receives damage by his transgression in which Case he who hath received any damage has besides the Right of punishment common to him with other Men a particular Right to seek Reparation from him that has done it And any other Person who finds it just may also joyn with him that is injur'd and assist him in recovering from the Offender so much as may make satisfaction for the harm he has suffer'd 11. From these two distinct Rights the one of Punishing the Crime for restraint and preventing the like Offence which right of punishing is in every body the other of taking reparation which belongs only to the injured party comes it to pass that the Magistrate who by being Magistrate hath the common right of punishing put into his hands can often where the public good demands not the Execution of the Law remit the punishment of Criminal Offences by his own Authority but yet cannot remit the satisfaction due to any Private Man for the damage he has received That he who has suffered the damage has a Right to demand in his own name and he alone can remit The damnified Person has this Power of appropriating to himself the Goods or Service of the Offender by Right of self Preservation as every Man has a Power to punish the Crime to prevent its being committed again by the Right he has of Preserving all Mankind and doing all reasonable things he can in order to that end And thus it is that every Man in the State of Nature has a Power to kill a muderer both to deter others from doing the like injury which no reparation can compensate by the Example of the punishment that attends it from every body and also to secure Men from the attempts of a Criminal who having renounced reason the common Rule and Measure God hath given to Mankind hath by the unjust violence and slaughter he hath committed upon one declared War against all Mankind and therefore may be destroyed as a Lion or a Tiger one of those wild Savage Beasts with whom Men can have no Society nor Security And upon this is grounded that great Law of Nature who so sheddeth Mans Blood by Man shall his Blood be shed And Cain was so fully convinced that every one had a Right to destroy such a Criminal that after the Murther of his Brother he cries out every one that findeth me shall slay me so plain was it writ in the Hearts of all Mankind 12. By the same reason may a Man in the State of Nature punish the lesser breaches of that Law It will perhaps be demanded with death I answer each transgression may be punished to that Degree and with so much Severity as will suffice to make it an ill bargain to the Offender give him Cause to repent and terrifie others from doing the like Every Offence that can be committed in the State of Nature may in the State of Nature be also punished equally and as far forth as it may in a Common-wealth for though it would be besides my present purpose to enter here into the particulars of the Law of Nature or its measures of punishmentâ— yet it is certain there is such a Law and that too as intelligible and plain to a rational Creature and a Studier of that Law as the positive Laws of Common-wealths nay possibly plainer As much as reason is easier to be understood then the Phansies and intricate Contrivances of Men following contrary and hidden interests put into Words For truly so are a great part of the municipal Laws of Countries which are only so far Right as they are founded on the Law of Nature by which they are to be regulated and interpreted 13. To this strange Doctrine viz. That in the State of Nature every one has the Executive Power of the Law of Nature I doubt not but it will be objected That it is unreasonable for Men to be Judges in their own Cases that self love will make Men partial to themselves and their Friends And on the other side ill Nature Passion and Revenge will carry them too far in punishing others And hence nothing but confusion and disorder will follow and that therefore God hath certainly appointed Government to restrain the partiality and violence of Men I easily Grant that Civil Government is the proper Remedy for the Inconveniences of the State of Nature which must certainly be Great where Men may be Judges in their own Case since 't is easiy to be imagined that he who was so unjust as to do his Brother an Injury will scarce be so just as to condemn himself for it But I shall desire those who make this Objection to remember that Absolute Monarchs are but Men and if Government is to be the Remedy of those Evils which necessarily follow from Mens being Judges in their own Cases and the State of Nature is therefore not to be endured I desire to know what kind of Government that is and how much better it is then the State of Nature where one Man commanding a multitude has the Liberty to be Judge in his own Case and may do to all his Subjects whatever he pleases without the least question or controle of those who Execute his Pleasure And in whatsoever he doth whether lead by reason mistake or passion must be submitted to Which Men in the State of Nature are not bound to do one to another And if he that Judges Judges amiss in his own or any other Case he is answerable for it to the rest of Mankind 14. 