to the creatures but it were very absurd to think that diseases should speak and discourse with Christ should question and beseech him and acknowledge his Divinity as these Devils did But he proceeds and says That he hath not observed out of Scripture that any man was ever possessed with any other corporeal spirit but that of his own That some men have been possessed with other spirits besides their own is plain by many places of Scripture but whether these spirits were corporeall or incorporeall is not the question though neither Divinity nor Philosophy doth acknowledge any corporeall spirits properly The Wind indeed is sometimes called a Spirit and so is the Sun but the word Spirit is there used improperly and in a large sense so are these subtile vapouâ—s in the Nerves and Arteries called Animal and Vitall Spirits by the Physicians though indeed they be bodies Now that Spirits properly so calledâ— such as Angels and Mens souls cannot be corporeall is plain because they have not quantity nor are in a place by circumscription nor move Physically Many Angels may be in the same ubâ— a legion of spirits that is 6500 may be in the same man and yet Mr Hobbs cannot observe that ever any man hath been possessed with any other spirit then that of his own Besides if Spirits were corporeall their bodies must be either Homogeniall or Heterogeniall Not Homogenial for different operations such as are in Angels require different organs Not Heterogenial â—or so we must make Angels and the souls of men to be composed of different and contrary entities and consequently subject to dissolution and corruption All which are grosse absurdities Again Angels can passe through gresse bodies without penetration of dimensions which shew they have not quantity and consequently are immateriall For the purest body that is cannot passe through another but the other body must yeeld give place Lastly if there were not incorporeall spirits the world would be imperfect as being destitute of Incorporeall substances which with the corporcall make up the Universe and compleat it He saith Chap. 45 That Christ went himself into the wilderness and that this carrying of him up and down from the wildernesse to the City and from thence into a mountain was a vision I know he went of himself to be tempted he being no wayes forced but of his own accord undertook to buckle with Satan our Arch-enemy that we might the more boldly enter with him Yet the Scripture â—aith That he was led by the spirit but I cannot admit that this temtation of Christ was but a vision for then we shall have smal comfort by Christs temtation if it were not reall but imaginary or in a vision and if we shall admit this to be a vision we may suspect the rest of his sufferings to be but visions to the great dishonor of our Saviour and his Evangelists who wrot his History and also to the discomfort of all Gods children But how came Mr Hobbs to be so wise as to know this to be a vision of which the Evangelists make such an exact historicall narration When in Scripture any thing is done in a dream or vision the dream or vision is mentioned as the Angell appeared to Joseph in a dream Matth. 2. Peter saw a sheet let down from heaven in a vision Acts 10. The wise men were warned by the Angell in a dream Matth. 2. Paul saw the man of Macedonia in a vision Acts 11. The Lord spake to Paul in a vision Acts 18. but in this temtation of Christ there is no mention of any vision therefore we conclude it was reall and in saying so we need not fear that either Christ was possessed or carried away violently by the devill as Mr. Hobbs would infer because our Savviour for our comfort and salvation suffered himselfe to be both tempted and carried by the devill as afterward he permitted himself to be apprehended and scourged and crucified by the devils Instruments And albeit Satan could not from that high mountain shew to the Lord all the kingdomes of the world yet he could point to the understanding their places and situation He is offended cap. 45. That the use of exorcism hath hitherto so prevailed in the Church by the doctrine of incorporeal spirits Incorporeal spirits are no more the cause of exorcisms then corporeal substances are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} is but to adjure and adjuration is used as well against men as spirits the high Priest did not think that Christ when he stood before him was an incorporeal spirit yet he adjureth or exorciseth him by the living God Mat. 26. He tells us That there were many Demoniacks in the Primitive Church and few mad-men whereas now there are many mad-men and few Demoniacks which proceeds not from the change of nature but of names That the use of exorcism hath so prevailed in the Church should administer cause of comfort not of grief in that our Saviour hath not left his Church destitute of helps and arms against the devil who takes delight to torment men here by possessing their bodies and to torment them hereafter by insinuating into their souls inticing them to consent to all kinde of iniquity that so he may bring them with himself into eternal misery Now our Saviour was the chief exorcist himself for he by his power and word cast ouâ— devils this gift he bestowed on his Apostles that they should cast ouâ— devils in his name and therefore the Disciples after they were sent abroad by Christ and had returned rejoyced that the devils were subject to them and this gift of exorcism was bestowed sometimes on wicked men as we may see Mat. 