A Survey of Mr Hobbes His Leviathan
by Edward, Earl of Clarendon


    I have alwaies thought it a great excess in those who take
upon them to answer other Mens Writings, to hold themselves
oblig'd to find fault with every thing that they say, and to
answer every clause, period, and proposition which he, to whom
they have made themselves an adversary, hath laid down; by which,
besides the voluminousness that it produces, which in it self is
grievous to any Reader, they cannot but be guilty of many
impertinences, and expose themselves to the just censures of
others, and to the advantage of their Antagonists; since there
are few Books which do not contain many things which are true,
and cannot, or need not be contradicted. And considering withall,
that those Books have in all times don most mischief, and
scatter'd abroad the most pernicious errors, in which the
Authors, by the Ornament of their Style, and the pleasantness of
their method, and subtlety of their Wit, have from specious
premises, drawn their unskilful and unwary Readers into
unwarrantable opinions and conclusions, being intoxicated with
terms and Allegorical expressions, which puzzel their
understandings, and lead them into perplexities, from whence they
cannot disentangle themselves; I have proposed to my self, to
make some Animadversions upon such particulars, as may in my
judgment produce much mischief in the World, in a Book of great
Name, and which is entertain'd and celebrated (at least enough)
in the World; a Book which contains in it good learning of all
kinds, politely extracted, and very wittily and cunningly
disgested, in a very commendable method, and in a vigorous and
pleasant Style: which hath prevailed over too many, to swallow
many new tenets as maximes without chewing; which manner of diet
for the indigestion Mr Hobbes himself doth much dislike. The
thorough novelty (to which the present age, if ever any, is too
much inclin'd) of the work receives great credit and authority
from the known Name of the Author, a Man of excellent parts, of
great wit, some reading, and somewhat more thinking; One who has
spent many years in foreign parts and observation, understands
the Learned as well as modern Languages, hath long had the
reputation of a great Philosopher and Mathematician, and in his
age hath had conversation with very many worthy and extraordinary
Men to which, it may be, ifhe had bin more indulgent in the more
vigorous part of his life, it might have had a greater influence
upon the temper of his mind, whereas age seldom submits to those
questions, enquiries, and contradictions, which the Laws and
liberty of conversation require: and it hath bin alwaies a
lamentation amongst Mr Hobbes his Friends, that he spent too much
time in thinking, and too little in exercising those thoughts in
the company of other Men of the same, or of as good faculties;
for want whereof his natural constitution, with age, contracted
such a morosity, that doubting and contradicting Men were never
grateful to him. In a word, Mr Hobbes is one of the most antient
acquaintance I have in the World, and of whom I have alwaies had
a great esteem, as a Man who besides his eminent parts of
Learning and knowledg, hath bin alwaies looked upon as a Man of
Probity, and a life free from scandal; and it may be there are
few Men now alive, who have bin longer known to him then I have
bin in a fair and friendly conversation and sociableness; and I
had the honor to introduce those, in whose perfections he seemed
to take much delight, and whose memory he seems most to extol,
first into his acquaintance. In all which respects, both of the
Author and the work, it cannot reasonably be imagined, that any
vanity hath transported me, who know my self so incompetent for
the full disquisition of this whole work, which contains in it
many parts of knowledg and Learning in which I am not conversant;
and also the disadvantage, that so many years have passed since
the publication of this Book, without any thing like an answer to
the most mischievous parts of it as to Civil Government; at least
I had seen none such, till after I had finished this discourse,
what was at Montpelier in the moneth of April One thousand six
hundred and seventy, where I wanted many of those Books which had
bin necessary to have bin carefully consulted and perused, if I
had propos'd to my self to have answer'd many of those Scholastic
points, which seem to me enough expos'd to just censure and
reproch, and which I did suppose some University Men would have
taken occasion from, to have vindicated those venerable Nurseries
from that vice and ignorance, his superciliousness hath thought
fit to asperse them with. I do confess since that time I have
read several answers and reflexions, made by Learned Men of both
the Universities, in English and in Latine upon his Leviathan, or
his other works published before and after; which several answers
(though they have very pregnantly discover'd many gross errors,
and grosser oversights in those parts of Science in which Mr
Hobbes would be thought to excel, which are like to put him more
out of countenance then any thing I can urge against him, by how
much he values himself more upon being thought a good
Philosopher, and a good Geometrician, then a modest Man, or a
good Christian) have not so far discouraged me, as to cause me,
either to beleive what I had thought of and prepared before, to
be the less pertinent to be communicated, or at all to inlarge,
or contract my former conceptions (though probably many things
which I offer are more vigorously urg'd, and expressed in some of
the other answers.) Notwithstanding all which, his Person is by
many received with respect, and his Books continue still to be
esteem'd, as well abroad as at home: which might very well have
prevail'd, with those before mention'd arguments, to have
diverted me from pretending to see farther into them then other
Men had don, and to discover a malignity undiscerned that should
make them odious. But then how prevalent soever these motives
were with me; when I reflected upon the most mischievous
Principles, and most destructive to the Peace both of Church and
State, which are scatter'd throughout that Book of his Leviathan,
(which I only take upon me to discover) and the unhappy
impression they have made in the minds of too many; I thought my
self the more oblig'd, and not the less competent for those
animadversions, by the part I had acted for many years in the
public administration of Justice, and in the Policy of the
Kingdom. And the leasure to which God hath condemn'd me, seems an
invitation, and obligation upon me, to give a testimony to the
World, that my duty and affection for my King and Country, is not
less then it hath ever bin, when it was better interpreted, by
giving warning to both, of the danger they are in by the
seditious Principles of this Book, that they may in time provide
for their Security by their abolishing and extirpating those, and
the like excesses. And as it could not reasonably be expected,
that such a Book would be answer'd in the time when it was
publish'd, which had bin to have disputed with a Man that
commanded thirty Legions, (for Cromwel had bin oblig'd to have
supported him, who defended his Usurpation;) so afterwards Men
thought it would be too much ill nature to call Men in question
for what they had said in ill times, and for saying which they
had a plenary Indulgence and Absolution. And I am still of
opinion, that even of those who have read his Book, and not
frequented his Company, there are many, who being delighted with
some new notions, and the pleasant and clear Style throughout the
Book, have not taken notice of those down-right Conclusions,
which overthrow or undermine all those Principles of Government,
which have preserv'd the Peace of this Kingdom through so many
ages, even from the time of its first Institution; or restor'd it
to Peace, when it had at some times bin interrupted: and much
less of those odious insinuations, and perverting some texts of
Scripture, which do dishonour, and would destroy the very Essence
of the Religion of Christ. And when I called to mind the good
acquaintance that had bin between us, and what I had said to many
who I knew had inform'd him of it, and which indeed I had sent to
himself upon the first publishing of his Leviathan, I thought my
self even bound to give him some satisfacrion why I had
entertained so evil an opinion of his Book.
    When the Prince went first to Paris from Jersey, and My Lords
Capel and Hopton stayed in Jersey together with my self, I heard
shortly after, that Mr Hobbes who was then at Paris, had Printed
his Book De Cive there. I writ to Dr Earles, who was then the
Princes Chaplain, and his Tutor, to remember me kindly to Mr
Hobbes with whom I was well acquainted, and to desire him to send
me his Book De Cive, by the same token that Sid. Godolphin (who
had bin kill'd in the late Warr) had left him a Legacy of two
hundred pounds. The Book was immediately sent to me by Mr Hobbes,
with a desire that I would tell him, whether I was sure that
there was such a Legacy, and how he might take notice of it to
receive it. I sent him word that he might depend upon it for a
truth, and that I believed that if he found some way secretly (to
the end there might be no public notice of it in regard of the
Parliament) to demand it of his Brother francis Godolphin, (who
in truth had told me of it) he would pay it. This information was
the ground of the Dedication of this Book to him, whom Mr Hobbes
had never seen.
    When I went some years after from Holland with the King
(after the Murther of his Father) to Paris, from whence I went
shortly his Majesties Ambassador into Spaine, Mr Hobbes visited
me, and told me that Mr Godolphin confessed the Legacy, and had
paid him one hundred pounds, and promised to pay the other in a
short time; for all which he thankt me, and said he owed it to
me, for he had never otherwise known of it. When I return'd from
Spaine by Paris he frequently came to me, and told me his Book
(which he would call Leviathan) was then Printing in England, and
that he receiv'd every week a Sheet to correct, of which he
shewed me one or two Sheets, and thought it would be finished
within little more then a Moneth; and shewed me the Epistle to Mr
Godolphin which he meant to set before it, and read it to me, and
concluded, that he knew when I read his Book I would not like it,
and thereupon mention'd some of his Conclusions; upon which I
asked him, why he would publish such doctrine: to which, after a
discourse between jest and earnest upon the Subject, he said, The
truth is, I have a mind to go home.
    Within a very short time after I came into flanders, which
was not much more then a Moneth from the time that Mr Hobbes had
conferred with me, Leviathan was sent to me from London; which I
read with much appetite and impatience. yet I had scarce finish'd
it, when Sr Charles Cavendish (the noble Brother of the Duke of
Newcastle who was then at Antwerp, and a Gentleman of all the
accomplishments of mind that he wanted of body, being in all
other respects a wonderful person) shewed me a Letter he had then
receiv'd from Mr Hobbes, in which he desir'd he would let him
know freely what my opinion was of his Book. Upon which I wished
he would tell him, that I could not enough wonder, that a Man,
who had so great a reverence for Civil Government, that he
resolv'd all Wisdom and Religion it self into a simple obedience
and submission to it, should publish a Book, for which, by the
constitution of any Government now establish'd in Europe, whether
Monarchical or Democratical, the Author must be punish'd in the
highest degree, and with the most severe penalties. With which
answer (which Sr Charles sent to him) he was not pleased; and
found afterwards when I return'd to the King to Paris, that I
very much censur'd his Book, which he had presented, engross'd in
Vellam in a marvellous fair hand, to the King; and likewise found
my judgment so far confirmed, that few daies before I came
thither, he was compell'd secretly to fly out of Paris, the
Justice having endeavour'd to apprehend him, and soon after
escap'd into England, where he never receiv'd any disturbance.
After the Kings return he came frequently to the Court, where he
had too many Disciples; and once visited me. I receiv'd him very
kindly, and invited him to see me often, but he heard from so
many hands that I had no good opinion of his Book, that he came
to me only that one time: and methinks I am in a degree indebted
to him, to let him know some reason why I look with so much
prejudice upon his Book, which hath gotten him so much credit and
estimation with some other men.
    I am not without some doubt, that I shall in this discourse,
which I am now ingaged in, trangress in a way I do very heartily
dislike, and frequently censure in others, which is Sharpness of
Language, and too much reproching the Person against whom I
write; which is by no means warrantable, when it can be possibly
avoided without wronging the truth in debate. yet I hope nothing
hath fallen from my Pen, which implies the least undervaluing of
Mr Hobbes his Person, or his Parts. But if he, to advance his
opinion in Policy, too imperiously reproches all men who do not
consent to his Doctrine, it can hardly be avoided, to reprehend
so great presumption, and to make his Doctrines appear as odious,
as they ought to be esteemed: and when he shakes the Principles
of Christian Religion, by his new and bold Interpretations of
Scripture, a man can hardly avoid saying, He hath no Religion, or
that He is no good Christian; and escape endeavouring to
manifest, and expose the poison that lies hid and conceled. yet I
have chosen, rather to pass by many of his enormous sayings with
light expressions, to make his Assertions ridiculous, then to
make his Person odious, for infusing such destructive Doctrine
into the minds of men, who are already too licentious in judging
the Precepts, or observing the Practice of Christianity.

