conjectural and of probabilities onely whereas faith makes its object certain end withal he makes these phrases the same To have faith in to trust to and to beleeve a man but Saint Austin and the Church ever since have made these distinct phrases for credere Deo is to beleeve that God is true credere Deum is to beleeve there is a God which wicked men and evil Angels may do but credere in Deum is to love God and to relie on him and to put our trust in him which none do but good men therefore Mr: Hobbs is injurious to Christianity when he saith That to beleeve in God as it is in the Creed is meant noâ— trust in the person but confession of the doctrine If so then the Devil may as boldly and with as great comfort say the Creed as any Christian for he beleeves and trembles â—aith Saint Iames and we know these evil spirits confessed Christ to be the Son of God and he is no less injurious to God when he will have us beleeve in the Church saying Our belief faith and trust is in the Church whose words we take and acquiâ—sse therein but the Apostles in their Creed have taught us otherwaies namely That we beleeve the Catholick Church but we beleeve in God the Father Almighty and in Jesus Christ and in the Hâ—ly Ghost He makes Devils Demoniacks and Mad-men to signifie in Scripture the same thing for thus he writes Whereas many of those Devils are said to confess Christ Is it not necessary to interpret those places otherwise then that those mad-men confessed him And shortly after I see nothing at all in the Scripture that requires a belief that Demoniacks were any other thing but mad-men Yes there be divers things that make it necessary for him to beleeve that these were distinct 1. The letter of the text from which we should not digress except we were urged by an inconvenience which is not here 2. The Authority of the Church in which he saith he doth beleeve Now the Church alwaies took these for distinct creatures to wit Devils Demoniacks and Mad-men 3. The honour of Christ for wherein was the power of his Divinity seen if these were ordinary Mad-men seeing madness is curable by physick and every common Physician It tended more to Christ's honour that the Devil whose Kingdom he came to destroy should confess he divinity then that mad-men should acknowledge it 4. Christ came to call Jews and Gentiles by working of miracles but to cast out Devils and to cure Demoniacks was a greater miracle then to cure mad-men 5. The New Testament distinguisheth Demoniacks from mad-men for these are called Demoniacks not mad and Saint Paul is termed mad by the Athenians and not a Demoniack so Devils are never called mad-men in Scripture nor madmen called Devils besides as all mad-men are not Demoniacks so all Demoniacks are not mad-men for the Devil entered into Iudas Iscariot he became a demoniack or possessed by the Devil and yet he was no mad-man but I doubt me Mr. Hobbs is mad himself in thinking all learned men to be mad except himself he thinks the School-men mad because their terms cannot be translated or are not intelligible in vulgar languages by this he may as well ascribe madness to Lawyers and Physitians as to Divines for their terms of 〈◊〉 â—t cannot be well translated nor can vulgar capacities easily understand them nor is it much material whether they do or not Church and State can subsist well enough though the vulgar sort understand not the terms of School divinity if these terms are not intelligible by dull heads and shallow brains the fault is in themselves not in the terms for quicquid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur non ad modum recepti Blinde men must not accuse the Sun of obscurity because they cannot see him neither are the words of Suarez which he alledgeth for an example so obscure as he would make them for to an intelligent man the words are very plain to wit That the first cause hath no necessary influence upon the second by reason of subordination which is a help to their working Here be two things remarkable 1. That the second causes work by reason of subordination to the first cause â— That the first cause worketh not necessarily upon the second but voluntarily If this dish please not Mr. Hobbs his pallat he must blame his mouth which is out of tast and not the meat which is both wholesom and savory In his tenth chapter he uttereth strange Paradoxes 1. That to pitty is to dishonour 2. That good Fortune if lasting is a sign of Gods favour 3. That covetousness of great riches and ambition of great honours are honourable 4. That an unjust action so it be joyned with power is honorable for honour consisteth onely in the opinion of power therefore the heathen gods are honoured by the Poets for their thefts and adulteries and at first among men piracy and theft were counted no dishonour 1. Pitty is rather honour then dishonour for when a father pittieth his child a King his