not the truth but their own advantage Alas that it should be an advantage to Mr. Hobbes to perswade men to believe that Our Saviour hath not given us new Laws but Counsel to observe those we are subject to and that in his Sermon upon the Mount which is the compendium of Christianity â—e did not make any new Law to the Iews but only expound the Law of Moses to which they were subject before Since all those plain and lively precepts of charity and humility and a virtuous and pious life were more then an exposition of the Law of Moses sure his declaration That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her c. was more then an interpretation of that Commandment Thou shaâ—t not commit Adultery If his determination That whosoever should put away his Wife saving for the cause of Adultery c. be not a new Law it cannot be a Commentary upon that of Moses Let him give her a writing of Divorcement Was the utter suppression of circumcision was the total abolishing of all their Sacrifices making no new Law to the Jews but only expounding the Law of Moses And yet he came not to destroy the Law or the Prophets but to fulfil and when he had fulfilled what was there foretold of him the Law became felo-de-se and ceased to be useful any longer When our Saviour bid the Pharisees learn what that Text in the Prophet Hosea meaneth I will have mercy and not Sacrifice did he intend they should repair to the Law of Moses for instruction because they were subject to it I do with some passion desire Mr. Hobbes to consider sadly for there will at some time or other before he struggles out of this world be sadness to him in the consideration whether it be probable or possible that our Saviour should give such a charge to his Apostles that when in any House or City they who were in it refused to receive them or hear their words that they should shake off the dust of their feet with so terrible a Declaration by our Saviour himself Verily I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for the Land of Sodome and Gomorrah in the day of Iudgment then for that City Mat. 10. 15. I say can any man imagine that Christ should there have made so fierce a denunciation if he had intended the Precepts which himself and his Apostles gave should be looked upon only as good Counsel which men might as innocently disbelieve as believe and that they which should believe might securely suspend yielding any obedience to what he directed till his second coming to Judgment Indeed the day of Judgment would be so far from being a day of terror that it would be as festival a day as Mr. Hobbes himself can wish it if none be to be punished there for not observing the advice or not obeying the precepts which our Saviour and his Apostles gave to them But of this I have said enough before which I think I need not to repete or inlarge upon and am willing to get out and wish Mr. Hobbes will likewise from this maze and labyrinth of confusion and be advis'd by himself to give over the casting atomes of Scripture as dust before mens eies to make every thing more obscure then it is I cannot omit the observation of the three several definitions which he makes of Heresy in three several places as they were suitable to his occasions which himself declares to proceed from ignorance when pag. 50. men give different names to one and the same thing from the difference of their own passions In his eleventh Chapter whilst he affected to be plain and perspicuous in his expressions and explanation of words he saies Heresy signifies no more then private opinion but has only a tincture of greater choler but in his forty Second Chapter of the power Ecclesiastical in which it concern'd him to be wary what punishment he permitted to be inflicted on it he declares that pag. 277. an Heretic is he that being a member of the Church teacheth nevertheless some private opinion which the Church hath forbidden Which knowing to be his own case he was very well contented to resort to St. Paul and to grant him autority in this case to make rules as well as to give advice and finds his direction to Titus to be such as pleases him A man that is an Heretic after the first and second admonition reject Tit. 3. 10. but to reject in this place he saies is not to excommunicate the man but to give over admonishing him to let him alone to set by disputing with him as one that is to be convinc'd only by himself and then he doubts not to shift for himself But now when he hath better thought of it in his contest with Bellarmine he hath reason to be sorry that he hath left so much autority in the Church as to reject in his own sense least the Cardinal procures that power for the Pope whom he hath allowed to be the Master Schole-Master and then he may find another signification of reject then letting him alone And therefore he now pronounces pag. 317. that Heresy is nothing else but a private opinion obstinately maintained contrary to the opinion which the public person that is to say the Representant of the Common-wealth hath commanded to be taught by which he saies it is manifest he hath made it manifest by his definition that an opinion publicly appointed to be taught cannot be heresy nor the Soveraign Princes that autorize them Heretics And yet he may remember that the doctrine of Arius after it was condemned by the Gatholic Church was not thought to be the less Heresy for the countenance it receiv'd from two or three Emperours or for being allowed in the dominions of several Princes and tho the Pope himself Liberius to redeem himself from Banishment which was inflicted upon him for refusing to condemn Athanasius became likewise an Arian so that Mr. Hobbes was not the first inventor of that expedient by believing in the heart and denying with the mouth But still he is in an ill case for his own Soveraign hath already condemn'd him in the declaratory Law that whosoever contradicts any thing that is determined by or in the four first General Councils is an Heretic and to be proceeded against and censured as such which form will not be satisfied by rejecting him and leaving him to himself So that there is but one way to save him harmless which is his not being obstinate and that whosoever knows him or believes him will undertake he shall never make use of The Fourth Part. The Survey of Chapter 44. WE are now to enter upon his fourth part of the Kingdom of darkness whereof the first Chapter which is the forty fourth in number will take us little time the greatest part being against the doctrine or the practice of the Church of Rome I shall not enlarge but leave them to agree as they
