which immediatly follows and therefore I shall make no reflexions upon what he saies concerning it till we come thither nor upon his Worship and Attributes which he assigns to God or rather what are not Attributes to him in which under pretence of explaining or defining he makes many things harder then they were before As all men who know what the meaning of knowledg and understanding is know it less after they are told that iâ— is pag. 190. nothing else but a tumult in the mind raised by external things that press the organical parts of mans body And I must confess he hath throughout this whole Chapter with wonderful art by making use of very many easie proper and very significant words made a shift to compound the whole so involv'd and intricate that there is scarce a Chapter in his Book the sense whereof the Reader can with more difficulty carry about him and observe the several fallacies and contradictions in it Of which kind of obscurity Mr. Hobbes makes as much use as of his brightest elucidations and having the Soveraign power over all definitions which he uses not as is don in Geometry which he saies is the only science it hath pleased God hithâ—rto to bestow upon man-kind as preliminaries or postulata by which men may know the setled signification of words but reserves the prerogative to himself to give new Definitions as often as he hath occasion to use the same terms that when it conduces to his purpose he may inform his Reader or else perplex him And therefore he doth not think himself safe in the former plain Definition which he gives of understanding pag. 17. that it is nothing else but conception caused by speech by which speech being peculiar to man understanding must be peculiar to him also but now being in his one and thirtieth Chapter and to deprive God of understanding that Definition will not serve his turn since it cannot be doubted but that God doth hear all we say and therefore we are to be amuzed by being told pag. 190. that understanding is nothing else but a tumult of the mind raised by external things that press the organical parts of mans body So that there being no such thing in God and it depending on natural causes cannot be attributed to him And now he is as safe as ever he was and let him that finds no tumult in his mind that presses the organical parts of his body get knowledg and understanding as he can I am not willing under pretence of adjourning some reflexions which would be natural enough upon this Chapter to a more seasonable occasion for enlargement upon the third part of his Discourse to be thought purposely to pretermit some of his Expressions in this Chapter which seem to have somwhat of Piety and of Godliness in them and to raise hope that his purposes are yet better then they appear'd to be After all that illimited power he hath granted to his Soveraign and all that unrestrain'd obedience which he exacts from his Subject he doth in the first Paragraph of this Chapter frankly acknowledg pag. 186. that the Subjects owe simple obedience to their Soveraign only in those things wherein their obedience is not repugnant to the Law of God and is very solicitous so to instruct his Subject that for want of entire knowledg of his duty to both Laws he may neither by too much civil obedience offend the Divine Majesty or through fear of offending God transgress the Commandments of the Commonwealth a circumspection worthy the best Christian and is enough to destroy many of the Prerogatives which he hath given to his Soveraign and to cancel many of the Obligations he hath impos'd upon his Subject But if the Reader will suspend his judgment till he hath read a few leaves more he will find that Mr. Hobbes hath bin wary enough to do himself no harm by his specious Divinity but hath a salvo to set all streight again for he makeâ— no scruple of determining pag. 199. That the Books of the holy Scripture which only contain the Laws of God are only Canonical when they are establish'd for such by the Soveraign power So that when he hath suspended obedience to the Soveraign in those things wherein their obedience is repugnant to the Law of God it is meant only till the Soveraign declares that it is not repugnant to the Law of God with other excellent Doctrine the examination whereof we must not anticipate before its time and shall only wonder at his devout provision pag. 191. that Praiers and Thanksgiving to God be the best and most significant of honor And whereas most pious men are of opinion that rhose Devotions being the most sincere and addressed to none but to God himself who at the same time sees the integrity of the heart ought to be without the least affectation of Word or elegance of Expression he will have them pag. 192. made in words and phrases not sudden and plebeian but beautiful and well compos'd for else we do not God so much honor as we may and therefore he saies Tho the Heathen did â—â—surdly to worship Images for Gods yet their doing it in verse and with music both of voice and instrument was reasonable I cannot omit the observation of his very conâ—ident avoiding that place in the Scripture pag. 193. It is better to obey God then man which he could not but find did press him very hard and was worthy of a better answer then that it hath place in the Kingdom of God by pact and not by nature which if it be an answer hath not that perspicuity in it which good Geometricians require and the answer stands much more in need of a Commentary then the Text which he will supply us with in the next Edition However let it be as it will he hath