 The Survey of Mr Hobbes's Introduction

    It is no wonder that Mr Hobbes runs into so many mistakes and
errors throughout his whole discourse of the nature of Government
from the nature of Mankind, when he laies so wrong a foundation
in the very entrance and Introduction of his Book, as to make a
judgment of the Passions, and Nature of all other Men by his own
observations of Himself, and believes, (Pag. 2d.) that by looking
into himself, and considering what he doth when he do's think,
opine, reason, hope, fear, &c. and upon what grounds, he shall
thereby read, and know what are the thoughts and passions of all
other men upon the like occasions. And indeed by his distinction
in the very subsequent words (Pag. 2.) between the similitude of
passions, and the similitude of the object of the passions, and
his confession, that the constitution individual and particular
education, do make so great a difference and disparity, he
reduces that general Proposition to signify so very little, that
he leaves very little to be observed, and very few Persons
competent to observe. We have too much cause to believe, that
much the major part of mankind do not think at all, are not
endued with reason enough too opine, or think of what they did
last, or what they are to do next, have no reflexion, without
which there can be no thinking to this purpose: and the number is
much greater of those who know not how to comprehend the
dissimilitude of the objects from the passions, nor enough
understand the nature of fear, as it is distinguish'd from the
object that is fear'd: so that none of these Persons (which
constitute a vast number,) are capable to make that observation,
which must produce that knowledg which may enable them to judg of
all the World. And how many there are left, who are fit from
their individual constitutions or particular educations, and not
withstanding the corruption introduced by dissembling, lying,
counterfeiting, and erroneous Doctrine, to make that judgement, I
leave to Mr Hobbes to determine. And tis probable, that those
very few may conclude, that what they do when they think, opine,
reason, hope, fear, contributes very little to their knowing what
the thoughts and passions of other men are. And they may the
rather be induced to make that conclusion, since there are so
very few who think and opine as Mr Hobbes doth, and whose hopes
and fears are like his, with reference to the objects, or the
nature it self of those passions; and that the dissimilitude is
greater between the passions themselves, then between the
objects; and that men are not more unlike each other in their
faces, or in their clothes, then in their thinking, hoping, and
fearing. Since then Mr Hobbes founds so much of his whole
Discourse upon the Verity and Evidence of this first Proposition,
that we shall very often have occasion to resort to it as we keep
him company; and since the same seems to me to be very far from
being the true Key to oPen the cipher of other mens thoughts: it
will not be amiss to examine, and insist a little longer on this
Conclusion, that we may discern whether all, or any of us are
endued with such an infallible Faculty, that we can conclude what
the thoughts and passions of other men are, by a strict
observation and consideration of our own thoughts and passions;
which would very much enable us to countermine and disappoint
each others thoughts and passions, and would be a high point of
wisdom. In the disquisition whereof, that we may not intangle the
passion and the object together, for want of skill to sever them,
it may not be amiss to suppose the same passion to be in two
several men whose passions have the same object, and then
consider whether they are like to discover each others thoughts
and passions, their hopes and their fears, by each mans looking
into himself, and considering what he do's when he thinks, hopes,
or fears. If Mr Hobbes loved, to as great a height as his passion
can rise to, the same object that is likewise loved by another,
he would hardly be able to make any judgment of the others love
by his own; but upon a mutual confession and communication, their
passions would be found not to be the same. If Mr Hobbes, and
some other man were both condemn'd to death, (which is the most
formidable thing Mr Hobbes can conceive) the other could no more
by looking into himself know Mr Hobbes's present thoughts, and
the extent of his fear, then he could, by looking in his face,
know what he hath in his Pocket. Not only the several
complexions, and constitutions of the body, the different
educations, and climates dispose the affections and passions of
men to different objects, but have a great influence upon the
passions themselves. As the fears, so the hopes of Men are as
unlike as their gate, and meen. If a Sanguine, and a Melancholic
man hope the same thing, their hopes are no more alike each
others, then their clompexions are; the hope of the one retaining
still somewhat like despair, whilst the hope of the other looks
like fruition: so little similitude there is in the passions
themselves without any relation to their objects. That a man of
great courage, and a very cowardly man have not the same
countenance, and presence of mind in an approch of danger,
proceeds not from the ones liking to be killed more then the
others, but rather from the difference of their natural Courage.
But let us suppose a man of courage, and a coward equally guilty,
or equally innocent (that there may be no difference from the
operation of conscience) to be brought to die together by a
judgment which they cannot avoid and so to be equally without
hope of life (and death in Mr Hobbes judgment is equally terrible
to all, and with equal care to be avoided, or resisted,) How
comes it to pass, that one of these undergo's death with no other
concernment then as if he were going any other Journy, and the
other with such confusion and trembling, that he is even without
life before he dies; if it were true that all Men fear alike upon
the like occasion? There will be the same uncertainty in
concluding what others do, by observing what we our selves do,
when we think, opine, or reason. How shall that man, who thinks
deliberately, opines modestly, and reasons dispassionately, and
by this excellent temper satisfies his own judgement in a
conclusion, in which at the same time he discerns others may
differ from him: I say, How shall such a man by his own way of
reasoning judg another mans, who usually thinks precipitately,
opines arrogantly, and reasons superciliously, and concludes
imperiously that man to be mistaken, who determines othewise then
he do's? To conclude, Mr Hobbes might as naturally have
introduced his unreasonable Doctrine of the similitude of the
passions, from the wisdom that he saies is acquired by the
reading of men, as from his method of reading ones self. That
saying of Nosce teipsum, in the sense of Solon who prescribed it,
was a sober truth, but was never intended as an expedient to
discover the similitude of the thoughts of other men by what he
found in himself, but as the best means to suppress and destroy
that pride and self-conceit, which might temt him to undervalue
other men, and to plant that modesty and humility in himself, as
would preserve him from such presumtion.

 The Survey of Chapters 1, 2, 3.

    Having resolved not to enter into the Lists with Mr Hobbes
upon the Signification of words, or Propriety of expressions, in
which he exercises an absolute Dictatorship; and indeed not to
enlarge upon any particular that to me seems erroneous, except it
be an Error of that kind and consequence, as carries with it, or
in it, somwhat that is hurtful to the Peace and Policy of the
Kingdom, or prejudicial to the sincerity of Religion; I should
have passed over the first, second, and third Chapters without
any Animadversion, not troubling my self whether the imagination
and memory are but one thing, which for divers considerations
hath divers names, (p. 5.) if I had not some apprehension, that
by an unnecessary reflexion upon the Scholes in the close of his
second Chapter, and finding fault with the using some words in
the sense they ought not be used, he hopes to dispose his Readers
to such a prejudice and contemt towards them, that they may more
easily undervalue them in more serious instances: the principal
foundation that he laies for the support of all his Novelties,
being to lessen and vilifie all the Principles, and all the
Persons, which he well foresees most like to be applied to the
demolishing his new Structure.
    Amongst the many excellent parts and faculties with which Mr
Hobbes is plentifully endowed, his order and method in Writing,
and his clear expressing his conceptions in weighty, proper, and
significant words, are very remarkable and commendable; and it is
some part of his Art to introduce, upon the suddain, instances
and remarques, which are the more grateful, and make the more
impression upon his Reader, by the unexpectedness of meeting them
where somewhat else is talk'd of: for thereby he prepares and
disposes the fancy to be pleased with them in a more proper and
important place. No man would have imagin'd, that in a
Philosophical Discourse of Dreams, and Fayries, and Ghosts, and
Goblins, Exorcisms, Crosses, and Holy-water, he would have taken
occasion to have reproved Job for saying, that the inspiration of
the Almighty giveth men understanding, Job. 32. 8. which can be
no good expression, if it be incongruity to say, that good
thoughts are inspired into a man by God: and 'tis pity that St
Paul did not better weigh his words, when he said, that we are
not sufficient of our selves to think any thing of our selves,
but our sufficiency is of God, 2. Cor. 3. 5. or when he said to
the Philippians, that it is God which worketh in you both to
will, and to do of his good pleasure, Phil. 2. 13. and that St.
John had not bin better advised, when he said, He that committeth
sin, is of the Devil, 1. John 3. 8. Upon any of which Texts a man
can hardly enlarge in discourse, without saying, that good
thoughts are inspir'd, or infus'd (which he thinks he hath made
the more ridiculous, by turning into other words of the like
signification) by God, and evil thoughts by the devil, which in
his understanding, are amongst the many words making nothing
understood; whereas there are few expressions in which the sense
of the speaker is better understood, or by which the sense of the
Apostles can be made more clear then by those expressions. But
this Comical mention of the power and goodness of God, and of the
Devils activity and malignity, in a place so improper and
unnatural for those reflexions, will the more incline his
Disciples to undervalue those common notions of the goodness and
assistance of God, and of the malice and vigilance of the Devil;
and by making themselves merry with that proper and devout custom
of speaking, and the natural results from thence, by degrees to
undervalue those other conceptions of Religion and Piety, which
would restrain and controul the licentious imagination of the
excellency of their own understandings; and prepare them to
believe, that all the Discourses of Sanctity, and the obligations
of Christianity, and the essentials of a Church, Faith, and
Obedience to the dictates of Gods Spirit, are but the artifice
and invention of Churchmen, to advance their own pomp and worldly
interest, and that Heaven and Hell are but words to flatter or
terrifie men; at least, that the places of either are so
situated, and have no other extent or degree of pain and
pleasure, then he hath thought fit to assign to them towards the
end of his Leviathan.
    Nor in this instance of the train of imaginations, in his
third Chapter, less wonderful. And indeed, Mr Hobbes had the more
reason for his opinion of the similitude of thoughts, and that by
looking into himself when he thinks, and upon what grounds, he
can thereby know the thoughts of other men, when he was with the
velocity of a thought, in a moment of time, able to decipher that
impertinent Question, What was the value of a Roman penny. and to
discover a succession of thoughts in the Enquirer, the last of
which determined in the resolution of delivering up the King:
which was so rare a faculty, that such a similitude of thoughts
cannot be concluded to be in other men. And since erroneous
Doctrines have so great an influence upon the minds of men, as to
corrupt the natural motives, he knows best whether he had not
before this formed his new Scheme of Loyalty, and digested all
those imaginations towards the dissolution of Allegiance, and
eluding the obligation of all Oaths; which if he had don, he had
the Key ready to decipher by, and might easily discover that
which no man in England could discover who had not the same Key.

 The Survey of Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

    We shall with less reflexion pass over his fourth Chapter of
Speech, which he saies, was the noblest and most profitable
Invention of all other, whether properly or improperly, he shall
do well to consider; together with his fifth and sixth Chapters,
which with those which precede, and two or three which follow, he
intends as a Dictionary, for the better understanding and
defining very many terms and words, which he is to make use of
throughout the rest of his Work; and which whoever can carry with
him in his memory, as he expects every man shall do, shall be
often more confounded in the understanding many parts of his
Book, then if he forgets them all. In which yet many things are
said very wittily and pleasantly; tho it may be many critical
men, whom he hath provoked, may believe many of his Expressions
to be incongruous, and his Definitions not so exact as might have
bin expected from so great an Artist; and that all those Chapters
are rather for delight, in the novelty and boldness of the
expression, then for any real information in the substantial part
of knowledg: since few men, upon the most exact reading them
over, find themselves wiser then they were before but rather
think that they better understood before what Contemt signifies,
then by being now told, (pag. 24) that it is nothing else but an
immobility or contumacy of the heart, in resisting the action of
certain things, and proceeding from that the heart is already
moved otherwise, by other more potent objects, or from want of
experience of them; or that they do better understand the nature
and original of Laughter, by being informed (pag. 27) that
suddain glory is the passion which, and is caused either by
maketh those grimaces called Laughter some suddain act of their
own that pleaseth them, or by the apprehension of some deformed
thing in another, by comparison whereof they suddainly applaud
themselves. In which kind of Illustrations those Chapters, and in
truth his whole Book abounds, and discovers a master faculty in
making easie things hard to be understood: and men will probably
with the more impatience and curiosity, tho with the less
reverence, enter upon the third part of his Book, which is to
define Christian Politics, after he hath so well defin'd and
describ'd Religion to be fear of Power invisible, feigned by the
mind, or imagined from tales publicly allowed (p. 26.) all which
I leave to his Friends of the Universities. Nor shall I spend
more time upon the seventh, eighth, and ninth Chapters, leaving
them to the Schole-men to examine, who are in his debt for much
mirth which he hath made out of them, I for my part being very
indifferent between them, as believing that the Schole-men have
contributed very little more to the advancement of any noble or
substantial part of Learning, then Mr Hobbes hath don to the
reformation or improvement of Philosophy and Policy. Yet I may
reasonably say so much on their behalf, that if Mr Hobbes may
take upon him to translate all those terms of Art (the proper
signification whereof is unanimously understood, and agreed
between all who use them, and which in truth are a cipher to
which all men of moderate Learning have the key) into the vulgar
Language by the assistance of Ryders Dictionary, he hath found a
way to render and expose the worthiest Professors of any Science,
and all Science it selfto the cheap laughter of all illiterate
men, which is contrary to Mr Hobbes's own rule and determination,
(pag. 17) where he saies, That when a man upon the hearing any
Speech, hath those thoughts which the words of that Speech, and
their connexion, were ordained and constituted to signifie, then
he is said to understand it. And surely the signification of
words and terms, is no less ordain'd and constituted by custom
and acceptation, then by Grammar and Etymologies. If it were
otherwise, Mr Hobbes himself would be as much exposed to ignorant
Auditors, when he reads a Lecture upon the Optics, or even in his
ador'd Geometry, if a pleasant Translator should render all his
terms as literally, as he hath don the Title of the sixth Chapter
of Suarez: for every Age, as new things happen, find new words in
all Languages to signifie them. The Civilians, who are amongst
the best Judges of Latine, can hardly tell how investitura came
into their Books, to signifie that which it hath ever signified
since the Quarrel begun between the Emperor and the Pope upon
that subject, which is now as well understood in Latine, as any
word in Tully. And if Bombarda had no original but from the
sound, as Petavius (a very good Grammarian, besides his other
great Learning) saies it had not, we have no reason to be
offended with the Scholemen for finding words to discover their
own Conceptions, which equally serve our own turn.

 The Survey of Chapters 10, 11, 12.

