desiring to do mischief for the case of high Treason goes farther than belief and desire and Mr. Hobbes would think it hard else especially in this case I shall put him viz. when Mr. Hobbes only believed he could and desired to write such a Book as the Leviathan which tended in the year 1651. to keep both Church and State subverted or to resubvert them if restored had it been known the Law of the Land would not have taken his life for it but when his Book was published by him and the mischief had spread it self had the Law been unmusled he would scarce have scaped with his life except his Pocket or Legs had proved better than ever I perceived his Head But why Mr. Hobbes should be so much against ill desires in this page as to make them capital when in p. 26. he denies any Iniquity to be in them as I shall shew in its place is not to be answered save that Mr. Hobbes must be allowed to forget himself in the space of 19 pages Mr. Hobbes condemns the Schools in p. 8. and I will refer it to any reasonable Man whether he condemn them for any thing that is rational or sensible And p. 10. he saith That the best Prophet naturally is the best Guesser I suppose he means the best natural Prophet and so his ill methodised words may be true but ' â—is false to say as I shall shew anon that the Prophets of the Old and New Testament were only Guessers that is only fancied and imagined what they wrote was true Mr. Hobbes p. 11. saith That there is no Idea or Conception of any thing we call Infinite This he follows with a blaming the Philosophers and School-men for saying there is and indeed presseth this Position with a company of words that are enough to make any Man's Head to run round that is not used to Mr. Hobbes's Notions that mâ—ke often a great noise and signifie nothing which will appear fully in this Paragraph Where he confesseth a God but denies us any in effect conception of him and p. 16. he saith â—hat Infinite is a Negative word So there 's an end if Mr. Hobbes say true of praying to and worshipping God for what we can have no Conception of we can never Worship for such a thing is nothing as to the worshipper and consequently cannot be worshipped nothing being uncapable to be passive 'T is true we cannot conceive the infinity of God terminatively that is the extent of it which are terms contradictory but we may conceive a God or Bâ—â—ng that is infinite that is to say a Gâ—â— that can do or doth know every thiâ—g and is not bounded or stopt by any pâ—â—ticular so that he can go no farther â—â—t we cannot know how far that Powâ—â— or Knowledge doth extend This Poâ—â—tion Mr. Hobbes grounds much upon a former Notion of his which one would not easily think he would have made such a wicked and unreasonable use of viz. That whatever we conceive hath been first perceived by sense Which Tenet is very plausible and true as to our reasonings from matter of Fact whereby we create in our selves deductions appertaining to Sense and Reason and the government of our Conversations with Men and things that we can definitively know but what is this to things above definitive Knowledge For what we cannot definitively know is not the object of Sense and yet we may conceive there may be something done or known that we cannot do or know and a power or knowledge capable to do and know as far as 't is possible for any thing to be done or known though we know not the extent of the Capacity either of the Agent or Patient and this we call infinite Power and Knowledge I think Mr. Hobbes in his Paragraph is setting up the Athenians unknown god which they ignorantly worshipp'd but St. Paul declared him unto them and I have so good an opinion of St. Paul that he would declare nothing but what was conceptible nay Mr. Hobbes himself in his 12 page approves very well of the word Infinitive though he buggards at the word Entity as useful but I would know of any rational Man of what use the word Infinitive is if we can conceive nothing by it for if we cannot conceive infinite or a thing that is infinite what do we do with the word infinitive that signifies something not bounded that is infinite And now I am upon his condemning the word Entity which he saith as well as Intentionaliâ—y and Quiddity are insignificant words of the School p. 12. Because I see Mr. Hobbes hath no infinite capacity I will tell him the best I can that Metaphysics may not be quite exploded by arrogant Ignorance what is meant by Entity and Quiddity and as for Intentionality I do not remember it to be a word used in Philosophy it being near 20 years since I left Oxford or read any thing of that kind but as to Entity much the same with Quiddity 't is a word to express our conceptions by of the nature of any thing though no such thing was in being As a Man may conceive the nature of a Dog under such shapes and qualities though there was no such creature and the general Answer for this upon the â—uestion Quiddity is Entity the partiâ—â—lar Caneity And further to illustrate iâ—â— we may conceive a Man of an Opinion that there are no such persons in the Godhead as God the Son and God the Holy Ghost or of an Opinion that all the World past and present were fools and mistaken and that he only could give just measures to Words and Learning and subvert all things though in reality there was no such Person and this the Schools would call Atheisteity Arroganteity