7. of those who in the last day will say to Christ We have cast out devils in thy name And we read Acts 19. of the 7. sons of Scaeva who took upon them to exorcise evil spirits in the name of the Lord Jesus because Paul had practised exorcism with such good success We see how the spirit of divination by Paul's command in the name of Jesus Christ came out of the damosel Acts 16. Exorcism then is a gift of God not temporary to continue onely in the Apostles but lasting and to remain in the Church till the end of the world otherwise we should be in a sad condition if when Satan possesseth any of her members there were no remedy against him â—ut we have remedies left us to wit â—asting and prayer for our Saviour tells us that there is a kinde of devil which is not cast out but by prayer and fasting Mat. 16. Now that there are some possessed in these latter daies is apparent by divers histories that mention strange effects of people possessed which are more then natural and at which Physitions are amazed for as their diseases are preternatural so be their cures Melancâ—â—â—â—n his Epistles tells us of a woman in his time who lived in Saxome she being possessed by the devil
truth in things as well as in words for entity can be no more without truth then the fire without heat or the Sun without light And when he saith that Geometry is the only science which God hath left into man He is injurious to Arithmatick whose principles are no less certain firm indemonstrable and evident then those of Geometry He enveighs much against book learning but in this he speaks without book for he calls in derision school knowledge Pedantry Pedantry is that knowledge which is taught to young Scollers and indeed the best books are read to them and they are instructed in the knowledge of the best things both in divine and humane litterature being fit that new vessels be seasoned with the best liquor Quo â—emel est imbuta c. So the preceps of divinity and philosophy to this profound Rabbi whose learning passeth all understanding are but Pedantry but in speaking against the Schools he fouls his own nest for whence had he the knowledge which he now rejects but out of them as for his own supposed learning which he hath without them it is such as will never be thought worthy to be called Pedantry nor shall it ever be honoured to be taught in Schools nor shall Aristotle Plato Cicero Thomas and other eminent men need to fear lest Mr. Hobbs's whimsies and dreams thrust their solid and grave learning out of doors He accounteth these subsequent assersions absurd namely That faith is infused or inspired when nothing can be poured or breathed into any thing but body and that extention is body c. I would know how saith being a gift from without and not born with us should enter into us If not by inspiration or infusion And if nothing can be poured or breathed but body then it must follow that Adam's soul was a body for it was breathed into Adam and that the Holy Ghost is a body for he is said to be poured upon all flesh by the prophets Ioel and Zachariah but if by the spirit be understood spiritual vertues or graces then in Mr. Hobbs his judgment this will be counted an absurd assertion but I hope he hath more Religion in him then to think the Holy Scripture speaks absurdly neither is there any absurdity in calling extension a body seeing not a substantial but a mathematical body is meant to distinguish it from superficies and line He will not have colour to be in the body nor sound in the air Where then is colour which is its subject is it in a spirit I know no other subject in which it can be inherent except one of these two If there be any there name it and if sound be not in the air how come we to hear it He should do well to prove his new assertions as wel as to deny the old so he holds it absurd to say That a living creature is a genus or general thing But the contrary is plain for this proposition man is a living creature were absurd because identical if living creature were not a general but a particular thing it must also follow that a horse were not a living creature or that a man and a horse were the same particular thing seeing he admits of no general thing any one may see here whether the ancient and wise Philosophers or this new Misosopher be most guilty of absurdities neither is it absurd to say That the nature of a thing is its definition Seeing man the thing defined is the same with rational creature which is his definition Nor is there absurdity in this speech Mans command is his will seeing there is no other commanding faculty in man but his will neither are Metaphors Tropes and other Rhetorical figures absurd speeches except he will accuse the Holy Ghost of absurdity who useth them so frequently in scripture and if these words Hypostatical Transubstantiate c. be absurd words let him impart better and more significant terms and we shall think him though not a good Philosopher yet a good Grammarian In his sixth chapter he makes animal and voluntary motion the same but absurdly for the motion of spirits is voluntary not animal and the motion of men in their sleep is animal not voluntary for many in their sleep speak those words and perform those actions of which they are both ashamed and afraid when they are awakened if to speak were an animal motion as he saith then beasts could speak for they are animals He saith That which we neither desire nor hate we are said to contemn But this is not so for I neither desire nor hate the Kingdom