pity the propriety of the Hebrew tongue had not uſed fathers of men, inſtead of children of men, to expreſs mankind : then indeed our author might have had the countenance of the ſound of the words, to have placed the title in the fatherhood. But to conclude, that the fatherhood had the right to the earth, becauſe God gave it to the children of men, is a way of arguing peculiar to our author : and a man muſt have a great mind to go contrary to the ſound as well as ſenſe of the words, before he could light on it. But the ſenſe is yet harder, and more remote from our author's purpoſe : for as it ſtands in his preface, it is to prove Adam's being monarch, and his reaſoning is thus, God gave the earth to the children of men, ergo Adam was monarch of the world. I defy any man to make a more pleaſant concluſion than this, which cannot be excuſed from the moſt obvious abſurdity, till it can be ſhewn, that by children of men, he who had no father, Adam alone is ſignified ; but whatever our author does, the ſcripture ſpeaks not nonſenſe.
§. 32. To maintain this property and private dominion of Adam, our author labours in the following page to deſtroy the community granted to Noah and his ſons, in that parallel place, ix. Gen. 1, 2, 3. and he endeavours to do it two ways.
I. Sir Robert would perſuade us againſt the expreſs words of the ſcripture, that what
