been alſo made by kings, was this; when kings were either buſied with wars, or diſtracted with public cares, ſo that every private man could not have acceſs to their perſons, to learn their wills and pleaſure, then were laws of neceſſity invented, that ſo every particular ſubject might find his prince's pleaſure decyphered unto him in the tables of his laws, p. 92. In a monarchy, the king muſt by neceſſity be above the laws, p. 100. A perfect kingdom is that, wherein the king rules all things according to his own will, p. 100. Neither common nor ſtatute laws are, or can be, any diminution of that general power, which kings have over their people by right of fatherhood, p. 115. Adam was the father, king, and lord over his family; a ſon, a ſubject, and a ſervant or ſlave, were one and the ſame thing at firſt. The father had power to diſpoſe or ſell his children or ſervants; whence we find, that the firſt reckoning up of goods in ſcripture, the man-ſervant and the maid-ſervant, are numbred among the poſſeſſions and ſubſtance of the owner, as other goods were, Obſervations, Pref. God alſo hath given to the father a right or liberty, to alien his power over his children to any other; whence we find the ſale and gift of children to have much been in uſe in the beginning of the world, when men had their ſervants for a poſſeſſion and an inheritance, as well as other goods; whereupon we find the power of caſtrating and making eunuchs much in uſe in old times, Ob-
ſervations