And if Mr. Hobbes or any one else should conceive a new Leviathan before 't is made the Schools would call it Leviathaneity and after Mr. Hobbes his death Hobbeity but 't is not good for Mr. Hobbes to write such an other Book lest the Lawyers though they be so ignorant as he saith they be p. 50. be ready with a Penaity and the Kings Majesty who hath suffered so much by Mr. Hobbes's first Book be not so ready with a Pardoneity which on such an occasion I believe Mr. Hobbes would own as an Entity though told him by a Schoolman and that a material Entity Mr. Hobbes p. 19. saith That the words a Free Subject are words without meaning and this he saith in his Chapter of Reason where one would not expect such Nonsence only 't is an Abridgement of his Doctrine tending to set Prince and People together by the Ears For I say I am a Free Subject and 't is as good sence as ever Mr. Hobbes spoke in his Life For I am a Subject of the Kings and free I bless God to enjoy my Property and Liberty according to the Laws of my Native Country And observe that the Egyptians nor their Lands were not
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
none at all and this without vouchsafing a Reason of such an idle conceit And let Mr. Hobbes say what he can or any one for him this Paragraph tends only to draw wicked or unwary Readers into contempt of Religion and to make a mockery of it which must tend to their Eternal misery and to keep them from that beatifical vision which Mr. Hobbes page 30. without Sence or Reason calls a word of the Schoolmen and unintelligible Mr. Hobbes p. 32. saith That when we believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God we believe the Church or a Prophet except some immediate revelation intervene so far as 't is possible to know what he means He saith That if we believe not the Scriptures the affront is done to the Church or a Prophet and not to God as the not believing the Stories of Livy concerning the gods the affront is done to Livy and not to the gods This is to undermine the Scriptures before he comes to blow them up But let Mr. Hobbes look the 5 th of Ephes. and he shall find that the Church hath handed down the Scriptures to us so united to Christ and the Union so firm there expressed between Christ and the Church that he must needs conclude that any affront done to the Scriptures must necessarily be done to Christ and to God And I do affirm against all the conceited Irreligionists in the World that the Scriptures would have been the Word of God and the Rules of Salvation although our blessed Saviour had not appointed any Church to have handed them down to us not that I say every cavilling Atheist would have assented to them But then as Mr. Hobbes plentifully urges in his Book How shall we know that they are the Word of God And of this I shall say something more hereafter But at present say that I think 't is sufficiently satisfactory to any rational Christian that they are the Word of God because they teach us our misery by sin to which our mortality is so subject our Redemption by Christ and appoint us a Pious and Virtuous way of living here and the way to an happy immortality hereafter Besides what rational Man can suppose that the good and wise God would leave mankind without a guide to a blessed immortality and what guide is there like this So that any Man that is not frantick or resolved to quarrel with every thing other people assent to but must say that God is the Author of them and consequently the disbelief of them is an affront done to God if we deny them and not to Man only And I think good King Iosiah and all Iudah with him believed the Law to be the Word of God and thought the contrary would be an affront to God upon less or at least upon less inviting grounds 2 Kings 21. than we ought now to believe the volume of the Bible to be so But if we believe not the Fables of Livy concerning the gods the affront is only done to Livy and not to his gods for they were no gods at all and so Mr. Hobbes's Example is at best but a fallacy which he is very frequent in and I have so much charity for him as to believe that 't is not always out of design but sometimes caused by his want of a clear Iudgement for Mr. Hobbes cannot but know that a juggling Cock is often hit Mr. Hobbes after a long discourse of the passions the absurdity of which is not worth the answering p. 38. saith That the Scriptures by the Spirit of God in Man mean a Mans Spirit inclined to godliness And for this he cites Exod. 28.3 which is nothing to his purpose though not so much against him as other Texts are As 31. Exod. 3. which saith expresly I have fill'd him with the Spirit of God to work which as Mr. Hobbes saith Is Mans Spirit inclined to godliness And the 51. Psal. 11 12. where David prays That God's Spirit may not be taken from him but that he may be upheld by it is as Mr. Hobbes saith David's own Spirit without doubt David thought it God's Spirit or he would have called it by an other name and I believe David knew as well as Mr. Hobbes how to express himself So to make this Opinion sufficiently ridiculous look Iudges 15. 