of such a nature in his Reign by Lanfranke the Archâ—B of Canterbury who had the greatest credit and autority with him as cannot be parallell'd by the like don or permitted in any State and impossible to be don or permitted in any State that was in any degree subject to the Pope which was the Canonization of a Saint There being at that time very great fame of Aldelmus who first brought in the composition of Latine verse into England and besides his eminent Piety had so great a faculty in singing that by the music of his voice he wrought wonderful effects upon the barbarous and savage humor of that People insomuch as when they were in great multitudes engag'd in a rude or licentious action he would put him self in their way and sing which made them all stand still to listen and he so captivated them by the melody that he diverted them from their purpose and by degrees got so much credit with them that he reduc'd them to more civility and instructed them in the duties of Religion into which tho they had bin baptiz'd they had made little enquiry He lived a little before the time of Edward the Confessor and the general testimony of the Sanctity of his Life and some miracles wrought by him which it may be were principally the effects of his Music being reported and believ'd by Lanfrank Edicto sancivit ut per totam deinde Angliam Adelmus inter eos qui civibus coelestibus ascripti erant honoraretur coleretur as by the authors neerest that time is remembred and at large related by Harps-Field in his Ecclesiastical History of England without any disapprobation Nor is it probable that Lanfrank who was an Italian born and bred in Lombardly and of great reputation for learning and piety would have assum'd that autority if he had believ'd that he had intrenched upon the Province of the Bishop of Rome The truth is Canonizations in that age were not the chargeable commodities they have since grown to be since the Pope hath engross'd the disposal of them to himself and it is very probable that the Primitive Saints whose memories are preserv'd in the Martyrologies very erroneously were by the joint acknowledgment of the upon the notorious sanctity of their lives and of their deaths not by any solemn declaration of any particular autority of Rome otherwise we should find the Records of old Canonizations there as well as we do of so many new But of so many of this Nation who suffer'd in the ten first persecutions under the Roman Governors more then of any other especially if St. Vrsula and her Eleven thousand Virgins be reckon'd into the number there is no other Record but of the daies assign'd for their Festivities And in their whole Bullarium which for these latter hundred years so much abounds in Canonizations the first that is extant is of Vldricke Bishop of Ausburg by Iohn the Fifteenth Anno Nine hundred ninety three in a very different form and much different circumstances from those which are now used Finally if the Popes inhibition or interposition could have bin of any moment in that time of William the Conqueror he would have bin sure to have heard of it when he seiz'd upon the Plate and Jewels of all the Monasteries and laid other great impositions upon the Clergy which they had not bin accustom'd to and of which they would have complain'd if they had known whither to have addressed their complaints The two next Kings who succeeded him and reigned long for Henry the First reigned no less then five and thirty years wore not their Crowns so fast on their heads in respect of the juster title in their Brother Robert as prudently to provoke more enemies then they had and therefore they kept very fair quarter with Paschal who was Pope likewise many years and were content to look on unconcern'd in the fierce quarrels between the Emperour and him for he was very powerful in France tho not in Italy And Anselme the Arch-bishop of Canterbury had great contests with them both upon the priviledges of the Clergy and had fled to Paschal to engage him in his quarrel yet the Pope pretended to no jurisdiction in the point but courteously interceded so far with Henry the First on the behalf of Anselme that he made his peace with the King but when he afterwards desir'd to send a Legate into England the King by the advice of the Bishops and Nobles positively refus'd to admit him And whosoever takes a view of the constitution of Christendom as far as had reference to Europe at that time how far the greatest Kingdoms and Principalities which do now controul and regulate that ambition were from any degree of strength and power that Italy was then crumbled into more distinct Governments then it is at present that France that is now intire was then under the command of very many Soveraign Princes and the Crown it self so far from any notable superiority that the King himself was somtimes excommunicated by his own Bishops and Clergy without and against the Popes direction and somtimes excommunicated and the Kingdom interdicted by the Pope even whilst he resided in France and in Councils assembled by them there as in the Council of Clermont that Spain that is now under one Monarch was then divided into the several Kingdoms of Castile Arragon Valentia Catalonia Navarr and Leon when the Moors were possess'd of a greater part of the whole then all the other Christian Kings the whole Kingdom of Granada with the greatest part of Andoluzia and Estremadura and a great part of Portugal being then under the Dominion of those Infidels that Genmany was under as many Soveraign Princes as it had names of Cities and Provinces and that England which hath now Scotland and Ireland annex'd to it was then besides the unsettlement of the English Provinces upon the contests in the Norman Family without any pretence to the Dominion of Wales at least without any advantage by it I say whosoever considers this will not wonder at the starts made by many Popes in that Age into a kind of power and autority in many Kingdoms that they had not before and which was then still interrupted and contradicted and that when Alexander the Third came to be Pope who reigned about twenty years he proceeded so imperiously with our Henry the Second upon the death of Thomas Beckett even in a time when there was so great a Schism in the Church that Victor the Fifth was chosen by a contrary party and by a Council called at Pavia by the Emperour there own'd and declar'd to be Canonically chosen and Alexander to be no Pope who thereupon fled into France so that if our King Henry the Second had not found such a condescention to be very suitable to his affairs both in England and in France it is probable he would have declin'd so unjust and unreasonable an imposition I am afraid of giving