    I do acknowledg, that in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth
Chapters, many things are very well said: and tho some things as
ill, with reference to Religion, and to the Clergy, as if there
were a combination between the Priests of the Gentiles,
Aristotle, the Schole-men, and the Clergy of all Professions, to
defame, pervert, and corrupt Religion; yet he resumes that
Argument so frequently, that I shall chuse to examine the reason
and justice of all his Allegations rather in another place, then
upon either of these three Chapters; to which I shall only add,
that according to his natural delight in Novelties of all kinds,
in Religion as well as Policy, he hath supplied the Gentiles with
a new God, which was never before found in any of their
Catalogues, The God Chaos, (pag. 55.) to which he might as
warrantably have made them an additional present of his own Idol,
Confusion. And he will as hardly find a good authority for the
aspersion with which he traduces the Policy of the Roman
Common-wealth in all its greatness and lustre, (pag. 57.) That it
made no scruple of tolerating any Religion whatsoever in the City
of Rome it self, unless it had something in it that could not
consist with their civil Government. Which how untrue soever, was
a very seasonable intimation of the wisdom of Oliver's Politics,
at that time when he published his Leviathan: whereas in truth,
that great People were not more solicitous in any thing, then in
preserving the unity and integrity of their Religion from any
mixtures; and the Institution of the Office of Pontifex Maximus
was principally out of that jealousie, and that he might
carefully watch that no alteration or innovation might be made in
their Religion. And tho they had that general awe for Religion,
that they would not suffer the Gods of their Enemies, whom they
did not acknowledg for Gods, to be rudely treated and violated;
and therefore they both punished their Consul for having robb'd
the Temple of Proserpine, and caused the full damages to be
restored to the injur'd Goddess: yet they neither acknowledg'd
her Divinity, nor suffer'd her to have a Temple, or to have any
Devotion paid to her within their Dominions; nor indeed any other
God or Goddess to be ador'd, and those to whom Sacrifices were
made by the Authority of the State. Nor will Mr Hobbes be able to
name one Christian Kingdom in the World, where it is believed,
that the King hath not his Authority from Christ, unless a Bishop
Crown him; tho all Christian Kingdoms have had that reverence for
Bishops, as to assign the highest Ecclesiastical Functions to be
alwaies perform'd by them: but they well know the King to have
the same Authority in all respects before he is crown'd, as
after. And what extravagant Power soever the Court of Rome hath
in some evil Conjunctures heretofore usurp'd, and would be as
glad of the like opportunities again; yet in those Kingdoms where
that Authority is own'd and acknowledg'd, there want not those
who loudly protest against that Doctrine, That a King may be
depos'd by a Pope, or that the Clergy and Regulars shall be exemt
from the Jurisdiction of their King. And yet upon these
unwartantable suggestions, he presumes to declare, That all the
changes of Religion may be attributed to one and the same Cause,
and that is, unpleasing Priests; and those not only amongst
Papists, but even in that Church that hath presumed most of
Reformation, by which he intends the Church of England, at that
time under the most severe and barbarous Persecution; and
therefore it was the more enviously and maliciously, as well as
dis-honestly alledged.

 The Survey of Chapters 13, 14, 15, 16.

    The thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth
Chapters, will require a little more disquisition, since under
the pretence of examining, or rather (according to his
Prerogative) of determining what the natural condition of mankind
is, he takes many things for granted which are not true; as (pag.
60.) that Nature hath made all men equal in the faculties of body
and mind, and imputes that to the Nature of Man in general, which
is but the infirmity of some particular Men; and by a mist of
words, under the notion of explaning common terms (the meaning
whereof is understood by all Men, and which his explanation
leaves less intelligible then they were before) he dazles Mens
eies from discerning those Fallacies upon which he raises his
Structure, and which he reserves for his second part. And
whosoever looks narrowly to his preparatory Assertions, shall
find such contradictions, as must destroy the foundation of all
his new Doctrine in Government, of which some particulars shall
be mentioned anon. So that if his Maxims of one kind were
marshailed together, collected out of these four Chapters, and
applied to his other Maxims which are to support his whole
Leviathan, the one would be a sufficient answer to the other; and
so many inconsistencies and absurdities would appear between
them, that they could never be thought links of one chain;
whereas he desires men should believe all the Propositions in his
Book to be a chain of Consequences, without being in any degree
wary to avoid palpable contradictions, upon the presumtion of his
Readers total resignation to his judgment. If it were not so,
would any man imagine that a man of Mr Hobbes's sagacity and
provoking humor, should in his fourth Page so imperiously reproch
the Scholes for absurdity, in saying, That heavy Bodies fall
downwards out of an appetite to rest, thereby ascribing knowledg
to things inanimate; and himself should in his sixty second Page,
describing the nature of foul weather, say, That it lieth not in
a shower or two of rain, but in an inclination thereto of many
daies together: as if foul weather were not as inanimate a thing
as heavy Bodies, and inclination did not imply as much of
knowledg as appetite doth. In truth, neither the one or the other
word signifies in the before-mention'd instances, more then a
natural tendency to motion and alteration.
    When God vouchsafed to make man after his own Image, and in
his own Likeness, and took so much delight in him, as to give him
the command and dominion over all the Inhabitants of the Earth,
the Air, and the Sea, it cannot be imagin'd but that at the same
time he endued him with Reason, and all the other noble Faculties
which were necessary for the administration of that Empire, and
the preservation of the several Species which were to succeed the
Creation: and therefore to uncreate him to such a baseness and
villany in his nature, as to make Man such a Rascal, and more a
Beast in his frame and constitution then those he is appointed to
govern, is a power that God never gave to the Devil; nor hath any
body assum'd it, till Mr Hobbes took it upon him. Nor can any
thing be said more contrary to the Honor and Dignity of God
Almighty, then that he should leave his master workmanship, Man,
in a condition of War of every man against every man, in such a
condition of confusion, (pag. 64.) That every man hath a right to
every thing, even to one anothers body; inclin'd to all the
malice, force and fraud that may promote his profit or his
pleasure, and without any notions of, or instinct towards
justice, honor, or good nature, which only makes man-kind
superior to the Beasts of the Wilderness. Nor had Mr Hobbes any
other reason to degrade him to this degree of Bestiality, but
that he may be fit to wear those Chains and Fetters which he hath
provided for him. He deprives man of the greatest happiness and
glory that can be attributed to him, who devests him of that
gentleness and benevolence towards other men, by which he
delights in the good fortune and tranquillity that they enjoy,
and makes him so far prefer himself before all others, as to make
the rest a prey to advance any commodity or conveniency of his
own; which is a barbarity superior to what the most savage Beasts
are guilty of,

                                      - Quando leoni,
                 fortior eripuit vitam leo? quo nemore unquam
                 Expiravit aper majoris dentibus apri?

