far as he is intelligible hath denied any obedience due to a Father upon the account of generation Now since Mr. Hobbes for this Paragraph cites places of Scripture even in the Year 1651. before the Sword had determined what was Scripture and what not let me cite some now 't is the Year 1679. and all Men have agreed the Bible to be the Word of God to prove that God hath a right to Rule as he is Creator and gratious and to shew the apparent falseness of what Mr. Hobbes hath said in this pageâ— Rom. 9. v. 20,21 clearly shews that God as Creator hath power or liberty as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to order his Creatures as he pleaseth and that upon the account as Creator for he is there compared to the Potter 'T is true those Texts speak only of making of Men and Mr. Hobbes is now upon the governing of Men but observe those Texts relate to the future state of Men which God as Creator hath liberty or power to order as he pleaseth And Isaiah 37. v. 26. There God saith by the Prophet That he had formed the Earth and brought it to pass that Sennacherib should lay wast Cities Where observe That God's creating the World and his Government of it go together which to my apprehension shews his right to Govern upon the account of creating 'T is true irresistable power God is pleased to make use of to punish wicked Men as in this last mentioned Chapter he is said to do by putting an hook in Sennacherib's Nose and a bridle in his Lips and turning him back like an unruly strong beast but God rules his own People by love and they obey him upon the account of his Goodness for the love of Christ constrains Men and as he is their Creator and thereby hath the right to govern them But 't is true wicked Men obey him because they cannot help it yet from thence it follows not that God hath not right to govern wicked Men as he is their Creator And to stop Mr. Hobbes his mouth let him read the 20. Exod. v. 2. 3 4 c. and he will find that God tells the Israelites what he had done for them and immediately ensues his commands which clearly tells any rational Man that God hath right to govern upon the account of his Goodness and with this accords all the Chapters in Deuteronomy that treat of obedience and clearly shew that 't is due upon the account of God's goodness But now I come to Mr. Hobbes his Texts of Scripture which he cites for his opinion and they as little justifie his opinion as his opinion is agreeable to Truth He introduceth his Texts by saying that it stagger'd all sorts of Men The prosperity of the wicked and the adversity of the good and particularly David Psalm 73. v. 1. 2 3. which verses treat of David's wonder at the prosperity of the wicked and never goes on to the 17. 18 19 20. verses where David expresseth his satisfaction as to that matter And then Mr. Hobbes proceeds to Iob's Expostulation with God about his afflictions notwithstanding his righteousness and this he saith God answers not by arguments drawn from Iob's sin but his own power and quotes Iob 38. v. 4. where God saith Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the Earth In which Text I think as well as the whole Chapter Mr. Hobbes answereth himself and shews God's Soveraignty by reason of his Creation but Mr. Hobbes saith this approved Iob's innocence why I know not either from the Text or Context and Iob saith himself Chap. 40. v. 4. I am vile and cannot answer And then Mr. Hobbes cites the saying of our Saviour 't is the 9 th of Iohn v. 3. That our Saviour saith That neither the blind Man nor his Parents had sinned but that the works of God might be manifest in him Therefore he would conclude that sin is not always the cause of punishment Why For no reason but because God was pleased to make this Man without sight as he might have done all the World that his son Iesus our blessed Lord and Saviour might afterwards work a Miracle upon him for the setling the Gospel Or it may prove that God may make Man as he pleaseth as the Potter may order the clay Is this any thing to punishment at all It is impossible for 't is no punishment to be created as God pleaseth for punishment is a deprivation of some good a Man hath had and 't is no punishment for a Man not to have that which he never had or had any right to till God gave it him and Mr. Hobbes might as well have said that 't is a punishment for him not to be born to 1000 l. a year because his Neighbour was as that 't is a punishment for a Man to be born without Eyes because his Neighbour was born with Eyes One would wonder that any Man in his wits should cite so many Texts of Scripture and so little to a purpose And then saith Mr. Hobbes Though death entred by sin yet God might have afflicted Adam though he had never sinned and here Mr. Hobbes breaks off without giving any shadow of reason or authority for his assertion What God might have done by