Page:Two Treatises of Government.djvu/32

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18
Of Government.

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 bis 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, i. Gen. 28. as we ſee Sir

Robert