observed of Mahomet's doctrine for Religion that the Turk teacheth within his Dominions or that a Papist should teach if uppermost So now Mr. Hobbes hath done like a Scholar as he may well think to find a place in the Bible to prevent Preaching against the Alcoran or Mass Yet to do Mr. Hobbes Right after his so many assertions that that only is to be acknowledged as Canonical Scripture which the Civil Soveraign saith is so and that in 1651. he attended the determination of the Sword to decide all Doctrines he saith That he can acknowledge nothing to be Canonical Scripture but that which the Church of England hath commanded to be acknowledged for such and I think there is nothing so near an Orthodox opinion in all his Book but I suppose he meant that he would acknowledge it to be so only until the Sword had at that time determin'd it After Mr. Hobbes had laid down positive general Rules for enervating the Scriptures in saying That the Authority of them depended upon the determination of the Soveraign now in his 33. Chap. he comes to the particulars of the several Books of the Scriptures and hopes there I suppose to compleat the work For he saith That the several Books especially of the Old Testament were not written by those that are commonly supposed to be the Penmen of them but by others a long time after their deaths which if true may raise a scruple to the truth of them only he saith That he supposeth Moses wrote the greatest part of Deuteronomy else that the Old Testament was penned generally by Esdras for which he cites the Apocrypha Esdras the 14 th Chapter and when he hath done so takes it for granted that Esdras penned them after the captivity To answer particularly Mr. Hobbes in this would require a very large Discourse enough to tire out both Me and my Reader besides I think it not worth my while to answer general assertions in matters of fact which are contrary to the general admissions of the most Learned Men with long Discourses but rather content my self with saying that they are not to be credited but rejected Yet to that which Mr. Hobbes is particular in I shall answer particularly He saith The Pentateuch was penned long after Moses death and for this he cites the 12. of Genesis v. 6. which saith That when Abraham passed through the Land to the plain of Moreh the Canaanite was then in the Land Which shews clearly saith Mr. Hobbes that this Book was written after Moses time because the Canaanite was not displaced till after Moses death But if Mr. Hobbes had well considered and look'd into the 7 th verse he would have found that God promised Abraham the Land in which at that time Abraham built an Altar unto the Lord which was as it were a taking possession of the Land and by God's gift he had a better right to it as to futurity than the Canaanite had whereupon Abraham by Faith look'd upon the future time and saw the Canaanite displaced and knew that by force of God's promise the Canaanites antient right to them and their posterity was changed So that the Canaanites as to the succession might be rather said to have had the Land than that they had it and so is the 48. Gen. 21. to be understood Or may not the Text be rationally intended that Moses said this to declare that the Canaanite was then in the Land and not any other people How unreasonable then it is for Mr. Hobbes to change a general supposition at the best but upon a doubtful Text of Scripture and an Apocryphal story I shall refer to any Man that hath his reason and if reason be on my side Mr. Hobbes ought to be so too because he said before that Reason is the Word of God The rest of Mr. Hobbes his Texts to prove this are nothing to the purpose and so I pass them over As to the Pen-men of the Books of the New Testament he determins nothing but saith That they were made Canonical by the Church and that the writers of them were indowed with God's spirit in that they conspire to the setting forth the rights of the Kingdom of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Let me then ask Mr. Hobbes why they need to be made Canonical and to be approved or rejected by the Soveraign or his reciprocal Word the Sword Mr. Hobbes said p. 38. That the Scriptures by the spirit of God in Man mean a mans spirit inclined to godliness the falsness of which I have upon that page spoken to Now p. 207. he comes to treat of Spirits in general what they aâ—e and saith if I rightly understand him which I think is difficult in so perplex'd a discourse as he makes all over this his 34. Chapter That they are bodies for he saith that substance and body are the same thing And p. 17 53 214. saith That all substances must be bodies and that the words incorporeal substance joined together are unintelligible nonsence and imply a contradiction And so runs on further in his old vein of making positive affirmations contrary to the general received opinion of all Christian Men without giving any reason at all for his so â—aying But to reason the matter a little why are the words incorporeal substance contradictories Why may there not be a substance that hath no Body as well as a substance that hath one For substance is nothing but that which doth substare such and such