subject or a Master his servant do they dishonour them When we desire God to pitty us do we desire him to dishonour us him whom we dishonour we pitty not and whom we pitty we dishonour not pitty proceeds of love dishonour of hatred 2. If lasting good fortune be a sign of Gods favour it seems then that the Turks are highly in Gods favour for their good fortune hath continued these many hundreth years Whether was poor and starved Lazarus or that rich glutton who fared dilitiously every day highest in Gods favour 3. Who ever afore Mr. Hobbs made ambition honourable and covetousness which Saint Paul calls the root of all evil Can sin be honorable which brought shame and dishonour upon mankinde in respect of sin man did not abide in honour but became like the beasts that perish If ambition of great honors be honorable then were the evil Angels and Adam most honorable when they affected to be like God himself which is the greatest and highest honour that can be then were Caligula Domitian Heliogabalus and others who affected divine honours most honorable Midas coveted great riches when he wished all might be gold he touched therefore in this he was most honorable but if it be honour to offend God to transgress his law to incur his displeasure and suffer eternal pains let them who list injoy this honour I will have none of it non equidem tali me digner honore 4. He makes unjust actions joyned with power honourable Then unjust actions without power deserve no honour it is even as Seneca complaineth in his time parva furta puniuntur magna in triumphis aguntur Petty theeves are hanged but great robberies are honoured He spoke it with grief when a cruel tyrant ruled or rather misruled the Empire But otherwaies where there is government unjust actions are punished not
Adam had not sinned he had had an eternal life on earth And hence he infers That life eternal which Christ hath obtained for his Saints shall be on earth because the Apostle saith as in Adam all dye even so in Christ shall all be made alive for else the comparison were not proper The comparison is not between the two places of heaven and earth but between the two persons of Adam and Christ and between the two lives the one earthly which Adam lost by introducing mortality and the other heavenly which Christ hath purchased by overcoming mortality and as this place fails him so doth that other Psal. 133. 3. Upon Sion God commanded the blessing even life for evermore And Rev. 21. 2. I Iohn saw the holy City New Jerusalem comming down from God out of heaven And Acts 1. 11. This same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven shall so come as you have seen him go up into heaven And Mat. 22. In the resurrection they are as the Angels of God in heaven for they neither marry nor are given in marriage What sober minded man will conclude from these places that our eternal hapiness shall be on earth and not in heaven For when David speaks of life for evermore in Sion he means a lasting happiness which accompanies concord among brethren for the Hebrew word Holam in Scripture signifieth a continuance for some time but not eternity In Exod. 21. 6. The servant whose ear was bored is said to serve his master for ever that is so long as he liveth and not everlastingly Samuel is said to appear before the Lord and there to abide for ever 1 Sam. 1. 22. Will any infer hence that Samuel was to continue in his office for all eternity The Perpetuus Dictator at Rome continued not for ever though he is called perpetual So then life for evermore in Sion is a long continuing happiness and yet Sion in Scripture is divers times taken for heaven where is onely true and eternal life As impertinent is that place which he alledgeth Rev. 2. 7. To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God This saith he was the tree of Adams eternal life but this life was to have been on earth But he is quite out of the way for the Paradise mentioned here is that which Christ speaks of to the good thief Thou shalt be this day with me in Paradise that is in heaven for earthly Paradise was destroyed by the flood and so was the tree of Life which might for some time have prolonged Adams age by supplying the decay of the radical moysture but could not have continued it for ever only our blessed Saviour the true tree of life here mention'd can protract our life into eternity now that Paradise was destroyed by the flood is plain by Moses Gen. 6. saying that the flood rose higher fifteen cubits then the highest mountains Besides if Paradise had been to continue what need was there to build an Ark for Noah and his family seeing they could have been saved in Paradise and so the other creatures likewise And whereas he saith That the New Jerusalem when Christ comes again shall come down to Gods people from heaven and not they go up to it from earth Is ridiculous for Rev. 21. 