which immediatly follows and therefore I shall make no reflexions upon what he saies concerning it till we come thither nor upon his Worship and Attributes which he assigns to God or rather what are not Attributes to him in which under pretence of explaining or defining he makes many things harder then they were before As all men who know what the meaning of knowledg and understanding is know it less after they are told that iâ— is pag. 190. nothing else but a tumult in the mind raised by external things that press the organical parts of mans body And I must confess he hath throughout this whole Chapter with wonderful art by making use of very many easie proper and very significant words made a shift to compound the whole so involv'd and intricate that there is scarce a Chapter in his Book the sense whereof the Reader can with more difficulty carry about him and observe the several fallacies and contradictions in it Of which kind of obscurity Mr. Hobbes makes as much use as of his brightest elucidations and having the Soveraign power over all definitions which he uses not as is don in Geometry which he saies is the only science it hath pleased God hithâ—rto to bestow upon man-kind as preliminaries or postulata by which men may know the setled signification of words but reserves the prerogative to himself to give new Definitions as often as he hath occasion to use the same terms that when it conduces to his purpose he may inform his Reader or else perplex him And therefore he doth not think himself safe in the former plain Definition which he gives of understanding pag. 17. that it is nothing else but conception caused by speech by which speech being peculiar to man understanding must be peculiar to him also but now being in his one and thirtieth Chapter and to deprive God of understanding that Definition will not serve his turn since it cannot be doubted but that God doth hear all we say and therefore we are to be amuzed by being told pag. 190. that understanding is nothing else but a tumult of the mind raised by external things that press the organical parts of mans body So that there being no such thing in God and it depending on natural causes cannot be attributed to him And now he is as safe as ever he was and let him that finds no tumult in his mind that presses the organical parts of his body get knowledg and understanding as he can I am not willing under pretence of adjourning some reflexions which would be natural enough upon this Chapter to a more seasonable occasion for enlargement upon the third part of his Discourse to be thought purposely to pretermit some of his Expressions in this Chapter which seem to have somwhat of Piety and of Godliness in them and to raise hope that his purposes are yet better then they appear'd to be After all that illimited power he hath granted to his Soveraign and all that unrestrain'd obedience which he exacts from his Subject he doth in the first Paragraph of this Chapter frankly acknowledg pag. 186. that the Subjects owe simple obedience to their Soveraign only in those things wherein their obedience is not repugnant to the Law of God and is very solicitous so to instruct his Subject that for want of entire knowledg of his duty to both Laws he may neither by too much civil obedience offend the Divine Majesty or through fear of offending God transgress the Commandments of the Commonwealth a circumspection worthy the best Christian and is enough to destroy many of the Prerogatives which he hath given to his Soveraign and to cancel many of the Obligations he hath impos'd upon his Subject But if the Reader will suspend his judgment till he hath read a few leaves more he will find that Mr. Hobbes hath bin wary enough to do himself no harm by his specious Divinity but hath a salvo to set all streight again for he makeâ— no scruple of determining pag. 199. That the Books of the holy Scripture which only contain the Laws of God are only Canonical when they are establish'd for such by the Soveraign power So that when he hath suspended obedience to the Soveraign in those things wherein their obedience is repugnant to the Law of God it is meant only till the Soveraign declares that it is not repugnant to the Law of God with other excellent Doctrine the examination whereof we must not anticipate before its time and shall only wonder at his devout provision pag. 191. that Praiers and Thanksgiving to God be the best and most significant of honor And whereas most pious men are of opinion that rhose Devotions being the most sincere and addressed to none but to God himself who at the same time sees the integrity of the heart ought to be without the least affectation of Word or elegance of Expression he will have them pag. 192. made in words and phrases not sudden and plebeian but beautiful and well compos'd for else we do not God so much honor as we may and therefore he saies Tho the Heathen did â—â—surdly to worship Images for Gods yet their doing it in verse and with music both of voice and instrument was reasonable I cannot omit the observation of his very conâ—ident avoiding that place in the Scripture pag. 193. It is better to obey God then man which he could not but find did press him very hard and was worthy of a better answer then that it hath place in the Kingdom of God by pact and not by nature which if it be an answer hath not that perspicuity in it which good Geometricians require and the answer stands much more in need of a Commentary then the Text which he will supply us with in the next Edition However let it be as it will he hath he saies pag. 193. recover'd some hope that at one time or other this writing of his may fall into the hands of a Soveraign who will consider it himself he acknowledg'd at that time no Soveraign but Cromwell and without the help of any interessed or envious Interpreter and by the exercise of entire Soveraignty in protecting the public teaching it convert the truth of speculation into the utility of practice It is one of the unhappy effects which a too gracious and merciful Indulgence ever produces in corrupt and proud natures that they believe that whatsoever is tolerated in them is justified and commended and because Mr. Hobbes hath not receiv'd any such brand which the Authors of such Doctrine have bin usually mark'd with nor hath seen his Book burned by the hand of the Hang-man as many Books more innocent have bin he is exalted to a hope that the supreme Magistrate will at some time so far exercise his Soveraignty as to protect the public teaching his Principles and convert the truth of his Speculation into the utility of practice But he might remember and all those who are