Man only, created in the likeness of God himself, is the only
creature in the World, that out of the malignity of his own
nature, and the base fear that is inseparable from it, is oblig'd
for his own benefit, and for the defence of his own right, to
worry and destroy all of his own kind, until they all become
yoaked by a Covenant and Contract that Mr Hobbes hath provided
for them, and which was never yet entred into by any one man, and
is in nature impossible to be entred into.
    After such positive and magisterial Assertions against the
dignity and probity of man-kind, and the honor and providence of
God Almighty, the instances and arguments given by him are very
unweighty and trivial to conclude the nature of man to be so full
of jealousie and malignity, as he would have it believed to be,
from that common practice of circumspection and providence, which
custom and discretion hath introduced into human life. For men
shut their Chests in which their mony is, as well that their
servants or children may not know what they have, as that it may
be preserved from Thieves; and they lock their doors that their
Houses may not be common; and rude armd, and in company, because
they know that there are ill men, who may be inclined to do
injuries if they find an opportunity. Nor is a wariness to
prevent the damage and injury that Thieves and Robbers may do to
any man, an argument that Mankind is in that mans opinion
inclin'd and disposed to commit those out-rages. If it be known
that there is one Thief in a City, all men have reason to shut
their doors and lock their chests; and if there be two or three
Drunkards in a Town, all men have reason to go arm'd in the
streets, to controul the violence or indignity they might receive
from them. Princes are attended by their Guards in progress, and
all their servants arm'd when they hunt, without any apprehension
of being assaulted; custom having made it so necessary, that many
men are not longer without their Swords then they are without
their Doublets, who never were jealous that any man desir'd to
hurt them. Nor will the instance he gives of the inhabitants in
America, be more to his purpose then the rest, since as far as we
have any knowledg of them, the savage People there live under a
most intire subjection and slavery to their several Princes; who
indeed for the most part live in hostility towards each other,
upon those contentions which engage all other Princes in War, and
which Mr Hobbes allows to be a just cause of War, jealousie of
each others Power to do them harm. And these are the notable
instances by which Mr Hobbes hath by his painful disquisition and
investigation, in the hidden and deep secrets of Nature,
discover'd that unworthy fear and jealousie to be inherent in
mankind, (pag. 63.). That the notions of right and wrong have no
place, but force and fraud are the two cardinal Virtues; that
there is no propriety, no dominion, no mine or thine distinct,
but only that to be every mans that he can get, and for so long
as he can keep it, and this struggle to continue, till he submits
to the servitude to which he hath design'd him for his comfort
and security.
    Mr Hobbes would do very much honour to Aristotle, and repair
much of the injury he hath don to him, if he can perswade men to
believe, (pag. 59) that the bringing in his Philosophy and
Doctrine, hath bin a cause to take away the reputation of the
Clergy, and to incline the People to the reformation of Religion;
and yet he hath more authority for that, then for most of his
Opinions, tho it may be he doth not know it. For in the year a
thousand two hundred and nine, Aristotles Metaphysics, which had
bin lately brought from Constantinople, were condemn'd, and
forbidden to be read by a Council in Paris, upon a supposition or
apprehension, that that Book had contributed very much to the new
Heretical Opinions of the Albigenses. So far the French Clergy of
that age concurred in opinion with Mr Hobbes: but we may much
more reasonably conceive, That it hath bin illiteratness, stupid
ignorance, and having never heard of Aristotle, that may at any
time have brought contemt upon the Clergy: and tho men may too
unreasonably, it may be, adhere to Aristotle in some particulars,
and so may be reasonably contradicted, yet no man of the Clergy
or Laity was ever contemned for being thought to understand
Aristotle. Indeed Mr Hobbes may easily refute Aristotle, and all
who have writ before or since him, if he be the Soveraign
Magistrate, not only to enact what Laws he pleases, and to
interpret all that were made before according to his pleasure,
and to adopt them to be the Laws of Nature, which he declares
(pag. 79) to me immutable and eternal. And we have great reason
to watch him very narrowly, when his Legislative fit is upon him,
least he cast such a net over us, knit by what he calls the Law
of Nature, or by his Definitions, that we be deprived of both the
use of our liberty, and our reason to oppose him. He is very much
offended with Aristotle, for saying in the first Book of his
Politics, That by Nature some are fit to command, and others to
serve; which he saies, (pag. 77.) is not only against reason, but
also against experience, for there are very few so foolish that
had not rather govern themselves, then be governed by others.
Which Proposition doth not contradict any thing said by
Aristotle, the Question being, Whether Nature hath made some men
worthier, not whether it hath made all others so modest as to
confess it; and would have required a more serious Disquisition,
since it is no more then is imputed to Horses, and other Beasts,
whereof men find by experience, that some by nature are fitter
for nobler uses, and others for vile, and to be only Beasts of
burden. But, indeed, he had the less need of reason to refute
him, when he had a Law at hand to controul him, which he saies,
is the Law of Nature, (pag. 77.) That every man must acknowledg
every other man for his equal by nature; which may be true as to
the essentials of human Nature, and yet there may be inequality
enough as to a capacity of Government. But whatever his opinion
is, we have Solomons judgment against him. Insipiens erit servus
sapientis, Prov. 11. 29. And many Learned Men are of opinion,
That the Gibeonites, who by the help of an impudent lie found the
means to save their lives, were a People by nature of low and
abject spirits, fit only to do the low and mean services for
which they were prepared. And some of the Fathers believe, That
when the Patriarch Jacob, in his dying Prophesie of Issachar,
declar'd Issachar is a strong ass, couching down between two
burdens. And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was
pleasant, and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant
unto tribute, Gen. 49. 14, 15. Jacob for-saw that in that Tribe
there would be depressio intellectus, and that they would be only
fit to be servants. And 'tis very true, that Aristotle did
believe, that Divine Providence doth shew and demonstrate who are
fit and proper for low and vile offices, not only by very notable
defects in their understandings, incapable of any cultivation,
but by some eminent deformity of the body (tho that doth not
always hold) which makes them unfit to bear rule. And without
doubt, the observation of all Ages since that time hath
contributed very much to that Confusion which Mr Hobbes so much
derides, of Inequality by nature, and that Nature it self hath a
bounty which she extends to some men in a much superior degree
then she doth to others. Which is not contradicted by seeing many
great defects and indigencies of Nature in some men, wonderfully
corrected and repair'd by industry, education, and above all, by
conversation; nor by seeing some early blossoms in others, which
raise a great expectation of rare perfection, that suddainly
decay, and insensibly wither away by not being cherished and
improved by diligence, or rather by being blasted by vice or
supine laziness: those accidents may somtimes happen, do not very
often, and are necessary to awaken men out of the Lethargy of
depending wholly upon the Wealth of Natures store, without
administring any supply to it, out of their industry and
observation. And every mans experience will afford him abundance
of examples in the number of his own acquaintance, in which, of
those who have alwaies had equal advantages of Education,
Conversation, Industry, and it may be of virtuous Infinations, it
is easie to observe very different parts and faculties; some of
quick apprehension, and as steady comprehension, wit, judgment,
and such a sagacity as discerns at distance as well as at hand,
confuding from what they see will fall out, what is presently to
be don; when others born, and bred with the same care, wariness,
and attention, and with all the visible advantages and benefits
which the other enjoied, remain still of a heavier and a duller
alloy, less discerning to contrive and fore-see, less vigorous to
execute, and in a word, of a very different Classis to all
purposes; which can proceed from no other cause, but the
distinction that Nature her self made between them, in the
distribution of those Faculties to the one with a more liberal
hand then to the other.
    Did not all the World at that time, and hath it not ever
since believed, that Julius Cesar had from nature a more exalted
Spirit and Genius, then any of those who were overcome by him;
tho some of them appear'd, or were generally believ'd to be
superior in the conduct of great Affairs? There is judgment
gotten by experience very necessary, but the first attemt and
direction of the mind, the first daring proceeds purely from
Nature and its influence. When we see a Marius from a common
Soldier, baffle the Nobility of Rome, and in despight of
opposition, make himself seven times Consul: or a Dioclesian,
from a mean and low birth, and no other advantage of Education
then every other common Soldier had with him, nor countenance or
assistance from any Superior, but what his own Virtue purchased,
to raise himself to the full state and power of the greatest
Emperor, and to govern as great, or a greater part of the World,
then ever Cesar did, and after having enjoied that Empire above
eighteen years in the highest glory, to give it over, and divest
himself of it, merely for the ease and pleasure of retirement to
his private House and Garden, and to die in that repose after he
had enjoied it some years; must we believe such a Man to have no
advantages by nature, above all other men of the same time? When
Marmurius, or Vecturius (for he went by both names) one of the
thirty Tyrants, from a common Blacksmith who made arms (for the
man who killed him having bin before his servant, and wrought
under him, told him, Hic est gladius quem ipse fecisti) raised
him self, not by a suddain mutiny and insurrection, but by
passing all the degrees of a Soldier, during many years in a
regular and disciplin'd Army, to be Emperor by a common voice and
election, as a Man the fittest for the Command; is it possible
for us to believe, that this Man received no other talent from
Nature, then she afforded to every other Blacksmith. Besides many
particular Examples of this kind in every particular Kingdom, in
most of which the visible advantages of Friends, Patrons, and
other accidental Concurrences have not at all contributed to the
preferment of them before other men, the World hath yielded us an
example near our own time (for it is little more then two hundred
years since) of such a prodigious progress and success in the
power of one Man, that there is nothing of Story ancient or
modern that is parallel to it, The great Tamberlane, who (tho not
so mean a Person in his original, as he is vulgarly conceived to
have bin) was born a poor Prince over a contemn'd and barbarous
Country and People, whose manners he first cultivated by his own
native justice and goodness, and by the strength of his own
Genius, improved his own Faculties and Understanding to a
marvellous Lustre and Perfection, towards which neither his
Climate nor his conversation could contribute. Upon this stock he
rais'd and led an Army of his Subjects, into the better Dominions
of their Neighbors who contemned them. With these he fought, and
won many Battels, subdued and conquer'd many Kingdoms; and after
the total defeat of the greatest Army that was then in the World,
he took the greatest Emperor of the World Prisoner, and for the
contemt that he had shew'd towards him, treated him as his vilest
Slave. And it hath bin as notorious, that after the death of
these, and the like such extraordinary Persons, the Forces by
which they wrought those wonders, and the Counsellors and
Officers whose administration co-operated with them, suddainly
degenerated; and as if the Soul were departed from the Body,
became a Carcass without any use or beauty. And can we believe,
that those stupendous men had no talent by nature above others?
And are we bound to believe, (pag. 77.) that by the Law of Nature
every man is bound to acknowledg other for his equal by nature?
    But where are those Maxims to be found which Mr Hobbes
declares, and publishes to be the Laws of Nature, in any other
Author before him? That is only properly call'd the Law of
Nature, that is dictated to the whole Species: as, to defend a
mans self from violence, and to repel force by force; not all
that results upon prudential motives unto the mind of such as
have bin cultivated by Learning and Education, which no doubt can
compile such a Body of Laws, as would make all other useless,
except such as should provide for the execution of, and obedience
to those. For under what other notion can that reasonable
Conclusion, which is a necessary part of the Law of Nations, be
call'd the Law of Nature, which is his fifteenth Law, (pag. 78.)
That all men that mediate Peace be allowed safe conduct? And of
this kind much of the Body of his Law of Nautre is compil'd;
which I should not dislike, the Style being in some sense not
improper, but that I observe that from some of these Conclusions
which he pronounces to be (pag. 79.) immutable and eternal as the
Laws of Nature, he makes deductions and inferences to controul
Opinions he dislikes, and to obtain Concessions which are not
right, by amuzing men with his method, and confounding rather
then informing their understandings, by a chime of words in
definitions and pleasant instances, which seem not easie to be
contradicted, and yet infer much more then upon a review can be
deduc'd from them. And it is an unanswerable evidence of the
irresistible force and strength of Truth and Reason, that whil'st
men are making war against it with all their power and
stratagems, somwhat doth still start up out of the dictates and
confessions of the Adversary that determines the Controversie,
and vindicates the Truth from the malice that would oppress it.
How should it else come to pass, that Mr Hobbes, whil'st he is
demolishing the whole frame of Nature for want of order to
support it, and makes it unavoidably necessary for every man to
cut his neighbors throat, to kill him who is weaker then himself,
and to circumvent, and by any fraud destroy him who is stronger,
in all which there is no injustice, because Nature hath not
otherwise provided for every particular mans security; I say, how
comes it to pass, that at the same time when he is possessed of
this frenzy, he would in the same, and the next Chapter, set down
such a Body ofLaws prescribed by Nature it self, as are immutable
and eternal? that there appears, by his own shewing, a full
remedy against all that confusion, for avoiding whereof he hath
devis'd all that unnatural and impossible Contract and Covenant?
If the Law of the Gospel, Whatsoever you require that others
should do to you, that do ye to them, be the Law of all men, as
he saies it is (pag. 65.) that is, the Law of Nature, Naturā, īd
est jure gentium, saies Tully, it being nothing else but quod
naturalis ratio inter omnes homines constituit; If it be the Law
of Nature that every man strive to accommodate himself to the
rest, as he saies it is (pag. 76.) and that no man by deed: word,
countenance or gestures, declare hatred or contemt of another; If
all men are bound by the Law of Nature, (pag. 78.) That they that
are at controversie, submit their right to the judgment of an
arbitrator, as he saies they are: If Nature hath thus providently
provided for the Peace and Tranquillity of her Chldren, by Laws
immutable & eternal, that are written in their hearts: how come
they to fall into that condition of war, as to be every one
against every one, and to be without any other cardinal Virtues,
but of force and fraud? It is a wonderful thing, that a man
should be so sharp-sighted, as to discern mankind so well
inclosed and fortified by the wisdom of Nature, and so blind as
to think him in a more secure estate by his transferring of right
to another man, which yet he confesses is impossible intirely to
transfer; and by Covenants and Contracts of his own devising, and
which he acknowledges to be void in part, and in other parts
impossible to be perform'd.
    But I say, if in truth Nature hath dictated all those
excellent Conclusions to every man, without which they cannot be
called the Laws of Nature; and if it hath farther instituted all
those Duties which are contain'd in the Second Table, all which
he saies were the Laws of Nature: I know not what temtation or
authority he could have, to pronounce mankind to be left by
Nature in that distracted condition of war, except he prefer the
authority of Ovids Metamorphosis, of the sowing of Cadmus's
teeth, before any other Scripture, Divine or Humane. And it is as
strange, that by his Covenants and Contracts which he is so wary
in wording (as if he were the Secertary of Nature) that they may
bind that man fast enough whom he pleases to assign to those
Bonds; and as if he were the Plenipotentiary ofNature too, to
bind and to loose all he thinks fit: he hath so ill provided for
the Peace he would establish, that he hath left a door open for
all the Confusion he would avoid, when, notwithstanding that he
hath made them divest themselves of the liberty they have by
Nature, and transfer all this into the hands of a single Person,
who thereby is so absolute Soveraign, that he may take their
Lives and their Estates from them without any act of Injustice,
yet after all this transferring and devesting, every man reserves
a right (as inalienable) to defend his own life, even against the
sentence of Justice. What greater contradiction can there be to
the Peace, which he would establish upon those unreasonable
conditions, then this Liberty, which he saies can never be
abandoned, and which yet may dissolve that peace every day? and
yet he saies, (pag. 70.) This is granted to be true by all men,
in that they lead Criminals to execution and prison with armed
men, notwithstanding such Criminals have consented to the Law by
which they are condemned. Which indeed is an argument, that men
had rather escape then be hanged; but no more an argument that
they have a right to rescue themselves, then the fashion of
wearing Swords is an argument that men are afraid of having their
throats cut by the malice of their neighbors: both which are
arguments no man would urge to men, whose understandings he did
not much undervalue. But upon many of these Particulars there is
a more proper occasion hereafter for enlargement. And so we pass
through his prospect of the Laws of Nature, and many other
Definitions and Descriptions, with liberty to take review of them
upon occasion, that we may make hast to his Second Part, for,
which he thinks he hath made a good preparation to impose upon us
in this First; and he will often tell us when he should prove
what he affirms, that he hath evinc'd that Point, and made it
evident in such a Chapter in his First part, where in truth he
hath said very much, and proved very little, I shall only
conclude this, with an observation which the place seems to
require, of the defect in Mr Hobbes's Logic, which is a great
presumption, that from very true Propositions he deduces very
erroneous and absurd Conclusions. That no man hath power to
transfer the right over his own life to the disposal of another
man, is a very true Proposition, from whence he infers, that he
hath reserved the power and disposal of it to himself, and
therefore that he may defend it by force even against the
judgment of Law and Justice; whereas the natural consequence of
that Proposition is, That therefore such transferring and
covenanting ( being void) cannot provide for the peace and
security of a Commonwealth. Without doubt, no man is Dominus
vitae Suae, and therefore cannot give that to another, which he
hath not in himself. God only hath reserv'd that absolute
Dominion and Power of life and death to Himself, and by his
putting the Sword into the hand of the Supreme Magistrate, hath
qualified and enabled him to execute that Justice which is
necessary for the peace and preservation of his People, which may
seem in a manner to be provided for by Mr Hobbes Law of Nature,
if what he saies be true, (pag. 68.) That right to the end
containeth right to the means. And this sole Proposition, that
men cannot dispose of their own lives, hath bin alwaies held as a
manifest and undeniable Argument, that Soveraigns never had, nor
can have their Power from the People.

Second Part.

 The Survey of Chapters 17, 18.

