Animad-versions upon such particulars as may in my judgment produce much mischief in the World in a Book of great Name and which is entertain'd and celebrated at least enough in the World a Book which contains in it good Learning of all kinds politely extracted and very wittily and cunningly disgested in a very commendable method and in a vigorous and pleasant Style which hath prevailed over too many to swallow many new Tenets as Maximes without chewing which manner of diet for the indisgestion Mr. Hobbes himself doth much dislike The thorough novelty to which the present Age if ever any is too much inclin'd of the work receives great credit and autority from the known Name of the Author a Man of excellent parts of great wit some reading and somwhat more thinking One who has spent many years in foreign parts and observation understands the Learned as well as modern Languages hath long had the reputation of a great Philosopher and Mathematician and in his Age hath had conversation with very many worthy and extraordinary Men to which it may be if he had bin more indulgent in the more vigorous part of his life it might have had a greater influence upon the temper of his mind whereas age seldom submits to those questions enquiries and contradictions which the Laws and liberty of Conversation require and it hath bin alwaies a lamentation amongst Mr. Hobbes his Friends that he spent too much time in thinking and too little in exâ—â—â—ising those thoughts in the company of other Men of the same or of as good faculties for want whereof his natural constitution with age contracted such a morosity that doubting and contradicting Men were never grateful to him In a word Mr. Hobbes is one of the most ancient acquaintance I have in the World and of whom I have alwaies had a great esteem as a Man who besides his eminent parts of Learning and Knowledg hah bin alwaies looked upon as a Man of Probity and a life free from scandal and it may be there are few Men now alive who have bin longer known to him then I have bin in a fair and friendly conversation and sociableness and I had the honor to introduce those in whose perfections he seemed to take much delight and whose memory he seems most to extol first into his acquaintance In all which respects both of the Author and the work it cannot reasonably be imagined that any vanity hath transported me who know my self so incompetent for the full disquisition of this whole work which contains in it many parts of Knowledg and Learning in which I am not conversant and also the disadvantage that so many years have passed since the publication of this Book without any thing like an answer to the most mischievous parts of it as to Civil Government at least I had seen none such till after I had finished this discourse which was aâ— Montpelier in the moneth of April One thousand six hundred and seventy where I wanted many of those Books which had bin necessary to have bin carefully consulted and perused if I had propos'd to my self to have answer'd many of those Scholastic Points which seem to me enough expos'd to just cenâ—ure and reproch and which I did suppose some University Men would have taken occasion from to have vindicated those venerable Nurseries from that vice and ignorance his superciliousness hath thought fit to asperse them with I do confess since that time I have read several Answers and Reflexions made by Learned Men of both the Universities in English and in Latine upon his Leviathan or his other works published before and after which several Answers though they have very pregnantly discover'd many gross errors and grosser over-sights in those parts of Science in which Mr. Hobbes would be thought to excel which are like to put him more out of countenance then any thing I can urge against him by how much he values himself more upon being thought a good Philosopher and a good Geometrician then a modest Man or a good Christian have not so far discouraged me as to cause me either to believe what I had thought of and prepared before to be the less pertinent to be communicated or at all to inlarge or contract my former conceptions though probably many things which I offer are more vigorously urg'd and expressed in some of the other Answers Notwithstanding all which his Person is by many received with respect and his Books continue still to be esteem'd as well abroad as at home which might very well have prevailâ—d with those before 〈◊〉 Arguments to have 〈◊〉 pretending to see farther into them then other Men had don and to discover a malignity undiscerned that should make them odious But then how prevalent soever these motives were with me when I reflected upon the most mischievous Principles and most destructive to the Peace both of Church and Staâ—e which are scatter'd though 〈◊〉 that Book of his Leviathan which I only take upon me to discover and the unhappy impression they have made in the minds of too many I thought my self the more oblig'd and not the less compâ—tent for those animadversions by the part I had acted for many years in the public Administration of Justice and in the Policy of the Kingdom And the leasure to which God hath condemn'd me seems an invitation and obligation upon me to give a testimony to the World that my duty and affection for my King and Country is not less then