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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	holy_a	scripture_n	understand_v	2,557	5	6.3534	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43976	Considerations upon the reputation, loyalty, manners, & religion of Thomas Hobbes of Malmsbury written by himself, by way of letter to a learned person.; Mr. Hobbes considered in his loyalty, religion, reputation and manners	Hobbes, Thomas, 1588-1679.	1680 (1680)	Wing H2218; ESTC R6871	20,985	80

were admitted to Composition some not They that Compounded though they help'd the Parliament less by their Composition than they should have done if they had stood out by their Confiscation yet they were ill spoken of especially by those that had no Estates to lose nor hope to Compound And it was for this that he added to what he had written before this caution That if they would compound they were to do it bonafide without intention of Treachery Wherein he justified their Submission by their former Obedience and present Necessity but condemned Treachery Whereas you that pretend to abhor Atheism condemn that which was done upon necessity and justifie the Treachery And you had reason for it that cannot otherwise justifie your selves Those struglings which happened afterwards lost His Majesty many a good and able Subject and strengthened Oliver with the Confiscation of their Estates which if they had attended the Discord of their Enemies might have been saved Perhaps you will take for a sign of Mr. Hobbes his ill meaning that His Majesty was displeased with him And truly I believe He was displeased for a while but not very long They that complained of and mis-construed his writings were His Majesties good Subjects and reputed Wise and Learned men and thereby obtained to have their mis-construction believed for some little time But the very next Summer after his coming away two Honourable Persons of the Court that came over into England assured him that His Majesty had a good opinion of him and others since have told me that His Majesty said openly That He thought Mr. Hobbes never meant him hurt Besides His Majesty hath used him more graciously than is ordinary to so humble a person as he is and so great a Delinquent as you would make him and testified His esteem of him in His bounty What Argument now can you draw from hence more than this That His Majesty understood his writings better than his Accusers did I admire in the next place upon what ground you accuse him and with him all those that have approved his Leviathan with Atheism I thought once that that slander had had some though not firm ground in that you call his new Divinity But for that point he will allege these words of his Leviathan pag. 238. By which it seemeth to me with submission nevertheless both in this and all other Questions whereof the determination dependeth on the Scriptures to the Interpretation of the Bible authorized by the Common-wealth whose Subject I am That c. What is there in these words but Modesty and Obedience But you were at this time in actual Rebellion Mr. Hobbes that holds Religion to be a Law did in order thereto condemn the maintenance of any of his Opinions against the Law and you that reproach him for them upon your own account should also have shewn by your own Learning wherein the Scripture which was his sole proof was mis-cited or mis-construed by him for he submitted to the Laws that is to say to the King's Doctrine not to yours and not have insulted for the Victory won by the power of the Law to which you were then an enemy Another Argument of Atheism you take from his denying immaterial or incorporeal Substances Let any man impartially now compare his Religion with yours by this very measure and judge which of the two savours most of Atheism It is by all Christians confess'd that God is incomprehensible that is to say that there is nothing can arise in our Fancy from the naming of him to resemble him either in shape colour stature or nature there is no Idea of him he is like nothing that we can think on What then ought we to say of him What Attributes are to be given him not speaking otherwise than we think nor otherwise than is fit by those who mean to honour him None but such as Mr. Hobbes hath set down namely Expressions of Reverence such as are in Use amongst men for signs of Honour and consequently signifie Goodness Greatness and Happiness and either absolutely put as Good Holy Mighty Blessed Just Wise Merciful c. or Superlative as most Good most Great most Mighty Almighty most Holy c. or Negative of whatsoever is not perfect as Infinite Eternal and the like And not such as neither Reason nor Scripture hath approved for honourable This is the Doctrine that Mr. Hobbes hath written both in his Leviathan and in his Book de Cive and when occasion serves maintains What kind of Attribute I pray you is immaterial or incorporeal substance Where do you find it in the Scripture Whence came it hither but from Plato and Aristotle Heathens who mistook those thin Inhabitants of the Brain they see in sleep for so many incorporeal men and yet allow them motion which is proper only to things corporeal Do you think it an honour to God to be one of these And would you learn Christianity from Plato and Aristotle But seeing there is no such word in the Scripture how will you warrant it from natural reason Neither Plato nor Aristotle did ever write of or mention an incorporeal Spirit for they could not conceive how a Spirit which in their Language was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in ours a Wind could be incorporeal Do you understand the connection of substance and incorporeal If you do explain it in English for the words are Latine It is something you 'l say that being without Body stands under Stands under what Will you say under Accidents Almost all the Fathers of the Church will be against you and then you are an Atheist Is not Mr. Hobbes his way of Attributing to God that only which the Scriptures Attribute to him or what is never any where taken but for honour much better than this bold Undertaking of yours to consider and decypher Gods nature to us For a third Argument of Atheism you put That he says Besides the Creation of the World there is no Argument to prove a Deity and That it cannot be evinced by any Argument that the World had a Beginning and That whether it had or no is to be decided not by Argument but by the Magistrates Authority That it may be decided by the Scriptures he never denied Therefore in that also you slander him And as for Arguments from natural Reason neither you nor any other have hitherto brought any except the Creation that has not made it more doubtful to many men than it was before That which he hath written concerning such Arguments is in his Book De Corpore Opinions saith he concerning the nature of Infinite and Eternal as the chiefest of the fruits of Wisdom God hath reserved to himself and made Judges of them those men whose Ministery he meant to use in the ordering of Religion and therefore I cannot praise those men that brag of Demonstration of the Beginning of the World from natural Reason And again pag. 238. Wherefore I pass by those Questions of