'T is often asked as a mighty Objection where are or ever were there any Men in such a State of Nature To which it may suffice as an answer at present That since all Princes and Rulers of Independant Governments all through the World are in a State of Nature 't is plain the World never was nor never will be without numbers of Men in that State I have named all Governors of Independent Communities whether they are or are not in League with others For 't is not every compact that puts an end to the State of Nature between Men but only this one of agreeing together mutually to enter into one Community and make one body Politic other promises and compacts Men may make one with another and yet still be in the State of Nature The promises and bargains for Truck c. Between the two Men in Soldania in or between a Swiss and an Indian in the Woods of America are binding to them though they are perfectly in a State of Nature in reference to one another for Truth and keeping of Faith belongs to Men as Men and not as Members of Society 15. To those that say there were never any Men in the State of Nature I will not only oppose the Authority of the Judicious Hooker Eccl. Pol. Li. 1 Sect. 10. where he says The Laws which have been hitherto mentioned i. e. the Laws of Nature do bind Men Absolutely even as they
suck the Blood as it ran from the Wounds of the dying Man They had public Shambles of Mans Flesh and their Madness herein was to that degree that they spared not their own Children which they had begot on Strangers taken in War For they made their Captives their Mistrisses and choisly nourished the Children they had by them till about thirteen Years Old they Butcher'd and Eat them and they served the Mothers after the same fashion when they grew past Child-bearing and ceased to bring them any more Roasters Garcilasso de la vega hist. des yncas de Peru l. 1. c. 12. 58. Thus far can the busie mind of Man carry him to a Brutality below the level of Beasts when he quits his reason which places him almost equal to Angels nor can it be otherwise in a Creature whose thoughts are more then the Sands and wider then the Ocean where fancy and passion must needs run him into strange courses if reason which is the only Star and Compass be not that he Steers by the imagination is always restless and suggests variety of thoughts and the will reason being laid aside is ready for every extravagant project And in this State he that goes farthest out of the way is thought fittest to lead and is sure of most followers And when Fashion hath once Established what Folly or Craft began Custom makes it Sacred and 't will be thought impudence or madness to contradict or question it He that will impartially survey the World will find so much of the Religion Government and Manners of the Nations of the World brought in and continued by these means that he will have but little Reverence for the Practices which are in Fashion amongst Men and will have reason to think that the Woods and Forests where the irrational untaught Inhabitants keep right by following nature are fitter to give us Rules then Cities and Palaces where those that call themselves civil and rational go out of their way by the Authority of Example 59. Be it then as Sr. Rob. says that Anciently it was usual for Men to sell and castrate their Children O. 155. Let it be that they expose them add to it if you please for this is still greater Power that they begat them for their Tables to fat and eat them if this proves a right to do so we may by the same Argument justifie Adultery Incest and Sodomy for there are examples of these too both Ancient and Modern Sins which I suppose have their Principal Aggravation from this that they cross the main intention of nature which willeth the increase of Mankind and the continuation of the Species in the highest perfection and the distinction of Families with the security of the Marriage Bed as necessary thereunto 60. In confirmation of this Natural Authority of the Father our A brings a Lame Proof from the positive command of God in Scripture His Words are to confirm the natural Right of Regal Power we find in the Decalogue that the Law which injoyns Obedience to Kings is delivered in the Term Honour thy Father p. 23. whereas many confefs that Government only in the Abstract is the Ordinance of God they are not able to prove any such Ordinance in the Scripture but only in the Fatherly Power and therefore we find the Commandment that injoyns Obedience to Superiors given in the Terms Honour thy Father so that not only the Power and Right of Government but the Form of the Power Governing and the Person having the Power are all the Ordinances of God The first Father had not only simply Power but Power Monarchical as he was Father immediately from God O. 254. To the same purpose the same Law is cited by our A in several other places and just after the same Fashion that is and Mother as Apocriphal Words are always left out a great Argument of our A s ingenuity and the goodness of his Cause which required in its Defender Zeal to a degree of warmth able to warp the Sacred Rule of the Word of God to make it comply with his present occasion a way of proceeding not unusual to those who imbrace not truths because Reason and Revelation offers them but espouse Tenets and Parties for ends different from Truth and then resolve at any rate to defend them And so do with the Words and Sense of Authors they would fit to their purpose just as Procustes did with his guests top or stretch them as may best fit them to the size of their Notions and they always prove like those so served deformed and useless 61. For had our A set down this command without Garbling as God gave it and joyned Mother to Father every Reader would have seen that it had made directly against him and that it was so far from Establishing the Monarchical Power of the Father that it set up the Mother equal with him and injoyn'd nothing but what was due in common to both Father and Mother for that is the constant Tenor of the Scripture Honour thy Father and thy Mother Exod. 20. He that smiteth his Father or Mother shall surely be put to death 21. 