the commandment of God that which in the name of God was commanded him in a dream or vision and to deliver it to his Family and cause them to observe the same Yet notwithstanding this great addition tho Abraham and all the Soveraigns who succeeded him were qualified to govern and prescribe to their Subjects what Religion they should be of and to tell them what is the word of God and to punish all those who should countenance any doctrine which he should forbid from which he concludes that pag. 250 as none but Abraham in his family so none but the Soveraign in a Christian Common-wealth can take notice what is or what is not the word of God Yet I say neither that nor the renewing the same Covenant with Isaac and afterwards with Jacob he saies now did make that people the peculiar People of God but dates that Privilege which before he dated from the Covenant with Abraham to begin only from the renewing it by Moses at the mount Sinai by which he corrects his former fancy by a new one as extravagant upon the peoples contract in those words which he had mention'd before without that observation and gloss that he makes upon it nor did God at that time promise more to them by Moses then he had before as expresly promis'd to Abraham Isaac and Iacob This shall suffice to what he hath so often urg'd or shall hereafter infer from the Covenant with Abraham and by Moses and of the peculiar dominion over that People by vertue of that Contract Nor will I hereafter enlarge any more upon their pretended rejection of God when they desir'd a King which he now confirm's by a new piece of History or a new Commentary upon the Text by his Soveraign power of interpreting for he saies pag. 254. that when they said to Samuel make us a King to judg us like all the Nations they signified that they would no more be govern'd by the commands that should be laid upon them by the Priest in the name of God and consequently in deposing the High Priest of Roial autority they deposed that peculiar Government of God pag. 255. And yet he confesses in the very next page that when they had demanded a King after the manner of the Nations they had no design to depart from the worship of God their King but despairing of the justice of the Sons of Samuel they would have a King to Iudg them in civil actions but not that they would allow their King to change the Religion which was recommended to them by Moses By which he hath again cancell'd and demolish't all that power and jurisdiction which he would derive to all Soveraigns from that submission and contract which he saies they made at Mount Sinai for he confesses that they had no intention that the King should have autority to alter their Religion and then it passed not by that contract And thus when his unruly invention suggests to him an addition to the Text or an unwarrantable interpretation of it it alwaies involves him in new perplexities and leaves him as far from attaining his end as when he began It is upon his usual presumtion that from the 17. Chapter of Numbers he concludes that after Moses his death the supreme power of making war and peace and the Supreme power of judicature belonged also to the High Priest and thus Ioshuah was only General of the Army whereas no more was said in that place to Eleazar then had bin before said to Aaron his Father to perform the Priestly Office nor doth it ever appear that Eleazar offered to assume the Soveraignty in either of the cases but was as much under Ioshuah as Aaron had ever bin under Moses God appear'd unto Ioshuah upon the decease of Moses and deputed him to exercise the same charge that Moses had don As I was with Moses so will I be with thee This Book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth that thou maiest observe to do all that is written therein Then Ioshuah commanded the Officers of the People Josh. 1 2. 5 8 10. The people made another covenant with Ioshuah All that thou commandest us we will do and whither soever thou sendest us we will go As we hearkned unto Moses in all things so will we hearken unto thee Whosoever doth rebel against thy Commandment and will not hearken to thy words in all that thou commandest him shall be put to death ver 16 17 18. And the Lord said unto Joshuah this day will I magnify thee in the sight of all Israel as I was with Moses so will I be with thee And thou shalt command the Priests c. Josh. 3. 7 8. All the orders and commands to the Priests were given by Ioshuah Joshua built an Altar to the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal He wrote upon the stones a copy of the Law He read all the Law the cursings and the blessings c. Josh. 8. 30 32 34. Ioshuah divided the Land and when any doubtful cause did arise they repair'd to him for judgment And when the two Tribes and the half returned to the other side of Iordan where Moses had assign'd their portions it was Ioshuah who blessed them and sent them away There is no mention of any Soveraignty of Eleazar What the jurisdiction of the High-Priest was and whether the Office was limited or any way suspended during the time of the Judges is not otherwise pertinent to this discourse then as it contradicts Mr. Hobbes in which where it is not necessary I take no delight and therefore shall not enlarge upon those particulars The Survey of Chapter 41. MR. Hobbes hath committed so many errors in the institution and view which he hath made of all Offices hitherto that there was reason to believe he would have the same presumtion if he came to handle the Office of our Saviour himself and I think he hath made it good when he allows no other autority or power to our Saviour even when he comes in the glory of his Father with his Angels to reward every man according to his works Matâ—h 16. 27. then pag. 260. as Vice-gerent of God his Father in the same manner that Moses was in the Wilderness and as the High Priests were before the Reign of Saul and as the Kings were after it which is degrading him below the model of Socinus and in no degree equal to the description of his Power in Scripture yet large enough if the end of his coming was no other then he assigns and the Office he is to manage no greater then he seems to describe p. 264. the giving immortality in the Kingdom of the Son of man which is to be exercis'd by our Saviour upon Earth in his human nature which seems to be much inferior to that inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away which St. Peter assures us is reserved in Heaven for us 1 Pet. 1. 4. And how his
which maketh some grimaces callâ—d Laughter and is caused either by some suddain act of their own that pleaseth them or by the apprehension of some deformâ—d thing in another by comparison whereof they suddainly applaud themselves In which kind of Illustrations those Chapters and in truth his whole Book abounds and discovers a master faculty in making easie things hard to be understood and men will probably with the more impatience and curiosity tho with the less reverence enter upon the third part of his Book which is to define Christian Politics after he hath so well defin'd and describ'd Religion to be Fear of Power invisible feigned by the mind or imagined from tales publicly allowed p. 26. all which I leave to his Friends of the Universities Nor shall I spend more time upon the seventh eighth aâ—d ninth Chapters leaving them to the Schole-men to examine who are in his debt for much mirth which he hath made out of them I for my part being very indifferent between them as believing that the Schole-men have contributed very little more to the advancement of any noble or substantial part of Learning then Mr. Hobbes hath don to the reformation or improvement of Philosophy and Policy Yet I may reasonably say so much on their behalf that if Mr. Hobbes may take upon him to translate all those terms of Art the proper signification whereof is unanimously understood and agreed between all who use them and which in truth are a cipher to which all men of moderate Learning have the Key into the vulgar Language by the assistance of Ryders Dictionary he hath found a way to render and expose the worthiest Professors of any Science and all Science it self to the cheap laughter of all illiterate men which is contrary to Mr. Hobbes's own rule and determination pag. 17. where he saies That when a man upon the hearing any Speech hath those thoughts which the words of that Speech and their connexion were ordained and constituted to signifie then he is said to understand it And surely the signification of words and terms is no less ordain'd and constituted by custom and acceptation then by Grammar and Etymologies If it were otherwise Mr. Hobbes himself would be as much exposed to ignorant Auditors when he reads a Lecture upon the Optics or even in his ador'd Geometry if a pleasant Translator should render all his terms as literally as he hath don the Title of the sixth Chapter of Suarez for every Age as new things happen finds new words in all Languages to signifie them The Civilians who are amongst the best Judges of Latine can hardly tell how investitura came into their Books to signifie that which it hath ever signified since the Quarrel begun between the Emperor and the Pope upon that subject which is now as well understood in Latine as any word in Tully And if Bombarda had no original but from the sound as Petavius a very good Grammarian besides his other great Learning saies it had not we have no reason to be offended with the Schole-men for finding words to discover their own Conceptions which equally serveour own turn The Survey of Chapters 10 11 12. I Do acknowledg that in the tenth eleventh and twelfth Chapters many things are very well said and tho somethings as ill with reference to Religion and to the Clergy as if there were a combination between the Priests of the Gentiles Aristotle the Schole-men and the Clergy of all Professions to defame pervert and corrupt Religion yet he resumes that Argument so frequently that I shall chuse to examine the reason and justice of all his Allegations rather in another place then upon either of these three Chapters to which I shall only add that according to his natural delight in Novelties of all kinds in Religion as well as Policy he hath supplied the Gentiles with a new God which was never before found in any of their Catalogues The God Chaos pag. 55. to which he might as warrantably have made them an additional present of his own Idol Confusion And he will as hardly find a good autority for the aspersion with which he traduces the Policy of the Roman Common-wealth in all its greatness and lustre pag. 57. that it made no scruple of tolerating any Religion whatsoever in the City of Rome it self unless it had somthing in it that could not consist with their Civil Government Which how untrue soever was a very unseasonable intimation of the wisdom of Olivers's Politics at that time when he published his Leviathan whereas in truth that great People were not more solicitous in any thing then in preserving the unity and integrity of their Religion from any mixtures and the Institution of the Office of Pontifex Maximus was principally out of that jealousie and that he might carefully watch that no alteration or innovation might be made in their Religion And tho they had that general awe for Religion that they would not suffer the Gods of their Enemies whom they did not acknowledg for Gods to be rudely treated and violated and therefore they both punished their Consul for having robb'd the Temple of Proserpine and caused the full damages to be restored to the injur'd Goddess yet they neither acknowledg'd her Divinity nor suffer'd her to have a Temple or to have any Devotion paid to her within their Dominions nor indeed any other God or Goddess to be ador'd then those to whom Sacrifices were made by the Autority of the State Nor will Mr. Hobbes be able to name one Christian Kingdom in the World where it is believed that the King hath not his Autority from Christ unless a Bishop Crown him tho all Christian Kingdoms have had that reverence for Bishops as to assign the highest Ecclesiastical Functions to be alwaies perform'd by them but they well know the King to have the same Autority in all respects before he is crown'd as after And what extravagant Power soever the Court of Rome hath in some evil Conjunctures heretofore usurp'd and would be as glad of the like opportunities again yet in those Kingdoms where that Autority is own'd and acknowledg'd there want not those who loudly protest against that Doctrine That a King may be depos'd by a Pope or that the Clergy and Regulars shall be exemt from the Jurisdiction of their King And yet upon these unwarrantable suggestions he presumes to declare That all the changes of Religion may be attributed to one and the same Cause and that is unpleasing Priests and those not only amongst Papists but even in that Church that hath presumed most of Reformation by which he intends the Church of England at that time under the most severe and barbarous Persecution and therefore it was the more enviously and maliciously as well as dishonestly alledged The Survey of Chapters 13 14 15 16. THE thirteenth fourteenth fifteenth and sixteenth Chapters will require a little more disquisition since under the pretence of examining or rather
another to transfer all their right to a third person who shall be Soveraign without entring into any Covenant with the Soveraign himself which would have devested them of that liberty to disobey him which they have reserv'd to themselves or receiving any Covenant from him which might have obliged him to have kept his promise to them by which they might have had somewhat left to them which they might have called their own which his institution will not bear all such promises being void But if he be so tender-hearted as to think himself oblig'd to observe all the promises and make good all the Grants he hath made by which he may be disabled to provide for their safety which is the ground that hath made all those Grants and Promises to be void he hath granted him Power to remedy all this by P. 114. directly renouncing or transferring the Soveraignty to another and that he might openly and in plain terms renounce or transfer it he makes no doubt and then he saies if a Monarch shall relinquish the Soveraignty both for himself and his heirs his subjects return to the absolute liberty of nature Because tho nature may declare who are his sons and who are the neerest of his kin yet it dependeth on his own will who shall be his Heir and if he will have no Heir There is no Soveraignty or Subjection This seems the hardest condition for the poor Subject that he can be liable unto that when he hath devested himself of all the right he had only for his Soveraigns protection that he may be redeem'd from the state of War and confusion that nature hath left him in and hath paid so dear for that protection it is left still in his Soveraigns power to withdraw that protection from him to renounce his subjection and without his consent to transer the Soveraignty to another to whom he hath no mind to be subject One might have imagin'd that this new trick of transferring and covenanting had bin an universal remedy that being once applied would for ever prevent the ill condition and confusion that nature had left us in and that such a right would have bin constituted by it that Soveraignty would never have fail'd to the Worlds end and that when the subject can never retract or avoid the bargain he hath made how ill soever he likes it or improve it by acquiring any better conditions in it it shall notwithstanding be in the Soveraigns power without his consent and it may be without his privity in an instant to leave him with out any protection without any security and as a prey to all who are too strong for him This indeed is the greatest Prerogative that he hath conferr'd upon his Soveraign when he had given him all that belongs to his Subjects that when he is weary of Governing he can destory them by leaving them to destory one another For Kings and Princes to resign and relinquish their Crown and Soveraignty is no new transaction nor it may be the better for being old Some have left them out of Melancholy and devotion and when they have ceased to be Kings made themselves Monks and repented the change of their conditions afterwards Some out of weakness and bodily infirmities have not bin able to sustain the fatigue that the well exercising the Government required and therefore have desir'd to see those in the quiet possession of it to whom it would of right belong when they were dead and the more reasonably if they fore-saw any difficulties like to arise about their admission in those seasons as Charles the fifth apprehended with reference to some of his dominions in Italy if his Son Philip was not in possession of them before his Brother Ferdinando came to be Emperor Some Princes have bin so humorous as upon the frowardness and refractorinesâ— of their Subjects and because they could not govern in that manner they had a mind to do to abdicate the Government and would have bin glad afterwards to have resumed it And others have bin to wanton as to relinquish their Crown because they did not like the Climate in which their Dominions lay and only that they might live in a better Air and enjoy the delights and pleasures of a more happy Situation But all these generally never attemted it or imagin'd they could do it without the approbation and consent of their Subjects which was allwaies desir'd and yielded to with great formality And it is very strange that in those seasons of Abdication which supposes a suspension of Soveraignty especially in Elective Kingdoms for in Hereditary the immortality of the King who never dies may make a difference this invention of Mr. Hobbes of transferring one anothers right and covenanting with one another hath never bin heard of and tho the Soveraignty is invested by election the People have very little share in that election If Mr. Hobbes would have exercis'd his Talent in that spacious field as he might have don with more innocence and it may be more success and have undertaken by his speculation and deduction of Soveraign rights from the nature need and designs of men to prove that it is not in the just power of a Monarch to relinquish and renounce his Soveraignty with what formality and consent soever nor more in the autority and power of the King to abdicate and relinquish his Soveraignty over his people then it is in the autority of the people to withdraw their submission and obedience from him and that the practice of such renunciations tho never very frequent hath bin the original and introduction of that mischeivous doctrine sow'd amongst the people of their having a co-ordinate power with the Soveraign which will be much cherished by his new institution since men are easily perswaded to believe that they can mar what they can make and may lawfully destroy what they create that is the work of their own hands I say if he would have laid out his reason upon that argument he could have made it shine very plausibly and might have made many Proselytes to his opinion since many Learned men are so much in their judgment against that right of relinquishing and transferring in Princes that they believe it to be the only cause wherein Subjects may lawfully take up defensive Arms that they may continue Subjects and to preserve their Subjection and Obedience from being alien'd from him to whom it is due and that no consent or concurrence can more make such an alienation lawful then it can dissolve the bonds of Wedlock and qualifie both parties to make a new choice for themselves that may be more grateful to them But he thinks it to be more glory to discover that to be right reason which all other men find to be destructive to it and page 91. that the suddain and rough bustling in of a new truth will raise his fame as it hath don that of many other Heretics before and which he saies doth