he saies pag. 193. recover'd some hope that at one time or other this writing of his may fall into the hands of a Soveraign who will consider it himself he acknowledg'd at that time no Soveraign but Cromwell and without the help of any interessed or envious Interpreter and by the exercise of entire Soveraignty in protecting the public teaching it convert the truth of speculation into the utility of practice It is one of the unhappy effects which a too gracious and merciful Indulgence ever produces in corrupt and proud natures that they believe that whatsoever is tolerated in them is justified and commended and because Mr. Hobbes hath not receiv'd any such brand which the Authors of such Doctrine have bin usually mark'd with nor hath seen his Book burned by the hand of the Hang-man as many Books more innocent have bin he is exalted to a hope that the supreme Magistrate will at some time so far exercise his Soveraignty as to protect the public teaching his Principles and convert the truth of his Speculation into the utility of practice But he might remember and all those who are
is one of the grounds and principles which he concludes to be against the express duty of Princes to let the People be ignorant of If Mr. Hobbes had a Conscience made and instructed like other mens and had not carefully provided that whilst his judgment is fix'd under Philosophical and Metaphysical notions his Conscience shall never be disturb'd by Religious speculations and apprehensions it might possibly smite him with the remembrance that these excellent principles were industriously insinuated divulged and publish'd within less then two years after Cromwels Usurpation of the Government of the three Nations upon the Murder of his Soveraign and that he then declar'd in this Book pag. 165. that against such Subjects who deliberately deny the autority of the Common wealth then and so established which God be thanked much the major part of the three Nations then did the vengeance might lawfully be extended not only to the Fathers but also to the third and fourth generation not yet in being and consequently innocent of the fact for which they are afflicted because the nature of this offence consists in renouncing of subjection which is a relapse into the condition of War commonly called Rebellion and they that so offend suffer not as Subjects but as Enemies And truly he may very reasonably believe surely more then many things which he doth believe that the veneme of this Book wrought upon the hearts of men to retard the return of their Allegiance for so many years and was the cause of so many cruel and bloody persecutions against those who still retain'd their duty and Allegiance for the King And methinks no man should be an Enemy to the renewing war in such cases but he who thinks all kind of war upon what occasion soever to be unlawful which Mr. Hobbes is so far from thinking that he is very well contented and believes it very lawful for his Soveraign in this Paragraph of cruelty to make war against any whom he judges capable to do him hurt The Survey of Chapter 30. MR. Hobbes having invested his Soveraign with so absolute Power and Omnipotence we have reason to expect that in this Chapter of his Office he will enjoin him to use all thâ— autority he hath given him and he gives him faiâ— warning that if any of the essential Rights of Soveraignty specified in his eighteenth Chapter which in a word is to do any thing he hath a mind to do and take any thing he likes from any of his Subjects be taken away the Common-wealth is dissolv'd and therefore that it is his office to preserve those Rights entire and against his duty to transfer any of them from himself And least he should forget the Rights and Power he hath bestowed upon him he recollects them all in three or four lines amongst which he puts him in mind that he hath power to leavy mony when and as much as in his own conscience he shall judg necessary and then tells him that it is agaist his duty to let the People be ignorant or mis-informed of the grounds and reasons of those his essential Rights that is that he is oblig'd to make his Leviathan Canonical Scripture there being no other Book ever yet printed that can inform them of those rights and the grounds and reason of them And how worthy they are to receive that countenance and autority will best appear by a farther examination of the Particulars and yet a man might have reasonably expected from the first Paragraph of this Chapter another kind of tenderness indeed as great as he can wish of the good and welfare of the Subject when he declares pag. 175. That the office of the Monarch consists in the end for which he was trusted with the Soveraign power namely the procuration of the safety of the People to which he is obliged by the Law of Nature and to render an account thereof to God the Author of that Law But by safety he saies is not meaâ—â— a bare preservation but also all other contentments of life which every man by lawful industry without danger or hurt to the Common-wealth can acquire to hâ—mself Who can expect a more blessed condition Who can desire a more gracious Soveraign No man would have thought this specious Building should have its Foundation after the manner of the foolish Indians upon sand that assoon as you come to rest upon it molders away to nothing that this safety safety improv'd with all the other contentments of life should consist in nothing else but in a mans being instructed and prepar'd to know that he hath nothing of his own and that when he hath by his lawful industry