never break the peâ—ce but only sometimes awake the War which to use his own commendable expression is pag. 8. like â—anding of things from one to another with many words making nothing understood The Survey of Chapter 22. I Should pass over his two and twentieth Chapter of Systemes Subject Political and Private which is a title as difficult to be understood by a literal translation as most of those to any Chapter in Suarez as few Congregations when they meet in a Church to pay their devotions to God Almighty do know that they are an irregular systeme in which besides vulgar notions well worded every man will discover much of that which he calls signs of error and misreckoning to which he saies page 116. all mankind is too prone and with which that Chapter abounds and will require no confutation but that I find and wonder to find mention of Laws and Letters Patents Bodies Politic and Corporations as necessary Institutions for the carrying on and advancement of Trade which are so many limitations and restraints of the Soveraign power and so many entanglements under Covenants and Promises which as they are all declar'd to be void it is in vain to mention I did not think Mr. Hobbes had desir'd to establish trade or any industry for the private accumulation of riches in his Common-wealth For is it possible to imagine that any Merchant will send out Ships to Sea or make such a discovery of his Estate if it may be either seized upon before it go's out or together with the benefit of the return when it comes home If trade be necessary to the good of a Nation it must be founded upon the known right of Propriety not as against other Subjects only but against the Soveraign himself otherwise trade is but a trap to take the collected wealth of particular men in a heap and when it is brought into less room to have it seized on and confiscated by the omnipotent word of the King with less trouble and more profit And if any Laws Letters Patents Charters or any other obligations or promises can oblige the Soveraign power in these cases which refer to trade and foreign adventures why should they not be equally valid for the securing all the other parts and relations of Propriety However whatsoever rigor Mr. Hobbes thinks fit to exercise upon the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation he must give over all thoughts of trade if he doth not better provide to secure his Merchants both of their liberty and propriety It is a good observation and an argument for the preference of Monarchy before any other form of Government in that where the Government is popular and the depressing the interest and reputation of particular Subjects is an essential policy of that Government yet in the managing the affairs of their Colonies and Provinces at a distance from them they chuse to commit the same to a single person as they do the Government and conduct of their Armies which are to defend their Government which is a tacite implication if not confession that in their own judgment they think the Monarchical the best form of Government But he might have observ'd likewise that in all those Monarchical Commissions at what distance soever there are limits and bounds set by referring to instructions for the punctual observation and performance of what that State or Government hath bin bound by promise and contract to perform which hath the same force to evince that the performance of promises and conditions is very consistent with Monarchical Government for the hazards that may arrive from thence may be as dangerous to that Government if it be at a great distance as upon any supposition whatsoever yet is never left to the discretion of a Governor It is a wonderful latitude that Mr. Hobbes leaves to all his Subjects and contradictory to all the moral precepts given to the World and to all the notions of Justice that he who hath his private interest depending and to be debated and judg'd before any Judicatory may make as many Friends as he can amongst those Judges even by giving them mony as if tho it be a crime in a Judg to be corrupt the person who corrupts him may be innocent because he thinks his own cause just and desires to buy justice for mony which cannot be got without it and so the grossest and most powerful Bribery shall be introduc'd to work upon the weakness and poverty and corruption of a Judg because the party thinks his cause to be just and chuses rather to depend upon the affection of his Judg whom he hath corrupted then upon the integrity of his cause and the justice of the Law But he doth not profess to be a strict Casuist nor can be a good observer of the Rules of moral honesty who believes that he may induce another to commit a great Sin and remain innocent himself Nor is he in truth a competent Judg of the most enormous crimes when he reckons pag. 56. Theft Adultery Sodomy and any other vice that may be taken for an effect of power or a cause of pleasure to be of such a Nature as amongst men are taken to be against Law rather then against Honor. The Survey of Chapter 23. I Should with as little trouble have passed by his twenty third Chapter of his Public Ministers and the fanciful Similies contain'd therein not thinking it of much importance what public or private Ministers he makes for such a Soveraignty as he hath instituted but that I observe him in this place as most luxurious Fancies use to do demolishing and pulling down what he had with great care and vigilance erected and establish'd as undeniable truth before And whereas he hath in his eighteenth Chapter pag. 91. pronounced the right of Iudicatory of hearing and deciding all Controversies which concern Law either Civil or Natural or concerning Fact to be inseparably annexed to the Soveraignty and incapable of being aliened and transferred by him and afterwards declares That the judgments given by Iudges qualified and commission'd by him to that purpose are his own proper Iudgments and to be regarded as such which is a truth generally confess'd in this Chapter against all practice and all reason he degrades him from at least half that Power and fancies a Judg to be such a party that if the Litigant be not pleased with the opinion of his Judg in matter of Law or matter of Fact he may therefore pag. 125. because they are both Subjects to the Soveraign appeal from his Judg and ought to be tried before another for tho the Soveraign may hear and determine the Cause himself if he please yet if he will appoint another to be Judg it must be such a one as they shall both agree upon for as the Complainant hath already made choice of his own Judg so the Defendant must be allow'd to except against such of his Judges whose interest maketh him suspect them