secure from the assault of every other man who hath a right to take it from him But he thinks life too pretious to part with willingly and therefore cares for no more then to invest his Soveraign with a just title to punish how unable soever he leaves him to execute it And truly his fancy is very extraordinary in bringing it to pass He will not suffer his power to punish to be grounded upon the concession or gift of the Subjects from which fountain all his other extravagant powers flow which are as unnatural for them to give but saies it was originally inherent in him by the right of Nature by which every man might subdue or kill another man as he thought best for his own preservation which right still remain'd in him when all other men transferred all their rights to him because he never contracted with them to part with any thing and so he comes pag. 162. to a right to punish whiâ—h was not given but left to him and to him only as entire as in the condition of mere nature Is not this mere fancy without any reason which he needed not have exercis'd to so little purpose to erect a lawful Power which any man may lawfully resist and oppose Nor is the right much greater that is left him then what it seems is tacitly reserv'd to every man who notwithstanding all transferring hath still right to resist the Sword of Justice in his own defence and for ought appears to kill him that carries it So that in truth his Soveraign is vested in no other autority then lawfully to fight so many Duels as the Law hath condemned men to suffer death since he can command none of his Subjects to execute them and they have all lawful power to defend their own lives How this right and autority of punishing came into the hands of the Soveraign we shall not follow his example in repeting having before confessed that it neither is nor can be grounded on any concession or gift of the Subject but is indubitably inherent in the office of being Soveraign and inseparably annexed to it by God himself Corporal or Capital punishment Ignominy Imprisonment or Exile are not better understood then they were before his Definitions and Descriptions which he makes of them and in which he doth not so much consider the nature of a Definition as that he may insert somwhat into it to which he may resort to prove somwhat which men do not think of when they read those Definitions and assuming to himself to declare what will serve his turn to be the Law of Nature or the Law of Nations he makes such Inferences and Consequences as he thinks necessary to prove his desperate Conclusions There cannot be a more pernicious Doctrine and more destructive to Peace and Justice then that all men who are not Subjects are enemies that against enemies whom the Common-wealth judges capable to do them hurt it is lawful by the original right of Nature to make War which would keep up a continual War between all Princes since they are few who are not capable to do hurt to their Neighbors Nor can this mischief be prevented by any Treaty or League for whil'st they are capable of doing hurt the lawfulness still remains and being the original right of Nature cannot be extinguished But the wisest and most Learned who have wrote of the Law of Nature and of Nations abominate this Proposition and the incomparable Grotius saies De Iure B. P. lib. 2. cap. 1. part 17. Illud minime ferendum est quod quidam tradiderunt jure gentium arma recte sumi ad imminuendam potentiam crescentem quae nimium aucta nocere potest It may be a motive when there is other just cause in prudence towards the War but that it gives a title in Justice ab omni aequitatis ratione abhorret And he saies in another place cap. 22. part 5. that it must constare non tantum de potentia sed de animo quidem ita constare ut certum id sit ea certudine quae in morali materia locum habet And yet from this erroneous Proposition and because in pag. 165. War the Sword judgeth not nor doth the victor make distinction of nocent and innocent nor hath other respect of mercy then as it conduceth to the good of his own People he makes no scruple to tell Cromwell That as to those who deliberately deny his Autority for the Autority of the Common-wealth established could have no other signification the vengeance is lawfully extended not only to the Fathers but also to thâ— third and fourth generations not yet in being and consequently innocent of the fact for which they are afflicted because they that so offend suffer not as Subjects but as Enemies towards whom the Victor may proceed as he thinks fit and best for himself After the giving which advice it was a marvellous confidence that introduc'd him into the Kings presence and encourag'd him still to expect that his Doctrine should be allow'd to be industriously taught and believed If Mr. Hobbes were condemn'd to depart out of the dominion of the Common-wealth as many men believe he might with great Justice be and so become an exil'd person he would be a more competent Judg to determine whether Banishment be a punishment or rather an escape or a public command to avoid punishment by flight and he would probably then be of opinion that the mere change of air is a very great punishment And if he remembers his own Definition pag. 108. That a free man is he that in those things which by his strength and wit he is able to do is not hindred to do what he hath a will to he would believe that the taking that freedom from him and the restraining that liberty is a very severe punishment whether justly or unjustly inflicted and is in no degree mitigated by his declaring pag. 165. that a banish'd man is a lawful enemy of the Common wealth that banished him as being no more a member of the same and then he may be lawfully prosecuted as well in and after he hath undergon the punishment of Banishment as he was before but the duty that a banish'd Person still ow's to his Country and to the Soveraign of it is set down before But the truth is he hath very powerfully extinguish'd all those differences and priviledges which all Writers of the Ius gentium have carefully preserv'd between a just and unjâ—st War between lawful Enemies and the worst Rebels and Traitors and hath put the last into a better condition then the former by making them liable only to those pains and forfeiture which the Law hath literally provided for them and which in some cases preserves their Estates for their Families whereas the lawful Enemy even after quarter given remains at the mercy of the Victor who may take his life and inflict any other punishment upon him arbitrarily and
Sacred Clergy with a mere secular profane force and therefore thought how they might lessen and divide their own troublesome Clergy by a conjunction with some religious and Ecclesiastical combination The Bishops of Rome of that age had a very great name and autority in France where there being many Soveraign Princes then reigning together he exercis'd a notable Jurisdiction under the Style of Vicar of Christ. The Kings in England by degrees unwarily applied themselves to this spiritual Magistrate and that he might assist them to suppress a power that was inconvenient to them at home they suffer'd him to exercise an autority that proved afterwards very mischievous to themselves and for which they had never made pretence before and which was then heartily opposed by the Universities and by the whole Clergy till it was impos'd upon them by the King So that it was not the Universities and Clergy that introduc'd the Popes autority to shâ—ke and weaken that of the King but it was the King who introduc'd that power to strengthen as he thought his own howsoever it fell out And if the precedent Kings had not call'd upon the Pope and given him autority to assist them against some of their own Bishops Alexander the Third could never have pretended to exercise so wild a jurisdiction over Henry the Second nor he ever have submitted to so infamous a subordination nor could the Pope have undertaken to assist Beckett against the King if the King had not first appeal'd to him for help against Beckett For the better manifestation of that point which Mr. Hobbes his speculation and Geometry hath not yet made an enquiry into it will not be amiss to take a short Survey of the Precedent times by which it will be evident how little influence the Popes autority had upon the Crown or Clergy or Universities of England and how little ground he hath for that fancy from whence soever he took it pag. 168. that William the Conquerour at his reception had dispens'd with the subjection of the Ecclesiastics by the Oaâ—h he took not to infringe the liberty of the Church whereas they who know any thing of that time know that the Oath he took was the same and without any alteration that all the former Kings since the Crown rested upon a single head had taken which was at his Coronation after the Bishops and the Barons had taken their Oath to be his true and faithful Subjects The Arch-Bishop who crown'd him presented that Oath to him which he was to take himself which he willingly did to defend the Holy Church of God and the Rectors of the same To govern the universal people subject to him justly To establish equal Laws and to see them justly executed Nor was he more wary in any thing then as hath bin said before that the people might imagine that he pretended any other title to the Government then by the Confessor tho it is true that he did by degrees introduce many of the Norman Customes which were found very useful or convenient and agreeable enough if not the same with what had bin formerly practis'd And the common reproch of the Laws being from time to time put into French carries no weight with it for there was before that time so rude a collection of the Laws and in Languages as foreign to that of the Nation British Saxon Danish and Latine almost as unintelligible as either of the other that if they had bin all digested into the English that was then spoken we should very little better have understood it then we do the French in which the Laws were afterwards render'd and it is no wonder since a reduction into Order was necessary that the King who was to look to the execution took care to have them in that Language which himself best understood and from whence issued no inconvenience the former remaining still in the Language in which they had bin written Before the time of William the First there was no pretence of jurisdiction from Rome over the Clergy and the Church of England tho the infant Christianity of some of the Kings and Princes had made some journies thither upon the fame of the Sanctity of many of the Bishops who had bin the most eminent Martyrs for the Christian Faith and when it may be they could with more ease and security make a journy thither then they could have don to any other Bishop of great notoriety out of their own Country for Christianity was not in those times come much neerer England then Dauphine Provence and Languedoc in France and those Provinces had left their bountiful testimonies of their devotion which grew afterwards to be exercis'd with the same piety in Pilgrimages first and then expeditions to the Holy Land without any other purpose of transferring a Superiority over the English Nation to Rome then to Ierusalem And after the arrival of Austin the Monk and his Companions who were sent by Pope Gregory and who never enjoy'd any thing in England but by the donation of the Kings the British Clergy grew so jealous of their pretences that tho the Nation was exceedingly corrupted by the person and the doctrine of Pelâ—gius which had bin spred full two hundred years before Austin came the reformation and suppression of that Heresy was much retarded by those mens extolling or mentioning the Popes autority which the Brittish Bishops were so far from acknowledging that they would neither meet with them nor submit to any thing that was propos'd by them and declar'd very much against the pride and insolence of Austin for assuming any autority and because when any of them came to him he would not so much as rise to receive them I can hardly contain my self from enlarging upon this subject at this time but that it will â—eem to many to be foreign to the argument now in debate and Mr. Hobbes hath little resignation to the autority of matter of fact by which when he is pressed he hath an answer ready that if it were so or not so it should have bin otherwise I shall therefore only restrain my discourse to the time of William the Conqueror and when I have better inform'd him of the State of the Clergy and Universities of that time I shall give him the best satisfaction I can to the instance of Thomas of Beckett in which both the Clergy and the Universities will be easily absolv'd from the guilt of adhering to the Pope When William found himself in possession of England whatever application he had formerly made to the Pope who was then in France and as some say had receiv'd from him a consecrated Banner with some other relique beside one single hair of St Peter for the better success of his expedition he was so far from discovering any notable respect towards him that he expresly forbad all his Subjects from acknowledging any man to be Pope but him whom he declar'd to be so And there was a President
judgment of all Lawyers were excluded and all establish'd Laws contradicted so we may well look for a worse of Christian Politics when the advice of all Divines is positively protested against and new notions of Divinity introduc'd as rules to restrain our conceptions and to regulate our understandings And as he hath not deceiv'd us in the former he will as little disappoint us in the latter But having taken a brief survey of the dangerous opinions and determinations in Mr. Hobbes his two first parts of his Leviathan concerning the constitution nature and right of Soveraigns and concerning the duty of Subjects which he confesses contains doctrine very different from the practice of the greatest part of the world and therefore ought to be watched with the more jealousy for the novelty of it I shall not now accompany him through his remaining two parts in the same method by taking a view of his presumtion in the interpretation of several places of Scripture and making very unnatural deductions from thence to the lessening the dignity of Scripture and to the reproch of the highest actions don by the greatest Persons by the immediate command of God himself For if those marks and conditions which he makes necessary to a true Prophet and without which he ought not to be believed were necessary Moses was no true Prophet nor had the Children of Israel any reason to believe and follow him when he would carry them out of Egypt for he concludes from the thirteenth Chapter of Deuâ—eronomy and the five first verses thereof pag. 197. that God will not have Miracles alone serve for Argument to prove the Prophets calling for the works of the Egyptian Sorcerers tho not so great as those of Moses yet were great Miracles and that how great soever the Miracles are yet if the intent be to stir up revolt against the King or him that governeth by the Kings Autority he that doth such Miracles is not to be consider'd otherwise then as sent to make trial of their Allegiance for he saies those words in the text revolt from the Lord your God are in this place equivalent to revolt from the King for they had made God their King by pact at the foot of Mount Sinaâ— whereas Moses had no other credit with the People but by the Miracles which he wrought in their presence and in their sight and that which he did perswade them to was to revolt and withdraw themselves from the obedience of Pharaoh who was during their abode in Egypt the only King they knew and acknowledged So that in Mr. Hobbes's judgment the People might very well have refused to believe him and all those Prophets afterwards who prophesied against several of the Kings ought to have bin put to death and the Argumentation against the Prophet Ieremy was very well founded when the Princes said unto the King Ier. 38. 