it hath ever bin when it was better interpreted by giving warning to both of the danger they are in by the seditious Principles of this Books that they may in time provide for their Security by their abolishing and extirpating those and the like excesses And as it could not reasonably be expected that such a Book would be answer'd in the time when it was published which had bin to have disputed with a Man that commanded thirty Legions for Cromwel had bin oblig'd to have supported him who defended his Usurpation so afterwards men thought it would be too much ill nature to call men in question for what they had said in ill times and for saying which they had a plenary Indulgence and Absolution And I am still of opinion that even of those who have read his Book and not frequented his Company there are many who being delighted with some new notions and the pleasant and clear Style throughout the Book have not taken notice of those down-right Conclusions which overthrow or undermine all those Principles of Government which have preserv'd the Peace of this Kingdom through so many Ages even from the time of its first Institution or restor'd it to Peace when it had at some times bin interrupted and much less of those odious insinuations and perverting some Texts of Scripture which do dishonor and would destroy the very Essence of the Religion of Christ. And when I called to mind the good acquaintance that had bin
between us and what I had said to many who I knew had inform'd him of it and which indeed I had sent to himself upon the first publishing of his Leviathan I thought my self eveâ— bound to give him some satisfaction why I had entertained so evil an opinion of his Book When the Prince went first to Paris from Iersey and My Lords Capel and Hopton stayed in Iersey together with my self I heard shortly after that Mr. Hobbes who was then at Paris had printed his Book De Cive there I writ to Dr. Earles who was then the Princes Chaplain and his Tutor to remember me kindly to Mr. Hobbes with whom I was well acquainted and to desire him to send me his Book De Cive by the same token that Sid. Godolphin who had bin kill'd in the late War had left him a Legacy of two hundred pounds The Book was immediately sent to me by Mr. Hobbes with a desire that I would tell him whether I was sure that there was such a Legacy and how he mighâ— take notice of it to receive it I sent him word that he might depend upon it for a truth and that I believed that if he found some way secretly to the end there might be no public notice of it in regard of the Parliament to demand it of his Brother Francis Godolphin who in truth had told me of it he would pay it This information was the ground of the Dedication of this Book to him whom Mr. Hobbes had never seen When I went some few years after from Holland with the King after the Murder of his Father to Paris from whence I went shortly his Majesties Ambassador into Spain Mr. Hobbes visited me and told me that Mr. Godolphin confessed the Legacy and had paid him one hundred pounds and promised to pay the other in a short time for all which he thank'd me and said he owed it to me for he had never otherwise known of it When I return'd from Spain by Paris he frequently came to me and told me his Book which he would call Leviathan was then Printing in England and that he receiv'd every week a Sheet to correct of which he shewed me one or two Sheets and thought it would be finished within little more then a moneth and shewed me the Epistle to Mr. Godolphin which he meant to set before it and read it to me and concluded that he knew when I read his Book I would not like it and thereupon mention'd some of his Conclusions upon which I asked him why he would publish such doctrine to which after a discourse between jest and earnest upon the Subject he said The truth is I have a mind to go home Within a very short time after I came into Flanders which was not much more then a moneth from the time that Mr. Hobbes had conferred with me Leviathan was sent to me from London which I read with much appetite and impatience Yet I had scarce finish'd it when Sir Charles Cavendish the noble Brother of the Duke of Newcastle who was then at Antwerp and a Gentleman of all the accomplishments of mind that he wanted of body being in all other respects a wonderful Person shewed me a Letter he had then receiv'd from Mr. Hobbes in which he desir'd he would let him know freely what my opinion was of his Book Upon which I wished he would tell him that I could not enough wonder that a Man who had so great a reverence for Civil Government that he resolv'd all Wisdom and Religion it self into a simple obedience and submission to it should publish a Book for which by the constitution of any Government now establish'd in Europe whether Monarchical or Democratical the Author must be punish'd in the highest degree and with the most severe penalties With which answer which Sir Charles sent to him he was hot pleased and found afterwards when I return'd to the King to Paris that I very much censur'd his Book which he had presented engross'd in â—â—llam in a marvellous fair hand to the King and likewise found my judgment so far confirmed that few daies before I came thither he was compell'd secretly to fly out of Paris the Justice having endeavour'd to