observed of Mahomet's doctrine for Religion that the Turk teacheth within his Dominions or that a Papist should teach if uppermost So now Mr. Hobbes hath done like a Scholar as he may well think to find a place in the Bible to prevent Preaching against the Alcoran or Mass Yet to do Mr. Hobbes Right after his so many assertions that that only is to be acknowledged as Canonical Scripture which the Civil Soveraign saith is so and that in 1651. he attended the determination of the Sword to decide all Doctrines he saith That he can acknowledge nothing to be Canonical Scripture but that which the Church of England hath commanded to be acknowledged for such and I think there is nothing so near an Orthodox opinion in all his Book but I suppose he meant that he would acknowledge it to be so only until the Sword had at that time determin'd it After Mr. Hobbes had laid down positive general Rules for enervating the Scriptures in saying That the Authority of them depended upon the determination of the Soveraign now in his 33. Chap. he comes to the particulars of the several Books of the Scriptures and hopes there I suppose to compleat the work For he saith That the several Books especially of the Old Testament were not written by those that are commonly supposed to be the Penmen of them but by others a long time after their deaths which if true may raise a scruple to the truth of them only he saith That he supposeth Moses wrote the greatest part of Deuteronomy else that the Old Testament was penned generally by Esdras for which he cites the Apocrypha Esdras the 14 th Chapter and when he hath done so takes it for granted that Esdras penned them after the captivity To answer particularly Mr. Hobbes in this would require a very large Discourse enough to tire out both Me and my Reader besides I think it not worth my while to answer general assertions in matters of fact which are contrary to the general admissions of the most Learned Men with long Discourses but rather content my self with saying that they are not to be credited but rejected Yet to that which Mr. Hobbes is particular in I shall answer particularly He saith The Pentateuch was penned long after Moses death and for this he cites the 12. of Genesis v. 6. which saith That when Abraham passed through the Land to the plain of Moreh the Canaanite was then in the Land Which shews clearly saith Mr. Hobbes that this Book was written after Moses time because the Canaanite was not displaced till after Moses death But if Mr. Hobbes had well considered and look'd into the 7 th verse he would have found that God promised Abraham the Land in which at that time Abraham built an Altar unto the Lord which was as it were a taking possession of the Land and by God's gift he had a better right to it as to futurity than the Canaanite had whereupon Abraham by Faith look'd upon the future time and saw the Canaanite displaced and knew that by force of God's promise the Canaanites antient right to them and their posterity was changed So that the Canaanites as to the succession might be rather said to have had the Land than that they had it and so is the 48. Gen. 21. to be understood Or may not the Text be rationally intended that Moses said this to declare that the Canaanite was then in the Land and not any other people How unreasonable then it is for Mr. Hobbes to change a general supposition at the best but upon a doubtful Text of Scripture and an Apocryphal story I shall refer to any Man that hath his reason and if reason be on my side Mr. Hobbes ought to be so too because he said before that Reason is the Word of God The rest of Mr. Hobbes his Texts to prove this are nothing to the purpose and so I pass them over As to the Pen-men of the Books of the New Testament he determins nothing but saith That they were made Canonical by the Church and that the writers of them were indowed with God's spirit in that they conspire to the setting forth the rights of the Kingdom of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Let me then ask Mr. Hobbes why they need to be made Canonical and to be approved or rejected by the Soveraign or his reciprocal Word the Sword Mr. Hobbes said p. 38. That the Scriptures by the spirit of God in Man mean a mans spirit inclined to godliness the falsness of which I have upon that page spoken to Now p. 207. he comes to treat of Spirits in general what they aâ—e and saith if I rightly understand him which I think is difficult in so perplex'd a discourse as he makes all over this his 34. Chapter That they are bodies for he saith that substance and body are the same thing And p. 17 53 214. saith That all substances must be bodies and that the words incorporeal substance joined together are unintelligible nonsence and imply a contradiction And so runs on further in his old vein of making positive affirmations contrary to the general received opinion of all Christian