acquir'd to himself all the contentments of life which he can set his heart upon one touch of his Soveraigns hand one breath of his mouth can take all this from him without doing him any injury This is the Doctrine to be propagated and which he is confident will easily be receiv'd and consented to since if it were not according the principles of Reason he is sure it is a principle from autority of Scripture and will be so acknowledg'd if the Peoples minds be not tainted with dependance upon the Potent or scribled over with the opinions of their Doctors One of the reasons which he gives why his grounds of the rights of his Soveraign should be diligently and truly taught is a very good reason to believe that the grounds are not good because he confesses pag. 175. that they cannot be maintain'd by any Civil Law or terror of legal punishment And as few men agree with Mr. Hobbes in the essential Rights of Soveraignty so none allows nor doth he agree with himself that all resistance to the rights of the Soveraignty be they never so essential is Rebellion He allows it to be a priviledg of the Subject that he may sue the King so there is no doubt but that the Soveraign may sue the Subject who may as lawfully defend as sue and every such defence is a resistance to the Soveraign right of demanding and yet I suppose Mr. Hobbes will not say it is Rebellion He that doth positively refuse to pay mony to the King which he doth justly owe to him and which he shall be compell'd to pay doth resist an essential Right of the King yet is not guilty of Rebellion which is constituted in having a force to support his resistance and a purpose to apply it that way And as the Law of Nature is not so easily taught because not so easily understood as the Civil Law so I cannot comprehend why Mr. Hobbes should imagine the Soveraign power to be more secure by the Law of Nature then by the Civil Law when he confesses That the Law of Nature is made Law only by being made part of the Civil Law and if the Civil Law did not provide a restraint from the violation of Faith by the terror of the punishment that must attend it the obligation from the Law
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
Representative of the Church and so the Teachers he elects are elected by the Church which was all the title they had from the time of the Apostles to the time of the Soveraigns becoming Christian from which time he is the true Representative of the Church as well as of the State pag. 299. and from this consolidation of the right Politic and Ecclesiastic in Christian Soveraigns he saies it is evident that they have all manner of power over their Subjects that can be given to man and may make such Laws as themselves shall judg fittest for the government of their own Subjects both as they are the Common-wealth and as they are the Church But as his Civil Soveraign rejects his Institution and knows he hath much a better title to his power then he could have by pretending to be the Representative of the People so his Christian Soveraign will as much reject the being Representative of the Church knowing that he hath a better title by being Soveraign to govern his Clery and all Ecclesiastical persons in his own Dominions and for suppressing all seditious and erroneous Doctrines which may disturb the Peace or discredit the Integrity of the Church then such a Representation would give him And they are little beholding to him for deriving their Supremacy Ecclesiastical from the Heathen Princes since few Heathen Soveraigns ever pretended to have the supreme or indeed any power or autority in what concern'd the service and worship of their God the direction and government whereof appertain'd to Magistrates and Ministers assigned for that Sacred Province as the Great Turk himself as hath bin said before doth not give Laws but receives advice and the interpretation of the Mufty in whatsoever Mahomet hath enjoin'd to be don But let the title be what it will he will be sure that his Soveraign shall have a power as unlimitted in all Ecclesiastical affairs as in Civil and not only to give what Religion he thinks fit and to allow what Book he pleases for Scripture to his Subjects but that he may himself if he pleases perform all the Functions himself in Religion pag. 287. as to baptize administer the Sacrament of the Lords Supper consecrate Temples and Pastors to Gods service And he saies the reason is evident why they do it not which is no other but that they have somwhat else to do However he is sure they may be literal Pastors of their own Subjects in their own persons and have autority to Preach to Baptize to administer the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and to consecrate both Temples and Persons to Gods service which he doth not grant out of the high qualifications which he believes to be inherent in the power and person of a King but from the low esteem he hath of those Offices and Mysteries of Religion For fore-seeing the objection that those administrations by the testimony of all Antiquity require the imposition of such mens hands as by the like imposition successively from the time of the Apostles have bin ordain'd to the like Ministry he removes that difficulty by offering a prospect of the original and use of the Imposition of Hands and instructs us from the perpetual custom and usage in all Nations of Imposition of Hands as well in Civil as in Sacred occasions as well in inflicting punishment as in conferring Honors and Dignities as in the condemnation of him who blasphemes the Lord all that heard