apprehend him and soon after escap'd into England where he never receiv'd any disturbance After the Kings return he came frequently to the Court where he had too many Disciples and once visited me I receiv'd him very kindly and invited him to see me often but he heard from so many hands that I had no good opinion of his Book that he came to me only that one time and methinks I am in a degree indebted to him to let him know some reason why I look with so much prejudice upon his Book which hath gotten him so much credit and estimation with some other men I am not without some doubt that I shall in this discourse which I am now engaged in transgress in a way I do very heartily dislike and frequently censure in others which is sharpness of Language and too much reproching the Person against whom I write which is by no means warrantable when it can be possibly avoided without wronging the truth in debate Yet I hope nothing hath fallen from my Pen which implies the least undervaluing of Mr. Hobbes his Person or his Parts But if he to advance his opinion in Policy too imperiously reproches all men who do not consent to his Doctrine it can hardly be avoided to reprehend so great presumtion and to make his Doctrines appear as odious as they ought to be esteemed and when he shakes the Principles of Christian Religion by his new and bold Interpretations of Scripture a man can hardly avoid saying He hath no Religion or that he is no good Christian and escape endeavouring to manifest and expose the poison that lies hid and conceled Yet I have chosen rather to pass by many of his enormous sayings with light expressions to make his Assertions ridiculous then to make his Person odious for infusing such destructive Doctrine into the minds of men who are already too licentious in judging the Precepts or observing the Practice of Christianity The Survey of Mr. Hobbes's Introduction IT is no wonder that Mr. Hobbes runs into so many mistakes and errors throughout his whole discourse of the nature of Government from the nature of Mankind when he laies so wrong a foundation in the very entrance and Introduction of his Book as to make a judgment of the Passions and Nature of all other Men by his own observations of himself and believes pag. 2. that by looking into himself and considering what he doth when he do's think opine reason hope fear c. and upon what grounds he shall thereby read and know what are the thoughts and passions of all other men upon the like occasions And indeed by his distinction in the very subsequent words pag. 2. between the similitude of passions and the similitude of the object
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
the Soveraignty by making Tribunes by which Machiavel saies their Government was the more firm and secure and afterwards by introducing other Magistrates into the Soveraignty Nor were the Admissions and Covenants the Senate made in those cases ever declared void but observed with all punctuality which is Argument enough that the Soveraign power may admit limitations without any danger to it self or the People which is all that is contended for As there never was any such Person pag. 88. of whose acts a great multitude by mutual Covenant one with another have made themselves every one the author to the end he may use the strength and means of them all as he shall think expedient for their peace and common defence which is the definition he gives of his Common-wealth So if it can be supposed that any Nation can concur in such a designation and divesting themselves of all their right and liberty it could only be in reason obligatory to the present contractors nor do's it appear to us that their posterity must be bound by so unthrifty a concession of their Parents For tho Adam by his Rebellion against God forfeited all the privileges which his unborn posterity might have claimed if he had preserved his innocence and tho Parents may alienate their Estates from their Children and thereby leave them Beggars yet we have not the draught of any Contract nor is that which Mr. Hobbes hath put himself to the trouble to prepare valid enough to that purpose by which they have left impositions and penalties upon the Persons of their posterity nor is it probable that they would think themselves bound to submit thereunto And then the Soveraign would neither find himself the more powerful or the more secure for his contâ—â—â—tors having covenanted one with another and made themselves every one the author of all his actions and it is to be doubted that the People would rather look upon him as the Vizier Basha instituted by their Fathers then as Gods Lieutenant appointed to govern them under him It is to no purpose to examine the Prerogatives he grants to his Soveraign because he founds them all upon a supposition of a Contract and Covenant that never was in nature nor ever can reasonably be supposed to be yet he confesses it to be the generation pag. 87. of the great Leviathan and which falling to the ground all his Prerogatives must likewise fall too and so much to the dammage of the Soveraign power to which most of the Prerogatives are due that men will be apt to suppose that they proceed from a ground which is not true and so be the more inclined to dispute them Whereas those Prerogatives are indeed vested in the