Men without giving any reason at all for his so â—aying But to reason the matter a little why are the words incorporeal substance contradictories Why may there not be a substance that hath no Body as well as a substance that hath one For substance is nothing but that which doth substare such and such qualifications as are proper and do belong to the being or nature of the thing in which those qualifications are and without which those qualifications could not be for want of something to support them As we may say that Iron which is a corporeal substance is hard so we may say that a thing of a more subtle existence or substance is intelligent rational or wise For that it may be equally capable to support these as the Iron doth hardness colour or any other qualification Now then to say that body and substance are the same thing is only a positive saying and if the words had been never thought on before might as well signifie variously as the same Then certainly 't is a strange piece of confidence to obtrude such a position upon the World without any possibility of reason which is contrary to the sentiments of all Learned persons that ever I heard of But if Mr. Hobbes ask me what a Spirit is if it be not a Body I must say that I can no more tell the likeness of it than Mr. Hobbes supposing he had never seen by some external obstruction any thing nor spoken with them that had could have told what a like thing an Horse or a grey Hound is things incapable and things obstructed giving the same account of their proceedings But 't is apparent that there is such a thing as a Spirit for our Saviour saith Luke 24. 39. Handle me and see for a Spirit hath
restore him and themselves into their mutual happiness I think in this last matter I have been so far from wronging Mr. Hobbes though I have not repeated his very words in several parts of his Book that t is plain his particular pages make his opinion look much worse than any thing I have said And I intend not to tye my self in every place to particular Repetitions which would be too tedious but I challenge any Man when I have done to say either in this or any subsequent matter that I have wronged Mr. Hobbes in the least though I believe many will doubt whether the Positions be any English mans they are so gross till read in his Book in that which I shall repeat of him in words or substance And to lay more weight upon Mr. Hobbes than he hath laid upon himself would be further to load the oppressed and like laying Felony to a Man's charge that was really guilty of high Treason And as I shall lay nothing falsly upon Mr. Hobbes intentionally so shall I not quarrel with every thing in his Book for there are many things which shew Mr. Hobbes a Man of tolerable parts though little in it shews him a Man willing to converse and digest his notions whiâ—h would have freed him from the delivery I suppose not only of so many gross but supercilious Errors besides no Book was ever so false but had some Truths and Orthodoxality in it and that may be seen in the Alcoran and the Mass Book Neither shall I often quarrel with Mr. Hobbes's Book in things the truth or falshood of which are of no moment but with his gross and dangerous Errors or that which tends to support them As for his Liberty and Necessity I shall not ingage in hearing t is fully answered by a Learned Bishop already no more than with what my Lord of Clarendon hath been pleased to answer and other Writings against Mr. Hobbes's Leviathan did I never hear of or see so directly to fall in with Mr. Hobbes page after page He p. 1. calls Nature The Art whereby God hath made and governs the World Here at first he is got into such a Rapture that he hath lost his Reason for how God can be said to make the World by the Art called Nature is inconceptible for that the Nature of things suppose the preexistence of those things in which Nature must exist and indeed is nothing else but an Energy or force given to things at the Creation for the acting of such thingâ— as they are adapted to whether of Generation or otherwise and is subsequent to the thing made And this Position of Mr. Hobbes is but another manner of saying That God did not make the World by the Word of his Power but had some Instrument preexistent to work with which is his first attack upon the honour of his Maker Mr. Hobbes p. 2. saith That what the Passions of a Man as Fear c. are in himsâ—lf he may judge what are the Passions in anoâ—her on the like occasion But certainly common experience teacheth every considering Man the contrary for who knows not that knows any thing of the difference of thâ— Constitutions That one fears c. that which another doth not and that under the very same circumstances For doth any Man think that because he dares not get upon his Horse back that therefore another dare not This would be one way to lose him but such inconveniencies I believe