the hearty belief of it he may with his mouth renounce it out of a tender regard to flesh and bloud To proceed in this Argument there is yet remaining another objection to which I know not what answer can be by you returned It is the Argument used by St. Peter and St. Iohn to the Rulers of the people and Elders of Israel when by menaces they urg'd them to desist from the propagation of the holy Gospel Whether it be right said those Apostles in the sight of God to hearken unto you more then unto God judge ye Mr. Hobbes If the command of the Civil Soveraign be such as that it may be obeyed without the forfeiture of life eternal not to obey it is unjust but if it be such as cannot be obeyed without being damned to eternal death then it were madness to obey it All men therefore that would avoid both the punishments that are to be in this world inflicted for disobedience to their earthly Soveraign and those that shall be inflicted in the world to come for disobedience to God have need to be taught to distinguish well between what is and what is not necessary to eternal Salvation Now all that is necessary to Salvation is contained in two Vertues Faith in Christ and Obedience to Laws Now our Saviour Christ hath given us no new Laws but counsel to observe those we are subject to that is to say the Laws of Nature and the Laws of our several Soveraigns and for Faith The Vnum necessarium onely Article of Faith which the Scripture maketh simply necessary to Salvation is this That Jesus is the Christ. Having thus shown what is necessary to Salvation it is not hard to reconcile our obedience to God with our obedience to the civil Soveraign who is either Christian or Infideld If he be a Christian he alloweth the belief of this Article that Jesus is the Christ and of all the Articles that are contained in it or are by evident consequence deduced from it which is all the Faith necessary to Salvation and because he is a Soveraign he requireth obedience to all his own that is to all the Civil Laws in which also are contained all the Laws of Nature that is all the Laws of God for besides the Laws of Nature and the Laws of the Church which are part of the Civil Law for the Church that can make Laws is the Common-wealth there be no other Laws Divine And when the civil Soveraign is an Infidel every one of his own subjects that resisteth him sinneth against the Laws of God And for their Faith it â—s internal and invisible they have the Liâ—ense that Naaman had and need not put themselves into danger for it But if they do they ought to expect their reward in Heaven â—nd not to complain of their lawful Soveraign In the mean time they are to intend to obey Christ at his coming but at present they are bound to obey the Laws of that Infidel King all Christians are bound in Conscience â—o to do Thought is free but when it comes to confession of Faith the private Reason must submit to the publick that is to say to Gods Lieutenant Stud. Instead of the resolution of this Queâ—y when we are to obey God rather then man you shew that we may very well do both together and so â—ndirectly you accuse the Apostles of falshood or folly in their suggestion And here again you repeat your errors that Christ hath not made any new Laws and that the Faith of a Christian is intire without or contrary to profession and you suppose what the experience of the World refuteth that Infidel Kings command not sometimes against the Laws of Nature Also whilst here you remit the Martyrs scoffingly to heaven for a reward you fall unawares into the mock of Iulian the Apostate who amidst his persecution us'd this taunt It becometh not you Christians to enjoy any thing in this world for your Kingdom is in Heaven But if such persons as suffer for Christianity shall be rewarded in Heaven their constancie then was noble and excellent whilst they chose trouble rather then base compliance and those who inflicted evils on them for doing what God approved were unjust If then you remit the Martyrs to Heaven you send the civil Soveraigns who shed the bloud of the Apostles for disobedience to their unrighteous Edicts to a place of less refreshment Mr. Hobbes You have made your instance in the Apostles of whose Martyrdom I approve because of their Commission For others who hazard their lives for Christianity I praise them not he that is not sent to preach the fundamental Article but taketh it upon him of his private Authority though he be a witness and consequently a Martyr either primary of Christ or secondary of his Apostles or their Successors yet is he not obliged to suffer death for that cause because being not called thereto 't is not required at his hands nor ought he to complain if he looseth the reward he expecteth from those that never set him on work None therefore can be a Martyr neither of the first nor second degree that have not a warrant to preach Christ come in the Flesh that is to say none but such as are sent to the conversion of Infidels Stud. Every Member of the Christian Society is bound to profess the Gospel as hath been proved and therefore a private man though he hath not right not having Commission to exercise the Offices of a Priest yet hath he a command to own the truth when he is adjur'd to confess of what faith he is not onely in