qualifications as are proper and do belong to the being or nature of the thing in which those qualifications are and without which those qualifications could not be for want of something to support them As we may say that Iron which is a corporeal substance is hard so we may say that a thing of a more subtle existence or substance is intelligent rational or wise For that it may be equally capable to support these as the Iron doth hardness colour or any other qualification Now then to say that body and substance are the same thing is only a positive saying and if the words had been never thought on before might as well signifie variously as the same Then certainly 't is a strange piece of confidence to obtrude such a position upon the World without any possibility of reason which is contrary to the sentiments of all Learned persons that ever I heard of But if Mr. Hobbes ask me what a Spirit is if it be not a Body I must say that I can no more tell the likeness of it than Mr. Hobbes supposing he had never seen by some external obstruction any thing nor spoken with them that had could have told what a like thing an Horse or a grey Hound is things incapable and things obstructed giving the same account of their proceedings But 't is apparent that there is such a thing as a Spirit for our Saviour saith Luke 24. 39. Handle me and see for a Spirit hath
not Flesh and Bones as ye see me have And if not Flesh and Bones of what must a Spirit consist that is corporeal I hope Mr. Hobbes will not say that 't is made like his deciding Sword of Iron and Steel But the apprehension that we can have of a Spirit is that it is something that is no object of our Senses and so not Mathematically descriptable but an object of our Understandings which apprehend that a good Spirit is wise and knowing and that an evil Spirit is subtle and cunning But what shall we say then of Mr. Hobbes his Spirit that is his Soul which is neither wise subtle nor cunning To this I shall only say that I think 't is no Body by reason it hath actuated every part of his Body and been in the same for near 80 Years together which it could not have been had it been Body for this would be to make several Bodies in one place at the same time which Mr. Hobbes disallows of So then the Soul of Man must be something that is not Body that is as we call it Spirit or Spiritual substance created by God in Man as Life was breathed into Adam and all other living creatures But Mr. Hobbes after his Philosophical discourse concerning the corporeousness of a Spirit cites Texts of Scripture to shew what the meaning of Spirit is there His first is Gen. 1. 2. where 't is said That the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the Waters This he saith is meant a wind wrought by God because motion is attributed to it and consequently place and nothing can be moved that changeth not place or hath not dimension and whatsoever hath dimension is Body Admirable Philosophy For mark the Argument motion and place belong to Bodies therefore nothing but a Body can have motion or place Suppose a Man should reply upon Mr. Hâ—bbes and say Ears belong to an Ass therefore nothing but an Ass can have Ears what a trouble would this be to Mr. Hobbes to be made an Ass by his own Argument which supposeth all things to be the same to which any one circumstance or qualification equally belongeth But fully to answer Mr. Hobbes motion in this place of Scripture is intended as I think of the special and extraordinary operation of God's Spirit though some Interpreters take it I confess to be a wind impulsed by God's Spirit like Gen. 8.1 upon the Waters and not to denote God's moving from place to place as Bodies do for in that sence neither motion nor place can be attributed to God who is every where but in no place either circumscriptively or definitively as Bodies are But it follows not therefore that God by his Spirit cannot extraordinarily act in one place more than another without becoming a Body as he did in the creation upon the Waters And 't is not sence to say that of necessity dimension mâ—st belong to that which hath motion or place because that Bodies that have motion and place have dimension for 't is to make a general conclusion of the Being of a thing from a particular qualification and that would be to make Men Beasts and Beasts Men as I hinted before But I confess that the word Spirit in Scripture and common discourse hath various significations as Mr. Hobbes hath plentifully discoursed but what that makes to the impossibility of a substance being incorporeal I know not neither do I think it conceptible And I cannot agree with Mr. Hobbes in his several quotations of Scripture that mention our Savour who was indowed with God's Spirit and 't is abominable to question it and several eminent Persons as Gideon c. to be indowed with God's Spirit that those places as he saith only mean that our Saviour and others had special virtues for such purposes but that God had not inspired his Spirit into them to inable them to perform such and such things as when he cites the 6. of Iudges v. 34. which saith that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon that is saith Mr. Hobbes Gideon had