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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Principles against Law least he be obliged to stand or fall according to the rectitude or error thereof Tho every Instance he gives of his Soveraigns absolute power makes it the more unreasonable formidable and odious yet he gives all the support to it he can devise And indeed when he hath made his Soveraigns word a full and enacted Law he hath reason to oblige his Subject to do whatsoever he commands be it right or wrong and to provide for his security when he hath don and therefore he declares pag. 157. That whosoever doth any thing that is contrary to a former Law by the command of his Soveraign he is not guilty of any crime and so cannot be punished because when the Soveraign commands any thing to be don against a former Law the command as to that particular Fact is an abrogation of the Law which would introduce a licence to commit Murder or any other crime most odious and against which Laws are chiefly provided But he hath in another place given his Subject leave to refuse the Soveraigns command when he requires him to do an act or office contrary to his honor so that tho he will not suffer the Law to restrain him from doing what the Soveraign unlawfully commands yea his honor of which he shall be Judg himself may make him refuse that command tho lawfâ—l as if the Soveraign commands him to Prison as no doubt he lawfully may for a crime that deserves death he may in Mr. Hobbes's opinion refuse to obey that command Whereas Government and Justice have not a greater security then that he that executes a verbal command of the King against a known Law shall be punished And the Case which he puts in the following Paragraph that the Kings Will being a Law if he should not obey that there would appear two contradictory Laws which would totally excuse is so contrary to the common Rule of Justice that a man is obliged to believe when the King requires any thing to be don contrary to any Law that he did not know of that Law and so to forbear executing his Command And if this were otherwise Kings of all men would be most miserable and would reverse their most serious Counsels and Deliberations by incogitancy upon the suggestion and importunity of every presumtuous Intruder Kings themselves can never be punished or reprehended publicly that being a reproch not consistent with the reverence due to Majesty for their casual or wilful errors and mistakes let the ill consequence of them be what they will but if they who maliciously lead or advise or obey them in unjust resolutions and commands were to have the same indemnity there must be a dissolution of all Kingdoms and Governments But as Kings must be left to God whose Vice-gerents they are to judg of their breach of Trust so they who offend against the Law must be left to the punishment the Law hath provided for them it being in the Kings power to pardon the execution of the Sentence the Law inflicts except in those cases where the Offence is greater to others then to the King as in the murder of a Husband or a Father the offence is greater to the Wife and to the Son for their relation then to the King for a Subject and therefore upon an Appeal by them the Transgressor may suffer after the King hath pardon'd him It is a great prerogative which Mr. Hobbes doth in this Chapter indulge to his fear his precious bodily fear of corporal hurt that it shall not only extenuate an ill action but totally excuse and annihilate the worst he can commit that if a man by the terror of present death be compelled to do a Fact against the Law he is wholly excused because no Law can oblige a man to abandon his own preservation and supposing such a Law were obligatory yet a man would reason pag. 157. If I do it not I die presently if I do it I die afterwards therefore by doing it there is time of life gain'd Nature therefore compels him to the Fact by which a man seems by the Law of Nature to be compell'd even for a short reprieve and to live two or three daies longer to do the most infamous and wicked thing that is imaginable upon which fertile soil he doth hereafter so much enlarge according to his natural method in which he usually plants a stock supposes a principle the malignity whereof is not presently discernable in a precedent Chapter upon which in a subsequent one he grafts new and worse Doctrine which he looks should grow and prosper by such cultivation as he applies to it in Discourse and therefore I shall defer my Considerations to the contrary till I wait upon him in that enlarged disquisition The Survey of Chapter 28. THe eight and twentieth Chapter being a Discourse of Punishments and Rewards it was not possible for him to forget in how weak a condition he had left his Soveraign for want of power to punish since want of power to punish and want of autority to cause his punishment to be inflicted is the same thing especially when the guilty person is not only not oblig'd to submit to the Sentence how just soever but hath a right to resist it and to defend himself by force against the Magistrate and the Law and therefore he thinks it of much importance to enquire by what door the right and autority of punishing in any case came in He is a very ill Architect that in building a House makes not doors to enter into every office of it and it is very strange that he should make his doors large and big enough in his institution to let out all the liberty and propriety of the Subject and the very end of his Institution being to make a Magistrate to compel men to their duty for he confesses they were before obliged by the Law of Nature to perform it one towards another but that there must be a Soveraign Sword to compel men to do that which they ought to do yet that he should forget to leave a door wide enough for this compulsion to enter in at by punishment and bringing the Offender to Justice since the end of making the Soveraign is disappointed and he cannot preserve the peace if guilty persons have a right to preserve themselves from the punishment he inflicts for their guilt It was very improvidently don when he had the draught of the whole Contracts and Covenants that he would not insert one by which every man should transfer from himself the right he had to defend himself against public Justice tho not against private violence And surely reason and Self-preservation that makes a man transfer all his Estate and Interest into the hands of the Soveraign and to be disposed by him that he may be secure against the robbery and rapine of his neighbors companions will as well dispose him to leave his life to his discretion that it may be
