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but how Adam's being created, which was nothing but his receiving a being immediately from omnipotence 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 Adam's creation, and would be glad any body else (since our author did not vouchsafe us the favour) would make it out for him: for I find no difficulty to suppose the freedom of mankind, though I have always believed the creation of Adam. He was created, or began to exist by God's immediate power, without the intervention of parents or the pre-existence of any of the same species to beget him, when it pleased God he should; and so did the lion, the king of beasts, before him, by the same creating power of God and if bare existence by that power, and in that way, will give dominion without any more ado, our author, by this argument, will make the lion have as good a title to it, as he, and certainly the antienter. No! for Adam had his title by the appointment of God, says our author in another place. Then bare creation gave him not dominion, and one might have supposed mankind free without the denying the creation of Adam, since it was God's appointment, made him monarch.

16. But let us see, how he puts his creation and this appointment together. By the appointment of God, says Sir Robert, as soon as Adam was created, he was monarch of the world, though he had no subjects; for though there could not be actual government till there were subjects, yet by the right of nature it was due to Adam to be governor of his posterity: though not in act, yet at least in habit Adam was a king from his creation. I wish he had told us here, what he meant by God's appointment: for whatsoever providence orders, or the law of nature directs, or positive revelation declares, may be said to be

by God's appointment: but I suppose it cannot be meant here in the first sense, i. e. by providence; because that would be to say no more, but that as soon as Adam was created he was de facto monarch, because by right of nature it was due to Adam, to be governor of his posterity. But he could not de facto be by providence constituted the governor of the world, at a time when there was actually no government, no subjects to be governed, which our author here confesses. Monarch of the world is also differently used by our author; for sometimes he means by it a proprietor of all the world exclusive of the rest of mankind, and thus he does in the same page of his preface before cited. Adam, says he, being commanded to multiply and people the earth, and to subdue it, and having dominion given him over all creatures, was thereby the monarch of the whole world; none of his posterity had any right to possess any thing but by his grant or permission, or by succession from him. 2. Let us understand then by monarch, proprietor of the world, and by appointment God's actual donation, and revealed positive grant made to Adam, Gen. i. 28. as we see Sir Robert himself does in this parallel place; and then his argument will stand thus: by the positive grant of God, as soon as Adam was created, he was proprietor of the world, because by the right of nature it was due to Adam to be governor of his posterity. In which way of arguing there are two manifest falsehoods. First, it is false, that God made that grant to Adam, as soon as he was created, since, though it stands in the text immediately after his creation, yet it is plain it could not be spoken to Adam, till after Eve was made and brought to him: and how then could he be monarch by appointment as soon as created, especially since he calls, if I mistake not, that which God says to Eve, Gen. iii. 16. the original grant of government, which not being

till after the fall, when Adam was somewhat, at least in time, and very much distant in condition, from his creation, I cannot sce, how our author can say in this sense, that by God's appointment, as soon as Adam was created, he was monarch of the world. Secondly, were it true that God's actual donation appointed Adum monarch of the world as soon as he was created, yet the reason here given for it, would not prove it; but it would always be a false inference, that God, by a positive donation, appointed Adam monarch of the world, because by right of nature it was due to Adam to be governor of his posterity for having given him the right of government by nature, there was no need of a positive donation; at least it will never be a proof of such a donation.

17. On the other side the matter will not be much mended, if we understand by God's appointment the law of nature, (though it be a pretty harsh expression for it in this place) and by monarch of the world, sovereign ruler of mankind: for then the sentence under consideration must run thus by the law of nature, as soon as Adam was created he was

governor of mankind, for by right of nature it was due to Adam to be governor of his posterity; which amounts to this, he was governor by right of nature, because he was governor by right of nature but supposing we should grant, that a man is by nature governor of his children; Adam could not hereby be a monarch as soon as created; for this right of nature being founded in his being their father, how Adam could have a natural right to be governor, before he was a father, when by being a father only, he had that right, is methinks, hard to conceive, unless he will have him to be a father before he was a father, and to have a title before he had it.

