God made Kings for the People and not People for Kings How shall I be defended from the domineering of Proud and Insolent Strangers that speak another Language that scorn us that seek to make us Slaves Or how shall I avoid the Destruction that may arise from the cruelty of Factions in a Civil War unless the King to whom alone you say belongeth the right of Levying and disposing of the Militia by which only it can be prevented have ready Money upon all Occasions to Arm and pay as many Souldiers as for the present defence or the Peace of the People shall be necessary Shall not I and you and every Man be undone Tell me not of a Parliament when there is no Parliament sitting or perhaps none in being which may often happen and when there is a Parliament if the speaking and leading Men should have a design to put down Monarchy as they had in the Parliament which began to sit Nov. 3. 1640. Shall the King who is to answer to God Almighty for the safety of the People and to that end is intrusted with the Power to Levy and dispose of the Souldiery be disabled to perform his Office by virtue of these Acts of Parliament which you have cited If this be reason 't is reason also that the People be Abandoned or left at liberty to kill one another even to the last Man if it be not Reason then you have granted it is not Law La. 'T is true if you mean Recta Ratio but Recta Ratio which I grant to be Law as Sir Edw. Coke says 1 Inst. Sect. 138. Is an Artificial perfection of Reason gotten by long Study Observation and Experience and not every Mans natural Reason for Nemo nascitur Artifex This Legal Reason is summa Ratio and therefore if all the Reason that is dispersed into so many several Heads were united into one yet could he not make such a Law as the Law of England is because by many Successions of Ages it hath been fined and refinâ—d by an infinite number of Grave and Learned Men. And this is it he calls the Common-Law Ph. Do you think this to be good Doctrine though it be true that no Man is born with the use of Reason yet all Men may grow up to it as well as Lawyers and when they have applyed their Reason to the Laws which were Laws before they Studyed them or else it was not Law they Studied may be as fit for and capable of Judicature as Sir Edw. Coke himself who whether he had more or less use of Reason was not thereby a Judge but because the King made him so And whereas he says that a Man who should have as much Reason as is dispersed in so many several Heads could not make such a Law as this Law of England is if one should ask him who made the Law of England Would he say a Succession of English Lawyers or Judges made it or rather a Succession of Kings and that upon their own Reason either solely or with the Advice of the Lords and Commons in Parliament without the Judges or other Professors of the Law You see therefore that the Kings Reason be it more or less is that Anima Legis that Summa Lex whereof Sir Edw. Coke speaketh and not the Reason Learning or Wisdom of the Judges but you may see that quite through his Institutes of Law he often takes occasion to Magnifie the Learning of the Lawyers whom he perpetually termeth the Sages of the Parliament or of the Kings Council therefore unless you say otherwise I say that the Kings Reason when it is publickly upon Advice and Deliberation declar'd is that Anima Legis and that Summa Ratio and that Equity which all agree to be the Law of Reason is all that is or ever was Law in England since it became Christian besides the Bible La. Are not the Canons of the Church part of the Law of England as also the Imperial Law used in the Admiralty and the Customs of particular places and the by-Laws of Corporations and Courts of Judicature Ph. Why not for they were all Constituted by the Kings of England and though the Civil Law used in the Admiralty were at first the Statutes of the Roman Empire yet because they are in force by no other Authority than that of the King they are now the Kings Laws and the Kings Statutes The same we may say of the Canons such of them as we have retained made by the Church of Rome have been no Law nor of any force in England since the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Raign but by Virtue of the Great Seal of England La. In the said Statutes that restrain the Levying of Money without consent of Parliament Is there any thing you can take exceptions to Ph. No I am satisfied that the Kings that grant such Liberties are bound to make them good so far as it may be done without sin But if a King find that by such a Grant he be disabled to protect his Subjects if he maintain his Grant he sins and therefore may and ought to take no Notice of the said Grant For such Grants as by Error or false Suggestion are gotten from him are as the Lawyers do Confess Void and of no Effect and ought to be recalled Also the King as is on all hands Confessed hath the Charge lying upon him to Protect his People against Forraign Enemies and to keep the