The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 04 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
_T. H._ Did not his Lordship forget himself here again, in approving
this sentence of Tully, which makes the idolatry of the Romans, not
only better than the idolatry of other nations; but also better than
the religion of the Jews, whose law Christ himself says he came not
to destroy but to fulfil? And that the Romans overcame both them and
other nations by their piety, when it is manifest that the Romans
overran the world by injustice and cruelty, and that their victories
ought not to be ascribed to the piety of the Romans, but to the
impiety as well of the Jews as of other nations? But what meant he
by saying “Tully was as wise a man as T. H. himself, though perhaps
he will hardly be persuaded to it?” Was that any part of the
controversy? No: then it was out of his way. God promiseth to assist
good men in their way, but not out of their way. It is therefore the
less wonder that his Lordship was in this place deserted of the
light, which God imprints in the hearts of rudest savages.
_J. D._ Among his laws he inserteth _gratitude_ to men as the third
precept of the law of nature; but of the gratitude of mankind to
their Creator, there is a deep silence. If men had sprung up from
the earth in a night, like mushrooms or excrescences, without all
sense of honour, justice, conscience, or gratitude, he could not
have vilified the human nature more than he doth.
_T. H._ My Lord discovers here an ignorance of such method as is
necessary for lawful and strict reasoning, and explication of the
truth in controversy. And not only that, but also how little able he
is to fix his mind upon what he reads in other men’s writings. When
I had defined ingratitude universally, he finds fault that I do not
mention ingratitude towards God, as if his Lordship knew not that an
universal comprehends all the particulars. When I had defined equity
universally, why did he not as well blame me for not telling what
that equity is in God? He is grateful to the man of whom he receives
a good turn, that confesseth, or maketh appear he is pleased with
the benefit he receiveth. So also gratitude towards God is to
confess his benefits. There is also, in gratitude towards men, a
desire to requite their benefits; so there is in our gratitude
towards God, so far to requite them, as to be kind to God’s
ministers, which I acknowledged in making sacrifices a part of
natural divine worship; and the benefit of those sacrifices is the
nourishment of God’s ministers. It appears therefore, that the
bishop’s attention in reading my writings, was either weak in
itself, or weakened by prejudice.