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A65817 The Leviathan found out, or, The answer to Mr. Hobbes's Leviathan in that which my Lord of Clarendon hath past over by John Whitehall ... Whitehall, John, fl. 1679-1685. 1679 (1679) Wing W1866; ESTC R5365 68,998 178

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seems to collect from Luke 20. v. 34 35 36. which saith The Children of this World marry but they that shall be accounted worthy to obtain that World neither marry nor dye any more Hence he infers That because the Children of this World that is people now alive do marry and those in Heaven do not marry that therefore the reprobate which he would have understood by the Children of this World may marry which is nonsence and without ground 't is ●rue that wicked Men in Scripture are termed the Children of this World but they are not those that are already in Hell but those that are likely to be so except they repent And observe further from the last mentioned Text which saith That the righteous dye not that he insers from thence That the wicked must dye in a future state This sufficiently exposeth it self But the substance of this his Discourse I have answered in speaking to his 38. Chapter which I now for that cause pass over and for that my Lord of Clarendon hath spoken something to this which I have omitted But only this let me say that I hope no Body will be incouraged into a wicked life presuming Mr. Hobbes saith true in respect of the smalness or rather no punishment hereafter for 't is apparent in this that he hath talk'd like a mad-man and in few places of his Book hath he in matters of concern spoken true Mr. Hobbes Chapter 45. drawing near an end of this wicked Work is drawn so dry that he is forc'd upon repetitions and falls again upon the Philosophy of Sight which he had spoken of in the beginning of his Book and saith That for want of his understanding in it the Iews and all the rest of the World have been mistaken about Daemons and then falls again to the corporeity of Spirits which I have answered before And here I shall observe a notable Collection of Mr. Hobbes from a Text of Scripture which saith that the Iews said to our Saviour Thou hast a Devil Hence he seems to infer that there was no such thing as Devils because our Saviour had none in any of those our Saviour is said to cast the Devil out of but that it was a mistake of the Iews and those people said to have Devils were only troubled with some extraordinary or ill Disease So see this Learned Gentleman holds his old method of arguing That because our Saviour had not a Devil therefore no other Man had and because the wicked Iews were mistaken as to our Saviour's having a Devil that therefore the good Iews and Penmen of the Scripture were mistaken as to any one else having a Devil But this I pass having spoken to it before only by the way observe that Mr. Hobbes coming again to Spirits saith That the meaning of our Saviour's being led by the Spirit into the Wilderness and his carrying from place to place was a vision So Mr. Hobbes against the letter of so many Texts condemns the opinion of all Divines I ever met with just as a little before all Philosophers about Opticks Mr. Hobbes p. 360. saying That 't is not Idolatry to pay Divine worship to a King if he command it by terror of punishment which I have spoken to before saith here That 't is no casting a stumbling block before his Brother for that his Brother cannot argue from thence that he let him be never so Wise and Learned approves it but doth it for fear though to do Mr. Hobbes right he in p. 362. saith the contrary One would wonder that any Man that admits of such a thing as a stumbling block in his Brother's way in a Religious sence and that was not distracted should say so for what can be a greater incouragement to another to be Idolatrous than his seeing his Wise and Learned neighbour do the thing Certainly it cannot be supposed that there can be a greater and 1 Cor. 8. 10 11 12. v. is expresly against Mr. Hobbes which saith That the weak Brother seeing one sit at meat in the Idols Temple is imboldned to eat things offered to Idols whereby he may perish which is there said to be a sin against Christ. And how shall a Man know admitting it was lawful as 't is not to be Idolatrous upon the account of fear whether it be done for fear or no. 'T is generally impossible and not to be supposed And Mr. Hobbes in this page prosecuting his Idolatrous Doctrine saith That to worship God in a peculiar place or to turn a Man's face to an Image or determinate place is not to worship the Image or place but to acknowledge it holy that is set apart from common use and is not Idolatry except done by a private authority I would now have any Man living tell me whether any Papist ever said more as much as Mr. Hobbes is against Bellarmine in justification of their using of Pictures or Crucifixes or the Heathens of their falling down before Stocks and Stones than he hath here done for my part I never did For I never heard but that the Papists say they use them to put them in mind and the Heathens as I have read say That they do not imagin that Stocks or Stones can do them any good as gods or that they are gods But if this allowed by Mr. Hobbes be not Idolatry I would know what is and against the second Command But Mr. Hobbes here implies a Learned distinction for he saith This is Idolatry if the Image be used by private Authority but I suppose he means 't is not Idolatry if set up by publick Authority For he instances where 't was lawful upon the appointment of God Almighty which he said before was King of Israel and saith ' ●is no more Idolatry than it was for the Israelites before the brazen Serpent to worship God or for the Iews to turn their faces towards Ierusalem or for Moses to put off his shooes or for people to worship God in the Churches Mr. Hobbes did well to condemn Aristotle for that Aristotle hath taught his Scholars to condemn Mr. Hobbes For such consequences did never Man in Bethlehem put together as he hath in this Book frequently and particularly here For doth it follow because God the Law maker can dispense by his Word with any of his Commands as this of the second Command admit the instances Mr. Hobbes puts would hold that therefore any Authority upon Earth can which was not the Law maker This is to make Man in God's stead And in a familiar instance to say that because the King Lords and Commons can by an Act dispense with a Law or make one particular action Legal acted against that Law that therefore every Master of a Family can do it which consequences are ab●urd And he might as well have said that because God might lawfully command Abraham to kill his Son that therefore a King may lawfully command any of his Subjects to do the ●ame But