Peace betwixt them within the Kingdom if he do not his utmost endeavour to discharge himself thereof he Committeth a Sin which neither King nor Parliament can Lawfully commit La. No Man I think will deny this For if Levying of Money be necessary it is a Sin in the Parliament to refuse if unnecessary it is a sin both in King and Parliament to Levy But for all that it may be and I think it is a Sin in any one that hath the Soveraign Power be he one Man or one Assembly being intrusted with the safety of a whole Nation if rashly and relying upon his own Natural sufficiency he make War or Peace without Consulting with such as by their Experience and Employment abroad and Intelligence by Letters or other means have gotten the Knowledge in some measure of the strength Advantages and Designs of the Enemy and the Manner and Degree of the Danger that may from thence arise In like manner in case of Rebellion at Home if he Consult not with of Military Condition which if he do then I think he may Lawfully proceed to Subdue all such Enemies and Rebels and that the Souldiers ought to go on without Inquiring whether they be within the Country or without For who shall suppress Rebellion but he that hath Right to Levy Command and Dispose of the Militia The last long Parliament denied this But why Because by the Major part of their Votes the Rebellion was raised with design to put down Monarchy and to that end Maintained Ph. Nor do
Youth of Greece but by Competition for such Employment they hated and reviled one another with all the bitter Terms they could invent and very often when upon Occasion they were in Civil Company fell first to Disputation and then to Blows to the great trouble of the Company and their own shame Yet amongst all their reproachful words the name of Heretick came never in because they were all equally Hereticks their Doctrine not being theirs but taken upon Trust from the aforesaid Authors So that though we find Heresie often mentioned in Lucian and other Heathen Authors yet we shall not find in any of them Haereticus for a Heretick And this Disorder among the Philosophers continued a long time in Greece and Infecting also the Romans was at the greatest in the times of the Apostles and in the Primitive Church till the time of the Nicene Council and somewhat after But at last the Authority of the Stoicks and Epicureans was not much Esteemed only Plato's and Aristotle's Philosophy were much in Credit Plato's with the better sort that founded their Doctrine upon the Conceptions and Ideas of things and Aristotle's with those that reasoned only from the names of Things according to the Scale of the Categories Nevertheless there were always though not New Sects of Philosophy yet New Opinions continually arising La. But how came the word Heretick to be a Reproach Ph. Stay a little After the Death of our Saviour his Apostles and his Disciples as you know dispersed themselves into several parts of the World to Preach the Gospel and converted much People especially in Asia the less in Greece and Italy where they Constituted many Churches and as they Travelled from place to place left Bishops to Teach and Direct those their Converts and to appoint Presbyters under them to Assist them therein and to Confirm them by setting forth the Life and Miracles of our Saviour as they had receiv'd it from the Writings of the Apostles and Evangelists whereby and not by the Authority of Plato or Aristotle or any other Philosopher they were to be Instructed Now you cannot doubt but that among so many Heathens converted in the time of the Apostles there were Men of all Professions and Dispositions and some that had never thought of Philosophy at all but were intent upon their Fortunes or their Pleasures and some that had a greater some a lesser use of Reason and some that had studied Philosophy but professed it not which were commonly the Men of the better Rank and some had Professed it only for their better Abstinence and had it not farther than readily to talk and wrangle and some were Christians in good earnest and others but Counterfeit intending to make use of the Charity of those that were sincere Christians which in those times was very great Tell me now of these sorts of Christians which was the most likely to afford the fittest Men to propagate the Faith by Preaching and Writing or Publick or private Disputation that is to say who were fittest to be made Presbyters and Bishops La. Certainly those who caeteris paribus could make the best use of Aristotle's Rhetorick and Logick Ph. And who were the most prone to Innovation La. They that were most confident of Aristotle's and Plato's their former Masters Natural Philosophy For they would be the aptest to wrest the Writings of the Apostles and all Scriptures to the Doctrine in which their Reputation was engag'd Ph. And from such Bishops and Priests and other Sectaries it was that Heresie amongst the Christians first came to be a Reproach For no sooner had one of them