Page:Two Treatises of Government.djvu/36

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Of Government.

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 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. how ever 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, hudling ſeveral ſuppoſitions together, and that in doubtful and general terms, makes ſuch a medly and confuſion, that it is impoſſible to ſhew his miſtakes, without examining the ſeveral ſenſes wherein

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