of the passions and his confession that the constitution individual and particular education do make so great a difference and disparity he reduces that general Proposition to signify so very little that he leaves very little to be observed and very few Persons competent to observe We have too much cause to believe that much the major part of mankind do not think at all are not endued with reason enough to opine or think of what they did last or what they are to do next have no reflexion without which there can be no thinking to this purpose and the number is much greater of those who know not how to comprehend the smilitude of the objects from the passions nor enough understand the nature of fear as it is distinguish'd from the object that is fear'd so that none of these Persons which constitute a vast number are capable to make that observation which must produce that knowledg which may enable them to judg of all the World And how many there are left who are fit from their individual constitutions or particular educations and notwithstanding the corruption introduced by dissembling lying counterfeiting and erroneous Doctrine to make that judgment I leave to Mr. Hobbes to determine And 't is probable that those very few may conclude that what they do when they think opine reason hope fear contributes very little to their knowing what the thoughts and passions of other men are And they may the rather be induced to make that conclusion since there are so very few who think and opine as Mr. Hobbes doth and whose hopes and fears are like his with reference to the objects or the nature it self of those passions and that the dissimilitude is greater between the passions themselves then between the objects and that men are not more unlike each other in their faces or in their clothes then in their thinking hoping and fearing Since then Mr. Hobbes founds so much of his whole discourse upon the verity and Evidence of this first Proposition that we shall very often have occasion to resort to it as we keep him company and since the same seems to me to be very far from being the true Key to open the cipher of other mens thoughts it will not be amiss to examine and insist a little longer on this Conclusion that we may discern whether all or any of us are endued with such an infallible Faculty that we can conclude what the thoughts and passions of other men are by a strict observation and consideration of our own thoughts and passions which would very much enable us to countermine and disappoint each others thoughts and passions and would be a high point of wisdom In the disquisition whereof that we may not entangle the passion and the object together for want of skill to severe them it may not be amiss to suppose the same passion to be in two several men whose passions have the same object and then consider whether they are like to discover each others thoughts and passions their hopes and their fears by each mans looking into himself and considering what he do's when he thinks hopes or fears If Mr. Hobbes loved to as great a height as his passion can rise to the same object that is likewise loved by another he would hardly be able to make any judgment of the others love by his own and upon a mutual confession and communication their passions would not be found to be the same If Mr. Hobbes and some other man were both condemn'd to death which is the most formidable thing Mr. Hobbes can conceive the other could no more by looking into himself know Mr. Hobbe's present thoughts and the extent of his fear then he could by looking in his face know what he hath in his Pocket Not only the several complexions and constitutions of the body the different educations and climates dispose the affections and passions of men to different objects but have a great influence upon the passions themselves As the fears so the hopes of men are as unlike as their gate and meen If a Sangâ—ine and a Melancholic man hope the same thing their hopes are no more alike each others then their complexions are the hope of the one retaining still somwhat like despair whilst the hope of the other looks like fruition so little similitude there is in the passions themselves without any relation to their objects That a man of great courage and a very cowardly man have not the same countenance and presence of mind in an approch of danger proceeds not from the ones liking to be killed more then the others but rather from the difference of their natural courage But let us suppose a man of courage and a coward equally guilty or equally innocent that there may be no difference from the operation of conscience to be brought to die together by a judgment which they cannot avoid and so to be equally without hope of life and death in Mr. Hobbes's judgment is equally terrible to all and with equal care to be avoided or resisted How comes it to pass that one of these undergo's death with no other concernment then as if he were going any other journy and the other with such confusion and trembling that he is even without life before he dies if it were true that all men fear alike upon the like occasion There will be the same uncertainty in concluding what others do by observing what we our selves do when we think opine or reason How shall that man who thinks deliberately opines modestly and reasons dispassionately and by his excellent temper satisfies his own judgment in a conclusion in which at the same time he discerns others may differ from him I say how shall such a man by his own way of reasoning judg another mans who usually thinks precipitately opines arrogantly and reasons superciliously and concludes imperiously that man to be mistaken who determines otherwise then he do's To conclude Mr. Hobbes might as naturally have introduced his unreasonable Doctrine of the Similitude of the Passions from the wisdom that he saies is acquired by the reading of Men as from his method of reading ones self That saying of Nosce teipsum in the sense of Solon who prescribed it was a sober truth but was never intended as an expedient to discover the similitude of the thoughts of other men by what he found in himself but as the best means to suppress and destroy that pride and self-conceit which might temt him to undervalue other men and to plant that modesty and humility in himself as would preserve him from such presumtion The Survey of Chapter 1 2 3. HAving resolved not to enter into the Lists with Mr. Hobbes upon the Signification of words or Propriety of expressions in which he exercises an absolute Dictatorship and indeed not to enlarge upon any particular that to me seems erroneous except it be an Error of that kind and consequence as carries with it
