Hobbes - Leviathan.pdf

they were put in mind of the night wherein they were delivered out
of their bondage in Egypt; and in the New Testament, the celebrating
of the Lord's Supper, by which we are put in mind of our deliverance
from the bondage of sin by our blessed Saviour's death upon the cross.
The sacraments of admission are but once to be used, because there
needs but one admission; but because we have need of being often put
in mind of our deliverance and of our allegiance, the sacraments of
commemoration have need to be reiterated. And these are the
principal sacraments and, as it were, the solemn oaths we make of
our allegiance. There be also other consecrations that may be called
sacraments, as the word implieth only consecration to God's service;
but as it implies an oath or promise of allegiance to God, there
were no other in the Old Testament but circumcision and the
Passover; nor are there any other in the New Testament but baptism and
the Lord's Supper.
CHAPTER XXXVI
OF THE WORD OF GOD, AND OF PROPHETS
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WHEN there is mention of the word of God, or of man, it doth not
signify a part of speech, such as grammarians call a noun or a verb,
or any simple voice, without a contexture with other words to make
it significative; but a perfect speech or discourse, whereby the
speaker affirmeth, denieth, commandeth, promiseth, threateneth,
wisheth, or interrogateth. In which sense it is not vocabulum that
signifies a word, but sermo (in Greek logos) that is, some speech,
discourse, or saying.
Again, if we say the word of God, or of man, it may be understood
sometimes of the speaker: as the words that God hath spoken, or that a
man hath spoken; in which sense, when we say the Gospel of St.
Matthew, we understand St. Matthew to be the writer of it: and
sometimes of the subject; in which sense, when we read in the Bible,
"The words of the days of the kings of Israel, or Judah," it is
meant the acts that were done in those days were the subject of
those words; and in the Greek, which, in the Scripture, retaineth many
Hebraisms, by the word of God is oftentimes meant, not that which is
spoken by God, but concerning God and His government; that is to
say, the doctrine of religion: insomuch as it is all one to say
logos theou, and theologia; which is that doctrine which we usually
call divinity, as is manifest by the places following: "The Paul and
Barnabas waxed bold, and said, it was necessary that the word of God
should first have been spoken to you, but seeing you put it from
you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to
the Gentiles."* That which is here called the word of God was the
doctrine of Christian religion; as it appears evidently by that
which goes before. And where it is said to the Apostles by an angel,
"Go stand and speak in the Temple, all the words of this life";*(2) by
the words of this life is meant the doctrine of the Gospel, as is
evident by what they did in the Temple, and is expressed in the last
verse of the same chapter. "Daily in the Temple, and in every house,
they ceased not to teach and preach Christ Jesus":*(3) in which
place it is manifest that Jesus Christ was the subject of this "word
of life"; or, which is all one, the subject of the "words of this life
eternal" that our Saviour offered them. So the word of God is called
the word of the Gospel, because it containeth the doctrine of the
kingdom of Christ; and the same word is called the word of
faith;*(4) that is, as is there expressed, the doctrine of Christ come