Soveraign by his being Soveraign but he do's not become Soveraign by vertue of such a Contract and Covenant but are of the Essence of his Soveraignty founded upon a better title then such an accidental convention and their designing a Soveraign by their Covenants with one another and none with or to him who is so absolutely to command them And here he supposes again that whatsoever a Soveraign is possessed of is of his Soveraignty and therefore he will by no means admit that he shall part with any of his power which he calls essential and inseparable Rights and that whatever grant he makes of such power the same is void and he do's believe that this Soveraign right was at the time when he published his Book so well understood that is Cromwel liked his Doctrine so well that it would be generally acknowledged in England at the next return of peace Yet he sees himself deceived it hath pleased God to restore a blessed and a general peace and neither King nor People believe his Doctrine to be true or consistent with peace How and why the most absolute Soveraigns may as they find occasion part with and deprive themselves of many branches of their power will be more at large discovered in another place yet we may observe in this the very complaisant humor of Mr. Hobbes and how great a Courtier he desir'd to appear to the Soveraign power that then govern'd by how odious and horrible a usurpation soever in that he found a way to excuse and justifie what they had already don in the lessening and diminution of their own Soveraign power which it concern'd them to have believ'd was very lawfully and securely don For they having as the most popular and obliging act they could perform taken away Wardships and Tenures he confesses after his enumeration of twelve Prerogatives which he saies pag. 92. are the rights which make the essence of the Soveraignty for these he saies are incommunicable and inseparable I say he confesses the power to coin mony to dispose of the estates and persons of infant heirs and all other Statute Prerogatives may be transferred by the Soveraign whereas he might have bin informed if he had bin so modest as to think he had need of any information that those are no Statute Prerogatives but as inherent and inseparable from the Crown as many of those which he declares to be of the Essence of the Soveraignty But both those were already entred upon and he was to support all their actions which were past as well as to provide for their future proceedings If Mr. Hobbes had known any thing of the constitution of the Monarchy of England supported by as firm principles of Government as any Monarchy in Europe and which enjoied a series of as long prosperity he could never have thought that the late troubles there proceeded from an opinion receiv'd of the greatest part of England that the power was divided between the King and the Lords and the House of Commons which was an opinion never heard of in England till the Rebellion was begun and against which all the Laws of England were most clear and known to be most positive But as he cannot but acknowledg that his own Soveraignty is obnoxious to the Lusts and other irregular passions of the People so the late execrable Rebellion proceeded not from the defect of the Law nor from the defect of the just and ample power of the King but from the power ill men rebelliously possessed themselves of by which they suppressed the strength of the Laws and wrested the power out of the hands of the King against which violence his Soveraign is no otherwise secure then by declaring that his Subjects proceed unjustly of which no body doubts but that all they who took up arms against the King were guilty in the highest degree And there is too much cause to fear that the unhappy publication of this doctrine against the Liberty and propriety of the Subject which others had the honor to declare before Mr. Hobbes tho they had not the good fortune to escape punishment as he hath don I mean Dr. Manwaring and Dr. Sibthorpe contributed too much thereunto For let him take what pains he will to render those
Justice even where himself is party and that he will be sued before those Judges if he doth not pay what he ow's to his Subjects This is the Contract which gives that capacity of suing and which by his own consent and condescention lessens his Soveraignty that his Subjects may require Justice from him And yet all these promises and lessenings he pronounces as void and to amount to contradictions that must dissolve the whole Soveraign power and leave the people in confusion and war Whereas the truth is these condescentions and voluntary abatements of some of that original power that was in them have drawn a cheerful submission and bin attended by a ready obedience to Soveraignty from the time that Subjects have bin at so great a distance from being consider'd as Children and that Soveraigns have bin without those natural tendernesses in the exercise of their power and which in the rigor of it could never have bin supported And where these obligations are best observ'd Soveraignty flourishes with the most lustre and security Kings having still all the power remaining in them that they have not themselves parted with and releas'd to their Subjects and theiâ— Subjects having no pretence to more liberty or power