him shall lay their hands upon his head and that all the Congregation should stone him And when Iairus his daughter was sick he did not desire our Saviour to heal her but to lay his hands upon her that she might be healed And they brought little Children up to him that he might lay his hands upon them c. And the reason is he saies pag. 298. as in the case of the Blasphemer where the witnesses laid their hands upon the guilty persons rather then a Priest or Levite or other Minister of Iustice because none else were able to design or demonstrate to the eies of the Congregation who it was that had blasphemed and ought to die so in other things it is natural to design any individual thing rather by the hand to assure the eies then by words to inform the ear in matters of Gods public service All which and many other Texts of which he never finds want to any purpose must signifie if they signifie any thing that the Imposition of hands that venerable circumstance that hath bin from the beginning of Christianity and where ever it is professed applied to all Ecclesiastical Functions is to no other purpose but to point out the person that all the people may know who is the person that is ordained but the person of every Soveraign Prince is too notorious and perspicuous to need any such demonstration and therefore he may Baptize Preach and Consecrate and do all other Offices without it To all which I shall suspend any farther answer until he can prevail with one Christian Prince to assume and exercise the power he so frankly confers upon him or one Christian Subject willing to receive those Honors and Graces from their Royal Hands I have waited upon Mr. Hobbes into Cardinal Bellarmine's Quarters and I will not interpose and disturb him there in the Controversie he hath with him which takes up the remainder of his forty second Chapter more then to say that he takes upon him to answer that Book of Bellarmine which of all that ever he writ is most easie to be answer'd having less of Reason and Learning in it and having few Assertors and being generally condemn'd among the Papists themselves and particularly by the Colledg of Sorbone the fairest Representers of the Doctrine of the Church of Rome and in answering of which he hath said nothing new nor so substantially as many others have don as he must confess if he reads William Berkeley the Father of Iohn He contends with â—ellarmineâ—or â—or some Texts of Scripture which he saies conclude for his Soveraign upon which the other would establish the supreme autority of the Pope and which in truth cannot be applied with any colour to either of them And he cannot take it ill that I have and shall take the same method in answering many of his Arguments which he himself thought fit to do before he would enter upon any particular disquisition of those of the Cardinals by laying open the consequences of his Doctrine pag. 314. that Princes and States that have the Civil Soveraignty in their several Common-wealths may bethink themselves whether it be convenient for them and conducing to the good of their Subjects of whom they are to give an account at the day of Iudgment to admit the same which way of exposing his whole Book is without doubt the best way of answering it I shall only add that as it was unreasonably undertaken by Bellarmine to establish a title that depends upon matter of Fact by arguments from
can In the other part he doth but repete what he hath formerly and in other places said of Eternal Life and Everlasting Death being a professed adversary to Eternity and of the Immortality of the Soul which by no means he allows to all which somewhat hath likewise bin said before And I shall add no more then what himself saies of some Popes applying some places of Scripture to prove their autority over Kings and Princes that it was not arguing from Scripture but a wanton insulting over Princes so in truth he doth not so much argue from as insult upon the Scripture by perverting and applying it to unnatural significations which never occurred to any man but himself and will be best answered by that autority which ought to controul such presumtuous undertakers For why should any particular man enter into dispute with him on the behalf of the Immortality of the Soul of the Eternity of the joies of Heaven and the Everlastingness of the pains of Hell as if they were points in Controversy when no Christian Church in the world makes or admits the least doubt to be made of either Nor can any man imagine why he leads us into this his Kingdom of Darkness but that he may resume again all those arguments which lie scatter'd through the several Chapters of his Book and which can never prevail whilst there is any light to direct the understanding by He renews his particular dream of pag. 335. Gods peculiar Kingdom over the Iews only which ceased and was determin'd by and in the election of Saul which he saies he hath proved at large in the thirty fifth chapter as he believes he had don every thing that he hath once affirm'd how weakly or erroneously soever and from the not understanding this or not comprehending that from that time of Saul God hath bin without a Kingdom and we are not under any other Kings by pact but our civil Soveraignsâ— men he saies are fallen in the error that the present Church is Christs Kingdom But what argumentation can a man hold with him who from the not understanding or believing that dissolution of Gods Kingdom in the election of Saul which no body ever heard of but from him deduces the Popes challenging to be vicar general