his Prerogative I know not but this I say that I never read in the Bible of any affliction upon a people but it was for sin at least sin preceded and all along the Bible God lays the reason of his punishments upon his peoples sins as well as the punishments of other Nations upon their sins and why then Mr. Hobbes should say That punishments are not always from Men's sins is impossible to find a sound reason and admit God should lay some affliction upon an innocent person were there any such which is absolutely or the next to blasphemy to affirm yet this would not be punishment but an act of his Will and Power and admit he may do such a thing it doth not therefore follow that ever God did as Mr. Hobbes hath affirmed but not proved Mr. Hobbes saith p. 190. That knowledge and understanding cannot be attributed to God and to justifie himself gives a definition of them and that is That thâ—y are nothing in us but tumults of the mind raised by External things that press the Organs of the Body and there is no such thing in God I doubt when Mr. Hobbes wrote this he had a tumult in his mind for any rational Man would think him mad who confesseth a God that notwithstanding shall deny God one of his great Attributes and one so great that without it all the rest would signifie nothing and that is Knowledge or Understanding and this for no reason but because God cannot be said to understand things in the same manner that we do admitting Mr. Hobbes his definition true which is false Tumult being an enemy to understanding God having no organical parts For is it not
he is condemning the vices of the Lawyers argues us possessors of one virtue and that is modesty in regarding what was said or done by others before which had Mr. Hobbes had the least shâ—re of I think he would never have put forth his Leviathan and we ought to thank him for affording us so good company in our sufferings of ill Language as Religion in general and our blessed Lord and Saviour in particular yet see the charity of the Lawyers since to Mr. Hobbes in being mainly instrumental in the Act of Oblivion which Mr. Hobbes will call just because as to him 't was without precedent But Mr. Hobbes as in many other places makes himself the sole authority in this matter for why the word Precedent is so Barbarous a word for what hath been done in matters of Iustice I know not for praecedo is to go before But to tell Mr. Hobbes what use the Lawyers make of a precedent or as some call it a president is not to be better done than putting his own Case as suppose Mr. Hobbes was now to be arraigned for his Book and that no Pardon had intervened so full of blasphemous Opinions against God the King and his People The Iudges would look to see the punishment of such a precedent Malefactor the better to direct themselves in such a Case and if they could find no such Malefactor it being impossible as I think then they would judge what was the Law and punishment due in such a Case Not â—hat they would condemn Mr. Hobbes could they find a precedent because of â—hat precedent but they would first exâ—min whether that precedent was agreeâ—ble to the Law of this Nation and â—n case it was they would proceed acâ—ordingly and in case it was not would â—eject it and judge the Law without it Where is then the false measure of justice making use of a precedent I think no one will say there is any except he have a design like Mr. Hobbes to ruin the Law by making it odious and thereby open a gap for a standing Army which in probability would ruin both Prince and People to the security of both which the Law is so main a bulwark Mr. Hobbes in his Chapter of Religion amongst a company I hope the word is not Barbarous of Notions which only I suppose have sprung from his own whimsical Fancy hath p. 54. this Paragraph In opinion of Ghosts ignorance of second causes devotion towards what Men fear and taking of things casual for Prognostics consisteth the natural seed of Religion which hath according to the difference of passions grown into different Ceremonies Now I absolutely deny That the seed of Religion consisteth in any of these But the first seeds of Religion were first sown in Adam by the Knowledge of the great God who made him and all the World and was capable to punish or destroy him and the rest of the World as well as to bless when it should be his good will and pleasure and from thence together with his favours received sprang the reasonable deduction or consequence in Adam which was communicated to his posterity that it was his duty to serve and please his Creator that was capable at pleasure to destroy or preserve him Secondly The seeds of Religion are in every Man either from this Ancestral relation or else from the very sence of mankind of a Power and Goodness above them which is naturally implanted in them as all other faculties are that are natural