Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	canonical_a	scripture_n	time_n	1,859	5	3.8770	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

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

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 a●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 ●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

supposed to happen as in this case 't is adapted to persons flying and not to the chance of every extraordinary scarce to be supposed particular Yet even in that case the Law hath provided a remedy and that is a power in the King to pardon upon such an occasion But if Mr. Hobbes had not been resolved to quarrel with the Law of his native Country he might more reasonably have said That the Law in this particular is rational because guilt makes a Man fly and why should an innocent Man fly And although one that fled may be acquitted upon his trial yet it may be supposed that it was by reason that such a person had bribed the evidence or prosecutor or the thing perchance might be so done in the dark that although there was probable evidence to commit him yet there might not be sufficient evidence to convict him as to the capital punishment although he had convicted himself as to the loss of his goods by giving such evidence of his guilt against himself as flying was and the person hath reason to acknowledge the mildness of the Law that makes not his flying sufficient evidence against his life and real estate as well as personal But to give an example of this When Mr. Hobbes had written his Book and was in France he was as my Lord of Clarendon saith sought for to be attach'd but then he fled into England would not any body swear that Mr. Hobbes knew himself guilty of the abominable Doctrines in that Book Or why should he fly if he thought himself innocent And if Mr. Hobbes had been catch'd and arraigned for it and there had wanted Evidence to prove him the Author yet would not his own flight have been an evidence of guilt against him though perchance not of conviction as to Treason and Blasphemy in case the French Laws be as mild and gentle as the English So I think the Law in this point is rather a probable sparing the guilty than as Mr. Hobbes terms it a condemning the innocent and though he inveighs so much against this Law in many peremptory words as is frequent with him upon all occasions yet 't is good for more innocent Men than he that it be continued lest the flight be adjudged evidence above all evidence and a presumption of fact for absolute condemnation as well as for loss of goods against which no proof shall be admitted and the person condemned as it were out of his own Mouth And though Mr. Hobbes in the next page rails against the saying That this is a presumption of Law against which no proof shall be admitted yet suppose a Man confess a fact as the Amalekite to David is it unjust to deny any proof to the contrary I think scarce admit the person be in his wits and this flying is a confession of the fact as far as 't is possible for actions to be equally significant with words But Mr. Hobbes to shew his farther Learning in the Law saith p. 145. That there is a Law written that a Man expelled by force shall be restored by force When as the Law is That he shall be restored by the Iustices and the Sheriff which are Officers of Law and in execution of their authority wherein there is no force as force is commonly taken and that is unwarrantable violence Mr. Hobbes p. 149. saith That a Man that hath no supernatural revelation of the will of God is to obey for such the command of the Commonwealth And this he deduceth from two Texts one that where God saith to Abraham I know thou wilt command thy Children and thy House to keep the way of the Lord which was only as I conceive God's witness of Abraham's fidelity to him The other Text he cites is the peoples saying to Moses Speak thou to us and we will hear but let not God speak to us lest we die which was only as I think and expression of the fear of the people at the mount of the Glory of God's Majesty which before had been so terrible to them And upon these two basis'es it is that he founds several assertions of this kind in several parts of his Book In which for once I will deal with Mr. Hobbes by whole sale as p. 149 199 205 232 237. are to the same purpose and in p. 241 252. he something amplifies upon the Text and saith That he at the time of his Book would affirm nothing that was novelty or a paradox in Religion but would attend the end of that dispute of the sword concerning the authority by which all sorts of Doctrine are to be approved or rejected though to do him right p. 186. he hath a whole Paragraph against this and whose commands both in speech and writing must be obeyed by those that in●end to be protected And further saith p. 193. Except where God is temporal King 't is better to obey Man than God And p. 249. saith That the Laws of the Soveraign are to be obeyed in external acts and profession of Religion And p. 360. saith That we ought to pay Divine Worship to a Soveraign if he command it but Men may believe otherwise And p. 250. he saith That none can take notice what is or what is not the Word of God but the Soveraign And p. 322 323. saith That the Bible is only Law where the Civil Soveraign hath made it so And in several places he saith That no Man ought to regard Miracles or Prophecies without supernatural revelation because he cannot tell whether they are said or done to deceive And many other places to the same effect Thus he When this present Turk was in danger of being murthered by the treachery of the Captains of the Ianizaries to reduce the multitude to their obedience they did hang out Mahomet's banner which many ran under out of Devotion to be protected by it and to defend Mahomet's Successor But I dare say none said more in defence of Mahomets Doctrine than Mr. Hobbes hath here done nor yet I believe so much and no wonder a Renegado Christian being always observed to be worse than a Turk And thus much he goes further than I believe the generality of the Turkes will for they will stick to Mahomet's Doctrine in the Alcoran let the Grand Seignior say what he will but Mr Hobbes is for changing as often as the power of the Sword shall command And one would have thought that no man had been so impious in so high a measure to have affirmed That 't is better to obey the commands of Men than of God whereby he lays all under the dictates of the Sword and makes the truth of God wholly to depend upon the power of Men especially as to external acts of Worship and that he himself 1650. attended to determin all According to this Doctrine if a Papist and been commander we ought to have embraced Romish Idolatry if a Iew had come to have been General of the Army and