then the King hath granted and given to them and both their happiness and security consists in containing themselves within their own limits that is King not to affect the recovery of that exorbitant power which their Ancestors wisely parted with as well for their own as the peoples benefit and Subjects to rejoice in those liberties which have bin granted to them and not to wish to lessen the power of the King which is not greater then is necessary for their own perservation And to such a wholsom division and communication of power as this is that place of Scripture with which Mr. Hobbes is still too bold a Kingdom dâ—vided in it self cannot stand cannot be applied But that this Supreme Soveraign whom he hath invested with the whole property and liberty of all his Subjects and so invested him in it that he hath not power to part with any of it by promise or donation or release may not be too much exalted with his own greatness he hath humbled him sufficiently by giving his Subjects leave to withdraw their obedience from him when he hath most need of their assistance for the pag. 114. obligation of Subjects to the Soveraign is understood he saies to last as long and no longer then the power lasts to protect them So that assoon as any Town City or Province of any Princes Dominions is invaded by a Foreign Enemy or possessed by a Rebellious Subject that the Prince for the present cannot suppress the Power of the one or the other the people may lawfully resort to those who are over them and for their Protection perform all the Offices and duties of good Subjects to them pag 114. For the right men have by nature to protect themselves when none else can protect them can by no covenant be relinquish'd and the end of obedience is protection which wherever a man seeth it either in his own or in an others sword nature applieth his obedience to it and his endeavours to maintain it And truly it is no wonder if they do so and that Subjects take the first opportunity to free themselves from such a Soveraign as he hath given them and chuse a better for themselves Whereas the duty of Subjects is and all good Subjects believe they owe another kind of duty and obedience to their Soveraign then to withdraw their subjection because he is oppress'd and will prefer poverty and death it self before they will renounce their obedience to their natural Prince or do any thing that may advance the service of his Enemies And since Mr. Hobbes gives so ill a testimony of his Government which by the severe conditions he would oblige mankind to submit to for the support of it ought to be firm and not to be shaken pag. 114. that it is in its own nature not only subject to violent death by foreign war but also from the ignorance and passion of men that it hath in it from the very institution many seeds of natural mortality by intestine discord worse then which he cannot say of any Government we may very reasonably prefer the Government we have and under which we have enjoi'd much happiness before his which we do not know nor any body hath had experience of and which by his own confession is liable to all the accidents of mortality which any others have bin and reject his that promises so ill and exercises all the action of War in Peace and when War comes is liable to all the misfortunes which can possibly attend or invade it Whether the relation of Subjects be extinguisht in all those cases which Mr. Hobbes takes upon him to prescribe as Imprisonment Banishment and the like I leave to those who can instruct him better in the Law of Nations by which they must be judged notwithstanding all his Appeals to the Law of Nature and I presume if a banish'd Person p. 114 during which he saies he is not subject shall join in an action under a Foreign power against his Country wherein he shall with others be taken prisoner the others shall be proceeded against as Prisoners of War when he shall be judg'd as a Traitor and Rebel which he could not be if he were not a Subject and this not only in the case of an hostile action and open attemt but of the most secret conspiracy that comes to be discover'd And if this be true we may conclude it would be very unsafe to conduct our selves by what Mr. Hobbes p. 105. finds by speculation and deduction of Soveraign rights from the nature need and designs of men Surely this woful desertion and defection in the cases above mention'd which hath bin alwaies held criminal by all Law that hath bin current in any part of the World receiv'd so much countenance and justifications by Mr. Hobbes his Book and more by his conversation that Cromwel found the submission to those principles produc'd a submission to him and the imaginary relation between Protection and Allegiance so positively proclam'd by him prevail'd for many years to extinguish all visible fidelity to the King whilst he perswaded many to take the Engagement as a thing lawful and to become Subjects to the Usurper as to their legitimate Soveraign of which great service he could not abstain from bragging in a Pamphlet set forth in that time that he alone and his doctrine had prevail'd with many to submit to the Government who would otherwise have disturb'd the public Peace that is to renounce their fidelity to their true Soveraign and to be faithful to the Usurper It appears at last why by his institution he would have the power and security of his Soveraign wholly and only to depend upon the Contracts and Covenants which the people make one with