15. He that Curseth his Father or his Mother shall surely be put to death ver 17. Repeated Lev. 20.9 and by our Saviour Math. 15. 4. ye shall fear every Man his Mother and his Father Lev. 19. 3. If a Man have a Rebellious Son which will not obey the voice of his Fathâ—r or the voice of his Mother then shall his Father and his Mother lay hold on him and say this our Son is Stuborn and Rebellious he will not obey our voice Deut. 21. 18 19 20 21. Cursed be he that setteth light by his Father or his Mother 28. 16. my Son hear the instructions of thy Eather and forsake not the Law of thy Mother are the Words of Solomon a King who was not ignorant of what belonged to him as a Father or a King and yet he joyns Father and Mother together in all the Instructions he gives Children quite through his Book of Proverbs woe unto him that sayeth unto his Father what begettest thou or to the Woman what hast thou brought forth Isa. 11. v. 10. In thee have they set light by Father or Mother Ezek. 28. 2. And it shall come to pass that when any shall yet Prophesy then his Father and his Mother that begat him shall say unto him thou shalt not live and his Father and his Mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he Prophesieth Zech. 13. 3. Here not the Father only but Father and Mother joyntly had Power in this Case of Life and Death Thus ran the Law of the Old Testament and in the New they are likewise joyn'd in the Obedience of their Children Eph. 6. 1. The rule is Children obey your Parents and I do not remember that I any where read Children obey your Father and no more the Scripture joyns Mother too in that homage which is
the Cause That since Men had nothing else left them they might in slavery had such undeniable Proofs of its necessity that heir consciences might be convinced and oblige them to submit peaceably to that Absolute Dominion which their Governors had a Right to Exercise over them without this what good could our A do or pretend to do by erecting such an unlimited Power but flatter the Natural Vanity and Ambition of Men too apt of its self to grow and increase with the Possession of any Power And by perswading those who by the consent of their fellow Men are advanced to great but limited degrees of it that by that Part which is given them they have a Right to all that was not so and therefore may do what they please because they have Authority to do more then others and so tempt them to do what is neither for their own nor the good of those under their Care whereby great mischeifs cannot but follow 11. The Sovereignty of Adam being that on which as a sure basis our A builds his Mighty Absolute Monarchy I expected that in his Patriarcha this his main supposition would have been proved and established with all that evidence of Arguments that such a Fundamental Tenet required and that this on which the great stress of the business depends would have been made out with reasons sufficient to justifie the confidence with which it was assumed But in all that Treatise I could find very little tending that way the thing is there so taken for granted without Proof that I could scarce believe my self when upon attentive Reading that Treatise I found there so mighty a Structure rais'd upon the bare supposition of this Foundation for it is scarce credible that in a Discourse where he pretends to confute the Erroneous Principle of Mans Natural Freedom he does it by a bare supposition of Adams Authority without offering any Proof for that Authority Indeed he confidently says that Adam had Royal Authority p. 12 and 13. Absolute Lordship and Dominion of life and death p. 13. An Vniversal Monarchy p. 33. Absolute Power of life and death p. 35. He is very frequent in such Assertions but what is strange in all his whole Patriarcha I find not one pretence of a reason to Establish this his great Foundation of Government not any thing that looks like an Argument but these words To confirm this Natural Right of Regal Power we find in the Decalogue that the Law which injoyns Obedience to Kings is delivered in the Terms Honour thy Father as if all Power were Originally in the Father And why may I not add as well that in the Decalogue the Law that injoyns obedience to Queens is delivered in the Terms of Honour thy Mother as if all Power were Originally in the Mother The Argument as Sr. Rob. puts it will hold as well for one as tother but of this more in its due place 12. All that I take notice of here is that this is all our A says in this first or any of the following Chapters to prove the Absolute Power of Adam which is his great Principle and yet as if he had there settled it upon sure Demonstration he begins his 2 d. Chapter with these words by Confering these Proofs and Reasons drawn from the Authority of the Scripture Where those Proofs and Reasons for Adams Sovereignty are bateing that of Honour thy Father above mentioned I confess I cannot find unless what he says p. 11. In these words we have an evident Confession viz. of Belarmin that Creation made Man Prince of his Posterity must be taken for Proofs and Reasons drawn from Scripture or for any sort of Proofs at all though from thence by a new way of inference iâ— the words immediately following And indeed he concludes the Royal Authority of Adam sufficiently settled in him 13. If he has in that Chapter or any where in the whole Treatise given any other Proofs of Adams Royal Authority other then by often repeating it which among some Men goes for Argument I desire any body for him to shew me the Place and Page that I may be convinced