The First Treatise of Government

“He assures us how this fatherhood began in Adam, continued its course, and kept the world in order all the time of the patriarchs till the flood, got out of the ark with Noah and his sons, made and supported all the kings of the earth till the captivity of the Israelites in Egypt, and then the poor fatherhood was under hatches, till God, by giving the Israelites kings, reestablished the ancient and prime right of the lineal succession in paternal government.”

This is Locke’s most complete summary of Filmer’s Scripture-based approach to divine-right monarchy. Filmer cites many of the stories in the Old Testament as proof that God’s original grant of dominion to Adam, rooted in the principle of fatherhood, descended to Adam’s posterity and formed the only legitimate basis for the governments of the ancient world as described in the books of Genesis and Exodus. Locke’s disdain for Filmer’s argument appears as subtle mockery in phrases such as “got out of the ark with Noah and his sons” and “the poor fatherhood was under hatches.” Ridicule notwithstanding, Locke devotes First Treatise to refuting Filmer on these very points.

“God gave him not private dominion over the inferior creatures, but right in common with all mankind.”

Adam, according to Filmer, enjoyed private dominion over the world, which means that God gave the world to Adam as a kind of private property. Locke insists, however, that Scripture, including the passages Filmer employs, actually proves that God gave the world to “all mankind” in common, which supports Locke’s arguments for natural freedom and equality.