Page:A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind (IA discourseuponori00rous).pdf/75

ting us know what they meant by the Word belong; others, without further Ceremony aſcribing to the ſtrongeſt an Authority over the weakeſt, have immediately ſtruck out Government, without thinking of the Time requiſite for Men to form any Notion of the Things ſignified by the Words Authority and Government. All of them, in fine, conſtantly harping on Wants, Avidity, Oppreſſion, Deſires and Pride, have transferred to the ſtate of Nature Ideas picked up in the boſom of Society. In ſpeaking of Savages they deſcribed Citizens. Nay, few of our own Writers ſeem to have ſo much as doubted, that a State of Nature did once actually exiſt; tho' it plainly appears by Sacred Hiſtory, that even the firſt Man, immediately furniſhed as he was by God himſelf with both Inſtructions and Precepts, never lived in that State, and that, if we give to the Books of Moſes that Credit which every Chriſtian Philoſopher ought to give to