relation to Christianity in general but also in relation to the Doctrines of Moment in it which sometimes the Christian Powers do erre in And every person will with readiness make such profession notwithstanding the terrours of the Civil Sword who hath sworn in his heart and tongue Allegiance unto Christ who is sincere in his Religion who valueth his soul more then his body who is heartily perswaded of a life or death eternal the latter of which is Our eleventh Subject Mr. Hobbes The maintainance of civil Society depending on Justice and Justice on the powâ—r of life and death and other less rewards and punishments residing in them that have the Soveraignty of the Common-wealth it is impossible a Common-wealth should stand where any other then the Soveraign hath a power of giving greater rewards then life and of inflicting greater punishments then death Now seeing eternal life is a greater reward then the life present and eternal torment a greater punishment then the death of Nature it is a thing worthy to be well considered of all men that desiâ—e by obeying Authority to avoid the calamities of confusion and Civil War what is meant in holy Scripture by life eternal and torment eternal Stud. What is then to be understood by eternal Torment if we aright interpret the Holy
concerning an Inward Religion which the Governours of the world cannot take cognizance of and which Trypho the Jew with many others hath denied to have been given by Moses whose Laws they suppose to have extended not to the thought but the conversation That which concerns Polygamy hath I know bin doubted yet as it seemeth to me without reason for when our Saviour said that he who putteth away his wife and marrieth another committeth Adultery he plainly forbad plurality of wives at the same time which if it had bin allowed the man might have taken more then another to him without sin Here then the Law of perfection hath bound us where Nature seemeth to have left us at liberty Now seeing these Institutions are the will of Christ and that Christ hath made sufficient promulgation of them to millions of men and that he is King of kings and Lord of lords and that he hath annexed to them the greatest rewards and punishments to secure them from violation it is evident that these are sufficient Laws both without and against the Civil Sanction For to say that the Princes of the Earth are Superior to Christ is a Blasphemy of such altitude that the ninetieth degree being cut we can scarce take the heighth of it What maketh a Superiour Law but a Superiour Power declaring his Will in some particular instances to be obey'd The Prohibition of the Tree of Life was the firmest Law to Adam though no humane Law was then enacted nay although Adam was King of the Earth But if the Christian Faith was not a Law for more then three hundred years to what end is it that the Apostles and other Pastors of the Church after their time should meet together to decree upon what Doctrine should be taught both for faith and manners if no man were obliged to observe their Decrees Mr. Hobbes To this may be answered that the Apostles and Elders of that Council were obliged even by their entrance into it to teach the Doctrine therein concluded and decreed to be taught so far forth as no precedent Law to which they were obliged to yeild obedience was to the contrary but not that all other Câ—â—istians should be obliged to observe what they taught For though they might deliberate what each of them should teach yet they could not deliberate what others should do unless their Assembly had had a Legislative Power which none could have but civil Soveraigns Stud. That is the Gospel preached by them was no Law then because it did not cut its way by the Temporal Sword and had no outward Power to give it countenance and urge its entertainment Is that your meaning Mr. Hobbes You conjecture aright For in Christs Commission to his Apostles and Disciples there is nothing of power but perswasion They had not in Commission to make Laws but to obey and teach obedience to Laws made and consequently they could not make their writings obligatory Canons without the help of the Soveraign Civil Power Stud. That which may seem to give the New Testament in respect of those that have embraced Christian Doctrine the force of Laws in the times and places of persecution is the Decrees they made amongst themselves in their Synods For we read Acts 15.28 the style of the Council of the Apostles the Elders and the whole Church in this manner It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and unto us to lay upon you no greater burthen then these necessary things c. which is a style that signifieth a power to lay a burthen on them that had received their Doctrine Now to lay a burthen on another seemeth the same that to oblige and therefore the Acts of that Council were Laws to the then Christians Mr. Hobbes They were no more Laws then are those other Precepts Repent be baptized keep the commandments believe the Gospel come unto me sell all that thou hast give it to the poor and follow me which are not Commands but Invitations and callings of men to Christianity like that of Esay 55.1 Ho every man that thirsteth come ye to the waters Stud. Iâ— seemeth strange that such Counsels should not