4. We beseech thee let this man be put to death for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war when he declar'd that the City should surely be given into the hands of the King of Babylon But Mr. Hobbes is much concern'd to weaken the credit of Prophets and of all who succeed in their places and he makes great use of that Prophets being deceiv'd by the old Prophet in the first of Kings when he was seduced to eat and drink with him Whereas he might have known that that Prophet was not so much deceiv'd by an other as by his own willfulness in closing with the temtation of refreshing himself by eating and drinking chusing rather to believe any man of what quality soever against the express command that he had received from God himself What his design was to make so unnecessary an enquiry into the Authors of the several parts of Scripture and the time when they were written and his more unnecessary inference that Moses was not the Author of the five Books which the Christian World generally believe to be written by him tho the time of his death might be added afterwards very warrantably and the like presumtion upon the other Books he best knows but he cannot wonder that many men who observe the novelty and positiveness of his assertions do suspect that he found it necessary to his purpose first to lessen the reverence that was accustom'd to be paid to the Scriptures themselves and the autority thereof before he could hope to have his interpretation of them hearken'd unto and received and in order to that to allow them no other autority but what they receive from the Declaration of the King so that in every Kingdom there may be several and contrary Books of Scripture which their Subjects must not look upon as Scripture but as the Soveraign power declares it to be so which is to shake or rather overthrow all the reverence and submission which we pay unto it as the undoubted word of God and to put it in the same scale with the Alcoran which hath as much autority by the stamp which the Grand Signior puts upon it in all his Dominion and all the differences and Controversies which have grown between the several Sects of Mahometans which are no fewer in number nor prosecuted with less animosity between them then the disputes between Christians in matter of Religion have all proceeded from the several glosses upon and readings of the Alcoran which are prescribed or tolerated by the several Princes in their respective Dominions they all paying the same submission and reverence to Mahomet but differing much in what he hath said and directed and by this means the Grand Signior and the Persian and the petty Princes under them have run into those Schisms which have given Christianity much ease and quiet This is a degree of impiety Mr. Hobbes was not arrived at when he first published his Book de Cive where tho he allowed his Soveraign power to give what Religion it thought fit to its Subjects he thought it necessary to provide it should be Christiaâ—â— which was a caution too modest for his Leviathan Nor can it be preserved when the Scriptures from whence Christianity can only be prov'd and taught to the people are to depend only for the validity 〈◊〉 upon the will understanding and autority of the Prince which with all possible submission reverence and resignation to that Earthly power and which I do with all my heart acknowledg to be instituted by God himself for the good of mankind hath much greater dignity in it self and more reverence due to it then it can receive from the united Testimony and Declaration of all the Kings and Princes of the World With this bold Prologue of the uncertain Canon of Scripture he takes upon him as the foundation of his true ratiocination pag. 207. to determine out of the Bible the meaning of such words as by their ambiguity may he saies render what he is to infer upon them obscure and disputable And with this licence he presumes to give such unnatural
the same power and autority over their Subjects that Abraham had over his Family which we do not find to exceed the number of three hundred and eighteen men and that all Subjects are bound to obey the dictates of their Soveraigns with the same resignation and submission as the Children of Israel were oblig'd to submit to the commands of Moses however it seems to have no Logical consequence in it that because God spake only to Abraham and not to his Family therefore his Family was to receive Gods commands only from him Yet Mr. Hobbes might have remembred that God did appear likewise to Hagar one of Abrahams Family even after he had expos'd her to the unjust severity of his Wife and communicated his pleasure to her and inform'd her of many particulars which he imparted not to Abraham however I say the instance of Abraham is no Argument that all Subjects who have no supernatural Revelation to the contrary ought to obey the orders of their own Soveraigns in the external acts and profession of Religion except it were as evident that God hath spoken to those Soveraigns as it is confessed that he spake to Abraham And there was in those daies no other way for men to know the immediate pleasure of God what they were or were not to do but by his Communication to some person who had credit to be believed Whereas from the time that God hath manifested his pleasure to all men in his Scripture what will please and displease him and intrusted Princes to advance his Service and provide for his Worship according to the rules which he hath likewise prescrib'd to them he hath discontinued that immediate Communication Nor doth any Prince pretend to that conversation with God as Abraham and Moses had who did not interpret but relate and report what God would or would not have don from himself And the Salvo which he provide sâ—or the Implicite Faith which he prescribes by a mental reservation is so destructive to common honesty that it is not only unworthy of a Christian but of a moral man who desires to live with any credit amongst men which we shall be obliged to enlarge upon in another place where he more confidently calls for it and therefore shall decline it here And God be thanked no Christian Prince doth himself believe or wishes that his Subjects should believe that he is in Abrahams place to be the sole Interpreter of what God hath spoken Mr. Hobbes is so much addicted to the sole obligation of Contracts and Covenants that he will hardly allow God himself to have a title to our obedience but by virtue of some Contract on his part and Covenant on ours which that he may the better make good he assumes a Jurisdiction to himself to give what signification and interpretation he pleases to words whether they have bin generally understood to signifie so or no without which he would not have determin'd that pag. 250. Moses had no autority to command the children of Israel nor they any obligation to obey him until in the terror of the thundring and lightning and the noise of the Trumpet and the smoaking of the mountain they said unto Moses Exod. 20. 28. Speak thou with us and we will hear but let not God speak with us least we die by which he saies pag. 251. they obliged themselves to obey whatsoever he should deliver unto them for the commandment of God whereas the most that can be drawn from that engagement is that they would hear and receive what he should say Notwithstanding which it doth not appear that they paid more obedience to Moses after this profession of theirs then they had don before nor can it be imagin'd that the promise to Moses was more binding then all former obligations to God And surely he who assumes this licence of Interpreting is much to blame if he doth not make many places in Scripture to signifie what conduces to his purpose and he may from Moses having leave to go up into the Mount declare not only that the Scriptures are the Mount and therefore that the Soveraign only may interpret them but that they may not be look'd into which would increase the Prerogative and is as near the signification and intention of the Text as what he gives to it But then how Mr. Hobbes will excuse himself for violating his own Doctrine which concludes that pag. 252. no man ought in the inteâ—pretation of Scripture to proceed farther then the bounds which are set by his Soveraign I cannot imagine except he hath refuge to Cromwell whom he did then acknowledge to be his Soveraign And indeed it was of no small advantage to him that all Persons under him by what Oaths or Obligations soever they were bound to administer Justice to the people according to the known Rules of Law and equity should understand themselves to be in the same capacity that the Seventy were to Moses to whom God took of the Spirit that was upon Moses Num. 11. 25. and gave it to them the sense of which place he saies is no other pag. 252. as he hath formerly declar'd that spirit signifies mind then that God endued them with a mind conformable and subordinate to that of Moses that they might prophesy speak to the people in Gods name in such manner as to set forward such doctrine as was agreeable to Moses ' s doctrine And in truth so absolute an autority in all spiritual matters as high as it is is not more then is absolutely necessary to support his other power in the temporal He administers occasion enough in this Chapter to induce me to repete what hath already bin said upon the Covenant made by Abraham which is a principal corner stone upon which he still persists to erect his building which I shall forbear to do persuming the Reader will not forget it only I must observe the activity and restlessness of Mr. Hobbes his fancy and that as the first mention of the Covenant and Contract as to the end for which he formed it was a pure dream of his own so he adds to it and makes it larger as new matter occurs to him that requires such a supply As in the beginning of this Chapter that he might make the Soveraignty of Abraham to appear the more unquestionable he saies that pag. 249. by his Covenant he obliged himself and his seed after him to acknowledg and obey the Commands of God not only such as he could take notice of as moral Lawes by the Laws of Nature but also such as God should in special manner deliver to him by dreams and visions of which before he makes no mention tho he mention'd more then he had autority for for he saies pag. 249. that no contract could add to or strengthen the obligation by which both they and all men else were bound naturally to obey God Almighty and therefore the Covenant that Abraham made with God was to take for
partly wrought our conversion and partly wâ—rketh nâ—w by his Ministers and will continue to work till his coming again And it is very ill Logic to say that because they cannot mis-interpret and pervert Scripture nor preach Rebellion against their natural Soveraign since Christ hath commanded subjection and obedience to them they have therefore no autority to preach at all or interpret the Scripture but must publish whatsoever the King bids them in the Name and as the Commands of God yet even that and all he hath or can say may be true if the cases of Conscience which he hath taken upon him to determine have any dependance upon or affinity with the Christian Faith or common honesty What if the office of Christs Ministers in this World is to make men believe and have Faith in Christ and that they have no power by that title to punish men for not believing or for contradicting what they say doth that defect of power of compulsion abolish that power which he hath given them of instructing and preaching and using the Keys As Christ hath trusted them to do and qualified them with peculiar circumstances to perform those Offices so he hath trusted Soveraign Princes to assist them whil'st they perform their office with integrity or to punish them if they do not with their power of compulsion that their labors may be effectual And Princes are no less obliged to give them that assistance then they are to perform the office of the Apostles and Disciples nor can any Prince think his Soveraignty impair'd by being obliged to take care that the Laws and Precepts of God his Soveraign be punctually submitted to and that they to whom in special manner the publication thereof is committed be not only protected but obeied and reverenc'd whil'st they do their duty or â—urmise that the Word of God stands in need of or can receive any dignity or autority by any thing he can add to it by his Soveraign power God hath left and requir'd them to be Nursing Fathers to his Church and from the time of their being Christians hath communicated his Scripture to them which they have receiv'd and which they are equally bound to obey as their meanest Subject and if they are not good and faithful Nurses the miscarriage of the Children shall be imputed to them There is no cause of jealousie from the Soveraign towards his Subjects which Mr. Hobbes out of his constant good will desires to kindle for there is neither Bishop nor Priest who pretends to any Power or Jurisdiction inconsistent with the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical as well as Temporal matters No man can be made a Bishop but by his appointment and grant No man can be ordained a Priest but by him whom he hath nominated to be a Bishop And if either Bishop or Priest mis-behave themselves to that degree they shall by his autority be degraded and depriv'd and suffer as Lay-men are to do he being no less Soveraign over the Ecclesiastical Persons and Laws then over the Temporal and whoever so become liable are to blame and for ought I know have to answer for somthing besides the departing from their dignity In a word Prelates assume no title of Honor nor pretend to any Jurisdiction that they have not receiv'd from him and therefore deserve to be countenanc'd and supported by him amongst his best and most useful Subjects He is not concern'd if the King forbids him to believe in Christ it is a command of no effect because belief and understanding never follow mens commands but if the King commands him to say that he believes not in Christ he is very ready to obey him pag. 271. Profession with the tongue is but an external thing wherein a Christian holding firmly in his heart the Faith of Christ hath the same liberty which the Prophet Elisha allowed to Naaman the Syrian He would be very much disappointed in the support of his monstrous Impiety if that Text ought to be rendred out of the Original as Dr Lightfoot a man eminently learned in the Hebrew positively saies at ought to be For this thing the Lord pardon thy servant for that when my Master hath gon into the house of Rimmon to worship there and he hath leaned upon my hand that I have also bowed my self in the house of Rimmon for my worshipping in the house of Rimmon the Lord pardon thy servant for tâ—is thing 2 Kings 5. 18. So that he craved pardon for Idolatry past and not begged leave to be Idolatrous for the time to come But admitting the Text to be according to the common Translation it can do Mr. Hobbes no good except he procures the same leave from another who hath as much autority as Elisha had Who doth not know that none of those Examples which were either enjoin'd or permitted to be don by the Divine Autority for some extraordinary end of Providence are for our imitation when they are opposite to the truth and justice and integrity of Gods Precepts He may as well justifie the breach of Faith and down-right Theft and Robbery in his Neighbors by the example of the Israelites borrowing the Jewels and other Goods of the Egyptians or the assassination of an Enemy by the example of Ehuds stabbing of Eglon and many other unwarrantable actions by the example of good men directed by the Spirit of God in the Scripture as maintain his own impiety by the example or permission if there were any of Naaman But if Mr. Hobbes be gratified by not urging the impiety nor the denunciation which St. Iohn pronounced upon him He is Anti-Christ that denieth the Father and the Son 1 John 2. 22. How will he justifie the prevarication and falseness in saying he doth not believe that which in his heart he dâ—th believe Ye shall not deal falsly neither lie one to another was a part of the Levitical Law and by Mr. Hobbes rules a part of the Law of Nature and so must not be violated nor can be controul'd by God himself He knows very well who is the Father of lies tho it may be he doth not enough consider what portion is allotted for his children And if they who said they were Iews and were not but did lie were pronounc'd by St. Iohn to be of the Synagogue of Satan Rev. 3. 9. There is very great danger that he who is a Christian in his heart upon any Kings commands shall profess with his Tongue that he doth not believe in Christ will not be admitted by our Saviour to be of his Church In vain hath the whole current of Scripture endeavor'd to raise such an awful reverence for truth that it hath scarce pronounced more severe Judgments against any Species of sins then against lying He that telleth lies shall not stay in my sight saies the Spirit of God by the Psalmist Psal. 101. 7. He that speaketh lies shall perish saies the same Spirit in the Proverbs Prov. 19. 9. Let him