of Christ in the present Church the introduction of Purgatory and Transubstantiation and all other errors in the Church of Rome which he takes great pains to confute and would perswade us to believe that the imagination of the Immortality of the Soul is the only ground and foundation of the general error of Eternal Life and Everlasting Death which makes him so solemnly endeavour to prove the nullity of either by so many Texts of Scripture which can never be difficult for him to do in this and any other particular that occurs to him to prove whilst he may take upon him to pervert the current sense and interpretation of some Texts in Scripture to his own purpose and to wrest and torture words to comply with his extravagant Wiâ— and Logic and when he cannot decline the taking notice of other Texts which manifestly controul his unnatural glosses he may acquiesce in a confession that they are very hardly to be reconcil'd with the doctrine received pag. 347. nor he saies is it any shame to confess the profoundness of the Scripture to be too great to be sounded by the shortness of human understanding which being prudently and modestly consider'd in the beginning of this Chapter or rather in the beginning of his Book might have saved the labour and the reproch of most of the Texts of Scripture which he hath unwarily or absurdly quoted from the beginning and which presumtion and method he continues to the end of his Book And as I have formerly said if a diligent peruser of the whole doth mark what himself saies in one place that will fully answer what he affirms in another his Book would need no other refutation As to that part of his most material argument against the Everlastingness of Hell fire in this Chapter that pag. 345. it seems very hard to say that God who is the Father of mercies that doth in Heaven and Earth all that he will that hath the hearts of all men in his disposal that worketh in men both to do and to will and without whose free gift a man hath neither an inclination to good nor repentance of evil should punishments transgressions without any end of time and with all the extremity of torture that men can imagine or more All which will not require nor can receive a fuller answer then he himself prescribes when he will establish the utmost extent of arbitrary power in his instituted Soveraign He saies pag. 153. it is reason that he which do's injury without other limitation then that of his own will should suffer punishment without other limitation then that of his will whose Law is thereby violated And so I shall keep him no longer company in his Kingdom of Darkness The Survey of Chapter 45. I Should not presume to except against so many of Mr. Hobbes his definitions but that pretending to so much plainness and perspicuity and having declared the necessary use of definition to be for the setling the signification of words without which he saies pag. 15. a man that seeks precise truth will find himself entangled in words as a bird in lime twiggs the more he struggles the more belimed and observing that rule for the most part throughout the first parts of his Book except where he found it necessary for his own purpose sometimes to perplex and belime his Readers yet in the two last parts supposing that he hath enough captivated them to believe any thing he saies he takes more care to fit his definitions for the support of his assertions then that his assertions may naturally result from the integrity of the definitions Especially since he hath gotten into his Kingdom of Darkness he takes less care to illustrate the instances and similies he thinks fit to use and so good Philosophers may comprehend what he means he is content to leave his less knowing Readers involved and puzled amongst hard words with which they have not used to keep company As he begins this Chapter with the definition of Sight which will not make any man see the farther or the better pag. 352. That sight is an imagination made by the impression on the Organs of sight by lucid bodies either in one direct line or in many lines reflected from Opaque or refracted in the passage through Diaphanous â—oâ—ies which produceth in living creatures in whom God hath placed such Organs an imagination of the object from whence the impression proceedeth It may be doubted that many of his friends who have given too much credit to all he saies may have found themselves in this definition entangled in words as a bird in Lime twiggs And if it were necessary in this place to tell them what Sight is
in Religion which lie scatter'd through those other two parts that men may take a view of the consequences and bethink themselves whether Christianity be advanc'd and consequently whether the peace and happiness of mankind be provided for and secured by such Doctrines 1. Those Books of Scripture only are Canonical and ought to be looked upon as the word of God in every Nation which are established for such by the Soveraign autority of each Nation pag. 199. 2. None can know that the Scriptures are Gods word tho all true Christians believe it but they to whom God himself â—ath revealed it supernaturally pag. 205. 3. Men ought to consider who hath next under God the autority of governing Christian men and to observe for a rule that Doctrine which he commandeth to be taught that is all Subjects ought to profess that Religion which the Soveraign enjoines whether he be Christian or Heathen pag. 232. 4. By the Kingdom of Heaven is meant the Kingdom of the King that dwelleth in Heaven and that the Kingdom of God is to be on Earth pag. 240 241. 