Preached or Published any Doctrine that displeased either the most or the most Leading Men of the rest but it became such a Quarrel as not to be decided but by a Council of the Bishops in the Province where they Lived wherein he that would not submit to the General Decree was called an Heretick as one that would not reliquish the Philosophy of his Sect the rest of the Council gave themselves the name of Catholicks and to their Church the name of Catholick Church And thus came up the opposite Terms of Catholick and Heretick La. I understand how it came to be a Reproach but not how it follows that every Opinion condemned by a Church that is or calls it self Catholick must needs be an Error or a Sin The Church of England denies that Consequence and that Doctrine as they hold cannot be proved to be Erroneous but by the Scripture which cannot Err but the Church being but men may both Err and Sin Ph. In this Case we must consider also that Error in it's own Nature is no Sin For it is Impossible for a Man to Err on purpose he cannot have an Intention to Err and nothing is Sin unless there be a sinful Intention much less are such Errors Sins as neither hurt the Common-wealth nor any private Man nor are against any Law Positive or Natural such Errors as were those for which Men were burnt in the time when the Pope had the Government of this Church La. Since you have told me how Herefie came to be a name tell me also how it came to be a Crime And what were the Heresies that first were made Crimes Ph. Since the Christian Church could declare and none else what Doctrine were Heresies but had no power to make Statutes for the punishment of Hereticks before they had a Christian King it is manifest that Heresie could not be made a Crime before the first Christian Emperor which was Constantine the Great In his time one Arius a Priest of Alexandria in Dispute with his Bishop Publickly denyed the Divinity of Christ and Maintained it afterwards in the Pulpit which was the Cause of a Sedition and much Blood shed both of Citizens and Souldiers in that City For the preventing of the like for the time to come the Emperor called a General Council of Bishops to the City of Nice who being met he exhorted them to agree upon a Confession of the Christian Faith promising whatsoever they agreed on he would cause to be observed La. By the way the Emperor I think was here a little too Indifferent Ph. In this Council was Established so much of the Creed we now use and call the Nicene Creed as reacheth to the words I believe in the Holy Ghost The rest was Established by the 3 General Councils next succeeding By the words of which Creed almost all the Heresies then in being and especially the Doctrine of Arius were Condemn'd So that now all Doctrines Published by Writing or by Word and repugnant to this Confession of the first four General Councils and contained in the Nicene Creed were by the Imperial Law forbidding them made Crimes such as are that of Arius denying the Divinity of Christ that of Eutiches denying the 2 Natures of Christ that of the Nestorians denying the Divinity of the Holy Ghost that of the Anthropomorphites that of the Manichees that
THE ART OF Rhetoric WITH A DISCOURSE OF The Laws of England By Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury Dent Vmbrae tenuem Divi sine pondere terram Spirantesque crocos in urnâ perpetuum ver LONDON Printed for William Crooke at the Green Dragon without Temple-Bar 1681. TO THE READER ALtho these pieces may appear fully to express their own real intrinsic value as bearing the Image and Inscription of that great Man Mr. Hobbes yet since common usage has rendred a Preface to a Book as necessary as a Porch to a Church and that in all things some Ceremonies cannot be avoided Mode and Custom in this point is dutifully to be obeyed That they are genuine credible testimony might be produced did not the peculiar fineness of thought and expression and a constant undaunted resolution of maintaining his own Opinions sufficiently ascertain their Author Besides which they are now Publish'd from his own true Copies an advantage which some of his works have wanted The first of them being an abridgement containing the most useful part of Aristotle's Rhetoric was written some thirty years since Mr. Hobbes in his Book of Humane Nature had already describ'd Man with an exactness almost equal to the original draught of Nature and in his Elements of Law laid down the constitution of Government and shewn by what Arm'd Reason it is maintain'd And having demonstrated in the State of Nature the Primitive Art of Fighting to be the only medium whereby Men procur'd their ends did in this design to shew what Power in Societies has succeeded to reign in its stead I mean the Art of speaking which by use of Common places of Probability and knowledge in the manners and passions of Mankind throu the working of Belief is able to bring about whatsoever Interest How necessary this Art is to that of Politic