Page:Two Treatises of Government.djvu/57

next place, it is manifeſt: that in this bleſſing to Noah and his ſons, property is not only given in clear words, but in a larger extent than it was to Adam. Into your hands they are given, ſays God to Noah and his ſons; which words, if they give not property, nay, property in poſſeſſion, it will be hard to find words that can ; ſince there is not a way to expreſs a man's being poſſeſſed of any thing more natural, nor more certain, than to ſay, it is delivered into his hands. And ver. 3. to ſhew, that they had then given them the utmoſt property man is capable of, which is to have a right to deſtroy any thing by uſing it ; Every moving thing that liveth, ſaith God, ſhall be meat for you ; which was not allowed to Adam in his charter. This our author calls, a liberty of uſing them for food, and only an enlargement of commons, but no alteration of property, Obſervations, 211. What other property man can have in the creatures, but the liberty of uſing them, is hard to be underſtood : ſo that if the firſt bleſſing, as our author ſays, gave Adam dominion over the creatures, and the bleſſing to Noah and his ſons, gave them ſuch a liberty to uſe them, as Adam had not ; it muſt needs give them ſomething that Adam with all his ſovereignty wanted, ſomething that one would be apt to take for a greater property ; for certainly he has no abſolute dominion over even the brutal part of the creatures ; and the property he has in,