CONSIDERATIONS UPON The REPUTATION LOYALTY MANNERS RELIGION OF THOMAS HOBBES OF MALMSBVRY Written by Himself By way of LETTER to a Learned Person LONDON Printed for William Crooke at the Green Dragon without Temple-bar 1680. THE BOOKSELLER'S ADVERTISEMENT To the READERS I Do here present you with a Piece of Mr. Hobbes's Writing which is not published from an imperfect MS. as his Dialogue of the Civil Wars of England was by some that had got accidentally a Copy of it absolutely against his consent as you may see by some Passages out of some of his Letters to me which I have here inserted In his Letter of June 1679. he saith I would fain have published my Dialogue of the Civil Wars of England long ago and to that end I presented it to his Majesty and some days after when I thought he had read it I humbly besought him to let me print it but his Majesty though he heard me gratiously yet he flatly refused to have it published Therefore I brought away the Book and gave you leave to take a Copy of it which when you had done I gave the Original to an honourable and learned Friend who about a year after died The King knows better and is more concerned in publishing of Books than I am Therefore I dare not venture to appear in the business lest it should offend him Therefore I pray you not to meddle in the business Rather than to be thought any way to further or countenance the printing I would be content to lose twenty times the value of what you can expect to gain by it c. I pray do not take it ill it may be I may live to send you somewhat else as vendible as that And without offence I rest Chatsworth June 19. 1679. Your Very humble Servant Thomas Hobbes Part of his Letter in July 1679. If I leave any MSs. worth printing I will leave word you shall have them if you please I am Chatsworth July 21. 1679. Your humble Servant Thomas Hobbes Part of his Letter Aug. 1679. Sir I thank you for taking my advice in not stirring about the printing of my Book concerning the Civil Wars of England c. I am writing somewhat for you to print in English c. I am Chatsworth Aug. 18. 1679. Sir Your humble Servant Thomas Hobbes That no spurious Brats for the time to come be fathered upon the deceased Author I have printed verbatim these Passages out of his Letters written to me at several times Their Original I have by me I will be so just to his Memory that I will not print any thing but what is perfect and fitted for the Press And if any Book shall be printed with his Name to it that hath not before been printed you may be confident it is not his unless Printed for William Crooke Sir I Am one of them that admire your Writings and having read over your Hobbius Heauton-timorumenos I cannot hold from giving you some account of the causes why I admire it And first I considered how you handle him for his Disloyalty in these words pag. the 5 th His great Leviathan wherein he placed his main strength is now somewhat out of season which upon deserting his Royal Master in distress for he pretends to have been the King's Tutor though yet from those who have most reason to know it I can find but little ground for such a pretence was written in defence of Oliver's Title or whoever by whatsoever means can get to be upmost placing the whole Right of Government meerly in strength and Absolving all his Majesties Subjects from their Allegiance whenever He is not in a present capacity to force Obedience That which I observe and admire here first is That you left not this passage out for two reasons One because M r Hobbes could long for nothing more than such an occasion to tell the world his own and your little stories during the time of the late Rebellion When the Parliament sate that began in April 1640. and was dissolved in May following and in which many points of the Regal Power which were necessary for the Peace of the Kingdom and the safety of His Majesties Person were disputed and denied M r. Hobbes wrote a little Treatise in English wherein he did set forth and demonstrate That the said Power and Rights were inseparably annexed to the Sovereignty which Sovereignty they did not then deny to be in the King but it seems understood not or would not understand that Inseparability Of this Treatise though not Printed many Gentlemen had Copies which occasioned much talk of the Author and had not His Majesty dissolved the Parliament it had brought him into danger of his Life He was the first that had ventured to write in the King's defence and one amongst very few that upon no other ground but knowledge of his Duty and Principles of Equity without special Interest was in all points perfectly Loyal The 3 d of November following there began a new Parliament consisting for the greatest part of such men as the People had elected only for their adverseness to the Kings Interest These proceeded so fiercely in the very beginning against those that had written or preach'd in the defence of any part of that Power which they then intended to take away and in gracing those whom the King had disgrac'd for Sedition that Mr. Hobbes doubting how they would use him went over into France the first of all that fled and there continued eleven years to his dammage some thousands of pounds deep This Dr. was your time of harvest You were in their favour and that as you have made it since appear for no goodness Being at Paris he wrote and published his Book de Cive in Latine to the end that all Nations which should hear what you and your Concovenanters were doing in England might detest you which I believe they do for I know no Book more magnified than this is beyond the Seas When His Majesty that now is came to Paris Mr. Hobbes had the honour to initiate him in the Mathematicks but never was so impudent or ignorant as to call or think himself the King's Tutor as you that understand not what that word out of the University signifies do falsly charge him with or ever to say that he was one of His Majesties domestique Servants While upon this occasion he staid about Paris and had neither encouragement nor desire to return into England he wrote and published his Leviathan far from the intention either of disadvantage to His Majesty or to flatter Oliver who was not made Protector till three or four years after or purpose to make way for his return For there is scarce a page in it that does not upbraid both him and you and others such as you with your abominable hypocrisie and villany Nor did he desert His Majesty as you falsly accuse him as His Majesty Himself knows Nor was His Majesty as you unmannerly term