2. by the New Ierusalem coming down from God is meant the Church of Christ whose original calling protection and happiness is from God so that this is not a proper but a tropical discent The Church is called Ierusalem there and elsewhere because she is or ought to be the City of Peace and as Ierusalem of old was the place of Gods worship and of his peculiar presence so is the Church now which is called new as having cast off the old man and old ceremonies is renewed in the spirit of her minde and is regenerate by water and the spirit So he sheweth his vanity when he proves out of Acts 1. 11. That Christ shall come down to govern his people eternally here and not take them up to govern them in heaven For in that place there is no mention of his government here on earth nor of the eternity thereof but onely that he shall return after the same manner that he went up that is to say gloriously riding on the clouds and attended by Angels Now if any man would know the reason or end of Christs second coming he shall finde in Daniel 2. Mat. 25. and other places of Scripture that it is not to erect an earthly Kingdom which shall continue for ever but as the Apostle saith to render vengeance to the wicked and to us that are afflicted peace Or as it is in our Creed to judge the quick and the dead so then he shall not return as an earthly Prince to set up his throne here on earth which is his foot-stool but as a Judge in his circuit who having condemned some and absolved others returns again to the place of his residence But he says cap. 38. That there is neither Scripture nor Reason to prove that after the resurrection men are to live eternally in heaven What then will he say to these passages Mat. 5. Great is your reward in heaven Christ would have said great is your reward on earth if he had purposed to erect an earthly kingdom So Mat. 6. we are advised to lay up our treasures not on earth but in heaven this were to no purpose if we were to live eternally on earth not in heaven So Ioh. 14. I go to prepare a place for you that where I am there you may be I pray was it not to heaven that Christ went to prepare that place is not heaven his Fathers house where there are many mantions Earth is never called his house nor are the Saints said here to have an house or habitation but to sojourn as in Tents Heaven is the house where we must dwell if we will beleeve St. Paul who was caught up into this house who speaks not by hearsay but by knowledge for we know saith he that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens 2 Cor. 5. 1. Why did St. Paul desire to be dissolved and be with Christ Phil. 1. if he was to enjoy Christ upon earth onely he should rather have desired to be dissolved that Christ might be with him on earth then he to be with Christ in heaven Enoch was translated and Elijah was caught up into heaven to assure us of our right and habitation there for this cause our Saviour opened heaven at his Baptism and after his Resurrection ascended thither to take possession thereof for us and it is fit that where the Head is there the body should be where the King keeps his residence thither his servants should repair Where should the children dwell but in their Fathers house now
whilst they were alive teach the contrary when they are dead Again wise men have urged obedience to their laws upon the doctrine of separated spirits so did Moses by shewing his laws came from God who is a separated essence so did Lycâ—rgus Solon Numa Mohomet and others But saith he Upon this ground faith wisdom and other vertues are sometimes poured into a man and blown into him from heaven as if the vertuous and their vertues could be asunder That â—aith wisdom other graces are sometimes poured into or upon men is no paradox in divinity seeing Gods word which cannot lie assureth us thereof I will pour my spirit upon all flesh Joel 2. I will pour upon the house of David the spirit of grace and supplication Zech. 12. God poured his gifts upon the Gentiles Acts 10. And so the Scripture useth the word blowing or breathing or inspiring which is allâ— one thing all Scripture is by divine inspiration 2 Tim 3. 16. Men spoke in old time as they were inspired or blown into by the holy Ghost 2. Pet. 1. 21. And I pray what dangerous or absurd doctrine is it to say becâ—use mens souls are 〈◊〉 tal and immatâ—rial God inspireth from heavenâ— his gifts into them but indeed the souls immortality is not the ground why God inspireth his graces for then he would inspire the most wicked souls that are with his graces for they are also immortal the ground then of this inspiration is his own good pleasure being a free dispenser of his gifts neither needs he fear that we by this doctrine will make the vertuous and their vertues to be asunder for the vertues of vertuous men are not theirs till they be bestowed Again he saith Who will endeavour to obey the laws if he expects obedience to be poured into him I reply who will expect obedience to be poured into him if he endeavour to obey the law Again obedience is an act of the will now acts are not infused but habits Besides I answer him with Thomas every good man yeelds obedience to Magistrates because he is bound thereto by the law of nature where we see inferiour movers obey the motion of the superiour and likewise by the law of God which teacheth him to be subject to principalities and powers and to obey magistrates Tit. 3. 