18. To this foreseen objection, eur author answers very logically,

VOL. IX.

he was governor in habit, and not in act: a very pretty way of being a governor without government, a father without children, and a king without subjects. And thus Sir Robert was an author before he writ his book; not in act it is true, but in habit; for when he had once published it, it was due to him by the right of nature to be an author, as much as it was to Adam to be governor of his children, when he had begot them: and if to be such a monarch of the world, an absolute monarch in habit, but not in act, will serve the turn, I should not much envy it to any of Sir Robert's friends, that he thought fit graciously to bestow it upon, though even this of act and habit, if it signified any thing but our author's skill in distinctions, be not to his purpose in this place. For the question here is not about Adam's actual exercise of government, but actually having a title to be governor. Government, says our author, was duc to Adam by the right of nature: what is this right of natüre? A right fathers have over their children by begetting them; generatione jus acquiritur parentibus in liberos, says our author out of Grotius, Olsertations, 223. The right then follows the begetting as arising from it; so that, according to this way of reasoning or distinguishing of our author, Adam, as soon as he was created, had a title only in habit, and not in act, which in plain English is, he had actually no title at all.

19. To speak less learnedly, and more intelligibly, one may say of Adam, he was in a possibility of being governor, since it was possible he might beget children, and thereby acquire that right of nature, be it what it will, to govern them, that accrues from thence: -but what connection has this with Adam's creation, to make him say, that, as soon as he was created, he was monarch of the world? for it may be as well said of Noah, that as soon as he was

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born, he was monarch of the world, since he was in possibility (which in our author's sense is enough to make a monarch, a monarch in habit,) to outlive all mankind, but his own posterity. What such necessary connection there is betwixt Adam's creation and his right to government, so that a natural freedom of mankind cannot be supposed without the denial of the creation of Adam, I confess for my part I do not see; nor how those words, by the appointment, &c. Observations, 254, however explained, can be put together, to make any tolerable sense, at least to establish this position, with which they end, viz. Adam was a king from his creation; a king, says our author, not in act, but in habit, i. e. actually no king at all.

20. I fear I have tired my reader's patience, by dwelling longer on this passage, than the weightiness of any argument in it seems to require; but I have unavoidably been engaged in it by our author's way of writing, who, huddling several suppositions together, and that in doubtful and general terms, makes such a medley and confusion, that it is impossible to shew his mistakes, without examining the several senses wherein his words may be taken, and with out seeing how, in any of these various meanings, they will consist together, and have any truth in them: for in this present passage before us, how can any one argue against this position of his, that Adam was a king from his creation, unless one examine, whether the words, from his creation, be to be taken, as they may, for the time of the commencement of his government, as the foregoing words import, as soon as he aas created he was monarch; or, for the cause of it, as he says, p. 11.

creation made man prince of his pos tery? how farther can one judge of the truth of his being thus king, till one has examined whether king be to be taken, as the words in the beginning of this passage would persuade, on supposition of his private dominion, which was, by God's posive grant, monarch of the world by appointment; or king on supposition of his fatherly power over his offspring, which was by nature, due by the right of nature; whether, I say, king be to be taken in both, or one only of these two senses, or in neither of them, but only this, that creation made him prince, in a way differently from both the other? For though this assertion, that Adam was king from his creation, be true in no sense, yet it stands here as an evident conclusion drawn from the preceding words, though in truth it be but a bare assertion joined to other assertions of the same kind, which confidently put together in words of undetermined and dubious meaning, look like a sort of arguing, when there is indeed neither proof nor connection: a way very familiar with our author: of which having given the reader a taste here, I shall as much as the argument will permit me, avoid touching on hereafter and should not have done it here, were it not to let the world see, how incoherences in matter, and suppositions without proofs put handsomely together in good words and a plausible stile, are apt to pass for strong reason and good sense, till they come to be looked into with attention.

END OF CHAPTER III.

[To be continued.]

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SERJEANT THORPE,

JUDGE OF ASSIZE FOR THE NORTHERN CIRCUIT,

HIS CHARGE,

As it was delivered to the Grand Jury at York Assizes, the twentieth of March, 1648; clearly epitomising the statutes belonging to this nation, which concern (and, as a golden rule, ought to regulate) the several estates and conditions of men; and, being duly observed, do really promote the peace and plenty of this commonwealth. [First Published in 1649.]

Gentlemen, friends, and countrymen, I do not question, but that the stile and title of our commissions, under which we are now to act, and execute the authority and power committed to our hands, being changed from Carolus Rex Anglia, to Custodes libertatis Angliæ authoritate parliamenti, works divers effects upon the tempers and spirits of men, according as the spirits themselves are tempered and affected; and that some of those spirits (like the sun upon wax) it softens into obedience and compliance, and others of them, again (like the same sun upon clay) it hardens into stiffness and opposition. Proud, ambitious, and malignant spirits, finding