of Persia and yet I contemn it not whatsoever I hate I contemn but I contemn many things which I hare not When he distinguisheth Religion from Superstition I hear the voice of Leviathan not of a Christian For saith he Fear of power invisible feigned by the minde or from tales publâ—ckly allowâ— is Religion not allowed Superstition and when the power imagined is truly such as we imagine true Religion It seems then both Religion and Superstition are grounded upon tales and imagination onely they differ in this that tales publickly allowed beget Religion not allowed Superstition but what will he say of the Gentiles among them tales were publickly allowed were they therefore religious and not superstitious and is Religion grounded upon fiction or imagination even true Religion I thought that faith and not imagination had been the substance and ground of things not seen that the just live by faith not by imagination that by faith we are saved by faith we are justified by faith we overcom the world not by fancy fiction or imagination We must mend the Creed if Mr. Hobbs his religion be true and insteed of saying I beleeve in God we must say I imagine or feign in my minde an invisible power In this also he contradicts himself for if the power be invisible how can it be imagined seeing as he saith before imagination is onely of things perceived by the sense and it is so called from the image made in seeing He will not have the will to be a rational appetite because then there could be no voluntary acts against reason But the School doctrine stands firm that the will is a rational appetite and that there can be no voluntary acts against reason because the object of the will is a known good for we cannot will or affect what we know not and knowledge in man is never without reason which regulates the will besides each man in willing aimes at an end which cannot be attained withous its medium nor this ordered without reason either true or apparent Part 1. cap. 7. He seems to make faith and opinion the same thing when he saith That in belief are two opinions one of the saying of the man the other of his vertâ—e but in this he makes the Christian mans happiness very incertain and builds it upon a tottering foundation for opinion is meerly
Christ therefore as he is revealed to us in his word is the foundation of our faith besides By faith we are the sons of God saith the Apostle Gal. 3. But we were in a bad condition if ourfiliation depended on the authority of Princes or reputation of Pastors In his forty fourth chapter he expounds these words of Matth. 9. 34. Belzebub the Prince of Devils that is He hath principality over fantasins that appear in the air So that he makes Demons fantasms or spirits of illusion to signifie allegorically the same thing But I do not read that Devils in Scripture are called fantasms or fantasms named Devils when the Disciples Mat. 14. saw Jesus walking on the sea they thought they had seen a fantasm did they mean the devil by this word So when Christ Mat. 4. was tempted of the devil is it meant that he was tempted by a fantasm Devils are spirits and real substancet and not phantasms or fictions of the brain as we shewed beâ—ore of Angels I deny not but Satan may represent to the outward sense as well as to the inward or imagination divers shapes of things to delude men which shapes may be called fantasms as that which Suidas calls a diabolical fantasm {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which indeed was but a deluding shadow or fantasm and not the Devil himself who is an invisible spirit therefore although there be in the heathen Poets fabulous doctrines concerning Demons we must not hence infer with Mr. Hobbs That Demons are but idols or fantasms of the brain without any real nature of their own distinct from human fancy For so he may as wel infer that God is but a fancy because the Poets have delivered many â—abulous doctrines concerning the gods He that afflicted Job tempted Christ buâ—â—etted Paul and hath been from the beginning an enemy to the womans seed is more then a fantasm or idol of the brain Cap. 44. After Mr. Hobbs hath toyled himself in vain to prove that Christ hath no kingdom in this world at last is content to allow Christ the kingdom of grace which is as much as we desire for we know that the kingdom of glory is not yet come Christ then is King of his Church militant here and raigneth in the hearts of his faithful and performs all the offices of a King even in this world by prescribing laws by ruling defending rewarding punishing though not in so ample a maner as hereafter he also conquereth and subdueth the enemies of his Church though not fully till the consummation of the world He also enlargeth the territories and bounds of his Kingdom that he might fulfil the prophesies and make good his Fathers gift Psal. 2. I have given thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the ends of the earth for thy possession This is that kingdom which is in the new Testament so often called the kingdom of God and of heaven this is that kingdom which in the resurrection Christ will deliver up to God his Father 1 Cor. 15. He cannot yet digest cap. 44â— the souls immortality for three reasons First because the tree of life was to preserve man immortal Secondly what needed Christs sacrifice to recover mans immortality if he hath not lost it Thirdly must the wicked and heathen also enjoy eternal life I answer The tree of life was to preserve man immortal but not the