an one, as our author himself would have counted it no great privilege to be. God fets him to work for his living, and feems rather to give him a fpade into his hand, to fubdue the earth, than a fceptre to rule over its inhabitants. In the fweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread, fays God to him, ver. 19. This was unavoidable, may it perhaps be answered, because he was yet without fubjects, and had nobody to work for him; but afterwards, living as he did above 900 years, he might have people enough, whom he might command, to work for him; no, fays God, not only whilft thou art without other help, fave thy wife, but as long as thou liveft, fhalt thou live by thy labour, In the fweat of thy face, fhalt thou eat thy bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it waft thou taken, for duft thou art, and unto duft fhalt thou return, v. 19. It will perhaps be answered again in favour of our author, that these words are not fpoken perfonally to Adam, but in him, as their representative, to all mankind, this being a curfe upon mankind, because of the fall.

§. 46. God, I believe, fpeaks differently from men, because he speaks with more truth, E 2

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