Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

And the ground he builds on, is p. 4. That Heyward, Blackwood, this,

That no man is born free.

3. In this last age a generation of men has sprung up amongst us, that would flatter princes with an opinion, that they have a divine right to absolute power, let the laws by which they are constituted, and are to govern, and the conditions under which they enter upon their authority, be what they will, and their engagements to observe them never so well ratified by solemn oaths and promises. To make way for this doctrine, they have denied mankind a right to natural freedom; whereby they have not only, as much as in them lies, exposed all subjects to the utmost misery of tyranny and oppression, but have also unsettled the titles, and shaken the thrones of princes: (for they too, by these mens system, except only one, are all born slaves, and by divine right are subjects to Adam's right heir ;) as if they had designed to make war upon all government, and subvert the very foundations of human society, to serve their present turn.

4. However we must believe them upon their own bare words, when they tell us, we are all born slaves, and we must continue so, there is no remedy for it; life and thraldom we entered into together, and can never be quit of the one, till we part with the other. Scripture or reason I am sure do not any where say so, notwithstanding the noise of divine right, as if divine authority hath subjected us to the unlimited will of another. An admirable state of mankind, and that which they have not had wit enough to find out till this latter age. For, however Sir R. Filmer seems to condemn the novelty of the contrary opinion, Patr. p. 3. yet I believe it will be hard for him to find any other age, or country of the world, but this, which has asserted monarchy to be jure divino. And he confesses, Patr.

Barclay, and others, that have bravely vindicated the right of kings in most points, never thought of this, but with one consent admitted the natural liberty and equality of mankind.

5. By whom this doctrine came at first to be broached, and brought in fashion amongst us, and what sad effects it gave rise to, I leave to historians to relate, or to the me mory of those, who were contemporaries with Sibthorpe and Manwaring, to recollect. My business-at present is only to consider what Sır R. Filmer, who is allowed to have carried this argument farthest, and is supposed to have brought it to perfection, has said in it; for him every one, who would be as fashionable as French was at court, has learned; and runs away with this short system of politics, viz. Men are not born free, and therefore could never have the liberty to choose either governors, or forms of government. Princes have their power absolute, and by divine right; for slaves could never have a right to compact or consent. Adam was an absolute monarch, and so are all princes ever since.

CHAPTER II.

Of Paternal and Regal Power. 6. Sir R. Filmer's great position is, that men are not naturally free. This is the foundation on which his absolute monarchy stands, and from which it erects itself to such an height, that its power is above every power, caput inter nubila, so high above all earthly and human things, that thought can scarce reach it; that promises and oaths, which tye the infinite Deity, cannot confine it.

But if this foundation fails, all his fabric falls with it, and governments must be left again to the old way of being made by contrivance, and the consent of men ('Arquiva ari) making use of their reason to unite together into society. To provo this grand position of his, he tells

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 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 thy 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.

us, p. 12. Men are horn in subjection to their parents, and therefore cannot be free. And this authority of parents, he calls royal authority, p. 12, 14. Fatherly authority, right of fatherhood, p. 12, 20. One would have thought he would, in the beginning of such a work as this, on which was to depend the authority of princes, and the obedience of subjects, have told us expressly, what that fatherly authority is, have defined it, though not limited it, because in some other treatises of his he tells us, it is unlimited, and unlimitable; he should at least have given us such an account of it, that we might have had an entire notion of this fatherhood or fatherly authority, whenever it came in our way in his writings: this I expected to have found in the first chapter of his Patriarcha. But instead thereof, having, 1. En passant, made his obeysance to the arcana imperii, p. 5. 2. made his compliment to the rights and liberties of this, or any other nation, p. 6. which he is going presently to pull and destroy; and, 3. made his leg to those learned men, who did not see so far into 7. I do not think our author so litthe matter as himself, p. 7. he comes tle skilled in the way of writing disto fall on Bellarmine, p. 8. and, by courses of this nature, nor so carea victory over him, establishes his fa- less of the point in hand, that he by therly authority beyond any question. oversight commits the fault, that he Bellarmine being routed by his own himself, in his Anarchy of a mixed confession, p. 11. the day is clear Monarchy, p. 239. objects to Mr. got, and there is no more need of Hunton in these words: where first any forces: for having done that, II charge the author, that he hath not observe not that he states the ques- given us any definition, or description tion, or rallies up any arguments to of monarchy in general; for by the make good his opinion, but rather rules of method he should have first tells us the story, as he thinks fit, defined. And by the like rule of of this strange kind of domineering 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