14. where 't is said The Spirit of the Lord came mightily on Samson and the cords brake and he kill'd the Philistines that is saith Mr. Hobbes Samson's Spirit was inclined to godliness And from hence Mr. Hobbes may raise this Observation That a mans godliness makes him able to pull cords asunder which perchance Mr. Hobbes trusted to when he wrote his Leviathan Mr. Hobbes saith p. 38 39. That all those that our Saviour is said to cast Devils out of were nothing but mad Men. And I will deal plainly with Mr. Hobbes and tell him that none but mad Men think so For was he only mad that was torn by the evil Spirit before he came out of the Man possessed Or were they only mad that were possessed by the Devils 8. Matth. 31. when the Devils spake and after Christ permitted them to go into the herd of Swine and why ran the herd of Swine thereupon into the Sea To this Mr. Hobbes may say That they were mad Swine to do so And in the 12. of Matth. 27. our Saviour saith If I by Beelzebub cast out Devils by whom do your children cast them out Here 't is agreed both by our Saviour and the unbelieving Iews that our Saviour did cast out Devils therefore the Men were something else besides mad out of whom Devils were cast And why Mr. Hobbes should be wiser or undertake to be so than either the Iews or our blessed Lord and Saviour is an hard matter to know except it be that after his labour to bring Religion and the Scriptures into contempt now thinks by a side wind to debase our Saviour in his Miracles whereof one of the most eminent was his casting out Devils before he strike at his Godhead Mr. Hobbes in his tenth Chapter hath much to do with Power and Honour and saith That good success is Power p. 41. and to flatter is to Honour p. 42. and that an action whether just or unjust if great and difficult is Honourable p. 44,45 Of which last I will give an Example If two high-way Men rob six honest Men or a Ruffian ravish a Woman of great Quality 't is Honourable And this I have Mr. Hobbes's warrant for But in short I repeated these last sentences to shew his vain humor Mr. Hobbes saith p. 50. That Ignorance of the causes of Iustice disposeth a Man to make custom and example the rule of his actions and to judge that just or unjust of the punishment or example of which they can produce an example or as the Lawyers which only use this false measure of Iustice call it a precedent Thus far he I thank Mr. Hobbes that whilst
Not but that I admit that the fourth Command as to the precise seventh day was ceremonial and is determin'd since the time of our Saviour Mr. Hobbes after he hath denied the personal Divinity of our Saviour now comes to tell us p. 286. That our Saviour nor his Apostles had any power to make Laws and that they that broke any of his dictates did not sin in it but died in their sins not being pardoned for their offences to the Laws of their respective Countries or of Nature And for this he cites Iohn 3.18 which saith They are condemned already not that they shall be condemned saith he And this conceit Mr. Hobbes grounds upon our Saviours saying his Kingdom is not of this World and he that hath no Kingdom saith Mr. Hobbes can make no Laws so our Saviour's precepts obliged not And now one would think Mr. Hobbes might rest satisfied for after as he thought he had robbed Christ of his personal Godhead now he robs him of his Authority to make Laws and so all the wicked in the World are obliged to him for setting them free from the Gospel in case they will but go into any part of the World to live where the Gospel of Christ or his Apostles are not made Canonical by the Law of that Country But in short to answer Mr. Hobbes is to give the true interpretation of the words of our Saviour Ioh. 18.36 where he saith His Kingdom is not of this World which is no more but that he designed not to take away the Romans Iurisdiction in respect of the external acts and punishments of Men but doth it therefore follow that he that was Lord of the whole Earth who Mr. Hobbes said before represented God had no power by his Word and Doctrine to oblige the Consciences of those that submitted to the Truth of them or to leave those without excuse that refused and that under the penalty of eternal Misery And that we may see that he took upon him to make Laws look Ioh. 14. 15. 1 Ioh. 2. 3. 3. 22 24. which all speak of Christ's commands and that it was the token of peoples love and obedience to him that they kept them and in another place Christ saith A new command I give unto you that ye love one another If Christ had no Authority to make Laws why are his words called commands even by him himself For had they been only directions or beseechings he and the Apostles would have stiled them so Nay Mr. Hobbes saith p. 308. That the Command is the stile of a Law So that 't is clear our Saviour had power to make Laws which he executed upon the Consciences of Men which was the Kingdom of Heaven at hand preached of by St. Iohn although he was not pleased to exercise a Temporal Iurisdiction and we may suppose it was to shew the extraordinary Spirituality of his Government in which sence he may be said to be King of the Iews though his Kingdom was not of this World And as to Mr. Hobbes his Text out of Ioh. 3. 