Page:Two Treatises of Government.djvu/51

 in preent (for the text ays, into your hands they are delivered) may bet be undertood with a ubordination or in ucceion ; becaue it is poible, that in ubordination, or in ucceion, it may be enjoyed. Which is all one as to ay, that a grant of any thing in preent poeion may bet be undertood of reverion ; becaue it is poible one may live to enjoy it in reverion. If the grant be indeed to a father and to his ons after him, who is o kind as to let his children enjoy it preently in common with him, one may truly ay, as to the event one will be as good as the other; but it can never be true, that what the expres words grant in poeion, and in common, may bet be undertood, to be in reverion. The um of all his reaoning amounts to this : God did not give to the ons of Noah the world in common with their father, becaue it was poible they might enjoy it under, or after him. A very good ort of argument againt an expres text of cripture : but God mut: not be believed, though he peaks it himelf, when he ays he does any thing, which will not conit with Sir Robert's hypothesis.

§. 33. For it is plain, however he would exclude them, that part of this benediction, as he would have it in ucceion, mut: needs be meant to the ons, and not to Noah himelf at all : Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenih the earth, ays God, in this bleing. This part of the benediction, as appears by the equel, con- Rh