according to his own discretion In the last place he hath very much obliged his Soveraign in telling him so plainly why he hath compared him to Leviathan because he hath raised him to the same greatness and given him the same power which Leviathan is described to have in the 41 Chapter of Iob There is nothing on Earth to be compared with him he is made so as not to be afraid be seeth every high thing to be below him and is King of all the children of pride Job 41. 33 34. And if he had provided as well to secure his high station as he hath for the abatement of the pride of the Subject whom he hath sufficiently humbled he might more glory in his work but the truth is he hath left him in so weak a posture to defend himself that he hath reason to be afraid of every man and the remedies he prescribes afterwards to keep his prodigious power from dissolution are as false and irrational as any other advice in his Institution as will appear hereafter The Survey of Chapter 29. MR. Hobbes takes so much delight in reiterating the many ill things he hath said for fear they do not make impression deep enough in the minds of men that I may be pardon'd if I repete again somtimes what hath bin formerly said as this Chapter consisting most of the same pernicious doctrines which he declar'd before tho in an other dress obliges me to make new or other reflexions upon what was I think sufficiently answer'd before and it may be repete what I have said before He is so jealous that the strength of a better composition of Soveraignty may be superior and be preferr'd before that of his institution that be devises all the way he can to render it more obnoxious to dissolution and like a Mountebank Physician accuses it of diseases which it hath not that he may apply Remedies which would be sure to bring those or worse diseases and would weaken the strongest parts and support of it under pretence of curing its defects So in the first place he finds fault pag. 167. that a man to obtain a Kingdom is sometimes content wâ—th lâ—ss power then to the peace and defence of the Common-wealth is necessarily required that is that he will observe the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom which by long experience have bin found necessary for the Peace and defence of it And to this he imputes the insolence of Thomas Beckett Arch-Bishop of Canterbury pag. 168. who was supported against Harry the Second by the Pope the Subjection of Ecclesiastics to the Common-wealth having he saies bin dispensed with by William the Conquerour at his reception when he took an Oath not to infringe the liberty of the Church And this extravagant power of the Pope he imputes to the Universities and the doctrine taught by them which reproch to the Universities being in a Paragraph of his next Chapter I chuse to join in the answer with the case of Thomas Beckett and Henry the Second Mr. Hobbes hath so great a prejudice to the reading Histories as if they were all enemies to his Government that he will not take the pains carefully to peruse those from which he expects to draw some advantage to himself presuming that men will not believe that a man who so warily weighs all he saies in the balance of reason will ever venture to alledg any matter of fact that he is not very sure of But if he had vouchsafed to look over the Records of his own Country before the time of King Henry the Eight he would have found the Universities alwaies opposed the power of the Pope and would have no dependance upon him and that the Kings alone introduc'd his autority and made it to be submitted to by their Laws Nor did the Church of England owe their large priviledges to any donation of the Popes whose jurisdiction they would never admit but to the extreme devotion and superstition of the People and the piety and bounty of the Kings which gave greater donatives and exemtions to the Church and Clergy then any other Kingdom enjoied or then the Pope gave any where Christianity in the infancy of it wrought such prodigious effects in this Island upon the barbarous affections of the Princes and People who then were the inhabitants of it that assoon as they gave any belief to the History of our Saviour they thought they could not do too much to the Persons of those who preached him and knew best what would be most acceptable to him From hence they built Churches and endow'd them liberally submitted so entirely to the Clergy whom they look'd upon as Sacred persons that they judged all differences and he was not look'd upon as a good Christian who did not entirely resign himself to their disposal they gave great exemtion to the Church and Church men and annex'd such Priviledges to both as testified the veneration they had for the Persons as well as for the Faith And when they suspected that the Licentiousness of succeeding ages might not pay the same devotion to both they did the best they could to establish it by making Laws to that purpose and obliging the several Princes to maintain and defend the rights and priviledges of the Church rights and priviledges which themselves had granted and of which the Pope knew nothing nor indeed at that time did enjoy the like himself It is true that by this means the Clergy was grown to a wonderful power over the People who look'd upon them as more then mortal men and had surely a greater autority then any Clergy in Christendom assum'd in those ages and yet it was generally greater then in other Kingdoms then it hath ever bin since Nor could it be otherwise during the Heptarchy when those little Soveraigns maintain'd their power by the autority their Clergy had with their people when they had little dependence upon the Prince But when by the courage and success of two or three couragious Princes and the distraction that had bin brought upon them by strangers the Government of the whole Island was reduced under one Soveraign the Clergy which had bin alwaies much better united then the Civil state had bin were not willing to part with any autority they had enjoied nor to be thought of less value then they had bin formerly esteemed and so grew troublesom to the Soveraign power somtimes by interrupting the progress of their Councils by delaies and somtimes by direct and positive contradictions The Princes had not the confidence then to resort to Mr. Hobbes's original institution of their right the manners of the Nation still remained fierce and barbarous and whatsoever was pliant in them was from the result of Religion which was govern'd by the Clergy They knew nothing yet of that primitive contract that introduced Soveraignty nor of that Faith that introduced subjection they thought it would not be safe for them to oppose the power of the
