continued its course, and kept the world in order all the time of the patriarchs till the flood, got out of the ark 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 p. 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 it 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 another place.

§. 7. I do not think our author so little skilled 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 mixed Monarchy, p. 239, objects to Mr. Hunton in these words: "Where "first I charge the author, that he hath not given us any definition, or description of Monarchy " in general; for by the rules of method he should "have first defined." And by the like rule of method Sir Robert 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 Sir Robert 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 imagine of their parents, or subjects of their kings, if he should have given us the whole draught together in that gigantic form, he had painted it in his own fancy; 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 dilute it; that the scattered 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 scattered 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

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"lordship which Adam by command had over the "whole world, and by right descending from him, "the patriarchs did enjoy, was as large and ample "as the absolute dominion of any monarch, which "hath been since the creation," p. 13. "Domi"nion of life and death, making war, and concluding peace," p. 13. "Adam and the patri"archs had absolute power of life and death," 35. Kings, in the right of parents, succeed to the "exercise of supreme 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

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all," p. 40. "The father of a family governs

by no other law, than 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 author delivers in Bodin's words: "It is certain, thất all laws, "privileges, 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

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prince following, especially privileges," Observations, p. 279. "The reason why laws have "been also made by kings, was this; when

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kings were either busied with wars, or dis"tracted with public cares, so that every private "man could not have access to their persons, to "learn their wills and pleasure, then were laws "of necessity invented, that so every particular

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subject might find his prince's pleasure decyphered unto him in the tables of his laws," "In a monarchy, the king must by ne"cessity be above the laws," p. 100. "A

P. 92.

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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 sub

"ject, and a servant or slave, were one and the "same thing at first. The father had power to

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dispose or sell his children or servants; whence we find, that the first reckoning up of goods "in scripture, the man-servant and the maidservant, are numbered among the possessions "and substance of the owner, as other goods "were," Observations 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 the beginning of "the world, when men had their servants for a "possession and an inheritance, as well as other

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goods; whereupon we find the power of cas"trating and making eunuchs much in use in "old times," Observations, p. 155. "Law is "nothing else but the will of him that hath the

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power of the supreme father," Observations, p. 223. It was God's ordinance that the 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 supreme power,' Observations, p. 245.

§. 9. I have been fain to trouble my reader with these several quotations in our author's own words, that in them might be seen his own description of his fatherly authority, as it lies scattered 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 author's sense, is a divine unalterable

right of sovereignty, whereby a father or a prince hath an absolute, arbitrary, unlimited, and unlimitable power over the lives, liberties, and estates of his children and 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 or proprietor of every thing, and his unbounded will their law.

§. 10. Our author 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 the cause; that since men had nothing else left them, they might in slavery have such undeniable proofs of its necessity, that their 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 author do, or pretend to do, by erecting such an unlimited power, but flatter the natural vanity and ambition of men, too apt of itself to grow and encrease with the possession of any power ? and by persuading 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 than others, and so tempt them