therefore be Laws though some of them are given imperatively enough because men are gently wooed and invited and not by outward force compelled to an outside obedience Our subordination to Christ obligeth us to the performance of his revealed will which is for that reason Law And because he chooseth to rule us rather with a Scepter of Righteousness then an iron Rod we are by that the more obliged and not at liberty from obedience You ought therefore to have said not that the Doctrines of our Saviour were not Laws but that the Civil Soveraign may lay a further obligation upon his Christian subjects as those that make a vow of Chastity do upon themselves by making them become his Laws Thus many Articles of the Christian Faith are inserted into the first Law of the Codex Theodosianus not having thereby first obtained but doubled their obligation But this string of errour runneth through the whole body of your Leviathan that without apparent force there is no Law And this is the chief ground of your irreverent and false Doctrine against the Power of the Christian Church Because it is a visible society professing the Doctrine of the Cross and hath not of it self external co-active Power but by virtue of the Commission of Christ as King layeth spiritual obligation upon men and thereby is consistent with the Civil Empire in which it is therefore you deny unto the Church the right either of making or declaring Laws as if there were not onely a quibble but a truth in the meaning of the Frontispiece of your Leviathan which compares the Canons of the Convocation to those of the temporal Militia and that they could not properly have that name unless they had Powder and Bullet and Fire external force attending on them It is plain enough and you your self do own it that after the Ascension of our Lord the Power Ecclesiastical was in the Apostles and after them in such as were by them ordained to preach the Gospel and to convert men to Christianity and to direct them that were converted in the way of Salvation and after these the Power was delivered again to others by these ordained But how this Spiritual Power in the Administration of Spiritual Affairs in Christ's Kingdom in ordaining Successors in celebrating the Eucharist in loosing and binding in admitting members into this Spiritual but visible society by Baptisme which is a proof both of the Society and its Power how all this I say was derived on the person of Constantine who was neither Ordained nor as some tell us baptized till his death requireth greater skill to explain then I dare yet pretend to he therefore rather gave outward aids and succours then true Authority and Right to the Doctrines and Commandments of his Soveraign Jesus Which things
much cannot be known as may be sought the question about the beginning of the World is to be determined by those that are lawfully authorized to order the worship of God for as Almighty God when he had brought his People into Iudaea allowed the Priests the First-Fruits reserved to himself so when he had delivered up the World to the disputations of men it was his pleasure that all opinions concerning the nature of infinite and eternal known only to himself should as the First-Fruits of wisdom be judged by those whose ministry they meant to use in the ordering of Religion I cannot therefore commend those that boast they have demonstrated by reasons drawn from natural things that the World had a beginning Stud. Where find you the Supreme Civil Magistrate for him you mean to be constituted a Judge of true and false then would the Truth be as inconstant as the Opinions of those Powers who being thronged with employments have of all men the least room left for speculation The Great Turk who ha's made the Alcaron to be Law ha's there affirmed that two verses in Surata Vaccae were made by God Almighty two thousand years before the World was framed and written by his Finger and all Christian Princes who determine the Bible to be the Word of God have thereby determin'd that such Stories are absurd Fables If you had so stated the Power of Princes as to have ascribed a right to them not as you now have done of determining questions that is of resolving them into true negations or affirmations but of restraining the tongues or pens of men from venting what they esteem inconvenient for Society I know few men of my Order who would with any vehemence have become your opposers provided alwaies that this Power be meant of such Opinions as subvert not natural or Christian Religion for it is as necessary at all times to professe such Articles as it is to make profession that we are not Atheists the necessity of which may hereafter be proved Mr. Hobbes I have so done as you require I should for in my Letter to Dr. Wallis since his Majesties return I have upon second thoughts restrained the decision of Authority to the publication and not the inward belief of Doctrinâ— I say there that these opinions about the Creation are to be judged by those to whom God ha's committed the ordering of Religion that is to the Supreme Governors of the Church that is in England to the King By his Authority I say it ought to be decided not what men shall think but what they shall say in those questions Stud. In this question of the Creation you seem