soul which is immortal by nature as being a spirit and not subject to corruption as bodies which are compounded of corruptible materials and of contrary elements Secondly Christs sacrifice was to recover mans immortality but not the souls which was not lost now as a part cannot be the whole nor the whole a part so neither can the soul â—be man nor man the soul Thirdly eternal life which the wicked enjoy is a life of misery and such as they would be willing to exchange for death neither is it more strange that wicked men should enjoy eternal life then wicked Angels both enjoying this immortality as a due punishment for their sins now whereas he saith That eternal life was not essential to humane nature but consequent to the vertue of the tree of life I grant that man is not naturally immortal yet the soul of man is but I deny that life eternal was a consequent to the vertue of any tree for no tree can be capable of such a vertue neither was the tree of life any other then a Sacrament of mans immortality if he had pesevered in his obedience therefore God debarred him because of his transgression from it in that he would not have his Sacraments abused by profane hands But he tells us That when everlasting death is called everlasting life in torments it is a figure never used but in this very case I answer That this figure is used in other cases as when Christ saith Let the dead go bury the dead there natural life is called death So when the Apostle â—aith We were dead in our sins and trespasses he used the same figure in another case for there the delight we have in sin is called death this figure is used in the law in another case for captives slaves prisoners and such like miserable men are said to be civily dead St. Paul in another case useth this figure when he saith I am crucified that is dead to the world to wit in his affections and so they who include themselves in a monastery are said to be dead to the world But he saith that this doctrine of the souls imnortality is founded onely on some of the obscurer places of the new Testament I pray what obscurity is there in this place Thou shalt be this night with me in Paradise What was to be with Christ in Paradise not the good thiess body then it must needs be his soul So when Christ preached to the spirits in prison what were these spirits Shaddows onely or fancies such as Virgil speaks of Umbrae ibant tenues simulachraque luce carentum Bodies they could not be they must needs then be souls So when Christ saith That body and soul shall be cast into hell fire there cannot be meant as Mr. Hobbs expounds it body and life for then Christ should speak non-sence when he saith Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul Mat. 10. 28. That is fear not them that can take away the life of the body but are not able to take away the life of the life But he objecteth That the soul in Scripture is taken sometimes for the whosle man or living creature I grant it is so taken sometimes Synecdochically will it therefore â—ollow that it is never taken properly So this word flesh is sometimes tropically used for the whole man is therfore never used properly He tells us cap. 44. That this window gives entrance to the dark doctrine of eternal torments of purgatory of walking ghosts and exorcisms The doctrine of eternal torments is
not so dark as he takes it it is in plain termes set down in Scripture to be an eternal separation from God everlasting fire everlasting shame and contempt c. Neither is it a doctrine either erroneous or dangerous that we should for fear of teaching it deny the souls immortality suppose also that the doctrine of pugatory walking ghosts and exorcisms were erroneous and grounded on the souls immortality must we deny this for for fear of these errors Must we deny the Scriptures because they have been windows to give entrance to divers heresies What doctrine is so sound orthodox and true which is not abused by wanton luxurious and pernitious wits As for ghost walking that has no relation to the souls immortality for if by ghost he meant the soul that walked usually among the Gentiles till the body was buried a hundred years as Vrigil saith Centum errant annos and then it rested in the grave with the body as Mr. Hobbs would have it So Virgil speaks of the soul of Polidorus Aen. 3. Animamque sepulcro condimus and of Deiphâ—bus magna manes tâ—r voce vocavi Aen. 6. His soul was called upon by Anaeas to come to his grave Again this ghost walking was neither of the soul nor of the body but of the shaddow image phancy or similitude of the body So Aen. 4 Omnibus umâ—bra locis adero saith Queen Dido So on her death bed she speaks Magna mei sub terras ibit imago So the shaddow and similitude of Creusa appeared to Aenaeas Infelix simulachrum Atque ipsius umbra Creusae Aen. 2. So Lucretius out of Ennius who were no great friends to the souls immortality held that neither the soul nor the body went to hell but onely the shaddows or similitudes of men Et si preterea tamen esse Acberusia templa Ennius aeternis exponit versibus edens Quo neque permanent animae neque corpora nosira Sed quaedam simulachra modis pallentia miris Lucr. l. 1. When Christ saith Mar. 9. 