carry him to Ierusalem which he saies the owner permitted and did not ask whether his necessity was a sufficient title nor whether he was Iudg of that necessity but did acquiesce in the will of the Lord which is a very bold and ungrave wresting of Scripture to purposes it could not intend since our Saviour did not profess to do one act as a King of the Jews but declar'd that his kingdom was not of this world And at the time he told the Messengers who were sent for the Ass that if they were ask'd what they meant by it they should answer that the Lord had need of him upon which he knew and he said that they would let him go and upon that he grounded their Commission If the owner would not permit them to take it the Messengers had no autority to have brought it to him And his inference from and the gloss he makes upon the question that God asked of Adam p. 106. Hast thou eaten hath as little warrant from that text as the other improper instance of our Saviour And sure when Mr. Hobbes thought fit by this example of our Saviour in this place to wrest all property from the Subject he did not intend in any other place so far to devest him of any autority that men were not bound to believe any thing he said or to do any thing he commanded because he had no Commission which required obedience his Kingdom being not yet of this world So unwary he is in the contradicting himself as all men are who first resolve what they are to prove before they consider what it is that is true We are not oblig'd nor indeed have any reason to believe that God was offended with the Children of Israel for desiring a King which was a Government himself had instituted over them and to which they had bin long accustomed and had undergon much misery and confusion whilst there was no King in Israel but for their mutinous manner of asking it and the reason they gave for it that they might be like other nations which God had taken all possible care that they should not be and enjoined them to learn nothing of them And the description which Samuel made of the exorbitant power of Kings which indeed the Kings of the Nations did exercise by whose example they desir'd to be govern'd was rather to terrify them from pursuing their foolish demand then to constitute such a Prerogative as the King should use whom God would appoint to go in and out before them which methinks is very manifest in that the worst Kings that ever reign'd over them never challeng'd or assum'd those Prerogatives Nor did the people conceive themselves liable to those impositions as appears by the application they made to Rehoboam upon the death of Solomon that he would abate some of that rigor his Father had exercised towards them the rough rejection of which contrary to the advice of his wisest Counsellors cost him the greater part of his Dominions and when Rehoboam would by Arms have reduc'd them to obedience God would not suffer him because he had bin in the fault himself I am willing to take an occasion in this place to wish that no better Divines then Mr. Hobbes had from this place in Samuel presum'd very unwarrantably to draw inferences to lessen the Subjects reverence and obedience to Kings and to raise a prejudice and disesteem in Kings towards their Subjects as people whose affections and good will are of no use to them since they can present nothing to them that is their own nor have any thing to give but what they may take from them which two very different rather then contrary Conclusions too many Devines and some of parts according to their several inclinations and appetites have presumed to wrest from that place of Scripture the one party of them as is said before endeavouring maliciously to render Monarchy odious and insupportable by the unlimited affections and humors and pretences and power of a single uncontroulable person the other believing as unreasonably that the dispositions natures and hearts of the people cannot be appli'd to the necessary obedience towards their Princes nor their reverence and duty be so well fix'd and devoted to them as by thinking that they have nothing of their own but whatsoever they enjoy they have only by the bounty of the King who can take it from them when he pleases and to this last party Mr. Hobbes his speculation hath for the present disposed him to adhere tho in any other particular opinion he doth not concur with any Divine of any Church in Christendom For the first whoever doth well consider the wonderful confused Government that was exercised over the Children of Israel from the death of Ioshua when the Monarchy was interrupted under the Judges for the space of above three hundred years the barbarous negligence in the instructions of the people in the knowledg of God and of their duty to him insomuch that the very next generation after the death of Ioshuah had lost or was without the whole History of what God had don for them and of what he expected from them so unfaithful a guide or remembrancer is Tradition when the Scripture it self is not to be found I say whosoever considers likewise the quality and talent and humor of many of the very Judges who had bin over them as the repeted Acts of indiscretion and folly in Sampson which could not but make his judgment to be in the less reverence the strength of his arms to be more admir'd then that of his head with the present state they were then in under the sons of Samuel who were no better then the Sons of Ely had bin will not perhaps so very much blame them for desiring a King and tho the manner of their asking it might as hath bin said offend Samuel and in some degree displease God yet he might not be offended absolutely with the thing it self since it was no more then God himself had in a manner prescrib'd to them as well as foretold without any kind of disapprobation When thou art come into the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee c. and shalt say I will set a King over me like as all the Nations which are about me Thou shalt in any wise set him a King over thee whom the Lord thy God shall chuse Deut. 17. 