But God not having anywhere said, the next heir shall inherit all his father’s estate or dominion, we are not to wonder, that he hath nowhere appointed who that heir should be; for never having intended any such thing, never designed any heir in that sense, we cannot expect he should anywhere nominate, or appoint any person to it, as we might, had it been otherwise. And therefore in scripture, though the word heir occur, yet there is no such thing as heir in our author’s sense, one that was by right of nature to inherit all that his father had, exclusive of his brethren. Hence Sarah supposes, that if Ishmael stayed in the house to share in Abraham’s estate after his death, this son of a bondwoman might be heir with Isaac; and therefore, says she, “cast out this bondwoman and her son, for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son”: but this cannot excuse our author, who telling us there is, in every number of men, one who is right and next heir to Adam, ought to have told us what the laws of descent are: but he having been so sparing to instruct us by rules, how to know who is heir, let us see in the next place, what his history out of scripture, on which he pretends wholly to build his government, gives us in this necessary and fundamental point.