are all born ſlaves, and we muſt continue ſo, there is no remedy for it; life and thraldom we enter'd 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 Robert 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. p. 4. That Heyward, Blackwood, 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 memory of thoſe, who were contemporaries with Sibthorp and Manwering, to recollect. My bufineſs at preſent is only to conſider what Sir Robert Filmer, who is allowed to have carried this argument fartheſt, and is ſuppoſed to have brought it to perfection, has ſaid in it;