too bountiful to Authority seeing by your own concession the affirmative is a point so very fundamental that all natural Religion if that be taken away will fall to the ground for in the Epistle before mentioned you doubt not to affirm that as for arguments from natural reason no man ha's hitherto brought any one except the Creation to prove a Deity that had not made it more doubtful to many men than it was before Wherefore it follows that whilst you attribute unto the Civil Magistrate a Right of binding men if he shall so please to profess this falshood that the World had no beginning you also ascribe unto the same Magistrate a Right of banishing the Profession of a Deity out of his Dominions Mr. Hobbes Why do you stile the King by the name of Magistrate Do you find Magigistrate to signifie any where the person that hath the Sovereign Power and not every where the Sovereigns Officers Stud. Although you are here guilty of an excursion yet I am content to follow you not being ignorant how soon you are out of breath in pursuing any Game started in Philology And first I will grant it to you that if we have regard to the nicest application of the Word at some times amongst the Romans it will not so elegantly agree to the Supreme Power For in the fourth Book of Cicero or rather Cornificius ad Herennium the Magistrate is said to be imployed in the execution of such Decrees as were made Law by the Senate And I have read in Varro that the Officers inferior to the Magister Populi or Dictator and Magister Equitum were by way of diminution call'd Magistratus as from Albus Albatus and yet I am assured that Cicero sometimes us'd the Word Magistrate in such a sense as derogates not at all from the super-eminence of things for in his third Book De Legibus we have this sentence The Magistrate is a speaking Law and the Law is a mute Magistrate and a while after citing the words of the old Roman Law he stileth the Consuls Magistrates and the Office Magistracy and yet he sheweth that the Consuls at first had Regal and Supreme Power But seeing Custome since the dayes of Cicero ha's otherwise applyed divers words and seeing that from a diverse administration of affairs and from new inventions and other causes there have arisen new words also those persons who will precisely speak with Cicero and the old Romans every of whose words and phrases cannot be thought extant in the fragments now in our hands they rather betray their own affectation than declare themselves Masters of Propriety of Language whilst Castalio useth Iova Tinctio Genius Sancte colatur in stead of Iehovah Baptismus Angelus Sanctificetur which word by the favor of so great a Critic is not avoided by Cicero himself he seems to study rather niceness than true cleanness of Latine The word Magistrate is not forced when it is used in expressing the Supreme Power for Magisterare in Festus is glossed by Regerè Your own Champion Terâ—ullian who well knew how to speak with the Laws interprets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Magistratus and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denoteth sometimes so great a Power that it is spoken of the very Prince of the Powers of the Air that learned Person had in the above said place an Eye to the Government of the Athenians which after the succession of Kings failed at the death of Codrus was administred by Thirteen Magistrates called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which the first was Medon Cavil not now at the number of these Rulers for how many soever the persons are in such a Senate the Supreme Authority is but one If you require modern Authority the Testimony of Hugo Grotius is beyond just exception for he acknowledgeth that Summus Magistratus is used commonly in denoting the Sovereign Power although he approves not of it for exact Roman and nice Latinity Lastly Magistrate is a word in the sense in which I use it used also in the Law of King and Church with which we Englishmen are to speak rather than with the Twelve Tables or the Prince of Orators Recall then to your mind the thirty seventh Article of the Faith proâ—essed in
hand we ought to turn when there is before us a Natural and a Moral evil the Natural being the least is therefore to be chosen thus Socrates was obliged to prefer Death before the acknowledgement of Polytheism and by such choice we in truth preserve our selves and most effectually obey that dictate of Nature for we part with a short and unpleasant for an happy and endless life and our health is eternally secured to us by the effusion of the blood of Martyrdom and indeed it hath been the sence of almost all mankind derived from the fear of a God or the excellent Nature of virtue that the honest good is to be prefer'd before either the profitable or the pleasant and that in such cases the powers on Earth are not to be obeyed though upon the refusal of their pleasure they will glut their malice with the blood of men The three Children menaced with the Furnace chose rather to suffer the wrath of Nebuchadnezzar then to do his will in worshiping the golden Image and God Almighty declar'd his acceptance of such a refusal whilst by Miracle he delivered them And the fact of those Parents who saved Moses not being afraid of the commandment of