themselves frustrated and defeated hereby of their designed hopes, and hopeful designs, for obtaining their desired ends; and, being filled with prejudice to others, and self-love to their own opinions, and therefore having turned themselves aside from the use of their own reason, and from all overtures and arguments of satisfaction, and having given up their understanding to blind affections,--it startles and confounds with passions and amazements, heighten ed into choler and disdain; because looking through the false glass of their own self-interest, they find nothing therein, but imaginary shakings of foundations, overturning of laws, and confused heaps of ruins and distractions. But to these, if any such be present, (especially, if they have been formerly engaged in

open war against the public interest of the nation, and so are cast, by God's justice, for their transgressions into a mean and low condition;) all I shall say, (with the poor comfort of calamity, pity,) is this, that if they have not already tasted enough of the cup of God's wrath, for their misdoings, let them take heed they engage not again, for fear that, hereafter, they be enforced to drink the dregs of his displeasure. Other silly spirits there are, who, standing unbottomed upon any solid principles of their own, find themselves tossed to and fro with the wind which blows from others mouths; one while lis tening to the prophet, who bids them go up to Ramoth-Gilead, and prosper; and by and by again yielding to him that bids them not go up, for fear of perishing; and so they are carried into cross and oblique opinions, and actions, tending to, and endangering, their utter ruin and destruction. And, to these men, all I shall say, and advise, is this, that they will forthwith repair to the school of REASON, and suffer themselves to he guided and led by impartial and wholesome lessons, and instructions, to a better information of their judgments, whereby they may be settled upon undeniable grounds in the knowledge of themselves, and the truth, and of their own right, interest, and concernment. ther sort of men there are, who are willing to let their eyes stand in the place where nature set them, and to make use of that reason and judgment,

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which God hath given them, and, with erected minds, to apprehend the sense of their own future happiness, and to hearken to the voice which calls them to the flourishing actions of a reformed commonwealth, and therefore do entertain this change with suitable opinions and compliance from these grounds which they thus propound and argue with themselves,

1. That all power and authority is originally and primarily in God, and comes from God; and this they rest upon, as being a scripturetruth.

2. THAT GOD OUT OF HIS WISDOM AND PROVIDENCE, HATH DISPENSED AND TRANSMITTED SO MUCH OF THIS AUTHORITY AND POWER TO MEN, AS IS NECESSARY

FOR THEIR USE. First, as in relation to the inferior creatures, to rule and govern them, as lord and king. And, as in relation to one another, from a principle of nature, (conservatio sui-ipsius) to seek and endeayour their own preservation and security, which principle draws them to this conclusion (salus populi suprema lex) the safety of the people is the supreme law, both of nature, and nations. And from this natural principle, and supreme law of nature, however all men, in their original creation, are all of one and the same substance, mould, and stamp, yet, for preservation's sake, they find a fitness in subordinations and degrees among them, for the better ordering of their affairs; and so they appoint rulers, and authorise governors over them, as trustees for themselves. They also elect government, create rules, orders, and laws, by which they will have their rulers and governors to guide and steer their actions in the course of their government, to which they will conform their obedience; and this truth is ascertained from hence, that there were people before there were either rulers or governors of people, and that therefore these rulers and

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governors were but made by the ple, and for the people, with this reserve, that whensoever the people should perceive, that their trustees, and governors, did turn potestatem into potentiam, the power and authority of government, by rule and law formerly agreed upon, and consented unto by the people, into an armed force; and that they did alter the people's rempublicam, into the governor's rem privatum; and that their government, ceasing to be free, was made to hang over the people's heads, as a lordly scourge to their destruction; then, and from thenceforth, and that with good comeliness of reason, the people betake themselves to thoughts of reformation; and finding cause to dislike their former choice, being not tied by any scripture rule to any one form of government, they chuse again, and take some other form, differing from that before, whereby they will avoid the evils they suffered under their former choice, and enjoy the good of a more beneficial preservation; for, like mariners and men in a ship at sea, they will no longer trust an unskilful or perfidious steersman, lest they should be found guilty of their own ensuing shipwreck and destruction.

And this brings me to the next assertion, and position, which I own as a most certain truth, and positive assurance, THAT THE PEUPLE, (UNDER GOD) IS THE ORIGINAL OF ALL JUST POWER, AND THAT, LET THE GOVERNMENT RUN OUT INTO WHAT FORM IT WILL, MONARCHY, ARISTOCRACY, OR DEMOCRACY, YET STILL THE ORIGI NAL FOUNTAIN THEREOF IS FROM THE CONSENT AND AGREEMENT OF

THE PEOPLE. And from this assertion, and position, I am led on further, by plain reason, to understand, that rulers, and governors, are accountable to the people for their misgovernment; namely, when they transgress the rules, and laws, by

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