their own hands and it is a marvellous thing that any man can believe that he can be as vigorously assisted by people who have nothing to lose as by men who defending him defend their own Goods and Estates which if they do not believe their own they will never care into what hands they fall Nor is the Soveraign power divided by the Soveraigns consenting that he will not exercise such a part of it but in such and such a manner and with such circumstances for he hath not parted with any of his Soveraignty since no other man can exercise that which he forbears to exercise himself which could be don if he had divided it And it is much a greater crime in those who are totally ignorant of the laws to endeavour by their wit and presumtion to undermine them then that they who are learn'd in the study and profession of the Law do all they can to support that which only supports the Government Much less is the Soveraign power divided by the Soveraigns own communicating part of it to be executed in his name to those who by their education and experience are qualified to do it much better then he himself can be presumed to be able to do as to appoint Judges to administer Justice to his people upon all the pretences of right which may arise between themselves or between him and them according to the Rules of the Law which are manifest to them and must be unknown to him who yet keeps the Soveraign power in his hands to punish those Deputies if they swerve from their duty To the mischiefs which have proceeded from the reading the Histories of the ancient Greeks and Romans I shall say no more in this place then that if Mr. Hobbes hath bin alwaies of this opinion he was very much to blame to take the pains to translate Thucydâ—des into English in which there is so much of the Policy of the Greeks discovered and much more of that Oratory that disposes Men to Sedition then in all Tullies or Aristotles works But I suppose he had then and might still have more reason to believe that very few who have taken delight in reading the Books of Policy and Histories of the ancient Greeks and Romans have ever fallen into Rebellion and there is much more fear that the reading this and other Books writ by him and the glosses he makes upon them in his conversation may introduce thoughts of Rebellion into young men by weakning and laughing at all obligations of conscience which only can dispose men to obedience and by perswading Princes that they may safely and justly follow the extent of their own inclinations and appetites in the Government of their Subjects which must tire and wear out all Subjection at least the cheerfulness which is the strength of it by lessening the reverence to God Almighty which is the foundation of reverence to the King and undervaluing all Religion as no otherwise known and no otherwise coustituted then by the arbitriment of the Soveraign Prince whom he makes a God of Heaven as well as upon the Earth since he is upon the matter the only author of the Scripture it self the swallowing of all which opinions must be the destruction of all Government and the ruine of all obedience Tho most of his reflexions are reproches upon the Government of his own Country which he thinks is imperfectly instituted yet he cannot impute the doctrine of killing Kings whether Regicide or Tyrannicide to that Government nor the unreasonable distinction of Spiritual and Temporal jurisdiction to rob the Soveraign of any part of his Supremacy and divide one part of his Subjects from a dependance upon his justice and autority God be thanked the Laws of that Kingdom admit none of that doctrine or such distinctions to that pernicious purpose Nor do the Bishops or Clergy of that Kingdom however they are fallen from Mr. Hobbes his grace use any style or title but what is given or permitted to them by the Soveraign power And therefore this Controversy must be defended by those who justly lie under the reproch of the Church of Rome who it may be consider him the less because tho they know him not to be of theirs they think him not to be of any Religion The power of levying Mony which depending upon any general assembly he saies pag. 172. endangereth the Common-wealth for want of such nurishment as is necessary to life and motion shall be more properly enlarg'd upon in the next Chapter when I doubt not very wholsome remedies will be found for all those diseases which he will suppose may proceed from thence but t is to be hoped none will chuse his desperate prescriptions which will cure the diâ—ease by killing the Patient He concludes this Chapter after all his bountiful donatives to his Soveraign with his old wicked doctrine that would indeed irreparably destroy and dissolve all Common-wealths That when by a powerful invasion from a foreign Enemy or a prosperous Rebellion by Subjects his Soveraign is so far oppressed that he can keep the field no longer his Subjects owe him no farther assistance and may lawfully put themselves under the Conqueror of what condition soever for tho he saies pag. 174. The right of the Soveraign is not extinguished yet the obligation of the members is and so the Soveraign is left to look to himself There are few Empires of the World which at some time have not bin reduc'd by the strength and power of an outragious Enemy to that extremity that their forces have not bin able to keep the field any longer which Mr. Hobbes makes the period of their Subjects Loyalty and the dissolution of the Common wealth yet of these at last many Princes have recover'd and redeem'd themselves from that period and arrived again at their full height and glory by the constancy and vertue of their Subjects and their firmly believing that their obligations could not be extinguish'd as long as the right of their Soveraign Monarch was not So that there is great reason to believe that the old Rules which Soveraignty allwaies prescribed to it self are much better and more like to preserve it then the new ones which he would plant in their stead because it is very evident that the old subjection is much more faithful and necessary to the support and defence of the Soveraignty then that new one which he is contented with and prescribes which he will not only have determin'd as to any assistance of his natural Soveraign tho he confesses pag. 174. his right remains still in him but that he is obliged so strictly obliged that no pretâ—nce of having submitted hâ—mself out of fear can absolve him to protect and assist the Vsurper as long as he is able So that the entire loss of one Battel according to his judgment of subjection and the duty of Subjects shall or may put an end to the Soveraignty of any Prince in Europe And this
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
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