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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A65817 The Leviathan found out, or, The answer to Mr. Hobbes's Leviathan in that which my Lord of Clarendon hath past over by John Whitehall ... Whitehall, John, fl. 1679-1685. 1679 (1679) Wing W1866; ESTC R5365 68,998 178

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Pharaohs before Ioseph bought them for Pharaoh Mr. Hobbes p. 20. quarrels at any ones saying That Faith and Sanctity p. 169. are infused or inspired for saith he Nothing but Body can be breathed into any thing This is I think rather better Divinity than Philosophy For in Divinity it may be true quoad hunc viz. that Mr. Hobbes had never any Faith or Sanctity infused into him especially considering that he denies the existence of the Person of the blessed Spirit in an other place But I would know if Faith cannot be infused and if any Man be admitted by Mr. Hobbes to have Faith how he came by it certainly not as Mr. Hobbes saith p. 169. By education or external helps for we see many virtuously brought up void not only of Faith but common Civility Nay Mr. Hobbes so far in that p. 169. contradicts himself as to say That God by outward means worketh them in his Elect. So God is the infuser though he work by means and the 2 Cor. 3. v. 5. is an express Text That we are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing but our sufficiency is of God Now if we cannot think how should we believe but that Grace is given us of God of whom is our sufficiency And the 2 Cor. 12. v. 9. Gods grace is said to be sufficient for St. Paul if it be God's grace how came St. Paul by it except it be infused And Luke 17.5 The Apostles prayed for the Increase of their Faith which must be by Infusion increased or no way that I can imagin and 't is plain the Apostles expected the increase of it not by Education or other External helps But Mr. Hobbes his Philosophy in this place never can be true for a Body can never be breathed into a Body for that would be to make two Bodies in the same place which Mr. Hobbes disallows This is much like him in the next page where he calls the words Transubstantiate Consubstantiate Hypostatical the canting of Schoolmen and words that signifie nothing and p. 22. his calling Metaphors Ignes fatui and their end Sedition and all this without any colour of Reason although Metaphors are so frequently used in Scripture as Abraham calls himself Dust and Ashes and Abraham never rebelled against God his King as Mr. Hobbes elsewhere styles God to be And Saint Paul calls himself the Prisoner of Iesus Christ and Mr. Hobbes in his Book often uses Metaphors which I will allow him if they be like the rest and do tend to Rebellion Mr. Hobbes saith p. 24. That there is nothing simply or absolutely Good but as Men account things so to themselves or as they are made so by the Person representing the Common Wealth or by an Umpir●● This is the best part of Mr. Hobbes his Divinity But I would know of Mr. Hobbes whether there was any such thing as a Law to the Children of Israel or other people before the Decalogue If Cain had lain with his Mother there being no positive Law to prohibit it at that time that we know of had it been no sin Or how came the Heathen to be a Law unto themselves 2 Rom. 14. when they had not the express Law or Decalogue except there is something Good or Evil of it self simply and absolutely For a Law supposeth a transgression and in this place it must be intended the Law of Nature for they had it in themselves which only can reflect upon what is Good or Evil by Nature that is simply Good or Evil. This Doctrine is as dangerous as false for it tends to incourage Men inclinable to be vitious in several wicked Desires Words or Actions which they find the Law of the Land doth not extend to punish nor the Scriptures plainly or expresly forbid And Mr. Hobbes might have remembred ●hat there is such a thing as unnatural Lust that is Lust against the Law of Nature spoken of in Scripture But this is as true as his calling in the next page suddain Courage Anger Mr. Hobbes saith p. 26. That the desire of Riches in it self is to be blamed or allowed according to the means by which those Riches are sought And p. 151. he hath a Tract much to the same purpose And p. 62. saith That desire and other passions of Man are in themselves no sin Mr Hobbes but two pages off was against any sin till there was a positive Law now he is for making Covetousness no sin though it be by a positive Law made so viz. the tenth Commandement as other passions are forbidden by other Commands which saith expresly Thou shalt not covet what is thy Neigbours Now the desire of Riches saith Mr. Hobbes is not the sin but the means by which they are sought So the sin as he saith only lies in the act of acquiring not in the desire which the tenth Commandement expresly contradicts As if he should have said if you pick not your Neighbours pocket you may desire his Money If you cut not the Husbands throat you may lust after his Wife nay for ought I know he may intend that you may actually lie with her if you do it not by force or fraud Though Mr. Hobbes saith p. 179. That not only unjust facts but intentions are injustice These Positions of Mr. Hobbes's against sins of desire and other passions makes an end of all sin of thought though Rom. 2. 1 2. be a Text expresly as I think to the contrary and though our Saviour elsewhere saith expresly That he that looks upon a Woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery with her in his Heart Matth. 5. 28. But to this Mr. Hobbes may perchance say That heart-Adultery is no sin And 't is no matter what he ●aith in matters of Religion when to bring Religion it self into contempt defines it viz. A Fear of Power invisible feigned by the Mind or imagined from Tales publicly allowed not allowed Superstition and when the Power imagined is truely such as we imagin true Religion And with this he ●ccords p. 51. So that Mr. Hobbes in other words calls Religion which is the Apprehension in a good Christians mind of his duty to serve the great God and his hearty performance of the same first only a fear no love in the case And secondly of a Power invisible let it be of God or the Devil Thirdly this fear saith he is fained by the mind which excludes reality or imagin'd from Tales publicly allowed that is stories people generally believe no matter whether true or false and when the Tales are not approved of 't is no Religion as he saith but Superstition and when the Power we fancy or imagin is truly such as we imagin it then 't is true Religion So if the Indians by Mr. Hobbes his rule fancy the Devil is able to do them hurt then theirs is true Religion Well done Mr. Hobbes for he hath made Religion in general much like his own and that except I be deceived is