14 15 16 17. God was well content that they should have a King but reserv'd the election of him to himself he would have no transferring of rights or covenanting for one another he would chuse his own Representative Nor amongst all the customs of the Nations which he orbad them to follow did God ever shew the least dislike of their Government by Kings which had bin instituted originally by himself and probably bin continued by them even from the time of the institution however their manners were degenerated and the knowledg of him totally
alone and when it is once found to be in him alone he will not be long able to defend his own Propriety or his own Soveraignty It is Machiavels exception against the entertaining of foreign Forces that they are only mercenary and therefore indifferent in their affections which party wins or loses and no doubt those Soldiers fight most resolutely who fight to defend their own And surely they who have nothing of their own to lose but their lives are as apt to throw those away where they should not as where they should be exposed and it is the usual Artifice in all Seditions for the Leaders and Promoters of them to perswade the People that the tendency and consequence of such and such actions don by the Magistrate extends to the depriving them of all their propriety the jealousie of which hurries them into all those acts of rage and despair which prove so fatal to Kingdoms And there was never yet a wise and fortunate prince who hath not enervated those Machinations by all the professions and all the vindications of that Propriety which they are so vigilant to preserve and defend And therefore it is a wonderful propesterous foundation to support a Government to declare that the Subject hath no propriety in any thing that excludes the Soveraign from a right of disposing it and it may be easily believ'd that there is not one Prince in Europe I mean that is civiliz'd for of the absolute power of the Great Turk from whence Mr. Hobbes hath borrowed his Model we shall have occasion to discourse in another place would be able to retain his Soveraignty one whole year after he should declare as Mr. Hobbes doth that his Subjects have no propriety in any thing they possess but that he may dispose of all they have For tho they do too often invade that propriety and take somwhat from them that is not their own they bear it better under the notion of oppression and rapine and as they look upon it as the effect of some powerful Subjects evil advice which will in time be discover'd and reform'd by the justice of the Prince as hath often fallen out then they would ever do under a claim of right that could justly take away all they have because it is not the Subjects but their own And if Mr. Hobbes had taken the pains and known where to have bin inform'd of the Proceedings and Transactions of Wâ—lliam the Conqueror he would have found cause to believe that that great King did ever dexterously endeavor from the time that he was assured that his Possession would not be disturb'd to divest himself of the Title of a Conqueror and made his Legal Claim to what he had got by the Will of Edward the Confessor whose Name was precious to the Nation and who was known to have a great Friendship for that Prince who had now recover'd what had bin his And he knew so well the ill consequence which must attend the very imagination that the Nation had lost its Propriety that he made hast to grant them an assurance that they should still enjoy all the benefits and priviledges which were due to them by their own Laws and Customs by which they should be still govern'd as they were during that Kings whole Reign who had enough of the unquestionable Demesnes and Lands belonging to the Crown of which he was then possessed without a Rival and belonging to those great men who had perish'd with their Posterity in the Battel with Harold to distribute to those who had born such shares and run such hazards in his prosperous adventure And those Laws and Customs which were before the Conquest are the same which the Nation and Kingdom have bin since govern'd by to this day with the addition of those Statutes and Acts of Parliament which are the Laws of the successive Kings with which they have gratifi'd their Subjects in providing such new security for them and advantages to the public as upon the experience and observation of the Ages and Times when they were made contributed to the honor and glory of the King as well as the happiness of the People many of which