courage to defend God's people And this let me add that if it was barely courage in Gideon it was the strangest courage that I ever read of except that of Ionathan to attack so great an host as that of Midian was with only 300 Men and the arms of them nothing but Trumpets Lamps and Pitchers But if this Interpretation of Mr. Hobbes was true Oliver Cromwel or any other valiant Man might be said to have God's Spirit as well as Gideon although we do not find that so much as any of David's Worthies in the repetition of their great acts are said to have it when we cannot suppose but that they had as much courage as Gideon and upon that account might as easily have been said to have God's Spirit if by God's Spirit in such Men is only meant courage What folly then is it for Mr. Hobbes to affirm this having no warrant for it but his own fancy To which he hath given so great a latitude as in this Chapter most damnably and prophanely to make nothing of the blessed Spirit of God but a Ghost as p. 209. which in other places he makes the companion of Goblins both which he takes to be as indeed they are the imaginations of distempered brains such as Mr. Hobbes his was when he wrote this interpretation of places of Scripture of this kind when in p. 58. he saith That the Scriptures mean by the Spirit of God in Man a Man's Spirit inclined to godliness and here he saith they mean the particular virtues Men are indowed with for such purposes and whether this be not the next thing to a contradiction I shall refer to any one that hath so much virtue and godliness as to speak true for a godly Man that is one devout towards God may not be indowed with any other virtue And then Mr. Hobbes comes to Texts of Scripture concerning our Saviour as to this matter it is Luke the 4 th v. 1. and Matth. 4. 1. that express our Saviour to be full of God's Spirit This saith Mr. Hobbes was a zeal to do God's work but saith he to say God was fill'd with God is improper and insignificant And this last I shall be beholding to Mr. Hobbes for hereafter when I come to p. 268. where Mr. Hobbes denies the existence of God the Holy Ghost and the Godhead of the Son for here he confesseth the Godhead of both of them But to return to this page I am now upon Mr. Hobbes is certainly upon a wrong ground though I will not say how the blessed Spirit of God is communicated or infused into Man or was in our blessed Saviour to suppose that God the Holy Ghost must be infused into the Godhead of the Son and that the Godhead must be full of the Godhead for our Saviour had an humane Nature which he might not out of his good pleasure indow with all the graces of God's Spirit upon
he doth in all Commonwealths for by him King's reign For there was a certain time when there was no King in Israel and God appointed sometimes Iudges Chiefs that is Kings to govern them between which Iudges there was intervals and I would know what temporal Iurisdiction God exercised over them in those intervals or at that time when there was no King Certainly none that we ever read of in holy Writ and 't is reasonable to suppose God exercised none for that the people of Israel were then grievously oppressed and so continued sometimes forâ—y Years before a deliverer rose up which they needed not to have done if God had undertaken the temporal government for that God by his Power was able to have deliver'd them which we see he never did but by a temporal Governor in the time of which Governor the high Priest was not God's Viceroy but rather the Governor 's and the 17. Deut. 9. 12. v. clearly makes the Priest and the Iudge which should then afterwards be different persons and different Emploiments So 't is most apparent that God was no otherwise the temporal King of the Israelites than he was King of all the Earth nor the high Priest as high Priest his Viceroy though the Israelites were his chosen people as to Religious worship And as to the 1 Sam. 8. 7. which Mr. Hobbes cites where God said to Samuel when the people asked a King They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not rule over them it is no more but that God was angry with them for not taking such a Governor as he was pleased to set over them as Samuel then was and Baruck Ieptha and Samson had been but that they would have one not only of their own choosing but also aâ—ter the similitude of other Nations which God had rejected and had chosen them for his peculiar people and so in that sence they may be said to reject God in that they rejected those he did set over them As to Mr. Hobbes his other places of Scripture I think them nothing to the matter and so I shall pass them over as he saith he doth many more places for this purpose not cited but instead of citing them slily as I think claps his hands at the Clergy p. 219. and saith 'T is a wonder no more notice is taken of this but that it gives too much light to Christian Kings to see their right of Ecclesiastical government To this I will answer for the Clergy of England that those that are not infected with a spice of Popery as I am afraid some such there are God make them fewer or some for want of due consideration always acknowledge the King for supream Head of the Church and by