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
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
such constitution of his can be repeal'd and made void but in the same manner and with his consent But we say that he may prescribe or consent to such a method in the form and making these Laws that being once made by him he cannot but in the same form repeal or alter them and he is oblig'd by the Law of Justice to observe and perform this contract and he cannot break it or absolve himself from the observation of it without violation of justice and any farther obligation upon him then of justice I discourse not of For the better cleering of this to that kind of reason by which Mr. Hobbes is swai'd let us suppose this Soveraignty to reside and be fix'd in an assembly of men in which kind of Government it is possible to find more marks and foot-steps of such a deputing and assigning of interests as Mr. Hobbes is full of then we can possibly imagine in the original institution of Monarchy If the Soveraign power be deputed into the hands of fifteen and any vacant place to be suppli'd by the same Autority that made choice of the first fifteen may there not at that time of the election certain Rules be prescrib'd I do not say conditions for the better exercise of that Soveraign power and by the accepting the power thus explain'd doth not the Soveraign tho there should be no Oath administred for the observation thereof which is a circumstance admitted by most Monarchs tacitly covenant that he will observe those Rules and if he do's wilfully decline those Rules doth he not break the trust reposed in him I do not say forfeit the trust as if the Soveraignty were at an end but break that trust violate that justice he should observe If the Soveraign power of fifteen should raise an imposition for the defence of the Common-wealth if they should appoint this whole imposition to be paid only by those whose names are Thomas when Thomas was before in no more prejudice with the Common-wealth then any other appellation in Baptism may not this inequality be call'd a violation of Justice and a breach of trust since it cannot be suppos'd that such an irregular autority was ever committed to any man or men by any deputation Of the Prerogative of necessity to swerve from Rules prescrib'd or to violate Laws tho sworn to shall be spoken to in its due time It needs not be suppos'd but must be confess'd that the Laws of every Country contain more in them concerning the rights of the Soveraign and the common administration of Justice to the people then can be known to and understood by the person of the Soveraign and he can as well fight all his Battels with his own hand and sword as determine all causes of right by his own tongue and understanding The consequence of any confusion which Mr. Hobbes can suppose would not be more pernicious then that which would follow the blowing away all these maxims of the Law if the Kings breath were strong enough to do it It is a maxim in the Law as is said before that the eldest Son shall inherit and that if three or four Females are heirs the inheritance shall be equally divided between them Doth Mr. Hobbes believe that the word of the King hath power to change this course and to appoint that all the Sons shall divide the Estate and the Eldest Daughter inherit alone and must not all the confusion imaginable attend such a mutation All Governments subsist and are establish'd by firmness and constancy by every mans knowing what is his right to enjoy and what is his duty to do and it is a wonderful method to make this Government more perfect and more durable by introducing such an incertainty that no man shall know what he is to do nor what he is to suffer but that he who is Soveraign to morrow may cancel and dissolve all that was don or consented to by the Soveraign who was yesterday or by himself as often as he changes his mind It is the Kings Office to cause his Laws to be executed and to compel his Subjects to yield obedience to them and in order thereunto to make choice of Learned Judges to interpret those Laws and to declare the intention of them who pag. 140 by an artificial perfection of reason gotten by long study and experience in the Law must be understood to be more competent for that determination then Mr. Hobbes can be for the alteration of Law and Government by the artificial reason he hath attain'd to by long study of Arithmetic and Geometry No Eminent Lawyer hath ever said that the two Arms of a Common-wealth are Force and Justice the first whereof is in the King the other deposited in the hands of the Parliament but all Lawyers know that they are equally deposited in the hands of the King and that all justice is administred by him and in his name and all men acknowledg that all the Laws are his Laws his consent and autority only giving the power and name of a Law what concurrence or formality soever hath contributed towards it the question only is whether he can repeal or vacate such a Law without the same concurrence and formality And methinks the instance he makes of a Princes pag. 139. subduing another people and consenting that they shall live and be govern'd according to those Laws under which they were born and by which they were formerly govern'd should manifest to him the contrary For tho it be confess'd that those old Laws become new by this consent of his the Laws of the Legislator that is of that Soveraign who indulges the use of them yet he cannot say that he can by his word vacate and repeal those Laws and his own concession without dissolving all the ligaments of Government and without the violation of faith which himself confesses to be against the Law of Nature Notwithstanding that the Law is reason and pag. 139. not the letter but that which is according to the intention of the Legislator that is of the Soveraign is the Law yet when there is any difficulty in the understanding the Law the interpretation thereof may reasonably belong to Learn'd Judges who by their education and the testimony of their known abilities before they are made Judges and by their Oaths to judg according to Right are the most competent to explain those difficulties which no Soveraign as Soveraign can be presum'd to understand or comprehend And the judgments and decisions those Judges make are the judgments of the Soveraigns who have qualified them to be Judges and who are to pronounce their sentence according to the reason of the Law not the reason of the Soveraign And therefore Mr. Hobbes would make a very ignorant Judg when he would not have him versed in the study of the Laws but only a man of good natural reason and of a right understanding of the Law of Nature and yet he saies pag. 154. that