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
keep the Protestant Religion from entring into his Disciples to instruct those who were under his charge to be good Subjects to him that seed brought up very little fruit but the Elements of Duty and Allegiance to their absent banished lawful Soveraign were sucked in greedily by them and flourished accordingly In a word these were the men who were look'd upon with esteem and reverence by all the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom who retain'd their affection and duty towards the King entirely in their hearts and thereby the opportunity to perform many notable Services to the King and to give him useful Advertisements and having unquestioned credit in a treacherous and perfidious season when Children betrayed their Fathers Servants their Masters and Friends one another were trusted by all men and so having no farther care for themselves then to live very meanly they became Treasurers and Almoners for all indigent Gentlemen who had served the King or desired so to do and relieved very many of that kind that they might be ready upon a good opportunity to serve his Majesty and not be forced to go to him who had not wherewith to relieve them They discharged the expense of many expresses which were frequently sent to the King and from him which amounted to a great charge and contributed much to the maintenance of those of the Clergy who faithfully attended his Majesties Person and often transmitted such sums of mony to his Majesty himself as were very seasonable supplies to him in great distresses I can have no end and have no temtation to say all this but hold my self obliged to Justice and truth to give this testimony since all the particulars are well known to me having at that time the honor to be in some trust with his Majesty and thereby the full knowledg of what then passed of which there are not now many other witnesses amongst the living And therefore I could not omit this proper season in the close of Mr. Hâ—bbes his Book throughout which he hath made so violent a War upon them without any colour of reason to say that he ows them many acknowledgments but more to God almâ—ghty for the scandal he hath brought upon Religion upon the best constituted Church of the World and upon the most Learned Clergy of any Church and the most irreconcilable to any thing that is erroneous or offensive in the Roman Religion which therefore looks upon them as the only considerable and formidable Enemy they have to encounter I shall not need to take any pains to remove him from the good opinion he had of Independency when he published his Book because pag. 385. it left every man to do what liked him best in Religion as he saies but in truth because Cromwell was then thought to be of that faction But I dare say he did with his heart as well as by his tongue quit that party the very day that the King was proclaimed as he is ready to quit all his other Opinions true or false assoon as the Soveraign power shall please to require him which makes whatever he saies the less to need answering And I shall be less solicitous to deprive the Pope of his new Kingdom of Fairies with the title to which Mr. Hobbes hath gratified him to allay that fear and apprehension which he had endeavoured so much before to infuse into the minds of all Princes of his dangerous greatness and power if at last prove no more then the King of Fairies hath it is less terrible then he represented it to be But since he hath not thought fit to retain that modesty which he professed to have pag. 241. that tho he had proved his Doctrine out of places of Scripture not few nor obscure yet because it will appear to most men a novelty he did but propound it maintaining nothing in this or any other Paradox of Religion but attending the end of that dispute of the sword concerning the autority not yet amongst his Country-men decided by which all sorts of Doctrine are to be approved or rejected and whose commands both in speech and writing whatsoever be the opinions of private men must by all men who mean to be protected by their Laws be obeied notwithstanding which reservation and after he hath seen that dispute of the Sword concerning the autority amongst his Country men decided after he hath seen that Prodigy of Mankind whom he acknowledged to be his Soveraign instituted and adored by him exposed upon the Gallows and his Carcass placed upon the stage that is reserved for the most infamous Traitors and Rebels and all his actions condemned and detested by the whole Nation all which were govern'd and steered exactly by Mr. Hobbes his own Institution and sufficiently shew how insecure they will prove to any man that observes them and after he hath seen his true and lawful Soveraign his disavowed and renounced Soveraign and whose Subjects he had absolv'd from his obedience restored and established with the universal and unexpressible joy of his three Kingdoms and thereby his whole Doctrine with reference to the Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Government disavowed and condemn'd and not exemplarily punished only by his Majesties gracious