Mr. Hobbes never thought of only ventured the conceit supposing himself infallible Mr. Hobbes p. 3. saith That the appearance of the objects of sence to us is fancy which is the same waking that dreaming and p. 5. saith That Imagination and Memory are but one thing which for divers consiâ—erations hath divâ—rs Names These assertions I should not trouble my self to shew the unreasonableness of no more than with his condemning all the Universities of Christendom p. 4. with impropriety of Speech grounded upon the position of Aristotle the greatest Natural Philosopher that ever the World produced viz. That Sence is causâ—d by a Species resulting from the object and yet shews no reason for his contrary conceit Whereas had Mr. Hobbes had any modesty or so much learning in the Law as in other places he pretends to he would have thought it hard to explode an old opinion without a better reason and would have known that a prior Possession is the best Title against all but him that hath right This tends only to disparage the way of Learning but I am afraid his saying that Sence is Fancy and memory Imagination strikes higher and that thereby he intends to enervate the authority of the Scriptures which he so much endeavours through his Book if not utterly to supplant them which will make him the easier task hereafter to maintain that only that is Canonical Scripture which is authorized by the civil Soveraign as he affirms p. 199 205 c. For the Argument lies thus It must be agreed on all hands that the things done and delivered to us in the Scriptures were for the most part but the things they who deliver'd them saw and remembred which is a great ground-work of the Scriptures Authority Then hâ—â— pâ—sito mâ—y Mr. Hobbes and his Disciples say If the Relators of the Scriptures only saw and remembred these things to be so they only fancied them and imâ—gined them and what a Man phancies or imagins may be or may not be But t is most plain that seeing is one thing and phancy another memory one thing and imagination another As for instance before I saw Mr. Hobbes's Leviathan I fancied and imagined by whâ—t I heard that it was an ill Book but when I had seen and read it and remembred the Contents of it I was certain that it is as full of contradictions execrable detestable and damnable Opinions as a Toad is of Poyson So I hope it appears that the Authority of the Scriptures is not lessened by this conceit of Mr. Hobbes which in it self is contrary to sence but that every good Man will think that the Pen-men of them had a better certainty than phantasie and imagination Mr. Hobbes p. 7. saith That Witches Witchcraft is not any real Power but that they are justly punished for the false belief they have that they can do such mischief joyned with their purpose to do it if they can I will not controvert with Mr. Hobbes whether there have ever been Witches or no. Neither should I controvert with Mr. Hobbes the dueness of their punishment which is death and that only as he saith for belief they can and their desire to do mischief only in this he meddles a little with our profession of the Law and I could wish for the sport-sake he had dipt a little more into it than he hath in his Book But this let me tell Mr. Hobbes that no Man ever was by our Law put to death for believing he could and
he doth in all Commonwealths for by him King's reign For there was a certain time when there was no King in Israel and God appointed sometimes Iudges Chiefs that is Kings to govern them between which Iudges there was intervals and I would know what temporal Iurisdiction God exercised over them in those intervals or at that time when there was no King Certainly none that we ever read of in holy Writ and 't is reasonable to suppose God exercised none for that the people of Israel were then grievously oppressed and so continued sometimes forâ—y Years before a deliverer rose up which they needed not to have done if God had undertaken the temporal government for that God by his Power was able to have deliver'd them which we see he never did but by a temporal Governor in the time of which Governor the high Priest was not God's Viceroy but rather the Governor 's and the 17. Deut. 9. 12. v. clearly makes the Priest and the Iudge which should then afterwards be different persons and different Emploiments So 't is most apparent that God was no otherwise the temporal King of the Israelites than he was King of all the Earth nor the high Priest as high Priest his Viceroy though the Israelites were his chosen people as to Religious worship And as to the 1 Sam. 8. 