that Title pray for him and not by that sleighty Title of Supream Moderator of the Church and the English Clergy if some few do otherwise are no more to be blamed for this than the English Souldiers were in the blessed Reign of Queen Elizabeth to be blamed in Holland because Stanly and York delivered Towns up to the Spaniard or English Writers because one English Man hath written such a Book as the Leviathan who after his Learned Discourse of the Kingdom of God comes to tell us p. 219. what the Kingdom of Grace is and saith Those are in it that promise obedience to God's government I suppose he means temporal of which he hath been treating before to whom saith he God hath gratis given to be his Subjects hereafter which is called the Kingdom of Glory Now certainly the Kingdom of Grace by all Men before Mr. Hobbes was taken to be God's Spiritual government which he exerciseth in the Hearts of good Men by his commands threats and promises to which if they yield obedience in and through the mercies of our blessed Saviour they are made inheritors of the Kingdom of Glory And what a quibble this is of Mr. Hobbes from the word gratis to change the sence of the Kingdom of Grace I shall refer to any intelligent person Mr. Hobbes coming in his 36. Chapter to treat of â—he Word of God and the Prophets comes to shew what Word signifies in Scripture of which I do think he hath given a true account in several Texts but is not able in any kind of Truth to hold out long For p. 224. he saith That the Word of God in several Texts of Scripture signifies which I never observed in any such words as are consonant to the dictates of right Reason and the first Text he cites is 2 Chron. 35. 22. where 't is said That Iosiah harkned not to the words of Necho from the mouth of God which saith Mr. Hobbes were but the dictates of Reason This is most palpably unreasonable for there was no reason for Iosiah to forbear fighting with Necho the Kings of Iudah having beaten as great Kings as the Kings of Egypt and the Iews being then in a powerful condition when he came into his Country with a great Army So this Text must either be intended that the words of Necho were but what God had told him or that they were revealed to Iosiah to be God's mind by some Prophet which most Interpreters take to be Ieremiah nay Mr. Hobbes himself cites Esdras for this last Interpretation but saith That in this he approves not an Apocryphal writer though before when he had a mind to invalidate the Scriptures by making the Penmen of them uncertain seemed strongly to incline that Esdras was the Penman of them after the Captivity when it might be supposed the certain Truth was lost and that only from the Authority of the Book of Esdras whose Authority or rather Interpretation he here rejects And then Mr. Hobbes goes on to cite several other Texts of Scripture to prove that in Scripture by the Word of God is meant the dictates of Reason or Equity as Ierem. 31. 33. and other places where God saith He will write his Laws in their Hearts Which places by all other Men I think have been interpreted the operation of God's Spirit upon the minds of Men by inclining them to obey his Laws after God had taught them by his Prophets or Ministers And there is no cause to call that reason or the proceed of reason which the Scripture terms the operation of God A Man bringing reason or an aptitude to it into the World and so he doth not that which God effects in him after he is in the World Mr. Hobbes p. 238. saith That a private Man hath Power to believe or not believe Miracles Thought bâ—ing free but saith he when it comes to publick confession the private reason must submit to the publick Now by his Rule though a Man do not believe lying wonders yet he may say he doth if any one will believe Mr. Hobbes In short this is much like his precedent Doctrine of practice and serves to authorise the grossest hypocrisie in the World in case the
seems to collect from Luke 20. v. 34 35 36. which saith The Children of this World marry but they that shall be accounted worthy to obtain that World neither marry nor dye any more Hence he infers That because the Children of this World that is people now alive do marry and those in Heaven do not marry that therefore the reprobate which he would have understood by the Children of this World may marry which is nonsence and without ground 't is â—rue that wicked Men in Scripture are termed the Children of this World but they are not those that are already in Hell but those that are likely to be so except they repent And observe further from the last mentioned Text which saith That the righteous dye not that he insers from thence That the wicked must dye in a future state This sufficiently exposeth it self But the substance of this his Discourse I have answered in speaking to his 38. Chapter which I now for that cause pass over and for that my Lord of Clarendon hath spoken something to this which I have omitted But only this let me say that I hope no Body will be incouraged into a wicked life presuming Mr. Hobbes saith true in respect of the smalness or rather no punishment hereafter for 't is apparent in this that he hath talk'd like a mad-man and in few