Mr. Hobbes an occasion to reproch me with impertinency in this digression tho he hath given me a just provocation to it and since the Roman Writers are so solicitous in the collecting and publishing the Records of that odious Process and strangers are easily induc'd to believe that the exercise of so extravagant a jurisdiction in the Reign of so Heroical a Prince who had extended his Dominions farther by much then any of his Progenitors had don must be grounded upon some fix'd and confess'd right over the Nation and not from an original Usurpation entred upon in that time and when the Usurper was not acknowledged by so considerable a part of Christendom it may not prove ungrateful to many men to make a short view of that very time that we may see what unheard of motives could prevail with that high spirited King to submit to so unheard of Tyranny That it was not from the constitution of the Kingdom or any preadmitted power of the Pope formerly incorporated into the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom is very evident by the like having bin before attemted For tho the Clergy enjoied those great priviledges and immunities which are mention'd before whereby they had so great an influence upon the hearts of the people that the Conqueror himself had bin glad to make use of them and William the Second Henry the First and King Stephen had more need of them to uphold their Usurpation yet those priviledges how great soever depended not at all upon the Bishop of Rome nor was any rank of men more solicitous then the Clergy to keep the Pope from a pretence of power in the Kingdom And the Bishops themselves had in the beginning of that Arch-bishops contumacious and rebellious contests with the King don all they could to discountenance and oppose him and had given their consent in Parliament that for his disobedience all his goods and moveables should be at the Kings mercy and it was also enacted with their consent after the Arch-bishop had fled out of the Kingdom and was known to make some application to the Pope that if any were found carrying a Letter or Mandate from the Pope or the Arch-bishop containing any interdiction of Christianity in England he should be taken and without delay executed as a Traitor both to the King and Kingdom that whatsoever Bishop Priest or Monk should have and retain any such Letters should forfeit all their Possessions Goods and Chattels to the King and be presently banish'd the Realm with their kin that none should appeal to the Pope and many other particulars which enough declare the temper of that Catholic time and their aversion to have any dependance upon a foreign jurisdiction And after the death of Beckett and that infamous submission of the King to the Popes Sentence thereupon which yet was not so scandalous as it is vulgarly reported as if it had bin made and undergon by the King in Person when the same King desir'd to assist the Successor of that Pope Lucius the Third who was driven out of Rome and to that purpose endeavour'd to raise a collection from the Clergy which the Popes Nuntio appear'd in and hoped to advance the Clergy was so jealous of having to do with the Pope or his Ministers that they declar'd and advised the King that his Majesty would supply the Pope in such a proportion as he thought fit and that whatever they gave might be to the King himself and not to the Popes Nuntio which might be drawn into example to the detriment of the King The King himself first shewed the way to Thomas a Beckett to apply himself to the Pope till when the Arch-bishop insisted only upon his own Ecclesiastical rights and power in which he found not the concurrence of the other Bishops or Clergy and the King not being able to bear the insolence of the man and finding that he could well enough govern his other Bishops if they were not subjected to the autority and power of that perverse Arch bishop was willing to give the Pope autority to assist him and did all he could to perswade him to make the Arch-bishop of York his Legate meaning thereby to devest the other Arch-bishop of that Superiority over the Clergy that was so troublesom to him and which he exercis'd in his own right as Metropolitan But the Pope durst not gratifie the King therein knowing the spirit of Beckett and that he would contemn the Legate and knew well the Ecclesiastical superiority in that Kingdom to reside in his person as Arch-bishop of Canterbury who had bin reputed tanquam alterius Orbis Papa yet he sent to him to advise him to submit to the King whereupon the haughty Prelate then fled out of the Kingdom and was too hard for the King with the Pope who was perswaded by him to make use of this opportunity to enlarge his own power and to curb and subdue that Clergy that was indevoted to him and so by his Bull he suspended the Arch-bishop of York and the other Bishops who adher'd to the King in the execution of his commands which so much incens'd the King that he let fall those words in his passion that encouraged those rash Gentlemen to commit that assassination that produc'd so much trouble It must also be remembred that the King when he bore all this from the Pope was indeed but half a King having caused his son Henry to be crown'd King with him who thereupon gave him much trouble and join'd with the French King against him and that he had so large and great Territories in France that as the Popes power was very great there so his friendship was the more behovefull and necessary to the King Lastly and which it may be is of more weight then any thing that hath bin said in this disquisition it may seem a very natural judgment of God Almighty that the Pope should exercise that unreasonable power over a King who had given him an absurd and unlawful power over himself and for an unjust end when he obtain'd from our Country-man Pope Adrian who immediatly preceded Alexander a Dispensation not to perform the Oath which he had taken that his Brother Geoffery should enjoy the County of Anjoy according to the Will and desire of his Father and by vertue of that Dispensation which the Pope had no power to grant defrauded his Brother of his inheritance and broke his Oath to God Almighty and so was afterwards forced himself to yield to the next Pope when he assum'd a power over him in a case he had nothing to do with and where he had no mind to obey And this unadvised address of many other Princes to the Pope for Dispensations of this kind to do what the Law of God did not permit them to do hath bin a principal inlet of his Supremacy to make them accept of other Dispensations from him of which they stand not in need and to admit other his incroachments from