18. whereby he would prove that those that obeyed not Christ's commands were not guilty of a sin but were condemned already for sin as he saith against Nature or the Laws of their Country Mr. Hobbes cites so much of the Text and no more than he thinks to his purpose and 't is one of the pitifullest shifts in all his Book for the latter end of the verse saith the words were spoken of Men condemned already for not believing in Christ not for disobeying the Laws of their Country Now who would trust such a juggler that hath the confidence to cite part of a verse to prove that which the residue proves the contrary But hence 't is manifest that wicked Men and Seducers grow worse and worse And now Mr. Hobbes p. 300. falls upon Cardinal Bellarmine and continues battering of him many pages together about the Supremacy of the Pope over the Church I think it might be a greater question and harder to resolve whether Cardinal Bellarmine or Mr. Hobbes was the archer Heretick That making more God's than one and this denying the one only God his Attributes and the existency of two of the Persons in the Godhead That being a Papist and the worshipper of false gods as a Wafer-cake and Pictures Angels and dead People This a worshipper of no God at all a Stock or a Stone when the Soveraign commands or when he shall change a Chistian for an Heathenish soil That being obstinate in his Religion and this ready to change as to external acts when the Soveraign bids him This question I leave to better judgments to decide Mr. Hobbes p. 323. saith That there is nothing in Scripture from whence may be inferr'd the infallibility of the Church If Mr. Hobbes mean the particular Church of Rome I shall agree with him for as to so much as I know of it 't is as full of Errors and unreasonable Tenets as the Quakers or Mr. Hobbes his Book But as to Christ's Church in general I would have Mr. Hobbes look Ephes. 5. 35 36 37. v. and he will find that Christ hath purified his Church that it might be without spot c. that is without Error And in the same Chapter he will find how Christ and his Church are one as a Man and his Wife are and that Christ loves it and cherisheth it which either must be intended in keeping it from Errors or I know not what those Texts signifie For if Christ suffer it to run into Error it will be ruined or run into decay and God will deal with it as he threatned to the particular Churches in the Revelations except they did amend And Christ saith Matth. 16. 18. That the gates of Hell should not prevail against it And 1 Tim. 3. 15. calls the Church the pillar and ground of the Truth Besides many more Texts of this kind but these are sufficient to shew Mr. Hobbes his confidence or ignorance to sâ—y That the Scripture contained nothing in it from whence might be inferr'd the infallibility of the Church see then how dangerous it is to believe Mr. Hobbes Yet from this Position he infers in the next page That Christians do not know the Scriptures to be the Word of God only believe it He might as well have said that Christians do not know that there is a God only believe it and 't is like this he may aim at Or he might have said that I know not having never travell'd thither there is such a place as Spain only believe it One part of this Proposition of Mr. Hobbes is true viz. That the Scriptures are believed to be the Word of God But the ignorance of Mr. Hobbes lies in this That in matters of fact which our senses have not perceived or we have not been at the transaction or institution of the best evidence the thing is capable of that is unquestionable testimony is sufficient to
make us know and that in such things knowledge and belief are the same As when we say I believe in God the Father Almighty c. It is the same with I know that there is such a person in the Trinity as God the Father and so of the rest of our Creed But when we have not had full testimony and something may be for ought we know undiscovered that may alter the matter then belief and knowledge are no more the same than Is and may be But to make Mr. Hobbes the example in the matter we will suppose that he before a pardon had been indicted of high Treason for indeavouring to subvert by his Book the antient Government of this Nation both in respect of the Subjects subjection to their King and the Peoples properties and twelve Men had been of the Iury in Middlesex none of which we will suppose stood by when he wrote the Book but had testimony all that the matter was capable of to prove that he did write it and thereupon the Iury had found him guilty and Mr. Hobbes had had Iudgment accordingly certainly he would have thought that the belief of the Iury and the knowledge of the Iury in this matter had been the same The case differs not mutato nomine as to the Scriptures for that we believe and know them to be the Word of God they having been delivered to us by unquestionable persons and all the Testimony the thing is capable of But of this I said a little before and to avoid a tedious Discourse shall refer my Reader for a perfect satisfaction to the Learned Dr. Stillingfleet's Origines Sacrae and to one of the Sermons of the Excellent Dr. Tillotson another of our not only Learned but firm Protestant Divines who are the rather to be regarded because they have neither feared to stand the Ire of a cloud full charged with Popery or provided themselves by an halting Sermon a shelter against the rain whose contrary are enough not only to fright Christians from the Altar but to make Men abhor the offerings of the Lord And if any such be that will not repent let them not despair but dye Mr. Hobbes p. 324. saith That the only Article of Faith which the Scripture makes necessary to Salvation is this that Iesus is the Christ. If an other