of my mistake and acknowledge my oversight If no such Arguments are to be found I beseech those Men who have so much cryed up this Book to consider whether they do not give the World cause to suspect that 't is not the Force of Reason and Argument that makes them for Absolute Monarchy but some other by interest and therefore are resolved to applaud any Author that writes in Favour of this Doctrin whether he support it with reason or no. But I hope they do not expect that rational and indifferent Men should be brought over to their Opinion because this their great Dr. of it in a Discourse made on purpose to set up the Absolute Monarchical Power of Adam in opposition to the Natural Freedom of Mankind has said so little to prove it from whence it is rather naturally to be concluded that there is little to be said 14. But that I might omit no care to inform my self in our A s full Sense I consulted his Observations on Aristotle Hobs c. To see whether in disputing with others he made use of any Arguments for this his Darling Tenet of Adam's Sovereignty since in his Treatise of the Natural Power of Kings he had been so sparing of them And in his Observations on Mr. Hobs's Leviathan I think he has put in short all those Arguments for it together which in his Writings I find him any where to make use of his Words are these If God Created only Adam and of a piece of him made the Woman and if by Generation from them two as parts of them all Mankind be propagated If also God gave to Adam not only the Dominion over the Woman and the Children that should Issue from them but also over the whole Earth to subdue it and over all the Creatures on it so that as long as Adam lived no Man could claim or enjoy any thing but by Donation Assignation or Permission from him I wonder c. O. 165. Here we have the Sum of all his Arguments for Adams Sovereignty and against Natural Freedom which I find up and down in his other Treatises which are these following Gods Creation of Adam the Dominion he gave him over Eve And the Dominion he had as Father over his Children all which I shall particularly consider CHAP. III. Of Adams Title to Sovereignty by Creation 15. SIR Rob. in his Preface to his Observations on Aristotle's Politics tells us A Natural Freedom of Mankind cannot be supposed without the denial of the Creation of Adam but how Adams being Created which was nothing but his receiving a Being immediately from Omnipotency and the hand of God gave Adam a Sovereignty over any thing I cannot see nor consequently understand how a Supposition of natural Freedom is a denial of Adams Creation and would be glad any body else
devolve into the hands of those that gave it who may place it a-new where they shall think best for their safety and security And thus the Community perpetually retains a Supream Power of saving themselves from the attempts and designs of any Body even of their Legislators whenever they shall be so foolish or so wicked as to lay and carry on designs against the Liberties and Properties of the Subject For no Man or Society of Men having a Power to deliver up their Preservation or consequently the means of it to the absolute Will and arbitrary Dominion of another when ever any one shall go about to bring them into such a Slavish Condition they will always have a right to preserve what they have not a Power to part with and to rid themselves of those who invade this Fundamental Sacred and unalterable Law of Self-Preservation for which they enter'd into Society And thus the Community may be said in this respect to be always the Supream Power but not as considered under any Form of Government because this Power of the People can never take place till the Government be dissolv'd 150. In all Cases whilst the Government subsists the Legislative is the supream Power For what can give Laws to another must needs be superiour to him and since the Legislative is no otherwise Legislative of the Society but by the right it has to make Laws for all the parts and every Member of the Society prescribing Rules to their actions and giving power of Execution where they are transgressed the Legislative must needs be the Supream and all other Powers in any Members or parts of the Society derived from and subordinate to it 151. In some Commonwealths where the Legislative is not always in being and the Executive is vested in a single Person who has also a share in the Legislative there that single Person in a very tolerable sense may also be called Supream not that he has in himself all the Supream Power which is that of Law-making but because he has in him the supream Execution from whom all inferiour Magistrates derive all their several subordinate Powers or at least the greatest part of them having also no Legislative superiour to him there being no Law to be made without his consent which cannot be expected should ever subject him to the other part of the Legislative he is properly enough in this sense Supream But yet it is to be observed that though Oaths of Allegiance and Fealty are taken to him 't is not to him as Supream Legislator but as Supream Executor of the Law made by a joint Power of him with others Allegiance being nothing but an Obedience according to Law which when he violates he has no right to Obedience nor can claim it otherwise than as the publick Person vested with the Power of the Law and so is to be consider'd as the Image Phantom or Representative of the Commonwealth acted by the will of the Society declared in its Laws and thus he has no Will no Power but that of the Law But when he quits this Representation this publick Will and acts by his own