Reason which proves that it ought to be so so Mr. Hobbes who when History controuls him thinks it a sufficient answer to say If it was not so it should be so as unreasonably follows the same method and would by the ill consequences which would flow from such a right devest the Pope of an autority which he confidently saies was granted to him immediately by our Saviour and hath bin enjoied by his Predecessors from that time to this Which if true all the arguments from Reason may fortifie but can never shake a Right so founded upon a clear and plain Grant from one who had an Original power to grant and wherewith the possession hath gon ever since He therefore who will pertinently answer and controul these pretences which Mr. Hobbes can well do if it would not cross some other of his Doctrines must do it by positively denying any such grant which never was nor ever can be produced in such plain and significant terms as are necessary to the grant of the most inferior Office in any Church or State He would make it manifestly appear that for many hundreds of Years no Bishop of Rome made the least pretence to any such Soveraignty and when they began to make it with what a torrent of contradiction it was rejected He would make it evident that all that power which that See assum'd was granted to them by Kings and Princes and restor'd to them again when they were oppressed by their own Factions and Schisms and by more powerful Enemies He would point out the very Article of time when by the Incursions of the Goths and Vandals into Italy and the foul arts practiced by the Popes their autority by degrees increased to a great height by the bounty of Charlemain in making them great Temporal Princes against the inconvenience whereof he thought he had sufficiently provided when he reserved to himself and succeeding Emperors to make all the Popes He would shew them many wonderful accidents by which the power of the Emperor grew to decay and the weakness of all neighbor Kings and Princes by the Rebellions in their several Kingdoms and their unreasonable bloody Wars amongst themselves and then the artifices still practiced by the Popes to foment those Divisions and to contribute to their own Greatness Usurpation notwithstanding all which that there hath not bin one Century of Years from St. Peter to this time that there hath not bin some notorious opposition and contradiction to that Supremacy which was argument enough that it was never look'd upon as a Catholic verity All this he would prove to be true as likewise that no Prince of the Roman communion who at present is most indulgent to it as all of them are in such a degree as is most advantageous to their own affairs look upon it as such and that a submission to the Popes autority except it be commanded or allowed by the King and the Law is not taken for a part of Religion in any Kingdom but that of England This is the method that must be taken towards the enervating those high pretences and if it were vigorously pursued by one well versed in the Pontifical Histories in which he needs no other witness then their own Records I mean Popish Writers all the World would be convinc'd except only such Princes who are very well paid for the communication of part of their Soveraignty to him that the Pope hath not out of his own Dominions so much as the power of the Metropolitan Schole-master which Mr. Hobbes seems willing to confer upon him The Survey of Chapter 43. HE who hath taken so ill a Survey of Heaven if self is not like to be a good guide for the way thither which is the business of his forty third Chapter and which into how little room soever he brings all that is necessary to Salvation would be very difficult to find if it were not for his old expedient his Soveraigns commands since the most prescrib'd and known way which hath bin thought to lead thither is quite damm'd up by him the Scriptures pag. 323. That which made the Patriarchs and the Prophets of old to believe was God himself who spake unto them supernaturally and the person whom the Apostles and Disciples that conversed with Christ believ'd was our Saviour himself But of us to whom neither God the Father nor our Saviour ever spoke he saies it cannot be said that the person whom we believe is God So that the Faith of Christians ever since our Saviours time hath had no other foundation then the reputation of their Pastors and the Old and New Testament which their Soveraign Princes have made the rule of their Faith which Princes are the only persons whom Christians now hear speak from God and to whom consequently they are beholding for their Salvation Admit that single contracted Article Iesus is Christ comprehends all that is necessary to Salvation for he confesses that he who holdeth that foundation Iesus is the Christ holdeth expressly all that he seeth rightly deduc'd from it and implicitly all that is consequent thereunto tho he have not skill enough to discern the consequence I demand still how they shall believe this Article whom their Soveraigns forbid to look upon the New Testament as Scripture which is all the evidence they can have for it and yet he saies pag. 327. for the belief of this Article we are to reject the autority of an Angel from Heaven much more of any mortal man if he teach the contrary I know well he reconciles this contradiction by believing in the heart and denying with the tongue having the example of Naaman But how shall he believe in his heart if he be depriv'd of the New Testament and if he doth come to believe in his heart as he ought to do what affection and duty can he have for that Soveraign who will not be saved himself and requires him to renounce his Saviour He must be content with a mere verbal affection without any influence upon the heart which is much less duty then he requires towards his Soveraign whom he is so intirely to obey that he must say all he bids him say and do all he bids him do so much more duty he requires for his Earthly then for his Heavenly Soveraign I wish with all my heart that Mr. Hobbes did remember or believe his own good rule in the end of this Chapter which would have preserved him from many presumtions which administer great trouble and grief to his Readers for his sake pag. 331. It is not the bare words but the scope of the Writer that giveth the true light by which any writing is to be interpreted and they that insist upon single Texts without considering the main design can derive nâ—thing from them clearly but rather by casting atomes of Scripture as dust before mens eies make every thing more obscure then it is an ordinary artifice he saies of those that seek