then his foot-stool And so making the last effort to lessen the value of our Redemtion by making a Grammatical enquiry into the signification of the word and low inferences thereupon he concludes pag. 245. That the joies of life eternal comprehended all in Scripture under the name of Salvation or being saved is to be secur'd either respectively against special evils or absolutely against all evils comprehending want sickness and death it self that is when we are once in Heaven we shall never want nor be sick nor die again which is a very vile expression of the joies of life eternal I will not deprive him of that Testimony his rare modesty deserves but acknowledg pag. 241. that he doth declare because his Doctrine tho proved out of places of Scripture not few nor obscure will appear to most a novelty he did but propound it maintaining nothing in this or any other Paradox in 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 approv'd or rejected and whose commands both in speech and writing whatsoever be the opinions of private men must by all men that mean to be protected by the Laws be obeied This was in the time when his fidelity and allegiance was by his own rule extinguished by choice for he was not then in the Enemies Quarters and no Sword drawn but that in Cromwells hand and in theirs who were under his command so that it was his single approbation and determination that he waited for the promulgation of the Doctrine which he had so well prov'd out of Scripture and to him he sent this blank for the disposal of himself body and soul according to his good will and pleasure But I know not how to excuse him since the Kings return and the resurrectâ—on of his Loialty which is grown and improv'd to that height that he will deny his Saviour upon his Command for not retracting and renouncing all those odious opinions when he very well knows that the Church of which the King is Soveraign doth detest all those his Doctrines and not concur in his interpretation of any of his Texts in Scripture and his not doing that which in Conscience he is oblig'd to do is a shrewd evidence that he considers not nor will be subject to any other Soveraignty then that of his own capricious brain and haughty understanding I have so much kindness for Mr. Hobbes that I heartily wish he would himself or that some of his Disciples would for him inform the World what good end he did or could propose to himself in writing this his eight and thirtieth Chapter or whether he could imagine that Christianity or any Christian knowledg could be advanced by it It seems to me to be the greatest charity he can expect to be believed to be a man that believes nothing of the immortality of the Soul of the eternal Life Hell Salvation the World to come and Redemtion which all other Christians do believe and believe all to be evident out of Scripture Since it is a less fault not to believe them how destructive soever then to imagine that he takes all that pains and uses all that raillery upon the Scripture to shew how liable the Word of God it self is to be ill handled and perversly interpreted by a great and bold Wit And truly he hath not bin disappointed in the propagation of this desperate Art which hath enabled his most devoted Proselytes to apply Texts of Scripture to all their profane impious and unclean purposes and which probably before they leave this World will give them a sad presage and prospect of the next the which can give them no reputation or credit except with persons proâ—â—igate and abandon'd to all kinds of vice and iniquity Plain it is that he hath not endeavor'd to advance the practice of any one Christian Virtue or to improve the exercise of any one Moral Duty to the end that the lives of men may be more innocent and thereby their hopes more reasonable of eternal Life as if he were not willing to perswade men by the strength of his master Reason to be better then they have a mind to be or to dis-countenance the practice of those sins which unavoidably must carry them to Hell let the situation of it be where it will pag. 56. as Adultery Sodomy and any vice that may be taken for an effect of power or a cause of pleasure all which vices amongst men he saies are taken to be against Law rather then against honor which since he hath discover'd he might for those wretches sake very naturally have interposed some powerful Animadversions in this Chapter of Eternal Life Hell and Salvation The Survey of Chapter 39. I have Charity enough to hope that Mr. Hobbes may have no worse design in this thirty ninth Chapter then can be made manifest out of his words which being plain and yielding naturally a good interpretation I will not endeavour to pervert them to a bad but wish he had farther enlarged upon the Subject to shew with what absurdity the word Church is applied to destroy Religion as if Christ had instituted one and but one Church that should have Autority to controul all the Christians in the World Which is a fancy how successful soever so extravagant and senseless so far from countenance from Scripture or Antiquity so in it self impossible that nothing is more wonderful then that so unreasonable a pretence should gain so much credit as to impose upon so great a part of the World so long and which tho it was not brought in by could never have bin brought in or grown but under that barbarous Tyranny and inundation which by the incursion of the Gothes and Vandalls and Hunns and Lombards who successively broke in from the North cover'd so great a part of Christendom for so many hundred years And it cannot be denied but that tho Spiritual and temporal are proper distinctions in the Government when the Soveraign who is equal Soveraign over both will apply them to several functions in the Government and to that exercise of different parts yet indeed they have bin made use of in the World pag. 248. to make men see double and to mistake their lawful Soveraign And they are not sharp-sighted enough who think their Government securely established under that distinction whil'st any Subject professes to owe a Spiritual or any other kind of Subjection or Obedience to any Foreign Power and Jurisdiction I would have bin very glad he would have enlarged upon both these Subjects so proper for his excellent way of reasoning and I cannot avoid saying that it is great pitty that the most faultless Chapter in the Book for ought is evident should be the shortest The Survey of Chapter 40. WE are not bound to believe and Mr. Hobbes would find it a hard task to prove that all Christian Princes have