what must be don to him and that all that was don and suffered by him which was fore told His admirable Life and Doctrine was well known to them all they had bin present at his trial and at his death and had with their eies seen the terrible circumstances of it they had seen him buried and the Jews had providently appointed a guard of Soldier who had without remorse beheld his Passion to watch his Tomb and yet after all this vigilance the Body was not found but as he had promised himself and what had bin by the Prophets fore-told of him the third day he was risen of which there were so many eie-witnesses who had seen and conferr'd with him for many daies and had at last beheld with their bodily eies his Body ascend in the air towards Heaven And besides that the greatest part of all this was seen and known by all the People the Preachers and Declarers of it appear'd to be very extraordinary men by the daily Mâ—racles they wrought by which such multitudes were compell'd could not reâ—ist believing all they said and promis'd to observe the Precepts they enjoin'd But all this is nothing others and much greater numbers did and lawfully might refuse to do either for Mr. Hobbes saies positively pag. 281. that the people had liberty to interpret the Scriptures to themselves till such time as there should be Pastors that could autorize an Interpreter whose interpretation should be geneâ—ally stood to but that could not be till Kings were Pastors or Pastors Kings So that what the Apostles or our Saviour himself had said laid no obligation upon those who heard them We have now the reason why he was concern'd so much to extend those plain words of the Children of Israel in their fright to Moses Speak thou to us and we will hear thâ—e to such an absolute obligation of their obedience since without it he saies pag. 283. they had not bin obliged to have receiv'd the ten Commandments since they were forbid to approach the mountain by which they might have heard what God said to Moses but that obligation that they would hear Moses made all sure again and so they came to receive them Yet he confesses pag. 282. that they could not but acknowledg the second Table for Gods Laws because they were all the Laws of Nature but for those of the first Table that were peculiar to the Israelites which gives him occasion to enlarge his Commentary upon the third Commandment in which he saies the meaning of those words They shall not take the name of God in vain is that they should not speak rashly of their King nor dâ—spute his râ—ght nor the Commissions of Moles and Aaron his Lieutenants it was their own obligation Speak thou to us and we will hear c. by which they were to receive them as Laws and pag. 283. the Iudicial Law which Godprescrib'd to the Magistrates of Israel for the rule of the administration of Iustice and the Levitical Law the rule prescrib'd touching the rites and ceremonies of the Priests and Leviâ—es because Laws he saies only by virtue of the same promise of obâ—dience to Moses And so he proceeds to a new enquiâ—y into the authenticalness of the Old and New Testament in which chase I am weary of following him and concludes pag. 284. that whoever offers us any other rules which the Soveraign rule hath not prâ—scrâ—b'd they are but counsel and advice which whether good or bad he that is counsel'd may without injustice refuse to observe And pag. 285. that the Scripture of the New Testament is there only Law where the lawful Civil Powâ—r hath made it so Since the reception of the New Testament as a Law that is within the Canon of Scripture depends wholly upon the word of the Soveraign and by that word is receiv'd and acknowledg'd to be the word of God and from thence is obeied as such it must likewise by his rule still subsist by the sole autority of the Soveraign for he can by his word to morrow abrogate that which this day he made a Law So that if a Christian Soveraign be succeeded by a Soveraign who is a Jew or an evil Christian he may abrogate that Law by which the New Testament was declar'd to be within the Canon of Scripture and then the Subjects must neither pag. 285. in their actions or discourse observe the same and can only privatly wish that they had liberty to practice them by which the confessed word of God must be made void and controul'd by the commandments of man And he hath the confidence to aver that the very Council held by the Apostles in which they use this style It seem'd good to the Holy Ghost and to us c. hath no autority to oblige any body pag. 286. since the Apostles could have no other power then that of our Saviour who could only perswade not command for they who have no Kingdom can make no Laws And so I hope Leviathan hath now laid about him and perform'd his full function which makes him worthy to receive a more reasonable answer then is in the power of any private Person or of the Universities to give him and is very fit for the State it self to reward him for to the full extent of his desert Mr. Hobbes hath invested the Soveraign with his absolute independent power by the example of Moses and David and Solomon both in Church and State and being obliged to confess that for some hundred of years after the preaching of the Gospelâ— there was no Civil Soveraign to meddle with it but that the direction of all Ecclesiastical Affairs appertain'd to the Apostles and their successors and those who were ordain'd by them he finds a way to invest his Christian Monarch with that Jurisdiction and Supremacy by the right all Heathen Soveraigns had who had the name of Pastors of the People because there was no Subject that could lawfully teach the People but by their permission and autority and that no body can think that the right of Heathen Kings is taken away by their conversion to the Faith of Christ who never ordain'd that Kings for believing in him should be deposed that is subjected to any but himself And therefore Christian Princes are still the supreme Pastors of their People and have power to ordain what Pastors they please to teach the Church But to make their title the more unquestionable he resorts to the title he found out for his Soveraign by institution that from the paâ—t and covenant which the people made to and with each other he becomes the Representative of the people which he confesses that he that makes himself Soveraign by his irresistible Power without any election pact or covenant likewise is the Representative of the people and so hath the same power and authority as if he were by their election He finds now that the Christian Soveraign assoon as he is Christian becomes the
Representative of the Church and so the Teachers he elects are elected by the Church which was all the title they had from the time of the Apostles to the time of the Soveraigns becoming Christian from which time he is the true Representative of the Church as well as of the State pag. 299. and from this consolidation of the right Politic and Ecclesiastic in Christian Soveraigns he saies it is evident that they have all manner of power over their Subjects that can be given to man and may make such Laws as themselves shall judg fittest for the government of their own Subjects both as they are the Common-wealth and as they are the Church But as his Civil Soveraign rejects his Institution and knows he hath much a better title to his power then he could have by pretending to be the Representative of the People so his Christian Soveraign will as much reject the being Representative of the Church knowing that he hath a better title by being Soveraign to govern his Clery and all Ecclesiastical persons in his own Dominions and for suppressing all seditious and erroneous Doctrines which may disturb the Peace or discredit the Integrity of the Church then such a Representation would give him And they are little beholding to him for deriving their Supremacy Ecclesiastical from the Heathen Princes since few Heathen Soveraigns ever pretended to have the supreme or indeed any power or autority in what concern'd the service and worship of their God the direction and government whereof appertain'd to Magistrates and Ministers assigned for that Sacred Province as the Great Turk himself as hath bin said before doth not give Laws but receives advice and the interpretation of the Mufty in whatsoever Mahomet hath enjoin'd to be don But let the title be what it will he will be sure that his Soveraign shall have a power as unlimitted in all Ecclesiastical affairs as in Civil and not only to give what Religion he thinks fit and to allow what Book he pleases for Scripture to his Subjects but that he may himself if he pleases perform all the Functions himself in Religion pag. 287. as to baptize administer the Sacrament of the Lords Supper consecrate Temples and Pastors to Gods service And he saies the reason is evident why they do it not which is no other but that they have somwhat else to do However he is sure they may be literal Pastors of their own Subjects in their own persons and have autority to Preach to Baptize to administer the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and to consecrate both Temples and Persons to Gods service which he doth not grant out of the high qualifications which he believes to be inherent in the power and person of a King but from the low esteem he hath of those Offices and Mysteries of Religion For fore-seeing the objection that those administrations by the testimony of all Antiquity require the imposition of such mens hands as by the like imposition successively from the time of the Apostles have bin ordain'd to the like Ministry he removes that difficulty by offering a prospect of the original and use of the Imposition of Hands and instructs us from the perpetual custom and usage in all Nations of Imposition of Hands as well in Civil as in Sacred occasions as well in inflicting punishment as in conferring Honors and Dignities as in the condemnation of him who blasphemes the Lord all that heard him shall lay their hands upon his head and that all the Congregation should stone him And when Iairus his daughter was sick he did not desire our Saviour to heal her but to lay his hands upon her that she might be healed And they brought little Children up to him that he might lay his hands upon them c. And the reason is he saies pag. 298. as in the case of the Blasphemer where the witnesses laid their hands upon the guilty persons rather then a Priest or Levite or other Minister of Iustice because none else were able to design or demonstrate to the eies of the Congregation who it was that had blasphemed and ought to die so in other things it is natural to design any individual thing rather by the hand to assure the eies then by words to inform the ear in matters of Gods public service All which and many other Texts of which he never finds want to any purpose must signifie if they signifie any thing that the Imposition of hands that venerable circumstance that hath bin from the beginning of Christianity and where ever it is professed applied to all Ecclesiastical Functions is to no other purpose but to point out the person that all the people may know who is the person that is ordained but the person of every Soveraign Prince is too notorious and perspicuous to need any such demonstration and therefore he may Baptize Preach and Consecrate and do all other Offices without it To all which I shall suspend any farther answer until he can prevail with one Christian Prince to assume and exercise the power he so frankly confers upon him or one Christian Subject willing to receive those Honors and Graces from their Royal Hands I have waited upon Mr. Hobbes into Cardinal Bellarmine's Quarters and I will not interpose and disturb him there in the Controversie he hath with him which takes up the remainder of his forty second Chapter more then to say that he takes upon him to answer that Book of Bellarmine which of all that ever he writ is most easie to be answer'd having less of Reason and Learning in it and having few Assertors and being generally condemn'd among the Papists themselves and particularly by the Colledg of Sorbone the fairest Representers of the Doctrine of the Church of Rome and in answering of which he hath said nothing new nor so substantially as many others have don as he must confess if he reads William Berkeley the Father of Iohn He contends with â—ellarmineâ—or â—or some Texts of Scripture which he saies conclude for his Soveraign upon which the other would establish the supreme autority of the Pope and which in truth cannot be applied with any colour to either of them And he cannot take it ill that I have and shall take the same method in answering many of his Arguments which he himself thought fit to do before he would enter upon any particular disquisition of those of the Cardinals by laying open the consequences of his Doctrine pag. 314. that Princes and States that have the Civil Soveraignty in their several Common-wealths may bethink themselves whether it be convenient for them and conducing to the good of their Subjects of whom they are to give an account at the day of Iudgment to admit the same which way of exposing his whole Book is without doubt the best way of answering it I shall only add that as it was unreasonably undertaken by Bellarmine to establish a title that depends upon matter of Fact by arguments from
in Religion which lie scatter'd through those other two parts that men may take a view of the consequences and bethink themselves whether Christianity be advanc'd and consequently whether the peace and happiness of mankind be provided for and secured by such Doctrines 1. Those Books of Scripture only are Canonical and ought to be looked upon as the word of God in every Nation which are established for such by the Soveraign autority of each Nation pag. 199. 2. None can know that the Scriptures are Gods word tho all true Christians believe it but they to whom God himself â—ath revealed it supernaturally pag. 205. 3. Men ought to consider who hath next under God the autority of governing Christian men and to observe for a rule that Doctrine which he commandeth to be taught that is all Subjects ought to profess that Religion which the Soveraign enjoines whether he be Christian or Heathen pag. 232. 4. By the Kingdom of Heaven is meant the Kingdom of the King that dwelleth in Heaven and that the Kingdom of God is to be on Earth pag. 240 241. 5. The immortal life beginneth not in man till the Resurrection and day of Iudgment and hath for cause not his specifical nature and generation but promise pag. 241. 6. Gods Enemies and their torments after Iudgment appear by the Scripture to have their places upon Earth pag. 242. The fire shall be unquenchable and the torments everlasting after the Resurrection But it cannot therefore be inferr'd that he who shall be cast into that fire or be tormented with those torments shall endure and resist them so as to be eternally burned and tortured and yet never be destroied or die pag. 245. 7. There shall be a second death of every one that shall be condemn'd at the day of judgment after which he shall die no more The Scriptures affirm not that there shall be an eternal life therein of any individual person but to the contrary an everlasting Death pag. 245. 8. The Salvation we are to look for is to be upon the Earth For since Gods Throne is in Heaven and the Earth is his Footstool it is not for the dignity of so great a King that his Subjects should have any place so high as his Throne or higher then his Foot-stool pag. 247. 9. If we be commanded by our lawful Prince to say we do not believe in Christ we may obey such his command pag. 271. 10. None can be Martyrs for Christ but they that conversed with him on Earth and saw him after he was risen for a witness must have seen what he testifieth or else his testimony is not good pag. 272. 11. None can be a Martyr who hath not a warrant to preach Christ come in the Flesh and none but such who are sent to the conversion of Infidels pag. 273. 12. To teach out of the old Testament that Iesus was Christ and risen from the Dead is not to say that men are bound after they believe it to obey those who tell them so against the Laws and commands of their Soveraigns but they do wisely to expect the coming of Christ hereafter in patience and faith with obedience to their present Magistrates pag. 274. 13. The autority of Earthly Soveraigns being not to be put down till the day of Iudgment it is manifest we do not in Baptism constitute over us another autority by which our external actions are to be governed in this life pag. 274. 14. They who received not the Doctrine of Christ did not sin therein pag. 286. 15. Christian Kings have power to Baptize to Preach to administer the Lords Supper and to Consecrate both Temples and Persons to Gods service c. 297. 16. No man shall live in torments everlastingly pag. 345. 17. To pray voluntarily to the King for fair weather or for any thing that God only can do for us is divine worship and Idolatry but if a King compel a man to it by the terror of death or other great corporal punishment it is not Idolatry pag. 360. 17. If one being no Pastor or of eminent reputation for knowledg in Christian Doctrine do external honor to an Idol for fear and an other follow him this is no scandal given for he had no cause to follow such example pag. 362. And now I hope he hath made an ample Paraphrase upon Religion according to the definition he gâ—ve of it in the first entrance of his Leviathan when he defines pag. 26. Religion to be fâ—ar of power invisible feigned by the mind or imagined from tales publicly told and when the seed he sows for Religion to grow from or to consist in are opinion of ghosts ignorance of second causes devotion towards what men fear and taking things casual for Prognosticks These amongst others are the Doctrines of Mr. Hobbes in his two last parts which I believe in the judgment of most Christians are assoon renounc'd as pronounc'd and which indeed need little other confutation then the reciting them yet I doubt not many men will say how scandalous soever the assertions seem to be since he appeals to the Scripture and cites several Texts out of the same for the making good the worst of his Opinions it is pity that his ignorance or perverseness in those Interpretations had not bin made appear by manifesting that those places of Scripture could not admit that Interpretation and what the genuine sense thereof is Which consideration had bin more reasonable and necessary if these Errors had bin publish'd and those Glosses made and own'd by any National Church or any Body of Learned men but it may be thought too great a presumtion for a private man a stranger to Divinity to take upon him to put unnatural Interpretations upon several Texts of Scripture the better to apply them and make them subservient to his own corrupt purposes and opinions contrary to the whole current of Scripture and to the Doctrine thereof and without the least autority or shadow that the like Interpretation was ever made before by any other man I say such a person cannot reasonably expect that any body should too seriously examine all his frivolous and light suggestions and endeavor to vindicate those Texts from such impossible Interpretations Yet if any man thinks it worth his pains I am well content that he receive that honor and will still hope that Mr. Hobbes may be so well instructed in the true sense and end of the Scripture that he may better discern the eternity of the reward and punishment in the next World And so we conclude our discourse upon his Book and examine what he saies in his Conclusion The Review and Conclusion is only an abridgment and contracting the most contagious poison that runs through the Book into a less vessel or volume least they who will not take the pains to read the Book or reading it may by inadvertency and incogitancy not be hurt enough by it may here in less room and more nakedly