between us and what I had said to many who I knew had inform'd him of it and which indeed I had sent to himself upon the first publishing of his Leviathan I thought my self eveâ— bound to give him some satisfaction why I had entertained so evil an opinion of his Book When the Prince went first to Paris from Iersey and My Lords Capel and Hopton stayed in Iersey together with my self I heard shortly after that Mr. Hobbes who was then at Paris had printed his Book De Cive there I writ to Dr. Earles who was then the Princes Chaplain and his Tutor to remember me kindly to Mr. Hobbes with whom I was well acquainted and to desire him to send me his Book De Cive by the same token that Sid. Godolphin who had bin kill'd in the late War had left him a Legacy of two hundred pounds The Book was immediately sent to me by Mr. Hobbes with a desire that I would tell him whether I was sure that there was such a Legacy and how he mighâ— take notice of it to receive it I sent him word that he might depend upon it for a truth and that I believed that if he found some way secretly to the end there might be no public notice of it in regard of the Parliament to demand it of his Brother Francis Godolphin who in truth had told me of it he would pay it This information was the ground of the Dedication of this Book to him whom Mr. Hobbes had never seen When I went some few years after from Holland with the King after the Murder of his Father to Paris from whence I went shortly his Majesties Ambassador into Spain Mr. Hobbes visited me and told me that Mr. Godolphin confessed the Legacy and had paid him one hundred pounds and promised to pay the other in a short time for all which he thank'd me and said he owed it to me for he had never otherwise known of it When I return'd from Spain by Paris he frequently came to me and told me his Book which he would call Leviathan was then Printing in England and that he receiv'd every week a Sheet to correct of which he shewed me one or two Sheets and thought it would be finished within little more then a moneth and shewed me the Epistle to Mr. Godolphin which he meant to set before it and read it to me and concluded that he knew when I read his Book I would not like it and thereupon mention'd some of his Conclusions upon which I asked him why he would publish such doctrine to which after a discourse between jest and earnest upon the Subject he said The truth is I have a mind to go home Within a very short time after I came into Flanders which was not much more then a moneth from the time that Mr. Hobbes had conferred with me Leviathan was sent to me from London which I read with much appetite and impatience Yet I had scarce finish'd it when Sir Charles Cavendish the noble Brother of the Duke of Newcastle who was then at Antwerp and a Gentleman of all the accomplishments of mind that he wanted of body being in all other respects a wonderful Person shewed me a Letter he had then receiv'd from Mr. Hobbes in which he desir'd he would let him know freely what my opinion was of his Book Upon which I wished he would tell him that I could not enough wonder that a Man who had so great a reverence for Civil Government that he resolv'd all Wisdom and Religion it self into a simple obedience and submission to it should publish a Book for which by the constitution of any Government now establish'd in Europe whether Monarchical or Democratical the Author must be punish'd in the highest degree and with the most severe penalties With which answer which Sir Charles sent to him he was hot pleased and found afterwards when I return'd to the King to Paris that I very much censur'd his Book which he had presented engross'd in â—â—llam in a marvellous fair hand to the King and likewise found my judgment so far confirmed that few daies before I came thither he was compell'd secretly to fly out of Paris the Justice having endeavour'd to apprehend him and soon after escap'd into England where he never receiv'd any disturbance After the Kings return he came frequently to the Court where he had too many Disciples and once visited me I receiv'd him very kindly and invited him to see me often but he heard from so many hands that I had no good opinion of his Book that he came to me only that one time and methinks I am in a degree indebted to him to let him know some reason why I look with so much prejudice upon his Book which hath gotten him so much credit and estimation with some other men I am not without some doubt that I shall in this discourse which I am now engaged in transgress in a way I do very heartily dislike and frequently censure in others which is sharpness of Language and too much reproching the Person against whom I write which is by no means warrantable when it can be possibly avoided without wronging the truth in debate Yet I hope nothing hath fallen from my Pen which implies the least undervaluing of Mr. Hobbes his Person or his Parts But if he to advance his opinion in Policy too imperiously reproches all men who do not consent to his Doctrine it can hardly be avoided to reprehend so great presumtion and to make his Doctrines appear as odious as they ought to be esteemed and when he shakes the Principles of Christian Religion by his new and bold Interpretations of Scripture a man can hardly avoid saying He hath no Religion or that he is no good Christian and escape endeavouring to manifest and expose the poison that lies hid and conceled Yet I have chosen rather to pass by many of his enormous sayings with light expressions to make his Assertions ridiculous then to make his Person odious for infusing such destructive Doctrine into the minds of men who are already too licentious in judging the Precepts or observing the Practice of Christianity The Survey of Mr. Hobbes's Introduction IT is no wonder that Mr. Hobbes runs into so many mistakes and errors throughout his whole discourse of the nature of Government from the nature of Mankind when he laies so wrong a foundation in the very entrance and Introduction of his Book as to make a judgment of the Passions and Nature of all other Men by his own observations of himself and believes pag. 2. that by looking into himself and considering what he doth when he do's think opine reason hope fear c. and upon what grounds he shall thereby read and know what are the thoughts and passions of all other men upon the like occasions And indeed by his distinction in the very subsequent words pag. 2. between the similitude of passions and the similitude of the object
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