Pharaâ—h who design'd all the Males of Israel for slaughâ—er is deliver'd down unto posteritie with honour and applause by the Author to the Hebrews and in that little book of Martyrs we read of some who scorn'd to accept of a temporal deliverance when it was offer'd to them upon the unworthie terms of Apostacie or recantation they having in their eye a greater reward And it is recorded rather to the same then reproach of the Eastern Magi that in returning to their Countrie they passed by Herod who had with evil intent commanded them to bring him word concerning the birth of the King of the Jews If a Prince said Tatianus commands me to deny my God I will rather dye at his foot then live to exercise his pleasure and the holy Bishop Felix Africanus and his Associates men of great Integritie and constancie of mind would râ—ther give up their own lives then the copies of the new Testament which Dioclesian intended so to destroy that it might not be found at all in the Annals of the World that ever there was such a doctrine as Christianitie The very Grecians whose manner was to use prostration only in the Rites of their Religion refused what peril soever was imminent to worship in that fashion the King of Persia and the Christians who somtimes payed a civil respect before the Images of the Emperours chose rather to expose themselves to the crueltie of their Enemies then to humble themselves as in former daies when Iulian added to them the Images of false Gods and such refusals are not destructive of Government and Societie because the true Christian doth not in these cases fill the World with clamours or endeavour to raise tumults but is led in imitation of his Saviour like an innocent and weak Lamb unto the slaughter Mr. Hobbes For an unlearned man that is in the power of an idolatrous King or State if commanded on pain of death to worship before an Idol he detesteth the Idol in his heart he doth well though if he had the fortitude to suffer death rather then to worship it he should do better Stud. The most obscure and illiterate person doing outward worship to false Gods though he sinneth not with such scandal as the wise and the renowned who are apt to draw a multitude inâ—o the like snare yet he is not to be acquitted as an innocent man For by such means the Idolators who affright this man out of his Religion do triumph over the honour of the true God the procuring of whose dishonour is against Reason which teacheth man apart to adore his Soveraign Lord and in Societie to be publick in his adoration and not to conceal it under the Vizour of an ill-instructed Pagan who serveth Devils Reason you know directeth not only to worship God in secret but also and especially in publick and in the sight of men for without that that which in honour is most acceptable the procuring others to honour him is lost But to come to somwhat peculiar in Christianitie what if a King or a Senate or other Soveraign Person forbid us to believe in Christ Mr. Hobbes To this I answer that such forbiding is of no efâ—ect because belief and unbelief never follow mens commands Faith is a gift of God which man can neither give nor take away by promise of rewards or menaces of torture Stud. But what if we be commanded by our lawful Prince to say with our tongue we believe not must we obey such command Mr. Hobbes Profession with the tongue is but an external thing and no more then any other gesture whereby we signifie our obedience and wherein a Christian who holdeth firmly in his heart the faith of Christ hath the same Liberty which the Prophet Elisha allowed to Naaman the Syrian Naaman believed in his heart but by bowing before the Idol Rimmon he denyed the true God in effect as much as if he had done it with his lips Stud. In both these answers you miss-understand the Faith of the Gospel which is not complete unless the outward profession answereth to the inward act of assent for the Church is a visible societie professing the Christian faith which men entered into by a visible sign in which are Officers of divers ranks in which there is a communion of visible symbols and he that chooseth only to have faith in his heart renounceth his title of Member in this spiritual Societie our Saviour commanded his Disciples that their light should shine before men And St. Iohn upbraideth many of the chief Rulers who believed on Christ but because of the Pharisees did not confess him lest they should be put out of the Synagogue because they loved the praise of men more then the praise of God Hear also what St. Paul saith unto the Romans If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Iesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto Salvation For Naaman who was a Gentile amongst Gentiles he had promised to sacrifice for the future to none but the God of Israel and his incurvation was his civil Office towards the King for which notwithstanding he begg'd especial License If this be not an answer I refer you to Episcopius who will not send you away unsatisfied But what can you answer to our Saviours saying Whosoever denyeth me before men I will deny him before my Father which is in Heaven Mr. Hobbes This we may say that whatsoever a subject as Naaman was is compelled to in obedience to his Soveraign and doth it not in order