are but the Copies and Transcripts of ancient Land-marks making the Characters more plain the legible of what had bin practic'd and understood in the preceding Ages and the observation whereof are of the same profit and convenience to King and People Such were the Laws in Tullies time which Mr. Hobbes wonderfully cites to prove that which Tully never heard of and which indeed is quite contrary to the end of his Discourse Pag. 127. Is it possible that Tully could ever have said Let the Civil Law be once abandoned or but negligently guarded not to say oppressed and there is nothing that any man can be sure to receive from his Ancestor or to leave to his Children and again take away the Civil Law and no man knows what is his own and what another mans I say he could never have mention'd and insisted upon this grand security of man-kind if he had understood the Law to be nothing but the breath of the Soveraign who could grant and dissolve or repeal this Law with the speaking a word that his will or fancy dictates to him How can any man receive from his Ancestor or leave to his Children if he ben oâ— sure that his Ancestor had and that his Children shall have a propriety It was the importance of and delight in this propriety that produc'd that happy and beneficial agreement between the Soveraign power and the naked Subject which is mention'd before that introduc'd the beauty of Building and the cultivating the Earth by Art as well as Industry by securing men that they and their Children should dwell in the Houses they were at the charge to build and that they should reap the harvest of those Lands which they had taken the pains to sow Whatsoever is of Civility and good Manners all that is of Art and Beauty or of real and solid Wealth in the World is the product of this paction and the child of beloved Propriety and they who would strangle this Issue desire to demolish all Buildings eradicate all Plantations to make the Earth barren and man-kind to live again in Tents and nurish his Cattle by successive marches into those Fields where the grass grows Nothing but the joy in Propriety reduc'd us from this barbarity and nothing but security in the same can preserve us from returning into it again Nor will any man receive so great prejudice and damage by this return as the Kings and Princes themselves who had a very ample recompence which they still enjoy by dividing their unprofitable propriety with their Subjects having ever since receiv'd much more profit from the propriety in the hands of the Subjects then they did when it was in their own or then they do from that which they reserv'd to themselves and they continue to have the more or less
own and will value it accordingly And he is much a better Counsellor who by his experience and observation of the nature and humor of the People who are to be govern'd and by his knowledg of the Laws and Rules by which they ought to be govern'd gives advice what ought to be don then he who from his speculative knowledg of man-kind and of the Rights of Government and of the nature of Equity and Honor attain'd with much study would erect an Engine of Government by the rules of Geometry more infallible then Experience can ever find out I am not willing now or at any time to accompany him in his sallies which he makes into the Scripture and which he alwaies handles as if his Soveraign power had not yet declared it to be the word of God and to illustrate now his Distinctions and the difference between Command and Counsel he thinks fit to fetch instances from thence Have no other Gods but me Make to thy self no graven Image c. he saies pag. 133. are commands because the reason for which we are to obey them is drawn from the will of God our King whom we are obliged to obey but these words Repent and be baptized in the name of Iesus arc Counsel because the reason why we should do so tendeth not to any benefit of God Almighty who shall be still King in what manner soever we rebel but of our selves who have no other means of avoiding the punishment hanging over us for our sins as if the latter were not drawn from the will of God as much as the former or as if the former tended more to the benefit of God then the latter An ordinary Grammarian without any insight in Geometry would have thought them equally to be commands But Mr. Hobbes will have his Readers of another talent in their understanding and another subjection to his dictates The Survey of Chapter 26. HOwever Mr. Hobbes enjoins other Judges to etract the judgments they have given when contrary to reason upon what autority or president soever they have pronounced them yet he holds himself obliged still tueâ—i opus to justify all he hath said therefore we have reason to expect that to support his own notions of Liberty and Propriety contrary to the notions of all other men he must introduce a notion of Law contrary to what the world hath ever yet had of it And it would be answer enough and it may be the fittest that can be given to this Chapter to say that he hath ere ed a Law contrary and destructive to all the Law that is acknowledg'd and establish'd in any Monarchy or Republic that is Christian and in this he hopes to secure himseâ—f by his accustomed method of definition and dâ—fiâ—es that Civil Law which is a term we do