own and will value it accordingly And he is much a better Counsellor who by his experience and observation of the nature and humor of the People who are to be govern'd and by his knowledg of the Laws and Rules by which they ought to be govern'd gives advice what ought to be don then he who from his speculative knowledg of man-kind and of the Rights of Government and of the nature of Equity and Honor attain'd with much study would erect an Engine of Government by the rules of Geometry more infallible then Experience can ever find out I am not willing now or at any time to accompany him in his sallies which he makes into the Scripture and which he alwaies handles as if his Soveraign power had not yet declared it to be the word of God and to illustrate now his Distinctions and the difference between Command and Counsel he thinks fit to fetch instances from thence Have no other Gods but me Make to thy self no graven Image c. he saies pag. 133. are commands because the reason for which we are to obey them is drawn from the will of God our King whom we are obliged to obey but these words Repent and be baptized in the name of Iesus arc Counsel because the reason why we should do so tendeth not to any benefit of God Almighty who shall be still King in what manner soever we rebel but of our selves who have no other means of avoiding the punishment hanging over us for our sins as if the latter were not drawn from the will of God as much as the former or as if the former tended more to the benefit of God then the latter An ordinary Grammarian without any insight in Geometry would have thought them equally to be commands But Mr. Hobbes will have his Readers of another talent in their understanding and another subjection to his dictates The Survey of Chapter 26. HOwever Mr. Hobbes enjoins other Judges to etract the judgments they have given when contrary to reason upon what autority or president soever they have pronounced them yet he holds himself obliged still tueâ—i opus to justify all he hath said therefore we have reason to expect that to support his own notions of Liberty and Propriety contrary to the notions of all other men he must introduce a notion of Law contrary to what the world hath ever yet had of it And it would be answer enough and it may be the fittest that can be given to this Chapter to say that he hath ere ed a Law contrary and destructive to all the Law that is acknowledg'd and establish'd in any Monarchy or Republic that is Christian and in this he hopes to secure himseâ—f by his accustomed method of definition and dâ—fiâ—es that Civil Law which is a term we do not dislike is to every Subject those Rules which the Common wealth hath commanded him by word writing or other sufficient sign of the Wâ—â—l to make use of for the distinction of right in whâ—ch he saies there is nothing that is not at first sight evident that is to say of what is contrary and what is noâ— contrary to the Rule From which definition his first deduction is that the Soveraign is the sole Legislator and that himself is not subject to Laws because he can make and repeal them which in truth is no necessary deduction from his own definition for it doth not follow from thence tho he makes them Rules only for Subjects that the Soveraign hath the sole power to repeal them but the true definition of a Law is that it is to every Subject the rule which the Common-wealth hath commanded him by word writing or other sufficient sign of the Will made and publish'd in that form and manner as is accustomed in that Common-wealth to make use of for the distinction of right that is to say of what is contrary and what is not to the Rule and from this definition no such deduction can be made since the form of making and repealing Laws is stated and agreed upon in all Common-wealths The opinions and judgments which are found in the Books of eminent Lawyers cannot be answer'd and controuled by Mr. Hobbes his wonder since the men who know least are apt to wonder most and men will with more justice wonder whence he comes by the Prerogative to controul the Laws and Government establish'd in this and that Kingdom without so much as considering what is Law here or there but by the general notions he hath of Law and what it is by his long study and much cogitation And it is a strange definition of Law to make it like his propriety to be of concernment only between Subject and Subject without any relation of security as to the Soveraign whom he exemts from any observation of them and invests with autority by repealing those which trouble him when he thinks fit to free himself from the observation thereof and by making new and consequently he saies he was free before for he is free that can be free when he will The instance he gives for his wonder and displeasure against the Books of the Eminent Lawyers is that they say that the Common Law hath no controuler but the Parliament that is that the Common Law cannot be chang'd or alter'd but by Act of Parliament which is the Municipal Law of the Kingdom Now methinks if that be the judgment of Eminent Lawyers Mr. Hobbes should be so modest as to believe it to be true till he hears others as Eminent Lawyers declare the contrary for by his instance he hath brought it now only to relate to the Law of England and then methinks he should be easily perswaded that the Eminent Lawyers of England do know best whether the Law be so or no. I do not wish that Mr. Hobbes should be convinc'd by a judgment of that Law upon himself which would be very severe if he should be accused for declaring that the King alone hath power to alter the descents and inheritances of the Kingdom and whereas the Common Law saies the Eldest shall inherit the King by his own Edict may declare and order that the younger Son shall inherit or for averring and publishing that the King by his own autority can repeal and dissolve all Laws and justly take away all they have from his Subjects I say if the judgment of Law was pronounc'd upon him for this Seditious discourse he would hardly perswade the World that he understood what the Law of England is better then the Judges who condemn'd him or that he was wary enough to set up a jus vagum and incognitum of his own to controul the establish'd Government of his own Country He saies the Soveraign is the only Legislator and I will not contradict him in that It is the Soveraign stamp and Royal consent and that alone that gives life and being and title of Laws to that which was before but counsel and advice and no