7. which Mr. Hobbes cites where God said to Samuel when the people asked a King They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not rule over them it is no more but that God was angry with them for not taking such a Governor as he was pleased to set over them as Samuel then was and Baruck Ieptha and Samson had been but that they would have one not only of their own choosing but also aâ—ter the similitude of other Nations which God had rejected and had chosen them for his peculiar people and so in that sence they may be said to reject God in that they rejected those he did set over them As to Mr. Hobbes his other places of Scripture I think them nothing to the matter and so I shall pass them over as he saith he doth many more places for this purpose not cited but instead of citing them slily as I think claps his hands at the Clergy p. 219. and saith 'T is a wonder no more notice is taken of this but that it gives too much light to Christian Kings to see their right of Ecclesiastical government To this I will answer for the Clergy of England that those that are not infected with a spice of Popery as I am afraid some such there are God make them fewer or some for want of due consideration always acknowledge the King for supream Head of the Church and by that Title pray for him and not by that sleighty Title of Supream Moderator of the Church and the English Clergy if some few do otherwise are no more to be blamed for this than the English Souldiers were in the blessed Reign of Queen Elizabeth to be blamed in Holland because Stanly and York delivered Towns up to the Spaniard or English Writers because one English Man hath written such a Book as the Leviathan who after his Learned Discourse of the Kingdom of God comes to tell us p. 219. what the Kingdom of Grace is and saith Those are in it that promise obedience to God's government I suppose he means temporal of which he hath been treating before to whom saith he God hath gratis given to be his Subjects hereafter which is called the Kingdom of Glory Now certainly the Kingdom of Grace by all Men before Mr. Hobbes was taken to be God's Spiritual government which he exerciseth in the Hearts of good Men by his commands threats and promises to which if they yield obedience in and through the mercies of our blessed Saviour they are made inheritors of the Kingdom of Glory And what a quibble this is of Mr. Hobbes from the word gratis to change the sence of the Kingdom of Grace I shall refer to any intelligent person Mr. Hobbes coming in his 36. Chapter to treat of â—he Word of God and the Prophets comes to shew what Word signifies in Scripture of which I do think he hath given a true account in several Texts but is not able in any kind of Truth to hold out long For p. 224. he saith That the Word of God in several Texts of Scripture signifies which I never observed in any such words as are consonant to the dictates of right Reason and the first Text he cites is 2 Chron. 35. 22. where 't is said That Iosiah harkned not to the words of Necho from the mouth of God which saith Mr. Hobbes were but the dictates of Reason This is most palpably unreasonable for there was no reason for Iosiah to forbear fighting with Necho the Kings of Iudah having beaten as great Kings as the Kings of Egypt and the Iews being then in a powerful condition when he came into his Country with a great Army So this Text must either be intended that the words of Necho were but what God had told him or that they were revealed to Iosiah to be God's mind by some Prophet which most Interpreters take to be Ieremiah nay Mr. Hobbes himself cites Esdras for this last Interpretation but saith That in this he approves not an Apocryphal writer though before when he had a mind to invalidate the Scriptures by making the Penmen of them uncertain seemed strongly to incline that Esdras was the Penman of them after the Captivity when it might be supposed the certain Truth was lost and that only from the Authority of the Book of Esdras whose Authority or rather Interpretation he here rejects And then Mr. Hobbes goes on to cite several other Texts of Scripture to prove that in Scripture by the Word of God is meant the dictates of Reason or Equity as Ierem. 31. 33. and other places where God saith He will write his Laws in their Hearts Which places by all other Men I think have been interpreted the operation of God's Spirit upon the minds of Men by inclining them to obey his Laws after God had taught them by his Prophets or Ministers And there is no cause to call that reason or the proceed of reason which the Scripture terms the operation of God A Man bringing reason or an aptitude to it into the World and so he doth not that which God effects in him after he is in the World Mr. Hobbes p. 238. saith That a private Man hath Power to believe or not believe Miracles Thought bâ—ing free but saith he when it comes to publick confession the private reason must submit to the publick Now by his Rule though a Man do not believe lying wonders yet he may say he doth if any one will believe Mr. Hobbes In short this is much like his precedent Doctrine of practice and serves to authorise the grossest hypocrisie in the World in case the