Man had said this I should have taken little notice of it because I should have supposed that he had meant that Christ was the corner Stone and Captain of our Salvation But I doubt Mr. Hobbes saith this to incourage Men in Idleness and Ignorance which the Papists say is the Mother of Devotion And though Mr. Hobbes was so much against Bellarmine in his last Chapter yet he is so much a Papist in this that he may taste of all Errors that he uses but the same saying here that Papists use against Reading of the Scriptures and whether he intend it so far or that the notion was set down by chance is doubtful But 't is plain in our Creed and by the Doctrine of our Church which Mr. Hobbes allows of that there are other points necessary to Salvation besides this As we must believe in God the Father and the Holy Ghost as well as in God the Son and this Mr. Hobbes acknowledgeth in p. 328. only under his own limitations which are hard to be understood But then p. 331. he strains my Faith upon one Article he lays down For he saith That he hath in all his Treatise of Christian Politicks now run through alledged no Text of Scripture but in such sence as is most agreeable to the scope of the Bible which I confess I cannot believe or if he believes himself I shall change my opinion of him and instead of thinking him the grandest Heretick think him the weakest person that ever laid pen to paper or at least that ever had any reputation in the World for so doing except it be admitted me that he is given up to believe a lye in matters of Religion and I pray God he be not Mr. Hobbes after his saying p. 244. That the punishment of the damned should not be everlasting now he comes to p. 343. and goes over it again the fear of the contrary I doubt running in his mind and begins to interpret Scripture concerning the immortality of the Soul in general which he saith may have an other interpretation than is usual and first cites the 12. Eccles. 7. which saith Dust to dust and the Spirit to God that gave it which saith Mr. Hobbes ought to be interpreted That God only knows what becomes of Man's Spirit and not Man and so of another Text he cites Hence he infers That because God only knows what becomes of Man's Spirit that therefore the Spirit of Man lives not after the death of the Body till the resurrection First The Interpretation is expresly against the Text and absurd Secondly The Inference is nonsense for doth it follow that because God knows where the Spirit of Man is that therefore 't is not with God himself It is just as if I should say to a Man you know where your coat is and from thence I should infer that he hath it not upon his back So I hope no Body will much heed his interpretation of Scripture But then p. 345. he tells us That in the resurrection the Righteous shall have glorious and spiritual Bodies and eternal but saith that 't is not manifest by Scripture that the Wicked shall have glorious and spiritual Bodies or that they shall be as the the Angels of God neither Eating nor Drinking nor Ingendring or that their life shall be eternal and so the reprobate saith he shall be in the estate Adam was in after he had sinned and Marry and give in Marriage only shall have no Redeemer I hope now Mr. Hobbes hath perfected his safe bargain he before had begun let his opinions be never so gross as to God and Religion for he shall be still upon Earth and in no worse a condition than Adam was in after his fall and that was for ought we know free from torment or indeed any trouble of mind save fear and only at th time when he heard God in the Garden But Mr. Hobbes hath not I thank him left us so much in the dark for he goes on to the particulars of the future torment which he saith are eating and drinking I suppose he means an appetite to eat and drink when he hath no Money in his pocket and ingendring I suppose he means that he is cruelly afraid of a luxurious Wife or else that he hath been unneighbourly dealt with in his Youth and is afraid of the same hereafter For otherwise cannot I imagin the torment of eating and drinking and ingendring And further he goes on and saith That the wicked shall not always personally be in this torment but dye after a time and their Children shall succeed in the same torments And all this he
seems to collect from Luke 20. v. 34 35 36. which saith The Children of this World marry but they that shall be accounted worthy to obtain that World neither marry nor dye any more Hence he infers That because the Children of this World that is people now alive do marry and those in Heaven do not marry that therefore the reprobate which he would have understood by the Children of this World may marry which is nonsence and without ground 't is â—rue that wicked Men in Scripture are termed the Children of this World but they are not those that are already in Hell but those that are likely to be so except they repent And observe further from the last mentioned Text which saith That the righteous dye not that he insers from thence That the wicked must dye in a future state This sufficiently exposeth it self But the substance of this his Discourse I have answered in speaking to his 38. Chapter which I now for that cause pass over and for that my Lord of Clarendon hath spoken something to this which I have omitted But only this let me say that I hope no Body will be incouraged into a wicked