of the Soveraignty tho by Election pag. 98. is obliged by the Law of nature to provide by establishing his Successor to keep those that had trusted him with the Goveâ—â—ment from relapsing into the miserable condition of Civil War and consequently he was when elected a Soveraign absolute And then he declares positively contrary to the opinion of all the world that pag. 100. by the institution of Monarchy the disposing of the Successor is alwaies left to the judgment and the will of the present possessor and that if he declares expresly that such a man shall be his heir either by word or writing then is that man immediately after the decease of his predecessor invested in the right of being Monarch Mr. Hobbes was too modest a man to hope that his Leviathan would have power to perswade those of Poland to change their form of Government and what Denmark hath gotten by having don it since cannot in so short a time be determin'd or that the Emperor would dissolve and cancel the Golden Bull and invest his Posterity in the Empire in spight of the Electors or that the Papacy should be made Hereditary since Cesar Borgia was so long since dead and he had carried that spirit with him and therefore I must appeal to all dispassion'd men what Mr. Hobbes could have in his purpose in the year One thousand six hundred fifty one when this Book was printed but by this new Doctrine scarcely heard of till then to induce Cromwell to break all the Laws of his Country and to perpetuate their slavery under his Progeny in which he follow'd his advice to the utmost of his power tho his Doctrine proved false and most detested And tho Mr. Hobbes by his presence of mind and velocity of thought which had inabled him to fore-see the purpose of rebelling and taking the King Prisoner and delivering him up from that question proposed to him concerning the value of a Roman penny might at that time discern so little possibility of his own Soveraigns recovery that it might appear to him a kind of absurdity to wish it yet methinks his own natural fear of danger which made him fly out of France assoon as his Leviathan was publish'd and brought into that Kingdom should have terrified him from invading the right of all Hereditary Monarchies in the World by declaring that by the Law of Nature which is immutable it is in the power of the present Soveraign to dispose of the succession and to appoint who shall succed him in the Government and that the word Heir doth not of it self imply the Children or nearest Kindred of a man but whomsoever a man shall any way declare he would have succeed him contrary to the known right and establishment throughout the World and which would shake if not dissolve the Peace of all Kingdoms Nor is there any danger of the dissolution of a Common-wealth by the not nominating of a Successor since it is a known maxime in all Hereditary Monarchies That the King never dies because in the minute of the exspiration of the present his Heir succeeds him and is in the instant invested in all the dignities and preheminences of which the other had bin possessed and if there were no other error or false doctrine in the Leviathan as there are very many of a very pernicious nature that would be cause enough to suppress it in all Kingdoms The Survey of Chapter 20. IT is modestly don of Mr. Hobbes at last after so many Magisterial determinations of the institution of Soveraignty and the rights and autority of it and what is not it to confess that all these Discourses pag. 105. are only what he finds by speculation and deduction of Soveraign Rights from the nature need and designs of man in erecting of Common-wealths and putting themselves under Monarchs c. and therefore if he finds that all his speculation is positively contradicted by constant and uncontroverted practice he will believe that his speculation is not nor ought to be of autority enough to introduce new Laws and Rules of Government into the World And it is high time for the Soveraign Power to declare That it doth not approve those Doctrines which may lessen the affections and tenderness of Princes towards their Subjects and even their reverence to God himself if they thought that they could change Religion and suppress the Scripture it self and that their power over their Subjects is so absolute that they give them all that they do not take from them and that Property is but a word of no signification and lessens the duty and obedience of Subjects and makes them less love the constitution of the Government they live under which may prove so destructive to them if they have temtation from their passions or their appetite to exercise the autority they justly have It is fit therefore that all men know that these are only his speculations and not the claim of Soveraign Power It had bin to be wished that Mr. Hobbes had first taken the pains to have inform'd himself of the pâ—wer and autority exercised by Elective Princes over their Subjects and their submission rendred to them by their subjects before he had so positively determin'd that Elective Kings are not Soveraigns at least that he had given a better reason for his assertion He that hath supreme autority over all and against whom there is no Appeal may very justly and lawfully be called a Soveraign And if he would enquire into the autority of the Emperor in the proper Dominion of the Empire he would find that he hath as Soveraign a power as any Prince in Christendom claims and yet he is Elective And it is a more extravagant speculation to conclude That because the Electors have the absolute power to chuse the Emperor that the Soveraignty is in them before they chuse him and that they may keep it to themselves if they think good because none have a right to give that which they have no right to possess when it is known to all the World that the Electors have a right to chuse the Emperor and yet that till they have chosen him the Soveraignty is not in them nor that they can possess it them selves and chuse whether they will give it to another and that when they have chosen him he is a Soveraign Prince and superior to all those who have chosen him by all the marks of Soveraignty which are known in practice tho not possibly in speculation And he knows well there is another Soveraign Prince greater then the Emperor and almost as great as he would have his Soveraign to be in the extent of his power who is likewise Elâ—ctive and that is the Pope and that the Conclave cannot retain that Soveraignty to themselves but having by their Election conferr'd â—t upon him he is thereby become as absolute a Monarch as Mr. Hobbes can wish And truly if he would rectifie his speculations that is his
that God would inlarge him into the Tents of Shem and that Cham should be his servant to assure and confirm us that the Inundation which almost cover'd us of the Gothes and Vandals from Scythia and other Northern Nations whose original habitations we cannot to this day find were not of the Children of Cham which we might otherwise have suspected As Man-kind encreas'd and the age of man grew less so that they did not live to see so great a Progeny issue out of their own loins as formerly and their subjects growing less their kindred also grew at so great a distance that the account of their relations was not so easily or so carefully preserv'd hereby they who had the Soveraign Power exercis'd less of the Paternal Affection in their Government and look'd upon those they govern'd as their mere Subjects not as their Allies and by degrees according to the custom of exorbitant Power considering only the extent of their own Jurisdiction and what they might do they treated those who were under them not as Subjects but as slaves who having no right to any thing but what they gave them would allow them to possess nothing but what they had no mind to have themselves Estates they had none that they could call their own because when their Soveraign call'd for them they were his their persons were at his command when he had either occasion or appetite to use them and their Children inherited nothing but the subjection of their Parents so that they were happy or miserable as he who had the power and command over them exercised that power with more or less rigor or indulgence they submitting to both acknowledging the dominion to be naturally absolute and their subjection and obedience to be as natural Kings had not long delighted themselves with this exorbitant exercise of their power for tho the power had bin still the same the exercise of it had bin very moderate whilst there remain'd the tenderness or memory of any relation but they begun to discern according to their faculties of discerning as their parts were better or worse that the great strength they seem'd to be possess'd of must in a short time end in absoulte weakness and the plenty they seem'd to enjoy would become exceeding want and beggary that no man would build a House that his Children should not inherit nor cultivate Land with good husbandry and expence the fruit and profit whereof might be taken by another man that whilst their Subjects did not enjoy the convenience and delight of life they could not be sure of the affection and help of them when they should enter into a difference with one who is as absolute as themselves but they would rather chuse to be subject to him whose Subjeâ—ts liv'd with more satisfaction under him in a word that whilst they engross'd all power and all wealth into their own hands they should find none who would defend them in the possession of it and that there is great difference between the subjection that love and discretion paies and that which results only from fear and force and that despair puts an end to that duty which nature and it may be Conscience too would still perswade them to pay and to continue and therefore that it was necessary that the Subjects should find profit and comfort in obeying as well as Kings pleasure in commanding These wise and wholsom Reflexions prevail'd with Princes for their own benefit to restrain themselves to make their Power less absolute that it might be more useful to give their Subjects a property that should not be invaded but in such cases and with such and such circumstances and a liberty that should not be restrain'd but upon such terms as they could not but think reasonable And as they found the benefit to grow from those condescentions in the improvement of Civility and those additions of delight which makes Life and Government the more pleasant they inlarg'd the Graces and Concessions to their Subjects reserving all in themselves which they did not part with by their voluntary Grants and Promises And if we take a view of the several Kingdoms of the World we shall see another manner of beauty glory and lustre in those Governments where those condescentions concessions and contracts have bin most or best observ'd then in those Dominions where the Soveraigns retain to themselves all the Rights and Prerogatives which are invested in them by the original nature of Government upon which we shall inlarge hereafter This is the original and pedigree of Government equally different from that which the levelling fancy of some men would reduce their Soveraign to upon an imagination that Princes have no autority or power but what was originally given them by the People and that it cannot be presumed that they would give them so much as might be applied to their own destruction and from that which Mr. Hobbes hath instituted by framing formal Instruments by which an assembly of mankind which was never heard of nor can be conceiv'd practicable hath devolv'd from themselves into one man of their own choice an absolute Power by their own consent to exercise it in such a manner as to his pleasure is agreeable without the observation of the common rules of Justice or Sobriety whereas it cannot be imagin'd possible in nature that ever such an assembly of men of equal autority in themselves will ever agree to make one Man their Soveraign with such an absolute Jurisdiction over the rest as must devest them of all property as well as power for the future and whereas in truth all power was by God and Nature invested into one Man where still as much of it remains as he hath not parted with and shar'd with others for the good and benefit of those and the mutual security of both for whose benefit it was first intrusted to him the rest which is enough remains still in him and may be applied to the preservation of the whole against the fancies of those who think he hath nothing but what they have given him and likewise against those who believe that so much is given him that he hath power to leave no body else any thing to enjoy the last of which are no less enemies to Monarchy then the former I am very unwilling to enter into the lists with Mr. Hâ—bbes upon the interpretation of Scriptures which he handles as imperiously as he doth a Text of Aristotle putting such unnatural interpretation on the words as hath not before fallen into the thoughts of any other man and drawing very unnatural inferences from them insomuch as no man can think he is really in earnest when to prove that the Kings word is sufficient to take any thing from any Subject when there is need and that the King is Judg of that need he alledges the example of our Saviour who he saies as King of the Jews p. 106 commanded his Disciples to take the Asses Colt to
such constitution of his can be repeal'd and made void but in the same manner and with his consent But we say that he may prescribe or consent to such a method in the form and making these Laws that being once made by him he cannot but in the same form repeal or alter them and he is oblig'd by the Law of Justice to observe and perform this contract and he cannot break it or absolve himself from the observation of it without violation of justice and any farther obligation upon him then of justice I discourse not of For the better cleering of this to that kind of reason by which Mr. Hobbes is swai'd let us suppose this Soveraignty to reside and be fix'd in an assembly of men in which kind of Government it is possible to find more marks and foot-steps of such a deputing and assigning of interests as Mr. Hobbes is full of then we can possibly imagine in the original institution of Monarchy If the Soveraign power be deputed into the hands of fifteen and any vacant place to be suppli'd by the same Autority that made choice of the first fifteen may there not at that time of the election certain Rules be prescrib'd I do not say conditions for the better exercise of that Soveraign power and by the accepting the power thus explain'd doth not the Soveraign tho there should be no Oath administred for the observation thereof which is a circumstance admitted by most Monarchs tacitly covenant that he will observe those Rules and if he do's wilfully decline those Rules doth he not break the trust reposed in him I do not say forfeit the trust as if the Soveraignty were at an end but break that trust violate that justice he should observe If the Soveraign power of fifteen should raise an imposition for the defence of the Common-wealth if they should appoint this whole imposition to be paid only by those whose names are Thomas when Thomas was before in no more prejudice with the Common-wealth then any other appellation in Baptism may not this inequality be call'd a violation of Justice and a breach of trust since it cannot be suppos'd that such an irregular autority was ever committed to any man or men by any deputation Of the Prerogative of necessity to swerve from Rules prescrib'd or to violate Laws tho sworn to shall be spoken to in its due time It needs not be suppos'd but must be confess'd that the Laws of every Country contain more in them concerning the rights of the Soveraign and the common administration of Justice to the people then can be known to and understood by the person of the Soveraign and he can as well fight all his Battels with his own hand and sword as determine all causes of right by his own tongue and understanding The consequence of any confusion which Mr. Hobbes can suppose would not be more pernicious then that which would follow the blowing away all these maxims of the Law if the Kings breath were strong enough to do it It is a maxim in the Law as is said before that the eldest Son shall inherit and that if three or four Females are heirs the inheritance shall be equally divided between them Doth Mr. Hobbes believe that the word of the King hath power to change this course and to appoint that all the Sons shall divide the Estate and the Eldest Daughter inherit alone and must not all the confusion imaginable attend such a mutation All Governments subsist and are establish'd by firmness and constancy by every mans knowing what is his right to enjoy and what is his duty to do and it is a wonderful method to make this Government more perfect and more durable by introducing such an incertainty that no man shall know what he is to do nor what he is to suffer but that he who is Soveraign to morrow may cancel and dissolve all that was don or consented to by the Soveraign who was yesterday or by himself as often as he changes his mind It is the Kings Office to cause his Laws to be executed and to compel his Subjects to yield obedience to them and in order thereunto to make choice of Learned Judges to interpret those Laws and to declare the intention of them who pag. 140 by an artificial perfection of reason gotten by long study and experience in the Law must be understood to be more competent for that determination then Mr. Hobbes can be for the alteration of Law and Government by the artificial reason he hath attain'd to by long study of Arithmetic and Geometry No Eminent Lawyer hath ever said that the two Arms of a Common-wealth are Force and Justice the first whereof is in the King the other deposited in the hands of the Parliament but all Lawyers know that they are equally deposited in the hands of the King and that all justice is administred by him and in his name and all men acknowledg that all the Laws are his Laws his consent and autority only giving the power and name of a Law what concurrence or formality soever hath contributed towards it the question only is whether he can repeal or vacate such a Law without the same concurrence and formality And methinks the instance he makes of a Princes pag. 139. subduing another people and consenting that they shall live and be govern'd according to those Laws under which they were born and by which they were formerly govern'd should manifest to him the contrary For tho it be confess'd that those old Laws become new by this consent of his the Laws of the Legislator that is of that Soveraign who indulges the use of them yet he cannot say that he can by his word vacate and repeal those Laws and his own concession without dissolving all the ligaments of Government and without the violation of faith which himself confesses to be against the Law of Nature Notwithstanding that the Law is reason and pag. 139. not the letter but that which is according to the intention of the Legislator that is of the Soveraign is the Law yet when there is any difficulty in the understanding the Law the interpretation thereof may reasonably belong to Learn'd Judges who by their education and the testimony of their known abilities before they are made Judges and by their Oaths to judg according to Right are the most competent to explain those difficulties which no Soveraign as Soveraign can be presum'd to understand or comprehend And the judgments and decisions those Judges make are the judgments of the Soveraigns who have qualified them to be Judges and who are to pronounce their sentence according to the reason of the Law not the reason of the Soveraign And therefore Mr. Hobbes would make a very ignorant Judg when he would not have him versed in the study of the Laws but only a man of good natural reason and of a right understanding of the Law of Nature and yet he saies pag. 154. that