which begets in all mankind a Veneration towards that Power and Goodness and this is it conjoyned with works we call Religion But the opinion of Ghosts ignorance of second causes Devotion to what Men fear and other casualties are subsequent in the minds of Men to this natural seed of Religion and are rather the Suckers than Seeds of Religion But I confess that from these seeds many several ways of Worshipping this God through Mens ignorance have been set up in the World Mr. Hobbes I suppose by this conceit of making Ghosts and Ignorance that is Fancy and Mistake the seeds of Religion thought he could the more easily prepare Men to be of any Religion or none according to the subsequent humor of Mr. Hobbes's civil Soveraign For why â—hould People stickle for that whose ground is Fancy and Mistake And Mr. Hobbes may make the natural seeds of Religion to be what he pleaseth since in this Chapter p. 61. 62 63. he makes the effects of those natural seeds none at all For he saith All Men by nature till under a Governor may do what they can each to others persons as particularly in p. 64. or goods being in an estate of war by nature each against other This is the substance of most of those leaves and particularly he saith p. 63. That the notions of Right and Wrong Iustice and Injustice have there no place and Where there is no common Power there is no Law no Injustice Force and Fraud are in War the two cardinal Virtues Iustice and Injustice are none of the faculties either of Body or Mind if they were they might be in a Man though but one in the World With much such stuff as this is although to do him right he so far contradicts himself p. 185. as to say That Conscience ought to govern where there is no Commonwealth I thank Mr. Hobbes for instructing me in two cardinal Virtues I never heard of before viz. Force and Fraud which are two precedents the Lawyers though so guilty as Mr. Hobbes saith of false measures of Iustice never make use of But let us observe what turns upon these excellent hinges First That a Man may by nature do that to another that he would not have another do to him He may take his Neighbours goods or life by deceit or violence though he would not have an other take his for would any Man have an other take his goods or life by fraud or violence 'T is impossible to humane nature to suppose it Secondly Observe that Cain's killling Abel was lawful and that Oliver's Army might in the Year 1651. take all the propriety of the people of England as they had taken the King's all Subjects according to Mr. Hobbes Positions being absolved from their Allegiance and so were return'd into an estate of Civil War each with other there being no Governor at that time in England set up except the Army This makes me think what a good Trade a Captain of Horse of the same Faith with Mr. Hobbes might have had at that time and what a lawful calling a High-way Man was then of and how much he might have deserved with a true Son of Mr. Hobbes's as an Apprentice This I suppose was written to satisfie the Consciences of those Men that enjoyed most that they had at that time got by Force and Fraud and I wonder they did not make Mr. Hobbes for his healing Divinity a Superintendent of Canterbury with the power of a
he doth in all Commonwealths for by him King's reign For there was a certain time when there was no King in Israel and God appointed sometimes Iudges Chiefs that is Kings to govern them between which Iudges there was intervals and I would know what temporal Iurisdiction God exercised over them in those intervals or at that time when there was no King Certainly none that we ever read of in holy Writ and 't is reasonable to suppose God exercised none for that the people of Israel were then grievously oppressed and so continued sometimes forâ—y Years before a deliverer rose up which they needed not to have done if God had undertaken the temporal government for that God by his Power was able to have deliver'd them which we see he never did but by a temporal Governor in the time of which Governor the high Priest was not God's Viceroy but rather the Governor 's and the 17. Deut. 9. 12. v. clearly makes the Priest and the Iudge which should then afterwards be different persons and different Emploiments So 't is most apparent that God was no otherwise the temporal King of the Israelites than he was King of all the Earth nor the high Priest as high Priest his Viceroy though the Israelites were his chosen people as to Religious worship And as to the 1 Sam. 8. 