    Mr Hobbes having taken upon him to imitate God, and created
Man after his own likeness, given him all the passions and
affections which he finds in himself, and no other, he prescribes
him to judg of all things and words, according to the definitions
he sets down, with the Autority of a Creator. After he hath
delighted himself in a commendable method, and very witty and
pleasant description of the nature and humor of the World, as far
as he is acquainted with it, (upon many particulars whereof,
which he calls Definitions, there will be frequent occasion of
reflexions in this discourse, without breaking the thred of it by
entring upon impertinent exceptions to matters positively averred
without any apparent reason, when it is no great matter whether
they be true or no.) He comes at last to institute such a
Common-wealth as never was in nature, or ever heard of from the
beginning of the World till this structure of his, and like a
bountifull Creator, gives the Man he hath made, the Soveraign
command and Government of it, with such an extent of power and
autority, as the Great Turk hath not yet appear'd to affect. In
which it is probable he hath follow'd his first method, and for
the Man after his own likeness hath created a Government, that he
would him self like to be trusted with, having determined
Liberty, and Propriety, and Religion to be only emty words, and
to have no other existence then in the Will and Breast of this
Soveraign Governor; and all this in order to make his People
happy, and to enjoy the blessing of Peace. And yet with all this,
his Governor would quickly find his power little enough, that is,
of little continuance, if his Government be founded upon no other
security then is provided in his institution: and the justice he
assign's will be as weak a support to his Governor, as he
supposes a Covenant would be to the peoples benefit; the
imagination whereof he conceives to be so ridiculous, that it can
only proceed from want of understanding, that Covenants being but
words and breath, have no force to oblige, contain, constrain, or
protect any man, but what they have from the Public Sword, that
is from the untied hands of his Soveraign Man: as if Justice,
which is the support of his Governor when he breaks and violates
all the Elements of Justice, because all men are in justice bound
to observe contracts, were more then a word, or a more valiant
word and stronger breath to constrain, and protect any man, when
that Sword is wrested from his Soveraign Man, or his hand is
bound by the many hands which should be govern'd by him. But the
People need not be offended with him, for giving so extravagant a
power to a Person they never intended should have such an Empire
over them: if they will have patience till he hath finished his
Scheme of Soveraignty, he will infeeble it again for them to that
degree, that no ambitious man would take it up, if he could have
it for asking. But to prosecute the argument in his own order.
    As he hath made a worse Man by much, by making him too like
himself; so he hath made a much worse Common-wealth then ever was
yet known in the World, by making it such as he would have: and
nothing can be more wonderful, then that a man of Mr Hobbes his
Sagacity, should raise so many conclusions of a very pernicious
influence upon the Peace and Government of every Kingdom and
Common-wealth in Europe, upon a mere supposition and figment of a
Commonwealth instituted by himself, and without any example. He
will not find any one Government in the world, of what kind
soever, so instituted, as he dogmatically declares all Government
to be; nor was mankind in any nation since the Creation upon such
a level, as to institute their Government by such an assembly and
election, and covenant, and consent, as he very unwarrantably
more then supposes. And it was an undertaking of the more
impertinence, since by his own rule, (pag. 95.) where there is
already erected a soveraign Power, which was then, and still is
in every Kingdom and State in Europe, and for ought we know in
the whole world, there can be no other representative of the same
People, but only to certain particular ends limited by the
Soveraign. So that he could have no other design, but to shake
what was erected, and the Government was not at that time in any
suspence but in his own Country, by the effect of an odious and
detestable Rebellion; which yet could not prevail with an
effective Army of above one hundred thousand men, with which the
Usurper had subdued three Nations, to submit to the Usurper in
such a new model, and to transfer their right by such Covenants,
as he conceives mankind to be even oblig'd to do by the Law's of
Nature; and to induce them to do which, I do heartily wish that
Mr Hobbes could truly vindicate himself from designing, when he
published his Leviathan; upon which disquisition we cannot avoid
enlarging hereafter upon further provocation.
    It had bin kindly don of Mr Hobbes, if according to his
laudable custom of illustrating his definitions by instances, as
he often doth with great pregnancy, he had to this his positive
determination added one instance of a Government so instituted.
There is no doubt there are in all Governments many things don
by, and with the consent of the People; nay all Government so
much depends upon the consent of the People, that without their
consent and submission it must be dissolved, since where no body
will obey, there can be no command, nor can one man compel a
million to do what they have no mind to do: but that any
Government was originally instituted by an assembly of men
equally free, and that they ever elected the Person who should
have the Soveraign power over them, is yet to be proved; and till
it be proved, must not be supposed, to raise new doctrines, upon
which shake all Government. How Soveraign power was originally
instituted, and how it came to condescend to put restraints upon
it self, and even to strip it self of some parts of its
Soveraignty for its own benefit and advantage, and how far it is
bound to observe the contracts and covenants it hath submitted
to, I shall deliver my opinion before this Discourse is finish'd,
and shall refer the approbation of it to Mr Hobbes, supposing he
will never think all the reason in the world to be strong enough
to prove, that what all men see is, cannot be. But by the way, he
had dealt more like the Magistrate he affects to be, if he had
founded bis Government upon his own imperious averment, and left
every man to question it that dares; then to take notice, and
foresee an objection which he saies is the strongest he can make,
and make no better an answer to it, then to answer one question
with an other. He sees men will ask (and it is not possible they
can avoid it) Where, and When such power hath by subjects bin
acknowledg'd? which he would have us believe is substantially
answered by his other question, When, or Where has there bin a
Kingdom long free from Sedition and Civil War? which might
receive a very full answer, by assigning many Governments under
which the Subjects have enjoyed very long Peace, Quiet, and
Plenty, which never was, nor ever can be enjoied one hour under
his (as shall be proved when we examine it.) But it will serve
his turn, if it hath once bin disquieted by a Sedition or Civil
War; and so all Goverment that is known and established, must be
laid aside and overthrown, to erect an other that he supposes
will cure all defects. If Mr Hobbes had thought fit to write
problematically, and to have examin'd, as many have don, the
nature of Government, and the nature of Mankind that is to be
govern'd, and from the consideration of both, had modesty
proposed such a form, as to his judgment might better provide for
the security, peace, and happiness of a People, (which is the end
of Government,) then any form that is yet practic'd and submitted
to; he might well have answered one objection of an inconvenience
in his new form, with an other of a greater inconvenience in all
other forms. But when he will introduce a Government of his own
devising, as founded and instituted already, and that not as
somewhat new, but submitted to by the Covenants, and Obligations,
and Election our selves have made, and so that we are bound by
the rules of Justice founded upon our own consent, to pretend
neither to liberty, or property, other then our Governor thinks
fit to indulge to us; he must be contented not to be beleived, or
must vouchsafe to tell us when, and where that consent of ours
was given, and we submitted to those obligations: and it will be
no kind of answer or satisfaction, to say magisterially, that if
it be not so, it should be so for our good, which we cleerly find
will turn to our irreparable damage and destruction. And it is a
very confident thing, that he should hope to support his
Soveraign right in so unlimited an extent upon the Law of Nature,
because (p. 176.) that forbids the violation of faith, without
being pressed to tell us, when, and where that faith was given,
that is so obligatory, and the violation whereof must be so
penal. But it is more prodigiously bold, to confess upon the
matter, that there hath not hitherto bin any Common-wealth, where
those rights have bin acknowledged, or challeng'd, and to
undervalue the argument, by making it as ridiculous, as if the
Savage People of America should deny there were any grounds or
principles of reason so to build, as their Architecture is not
yet arrived at: So he thinks, that tho his Savage Country-men,
and Neighbors, have yet only bin accustomed to Governments
imperfect, & apt to relapse into disorders, he hath found out
principles by industrious meditation, to make their constitution
everlasting. And truly he hath some reason to be confident of his
Principles, if tho they cannot be proved by reason, he be sure
they are Principles from autority of Scripture, as he professes
them to be, and which must be examin'd in its course. In the mean
time he may be thought to be too indulgent to his Soveraign
Governor, and very neer to contradict himself, that after he hath
made the keeping and observation of promises to be a part of the
Law of Nature, which is unalterable and eternal, and so the
ground and foundation of that obedience which the Subject must
render, how tyrannically soever exacted, yet all Covenants entred
into by the Soveraign to be void; and that to imagine that he is
or can be bound to perform any promise or covenant, proceeds only
from want of understanding. And it would be worth his pains to
consider, whether the assigning such a power to his Governor, or
the absolving him from all Covenants and promises, be a rational
way to establish such a Peace as is the end of Government: and
since he confesses the justest Government may be overthrown by
force, it ought prudenty to be considered, what is like to
prevent that force, as well as what the subject is bound to
consent to; and whether people may not be very naturally dispos'd
to use that force against him that declares himself to be
absolv'd from all Oaths, Covenants, and Promises, and whether any
obligation of reason or justice can establish the Government in
him, who founds it upon so unrighteous a determination.
    If Mr Hobbes did not affect to be of the humor of those
unreasonable Gamesters, which he saies (Pag. 19.) is intolerable
in the society of men, who will after trump is turned, use for
trump, upon every occasion, that suit whereof they have most in
their hand, whom he likens to those men who clamor and demand
right reason for Judg, yet seek no more, but that things should
be determined by no other mens reason then their own; I say, if
Mr Hobbes were not possessed by this supercilious spirit which he
condemns, since this his institution of Soveraignty is a mere
imagination, he might with as much reason, if he would have bin
pleased to have called it so, because it would have carried with
it more equality and consequently more security, have supposed a
Covenant to be on the Soveraigns part: which that he may not do,
he will not admit that they who are his Subjects make any
Covenant with their Soveraign to obey him; which if he did, he
could as well covenant again with them to govern righteously,
without making them the Judges of his justice, or himself liable
to their controul and jurisdiction. So that the Soveraign hath no
security for the obedience of his People, but the promise they
have made to each other. and consequently if they rebell against
him, he cannot complain of any injustice don to him, because they
have broke no promise they made to him. And truly, by his own
Logic, they may release to one another when they think it
convenient: whereas if the promises be mutual, I do not say
conditional, the Soveraign must not be at the mercy of his
Subjects; but as they put themselves under his power, so he
promises them not to use that power wantonly or tyrannically
(which will be a proper and significant word against all his
interpretation;) by which they have as much obligation upon him
to be just, as he hath upon them to be obedient, which is no
other, then that they swarve from justice, if they withdraw their
obedience from him. This had bin a more natural and equitable
institution, and more like to have lasted, having in it the true
essential form of contracts, in which it will never be found that
one party covenants, and the other not; which is the reason Mr
Hobbes himself gives, why no Covenant can be made with God, and
that (Pag. 89.) the pretence of Covenant with God, is so evident
a lye, even in the pretenders own consciences, that it is not
only an act of an unjust, but also of a vile and unmanly
disposition, which assertion is destructive of our Religion, and
against the express sense of Scripture.
    The impossibility alledg'd for such a Covenant, because it
could not be don before he was Soveraign, for that the Subjects
who submit to him were not yet one person, and after he is
Soveraign what he doth is void, is but a fancy of words which
have no solid signification. Nor is the instance which he gives
of the popular Government, by which he would make the imagination
of such a Covenant ridiculous, of any importance; for he saies
(Pag. 90.) No man is so dull as to say, that the People of Rome
made a Covenant with the Romans to hold the Soveraignty on such
or such conditions, which not perform'd the romans might lawfully
depose the Roman People; which is, according to his usual
practice, to put an objection into the mouth of a foolish
adversary to make his Readers merry. And yet he laies so much
weight upon it, that he saies it is only over inclination to a
popular Government, that men do not see that there is the same
reason with reference to Monarchy. And so there is, and the
reason good to either. For doth not every man know, that knows
any thing of the Government of Rome, that when the Soveraignty
was intirely vested in the Senate, and had long bin so, the
People of Rome made a great alteration in the Soveraignty by
making Tribunes (by which Machiavel saies their Government was
the more firm and secure) and afterwards by introducing other
Magistrates into the Soveraignty? Nor were the Admissions and
Covenants the Senate made in those cases ever declared void, but
observed with all punctuallity: which is argument enough, that
the Soveraign power may admit limitations without any danger to
it self or the People, which is all that is contended for.
    As there never was any such Person (Pag. 88.) of whose acts a
great multitude by mutual Covenant one with an other have made
themselves every one the author, to the end he may use the
strength and means of them all, as he shall think expedient for
their Peace, and common defence, which is the definition he gives
of his Common-wealth; So if it can be supposed, that any Nation
can concur in such a designation, and devesting themselves of al1
their right and liberty, it could only be in reason obligatory to
the present contractors, nor do's it appear to us, that their
posterity must be bound by so unthrifty a concession of their
Parents. For tho Adam by his Rebellion against God forfeited all
the privileges which his unborn posterity might have clamed if he
had preserved his innocence, and tho Parents may alienate their
Estates from their Children, and thereby leave them Beggars; yet
we have not the draught of any Contract, nor is that which Mr
Hobbes hath put himself to the trouble to prepare, valid enough
to that purpose, by which they have left impositions and
penalties upon the Persons of their posterity: nor is it probable
that they would think themselves bound to submit thereunto. And
then the Soveraign would neither find himself the more powerful,
or the more secure, for his contractors having covenanted one
with an other, and made themselves every one the author of all
his actions: and it is to be doubted, that the People would
rather look upon him as the Visier Basha instituted by their
Fathers, then as Gods Lieutenant appointed to govern them under
him.
    It is to no purpose to examine the Prerogatives he grants to
his Soveraign, because he founds them all upon a supposition of a
contract and covenant that never was in nature, nor ever can
reasonably be supposed to be; yet he confesses it to be the
generation (Pag. 87.) of the great Leviathan, and which falling
to the ground all his Prerogatives must likewise fall too; and so
much to the damage of the Soveraign power, (to which most of the
Prerogatives are due) that men will be apt to suppose, that they
proceed from a ground which is not true, and so be the more
inclined to dispute them. Whereas those Prerogatives are indeed
vested in the Soveraign by his being Soveraign, but he do's not
become Soveraign by vertue of such a contract and covenant, but
are of the essence of his Soveraignty, founded upon a better
title then such an accidental convention, and their designing a
Soveraign by their Covenants with one another, and none with or
to him, who is so absolutely to command them. And here he
supposes again, that whatsoever a Soveraign is possessed of, is
of his Soveraignty; and therefore he will by no means admit, that
he shall part with any of his power which he calls essential and
inseparable rights, and that whatever grant he makes of such
power, the same is void: and he do's believe that this Soveraign
right was at the time when he published his Book so well
understood (that is Cromwel liked his Doctrine so well) that it
would be generally acknowledged in England at the next return of
peace. yet he sees himself deceived: it hath pleased God to
restore a blessed and a general peace, and neither King nor
People believe his Doctrine to be true, or consistent with peace.
How, and why the most absolute Soveraigns may, as they find
occasion, part with, and deprive themselves of many branches of
their power, will be more at large discovered in another place:
yet we may observe in this the very complaisant humor of Mr
Hobbes, and how great a Courtier he desir'd to appear to the
Soveraign power that then govern'd, by how odious and horrible a
usurpation soever, in that he found a way to excuse and justify
what they had already don in the lessening and diminution of
their own Soveraign power, which it concern'd them to have
believ'd was very lawfully and securely don. For, they having, as
the most popular and obliging act they could perform, taken away
Wardships and Tenures, he confesses after his enumeration of
twelve Prerogatives, which he saies (Pag. 92.) are the rights
which make the essence of Soveraignty, for these, he saies, are
incommunicable, and inseparable, I say, he confesses, the Power
to coin mony, to dispose of the estates and persons of infant
heirs, and all other statute prerogatives may be transferred by
the Soveraign; whereas he might have bin informed, if he had bin
so modest as to think he had need of any information, that those
are no Statute Prerogatives, but as inherent and inseparable from
the Crown, as many of those which he declares to be of the
Essence of the Soveraignty. But both those were already entred
upon, and he was to support all their actions which were past, as
well as to provide for their future proceedings.
    If Mr Hobbes had known any thing of the constitution of the
Monarchy of England, supported by as firm principles of
Government as any Monarchy in Europe, and which enjoied a series
of as long prosperity, he could never have thought that the late
troubles there proceeded from an opinion receiv'd of the greatest
part of England, that the Power was divided between the King, and
the Lords, and the House of Commons, which was an opinion never
heard of in England till the Rebellion was begun, and against
which all the Laws of England were most cleer, and known to be
most positive. But as he cannot but acknowledg, that his own
Soveraignty is obnoxious to the Lusts, and other irregular
passions of the People; so the late execrable Rebellion proceeded
not from the defect of the Laws, nor from the defect of the just
and ample power of the King, but from the power ill men
rebelliously possessed themselves of, by which they suppressed
the strength of the Laws, and wrested the power out of the hands
of the King: against which violence his Soveraign is no otherwise
secure, then by declaring that his Subjects proceed injustly; of
which no body doubts but that all they who took up arms against
the King, were guilty in the highest degree. And there is too
much cause to fear, that the unhappy publication of this doctrine
against the Liberty and propriety of the Subject (which others
had the honor to declare before Mr Hobbes, tho they had not the
good fortune to escape punishment as he hath don, I mean Dr
Manwaring, and Dr Sibthorpe) contributed too much thereunto. For
let him take what pains he will to render those precious words
unvaluable, and of no signification; a better Philosopher then
he, and one who understood the rules of Government better, having
lived under just such a Soveraign as Mr Hobbes would set up (I
mean Seneca,) will be believed before him, who pronounces, Errat
siquis existimat tutum esse ibi Regem, ubi nihil a Rege tutum
est; Securitas securitate mutua paciscenda est. And he go's very
far himself towards the confessing this truth, when he is forced
to acknowledg, (Pag. 96.) That the riches, Power, and honor of a
Monarch, arise only from the riches, strength and reputation of
his subjects; for no King can be rich, nor glorious, nor secure,
whose subjects are either Poor or contemtible: which assertion
will never be supported, by saying, that that condition shall be
made good, and preserv'd to them by the justice and bounty of the
Soveraign. For riches, and strength, and reputation are not aery
words, without a real and substantial signification, nor do
consist so much in the present enjoying, especially if it shall
depend upon the casual pleasure of any man, as in the security
for the future, that being a mans properly, that cannot be taken
from him, but in that manner, and by those Rules, as are
generally looked upon as the fundamentals of Government. And when
he is transported by his passion and his appetite, and for making
good his institution, to cancel and tread under foot all those
known obligations, and make the precious terms of Property and
Liberty absurd and insignificant words, to be blown away by the
least breath of his monstrous Soveraign, without any violation of
justice, or doing injury to those he afflicts; I say, when he is
thus warmed by the flame of his passions, which he confesses
(Pag. 96.) alwaies dazzles, newer enlightens the understanding,
he is so puzled by his own notions, that he makes himself a way
out by distinctions of his own modelling and devising: and so he
is compell'd to acknowledg, that tho his illimited Soveraign,
whatsoever he doth, can do no injury to his subjects, nor be by
any of them accused of injustice, yet that he (p. 90.) may commit
iniquity, tho not injustice or injury in the Proper
signification, which is far more unintelligible then the
Beatifical vision, for the obscurity and absurdity whereof he is
so merry with the Schole-men.
    As Mr Hobbes his extraordinary and notorious ignorance in the
Laws and constitution of the Government of England makes him a
very incompetent Judg or informer of the cause or original of the
late woful calamities in England, of which he knows no more then
every other man of Malmesbury doth, and upon which there will be
other occasion hereafter to inlarge; so his high arrogance and
presumption that he doth understand them, makes him triumph in
the observation, and wonder that so manifest a truth should of
late be so little observed, That in a Monarchy, he that had the
Soveraignty from a descent of six hundred years, was alone called
Soveraign, had the title of Majesty from every one of his
Subjects, and was unquestionably taken by them for their King,
was notwithstanding never considered as their Representative,
that name without contradiction, passing for the title of those
men, which at his command were sent up by the People to carry
their Petitions, and give him, if he permitted it, their advice;
which he saies (Pag. 95.) may serve as an admonition for those
that are the true and absolute Representative of a People (which
he hath made his Soveraign to be) to take heed how they admit of
any other general Representative upon any occasion whatsoewer:
all which is so unskilful and illiterate a suggestion, as could
not fall into the conception of any man who is moderately versed
in the principles of Soveraignty. And if Mr Hobbes did not make w
ar against all modesty, he would rather have concluded, that the
title of the Representative of the People was not to be affected
by the King, then that for want of understanding his Majesty
should neglect to assume it, or that his faithful Counsel, and
his Learned Judges, who cannot be supposed to be ignorant of the
Regalities of the Crown, should fail to put him in mind of so
advantageous a Plea, when his fundamental rights were so foully
assaulted, and in danger. But tho the King knew too well the
original of his own power, to be contented to be thought the
Representative of the People, yet if Mr Hobbes were not strangely
unconversant with the transactions of those times, he would have
known, which few men do not know, that the King frequently, and
upon all occasions reprehended the two Houses, both for assuming
the Style and appellation of Parliament, which they were not, but
in, and by his Majesties conjuction with them, and for calling
themselves the Representative of the People, which they neither
were, or could be to any other purpose then to present their
Petitions, and humbly to offer their advice, when and in what his
Majesty required it; and this was as generally understood by men
of all conditions in England, as it was that Rebellion was
Treason. But they who were able by false pretences, and under
false protestations to raise an Army, found it no difficult
matter to perswade that Army, and those who concurred with them,
that they were not in rebellion.