places of his Book hath he in matters of concern spoken true Mr. Hobbes Chapter 45. drawing near an end of this wicked Work is drawn so dry that he is forc'd upon repetitions and falls again upon the Philosophy of Sight which he had spoken of in the beginning of his Book and saith That for want of his understanding in it the Iews and all the rest of the World have been mistaken about Daemons and then falls again to the corporeity of Spirits which I have answered before And here I shall observe a notable Collection of Mr. Hobbes from a Text of Scripture which saith that the Iews said to our Saviour Thou hast a Devil Hence he seems to infer that there was no such thing as Devils because our Saviour had none in any of those our Saviour is said to cast the Devil out of but that it was a mistake of the Iews and those people said to have Devils were only troubled with some extraordinary or ill Disease So see this Learned Gentleman holds his old method of arguing That because our Saviour had not a Devil therefore no other Man had and because the wicked Iews were mistaken as to our Saviour's having a Devil that therefore the good Iews and Penmen of the Scripture were mistaken as to any one else having a Devil But this I pass having spoken to it before only by the way observe that Mr. Hobbes coming again to Spirits saith That the meaning of our Saviour's being led by the Spirit into the Wilderness and his carrying from place to place was a vision So Mr. Hobbes against the letter of so many Texts condemns the opinion of all Divines I ever met with just as a little before all Philosophers about Opticks Mr. Hobbes p. 360. saying That 't is not Idolatry to pay Divine worship to a King if he command it by terror of punishment which I have spoken to before saith here That 't is no casting a stumbling block before his Brother for that his Brother cannot argue from thence that he let him be never so Wise and Learned approves it but doth it for fear though to do Mr. Hobbes right he in p. 362. saith the contrary One would wonder that any Man that admits of such a thing as a stumbling block in his Brother's way in a Religious sence and that was not distracted should say so for what can be a greater incouragement to another to be Idolatrous than his seeing his Wise and Learned neighbour do the thing Certainly it cannot be supposed that there can be a greater and 1 Cor. 8. 10 11 12. v. is expresly against Mr. Hobbes which saith That the weak Brother seeing one sit at meat in the Idols Temple is imboldned to eat things offered to Idols whereby he may perish which is there said to be a sin against Christ. And how shall a Man know admitting it was lawful as 't is not to be Idolatrous upon the account of fear whether it be done for fear or no. 'T is generally impossible and not to be supposed And Mr. Hobbes in this page prosecuting his Idolatrous Doctrine saith That to worship God in a peculiar place or to turn a Man's face to an Image or determinate place is not to worship the Image or place but to acknowledge it holy that is set apart from common use and is not Idolatry except done by a private authority I would now have any Man living tell me whether any Papist ever said more as much as Mr. Hobbes is against Bellarmine in justification of their using of Pictures or Crucifixes or the Heathens of their falling down before Stocks and Stones than he hath here done for my part I never did For I never heard but that the Papists say they use them to put them in mind and the Heathens as I have read say That they do not imagin that Stocks or Stones can do them any good as gods or that they are gods But if this allowed by Mr. Hobbes be not Idolatry I would know what is and against the second Command But Mr. Hobbes here implies a Learned distinction for he saith This is Idolatry if the Image be used by private Authority but I suppose he means 't is not Idolatry if set up by publick Authority For he instances where 't was lawful upon the appointment of God Almighty which he said before was King of Israel and saith ' â—is no more Idolatry than it was for the Israelites before the brazen Serpent to worship God or for the Iews to turn their faces towards Ierusalem or for Moses to put off his shooes or for people to worship God in the Churches Mr. Hobbes did well to condemn Aristotle for that Aristotle hath taught his Scholars to condemn Mr. Hobbes For such consequences did never Man in Bethlehem put together as he hath in this Book frequently and particularly here For doth it follow because God the Law maker can dispense by his Word with any of his Commands as this of the second Command admit the instances Mr. Hobbes puts would hold that therefore any Authority upon Earth can which was not the Law maker This is to make Man in God's stead And in a familiar instance to say that because the King Lords and Commons can by an Act dispense with a Law or make one particular action Legal acted against that Law that therefore every Master of a Family can do it which consequences are abâ—urd And he might as well have said that because God might lawfully command Abraham to kill his Son that therefore a King may lawfully command any of his Subjects to do the â—ame But