1. There be som that stand here who shall not tast of death till they have seen the Kingdom of God come with power This Kingdom Mr. Hobbs will have to be spoken of Christs transfiguration I know some of the Ancients were of this opinion but it is very improbable that Christ should call a vision the Kingdom of God and a Kingdom with power therefore it is more likely that he meant the kingdom of grace or of his Church which began to spread after his resurrection with power when at the preaching of fisher-men the world began to submit to the scepter of Christ which some that stood there that is the Apostles saw before they tasted of death who are called some in respect of the people who also stood there as may be seen Mark 8. 34. Again whereas Christs kingdom began at his resurrection Mr. Hobbs demands a reason why Christians ever since pray thy kingdom come The reason is because that kingdom we pray for is not yet come to wit the kingdom of Glory nor is the kingdom of Grace totally come or in its full plenitude because all nations are not as yet subdued to Christs Scepter He gives us cap. 44. a pretty interpretation of Solomons words Eccles. 12. 7. The spirit shall return to God that gave it That is saith he God onely knows but not manâ— what becomes of mans spirit when he expireth This interpretation is somewhat far feâ—ched which if it be allowed the word of God will prove no better then a nose of wax When Luke 8. 55. the rulers daughter being dead it is said her spirit returned to her again the meaning must beâ— according to Mr. Hobbs his interpretation that her spirit did not indeed return but onely she knew and none but she what became of it So Zach. 1. 16. Thus saith the Lord I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies The meaning is that Jerusalem onely knew what was become of God Besides when Solomon saith The dust shall return to the earth and the spirit shall return unto God I would know whether the dust truely returns to the earth if it returns why doth not the soul truly return to God Seeing with the same breath the same phrase is uttered by Solomon as for the question Solomon makes Eccles. 3. 21. Who knoweth that the spirit of man goeth upward and that the spirit of the beast goeth downward doth not sound so in the Hebrew but thus Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward and so both the French and our last English translations have it and so have the Latin Geneva version The Septuagints read it thus Who hath seen the spirit of man and the Geneva translation hath who have observed the spirit So that Solomon questioneth not the immortality of the soul but sheweth the difficulty of knowing the nature thereof or the manner how it leaves the body and mounteth upward towards heaven the place of its original He proves cap. 44. there is no natural immortality of the soul by Solomon Eccles. 3. 19. That which befalleth the sons of man befalleth beasts as the one dyeth so dyeth the other they have all one breath and a man hath no preheminence a bove a beast In these words Solomon doth not speak of the soul at all but of the body onely as may bee seen in the words immediately following All go into one place all are of the dust and all turn to dust again I hope the beleeves better of Solomon then to make him speak so brutishly as though mans divine soul were made of dust and resolved into dust again or as if there were no difference between mans soul and the breath of beasts In respect then of our animal nature or corporeal part we eat drink sleep breath and dye like the beasts but this concerns nothing at all the reasonable soul of man by which he is â— specifically different from beasts He saith That Enoch's translation makes as much for the immortality of the body as of the soul I deny it not and therefore infer That if it makes for the immortality of the body much more makes it for the immortality of the soul therefore this place of Gen. 5. 24. Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him is alledged by Divines to prove mans immortality after the resurrection Again he saith That this is a hard saying of Solomons Better is he that hath not yet been then they who have been if the soul be immortal But I say that this saying is no waies hard for better it is to have no being morally then to have a miserable beeing therefore the immortality of a wicked mans soul adds to his unhapiness For this cause Christ saith of Iudas That it had been good for him if he had never been born Besides when Christ tels us That God is the God of Abraham c. and therefore Abraham was then alive Mr. Hobbs saith That Abraham Isaac
in her fits would speak Greek and Latin sentences which she never before had heard She foretold the Saâ—on war in these words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} â— {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is There will be tribulation upon the earth and wrath in this peoplâ— He mentions another Demoniack who by the prayers of the congregation was freed from the devil which at certain times used to torment her I could allegde many examples of modern Demoniacks out of Del Rio Wierus Bodin Zacuta â—â—ularts memorable histories and others which physick could not cure but were cured by Christian exorcisms that is by prayers fastings and almes of the Congregation Demones a nobis adjurantur tâ—rquentur spiritualibus flagris orationis flagellis exire coguntuâ— We adjure and torment the devils our spiritual whips scourging prayers force them to go oâ—t saith Lactantiae I know some superstitious ceremonies have been and are still used in exorcisms which I allow not but I do not like Mr. Hobbs his slighting of Christs miracles and his Apostles when he tels us That Demoniacks were many in the primitive Church and few mad-men whereas now there are many mad-men