is clearly evident from that mighty force whereby the Eloquence of the Ancient Orators captivated the minds of the People Mr. Hobbes chose to recommend by his Translation the Rhetoric of Aristotle as being the most accomplish'd work on that Subject which the World has yet seen having been admir'd in all Ages and in particular highly approv'd by the Father of the Roman Eloquence a very competent Judge To this he thought fit to add some small matter relating to that part which concern's Tropes and Figures as also a short discovery of some little tricks of false and deceitful Reasoning The other piece is a Discourse concerning the Laws of England and has been finish'd many years Herein he has endeavour'd to accommodate the general notions of his Politic to the particular constitution of the English Monarchy A design of no small difficulty wherein to have succeeded deserves much Honour to have perchance miscarryed deserves easie Pardon It has had the good fortune to be much esteem'd by the greatest Men of the Profession of the Law and therefore may be presumed to contain somewhat excellent However 't is not to be expected that al Men should submit to his Opinions yet 't is hoped none will be offended at the present Publishing these Papers since they will not find here any new fantastic Notions but only such things as have been already asserted with strength of Argument by himself and other Persons of eminent Learning To the Public at least this Benefit may accrue that some able Pen may undertake the controversie being moved with the desire of that reputation which will necessarily attend Victory over so considerable an Adversary THE WHOLE ART OF RHETORICK BOOK I. CHAP. I. That Rhetorick is an Art consisting not only in moving the passions of the Judge but chiefly in Proofs And that this Art is Profitable WE see that all men naturally are able in some sort to accuse and excuse Some by chance but some by method This method may be discovered and to discover Method is all one with teaching an Art If this Art consisted in Criminations only and the skill to stir up the Judges to Anger Envy Fear Pity or other affections a Rhetorician in well ordered Common-wealths and States where it is forbidden to digress from the cause in hearing could have nothing at all to say For all these perversions of the Judge are beside the question And that which the pleader is to shew and the Judge to give sentence on is this only 'T is so or not so The rest hath been decided already by the Law-maker who judging of universals and future things could not be corrupted Besides 't is an absurd thing for a man to make crooked the Ruler he means to use It consisteth therefore chiefly in Proofs which are Inferences and all Inferences being Syllogismes a Logician if he would observe the difference between a plain Syllogisme and an Enthymeme which is a Rhetoricall Syllogisme would make the best Rhetorician For all Syllogismes and Inferences belong properly to Logick whether they infer truth or probability and because without this Art it would often come to pass that evil men by the advantage of natural abilities would carry an evil cause against a good it brings with it at least this profit that making the pleaders even in skill it leaves the odds only in the merit of the cause Besides ordinarily those that are Judges are neither patient nor capable of long Scientifical proofs drawn from the principles through many Syllogisms and therefore had need to be instructed by the Rhetoricall and shorter way Lastly it were ridiculous to be ashamed of being vanquished in exercises of the body and not to be ashamed of being inferior in the vertue of well expressing the mind CHAP. II. The Definition of Rhetorick RHetorick is that Faculty by which we understand what will serve our turn concerning any Subject to win belief in the hearer Of those things that beget belief some require not the help of Art as Witnesses Evidences and the like which we invent not but make use of and some require Art and are invented by us The belief that proceeds from our Invention comes partly from the behaviour of the speaker partly from the passions of the hearer but especially from the proofs of what we alledge Proofs are in Rhetorick either Examples or Enthymemes as in Logick Inductions or Syllogisms For an Example is a short Induction and an Enthymeme a short Syllogisme out of which are left as superfluous that which is supposed to be necessarily understood by the hearer to avoid prolixity and not to consume the time of publick business needlesly CHAP. III. Of the several kinds of Orations and of the Principles of Rhetorick IN all Orations the Hearer does either hear only or judge also If he hear only that 's one kind of Oration and is called Demonstrative If he judg he must judg either of that which is to come or of that which is past If of that which is to come ther 's another kind of Oration and is called Deliberative If of that which is past then 't is a third kind