God joyned with the matter contained in it which is so apt to beget in every good Man a testimony that it is the Word of God and we have a greater testimony by the general consent of Christian mankind that hath ever admitted them since written or the greatest part of them to be so besides we have the improbability of the penmen of them to be corrupted for which plentifully see the most Learned Dr. Stillingfleet's Origines Sacrae and to the same Learned Book shall I refer my Reader as to the regard of miracles and prophesies yet I will observe that though Mr. Hobbes frequently saith Miracles and Prophesies are not to be regarded without supernatural revelation yet he saith p. 187. That God reveals his Word by those that work Miracles which admits the credibility both of one and the other without supernatural revelation and is in my opinion like the rest of Mr. Hobbes his contradictions of himself Mr. Hobbes being an excellent Man at all kind of Laws saith p. 152. That the Ignorance of civil Law shall excuse a Man in a strange Country till declared to him But Mr. Hobbes never tells whose part it is to watch all strangers that come into England and to tell them the Law lest the King's Subjects suffer loss and the stranger offending be indemnified And I believe few strangers will venture the punishment for breach of the Law presuming to be justified by Mr. Hobbes his authority And doubtless 't is the duty of all Men to acquaint themselves with the Law of the place where they come and expect protection or else no State Soveraign or People can be safe but Mr. Hobbes is generally for Positions that tend to unhinge all the foundations of Government yet Mr. Hobbes seems to say which I cannot omit That no stranger ought to endeavour the alteration of Religion where he comes how congruously to the precedent I leave others to judge because 't is against the Law of Nature and this he doth say or his words are not sence But clearly as the case may be 't is against the Law of Nature and of God not to indeavour to alter the Religion of a place by teaching as suppose a true Christian should go into Aurenge Zebe's Country he ought to teach the true worship of God out of charity to their Souls that they might be saved by Iesus Christ and out of charity to their Bodies that the Heathen Women amongst them might desist from burning themselves at the death of their Husbands and indeed in this Position Mr. Hobbes is more uncharitable than a Iesuite Mr. Hobbes saith p. 156. That when a Man is in the power of the enemy the obligation of the Law ceaseth and obedience to the enemy is no crime I suppose Mr. Hobbes means that the obligation of all Law both Natural and Civil ceaseth of which he treated just before and this is but to say that a Child being in the custody of his Fathers enemy may if so commanded by the enemy kill his Father or to come closer to Mr. Hobbes it is to say that the murther of the old King was lawful by any Man that was under the power of the Army O what comfort this was to those that did it But Mr. Hobbes ought to know that the Law absolutely Natural as between Children and Parents and the Law suppositiously Natural as between the Subjects and their King is everlasting and universal and that Children and Subjects are bound by that Law not to injure their Parents or Soveraigns let what will happen to them or into what ever Power they come because that Nature never ceaseth though sometimes it may be supprest in any Man Nature ever being in any thing as long as the thing hath existence as 't is natural for a Tree to bud as long as 't is a live and for a Child or Subject to love his Parent or Prince as long as they are in this World to which the destruction of either is exactly opposite and contrary to his Nature and consequently the doing of it is against that Law and a damnable Sin And further observe that by this rule of Mr. Hobbes's if a Papist get a Protestant into his power that the Protestant may without sin worship a Crucifix or Wafer●cake in case the Papist bid him Mr. Hobbes saith p. 158. That a crime that hath been more frequently punish'd is greater than that of which there hath been many precedent examples of impunity By this Argument Plunder Military robbery was little less than lawful during the War because seldom punish'd And Duels so contrary to the Nature of any civilized State are lawful and the killing of Men in them little less than warrantable because so few have suffered for the fact of late days but certainly the scape of offenders alters not the crime things being the same let external accidents happen this way or that Mr. Hobbes saith p. 163. That if a Subject deny his subjection he may be proceeded against as an enemy and suffer at the Soveraign's pleasure let what Law soever be ordained against Treason There is no authority for this but Mr. Hobbes his saying so and as little reason For a Subject cannot cease to be a Subject when he pleaseth no more than a Son cease to be a Son at pleasure Nay he can never cease to be a Subject to his natural Prince except the Laws of the Empire he is born in so limit subjection and therefore whatever such a Subject doth or saith he ought to be condemned or cleared by those Laws under which he was a Subject And if this saying of Mr. Hobbes was true no Man could tell who was a Subject to his Prince and who not who was to be Arbitrarily punish'd and who not but God be blessed there is no such thing as Arbitrary punishment in England to be inflicted upon any person whatsoever or in any case whatsoever Mr. Hobbes saith p. 168. That 't is a Seditious Doctrine to say that every private Man is judge of good and evil actions but shews no reason for his saying so neither can he For 't is most apparent if he mean private particular Men's actions every Man is judge of his own and 't is impossible for any Common-wealth to take notice of them in particular except Men act things contrary to Law and then there are persons in all Nations appointed to take notice of the irregularity of those actions to punish them and every Man must judge of his actions whether they are good or evil that is against the Law of God or Man or adventure the punishment What else Mr. Hobbes should here mean than particular Men's actions I know not and then certainly 't is nonsence for him to say 'T is Seditious for a Man to judge of the good or evil of his own actions But this is as true as his saying in the next page That 't is no sin for a Man to act against his Conscience where