The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 06 (of 11) — Thomas Hobbes — John Shaqi
The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 06 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
_B._ I see that Monsieur Mornay du Plessis, and Dr. Morton, Bishop of
Durham, writing of the progress of the Pope’s power, and intituling
their books, one of them, _The Mystery of Iniquity_, the other, _The
Grand Imposture_, were both in the right. For I believe there was never
such another cheat in the world, and I wonder that the Kings and States
of Christendom never perceived it.
_A._ It is manifest they did perceive it. How else durst they make war
against the Pope, and some of them take him out of Rome itself and carry
him away prisoner? But if they would have freed themselves from his
tyranny, they should have agreed together, and made themselves every
one, as Henry VIII did, head of the Church within their own respective
dominions. But not agreeing, they let his power continue, every one
hoping to make use of it, when there should be cause, against his
neighbour.
_B._ Now, as to that other distemper by Presbyterians, how came their
power to be so great, being of themselves, for the most part, but so
many poor scholars?
_A._ This controversy between the Papist and the Reformed Churches,
could not choose but make every man, to the best of his power, examine
by the Scriptures, which of them was in the right; and to that end they
were translated into vulgar tongues; whereas before, the translation of
them was not allowed, nor any man to read them but such as had express
license so to do. For the Pope did concerning the Scriptures the same
that Moses did concerning Mount Sinai. Moses suffered no man to go up to
it to hear God speak or gaze upon him, but such as he himself took with
him; and the Pope suffered none to speak with God in the Scriptures,
that had not some part of the Pope’s spirit in him, for which he might
be trusted.
_B._ Certainly Moses did therein very wisely, and according to God’s own
commandment.
_A._ No doubt of it, and the event itself hath made it appear so. For
after the Bible was translated into English, every man, nay, every boy
and wench, that could read English, thought they spoke with God
Almighty, and understood what he said, when by a certain number of
chapters a day they had read the Scriptures once or twice over. The
reverence and obedience due to the Reformed Church here, and to the
bishops and pastors therein, was cast off, and every man became a judge
of religion, and an interpreter of the Scriptures to himself.
_B._ Did not the Church of England intend it should be so? What other
end could they have in recommending the Bible to me, if they did not
mean I should make it the rule of my actions? Else they might have kept
it, though open to themselves, to me sealed up in Hebrew, Greek, and
Latin, and fed me out of it in such measure as had been requisite for
the salvation of my soul and the Church’s peace.