5. The immortal life beginneth not in man till the Resurrection and day of Iudgment and hath for cause not his specifical nature and generation but promise pag. 241. 6. Gods Enemies and their torments after Iudgment appear by the Scripture to have their places upon Earth pag. 242. The fire shall be unquenchable and the torments everlasting after the Resurrection But it cannot therefore be inferr'd that he who shall be cast into that fire or be tormented with those torments shall endure and resist them so as to be eternally burned and tortured and yet never be destroied or die pag. 245. 7. There shall be a second death of every one that shall be condemn'd at the day of judgment after which he shall die no more The Scriptures affirm not that there shall be an eternal life therein of any individual person but to the contrary an everlasting Death pag. 245. 8. The Salvation we are to look for is to be upon the Earth For since Gods Throne is in Heaven and the Earth is his Footstool it is not for the dignity of so great a King that his Subjects should have any place so high as his Throne or higher then his Foot-stool pag. 247. 9. If we be commanded by our lawful Prince to say we do not believe in Christ we may obey such his command pag. 271. 10. None can be Martyrs for Christ but they that conversed with him on Earth and saw him after he was risen for a witness must have seen what he testifieth or else his testimony is not good pag. 272. 11. None can be a Martyr who hath not a warrant to preach Christ come in the Flesh and none but such who are sent to the conversion of Infidels pag. 273. 12. To teach out of the old Testament that Iesus was Christ and risen from the Dead is not to say that men are bound after they believe it to obey those who tell them so against the Laws and commands of their Soveraigns but they do wisely to expect the coming of Christ hereafter in patience and faith with obedience to their present Magistrates pag. 274. 13. The autority of Earthly Soveraigns being not to be put down till the day of Iudgment it is manifest we do not in Baptism constitute over us another autority by which our external actions are to be governed in this life pag. 274. 14. They who received not the Doctrine of Christ did not sin therein pag. 286. 15. Christian Kings have power to Baptize to Preach to administer the Lords Supper and to Consecrate both Temples and Persons to Gods service c. 297. 16. No man shall live in torments everlastingly pag. 345. 17. To pray voluntarily to the King for fair weather or for any thing that God only can do for us is divine worship and Idolatry but if a King compel a man to it by the terror of death or other great corporal punishment it is not Idolatry pag. 360. 17. If one being no Pastor or of eminent reputation for knowledg in Christian Doctrine do external honor to an Idol for fear and an other follow him this is no scandal given for he had no cause to follow such example pag. 362. And now I hope he hath made an ample Paraphrase upon Religion according to the definition he gâ—ve of it in the first entrance of his Leviathan when he defines pag. 26. Religion to be fâ—ar of power invisible feigned by the mind or imagined from tales publicly told and when the seed he sows for Religion to grow from or to consist in are opinion of ghosts ignorance of second causes devotion towards what men fear and taking things casual for Prognosticks These amongst others are the Doctrines of Mr. Hobbes in his two last parts which I believe in the judgment of most Christians are assoon renounc'd as pronounc'd and which indeed need little other confutation then the reciting them yet I doubt not many men will say how scandalous soever the assertions seem to be since he appeals to the Scripture and cites several Texts out of the same for the making good the worst of his Opinions it is pity that his ignorance or perverseness in those Interpretations had not bin made appear by manifesting that those places of Scripture could not admit that Interpretation and what the genuine sense thereof is Which consideration had bin more reasonable and necessary if these Errors had bin publish'd and those Glosses made and own'd by any National Church or any Body of Learned men but it may be thought too great a presumtion for a private man a stranger to Divinity to take upon him to put unnatural Interpretations upon several Texts of Scripture the better to apply them and make them subservient to his own corrupt purposes and opinions contrary to the whole current of Scripture and to the Doctrine thereof and without the least autority or shadow that the like Interpretation was ever made before by any other man I say such a person cannot reasonably expect that any body should too seriously examine all his frivolous and light suggestions and endeavor to vindicate those Texts from such impossible Interpretations Yet if any man thinks it worth his pains I am well content that he receive that honor and will still hope that Mr. Hobbes may be so well instructed in the true sense and end of the Scripture that he may better discern the eternity of the reward and punishment in the next World And so we conclude our discourse upon his Book and examine what he saies in his Conclusion The Review and Conclusion is only an abridgment and contracting the most contagious poison that runs through the Book into a less vessel or volume least they who will not take the pains to read the Book or reading it may by inadvertency and incogitancy not be hurt enough by it may here in less room and more nakedly