Hobbes - Leviathan.pdf

also the true interpretation of the word holy. For it is a word
which in God's kingdom answereth to that which men in their kingdoms
use to call public, or the king's.
The king of any country is the public person, or representative of
all his own subjects. And God the king of Israel was the Holy One of
Israel. The nation which is subject to one earthly sovereign is the
nation of that sovereign, that is, of the public person. So the
Jews, who were God's nation, were called a holy nation.* For by holy
is always understood either God Himself or that which is God's in
propriety; as by public is always meant either the person or the
Commonwealth itself, or something that is so the Commonwealth's as
no private person can claim any propriety therein.
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* Exodus, 19. 6
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Therefore the Sabbath (God's day) is a holy day; the Temple (God's
house), a holy house; sacrifices, tithes, and offerings (God's
tribute), holy duties; priests, prophets, and anointed kings, under
Christ (God's ministers), holy men; the celestial ministering
spirits (God's messengers), holy angels; and the like: and wheresoever
the word holy is taken properly, there is still something signified of
propriety gotten by consent. In saying "Hallowed be thy name," we do
but pray to God for grace to keep the first Commandment of having no
other Gods but Him. Mankind is God's nation in propriety: but the Jews
only were a holy nation,. Why, but because they became his propriety
by covenant
And the word profane is usually taken in the Scripture for the
same with common; and consequently their contraries, holy and
proper, in the kingdom of God must be the same also. But figuratively,
those men also are called holy that led such godly lives, as if they
had forsaken all worldly designs, and wholly devoted and given
themselves to God. In the proper sense, that which is made holy by
God's appropriating or separating it to his own use is said to be
sanctified by God, as the seventh day in the fourth Commandment; and
as the elect in the New Testament were said to be sanctified when they
were endued with the spirit of godliness. And that which is made
holy by the dedication of men, and given to God, so as to be used only
in his public service, is called also sacred, and said to be
consecrated, as temples, and other houses of public prayer, and
their utensils, priests, and ministers, victims, offerings, and the
external matter of sacraments.
Of holiness there be degrees: for of those things that are set apart
for the service of God, there may be some set apart again for a nearer
and more especial service. The whole nation of the Israelites were a
people holy to God; yet the tribe of Levi was amongst the Israelites a
holy tribe; and amongst the Levites the priests were yet more holy;
and amongst the priests the high priest was the most holy. So the land
of Judea was the Holy Land, but the Holy City wherein God was to be
worshipped was more holy; and again, the Temple more holy than the
city, and the sanctum sanctorum more holy than the rest of the Temple.
A sacrament is a separation of some visible thing from common use;
and a consecration of it to God's service, for a sign either of our
admission into the kingdom of God, to be of the number of his peculiar
people, or for a commemoration of the same. In the Old Testament the
sign of admission was circumcision; in the New Testament, baptism. The
commemoration of it in the Old Testament was the eating (at a
certain time, which was anniversary) of the Paschal Lamb, by which