 The Survey of Chapter 19.

    I shall heartily concur with Mr Hobbes in the preference of
Monarchy before all other kind of Government for the happiness of
the people, which is the end of Government: and surely the people
never enjoied (saving the delight they have in the word Equality,
which in truth signifies nothing but keeping on their hats)
Liberty or Property, or received the benefit of speedy and
impartial Justice, but under a Monarch; but I must then advise
that Monarch for his greatness and security, never so far to
lessen himself as to be considered as the peoples Representative,
which would make him a much less man then he is. His Majesty is
inherent in his office, and neither one or other is conferred
upon him by the people. Let those who are indeed the Deputies of
the people, in those occasions upon which the Law allow's them to
make Deputies, be called their Representatives which term can
have no other legitimate interpretation then the Law gives it,
which must have more autority then any Dictionary that is, or
shall be made by Mr Hobbes, whose animadversion or admonition
will never prevail with any Prince to change his Soveraign Title,
for Representative of the people; and much the less for the pains
which he hath taken (pag. 95.) to instruct men in the nature of
that Office, and how he comes to be their Representative.
    I cannot leave this Chapter without observing Mr Hobbes his
very officious care that Cromwell should not fall from his
greatness, and that his Country should remain still captive under
the Tyranny of his vile Posterity, by his so solemn Declarations,
that he who is in possession of the Soveraignty, tho by Election
(Pag. 98.) is obliged by the Law of nature to provide, by
establishing his Successor to keep those that had trusted him
with the government, from relapsing into the miserable condition
of Civil war; and consequently he was, when elected, a Soveraign
absolute. And then he declares positively, contrary to the
opinion of all the World, that (Pag. 100.) by the institution of
Monarchy, the disposing of the Successor is alwaies left to the
judgment and the will of the present possessor; and that if he
declares expresly that such a man shall be his heir either by
word or writing, then is that man immediately after the decease
of his predecessor invested in the right of being Monarch. Mr
Hobbes was too modest a man to hope that his Leviathan would have
power to perswade those of Poland to change their form of
Government; and what Denmark hath gotten by having don it since,
cannot in so short a time be determin'd; or that the Emperor
would dissolve and cancel the Golden Bull, and invest his
Posterity in the Empire in spite of the Electors; or that the
Papacy should be made Hereditary, since Cesar Borgia was so long
since dead, and he had carried that spirit with him: and
therefore I must appeal to all dispassion'd men what Mr Hobbes
could have in his purpose in the year One thousand six hundred
fifty one, when this Book was printed, but by this new Doctrine
scarcely heard of it till then, to induce Cromwell to break all
the Laws of his Country, and to perpetuate their slavery under
his Progeny, in which he follow'd his advice to the utmost of his
power, tho his Doctrine proved false and most detested. And tho
Mr Hobbes by his presence of mind, and velocity of thought, which
had inabled him to forsee the purpose of rebelling, and taking
the King Prisoner, and delivering him up, from that question
proposed to him, concerning the value of a Roman penny, might at
that time discern so little possibility of his own Soveraign's
recovery, that it might appear to him a kind of absurdity to wish
it; yet methinks his own natural fear of danger, which made him
fly out of france, as soon as his Leviathan was publish'd and
brought into that Kingdom, should have terrified him from
invading the right of all Hereditary Monarchies in the World, by
declaring, that by the Law of Nature which is immutable, it is in
the power of the present Soveraign to dispose of the succession,
and to appoint who shall succeed him in the Government; and that
the word Heir doth not of it self imply the Children or neerest
Kindred of a man, but whom soever a man shall any way declare he
would have succeed him; contrary to the known right and
establishment throught the World, and which would shake if not
dissolve the Peace of all Kingdoms. Nor is there any danger of
the dissolution of a Common-wealth by the not nominating a
Successor; since it is a known maxime in all Hereditary
Monarchies, That the King never dies, because in the minute of
the exspiration of the present, his Heir succeeds him, and is in
the instant invested in all the dignities, and preheminences of
which the other had bin possessed: and if there were no other
error or false doctrine in the Leviathan (as there are very many
of a very pernicious nature) that would be cause enough to
suppress it in all Kingdoms.

 The Survey of Chapter 20.