In grants and gifts that have their original from God or nature, as the power of the father hath, no inferior power of man can limit, nor make any law of prescription against them. Ob

servations, 158.

The scripture teaches, that supreme power was originally in the father, with out any limitation. Observations, 245.

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 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. Dominion of life and death, making war, and concluding peace, p. 13. Adam and the patriarch had absolute power of life and death, p. 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 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, that 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 prince following, espeeially privileges, Observations, 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 ac-
cess to their persons, to learn their
wills and pleasure, then were laws of
necessity invented, that so every par-
ticular subject might find his prince's
pleasure decyphered unto him in the
tables of his laws, p. 92. In a mo-
narchy, 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 di-
minution 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 ser-
vant or slave, were one and the same
thing at first. The father had power
to dispose or sell his children or ser-
vants; whence we find, that the first
reckoning up of goods in scripture,
the man-servent and the maid-servant
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 goods; whereupon we
find the power of castrating and ma-
king eunuchs much in use in old times,
Observations, p. 155.
Law is no-
thing else but the will of him that hath
the power of the supreme father, Ob-
servations, 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
hum 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 descrip

tion 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 increase 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 to do what is neither for their own, nor the good of those under their care; whereby great mischiefs cannot but follow.

11. The sovereignty of Adam, being that on which, as a sure basis, our author 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 justify 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 myself, when, upon attentive reading that treatise, I found there so mighty a structure raised 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 man's natural freedom, he should do it by a bare supposition of Adam's 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 universal monar chy, 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 govern ment; 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 enjoins 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 enjoins obedience to queens, is delivered in the terms of honour thy mother, as if all power were originally in the mother? The argument, as Sir Robert puts it, will hold as well for one as the

other but of this, more in its due place.

12. All that I take notice of here is, that this is all our author 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 second chapter with these words, by conferring these proofs and reasons, drawn from the authority of the scripture. Where those proofs and reasons for Adam's sovereignty are, bating 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 Bellarmine, that creation made man prince of his posterity, must be taken for proofs and reasons drawn from scripture, or for any sort of proof at all: though from thence by a new way of inference, in the words immediately following, 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 Adam's royal authority, other than by often repeating it, which, among some men, goes for argument, desire any body for him to show 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 cried up this book, to consider, whether they do not give the world cause to suspect, that it is not the force of reason and argument, that makes them for absolute monarchy, but some other bye interest, and therefore are resolved to applaud any author, that writes in favour of this doctrine, 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 doctor of it, in a dis

course 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 myself in our author's full sense, I consulted his Observations on Aristotle, Hobbes, &c. to see whe ther 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 hath been so sparing of them. In his observations on Mr. Hobbes'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 all the earth to subdue it, and over all the creatures on it, su that as long as Adam lived, no man man could claim or enjoy any thing but by donation, assignation or permission from him, I wonder, &c. Observations, 165. Here we have the the sum of all his arguments, for Adam's sovereignty, and against natural freedom, which I find up and down in his other treatises: and they are these following; God's 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.

CHAPTER III.

Of Adam's Title to Sovereignty by
Creation.

15. Sir Robert, in his preface to his Observations on Aristotle's politics, tells us, A natural freedom of mankind cannot be supposed without the demal of the creation of Adam •

« AnteriorContinuar »