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254. viz. i. Gen. 28. and' iïi. Gena 16. ont whereof fignifies only the fubjection of the inferior ranks of creatures to mankind, and the other the fubjection that is due from a wife to her husband, both far enough from that which fubjects owe the governors of

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Of Adam's Title to Sovereignty by Fatherhood.

§. 50. T HERE is one thing more, and then I think I have given you all that our author brings for proof of Adam's fovereignty, and that is a fuppofition of a natural right of dominion over his children, by being their father and this title of fatherhood he is fo pleased with, that you will find it brought in almost in every page; particularly he fays, not only Adam, but the fucceeding patriarchs bad by right of father bood royal authority over their children, p. 12. And in the fame page, this fubjection of children being the fountain of all regal authority, &c. This being, as one would think by his fo frequent mentioning it, the main basis of all his frame, we may well expect clear and evident reafon for it, fince he lays it down as a pofition neceffary to his purpofe, that every man that is born is fo far from being free, that by bis very birth be becomes a fubject of him that

begets

begets him, Obfervations, 156. fo that Adam being the only man created, and all ever fince being begotten, no body has been born free. If we afk how Adam comes by this power over his children, he tells us here it is by begetting them and fo again, Obfervations, 223. this natural dominion of Adam, fays he, may be proved out of Grotius himself, who teacheth, that generatione jus acquiritur parentibus in liberos. And indeed the act of begetting being that which makes a man a father, his right of a father over his children can naturally arise from nothing else.

§. 51. Grotius tells us not here how far this jus in liberos, this power of parents over their children extends; but our author, always very clear in the point, affures us, it is fupreme power, and like that of abfolute monarchs over their flaves, abfolute power of life and death. He that should demand of him, how, or for what reason it is, that begetting a child gives the father fuch an abfolute power over him, will find him anfwer nothing we are to take his word for this, as well as feveral other things; and by that the laws of nature and the constitutions of government muft ftand or fall. Had he been an abfolute monarch, this way of talking might have fuited well enough; pro ratione voluntas might have been of force in his mouth; but in the way of proof. or argument is very unbecoming, and will little

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advantage his plea for abfolute monarchy. Sir Robert has too much leffened a subject's authority to leave himself the hopes of eftablishing any thing by his bare saying it; one flave's opinion without proof is not of weight enough to difpofe of the liberty and fortunes of all mankind. If all men are not, as I think they are, naturally equal, I am fure all flaves are; and then I may without presumption oppose my single opinion to his; and be confident that my saying, that begetting of children makes them not flaves to their fathers, as certainly fets all mankind free, as his affirming the contrary makes them all faves. But that this pofition, which is the foundation of all their doctrine, who would have monarchy to be jure divino, may have all fair play, let us hear what reafons others give for it, fince our author offers none.

§. 52. The argument, I have heard others make ufe of, to prove that fathers, by begetting them, come by an abfolute power over their children, is this; that fathers have a power over the lives of their children, because they give them life and being, which is the only proof it is capable of: fince there can be no reafon, why naturally one man should have any claim or pretence of right over that in another, which was never his, which he beftowed not, but was received from the bounty of another. 1. I answer, that every one who gives another any thing, has not always thereby

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thereby a right to take it away again. But 2. They who say the father gives life to his children, are fo dazzled with the thoughts of monarchy, that they do not, as they ought, remember God, who is the author and giver of life: it is in him alone we live, move, and have our being. How can he be thought to give life to another, that knows not wherein his own life confifts? Philofophers are at a lofs about it after their moft diligent enquiries; and anatomifts, after their whole lives and ftudies fpent in diffections, and diligent examining the bodies of men, confefs their ignorance in the ftructure and use of many parts of man's body, and in that operation wherein life confifts in the whole. And doth the rude plough-man, or the more ignorant voluptuary, frame or fashion fuch an admirable engine as this is, and then put life and fenfe into it? Can any man fay, he formed the parts that are neceffary to the life of his child? or can he fuppofe himself to give the life, and yet not know what fubject is fit to receive it, nor what actions or organs are neceffary for its reception or prefervation

$.53 To give life to that which has yet no being, is to frame and make a living creature, fashion the parts, and mould and fuit them to their ufes, and having proportioned and fitted them together, to put into them a living foul. He that could do this,

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might indeed have fome pretence to destroy his own workmanship. But is there any one fo bold, that dares thus far arrogate to himfelf the incomprehenfible works of the almighty? Who alone did at firft, and continues ftill to make a living foul, he alone can breathe in the breath of life. If any one thinks himself an artift at this, let him number up the parts of his child's body which he hath made, tell

tions, and when me their ufes and opera→ the living and rational foul began to inhabit this curious structure, when fenfe began, and how this engine, which he has framed, thinks and reafons: if he made it, let him, when it is out of order, mend it, at leaft tell wherein the defects lie. Shall be that made the eye not fee? fays the Pfalmift, Pfalm xciv. 9. See these men's vanities! the ftructure of that one part is fufficient to convince us of an all-wife contriver, and he has fo vifible a claim to us as his workmanfhip, that one of the ordinary appellations of God in fcripture is, God our Maker, and the Lord our Maker. And therefore though our author, for the magnifying his fatherhood, be pleafed to fay, Obfervations, 159. That even the power which God himself exercifeth over mankind is by right of fatherhood, yet this fatherhood is fuch an one as utterly excludes all pretence of title in earthly parents; for he is king, because he is indeed maker of us

all,

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