    It is modestly don of Mr Hobbes at last, after so many
Magisterial determinations of the institution of Soveraignty, and
the rights and autority of it, and what is not it, to confess
that all these Discourses (pag. 105.) are only what he finds by
speculation, and deduction of Soveraign Rights from the nature,
need, and designs of men in erecting of Commonwealths, and
putting themselves under Monarchs, &c. and therefore if he finds
that all his speculation is positively contradicted by constant
and uncontroverted practice, he will believe that his speculation
is not, nor ought to be of autority enough to introduce new Laws
and Rules of Government into the World. And it is high time for
the Soveraign Power to declare, That it doth not approve those
Doctrines, which may lessen the affections and tenderness of
Princes towards their Subjects, and even their reverence to God
himself, if they thought that they could change Religion, and
suppress the Scripture it self; and that their power over their
Subjects is so absolute, that they give them all that they do not
take from them; and that Property is but a word of no
signification, and lessens the duty and obedience of Subjects,
and makes them less love the constitution of the Government they
live under; which may prove so destructive to them, if they have
temtation from their passions or their appetite to exercise the
Autority they justly have. It is fit therefore that all men know,
that these are only his speculations, and not the clame of
Soveraign Power.
    It had bin to be wished, that Mr Hobbes had first taken the
pains to have inform'd himself of the power and autority
exercised by Elective Princes over their Subjects, and their
submission rendred to them by their subjects, before he had so
positively determin'd, that Elective Kings are not Soveraigns, at
least that he had given a better reason for his assertion. He
that hath supreme autority over all, and against whom there is no
Appeal, may very justly and lawfully be called a Soveraign. And
if he would enquire into the autority of the Emperor, in the
proper Dominion of the Empire, he would find that he hath as
Soveraign a power as any Prince in Christendom clames, and yet he
is Elective. And it is a more extravagant speculation to
conclude, That because the Electors have the absolute power to
chuse the Emperor, that the Soveraignty is in them before they
chuse him, and that they may keep it to themselves if they think
good, because none have a right to give that which they have no
right to possess; when it is known to all the World that the
Electors have a right to chuse the Emperor, and yet that till
they have chosen him, the Soveraignty is not in them, nor that
they can possess it themselves, and chuse whether they will give
it to another; and that when they have chosen him, he is a
Soveraign Prince, and superior to all those who have chosen him,
by all the marks of Soveraignty which are known in practice, tho
not possibly in speculation. And he knows well there is another
Soveraign Prince greater then the Emperor, and almost as great as
he would have his Soveraign to be in the extent of his power, who
is likewise Elective, and that is the Pope, and that the Conclave
cannot retain that Soveraignty to themselves, but having by their
Election conferr'd it upon him, he is thereby become as absolute
a Monarch as Mr Hobbes can wish. And truly, if he would rectifie
his speculations, that is, his conceptions and imaginations, by
examining those of other men (a fatal neglect he hath bin guilty
of throughout his whole life) he could hardly have avoided the
knowing, that on every Michaelmas day the whole common People of
London chuse the Lord Major, and yet the Office is not in them
till they do chuse him, tho his Predecessor were dead, nor can
they keep it to themselves; and so they can give that which they
cannot possess, which is diametrically contrary to his
speculation; which would likewise have bin controuled by all
Elections of the Kingdom.
    He might have saved himself much labor (since he agrees that
a Soveraign by acquisition, which is somwhat we understand, hath
the same full Soveraignty with his other by institution) if he
had spar'd all that which is mere speculation; and I will
gratifie him, not by insisting upon the Paternal Dominion,
otherwise then as it must be confessed to be the original of
Monarchy, becAuse we will do the Mother no wrong, who is so meet
a help in the generation. And before I proceed further upon this
Argument, to which I will presently return, I must lament in this
place Mr Hobbes's so positive determining a point of Justice, in
which he could have no experience, and against all the practice
of the Christian World, (pag. 104.) that he who hath Quarter
granted him in War, hath not his life given, but deferred till
farther deliberation; which Doctrine, found only as he confesses
by speculation, served to confirm that Tyrannical Power in a
Judgment they had given, when three great and noble Persons, who
were Prisoners of War, were contrary to all form and rule
condemn'd to be murder'd; which Sentence was barbarously
executed, and afterwards reiterated upon others, the rather
probably upon his speculative determination.
    And since we are now come to that Chapter of Dominion
Paternal and Despotical, in which he discourses of his Government
by acquisition, which he will have by force; or by institution,
which he calls by consent, and confesses, that the rights and
consequences of Soveraignty are the same in both; it may not (I
conceive) be unseasonable to state, and lay down that Scheme of
Government, which men reasonably believe was originally
instituted, and the progress and alterations which were
afterwards made, and all those Covenants, Promises, and
Conditions which were annexed to it, and by the observation of
which it hath alwaies acquired strength and lustre, and bin as
much impair'd, when endeavors have bin used to extend it beyond
its bounds and just limits, and to make it more absolute, then is
consistent with the Peace and Happiness of the People, which was,
and is the end of its Institution. And in the first place we must
deny, as we have hitherto don, Mr Hobbes his ground-work, upon
which, with many ill-consequences even from thence, his
foundation is supported, and that is, That War is founded in
Nature, which gives the stronger a right to whatever the weaker
is possessed of; so that there can be no peace, or security from
oppression, till such Covenants are made, as may appoint a
Soveraign to have all that power which is necessary to provide
for that peace and security; and out of, and by this Institution,
his Magistrate grows up to the greatness and size of his
Leviathan. But we say, that Peace is founded in nature; and that
when the God of nature gave his Creature, Man, the dominion over
the rest of his Creation, he gave him likewise natural strength
and power to govern the World with peace and order.. and how much
soever he lost by his own integrity, by falling from his
obedience to his Creator, and how severe a punishment soever he
under-went by that his disobedience, it do's not appear that his
dominion over Man-kind was in any degree lessened or abated. So
that we cannot but look upon him, during his life, as the sole
Monarch of the World: and that lasted so long, as we may
reasonably compute, that a very considerable part of the World,
that was peopled before the Flood, was peopled in his life, since
it lasted uPon the point of two parts of that term: so that his
Dominion was over a very numerous People. And during all that
time, we have no reason to imagine that there was any such
Instrument of Government by Covenants and Contracts, as is
contain'd in this Institution. And yet we do acknowledg, that he
was by nature fully possessed of all that plentitudo potestatis,
which doth of right belong to a Magistrate; and we may very
reasonably believe, having no color to think the contrary, that
his Son Seth, who was born a hundred and thirty years after him,
and lived above a hundred years after he was dead, govern'd his
descendants with the same absolute Dominion, which might well be
continued under his Successor to the very time of the Flood: for
we may very reasonably believe that Noah conversed with Seth,
since it is evident they lived one hundred years together in the
same Age. Nor have we the Least color to believe, that there was
either Sedition or Civil War before the Flood; their rebelLion
against God in a universal exercise of Idolatry, which implies a
general consent amongst themseLves, being in the opinion of most
Learned Men, the crying Sin that provoked God to drown the World.
    After the Flood, we cannot but think that Noah remain'd the
sole Monarch of the World during his life, according to that
model with which he had bin very well acquainted for the space of
five hundred years; and he lived Long enough after to see a very
numerous increase of his Children and Subjects; who after his
death, when the multiplication was very great, came from the East
into the Land of Shinar, the pleasant vally of Shinar, where God,
in the beginning, had plac'd the Father of Mankind, Adam; and
Learned men are of opinion, that the great and principal end of
the building of Babel, over and above the high Tower for their
fame and renown to posterity, was, that they intended it for the
Metropolis of an Universal Monarchy; so little doubt there was
yet made of an entire subjection and obedience. Sure we are, that
the Generations of Noah, when Man-kind was exceedingly increas'd,
did divide the Nations in the Earth; and Mr Mead assures us, that
the word which we translated divided signifies not a scattering,
or any thing of confusion, but a most distinct partition. So that
this great division of the Earth being perform'd in this method
and order, there is no room for the imagination and dream of such
an irregular and confus'd dispersion, that every man went whither
he listed, and setled himself where he liked best, from whence
that Institution of Government might arise which Mr Hobbes
fancies. Under this Division, we of the Western World have reason
to believe our selves of the posterity of Japheth, and that our
Progenitors did as welL know under what Government they were to
live, as what portion they were to possess: and we have that
blessing of Japheth, that God would inlarge him into the Tents of
Shem, and that Cham should be his servant, to assure and confirm
us, that the Inundation, which almost cover'd us, of the Goths
and Vandals from Scythia, and other Northern Nations (whose
original habitations we cannot to this day find) were not of the
Children of Cham, which we might otherwise have suspected.
    As Man-kind encreas'd, and the age of man grew less, so that
they did not live to see so great a Progeny issue out of their
own loins as formerly, and their subjects growing less, their
kindred also grew at so great distance, that the account of their
relations was not so easily or so carefully preserv'd; hereby
they who had the Soveraign Powers exercis'd less of the Paternal
Affection in their Government, and look'd upon those they
govern'd as their mere subjects, not as their Allies; and by
degrees, according to the custom of exorbitant Power, considering
only the extent of their own Jurisdiction, and what they might
do, they treated those who were under them not as Subjects, but
as slaves, who having no right to any thing but what they gave
them, would allow them to possess nothing but what they had no
mind to have themselves. Estates they had none that they could
call their own, because when their Soveraign call'd for them,
they were his; their persons were at his command, when he had
either occasion or appetite to use them, and their Children
inherited nothing but the subjection of their Parents: so that
they were happy or miserable, as he who had the power and command
over them exercised that power with more or less rigor or
indulgence, they submitting to both, acknowledging the dominion
to be naturally absolute, and their subjection and obedience to
be as natural. Kings had not long delighted themselves with this
exorbitant exercise of their power (for tho the power had bin
still the same, the exercise of it had bin very moderate, whil'st
there remain'd the tenderness or memory of any relation) but they
begun to discern (according to their faculties of discerning, as
their parts were better or worse) that the great strength they
seem'd to be possess'd of, must in a short time end in absolute
weakness, and the plenty they seem'd to enjoy, would become
exceeding, that no man would build a House that his want and
beggary. Children should not inherit, nor cultivate Land with
good husbandry and expence, the fruit and profit whereof might be
taken by another man; that whil'st their subjects did not enjoy
the convenience and delight of life, they could not be sure of
the affection and help of them, when they should enter into a
difference with one who is as absolute as themselves, but they
would rather chuse to be subject to him, whose Subjects liv'd
with more satisfaction under him: in a word, that whil'st they
engross'd all power, and all wealth into their own hands, they
should find none who would defend them in the possession of it;
and that there is great difference between the subjection that
love and discretion paies, and that which results only from fear
and force, and that despair puts an end to that duty, which
nature, and it may be Conscience too, would still perswade them
to pay, and to continue; and therefore that it was necessary that
the subjects should find profit and comfort in obeying, as well
as Kings pleasure in commanding. These wise and wholsom
Reflexions prevail'd with Princes for their own benefit to
restrain themselves, to make their Power less absolute, that it
might be more useful; to give their Subjects a property that
should not be invaded but in such cases, and with such and such
circumstances, and a liberty that should not be restrain'd, but
upon such terms as they could not but think reasonable. And as
they found the benefit to grow from those condescentions in the
improvement of Civility, and those additions of delight which
makes Life and Government the more pleasant, they inlarg'd the
Graces and Concessions to their Subjects, reserving all in
themselves which they did not part with by their voluntary Grants
and Promises. And if we take a view of the several Kingdoms of
the World, we shall see another manner of beauty, glory and
lustre in those Governments, where those condescentions,
concessions, and contracts have bin most or best observ'd, then
in those Dominions where the Soveraigns retain to themselves all
the Rights and Prerogatives which are invested in them by the
original nature of Government; upon which we shall inlarge
hereafter.
    This is the original and pedigree of Government, equally
different from that which the levelling fancy of some men would
reduce their Soveraign to, upon an imagination that Princes have
no autority or power but what was originally given them by the
People, and that it cannot be presumed that they would give them
so much as might be applied to their own destruction, and from
that which Mr Hobbes hath instituted, by framing formal
Instruments by which an assembly of mankind (which was never
heard of, nor can be conceiv'd practicable) hath devolv'd from
themselves into one Man of their own choice, an absolute Power by
their own consent, to exercise it in such a manner as to his
pleasure is agreeable, without the observation of the common
rules of Justice or, Sobreity. whereas it cannot be imagined
possible in nature, that ever such an assembly of men of equal
autority in themselves, will ever agree to make one Man their
Soveraign with such an absolute Jurisdiction over the rest, as
must devest them of all property as well as power for the future;
and whereas in truth all power was by God and Nature invested
into one Man, where still as much of it remains as he hath not
parted with, and shar'd with otherse for the good and benefit of
those (and the mutual security of both) for whose benefit it was
first intrusted to him; the rest, which is enough, remains still
in him, and may be applied to the preservation of the whole,
against the fancies of those who think he hath nothing but what
they have given him; and likewise against those who believe that
so much is given him, that he hath power to leave no body else
any thing to enjoy; the last of which are no less enemies to
Monarchy then the former.
    I am very unwilling to enter into the lists with Mr Hobbes
upon the interpretation of Scriptures, which he handles as
imperiously as he doth a Text of Aristotle, putting such
unnatural interpretation on the words, as hath not before fallen
into the thoughts of any other man, and drawing very unnatural
inferences from them; insomuch as no man can think he is really
in earnest, when, to prove that the Kings word is sufficient to
take any thing from any Subject when there is need, and that the
King is Judge of that need, he alledges the example of our
Saviour, who, he saies, as King of the Jews (p. 106) commanded
his Disciples to take the Asses Colt to carry him to Jerusalem,
which he saies the owner permitted, and did not as k whether his
necessity was a sufficient title, nor whether he was Judg of that
necessity, but did acquiesce in the will of the Lord: which is a
very bold and ungrave wresting of Scripture to purposes it could
not intend; since our Saviour did not profess to do one act as
King of the Jews, but declar'd that his kingdom was not of this
world. And at that time he told the Messengers who were sent for
the Ass, that if they were asked what they meant by it, they
should answer, that the Lord had need of him, upon which he knew,
and he said, that they would let him go, and upon that he
grounded their Commission. If the owner would not permit them to
take it, the Messengers had no autority to have brought them to
him. And his inference from, and the gloss he makes upon the
question that God asked of Adame (p. 106.) Hast thou eaten? hath
as little warrant from that text, as the other improper instance
of our Saviour. And sure when Mr Hobbes thought fit by this
example of our Saviour in this place to wrest all property from
the Subject, he did not intend in any other place so far to
devest him of any autority, that men were not bound to believe
any thing he said, or to do any thing he commanded, because he
had no Commission which required obedience, his Kingdom being not
yet of this world. So unwary he is in the contradicting himself;
as all men are, who first resolve what they are to prove, before
they consider what it is that is true.
    We are not obliged, nor indeed have any reason to believe,
that God was offended with the Children of Israel for desiring a
King, which was a Government himself had instituted over them,
and to which they had bin long accustomed, and had undergon much
misery, and confusion whilst there was no King in Israel; but for
their mutinous manner of asking it, and the reason they gave for
it, that they might be like other nations, which God had taken
all possible care that they should not be, and enjoined them to
learn nothing of them. And the description, which Samuel made of
the exorbitant power of Kings, which indeed the Kings of the
Nations did exercise, by whose example they desir'd to be
govern'd, was rather to terrify them from pursuing their foolish
demand, then to constitute such a Prerogative as the King should
use whom God would appoint to go in and out before them; which
methinks is very manifest, in that the worst Kings that ever
reign'd over them, never challeng'd, or assum'd those
Prerogatives. Nor did the people conceive themselves liable to
those impositions; as appears by the application they made to
Rehoboam upon the death of Solomon, that he would abate some of
that rigor his Father had exercised towards them; the rough
rejection of which, contrary to the advice of his wisest
Counsellors, cost him the greater part of his Dominions: and when
Rehoboam would by Arms have reduced them to obedience, God would
not suffer him, because he had bin in the fault himself.
    I am willing to take an occasion in this place to wish, that
no better Divines then Mr Hobbes had, from this place in Samuel,
presum'd very unwarrantably to draw inferences, to lessen the
Subjects reverence and obedience to Kings, and to raise a
prejudice and disesteem in Kings towards their Subjects, as
people whose affections and good Will are of no use to them,
since they can present nothing to them that is their own, nor
have any thing to give, but what they make take from them; which
two very different rather then contrary conclusions, too many
Divines (and some of parts) according to their several
inclinations and appetites, have presumed to wrest from that
place of Scripture; the one party of them, as is said before,
endeavouring maliciously to render Monarchy odious and
insupportable, by the unlimited affections, and humors, and
pretences, and power of a single uncontroulable person; the other
believing as unreasonably, that the dispositions, natures, and
hearts of the people, cannot be appli'd to the necessary
obedience towards their Princes, nor their reverence and duty be
so well fix'd and devoted to them, as by thinking that they have
nothing of their own, but whatsoever they enjoy they have only by
the bounty of the King, who can take it from them when he
pleases: and to this last party Mr Hobbes his speculation hath
for the present disposed him to adhere, tho in any other
particular opinion he doth not concur with any Divine of any
Church in Christendom. For the first, whoever doth well consider
the wonderful confused Government that was exercised over the
Children of Israel from the death of Joshua, when the Monarchy
was interrupted, under the Judges for the space of above three
hundred years, the barbarous negligence in the instruction of the
people in the knowledg of God, and of their duty to him, insomuch
that the very next generation after the death of Joshuah had
lost, or was without the whole History of what God had don for
them, and of what he expected from them; so unfaithful a guide,
or rembrancer is Tradition, when the Scripture it self is not to
be found: I say, whoever considers likewise the quality, and
talent, and humor of many of the very Judges who had bin over
them, as the repeted Acts of indiscretion and folly in Sampson,
which could not but make his judgment to be in the less
reverence, & the strength of his arms to be more admir'd then
that of his head; with the present state they were then in under
the Sons of Samuel, who were no better than the Sons of Ely had
bin, will not perhaps so very much blame them for desiring a
King: and tho the manner of their asking it might, as hath bin
said, offend Samuel, and in some degree displease God, yet he
might not be offended absolutely with the thing it self, since it
was no more then God himself had in a manner prescrib'd to them,
as well as foretold, without any kind of disapprobation. When
thou art come into the Land which the Lord thy God giheth thee,
&c, and shalt say, I will set a King over me, like as all the
Nations which are about me, Thou shalt in any wise set him a King
over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall chuse. Deut. 17. 14, 15,
16, 17. God was well content that they should have a King, but
reserv'd the election of him to himself: he would have no
transferring of rights, or covenanting for one another, he would
chuse his own Representative. Nor amongst all the customes of the
Nations, which he forbid them to follow, did God ever shew the
least dislike of their Government by Kings, which had bin
instituted originally by himself, and probably bin continued by
them even from the time of the institution, however their manners
were degenerated, and the knowledg of him totally forgotten. And
in what degree of grace and favor that high calling hath bin ever
since with him, appears by the mention of them throughout the
whole current of Scripture, by the Prerogatives he hath granted
to them, and by his imparting to them even his own appellation.
    They who will in the next place, deduce the extent of that
absolute and illimited power of Kings from that declaration by
Samuel, which indeed seems to leave neither Property, or Liberty
in their subjects, and could be only intended by Samuel to
terrify them from that mutinous and seditious clamor, since it
hath no foundation from any other part of Scripture, nor was ever
practic'd or exercis'd by any good King who succeeded over them,
and was blessed, and approv'd by God. And therefore when those
State Empirics, of what degree or quality soever, will take upon
them to prescribe a new diet and exercise to Soveraign Princes,
and invite them to assume new powers and prerogatives over the
people, by the Precepts, Warrants, and Prescriptions of the
Scripture, they should not presume to make the sacred writ
subject to their own private fancies. And if according to the
more authentic method of interpreting doubtful places, they had
recourse to that place, where the same matter is first handled,
they would then have found, by resorting to the before mention'd
place in Deuteronomy, another kind of Scheme for the power, and
government of Kings. There, when God intended that they should be
governed by a King whom he would himself chuse, he prescrib'd
what he should not do, and what he should do. He should not
multiply Horses to himself, &c. which only concern'd that people,
that they might have no temtation to return to Egypt, ye shall
henceforth no more return that way &c. Nor shall he multiply
Wives, &c. Tho multiplying of Wives seem'd to be permitted, yet
he was to have a care that the number of them did not turn his
heart away. Nor should he greatly multply unto himself Silver,
and Gold &c. not so affect, and set his heart upon being rich, as
to be temted to oppress his Subjects, or to injure his Neighbors;
and so far the negative directed. Then for the affirmative, That
he should write a coPy of the Law in a Book, &c. Deut. 17, 18,
19, 20. that it should be with him, and he should read therein
all the daies of his life, that he might learn to fear the Lord
his God, and to keep all the words of the Law, and these Statutes
to do them; that his heart be not lifted up, and that he turn not
aside from the Commandment to the right hand, or to the left; and
from this Text the Rabinns concluded, that he was to write a Book
of the Law for himself, and if he had none before he was King, he
was obliged assoon as he was King to have two, one whereof he was
to have alwaies with him, sive cum vadit ad praelium, sive cum
sedet in judicio, aut in mensa, &c. Those were the injunctions
which God prescrib'd to his King, and were observ'd by all those
who were bless'd and approv'd by him; for David seems by the
words of Nathan to have some particular allowance for the great
number of his Wives; and his multiplying gold, and silver, was
for the building of the Temple, and no private use of his own;
and Solomons excessive greatness, was from the immediate bounty
of God himself; but he no sooner violated those Precepts, and
exceeded that moderation that was prescrib'd to him towards his
Subjects, and with reference to the multiplying Wives, then his
heart turn'd away from God, and God turn'd away from him.
    This pleasant suggestion by which he would discountenance
that importunate and impertinent demand of an example of such a
Government as he would institute, that tho in all places of the
world men should lay the foundation of their houses in sand, it
could not thence be infer'd that so it ought to be, will never
perswade men to change a Government they have bin for many
hundred years happy under (tho with some vicissitudes of fortune)
for an imaginary Government by his Rules of Arithmetic and
Geometry, of which no Nation hath ever yet had the experiment:
and if there by any Country where is a Sand of that nature, that
hath supported the greatest edifices for hundreds of years,
against all the storms of wind, and rage of tempests, he shall be
much too nice and scrupulous a person, who will by any Rules of
Architecture forbear to build his House there, because he will
not lay his foundation upon Sand, which by experience is found to
be of equal firmness with a Rock.