7. which Mr. Hobbes cites where God said to Samuel when the people asked a King They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not rule over them it is no more but that God was angry with them for not taking such a Governor as he was pleased to set over them as Samuel then was and Baruck Ieptha and Samson had been but that they would have one not only of their own choosing but also aâ—ter the similitude of other Nations which God had rejected and had chosen them for his peculiar people and so in that sence they may be said to reject God in that they rejected those he did set over them As to Mr. Hobbes his other places of Scripture I think them nothing to the matter and so I shall pass them over as he saith he doth many more places for this purpose not cited but instead of citing them slily as I think claps his hands at the Clergy p. 219. and saith 'T is a wonder no more notice is taken of this but that it gives too much light to Christian Kings to see their right of Ecclesiastical government To this I will answer for the Clergy of England that those that are not infected with a spice of Popery as I am afraid some such there are God make them fewer or some for want of due consideration always acknowledge the King for supream Head of the Church and by that Title pray for him and not by that sleighty Title of Supream Moderator of the Church and the English Clergy if some few do otherwise are no more to be blamed for this than the English Souldiers were in the blessed Reign of Queen Elizabeth to be blamed in Holland because Stanly and York delivered Towns up to the Spaniard or English Writers because one English Man hath written such a Book as the Leviathan who after his Learned Discourse of the Kingdom of God comes to tell us p. 219. what the Kingdom of Grace is and saith Those are in it that promise obedience to God's government I suppose he means temporal of which he hath been treating before to whom saith he God hath gratis given to be his Subjects hereafter which is called the Kingdom of Glory Now certainly the Kingdom of Grace by all Men before Mr. Hobbes was taken to be God's Spiritual government which he exerciseth in the Hearts of good Men by his commands threats and promises to which if they yield obedience in and through the mercies of our blessed Saviour they are made inheritors of the Kingdom of Glory And what a quibble this is of Mr. Hobbes from the word gratis to change the sence of the Kingdom of Grace I shall refer to any intelligent person Mr. Hobbes coming in his 36. Chapter to treat of â—he Word of God and the Prophets comes to shew what Word signifies in Scripture of which I do think he hath given a true account in several Texts but is not able in any kind of Truth to hold out long For p. 224. he saith That the Word of God in several Texts of Scripture signifies which I never observed in any such words as are consonant to the dictates of right Reason and the first Text he cites is 2 Chron. 35. 22. where 't is said That Iosiah harkned not to the words of Necho from the mouth of God which saith Mr. Hobbes were but the dictates of Reason This is most palpably unreasonable for there was no reason for Iosiah to forbear fighting with Necho the Kings of Iudah having beaten as great Kings as the Kings of Egypt and the Iews being then in a powerful condition when he came into his Country with a great Army So this Text must either be intended that the words of Necho were but what God had told him or that they were revealed to Iosiah to be God's mind by some Prophet which most Interpreters take to be Ieremiah nay Mr. Hobbes himself cites Esdras for this last Interpretation but saith That in this he approves not an Apocryphal writer though before when he had a mind to invalidate the Scriptures by making the Penmen of them uncertain seemed strongly to incline that Esdras was the Penman of them after the Captivity when it might be supposed the certain Truth was lost and that only from the Authority of the Book of Esdras whose Authority or rather Interpretation he here rejects And then Mr. Hobbes goes on to cite several other Texts of Scripture to prove that in Scripture by the Word of God is meant the dictates of Reason or Equity as Ierem. 31. 33. and other places where God saith He will write his Laws in their Hearts Which places by all other Men I think have been interpreted the operation of God's Spirit upon the minds of Men by inclining them to obey his Laws after God had taught them by his Prophets or Ministers And there is no cause to call that reason or the proceed of reason which the Scripture terms the operation of God A Man bringing reason or an aptitude to it into the World and so he doth not that which God effects in him after he is in the World Mr. Hobbes p. 238. saith That a private Man hath Power to believe or not believe Miracles Thought bâ—ing free but saith he when it comes to publick confession the private reason must submit to the publick Now by his Rule though a Man do not believe lying wonders yet he may say he doth if any one will believe Mr. Hobbes In short this is much like his precedent Doctrine of practice and serves to authorise the grossest hypocrisie in the World in case the