and few Demoniacks which proceed not from the change of nature Is not this to extenuate Christs miracles who came to destroy the works of the devil and to cast out the prince of this world And is it not likewise to make the Evangelists imposters in publishing those cures for miraculous which were not and calling ordinary and natural diseases by the termes of devils and evil spirits He will not cap. 45. have it Satan that entred into Iudas though St. Luke writes so But an hostile and trayterous intention of selling Christ for as by the holy Ghost are meant frequently graces and good inclinations so by entring of Satan may be understood wicked cogitations To Mr. Hobbs Satan is any thing so he may not be a spirit or incorporeal substances Sometimes he is but a fancy shaddow dream or apparition sometimes is madness palsy lunacy or any other melady here he is a traytorous intention but indeed there was more then a trayterous intention that entred into Iudas at last the intention to betray Christ was put into the heart of Iudas by Satan John 13. 2. But when he had received the sop Satan himself entered into him and as St. Austin on that place saith took full possession of him John 13. 27. And though I should yeeld that sometimes the holy Ghost is put for the graces of the spirit yet it will not follow that Satan is used in Scripture for any evil suggestion or intention Again Satan doth not presently intrude himself into any man but first prepares his way by his Harbingers that is suggestions and evil thoughts which having made the soul fit for him he enters and takes possession and thus he dealt with Iudas Again I would know of Mr. Hobbs whether it was Satan in the Serpent or onely a treacherous intention that moved him to speak and seduce Eve Lastly why should we take his bare word for Gospel and prefer this his whimsie to the belief of the whole Church and the stream of all interpreters In his forty sixth chapter he spurnes at all learning except his own and that with such a magisterial spirit and so supercilious scorn as if Aristotle Plato Zenn the Peripateticks Academicks Stoicks Colledges Schooles Universities Synagogues and all the wise men of Europe Asia and Affrick hitherto were scarce worthy to carry his books With him Logick is but captions of words Aristotles Metaphisicks are absurd his politicks repugnant to government his Ethicks ignorant the Natural Phylosophy of the Schooles is a dream rather then a science set forth in senseless and insignificant language Aristotles Philosophy is vain and many such like expressions which shews how little he hath of the spirit of humility and modesty I finde not too much learning but too much pride makes some men mad true learning is alwaies joyned with humility the deepest rivers saith Seneca make the least sound the Cypress tree is tall but fruitless the Apple-tree is low but fruitful and the more it s laden the more it stoops that man that slights all but himself will be slighted of all but himself intemperance in words argue impotency of minde and as the Court saith He is an unjust man that prefers his own wit to all others Homine imperito nihil quid quam injustius qui nisi quod ipse facit nil rectum putat He cannot but fowle his own hands that caâ—â—eth dirt in the face of his betters Every wise man will employ his eyes at home will look upon the wallet that hangs at his own back will descend into himself and then he shall see how small cause he hath to despise other mens gifts when he considereth the defects of his own Tecum babita disces quam sit tibi curta supellex He that thinks to rear up the imaginary tower of his own fame upon the ruins of other mens will finde he builds upon a sandy foundation and indeed makes castles in the air St. Austins counsel is good in this case He that will build high must lay his foundation low Si vis magnam fabricam construere celsitudinis de fundamento prius incipe humilitatis Hercules cannot be pulled down by pigmies nor can the rocks be shaken though the frothy waves beat against them Eminent men like solid trees the more they are shaken the stronger they grow saith Seneca Quid miraris bonos viros ut confirmentur concuti Non est arbor solidaneâ— fortis nisi in quam frequens ventus incursat ipsa enim vexatiene constringitur radices certius figit We are bound to acknowledge with thankfulness the paines and industry of those brave men which have intiched us with such monuments of learning which the Universities of the world have received and do to this day cherish and maintain with such applause and not to require them with scorn and contempt this is ingratitude in the highest degree I wish therefore that Mr. Hobbs had used more solidity in his arguments and less impotency in his expressions against those eminent lights of learning and not with Leviathan to cast against them smoak out of his nostrils as out of aseething Pot or Caldron To use the word of God in Iob for I doubt me Mr. Hobbs will never be brought in competition with Aristotle but now let us receive his accusation against Aristotles Philosophy He saith cap. 46. That this doctrine of separated essences will fright men from obeying the laws of their Country I should think rather that this doctrine would fright men from disobeying the laws for if God commands obedience to the laws and subjection to the higher powers is it likely that he will permit spirits to walk to disswade men from obedience Or will the spirits of those holy men who taught subjection to Magistrates