no man will pretend to the knowledg of right and wrong without much study And if that power of interpretation of Law be vested in the Person of the Soveraign he may in a moment overthrow all the Law which is evident enough by his own instances if to use his own expressions his understanding were not dazled by the flame of his passions For to what purpose is all the distinction and division of Laws into human and divine into natural and moral into distributive and penal when they may be all vacated and made null by the word or perverted by the interpretation of the Soveraign to what purpose is a penalty of five shillings put upon such an action if the Soveraign may make him who doth that action by his interpretation or omnipotence to pay five hundred pounds Nor by his rule is his ador'd Law of Nature of any force which he saies pag. 144 is the Law of God immutable and eternal nay Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not one title of the Law of Nature shall pass for it is the eternal Law of God He I say hath as much subjected that to the arbitrary power and discretion of his Soveraign as he hath don the Liberty and property of the Subject for he saies pag. 138. the Law of Nature is a part of the Civil Law in all Common-wealths in the World and that tho it be naturally reasonable yet it is by the Soveraign powâ—r that it is Law and he saies likewise that all Laws written and unwritten and the Law of Nature it seâ—f have need of interpretation and then he makes his supreme Soveraign the only legitimate interpreter So that he hath the Law of Nature as much in his power and under his jurisdiction as any other part of the Civil Law and yet he confesses his subject is not bound to pay obedience to any thing that his Soveraign enjoins against the Law of nature In such Labyrinths men entangle themselves who obstinately engage in opinions relating to a science they do not understand nor was it possible for him to extend the Prerogative of his Soveraign to such an illimited greatness without making some invasion upon the Prerogative of God himself I believe every man who reads Mr. Hobbes observes that when he entangles himself in the Laws of England and affects to be more learned in them then the Chief Justice Cook the natural sharpness and vigor of his reason is more flat and insipid then upon other Arguments and he makes deductions which have no coherence involves himself in the terms without comprehending the matter concludes the Law saies that which it do's not say and that the Law hath made no provision in cases which are amply provided for and in a word loses himself in a mist of words that render him less intelligible then at other times Nor hath he better luck when out of Iustinians Institutions he would make a parallel between the Imperial Laws and the Laws of England and resolves that the Decrees of the Common People which were put to the question by the Tribune and had the force of Laws were like the Orders of the House of Commons in England whereas no Orders made by a House of Commons in England are of any validity or force or receive any submission longer then that House of Commons continues and if any order made by them be against any Law or Statute it is void when it is made and receives no obedience Indeed when Mr. Hobbes publish'd his Leviathan he might have said that it had the autority and power of the Emperor or of the whole People of Rome and which would have lasted till this time if he had bin believ'd and his doctrine could have bin supported by him or them for whom it was provided Probably Mr. Mobbes did take delight in being thought to confute a great Lawyer in the Common Law of England 't is certain he hath bin transported to slight usage of him by that delight or some like passion more then by the defect of reason in that which he would contradict He saies 't is against the Law of Nature to punish the innocent that he is innocent that acquits himself judicially is acknowledg'd for innocent by the Judg and yet he saies when a man is accus'd of a Capital crime and seeing the power of the Enemy and the frequent corruption of Judges runs away for fear of the effect yet being taken and brought to Tryal maketh it appear that he was not guilty of the crime and is acquitted thereof however is condemn'd to lose his goods this he saies is a manifest condemnation of the innocent He confesses afterwards that the Law may forbid an innocent man to fly and that he may be punished for flying but he thinks it very unreasonable that flying for fear of injury should be taken for presumtion of guilt whereas it is taken only for the guilt of flying when he is declar'd innocent for the other And methinks he confesseth that a man who must know his own innocence better then any body else and knows that he must lose his Goods if he flies his trial hath no reason to complain if after he be cleer'd from the crime he be condemned to lose his goods which he knew he must lose when he fled and therefore tho he be judicially acquitted for the crime he is not innocent but as judicially condemned to lose his goods for his guilt in flying the Law and penalty of flying being known to him whether written or not written as well as the Law against the crime was To his other dictates of the Office of a Judg that he needs not be learn'd in the Laws because he shall be told by the Soveraign what judgment he shall give and of the Laws of England that the Jury is Judg of the Law as well as of the fact there needs no more be said then that he is not inform'd nor understands what he delivers and whether his notions of the divine positive Law be more agreeable to truth will be examin'd hereafter The Survey of Chapter 27. Pag. 151. THat to be delighted in the imagination of being possessed of another mans Wife or Goods is no breach of the Law that saies Thou shalt not covet That the pleasure a man may have in imagining the death of him from whose life he expects nothing but dammage and displeasure is no sin That to be pleas'd in the fiction of that which would please a man if it were real is a passion so adherent to the nature of man and every other living creature as to make it a sin were to make a sin of being a man is a Body of Mr. Hobbes's Divinity so contrary to that of our Saviour and his Apostles that I shall without any enlargement leave it to all men to consider which of them they think most fit to believe and follow Yet methinks he gives some encouragement to those who might expect Justice
according to his own discretion In the last place he hath very much obliged his Soveraign in telling him so plainly why he hath compared him to Leviathan because he hath raised him to the same greatness and given him the same power which Leviathan is described to have in the 41 Chapter of Iob There is nothing on Earth to be compared with him he is made so as not to be afraid be seeth every high thing to be below him and is King of all the children of pride Job 41. 33 34. And if he had provided as well to secure his high station as he hath for the abatement of the pride of the Subject whom he hath sufficiently humbled he might more glory in his work but the truth is he hath left him in so weak a posture to defend himself that he hath reason to be afraid of every man and the remedies he prescribes afterwards to keep his prodigious power from dissolution are as false and irrational as any other advice in his Institution as will appear hereafter The Survey of Chapter 29. MR. Hobbes takes so much delight in reiterating the many ill things he hath said for fear they do not make impression deep enough in the minds of men that I may be pardon'd if I repete again somtimes what hath bin formerly said as this Chapter consisting most of the same pernicious doctrines which he declar'd before tho in an other dress obliges me to make new or other reflexions upon what was I think sufficiently answer'd before and it may be repete what I have said before He is so jealous that the strength of a better composition of Soveraignty may be superior and be preferr'd before that of his institution that be devises all the way he can to render it more obnoxious to dissolution and like a Mountebank Physician accuses it of diseases which it hath not that he may apply Remedies which would be sure to bring those or worse diseases and would weaken the strongest parts and support of it under pretence of curing its defects So in the first place he finds fault pag. 167. that a man to obtain a Kingdom is sometimes content wâ—th lâ—ss power then to the peace and defence of the Common-wealth is necessarily required that is that he will observe the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom which by long experience have bin found necessary for the Peace and defence of it And to this he imputes the insolence of Thomas Beckett Arch-Bishop of Canterbury pag. 168. who was supported against Harry the Second by the Pope the Subjection of Ecclesiastics to the Common-wealth having he saies bin dispensed with by William the Conquerour at his reception when he took an Oath not to infringe the liberty of the Church And this extravagant power of the Pope he imputes to the Universities and the doctrine taught by them which reproch to the Universities being in a Paragraph of his next Chapter I chuse to join in the answer with the case of Thomas Beckett and Henry the Second Mr. Hobbes hath so great a prejudice to the reading Histories as if they were all enemies to his Government that he will not take the pains carefully to peruse those from which he expects to draw some advantage to himself presuming that men will not believe that a man who so warily weighs all he saies in the balance of reason will ever venture to alledg any matter of fact that he is not very sure of But if he had vouchsafed to look over the Records of his own Country before the time of King Henry the Eight he would have found the Universities alwaies opposed the power of the Pope and would have no dependance upon him and that the Kings alone introduc'd his autority and made it to be submitted to by their Laws Nor did the Church of England owe their large priviledges to any donation of the Popes whose jurisdiction they would never admit but to the extreme devotion and superstition of the People and the piety and bounty of the Kings which gave greater donatives and exemtions to the Church and Clergy then any other Kingdom enjoied or then the Pope gave any where Christianity in the infancy of it wrought such prodigious effects in this Island upon the barbarous affections of the Princes and People who then were the inhabitants of it that assoon as they gave any belief to the History of our Saviour they thought they could not do too much to the Persons of those who preached him and knew best what would be most acceptable to him From hence they built Churches and endow'd them liberally submitted so entirely to the Clergy whom they look'd upon as Sacred persons that they judged all differences and he was not look'd upon as a good Christian who did not entirely resign himself to their disposal they gave great exemtion to the Church and Church men and annex'd such Priviledges to both as testified the veneration they had for the Persons as well as for the Faith And when they suspected that the Licentiousness of succeeding ages might not pay the same devotion to both they did the best they could to establish it by making Laws to that purpose and obliging the several Princes to maintain and defend the rights and priviledges of the Church rights and priviledges which themselves had granted and of which the Pope knew nothing nor indeed at that time did enjoy the like himself It is true that by this means the Clergy was grown to a wonderful power over the People who look'd upon them as more then mortal men and had surely a greater autority then any Clergy in Christendom assum'd in those ages and yet it was generally greater then in other Kingdoms then it hath ever bin since Nor could it be otherwise during the Heptarchy when those little Soveraigns maintain'd their power by the autority their Clergy had with their people when they had little dependence upon the Prince But when by the courage and success of two or three couragious Princes and the distraction that had bin brought upon them by strangers the Government of the whole Island was reduced under one Soveraign the Clergy which had bin alwaies much better united then the Civil state had bin were not willing to part with any autority they had enjoied nor to be thought of less value then they had bin formerly esteemed and so grew troublesom to the Soveraign power somtimes by interrupting the progress of their Councils by delaies and somtimes by direct and positive contradictions The Princes had not the confidence then to resort to Mr. Hobbes's original institution of their right the manners of the Nation still remained fierce and barbarous and whatsoever was pliant in them was from the result of Religion which was govern'd by the Clergy They knew nothing yet of that primitive contract that introduced Soveraignty nor of that Faith that introduced subjection they thought it would not be safe for them to oppose the power of the
Mr. Hobbes an occasion to reproch me with impertinency in this digression tho he hath given me a just provocation to it and since the Roman Writers are so solicitous in the collecting and publishing the Records of that odious Process and strangers are easily induc'd to believe that the exercise of so extravagant a jurisdiction in the Reign of so Heroical a Prince who had extended his Dominions farther by much then any of his Progenitors had don must be grounded upon some fix'd and confess'd right over the Nation and not from an original Usurpation entred upon in that time and when the Usurper was not acknowledged by so considerable a part of Christendom it may not prove ungrateful to many men to make a short view of that very time that we may see what unheard of motives could prevail with that high spirited King to submit to so unheard of Tyranny That it was not from the constitution of the Kingdom or any preadmitted power of the Pope formerly incorporated into the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom is very evident by the like having bin before attemted For tho the Clergy enjoied those great priviledges and immunities which are mention'd before whereby they had so great an influence upon the hearts of the people that the Conqueror himself had bin glad to make use of them and William the Second Henry the First and King Stephen had more need of them to uphold their Usurpation yet those priviledges how great soever depended not at all upon the Bishop of Rome nor was any rank of men more solicitous then the Clergy to keep the Pope from a pretence of power in the Kingdom And the Bishops themselves had in the beginning of that Arch-bishops contumacious and rebellious contests with the King don all they could to discountenance and oppose him and had given their consent in Parliament that for his disobedience all his goods and moveables should be at the Kings mercy and it was also enacted with their consent after the Arch-bishop had fled out of the Kingdom and was known to make some application to the Pope that if any were found carrying a Letter or Mandate from the Pope or the Arch-bishop containing any interdiction of Christianity in England he should be taken and without delay executed as a Traitor both to the King and Kingdom that whatsoever Bishop Priest or Monk should have and retain any such Letters should forfeit all their Possessions Goods and Chattels to the King and be presently banish'd the Realm with their kin that none should appeal to the Pope and many other particulars which enough declare the temper of that Catholic time and their aversion to have any dependance upon a foreign jurisdiction And after the death of Beckett and that infamous submission of the King to the Popes Sentence thereupon which yet was not so scandalous as it is vulgarly reported as if it had bin made and undergon by the King in Person when the same King desir'd to assist the Successor of that Pope Lucius the Third who was driven out of Rome and to that purpose endeavour'd to raise a collection from the Clergy which the Popes Nuntio appear'd in and hoped to advance the Clergy was so jealous of having to do with the Pope or his Ministers that they declar'd and advised the King that his Majesty would supply the Pope in such a proportion