not dislike is to every Subject those Rules which the Common wealth hath commanded him by word writing or other sufficient sign of the Wâ—â—l to make use of for the distinction of right in whâ—ch he saies there is nothing that is not at first sight evident that is to say of what is contrary and what is noâ— contrary to the Rule From which definition his first deduction is that the Soveraign is the sole Legislator and that himself is not subject to Laws because he can make and repeal them which in truth is no necessary deduction from his own definition for it doth not follow from thence tho he makes them Rules only for Subjects that the Soveraign hath the sole power to repeal them but the true definition of a Law is that it is to every Subject the rule which the Common-wealth hath commanded him by word writing or other sufficient sign of the Will made and publish'd in that form and manner as is accustomed in that Common-wealth to make use of for the distinction of right that is to say of what is contrary and what is not to the Rule and from this definition no such deduction can be made since the form of making and repealing Laws is stated and agreed upon in all Common-wealths The opinions and judgments which are found in the Books of eminent Lawyers cannot be answer'd and controuled by Mr. Hobbes his wonder since the men who know least are apt to wonder most and men will with more justice wonder whence he comes by the Prerogative to controul the Laws and Government establish'd in this and that Kingdom without so much as considering what is Law here or there but by the general notions he hath of Law and what it is by his long study and much cogitation And it is a strange definition of Law to make it like his propriety to be of concernment only between Subject and Subject without any relation of security as to the Soveraign whom he exemts from any observation of them and invests with autority by repealing those which trouble him when he thinks fit to free himself from the observation thereof and by making new and consequently he saies he was free before for he is free that can be free when he will The instance he gives for his wonder and displeasure against the Books of the Eminent Lawyers is that they say that the Common Law hath no controuler but the Parliament that is that the Common Law cannot be chang'd or alter'd but by Act of Parliament which is the Municipal Law of the Kingdom Now methinks if that be the judgment of Eminent Lawyers Mr. Hobbes should be so modest as to believe it to be true till he hears others as Eminent Lawyers declare the contrary for by his instance he hath brought it now only to relate to the Law of England and then methinks he should be easily perswaded that the Eminent Lawyers of England do know best whether the Law be so or no. I do not wish that Mr. Hobbes should be convinc'd by a judgment of that Law upon himself which would be very severe if he should be accused for declaring that the King alone hath power to alter the descents and inheritances of the Kingdom and whereas the Common Law saies the Eldest shall inherit the King by his own Edict may declare and order that the younger Son shall inherit or for averring and publishing that the King by his own autority can repeal and dissolve all Laws and justly take away all they have from his Subjects I say if the judgment of Law was pronounc'd upon him for this Seditious discourse he would hardly perswade the World that he understood what the Law of England is better then the Judges who condemn'd him or that he was wary enough to set up a jus vagum and incognitum of his own to controul the establish'd Government of his own Country He saies the Soveraign is the only Legislator and I will not contradict him in that It is the Soveraign stamp and Royal consent and that alone that gives life and being and title of Laws to that which was before but counsel and advice and no
immortality upon Earth will be secur'd if the Earth be to be destroied by Fire as many Learned Men do beâ—ieve is clearly foretold in Scripture is worthy of his care to enquire and consider But these extravagancies and the greater in the next Chapter in his description and definition of the Trinity I shall leave to Divines to refute and to the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to convince him by information or to reform him by chastisements without making any observation that how little power or jurisdiction soever he allows to other Officers and Ministers he reserves to himself autority to determine the highest Points And whereas our Saviour himself professes that he hath laid down his life bin sacrific'd for the sins of the whole world he takes upon him to contract the number who are to receive any benefit thereby only to that of the Elect. And he is less to be understood when he positively declares pag. 263. the end of Christs coming to be that he might restore unto God by a new Covenant the Kingdom which had bin cut off by the rebellion of the Israelites in the election of Saul which dream still possesses him to that degree that he seems to think the conversion of the Gentiles to be merely accidental the restoring that peculiar Kingdom to his Father by a new Covenant being the great end of his coming and in case that Nation should generally