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
partly wrought our conversion and partly wâ—rketh nâ—w by his Ministers and will continue to work till his coming again And it is very ill Logic to say that because they cannot mis-interpret and pervert Scripture nor preach Rebellion against their natural Soveraign since Christ hath commanded subjection and obedience to them they have therefore no autority to preach at all or interpret the Scripture but must publish whatsoever the King bids them in the Name and as the Commands of God yet even that and all he hath or can say may be true if the cases of Conscience which he hath taken upon him to determine have any dependance upon or affinity with the Christian Faith or common honesty What if the office of Christs Ministers in this World is to make men believe and have Faith in Christ and that they have no power by that title to punish men for not believing or for contradicting what they say doth that defect of power of compulsion abolish that power which he hath given them of instructing and preaching and using the Keys As Christ hath trusted them to do and qualified them with peculiar circumstances to perform those Offices so he hath trusted Soveraign Princes to assist them whil'st they perform their office with integrity or to punish them if they do not with their power of compulsion that their labors may be effectual And Princes are no less obliged to give them that assistance then they are to perform the office of the Apostles and Disciples nor can any Prince think his Soveraignty impair'd by being obliged to take care that the Laws and Precepts of God his Soveraign be punctually submitted to and that they to whom in special manner the publication thereof is committed be not only protected but obeied and reverenc'd whil'st they do their duty or â—urmise that the Word of God stands in need of or can receive any dignity or autority by any thing he can add to it by his Soveraign power God hath left and requir'd them to be Nursing Fathers to his Church and from the time of their being Christians hath communicated his Scripture to them which they have receiv'd and which they are equally bound to obey as their meanest Subject and if they are not good and faithful Nurses the miscarriage of the Children shall be imputed to them There is no cause of jealousie from the Soveraign towards his Subjects which Mr. Hobbes out of his constant good will desires to kindle for there is neither Bishop nor Priest who pretends to any Power or Jurisdiction inconsistent with the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical as well as Temporal matters No man can be made a Bishop but by his appointment and grant No man can be ordained a Priest but by him whom he hath nominated to be a Bishop And if either Bishop or Priest mis-behave themselves to that degree they shall by his autority be degraded and depriv'd and suffer as Lay-men are to do he being no less Soveraign over the Ecclesiastical Persons and Laws then over the Temporal and whoever so become liable are to blame and for ought I know have to answer for somthing besides the departing from their dignity In a word Prelates assume no title of Honor nor pretend to any Jurisdiction that they have not receiv'd from him and therefore deserve to be countenanc'd and supported by him amongst his best and most useful Subjects He is not concern'd if the King forbids him to believe in Christ it is a command of no effect because belief and understanding never follow mens commands but if the King commands him to say that he believes not in Christ he is very ready to obey him pag. 271. Profession with the tongue is but an external thing wherein a Christian holding firmly in his heart the Faith of Christ hath the same liberty which the Prophet Elisha allowed to Naaman the Syrian He would be very much disappointed in the support of his monstrous Impiety if that Text ought to be rendred out of the Original as Dr Lightfoot a man eminently learned in the Hebrew positively saies at ought to be For this thing the Lord pardon thy servant for that when my Master hath gon into the house of Rimmon to worship there and he hath leaned upon my hand that I have also bowed my self in the house of Rimmon for my worshipping in the house of Rimmon the Lord pardon thy servant for tâ—is thing 2 Kings 5. 18. So that he craved pardon for Idolatry past and not begged leave to be Idolatrous for the time to come But admitting the Text to be according to the common Translation it can do Mr. Hobbes no good except he procures the same leave from another who hath as much autority as Elisha had Who doth not know that none of those Examples which were either enjoin'd or permitted to be don by the Divine Autority for some extraordinary end of Providence are for our imitation when they are opposite to the truth and justice and integrity of Gods Precepts He may as well justifie the breach of Faith and down-right Theft and Robbery in his Neighbors by the example of the Israelites borrowing the Jewels and other Goods of the Egyptians or the assassination of an Enemy by the example of Ehuds stabbing of Eglon and many other unwarrantable actions by the example of good men directed by the Spirit of God in the Scripture as maintain his own impiety by the example or permission if there were any of Naaman But if Mr. Hobbes be gratified by not urging the impiety nor the denunciation which St. Iohn pronounced upon him He is Anti-Christ that denieth the Father and the Son 1 John 2. 22. How will he justifie the prevarication and falseness in saying he doth not believe that which in his heart he dâ—th believe Ye shall not deal falsly neither lie one to another was a part of the Levitical Law and by Mr. Hobbes rules a part of the Law of Nature and so must not be violated nor can be controul'd by God himself He knows very well who is the Father of lies tho it may be he doth not enough consider what portion is allotted for his children And if they who said they were Iews and were not but did lie were pronounc'd by St. Iohn to be of the Synagogue of Satan Rev. 3. 9. There is very great danger that he who is a Christian in his heart upon any Kings commands shall profess with his Tongue that he doth not believe in Christ will not be admitted by our Saviour to be of his Church In vain hath the whole current of Scripture endeavor'd to raise such an awful reverence for truth that it hath scarce pronounced more severe Judgments against any Species of sins then against lying He that telleth lies shall not stay in my sight saies the Spirit of God by the Psalmist Psal. 101. 7. He that speaketh lies shall perish saies the same Spirit in the Proverbs Prov. 19. 9. Let him
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