Sacred Clergy with a mere secular profane force and therefore thought how they might lessen and divide their own troublesome Clergy by a conjunction with some religious and Ecclesiastical combination The Bishops of Rome of that age had a very great name and autority in France where there being many Soveraign Princes then reigning together he exercis'd a notable Jurisdiction under the Style of Vicar of Christ. The Kings in England by degrees unwarily applied themselves to this spiritual Magistrate and that he might assist them to suppress a power that was inconvenient to them at home they suffer'd him to exercise an autority that proved afterwards very mischievous to themselves and for which they had never made pretence before and which was then heartily opposed by the Universities and by the whole Clergy till it was impos'd upon them by the King So that it was not the Universities and Clergy that introduc'd the Popes autority to shâ—ke and weaken that of the King but it was the King who introduc'd that power to strengthen as he thought his own howsoever it fell out And if the precedent Kings had not call'd upon the Pope and given him autority to assist them against some of their own Bishops Alexander the Third could never have pretended to exercise so wild a jurisdiction over Henry the Second nor he ever have submitted to so infamous a subordination nor could the Pope have undertaken to assist Beckett against the King if the King had not first appeal'd to him for help against Beckett For the better manifestation of that point which Mr. Hobbes his speculation and Geometry hath not yet made an enquiry into it will not be amiss to take a short Survey of the Precedent times by which it will be evident how little influence the Popes autority had upon the Crown or Clergy or Universities of England and how little ground he hath for that fancy from whence soever he took it pag. 168. that William the Conquerour at his reception had dispens'd with the subjection of the Ecclesiastics by the Oaâ—h he took not to infringe the liberty of the Church whereas they who know any thing of that time know that the Oath he took was the same and without any alteration that all the former Kings since the Crown rested upon a single head had taken which was at his Coronation after the Bishops and the Barons had taken their Oath to be his true and faithful Subjects The Arch-Bishop who crown'd him presented that Oath to him which he was to take himself which he willingly did to defend the Holy Church of God and the Rectors of the same To govern the universal people subject to him justly To establish equal Laws and to see them justly executed Nor was he more wary in any thing then as hath bin said before that the people might imagine that he pretended any other title to the Government then by the Confessor tho it is true that he did by degrees introduce many of the Norman Customes which were found very useful or convenient and agreeable enough if not the same with what had bin formerly practis'd And the common reproch of the Laws being from time to time put into French carries no weight with it for there was before that time so rude a collection of the Laws and in Languages as foreign to that of the Nation British Saxon Danish and Latine almost as unintelligible as either of the other that if they had bin all digested into the English that was then spoken we should very little better have understood it then we do the French in which the Laws were afterwards render'd and it is no wonder since a reduction into Order was necessary that the King who was to look to the execution took care to have them in that Language which himself best understood and from whence issued no inconvenience the former remaining still in the Language in which they had bin written Before the time of William the First there was no pretence of jurisdiction from Rome over the Clergy and the Church of England tho the infant Christianity of some of the Kings and Princes had made some journies thither upon the fame of the Sanctity of many of the Bishops who had bin the most eminent Martyrs for the Christian Faith and when it may be they could with more ease and security make a journy thither then they could have don to any other Bishop of great notoriety out of their own Country for Christianity was not in those times come much neerer England then Dauphine Provence and Languedoc in France and those Provinces had left their bountiful testimonies of their devotion which grew afterwards to be exercis'd with the same piety in Pilgrimages first and then expeditions to the Holy Land without any other purpose of transferring a Superiority over the English Nation to Rome then to Ierusalem And after the arrival of Austin the Monk and his Companions who were sent by Pope Gregory and who never enjoy'd any thing in England but by the donation of the Kings the British Clergy grew so jealous of their pretences that tho the Nation was exceedingly corrupted by the person and the doctrine of Pelâ—gius which had bin spred full two hundred years before Austin came the reformation and suppression of that Heresy was much retarded by those mens extolling or mentioning the Popes autority which the Brittish Bishops were so far from acknowledging that they would neither meet with them nor submit to any thing that was propos'd by them and declar'd very much against the pride and insolence of Austin for assuming any autority and because when any of them came to him he would not so much as rise to receive them I can hardly contain my self from enlarging upon this subject at this time but that it will â—eem to many to be foreign to the argument now in debate and Mr. Hobbes hath little resignation to the autority of matter of fact by which when he is pressed he hath an answer ready that if it were so or not so it should have bin otherwise I shall therefore only restrain my discourse to the time of William the Conqueror and when I have better inform'd him of the State of the Clergy and Universities of that time I shall give him the best satisfaction I can to the instance of Thomas of Beckett in which both the Clergy and the Universities will be easily absolv'd from the guilt of adhering to the Pope When William found himself in possession of England whatever application he had formerly made to the Pope who was then in France and as some say had receiv'd from him a consecrated Banner with some other relique beside one single hair of St Peter for the better success of his expedition he was so far from discovering any notable respect towards him that he expresly forbad all his Subjects from acknowledging any man to be Pope but him whom he declar'd to be so And there was a President
