The "First Treatise" is an extended attack on Sir Robert Filmer's "Patriarcha". Locke's argument proceeds along two lines: first, he undercuts the Scriptural support that Filmer had offered for his thesis, and second he argues that the acceptance of Filmer's thesis can lead only to slavery (and absurdity). Locke chose Filmer as his target, he says, because of his reputation and because he "carried this Argument ["jure divino"] farthest, and is supposed to have brought it to perfection" (1st Tr., § 5).