 The Survey of Chapter 21.

    Mr Hobbes is so great an enemy to freedom, that he will not
allow Man that which God hath given him, the Freedom of his Will;
but he shall not entangle me in that Argument, which he hath
enough exercis'd himself in with a more equal Adversary, who I
think hath bin much too hard for him at his own weapon, Reason,
the Learned Bishop of Derry, who was afterwards Arch-Bishop of
Armagh, and by which he hath put him into greater choler then a
Philosopher ought to subject himself to, the terrible strokes
whereof I am not willing to undergo, and therefore shall keep my
self close to that freedom and liberty only that is due to
Subjects, and of which, his business in this Chapter, is to
deprive them totally.
    A man would have expected from Mr Hobbes's Inventory of the
several Rights and powers of his Soveraign in his eighteenth
Chapter, of which one was to prescribe Rules (pag. 91.) whereby
every man might know what goods he may enjoy, and what actions he
might do, without being molested by any of his fellow Subjects,
which he saies, Men call Propriety, that some such Rule should be
established as might secure that Propriety, how little soever:
but he hath now better explain'd himself, and finds, that Liberty
and Property are only fences against the Invasion or force of
fellow Subjects, but towards the Soveraign of no use or
signification at all. No man hath a Propriety in any thing, that
can restrain the King from taking it from him, and the liberty of
a Subject (pag. 109.) lieth only in those things, which in
regulating their actions, the SOveraign hath pretermitted, such
as is the liberty to buy and sell, and otherwise contract with
one another; to chuse their own abode, their own diet, their own
trade of life, and to institute their children as they think fit,
and the like. I wonder he did not insert the liberty to wear his
Clothes of that fashion which he likes best, which is as
important as most of his other Concessions. And yet he seems to
be jealous, that even this liberty should make men imagine, that
the Soveraign power should be in any degree limited, or that any
thing he can do to a Subject, and upon what pretence soever, may
be called injustice or injury, the contrary whereof he saies he
hath shewed already., for he takes it as granted, that all that
he hath said he hath proved: and if he hath not, he hath don it
now substantially by the example of hepthah, in causing his
daughter to be sacrific'd (of which he is not sure) and by Davids
killing Uriah, which he saies, tho it was against equity, yet it
was not an injury to Uriah, because the right was given him by
Uriah, which I dare swear Uriah never knew he had don. And by
such unnatural Arguments he would perswade men to be willing to
be undon; very like those which the Stoics as obstinately
maintain'd, That a wise man could not be injur'd, because he was
not capable nor sensible of it. But I wonder more, that he doth
not discern what every other man cannot but discern, that by his
so liberal taking away, he hath not left the Subject any thing to
enjoy even of those narrow concessions which he hath made to him.
For how can any man believe that he hath liberty to buy and sell,
when the Soveraign power can presently take away what he hath
sold, from him who hath bought it, and consequently no man can
sell or buy to any purpose? Who can say that he can chuse his own
abode, or his own trade of life, or any thing, when assoon as he
hath chosen either, he shall be requir'd to go to a place where
he hath no mind to go, and to do somwhat he would not chuse to
do? for his person is no more at his own disposal then his goods
are; so that he may as graciously retain of himself all that he
hath granted.
    Whether the Soveraign Power or the Liberty of the Subject
receive the greater injury and prejudice by this brief state and
description he makes of the no liberty, that is, the portion he
leaves to the Subject, would be a great question, if he had not
bin pleas'd himself to determine, that his Subject (for God
forbid that any other Prince should have such a Subject) is not
capable of any injury; by which the whole mischief is like to
fall upon the Soveraign. And what greater mischief and ruine can
threaten the greatest Prince, then that their Subjects should
believe, that all the liberty they have, consists only in those
things which the Soveraign hath hitherto pretermitted, that is,
which he hath not yet taken from them, but when he pleases in
regulating their actions to determine the contrary, they shall
then have neither liberty to buy or sell, nor to contract with
each other, to chuse their own abode, their own diet, their own
trade of life, or to breed their own children; and to make their
misery compleat, and their life as little their own as the rest,
that nothing the Soveraign can do to his subject, on what
pretence soever, as well in order to the taking away his Life as
his Estate, can be called injustice or injury; I say, what
greater insecurity can any Prince be in or under, then to depend
upon such Subjects? And alas! what security to himself or them
can the Sword in his hand be, if no other hand be lift up on his
behalf, or the Swords in all other hands be directed against him,
that he may not cut off their heads when he hath a mind to it?
And it is not Mr Hobbes's autority that will make it believ'd,
that he who desires more liberty, demands an exemption from all
Laws, by which all other men may be masters of their lives; and
that every Subject is author of every act the Soveraign doth,
upon the extravagant supposition of a consent that never was
given; and if it were possible to have bin given, must have bin
void at the instant it was given, by Mr Hobbes's own rules, as
shall be made out in its place. He himself confesses, (pag. 295.)
and saies it is evident to the meanest capacities, that mens
actions are deriv'd from the opinions they have of the good and
evil which from those actions redound unto themselves, and
consequently men that are once possessed of an opinion that their
obedience to the Soveraign power will be more hurtful to them
then their disobedience, will disobey the Laws, and thereby over
throw the Common-wealth, and introduce confusion and civil War,
for the avoiding whereof, all civil Government was ordained. If
this be true, (as there is no reason to believe it to be) is it
possible that any man can believe, that the People, for we speak
not of convin