or Ship-carpenters and would have enriched the World with many useful Discoveries and Inventions And more I shall not say to their Language or to the errors of Tradition or the other enormities of the Roman Church which he takes alwaies in his way let the subject of his Discourse be what it will and I wish they would be provoked by him to consider and amend their faults Nor will I take any pains to disswade Mr. Hobbes from taking upon him to preach but shall only put him in mind that if he doth he thereby becomes a Pastor by which he will deprive himself of the liberty by his own Doctrine to deny our Saviour or to worship an Image upon what autority or command soever And if he finds himself among the Idolaters of America he will I doubt as good a Christian as he is forbear to preach Jesus Christ when he remembers that he is without a Commission and what judgment he hath pronounced against the poor Indian that shall come into England to change the Religion that is here establishde But above all whatever latitude his Civil Soveraign at that time when his Leviaâ—han was published permitted for the performing those Functions God be thanked his present Civil Soveraign will not give him that liberty until he receives orders from the Bishops and it is probable they will not be forward to point him out by their hands that he may be known to be qualified for that Office and Emploiment The Survey of Chapter 47. IF Mr. Hobbes hath in this his last Chapter discover'd the true causes of that darkness which hath hitherto hindred this new devouring light of his from breaking in upon us we have more obligations to the Papists and Presbyterians then I knew we had however I shall not gratifie him by undertaking to vindicate either of them from the reproches he charges them with nor will I take upon me to reply to his sly and bitter Insinuations against the Clergy in all kinds Protestants as well as Papists in a thread that runs through his Book from one end to the other They are of age let them speak for themselves Only I cannot but observe and I should be unexcusable if I should not that after all his bitter and uncharitable Invectives against the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England and of which he would still be thought a member he hath not in this his last Chapter of Cui bono bin able to fasten the least reproch upon them of being swaied by any other motives then the most abstracted considerations of Conscience Duty Gratitude and Generosity constantly and stedfastly to adhere to the King since they had in their view before the Civil War was begun all the prejudice to their persons and all the destruction to their Interest that fell out afterwards and had their election whether they would besides keeping what they were possessed of receive greater additions and graces from those who opposed the King or by continuing faithful to Him be dispossessed of all they had be cast into Prisons and new Prisons made for them in old Ships and Barques upon the Water and with such circumstances of inhumanity that put a short end to the lives of many thousands of them their Wives and Children And they chose the latter and to be exposed to all the misery and contemt imaginable rather then to dissemble or concele that Fidelity and Allegiance they ow'd to their King in the highest of his Afflictions and Persecution and from the moment of his execrable Murder continued the same Affection and Loialty to his Son their present Soveraign when the triumphant and victorious Faction made it penal to acknowledg Him or to give Him the Title of King And therefore it was below the education of Mr. Hobbes and a very ungenerous and vile thing to publish his Leviathan with so much malice and acrimony against the Church of England when it was scarce strugling in its own ruines and against all the Bishops and Clergy of the same when many of them were weltering in their own blood upon Scaffolds and the rest reduced to all the miseries human nature can be exposed to without any suggestion of a Crime but of Fidelity to the King When the Reverend Bishops who were left alive and out of Prison being stripped of all that was their own preserved themselves from Famine by stooping to the lowest Offices of teaching Schole and officiating in private Families for their Bread which together with the alms of those charitable persons who were themselves undon was all the portion that the poor Bishops and all the faithful Clergy of the Church of England had to preserve themselves in the low condition to which they were reduced And it is but justice to the memory of those Persons and for the everlasting glory of that Church to say that the whole Orthodox Clergy were joint sufferers with and for the Crown and that very few can be named who were ever reputed or looked upon as Sons of the Church of England that adhered to or concurred with the Rebels Some few impious Apostates in the beginning of the Rebellion became perjur'd to satisfie their ambition by the countenance of the great Incendiaries who paid them well for their labor Afterwards they made and ordained their own Clergy and then undertook and performed the Function themselves their own Creatures finding them too wicked to be complied with whil'st the true Clergy somtimes lost their lives upon Scaffolds somtimes on Gibbets for the greater disgrace to give testimony of their fast and unshaken Loialty to the King and others died in Prisons or lurked in obscure but safe and charitable corners These were the men who propagated Loialty and Allegiance with the utmost hazard of their lives when it was near extirpation countermined the stratagems which were every day set on foot to corrupt the affections of those who had paid dear for being good Subjects and to make them weary of being so great losers for conscience sake when Mr. Hobbes his Leviathan absolv'd all men from their Allegiance and industriously perswaded all sorts of men that Cromwell was their true and lawful Soveraign and that it was folly and guilt and inevitable deserved ruin not to adhere to him and assist him against any opposition soever These are the men who as diligently administred Antidotes against his Poison prevented the operation of it in many and the application of it to more watched the tares which he and others of his party scattered abroad and pulled them up before they got strength to grow to do the mischief he intended and tho they were all banish'd the Universities and durst not be seen there that his vile Principles or as bad might take root and flourish there yet found means to preserve and purifie those Nurseries and keep those Fountains clean and so to cultivate Learning and good Manners there that whil'st the chief Governors were placed there as Olivers Centinels to