life presuming Mr. Hobbes saith true in respect of the smalness or rather no punishment hereafter for 't is apparent in this that he hath talk'd like a mad-man and in few places of his Book hath he in matters of concern spoken true Mr. Hobbes Chapter 45. drawing near an end of this wicked Work is drawn so dry that he is forc'd upon repetitions and falls again upon the Philosophy of Sight which he had spoken of in the beginning of his Book and saith That for want of his understanding in it the Iews and all the rest of the World have been mistaken about Daemons and then falls again to the corporeity of Spirits which I have answered before And here I shall observe a notable Collection of Mr. Hobbes from a Text of Scripture which saith that the Iews said to our Saviour Thou hast a Devil Hence he seems to infer that there was no such thing as Devils because our Saviour had none in any of those our Saviour is said to cast the Devil out of but that it was a mistake of the Iews and those people said to have Devils were only troubled with some extraordinary or ill Disease So see this Learned Gentleman holds his old method of arguing That because our Saviour had not a Devil therefore no other Man had and because the wicked Iews were mistaken as to our Saviour's having a Devil that therefore the good Iews and Penmen of the Scripture were mistaken as to any one else having a Devil But this I pass having spoken to it before only by the way observe that Mr. Hobbes coming again to Spirits saith That the meaning of our Saviour's being led by the Spirit into the Wilderness and his carrying from place to place was a vision So Mr. Hobbes against the letter of so many Texts condemns the opinion of all Divines I ever met with just as a little before all Philosophers about Opticks Mr. Hobbes p. 360. saying That 't is not Idolatry to pay Divine worship to a King if he command it by terror of punishment which I have spoken to before saith here That 't is no casting a stumbling block before his Brother for that his Brother cannot argue from thence that he let him be never so Wise and Learned approves it but doth it for fear though to do Mr. Hobbes right he in p. 362. saith the contrary One would wonder that any Man that admits of such a thing as a stumbling block in his Brother's way in a Religious sence and that was not distracted should say so for what can be a greater incouragement to another to be Idolatrous than his seeing his Wise and Learned neighbour do the thing Certainly it cannot be supposed that there can be a greater and 1 Cor. 8. 10 11 12. v. is expresly against Mr. Hobbes which saith That the weak Brother seeing one sit at meat in the Idols Temple is imboldned to eat things offered to Idols whereby he may perish which is there said to be a sin against Christ. And how shall a Man know admitting it was lawful as 't is not to be Idolatrous upon the account of fear whether it be done for fear or no. 'T is generally impossible and not to be supposed And Mr. Hobbes in this page prosecuting his Idolatrous Doctrine saith That to worship God in a peculiar place or to turn a Man's face to an Image or determinate place is not to worship the Image or place but to acknowledge it holy that is set apart from common use and is not Idolatry except done by a private authority I would now have any Man living tell me whether any Papist ever said more as much as Mr. Hobbes is against Bellarmine in justification of their using of Pictures or Crucifixes or the Heathens of their falling down before Stocks and Stones than he hath here done for my part I never did For I never heard but that the Papists say they use them to put them in mind and the Heathens as I have read say That they do not imagin that Stocks or Stones can do them any good as gods or that they are gods But if this allowed by Mr. Hobbes be not Idolatry I would know what is and against the second Command But Mr. Hobbes here implies a Learned distinction for he saith This is Idolatry if the Image be used by private Authority but I suppose he means 't is not Idolatry if set up by publick Authority For he instances where 't was lawful upon the appointment of God Almighty which he said before was King of Israel and saith ' â—is no more Idolatry than it was for the Israelites before the brazen Serpent to worship God or for the Iews to turn their faces towards Ierusalem or for Moses to put off his shooes or for people to worship God in the Churches Mr. Hobbes did well to condemn Aristotle for that Aristotle hath taught his Scholars to condemn Mr. Hobbes For such consequences did never Man in Bethlehem put together as he hath in this Book frequently and particularly here For doth it follow because God the Law maker can dispense by his Word with any of his Commands as this of the second Command admit the instances Mr. Hobbes puts would hold that therefore any Authority upon Earth can which was not the Law maker This is to make Man in God's stead And in a familiar instance to say that because the King Lords and Commons can by an Act dispense with a Law or make one particular action Legal acted against that Law that therefore every Master of a Family can do it which consequences are abâ—urd And he might as well have said that because God might lawfully command Abraham to kill his Son that therefore a King may lawfully command any of his Subjects to do the â—ame But