Not but that I admit that the fourth Command as to the precise seventh day was ceremonial and is determin'd since the time of our Saviour Mr. Hobbes after he hath denied the personal Divinity of our Saviour now comes to tell us p. 286. That our Saviour nor his Apostles had any power to make Laws and that they that broke any of his dictates did not sin in it but died in their sins not being pardoned for their offences to the Laws of their respective Countries or of Nature And for this he cites Iohn 3.18 which saith They are condemned already not that they shall be condemned saith he And this conceit Mr. Hobbes grounds upon our Saviours saying his Kingdom is not of this World and he that hath no Kingdom saith Mr. Hobbes can make no Laws so our Saviour's precepts obliged not And now one would think Mr. Hobbes might rest satisfied for after as he thought he had robbed Christ of his personal Godhead now he robs him of his Authority to make Laws and so all the wicked in the World are obliged to him for setting them free from the Gospel in case they will but go into any part of the World to live where the Gospel of Christ or his Apostles are not made Canonical by the Law of that Country But in short to answer Mr. Hobbes is to give the true interpretation of the words of our Saviour Ioh. 18.36 where he saith His Kingdom is not of this World which is no more but that he designed not to take away the Romans Iurisdiction in respect of the external acts and punishments of Men but doth it therefore follow that he that was Lord of the whole Earth who Mr. Hobbes said before represented God had no power by his Word and Doctrine to oblige the Consciences of those that submitted to the Truth of them or to leave those without excuse that refused and that under the penalty of eternal Misery And that we may see that he took upon him to make Laws look Ioh. 14. 15. 1 Ioh. 2. 3. 3. 22 24. which all speak of Christ's commands and that it was the token of peoples love and obedience to him that they kept them and in another place Christ saith A new command I give unto you that ye love one another If Christ had no Authority to make Laws why are his words called commands even by him himself For had they been only directions or beseechings he and the Apostles would have stiled them so Nay Mr. Hobbes saith p. 308. That the Command is the stile of a Law So that 't is clear our Saviour had power to make Laws which he executed upon the Consciences of Men which was the Kingdom of Heaven at hand preached of by St. Iohn although he was not pleased to exercise a Temporal Iurisdiction and we may suppose it was to shew the extraordinary Spirituality of his Government in which sence he may be said to be King of the Iews though his Kingdom was not of this World And as to Mr. Hobbes his Text out of Ioh. 3. 18. whereby he would prove that those that obeyed not Christ's commands were not guilty of a sin but were condemned already for sin as he saith against Nature or the Laws of their Country Mr. Hobbes cites so much of the Text and no more than he thinks to his purpose and 't is one of the pitifullest shifts in all his Book for the latter end of the verse saith the words were spoken of Men condemned already for not believing in Christ not for disobeying the Laws of their Country Now who would trust such a juggler that hath the confidence to cite part of a verse to prove that which the residue proves the contrary But hence 't is manifest that wicked Men and Seducers grow worse and worse And now Mr. Hobbes p. 300. falls upon Cardinal Bellarmine and continues battering of him many pages together about the Supremacy of the Pope over the Church I think it might be a greater question and harder to resolve whether Cardinal Bellarmine or Mr. Hobbes was the archer Heretick That making more God's than one and this denying the one only God his Attributes and the existency of two of the Persons in the Godhead That being a Papist and the worshipper of false gods as a Wafer-cake and Pictures Angels and dead People This a worshipper of no God at all a Stock or a Stone when the Soveraign commands or when he shall change a Chistian for an Heathenish soil That being obstinate in his Religion and this ready to change as to external acts when the Soveraign bids him This question I leave to better judgments to decide Mr. Hobbes p. 323. saith That there is nothing in Scripture from whence may be inferr'd the infallibility of the Church If Mr. Hobbes mean the particular Church of Rome I shall agree with him for as to so much as I know of it 't is as full of Errors and unreasonable Tenets as the Quakers or Mr. Hobbes his Book But as to Christ's Church in general I would have Mr. Hobbes look Ephes. 5. 35 36 37. v. and he will find that Christ hath purified his Church that it might be without spot c. that is without Error And in the same Chapter he will find how Christ and his Church are one as a Man and his Wife are and that Christ loves it and cherisheth it which either must be intended in keeping it from Errors or I know not what those Texts signifie For if Christ suffer it to run into Error it will be ruined or run into decay and God will deal with it as he threatned to the particular Churches in the Revelations except they did amend And Christ saith Matth. 16. 18. That the gates of Hell should not prevail against it And 1 Tim. 3. 15. calls the Church the pillar and ground of the Truth Besides many more Texts of this kind but these are sufficient to shew Mr. Hobbes his confidence or ignorance to s●y That the Scripture contained nothing in it from whence might be inferr'd the infallibility of the Church see then how dangerous it is to believe Mr. Hobbes Yet from this Position he infers in the next page That Christians do not know the Scriptures to be the Word of God only believe it He might as well have said that Christians do not know that there is a God only believe it and 't is like this he may aim at Or he might have said that I know not having never travell'd thither there is such a place as Spain only believe it One part of this Proposition of Mr. Hobbes is true viz. That the Scriptures are believed to be the Word of God But the ignorance of Mr. Hobbes lies in this That in matters of fact which our senses have not perceived or we have not been at the transaction or institution of the best evidence the thing is capable of that is unquestionable testimony is sufficient to