and worse, by the pride, luxury, and other vices that always attend the highest fortunes. It is no less incredible, that God, who disposes all things in wisdom and goodness, and appoints a due place for all, should, without distinction, ordain such a power to every one succeeding in such a line, as cannot be executed; the wise would refuse, and fools cannot take upon them the burden of it, without ruin to them. selves and such as are under them: or expose mankind to a multitude of other absurdities and mischiefs; subjecting the aged to be governed by children; the wise, to depend on the will of fools; the strong and valiant, to expect defence from the weak or cowardly and all in general to receive justice from him, who neither knows nor cares for it.

SECTION VI.

ABRAHAM AND THE PATRIARCHS WERE NOT

KINGS.

IF any man say, that we are not to seek into the depth of God's counsels; I answer, that if he had, for reasons known only to himself, affixed such a right to any one line, he would have set a mark upon those who come of it, that nations might know to whom they owe subjection; or given some testimony of his presence with Filmer and Heylin, if he had sent them to reveal so great a mystery. Till that be done, we may safely look upon them as the worst of men, and

teachers only of lies and follies. This persuades me little to examine what would have been, if God had at once created many men, or the conclusions that can be drawn from Adam's having been alone. For nothing can be more evident, than that if many had been created, they had been all equal, unless God had given a preference to one. All their sons had inherited the same right after their death; and no dream was ever more empty, than his whimsey of Adam's kingdom, or that of the ensuing patriarchs. To say the truth, it is hard to speak seriously of Abraham's kingdom, or to think any man to be in earnest who mentions it. He was a stranger, and a pilgrim in the land where he lived, and pretended to no authority beyond his own family, which consisted only of a wife and slaves. He lived with Lot as with his equal, and would have no contest with him, because they were brethren. His wife and servants could neither make up nor be any part of a kingdom, inasmuch as the despotical government, both in practice and principle, differs from the regal. If his kingdom was to be grounded on the paternal right, it vanished away of itself; he had no child: Eliezer of Damascus, for want of a better, was to be his heir: Lot, though his nephew, was excluded: he durst not own his own wife: he had not one foot of land, till he bought a field for a burying place: his three hundred and eighteen men were servants (bought according to the custom of those days) or their children; and the war he made with them, was like to Gideon's enterprise; which shews only that God can save by few as well as by many, but makes nothing to

our author's purpose. For if they had been as many in number as the army of Semiramis, they could have no relation to the regal, much less to the paternal power; for a father doth not buy, but beget children.

Notwithstanding this, our author bestows the proud title of "lord paramount" upon him, and transmits it to Isaac, who was indeed a king like his father, great, admirable, and glorious in wisdom and holiness, but utterly void of all worldly splendor or power. This spiritual kingdom was inherited by Jacob, whose title to it was not founded on prerogative of birth, but election, and peculiar grace; but he never enjoyed any other worldly inheritance, than the field and cave which Abraham had bought for a burying place, and the goods he had gained in Laban's service.

The example of Judah's sentence upon Tamar,

is yet farther from the purpose, if possible; for he was then a member of a private family, the fourth son of a father then living; neither in possession, nor under the promise of the privileges of primogeniture, though Reuben, Simeon, and Levi fell from it by their sins. Whatsoever therefore the right was, which belonged to the head of the family, it must have been in Jacob; but as he professed himself a keeper of sheep, as his fathers had been, the exercise of that employment was so far from regal, that it deserves no explication. If that act of Judah is to be imputed to a royal power, I have as much as I ask: he, though living with his father,

and elder brothers, when he came to be of age to have children, had the same power over such as were of, or came into his family, as his father had over him; for none can go beyond the power of life and death the same, in the utmost extent, cannot at the same time equally belong to many. If it be divided equally, it is no more than that universal liberty which God hath given to mankind, and every man is a king, till he divest himself of his right, in consideration of something that he thinks better for him.

SECTION VII.

NIMROD WAS THE FIRST KING, DURING THE LIFE OF CUSH, HAM, SHEM, AND NOAH.

THE creation is exactly described in the scripture; but we know so little of what passed between the finishing of it and the flood, that our author may say what he pleases, and I may leave him to seek his proofs where he can find them. In the mean time I utterly deny, that any power did remain in the heads of families after the flood, that does in the least degree resemble the regal in principle or practice. If in this I am mistaken, such power must have been in Noah, and transmitted to one of his sons. The scripture says only, that he built an

altar, sacrificed to the Lord, was a husbandman, planted a vineyard, and performed such offices as bear nothing of the image of a king, for the space of three hundred and fifty years. We have reason to believe, that his sons after his death continued in the same manner of life, and the equality properly belonging to brethren. It is not easy to determine, whether Shem or Japheth were the elder; but Ham is declared to be the younger; and Noah's blessing to Shem* seems to be purely prophetical and spiritual, of what should be accomplished in his posterity; with which Japheth should be persuaded to join. If it had been worldly, the whole earth must have been brought under him, and have forever continued in his race, which never was accomplished, otherwise than in the spiritual kingdom of Christ, which relates not to our author's lord paramount.

As to earthly kings, the first of them was Nimrod, the sixth son of Cush the son of Ham, Noah's younger and accursed son. This kingdom was set up about a hundred and thirty years after the flood, whilst Cush, Ham, Shem, and Noah were yet living; whereas if there were any thing of truth in our author's proposition, all mankind must have continued under the government of Noah whilst he lived; and that power must have been transmitted to Shem, who lived about three hundred and seventy years after the erection of Nimrod's kingdom; and must have come to Japheth, if he was the elder; but could

* Gen. ix.