as he thought fit and that whatever they gave might be to the King himself and not to the Popes Nuntio which might be drawn into example to the detriment of the King The King himself first shewed the way to Thomas a Beckett to apply himself to the Pope till when the Arch-bishop insisted only upon his own Ecclesiastical rights and power in which he found not the concurrence of the other Bishops or Clergy and the King not being able to bear the insolence of the man and finding that he could well enough govern his other Bishops if they were not subjected to the autority and power of that perverse Arch bishop was willing to give the Pope autority to assist him and did all he could to perswade him to make the Arch-bishop of York his Legate meaning thereby to devest the other Arch-bishop of that Superiority over the Clergy that was so troublesom to him and which he exercis'd in his own right as Metropolitan But the Pope durst not gratifie the King therein knowing the spirit of Beckett and that he would contemn the Legate and knew well the Ecclesiastical superiority in that Kingdom to reside in his person as Arch-bishop of Canterbury who had bin reputed tanquam alterius Orbis Papa yet he sent to him to advise him to submit to the King whereupon the haughty Prelate then fled out of the Kingdom and was too hard for the King with the Pope who was perswaded by him to make use of this opportunity to enlarge his own power and to curb and subdue that Clergy that was indevoted to him and so by his Bull he suspended the Arch-bishop of York and the other Bishops who adher'd to the King in the execution of his commands which so much incens'd the King that he let fall those words in his passion that encouraged those rash Gentlemen to commit that assassination that produc'd so much trouble It must also be remembred that the King when he bore all this from the Pope was indeed but half a King having caused his son Henry to be crown'd King with him who thereupon gave him much trouble and join'd with the French King against him and that he had so large and great Territories in France that as the Popes power was very great there so his friendship was the more behovefull and necessary to the King Lastly and which it may be is of more weight then any thing that hath bin said in this disquisition it may seem a very natural judgment of God Almighty that the Pope should exercise that unreasonable power over a King who had given him an absurd and unlawful power over himself and for an unjust end when he obtain'd from our Country-man Pope Adrian who immediatly preceded Alexander a Dispensation not to perform the Oath which he had taken that his Brother Geoffery should enjoy the County of Anjoy according to the Will and desire of his Father and by vertue of that Dispensation which the Pope had no power to grant defrauded his Brother of his inheritance and broke his Oath to God Almighty and so was afterwards forced himself to yield to the next Pope when he assum'd a power over him in a case he had nothing to do with and where he had no mind to obey And this unadvised address of many other Princes to the Pope for Dispensations of this kind to do what the Law of God did not permit them to do hath bin a principal inlet of his Supremacy to make them accept of other Dispensations from him of which they stand not in need and to admit other his incroachments from
him which have proved very mischievous to them Of the condition of King Iohn we need not speak whose Usurpation Murders and absence of all Virtue made him fit to undergo all the reproches and censures which Pope Innocent the Third exercis'd him with when he usurped upon France with equal Tyranny The succeeding Kings no sooner found it necessary to expel or restrain that power which the Popes had so inconveniently bin admitted to and which they had so mischievously improv'd but the Universities not only submitted to but advanced those Acts which tended thereunto as appears by the Writings of Occam and other Learned men in the University of Oxford in the Reigns of those Kings both Edward the First and Edward the Third in which times as much was don against the power of the Pope as was afterwards don by Henry the Eighth himself And the Gallican Church would not at this time have preserved their liberties and priviledges to that degree as to contemn the power of the universal Bishop if the University of the Sorbone had not bin more vigilant against those incroachments then the Crown it self So far have the Universities bin from being the Authors or promoters of those false doctrines which he unjustly laies to their charge And I presume they will be as vigilant and resolute to preserve the Civil Autority from being invaded and endangered by their receiving and subscribing to his pernicious and destructive principles which his modesty is induced to believe may be planted in the minds of men because whole Nations have bin brought to acquiesce in the great mysteries of Christian Religion which are above reason and millions of men have bin made to believe that the same body may be in innumerable places at one and the same time which is against reason and therefore he would have the Soveraign power to make his Doctrine so consonant to reason to be taught and preached But his Doctrine is fit only to be taught by his own Apostles who ought to be looked upon as Seducers and false Prophets and God forbid that the Soveraign powers should contribute to the making those principles believed which would be in great danger to be destroied if it were but suspected that they affected to have that power which he would have to belong to them And such Princes who have bin williâ—g to believe they have it have bin alwaies most jealous that it should be known or thought that they do believe so since they know there would be a quick determination of their power if all their Subjects knew that they believed that all they have doth in truth belong to them and that they may dispose of it as they please Pag. 168. He saies a Common-wealth hath many diseases which proceed from the poison of Seditious doctrines whereof one is That every private man is Iudg of good and evil actions which is a doctrine never allow'd in any Common-wealth the Law being the measure of all good or evil actions under every Government and where that Law permits a liberty to the Subject to dispute the commands of the Soveraign no inconvenience can arise thereby but if the Soveraign by his own autority shall vacate and cancel all Laws the Common-wealth must need be distracted or much weakned Mr. Hobbes will have too great an advantage against any adversary if he will not have his Government tried by any Law nor his Religion by any Scripture and he could never think that the believing that pag. 168. whatsoever a man doth against his conscience is sin is a Doctrine to civil Society repugnant if he thought any of the Apostles good Judges of Conscience who all upon all occasions and in all actions commend themselves to every mans conscience 2. Cor. 4. 2. as also Our rejoicing is this the Testimony of our conscience 2 Cor. 1 12. and throughout the whole New Testament the conscience is made the Judg of all we do And if Mr. Hobbes had not so often excepted against Divines for being good Judges in Religion I could tell him of very good ones who are of opinion that it is a sin to do any thing against an erroneous conscience which is his own best excuse that he will not depart from his own judgment which is his conscience how erroneous soever it is But this liberty of Conscience is restrain'd only to those Cases where the Law hath prescribed no rule for where the Law enjoins the duty no private conscience can deny obedience In case of misperswasion it looks upon the action as sinful in him and so chuses to submit to the penalty which is still obedience or removes into another Climate as more agreeable to his constitution If Mr. Hobbes proposes to himself to answer all extravagant discourses or private opinions of seditious men which have no countenance from public Autority he will be sure to chuse such as he can easily confute All sober men agree that tho Faith and Sanctity are not to be attain'd only by study and reading yet that study and reading are means to procure that grace from God Almighty that is necessary thereunto And himself confesseth that with all his education discipline correction and other natural waies it is God that worketh that Faith and Sanctity in those he thinks fit So that if he did not think men the more unlearn'd for being Divines it is probable that there is very little difference between what those unlearned Divines and himself say upon this point saving that they may use inspiring and infusing which are words he cannot endure as insignificant speech tho few men are deceiv'd in the meaning of them If all Soveraigns are subject to the Laws of Nature as he saies they are because such Laws are divine and cannot by any man or Common-wealth be abrogated they then are oblig'd to observe and perform those Laws which themselves have made and promised to observe for violation of faith is against the Law of Nature by his own confession Nor doth this obligation set any Judg over the Soveraign nor doth any civil Law pretend that there is any power to punish him it is enough that in justice he ought to do it and that there is a Soveraign in Heaven above him tho not on Earth The next indeed is a Doctrine that troubles him and tends as he saies pag. 169. to the dissolution of a Common-wealth That every private man has an absolute propriety in his goods such as excludes the right of the Soveraign which if true he saies p. 170. he cannot perform the Office they have put him into which is to defend them both from Foreign Enemies and from the injuries of one another and consequently there is no longer a Common wealth And I say if it be not true there is nothing worth the defending from Foreign Enemies or from one another and consequently it is no matter what becomes of the Common-wealth Can he defend them any other way then by their own help with
a purpose to raise more veneration towards the holy Prophets recorded in the sacred story when he took such pains to examine the Etymology of their title and appellation which he saies pag 224. sometimes signifies a foreteller of things to come and sometimes one that speaketh incoherently as men that are distracted and thence goes to their commission and qualification how they came to know the will and pleasure of God And when he hath brought their title as low as he thinks fit and their qualifications as mean he is contented that the name of a Prophet pag. 225. may be given not improperly to them that in Christian Churches have a calling to say public Praiers for the Congregation But that they may not be too much exalted with the vocation he allows prophecy to signify that which Women may do in the Church and at last is content that the Heathen Poets shall likewise be called Prophets all which he concludes from several texts of Scripture which he chuses to make use of What man of a sincere and pious heart could in order to contradict the literal sense of that expression and Argument of the Prophet David and which may well be understood literally Shall he that made the eie not see and he that made the ear not hear controul it by such an instance as would be little less then Blasphemy to repete and to which I shall only apply a sage saying of his own pag. 34. that an Anatomist or a Physician may speak or write his judgment of unclean things because it is not to please but profit but for another man to write his extravagant and pleasant fancies of the same is as if a man from being tumbled in the dirt should come and present himself before good company an animadversion he will do well to remember upon many occasions wherein he transgresses it What his design was by torturing so many Texts of Scripture to make it believ'd that the extraordinary Prophets in the old Testament took no other notice of the word of God nor had any other knowledg of it then from apparitions and dreams that is to say pag. 227. from the imagination which they had in their sleep or in an extasy may well be suspected when he contributes so little to advance the reverence that is due to Gods Word or the honour that is due to the memory of those Saints the Prophets neither the one or the other being in any degree improved to say no worse of it by the whole discourse of that his first Chapter in which he thinks he hath said enough to perswade his disciples from so many Texts of Scripture and his commentaries upon them that the Soveraign power is the Soveraign Prophet who hath under God the Autority to govern the People and that they are bound to observe for a rule pag. 232. that Doctrine which he hath commanded to be taught and thereby to examine and try the truths of those Doctrines which pretended Prophets with miracle or without shall at any time advance And it is the more observable that he gave this Soveraign power to Cromwell and annex'd to it this Soveraign Prophesy that he might establish his Throne for ever Nor could he have in all this any intention so opposite to his purposes as when he had subjected all Laws to his Sword without any violation of justice to subdue the Gospel too to the same arbitriment that he might reform the one as he had don the other And the rather because tho the Law was quiet whilst his Soveraign power proceeded according to his own institution without any controul yet the Gospel was troublesome to him by the noise of his own Clergy who had interpreted the Scripture according to his own spirit and purposes whilst the contest was with the King but now found that all his own designs and assuming the Soveraignty himself was expresly against the word of God and they found so much credit with the people that they had so long deluded that he foresaw a storm coming against him that he could hardly ride out And therefore Mr. Hobbes brought him a very seasonable relief in making a doubt when novelties were so much in request and the minds of the People so well prepar'd to hearken to what they had never before heard of whether there were any such thing as the word of God at least that that was not it which they took to be so and that if the ten Commandments were agreeable to his sense yet that they were not words spoken by him and then in bringing the autority and qualifications of the Prophets themselves so low that there was room enough left to doubt whether they were alwaies in the right From whence he might easily expose his Enemies who succeed them in the office of informing and instructing them in the Laws and good pleasures of God as men without a lawful mission and autority to pronounce those things they do And upon those weighty reasons he takes upon him to advise the People to be very circumspective pag. 230. and wary in obeying the voice of man that pretending himself to be a Prophet requires us to obey God in that way which he in Gods name tells us is the way to happiness For he in that pretends to govern them that is to say to rule and reign over them which is a thing that all men naturally desire and is therefore worthy to be suspected of Ambition and imposture and consequently ought to be examin'd and tried by every man before he yields them obedience And having thus deprav'd the rule the Word of God by which they were to walk and vilified the Preachers who are to instruct them how they may observe that Rule he hath enough amuz'd them to refer them for a complete and perfect information and satisfaction to his Soveraign power who is his Soveraign Prophet that is Cromwell himself to be told by him what they are to believe and what they are to do and to conform themselves thereunto and in his absence to what they shall be directed by those who are autoriz'd by him to inform them it being reasonably to be presum'd that they are p. 232. men to whom God hath given a part of the Spirit of their Soveraign I wish with all my heart that it were within my comprehension how Mr. Hobbes can be absolv'd from this naughty and impious discourse since he could not hope thereby to render himself gracious to any other Soveraign upon Earth since they all detest the power he would invest them with as a means to extirpate Christian Religion out of their Dominions which depends solely upon the universal veneration to the Scripture upon which if secular and politic interests did not fan a small Fire that would easily be extinguish'd into a flame there are not in sixteen hundred years many such differences grown in the interpretation thereof as must exclude any pious believer from Heaven if in his life he
