The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 04 (of 11) — Thomas Hobbes — John Shaqi
The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 04 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
I have seen, and so have many more, two waters, one of the river,
the other a mineral water, so like that no man could discern the one
from the other by his sight; yet when they have been both put
together, the whole substance could not by the eye be distinguished
from milk. Yet we know that the one was not mixed with the other, so
as every part of the one to be in every part of the other, for that
is impossible, unless two bodies can be in the same place. How then
could the change be made in every part, but only by the activity of
the mineral water, changing it every where to the sense, and yet not
being every where, and in every part of the water? If then such
gross bodies have so great activity, what shall we think of spirits,
whose kinds be as many as there be kinds of liquor, and activity
greater? Can it then be doubted, but that God, who is an infinitely
fine Spirit, and withal intelligent, can make and change all species
and kinds of body as he pleaseth? But I dare not say, that this is
the way by which God Almighty worketh, because it is past my
apprehension: yet it serves very well to demonstrate, that the
omnipotence of God implieth no contradiction; and is better than by
pretence of magnifying the fineness of the Divine substance, to
reduce it to a spright or phantasm, which is nothing.
A _person_ (Latin, _persona_) signifies an intelligent substance,
that acteth any thing in his own or another’s name, or by his own or
another’s authority. Of this definition there can be no other proof
than from the use of that word, in such Latin authors as were
esteemed the most skilful in their own language, of which number was
Cicero. But Cicero, in an epistle to Atticus, saith thus: _Unus
sustineo tres personas, mei, adversarii, et judicis_: that is, “I
that am but one man, sustain three persons; mine own person, the
person of my adversary, and the person of the judge.” Cicero was
here the substance intelligent, one man; and because he pleaded for
himself, he calls himself his own person: and again, because he
pleaded for his adversary, he says, he sustained the person of his
adversary: and lastly, because he himself gave the sentence, he
says, he sustained the person of the judge. In the same sense we use
the word in English vulgarly, calling him that acteth by his own
authority, his own person, and him that acteth by the authority of
another, the person of that other. And thus we have the exact
meaning of the word _person_. The Greek tongue cannot render it; for
πρὸσωπον is properly a face, and, metaphorically, a vizard of an
actor upon the stage. How then did the Greek Fathers render the word
_person_, as it is in the blessed Trinity? Not well. Instead of the
word _person_ they put _hypostasis_, which signifies substance; from
whence it might be inferred, that the three persons in the Trinity
are three Divine substances, that is, three Gods. The word πρὸσωπον
they could not use, because face and vizard are neither of them