observation of the Act of Indemnity of which few Subjects have more need it is too malicious an obstinacy and perversness in him still to adhere to his odious Paradoxes both in his Conversation and by private Transcripts which he labors to get printed and was never more solicitous to have his most destructive Doctrines to be published and confirm'd by autority the ill consequence whereof to himself he despises the learning of the Law too much to understand And as he would allow no other right to the Subject in his Liberty or Propriety but what the Soveraigns silence hath permitted in not taking it from him as to dwell where he pleases and educate his Children as he thinks fit and the like so he interprets the present silence of the Law as an approbation of those his monstrous Principles which it knows not how to contradict not considering the while that this silence of the Law cannot be broken but in the loud inflicting those severe punishments upon him as without the shelter of that Soveraigns mercy whom he so much despised and provoked would at once in his ruine discredit all his vain Philosophy and more pernicious Theology and he would find the Successors of Sr. Edward Cooke with whose great ignorance he makes himself so merry learned enough to instruct him in the duty and reverence that is due from all Subjects to the Law and Government And for the better manifestation of the premises having now walked to the end of his fourth part before we take a view of his Review and Conclusion we will observe the same method we did at the end of his two first parts and according to the advice himself gives in his examination of Bellarmines Doctrine lay open his conclusions and Principles
swallow his choicest Doctrine at one morsel and is in truth a sly address to Cromwell that being then out of the Kingdom and so being neither conquered nor his Subject he might by his return submit to his Government and be bound to obey it which being uncompelled by any necessity or want but having as much to sustain him abroad as he had to live upon at home could not proceed from a sincere heart and uncorrupted This Review and Conclusion he made short enough to hope the Cromwell himself might read it where he should not only receive the pawn of his new Subjects Allegiance by his declaring his own obligation and obedience but by publishing such Doctrine as being diligently infused by such a Master in the mystery of Government might secure the People of the Kingdom over whom he had no right to command to acquiesce and submit to his Brutal Power And in order to that he takes upon him very positively to declare which no man had ever presumed to do before the precise time when Subjects become obliged to submit to the Conqueror and saies pag. 390. that time is as to an ordinary Subject when the means of his life is within the guards and garrisons of the enemy and for him who hath nearer obligations he hath liberty to submit to his new Master when his old one can give him protection no longer And he is very careful that it may be the more taken notice of to insert in another Letter his Maxime pag. 390. that every man is bound by nature as much as in him lies to protect in War the autority by which he is himself protected in time of Peace All which he saies appears by consequence from those Laws which he hath mentioned throughout his Book pag. 390. yet that the times require to have it inculcated and remembred which shall not oblige me to recapitulate what hath bin said before upon the Propositions And he is so fearful that Cromwell was not solicitous enough for his own security that he tells him in his Review which he had not before said in his Book pag. 392. that Conquerors must require not only a submission of mens actions to them for the future but also an approbation of all their actions past Which advice he followed as far as he could till he found it too unreasonable to impose even upon those who had concurred with him in most of the mischief that he had don And least he should be too scrupulous and modest in using the power he had and too apt to be amused with reproches he saies pag. 392. the toleration of a professed hatred of Tyranny is a toleration of hatred to Commonwealth in general to the extravagancy of which Assertion enough hath bin said before These are the choice Flowers he hath bound up together in his Review least the odor of them might lose some of its fragrancy in the bigness of the Book And having with great tenderness provided that no man should think it lawful to kill him and insinuated as much and with as much virulency as he could a prejudice to the Roial party he gives his own testimony of his whole Doctrine and saies pag. 394. the Principles of it are true and proper and the ratiocination solid and therefore concludes that it might be profitably printed and more profitably taught in the Vniversities c. and other Licence then his own it never had to be printed But Mr. Hobbes knows well that a mans testimony in his own behalf is not valid and if mine could carry any autority with it I would make no scruple to declare that I never read any Book that contains in it so much Sedition Treason and Impiety as this Leviathan and therefore that it is very unfit to be read taught or sold as dissolving all the ligaments of Government and undermining