private Will he degrades himself and is but a single private Person without Power and without Will The Members owing no Obedience but to the publick Will of the Society 152. The Executive Power placed any where but in a Person that has also a share in the Legislative is visibly subordinate and accountable to it and may be at pleasure changed and displaced so that it is not the Supream Executive Power that is exempt from Subordination but the Supream Executive Power vested in one who having a share in the Legislative has no distinct superiour Legislative to be subordinate and accountable to father than he himself shall join and consent so that he is no more subordinate than he himself shall think fit which one may certainly conclude will be but very little Of other Ministerial and subordinate Powers in a Commonwealth we need not speak they being so multiply'd with infinite variety in the different Customs and Constitutions of distinct Common-wealths that it is impossible to give a particular account of them all Only thus much which is necessary to our present purpose we may take notice of concerning them that they have no manner of Authority any of them beyond what is by positive Grant and Commission delegated to them and are all of them accountable to some other Power in the Commonwealth 153. It is not necessary no nor so much as convenient that the Legislative should be always in being But absolutely necessary that the Executive Power should because there is not always need of new Laws to be made but always need of Execution of the Laws that are made When the Legislative hath put the Execution of the Laws they make into other hands they have a power still to resume it out of those hands when they find cause and to punish for any mall-administration against the Laws The same holds also in regard of the Federative Power that and the Executive being both Ministerial and subordinate to the Legislative which as has been shew'd in a Constituted Common-wealth is the Supream The Legislative also in this Case being suppos'd to consist of several Persons for if it be a single Person it cannot but be always in being and so will as Supream naturally have the Supream Executive Power together with the Legislative may assemble and exercise their Legislative at the times that either their original Constitution or their own Adjournment appoints or when they please if neither of these hath appointed any time or there be no other way prescribed to convoke them For the Supream Power being placed in them by the People 't is always in them and they may exercise it when they please unless by their original Constitution they are limited to certain Seasons or by an Act of their Supream Power they have Adjourned to a certain time and when that time comes they have a right to Assemble and act again 154. If the Legislative or any part of it be of Representatives chosen for that time by the People which afterwards return into the ordinary state of Subjects and have no share in the Legislature but upon a new choice this power of chuseing must also be exercised by the People either at certain appointed Seasons or else when they are summon'd to it and in this latter Case the power of convokeing the Legislative is ordinarily placed in the Executive and has one of these two limitations in respect of time That either the Original Constitution requires their Assembling and acting at certain intervals and then the Executive Power does nothing but Ministerially issue directions for their Electing and Assembling according to due Forms Or else it is left to his Prudence to call them by new Elections when the occasions or exigencies of the publick require the amendment of old or making of new Laws or the redress or
when free to put himself into Subjection to another for his own harm though where he finds a good and a wise Ruler he may not perhaps think it either necessary or useful to set precise Bounds to his Power in all things Prerogative can be nothing but the Peoples permitting their Rulers to do several things of their own free choice where the Law was silent and sometimes too against the direct Letter of the Law for the publick good and their acquiescing in it when so done For as a good Prince who is mindful of the trust put into his hands and careful of the good of his People cannot have too much Prerogative that is Power to do good So a weak and ill Prince who would claim that Power his Predecessors exercised without the direction of the Law as a Prerogative belonging to him by Right of his Office which he may exercise at his pleasure to make or promote an Interest distinct from that of the publick gives the People an occasion to claim their Right and limit that Power which whilst it was exercised for their good they were content should be tacitly allowed 165. And therefore he that will look into the History of England will find that Prerogative was always largest in the hands of our wisest and best Princes Because the People observing the whole tendency of their Actions to be the publick good or if any humane frailty or mistake for Princes are but Men made as others appear'd in some small declinations from that end yet 't was visible the main of their Conduct tended to nothing but the care of the publick The People therefore finding reason to be satisfied with these Princes whenever they acted without or contrary to the Letter of the Law acquiesced in what they did and without the least complaint let them inlarge their Prerogative as they pleased judging rightly that they did nothing herein to the prejudice of their Laws since they acted conformable to the Foundation and