then his foot-stool And so making the last effort to lessen the value of our Redemtion by making a Grammatical enquiry into the signification of the word and low inferences thereupon he concludes pag. 245. That the joies of life eternal comprehended all in Scripture under the name of Salvation or being saved is to be secur'd either respectively against special evils or absolutely against all evils comprehending want sickness and death it self that is when we are once in Heaven we shall never want nor be sick nor die again which is a very vile expression of the joies of life eternal I will not deprive him of that Testimony his rare modesty deserves but acknowledg pag. 241. that he doth declare because his Doctrine tho proved out of places of Scripture not few nor obscure will appear to most a novelty he did but propound it maintaining nothing in this or any other Paradox in Religion but attending the end of that dispute of the Sword concerning the autority not yet amongst his Country-men decided by which all sorts of Doctrine are to be approv'd or rejected and whose commands both in speech and writing whatsoever be the opinions of private men must by all men that mean to be protected by the Laws be obeied This was in the time when his fidelity and allegiance was by his own rule extinguished by choice for he was not then in the Enemies Quarters and no Sword drawn but that in Cromwells hand and in theirs who were under his command so that it was his single approbation and determination that he waited for the promulgation of the Doctrine which he had so well prov'd out of Scripture and to him he sent this blank for the disposal of himself body and soul according to his good will and pleasure But I know not how to excuse him since the Kings return and the resurrectâ—on of his Loialty which is grown and improv'd to that height that he will deny his Saviour upon his Command for not retracting and renouncing all those odious opinions when he very well knows that the Church of which the King is Soveraign doth detest all those his Doctrines and not concur in his interpretation of any of his Texts in Scripture and his not doing that which in Conscience he is oblig'd to do is a shrewd evidence that he considers not nor will be subject to any other Soveraignty then that of his own capricious brain and haughty understanding I have so much kindness for Mr. Hobbes that I heartily wish he would himself or that some of his Disciples would for him inform the World what good end he did or could propose to himself in writing this his eight and thirtieth Chapter or whether he could imagine that Christianity or any Christian knowledg could be advanced by it It seems to me to be the greatest charity he can expect to be believed to be a man that believes nothing of the immortality of the Soul of the eternal Life Hell Salvation the World to come and Redemtion which all other Christians do believe and believe all to be evident out of Scripture Since it is a less fault not to believe them how destructive soever then to imagine that he takes all that pains and uses all that raillery upon the Scripture to shew how liable the Word of God it self is to be ill handled and perversly interpreted by a great and bold Wit And truly he hath not bin disappointed in the propagation of this desperate Art which hath enabled his most devoted Proselytes to apply Texts of Scripture to all their profane impious and unclean purposes and which probably before they leave this World will give them a sad presage and prospect of the next the which can give them no reputation or credit except with persons proâ—â—igate and abandon'd to all kinds of vice and iniquity Plain it is that he hath not endeavor'd to advance the practice of any one Christian Virtue or to improve the exercise of any one Moral Duty to the end that the lives of men may be more innocent and thereby their hopes more reasonable of eternal Life as if he were not willing to perswade men by the strength of his master Reason to be better then they have a mind to be or to dis-countenance the practice of those sins which unavoidably must carry them to Hell let the situation of it be where it will pag. 56. as Adultery Sodomy and any vice that may be taken for an effect of power or a cause of pleasure all which vices amongst men he saies are taken to be against Law rather then against honor which since he hath discover'd he might for those wretches sake very naturally have interposed some powerful Animadversions in this Chapter of Eternal Life Hell and Salvation The Survey of Chapter 39. I have Charity enough to hope that Mr. Hobbes may have no worse design in this thirty ninth Chapter then can be made manifest out of his words which being plain and yielding naturally a good interpretation I will not endeavour to pervert them to a bad but wish he had farther enlarged upon the Subject to shew with what absurdity the word Church is applied to destroy Religion as if Christ had instituted one and but one Church that should have Autority to controul all the Christians in the World Which is a fancy how successful soever so extravagant and senseless so far from countenance from Scripture or Antiquity so in it self impossible that nothing is more wonderful then that so unreasonable a pretence should gain so much credit as to impose upon so great a part of the World so long and which tho it was not brought in by could never have bin brought in or grown but under that barbarous Tyranny and inundation which by the incursion of the Gothes and Vandalls and Hunns and Lombards who successively broke in from the North cover'd so great a part of Christendom for so many hundred years And it cannot be denied but that tho Spiritual and temporal are proper distinctions in the Government when the Soveraign who is equal Soveraign over both will apply them to several functions in the Government and to that exercise of different parts yet indeed they have bin made use of in the World pag. 248. to make men see double and to mistake their lawful Soveraign And they are not sharp-sighted enough who think their Government securely established under that distinction whil'st any Subject professes to owe a Spiritual or any other kind of Subjection or Obedience to any Foreign Power and Jurisdiction I would have bin very glad he would have enlarged upon both these Subjects so proper for his excellent way of reasoning and I cannot avoid saying that it is great pitty that the most faultless Chapter in the Book for ought is evident should be the shortest The Survey of Chapter 40. WE are not bound to believe and Mr. Hobbes would find it a hard task to prove that all Christian Princes have
Reason which proves that it ought to be so so Mr. Hobbes who when History controuls him thinks it a sufficient answer to say If it was not so it should be so as unreasonably follows the same method and would by the ill consequences which would flow from such a right devest the Pope of an autority which he confidently saies was granted to him immediately by our Saviour and hath bin enjoied by his Predecessors from that time to this Which if true all the arguments from Reason may fortifie but can never shake a Right so founded upon a clear and plain Grant from one who had an Original power to grant and wherewith the possession hath gon ever since He therefore who will pertinently answer and controul these pretences which Mr. Hobbes can well do if it would not cross some other of his Doctrines must do it by positively denying any such grant which never was nor ever can be produced in such plain and significant terms as are necessary to the grant of the most inferior Office in any Church or State He would make it manifestly appear that for many hundreds of Years no Bishop of Rome made the least pretence to any such Soveraignty and when they began to make it with what a torrent of contradiction it was rejected He would make it evident that all that power which that See assum'd was granted to them by Kings and Princes and restor'd to them again when they were oppressed by their own Factions and Schisms and by more powerful Enemies He would point out the very Article of time when by the Incursions of the Goths and Vandals into Italy and the foul arts practiced by the Popes their autority by degrees increased to a great height by the bounty of Charlemain in making them great Temporal Princes against the inconvenience whereof he thought he had sufficiently provided when he reserved to himself and succeeding Emperors to make all the Popes He would shew them many wonderful accidents by which the power of the Emperor grew to decay and the weakness of all neighbor Kings and Princes by the Rebellions in their several Kingdoms and their unreasonable bloody Wars amongst themselves and then the artifices still practiced by the Popes to foment those Divisions and to contribute to their own Greatness Usurpation notwithstanding all which that there hath not bin one Century of Years from St. Peter to this time that there hath not bin some notorious opposition and contradiction to that Supremacy which was argument enough that it was never look'd upon as a Catholic verity All this he would prove to be true as likewise that no Prince of the Roman communion who at present is most indulgent to it as all of them are in such a degree as is most advantageous to their own affairs look upon it as such and that a submission to the Popes autority except it be commanded or allowed by the King and the Law is not taken for a part of Religion in any Kingdom but that of England This is the method that must be taken towards the enervating those high pretences and if it were vigorously pursued by one well versed in the Pontifical Histories in which he needs no other witness then their own Records I mean Popish Writers all the World would be convinc'd except only such Princes who are very well paid for the communication of part of their Soveraignty to him that the Pope hath not out of his own Dominions so much as the power of the Metropolitan Schole-master which Mr. Hobbes seems willing to confer upon him The Survey of Chapter 43. HE who hath taken so ill a Survey of Heaven if self is not like to be a good guide for the way thither which is the business of his forty third Chapter and which into how little room soever he brings all that is necessary to Salvation would be very difficult to find if it were not for his old expedient his Soveraigns commands since the most prescrib'd and known way which hath bin thought to lead thither is quite damm'd up by him the Scriptures pag. 323. That which made the Patriarchs and the Prophets of old to believe was God himself who spake unto them supernaturally and the person whom the Apostles and Disciples that conversed with Christ believ'd was our Saviour himself But of us to whom neither God the Father nor our Saviour ever spoke he saies it cannot be said that the person whom we believe is God So that the Faith of Christians ever since our Saviours time hath had no other foundation then the reputation of their Pastors and the Old and New Testament which their Soveraign Princes have made the rule of their Faith which Princes are the only persons whom Christians now hear speak from God and to whom consequently they are beholding for their Salvation Admit that single contracted Article Iesus is Christ comprehends all that is necessary to Salvation for he confesses that he who holdeth that foundation Iesus is the Christ holdeth expressly all that he seeth rightly deduc'd from it and implicitly all that is consequent thereunto tho he have not skill enough to discern the consequence I demand still how they shall believe this Article whom their Soveraigns forbid to look upon the New Testament as Scripture which is all the evidence they can have for it and yet he saies pag. 327. for the belief of this Article we are to reject the autority of an Angel from Heaven much more of any mortal man if he teach the contrary I know well he reconciles this contradiction by believing in the heart and denying with the tongue having the example of Naaman But how shall he believe in his heart if he be depriv'd of the New Testament and if he doth come to believe in his heart as he ought to do what affection and duty can he have for that Soveraign who will not be saved himself and requires him to renounce his Saviour He must be content with a mere verbal affection without any influence upon the heart which is much less duty then he requires towards his Soveraign whom he is so intirely to obey that he must say all he bids him say and do all he bids him do so much more duty he requires for his Earthly then for his Heavenly Soveraign I wish with all my heart that Mr. Hobbes did remember or believe his own good rule in the end of this Chapter which would have preserved him from many presumtions which administer great trouble and grief to his Readers for his sake pag. 331. It is not the bare words but the scope of the Writer that giveth the true light by which any writing is to be interpreted and they that insist upon single Texts without considering the main design can derive nâ—thing from them clearly but rather by casting atomes of Scripture as dust before mens eies make every thing more obscure then it is an ordinary artifice he saies of those that seek
not the truth but their own advantage Alas that it should be an advantage to Mr. Hobbes to perswade men to believe that Our Saviour hath not given us new Laws but Counsel to observe those we are subject to and that in his Sermon upon the Mount which is the compendium of Christianity â—e did not make any new Law to the Iews but only expound the Law of Moses to which they were subject before Since all those plain and lively precepts of charity and humility and a virtuous and pious life were more then an exposition of the Law of Moses sure his declaration That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her c. was more then an interpretation of that Commandment Thou shaâ—t not commit Adultery If his determination That whosoever should put away his Wife saving for the cause of Adultery c. be not a new Law it cannot be a Commentary upon that of Moses Let him give her a writing of Divorcement Was the utter suppression of circumcision was the total abolishing of all their Sacrifices making no new Law to the Jews but only expounding the Law of Moses And yet he came not to destroy the Law or the Prophets but to fulfil and when he had fulfilled what was there foretold of him the Law became felo-de-se and ceased to be useful any longer When our Saviour bid the Pharisees learn what that Text in the Prophet Hosea meaneth I will have mercy and not Sacrifice did he intend they should repair to the Law of Moses for instruction because they were subject to it I do with some passion desire Mr. Hobbes to consider sadly for there will at some time or other before he struggles out of this world be sadness to him in the consideration whether it be probable or possible that our Saviour should give such a charge to his Apostles that when in any House or City they who were in it refused to receive them or hear their words that they should shake off the dust of their feet with so terrible a Declaration by our Saviour himself Verily I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for the Land of Sodome and Gomorrah in the day of Iudgment then for that City Mat. 10. 15. I say can any man imagine that Christ should there have made so fierce a denunciation if he had intended the Precepts which himself and his Apostles gave should be looked upon only as good Counsel which men might as innocently disbelieve as believe and that they which should believe might securely suspend yielding any obedience to what he directed till his second coming to Judgment Indeed the day of Judgment would be so far from being a day of terror that it would be as festival a day as Mr. Hobbes himself can wish it if none be to be punished there for not observing the advice or not obeying the precepts which our Saviour and his Apostles gave to them But of this I have said enough before which I think I need not to repete or inlarge upon and am willing to get out and wish Mr. Hobbes will likewise from this maze and labyrinth of confusion and be advis'd by himself to give over the casting atomes of Scripture as dust before mens eies to make every thing more obscure then it is I cannot omit the observation of the three several definitions which he makes of Heresy in three several places as they were suitable to his occasions which himself declares to proceed from ignorance when pag. 50. men give different names to one and the same thing from the difference of their own passions In his eleventh Chapter whilst he affected to be plain and perspicuous in his expressions and explanation of words he saies Heresy signifies no more then private opinion but has only a tincture of greater choler but in his forty Second Chapter of the power Ecclesiastical in which it concern'd him to be wary what punishment he permitted to be inflicted on it he declares that pag. 277. an Heretic is he that being a member of the Church teacheth nevertheless some private opinion which the Church hath forbidden Which knowing to be his own case he was very well contented to resort to St. Paul and to grant him autority in this case to make rules as well as to give advice and finds his direction to Titus to be such as pleases him A man that is an Heretic after the first and second admonition reject Tit. 3. 10. but to reject in this place he saies is not to excommunicate the man but to give over admonishing him to let him alone to set by disputing with him as one that is to be convinc'd only by himself and then he doubts not to shift for himself But now when he hath better thought of it in his contest with Bellarmine he hath reason to be sorry that he hath left so much autority in the Church as to reject in his own sense least the Cardinal procures that power for the Pope whom he hath allowed to be the Master Schole-Master and then he may find another signification of reject then letting him alone And therefore he now pronounces pag. 317. that Heresy is nothing else but a private opinion obstinately maintained contrary to the opinion which the public person that is to say the Representant of the Common-wealth hath commanded to be taught by which he saies it is manifest he hath made it manifest by his definition that an opinion publicly appointed to be taught cannot be heresy nor the Soveraign Princes that autorize them Heretics And yet he may remember that the doctrine of Arius after it was condemned by the Gatholic Church was not thought to be the less Heresy for the countenance it receiv'd from two or three Emperours or for being allowed in the dominions of several Princes and tho the Pope himself Liberius to redeem himself from Banishment which was inflicted upon him for refusing to condemn Athanasius became likewise an Arian so that Mr. Hobbes was not the first inventor of that expedient by believing in the heart and denying with the mouth But still he is in an ill case for his own Soveraign hath already condemn'd him in the declaratory Law that whosoever contradicts any thing that is determined by or in the four first General Councils is an Heretic and to be proceeded against and censured as such which form will not be satisfied by rejecting him and leaving him to himself So that there is but one way to save him harmless which is his not being obstinate and that whosoever knows him or believes him will undertake he shall never make use of The Fourth Part. The Survey of Chapter 44. WE are now to enter upon his fourth part of the Kingdom of darkness whereof the first Chapter which is the forty fourth in number will take us little time the greatest part being against the doctrine or the practice of the Church of Rome I shall not enlarge but leave them to agree as they