all principles of Religion I do not with that the Author should be ordered to recant because he would be too ready to do it upon his declared Salvo nor do I wish he should undergo any other punishment then by knowing that his Book is condemned by the Soveraign Autority to be publickly burn'd which by his own judgment will restrain him from publishing his pernicious Doctrine in his Discourses which have don more mischief then his Book And I would be very willing to preserve the just testimony which he gives to the memory of Sidny Godolphin who deserved all the Eulogy that he gives him and whose untimely loss in the beginning of the War was too lively an instance of the inequality of the contention when such inestimable Treasure was ventur'd against dirty people of no name and whose irreparable loss was lamented by all men living who pretended to Virtue how much divided soever in the prosecution of that quarrel But I find my self temted to add that of all men living there were no two more unlike then Mr. Godoâ—phin and Mr. Hobbes in the modesty of nature or integrity of manners and therefore it will be too reasonably suspected that the freshness of the Legacy rather put him in mind of that Noble Gentleman to mention him in the fag-end of his Book very unproperly and in a huddle of many unjustifiable and wicked particulars when he had more seasonable occasion to have remembred him in many parts of his Book However I cannot forbear to put him in mind that I gave him for an expiation of my own defects and any trespasses which I may have since committed against him the Friendship of that great Person and first informed him of that Legacy which had not otherwise bin paid before the printing his Review And for my own part I shall conclude as I begun with the profession of so much esteem of his parts and reverence for his very vigorous age which in and for it self is venerable that in order to his conversion to be a good Subject and a good Christian I could be well content that as he seems to wish in his Commentary upon the Fourth Commandment pag. 178. as the Iews had every seventh day in which the Law was read and expounded so he thinks it necessary that some such times be determined wherein the people may assemble together and after Praiers and Praises given to God the Soveraign of Soveraigns hear those their duties told them which are prescribed in this his Leviathan and the positive Laws such as generally concern them all read and expounded and be put in mind of the autority that maketh them Laws so I say I should not be displeased if himself were allowed to make choice of his own Sabbaths to read his Lectures in both Universities and if he desired it afterwards in the City upon those Theses which for his ease are faithfully collected in this answer out of his Book And if this exercise doth not cure him I could wish that the same application and remedy might be tried by which the Emperor Alexander Severus cured the censoriousness and ambition of Ovinius Camillus who was as old and loved his ease as well as Mr. Hobbes yet being not satisfied with the present conduct of affairs and from thence became very popular he had a purpose to make himself Emperor Of which Severus being inform'd and having receiv'd and examin'd the full truth of it he sent for him and gave him thanks as Aelius Spartianus tells us Quod curam Reipub. quae recusantibus bonis imponeretur sponte reciperet and thereupon took him full of fear and terrified with the Conscience of his own guilt with him to the Senate participem Imperii appellavit in Palatium recepit Ornament is Imperialibus melioribus quam ipse utebatur affecit Afterwards when there was occasion of an Expedition against the Barbarians he offered him vel ipsum si vellet ire vel ut secum proficisceretur which he chusing and Severus himself walking still on foot with his Colleague who had accompanied him for many daies with intolerable fatigue the Emperor caused a horse to be brought to him upon which having rode some daies as much tired as before carpento imposuit The conclusion was he was so weary and ready to die under the command that abdicavit Imperium and Severus after he had commended him to the Soldiers tutum ad villas suas ire praecepit in quibus diu vixit I should be very glad that Mr. Hobbes might have a place in Parliament and sit in Counsel and be present in Courts of Justice and other Tribunals whereby it is probable he would find that his solitary cogitation how deep soever and his too peremtory adhering to some Philosophical Notions and even Rules of Geometry had misled him in the investigation of Policy and would rather retire to his quiet quarter in the Peak without envy of those whom he left in emploiment then keep them longer company in so toilsom uneasie and ungrateful Transactions And possibly this might and I doubt only could prevail upon him to make such recollection and acknowledgment of all the falshood profaneness impiety and blasphemy in his Book as may remove all those rubs and disturbances which he may justly apprehend as well in the way to his last Journy as at the end of it if he be not terrified with that disinal Pronunciation If we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledg of the truth there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries FINIS