Page:Two Treatises of Government.djvu/47

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Of Government.
33

interpreters think with reaſon, that theſe words were not ſpoken till Adam had his wife, muſt not ſhe thereby be lady, as well as he lord of the world ? If it be ſaid, that Eve was ſubjected to Adam, it ſeems ſhe was not ſo ſubjected to him, as to hinder her dominion over the creatures, or property in them : for ſhall we ſay that God ever made a joint grant to two, and one only was to have the benefit of it ?

§. 30. But perhaps it will be ſaid, Eve was not made till afterward : grant it ſo, what advantage will our author get by it ? The text will be only the more directly againſt him, and ſhew that God, in this donation, gave the world to mankind in common, and not to Adam in particular. The word them in the text muſt include the ſpecies of man, for it is certain them can by no means ſignify Adam alone. In the 26th verſe, where God declares his intention to give this dominion, it is plain he meant, that he would make a ſpecies of creatures, that ſhould have dominion over the other ſpecies of this terreſtrial globe : the words are, And God ſaid. Let us make man in our image, after our likeneſs, and let them have dominion over the fiſh, &c. They then were to have dominion. Who ? even thoſe who were to have the image of God, the individuals of that ſpecies of man, that he was going to make ; for that them ſhould ſignify Adam,

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ſingly,