End of all Laws the publick good 166. Such God-like Princes indeed had some Title to Arbitrary Power by that Argument that would prove Absolute Monarchy the best Government as that which God himself governs the Universe by because such Kings partake of his Wisdom and Goodness Upon this is founded that saying That the Reigns of good Princes have been always most dangerous to the Liberties of their People For when their Successors managing the Government with different Thoughts would draw the Actions of those good Rulers into Precedent and make them the Standard of their Prerogative as if what had been done only for the good of the People was a right in them to do for the harm of the People if they so pleased It has often occasioned Contest and sometimes publick Disorders before the People could recover their original Right and get that to be declared not to be Prerogative which truly was never so since it is impossible any body in the Society should ever have a right to do the People harm though it be very possible and reasonable that the People should not go about to set any Bounds to the Prerogative of those Kings or Rulers who themselves transgressed not the Bounds of the publick good For Prerogative is nothing but the Power of doing publick good without a Rule 167. The Power of calling Parliaments in England as to precise time place and duration is certainly a Prerogative of the King but still with this trust that it shall be made use of for the good of the Nation as the exigencies of the Times and variety of Occasion shall require For it being impossible to foresee which should always be the fittest place for them to assemble in and what the best season the choice of these was left with the Executive Power as might be best subservient to the publick good and best suit the ends of Parliaments 168. The old Question will be asked in this matter of Prerogative But who shall be Judge when this Power is made a right use of I answer Between an Executive Power in being with such a Prerogative and a Legislative that depends upon his will for their convening there can be no Judge on Earth As there can be none between the Legislative and the People should either the executive or the Legislative when they have got the Power in their hands design or go about to enslave or destroy them The People have no other remedy in this as in all other cases where they have no Judge on earth but to appeal to Heaven For the Rulers in such attempts exercising a Power the people never put into their hands who can never be supposed to consent that any body should rule over them for their harm do that which they have not a right to do And where the Body of the People or any single Man are deprived of their Right or are under the Exercise of a power without right having no Appeal on earth they have a liberty to appeal to Heaven when-ever they judge the Cause of sufficient moment And therefore though the People cannot be Judge so as to have by the Constitution of that Society any Superiour power to determine and give effective Sentence in the case yet they have reserv'd that ultimate Determination to themselves which belongs to all Mankind where there lies no Appeal on Earth by a Law antecedent and paramount to all positive Laws of Men whether they have just Cause to make their Appeal to Heaven And this Judgment they cannot part with it being out of a Man's power so to submit himself to another as to give him a liberty to destroy him God and Nature never allowing a Man so to abandon himself as to neglect his own preservation And since he cannot take away his own Life neither can he give another power to take it Nor let any one think this lays a perpetual foundation for Disorder for this operates not till the Inconvenience is so great that the Majority feel it and are weary of it and find a necessity to have it amended And this the Executive Power or wise Princes never need come in the danger of And 't is the thing of all others they have most need to avoid as of all others the most perilous CHAP. XV. Of Paternal Political and Despotical Power considered together 169. THough I have had occasion to speak of these separately before yet the great mistakes of late about Government having as I suppose arisen from confounding these distinct Powers one with another it may not perhaps be amiss to consider them here together 170. First then Paternal or Parental Power is nothing but that which Parents have over their Children to govern them for the Childrens good till they come to the use of Reason or a state of Knowledge wherein they may be supposed capable to understand that Rule whether it be the Law of Nature or the municipal Law of their Countrey they are to govern themselves by Capable I
that he states the Question or rallies up any Arguments to make good his Opinion but rather tells us the Story as he thinks fit of this strange kind of domineering Phantom called the Fatherhood which whoever could catch presently got Empire and unlimited absolute Power He assures us how this Fatherhood began in Adam continued it's course and kept the World in order all the time of the Patriarchs till the Flood got out of the Arch with Noah and his Sons made and supported all the Kings of the Earth till the Captivity of the Israelites in Egypt and then the poor Fatherhood was under hatches till God by giving the Israelites Kings Re-established the Ancient and prime Right of the lineal Succession in paternal Government This is his business from p. 12 to 19. And then obviating an Objection and clearing a Difficulty or two with one half reason p. 23. to confirm the Natural Right of Regal Power