The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 05 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
It is a promise of great exactness, and like to that which is in his
Epistle to the Reader: “Here is all that passed between us upon this
subject, without any addition or the least variation from the original,”
&c.: which promises were both needless, and made out of gallantry; and
therefore he is the less pardonable in case they be not very rigidly
observed. I would therefore have the reader to consider, whether these
words of mine: “our Saviour bids us pray, _thy will_, not _our_ will,
_be done_, and by example teaches us the same; for he prayed thus:
_Father, if it be thy will let this cup pass_,” &c.: which seem at least
to imply that our prayers cannot change the will of God, nor divert him
from his eternal decree: have been weighed by him to a grain, according
to his promise. Nor hath he kept his other promise any better; for (No.
VIII.) replying to these words of mine, “if he had so little to do as to
be a spectator of the actions of bees and spiders, he would have
confessed not only election, but also art, prudence, and policy in
them,” &c., he saith, “yes, I have seen those silliest of creatures, and
seeing their rare works I have seen enough to confute all the bold-faced
atheists of this age, and their hellish blasphemies”. This passage is
added to that which passed between us upon this subject; for it is not
in the copy which I have had by me, as himself confesseth, these eight
years; nor is it in the body of the copy he sent to the press, but only
in the margin, that is to say, added out of anger against me, whom he
would have men think to be one of the bold-faced atheists of this age.