refuse him then to call to his obedience such as should believe in him of the Gentiles whereas his coming was equally for the one as for the other and in truth was promis'd to the other before the Iews became the chosen People of God if the Promise made to Adam after his fall had any prospect towards our Saviour of which few men make doubt I cannot but observe some ingenuity if it had bin perfect ingenuity it would have amounted to a clear retractation in his declaring so freely and by so many instances that as our Saviour himself declar'd That his Kingdom is not of this World so that he never exercis'd any Soveraign Jurisdiction in it contrary to what he more magisterially publish'd in his twentieth Chapter when his business being to prove the absolute and illimited power of Kings over their Subjects and all that they have he quotes several Texts out of the Old and New Testament in which the simple obedience of Subjects to their Soveraign is enjoin'd and then concludes with an instance of our Saviours judgment in the point pag. 108. That the Kings word is sufficient to take away any thing from any Subject when there is need and that the King is judg of that need for saying that our Saviour himself as King of the Iews commanded his Disciples to take the Ass and Asses Colt to carry him into Ierusalem saying Go into the Village c. Matth 21 2 3. he adds as if they had bin the â—ords of our Saviour They will not ask whether his necessity be a sufficient title nor whether he be judg of that necessity but acquiesce in the will of the Lord. If Mr. Hobbes had bin a consciencious vindicator of Truth and intended by his reason and autority only to have mended the understanding of men when he had reformed his own in a matter of great importance and of which he had made so ill use he would have given some satisfaction to those he may have seduc'd and since he now discovers pag. 262 263. that the Kingdom of Christ is not to begin till the general Resurrection and that Christ whilst he was on Earth had no Kingdom in this World this forty first Chapter ought in conâ—cience to have bin a retractation of what he had said in the twenty precedent and therefore he may forgive those who too reasonably suspect that his design is rather to perplex and disturb and seduce men then to enlighten and inform them and that he assigns the errors in every Chapter to do as much mischief as they can and retracts none of them least the confessing himself to be once deceiv'd may lessen his power to deceive any more The Survey of Chapter 42. HAving then left his Discourse of the Trinity to be censur'd by those who are more competent considerers of those high Mysteries with the matter of his former Chapter and of which it had more properly bin a part for after the having degraded our Saviour to those low and insignificant Offices the bare-fac'd denying the Trinity might naturally have follow'd which he makes to be no Mystery at all and to contain as many Persons as any body will assign to it rather then those which an Article of the Christian Faith makes necessary to be believ'd and which he denies with more affectation then was don by Arius or Macedonius or any of those Heresies which succeeded and were the spawn of their poison And no doubt he hath gratified the Pope abundantly whom he hath otherwise endeavored to provoke in procuring such a Book that denies a vital part of Christianity to be printed and dispersed in a Protestant Kingdom which it could not have bin if the Governors and Over-seers of the Church had ever perused or taken notice of it the defect whereof hath permitted it to receive too much countenance in Popish Countries likewise We proceed to take a view of his Ecclesiastical Power in which he declares his judgment and opinion not only of Church Jurisdiction but upon the matter of all things which concern Religion in the Church that is the Profession of the Christian Faith I do first observe that he confesses pag. 267. that the Ecclesiastical power was left by our Saviour in the hands of the Apostles and that it remained in them and in those who were ordained by them those hundreds of years before there were any Christian Soveraigns and I will confess with him that our Saviour left no external ordinary coercive power to them or with them but only a power to proclaim the Kingdom of Christ and to perswade men to submit themselves thereunto and by Precepts and good Counsel and the terrors of the Lord to teach them that have submitted what they are to do that they may be receiv'd into the Kingdom of God and by the censures of the Church chastise and discipline offenders all which cannot be don but by publishing and explaining the Scriptures And therefore except Mr. Hobbâ—s will take from them that which himself acknowledges that Christ gave and left to them or prove that Christ took it from them and assign'd it to other perâ—ons they must still have a power to publish the Scripture and to interpret it and are obliged to declare and teach the Doctrine of Christ before the Doctrine of the King which office he hath thought fit only to commit to them and trust them with not remembring how much more he had assign'd to them in the beginning of his last Chapter where he saies pag. 261. that our Saviour when he was upon the earth