1. To submit himself to every ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be the King as supreme or unto Governors as unto them that are sent by Him 1 Pet. 2. 13. A good man hath faith and he knows that faith in Christ includes obedience for Christ himself taught obedience both By precept and practise he is also a just man and justice requires that he should give to every man his due but obedience is due to superiours obedience then needs no inspiration but such reasons now if any will maintain erroneous opinions as he alledgeth upon the doctrine of the souls immortality who can help it Men may build stuble and hay upon the best foundation which is Christ Jesus as the Apostle sheweth Shall we deny the souls immortality because of some errors grounded thereon then by the same reason deny the Scripture deny Christ himself He laughs cap. 45. at the words circumscriptive and definitive used in the schooles which he saith are insignificant words for the circumscription of a thing is nothing else but the defining of its place Here he sheweth his ignorance in the school termes for though circumscribing be the defining of a thing yet the defining or confining is not the circumscribing thereof Angels are in a place or rather space definitive because they are so confined to one ubi that they cannot at the same instant be in another yet without any circumscription of parts to the parts of the superficies in the ambient body or place for in a spirit there are no parts therefore no circumscription though there is a confining or definition to the ubi when we say that all the soul is in every part of the body he asks Whether God is served with such absurdities He should first prove this to be an absurdity and then inform us whether this tenet of the souls indivisibility be any part of Gods worship but indeed it is no more absurd to say that the soul is all in every part of the body then to say that the Sun or moon is all in every mans eye for one paâ—t of the Sun is not in my eye and another part in your eye but all the Sun is in my eye and all the Sun is in millions of eyes at the same instant of time He would have us tell him How an incorporeal substance is capable of torment and pain in hell fire The â—â—â—stion is not how but whether or not the soul be capâ—ble of pain if you doubt of this put your finger in the fire and tell me if your soul be not capable of pain or grief which is a torment I shewed before out of Austin that God hath a way to torment souls in fire though unknown to us neither can we tell how the soul goeth hence without the body into heaven onely we can tell him that when our bodies return to dust our souls return to God that gave them Eccles. 12. As for the School-men at which he carps I deny not but there are in some mens opinions many needless questions and subtilties so there are likewise among them many excellent passages and useful distinctions in this life there is no perfection where gold is there is dross and the best corn is not without chaff he is a fool that will reâ—use to drink wine because there be lees in the barrel He saith cap. 46. That what is written in the Metaphysicks is for the most part repugnant to natural reason He should have given us some inâ—â—ances that we might have answered him but to speak of things in general is to say nothing yet that the Reader may perceive both the use of Metaphysicks and how consonant that knowledge is to natural reason I will set down here a few Metaphysical maximes 1. One entity hath but one specifical essence 2. The essence receiveth not augmentation nor diminution 3. As every thing desireth to preserve its entity so it doth its unity 4. Unity is before multitude 5. Truth is consonant to truth 6. Every entity is good 7. Beauty excites affection 8. Evil is not appetible 9. Every thing compounded is dissoluble 10. whatsoever is compounded hath parts and principles 11. In an universe is contained all particulars 12. The whole is greater then the parts 13. The first entity is simply infinite 14. The abstract is before the concret 15. The measure is before the thing measured 16. The subject is the matter of its accident 17. The cause is before the effect 18. Nothing can be its own cause 19. As the essence so the knowledge of the effect depends from the cause 20. The proximate cause being put the effect follows 21.