he ends the first Chapter I hope 't is no Injury to call an half Quotation an half Reason for God says Honour thy Father and Mother but our Author contents himself with half leaves out thy Mother quite as little serviceable to his purpose but of that more in an other place 7 I do not think our Author so little skill'd in the way of Writing Discourses of this Nature nor so careless of the Point in hand that he by oversight commits the fault that he himself in his Anarchy of a mix'd Monarchy p. 239. Objects to Mr. Hunton in these words Where first I charge the A that he hath not given us any Definitionâ— or Discription of Monarchy in general for by the Rules of Method he should have first defin'd And by the like Rule of Method Sr. Rob. should have told us what his Fatherhood or Fatherly Authority is before he had told us in whom it was to be found and talked so much of it But perhaps Sr. Rob. found that this Fatherly Authority this Power of Fathers and of Kings for he makes them both the same p. 24. would make a very odd and frightful Figure and very disagreeing with what either Children imagin of their Parents or Subjects of their Kings if he should have given us the whole dâ—aught together in that Gigantic Form he had Painted it in his own Phancy and therefore like a wary Physician when he would have his Patient swallow some harsh or Corrosive Liquor he mingles it with a large quantity of that which may delute it that the scatter'd Parts may go down with less feeling and cause less Aversion 8. Let us then endeavour to find what account he gives us of this Fatherly Authority as it lies scatter'd in the several Parts of his Writings And first as it was vested in Adam he says not only Adam but the succeeding Patriarchs had by Right of Fatherhood Royal Authority over their Children p. 12. This Lordship which Adam by Command had over the whole World and by right descending from him the Patriarchs did injoy was as large and ample as the Absolute Dominion of any Monarch which hath been since the Creation p. 13. Dominion of Life and Death making War and concluding Peace p. 13. Adam and the Patriarchs had Absolute Power of Life and Death p. 35. Kings in the right of Parents succeed to the Exercise of supream jurisdiction p. 19. As Kingly Power is by the Law of God so it hath no inferior Law to Limit it Adam was Lord of all p. 40. The Father of a Family governs by no other Law then by his own will p. 78. The Superiority of Princes is above Laws p. 79. The unlimited jurisdiction of Kings is so amply described by Samuel p. 80. Kings are above the Laws p. 93. And to this purpose see a great deal more which our A delivers in Bodins's words It is certain that all Laws Priviledges and Grants of Princes have no Force but during their Life if they be not ratified by the express Consent or by sufferance of the Prince following especially Priviledges O. p. 279. The reason why Laws have been also made by Kings was this when Kings were either busied with Wars or distracted with Public Cares so that every private Man could not have Accâ—ss to their Persons to learn their Wills and Pleasure then were Laws of necessity invented that so every particular Subject might find his Princes Pleasure Decypher'd unto him in the Tables of his Laws p. 92. In a Monarchy the King must by necessity be above the Laws p. 100. A perfect Kingdom is that wherein the King Rules all things according to his own Will p. 100. Neither Common nor Statute Laws are or can be any Diminution of that General Power which Kings have over their People by right of Fatherhood p. 115. Adam was the Father King and Lord over his Family a Son a Subject and a Servant or Slave were one and the same thing at first The Father had Power to dispose or sell his Children or Servants whence we find that at the first reckoning up of Goods in Scripture the Man-servant and the Maid-servant are numbred among the Possessions and substance of the Owner as other Goods were O pref God also hath given to the Father a Right or Liberty to alien his Power over his Children to any other whence we find the Sale and Gift of Children to have been much in use in in the Beginning of the World when Men had their Servants for a Possession and an Inheritance as well as other Goods whereupon we find the Power of Castrating and making Eunâ—chsâ— much in use in Old times O. p. 155. Law is nothing else but the will of him that hath the Power of the Supream Father O. p. 223. It was Gods Ordinance that Supremacy should be unlimited in Adam and as large as all the Acts of his Will and as in him so in all others that have Supream Power O. p. 245. 9. I have been fain to trouble by Reader with these several Quotations in our A s own words that in them might be seen his own Discription of his Fatherly Authority as it lies scatter'd up and down in his Writings which he supposes was first vested in Adam and by Right belongs to all Princes ever since This Fatherly Authority then or Right of Fatherhood in our A s sence is a Divine unalterable Right of Sovereignty whereby a Father or a Prince hath an Absolute Arbitrary unlimited and unlimitable Power over the Lives Libertys and Estates of his Children or Subjects so that he may take or alienate their Estates sell castrate or use their Persons as he pleases they being all his slaves and he Lord and Proprietor of every thing and his unbounded Will their Law 10. Our A having placed such a mighty Power in Adam and upon that supposition founded all Government and all Power of Princes it is reasonable to expect that he should have proved this with Arguments clear and evident suitable to the weightiness of