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
any Age or Climate had never read Aristotle or Cicero and I belive had Mr. Hobbes bin of this opinion when he taught Thucydides to speak English which Book contains more of the Science of Mutiny and Sedition and teaches more of that Oratory that contributes thereunto then all that Aristotle and Cicero have publish'd in all their Writings he would not have communicated such materials to his Country-men But if this new Phylosophy and Doctrine of Policy and Religion should be introduc'd taught and believ'd where Aristotle and Cicero have don no harm it would undermine Monarchy more in two months then those two great men have don since their deaths and men would reasonably wish that the Author of it had never bin born in the English Climate nor bin taught to write and read It is a very hard matter for an Architect in State and Policy who doth despise all Precedents and will not observe any Rules of practice to make such a model of Government as will be in any degree pleasant to the Governor or governed or secure for either which Mr. Hobbes finds and tho he takes a liberty to raise his Model upon a supposition of a very formal Contract that never was or ever can be in nature and hath the drawing and preparing his own form of Contract is forc'd to allow such a latitude in obedience to his Subject as shakes the very pillars of his Government And therefore tho he be contented that by the words of his Contract pag. 112. Kill me and my fellow if you please the absolute power of all mens lives shall be submitted to the disposal of the Governors will and pleasure without being oblig'd to observe any rules of Justice and Equity yet he will not admit into his Contract the other words pag. 112. I will kill my self or my fellow and therefore that he is not bound by the command of his Soveraign to execute any dangerous or dishonorable office but in such cases men are not to resort so much to the words of the submission as to the intention which distinction surely may be as applicable to all that monstrous autority which he gives the Governor to take away the Lives and Estates of his Subjects without any cause or reason upon an imaginary Contract which if never so real can never be supposed to be with the intention of the Contractor in such cases And the subtle Distinctions he finds out to excuse Subjects from yielding obedience to their Soveraigns and the Prerogative he grants to fear for a whole Army to run away from the Enemy without the guilt of treachery or injustice leaves us some hope that he will at last allow such a liberty to Subjects that they may not in an instant be swallowed up by the prodigious power which he pleases to grant to his Soveraign And truly he degrades him very dishonorably when he obliges him to be the Hang-man himself of all those Malefactors which by the Law are condemn'd to die for he gives every man autority without the violation of his duty or swerving from the rules of Justice absolutely to refuse to perform that office Nor hath he provided much better for his security then he hath for his honor when he allows it lawful for any number of men pag. 112. who have rebelled against the Soveraign or committed some capital crime for which every one of them expects death then to join together and defend each other because they do but defend their lives which the guilty man he saies may do as well as the innocent And surely no man can legally take his life from him who may lawfully defend it and then the murderer or any other person guilty of a capital Crime is more innocent and in a better condition then the Executioner of Justice who may be justly murdered in the just execution of his office And it is a very childish security that he provides for his Soveraign against this Rebellion and defence of themselves against the power of the Law pag. 113. that he declares it to be lawful only for the dâ—fence of their lives and that upon the offer of pardon for themselves that self-defence is unlawful as if a body that is lawfully drawn together with strength enough to defend their lives against the power of the Law are like to disband and lay down their Arms without other benefit and advantage then only of the saving of their lives But tho he be so cruel as to devest his Subjects of all that liberty which the best and most peaceable men desire to possess yet he liberally and bountifully confers upon them such a liberty as no honest man can pretend to and which is utterly inconsistent with the security of Prince and People which unreasonable Indulgence of his cannot but be thought to proceed from an unlawful affection to those who he saw had power enough to defend the transcendent wickedness they had committed tho they were without an Advocate to make it lawful for them to do so till he took that office upon him in his Leviathan as is evident by the instance he gives in the next Paragraph that he thinks it lawful for every man to have as many wives as he pleases if the King will break the silence of the Law and declare that he may do so which is a Prerogative he vouchsafes to grant to the Soveraign to balance that liberty he gave to the Subject to defend himself and his companion against him and is the only power that may inable him to be too hard for the other If Mr. Hobbes did not believe that the autority of his Name and the pleasantness of his Style would lull men asleep from enquiring into the Logic of his Discourse he could not but very well discern himself that this very liberty which he allows the Subject to have and which he doth without scruple enjoy to sue the Soveraign and to demand the hearing of his Cause and that Sentence be given according to the Law results only from that condescention and contract which the Soveraign hath made with his Subject and which can as well secure many other Liberties to them as their power to sue the King for there could be no Law precedent to that resignation of themselves and all they had at the institution of their supreme Governor and if there had bin it had bin void and invalid it being not possible that any man who hath right to nothing and from whom any thing that he hath may be taken away can sue his Soveraign for a debt which he might take if it were due from any other man but can by no means be due from him to whom all belongs and who hath power to forbid any Judg to proceed upon that complaint or any other person to presume to make that complaint were it not for the subsequent contract which he calls a precedent Law by which the Soveraign promises and obliges himself to appoint Judges to exercise