Hobbes - Leviathan.pdf

and raised from the dead. Also, "When any one heareth the word of
the kingdom";*(5) that is the doctrine of the kingdom taught by
Christ. Again, the same word is said "to grow and to be
multiplied";*(6) which to understand of the evangelical doctrine is
easy, but of the voice or speech of God, hard and strange. In the same
sense the doctrine of devils*(7) signifieth not the words of any
devil, but the doctrine of heathen men concerning demons, and those
phantasms which they worshipped as gods.
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* Acts, 13. 46
*(2) Ibid., 5. 20
*(3) Ibid., 15. 7
*(4) Romans, 10. 8, 9
*(5) Matthew, 13. 19
*(6) Acts, 12. 24
*(7) I Timothy, 4. 1
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Considering these two significations of the word of God, as it is
taken in Scripture, it is manifest in this latter sense (where it is
taken for the doctrine of Christian religion) that the whole Scripture
is the word of God: but in the former sense, not so. For example,
though these words, "I am the Lord thy God," etc., to the end of the
Ten Commandments, were spoken by God to Moses; yet the preface, "God
spake these words and said," is to be understood for the words of
him that wrote the holy history. The word of God, as it is taken for
that which He hath spoken, is understood sometimes properly, sometimes
metaphorically. Properly, as the words He hath spoken to His prophets:
metaphorically, for His wisdom, power, and eternal decree, in making
the world; in which sense, those fiats, "Let their be light, Let there
be a firmament, Let us make man," etc.* are the word of God. And in
the same sense it is said, "All things were made by it, and without it
was nothing made that was made":*(2) and "He upholdeth all things by
the word of His power";*(3) that is, by the power of His word; that
is, by His power: and "The worlds were framed by the word of God";*(4)
and many other places to the same sense: as also amongst the Latins,
the name of fate, which signifieth properly the word spoken, is
taken in the same sense.
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* Genesis, 1
*(2) John, 1. 3
*(3) Hebrews, 1. 3
*(4) Ibid., 11. 3
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Secondly, for the effect of His word; that is to say, for the
thing itself, which by His word is affirmed, commanded, threatened, or
promised; as where Joseph is said to have been kept in prison, "till
his word was come";* that is, till that was come to pass which he
had foretold to Pharoah's butler concerning his being restored to
his office:*(2) for there, by his word was come, is meant the thing
itself was come to pass. So also, Elijah saith to God, "I have done
all these thy words,"*(3) instead of "I have done all these things
at thy word," or commandment. And, "Where is the word of the Lord"*(4)
is put for "Where is the evil He threatened." And, "There shall none
of my words be prolonged any more";*(5) by words are understood
those things which God promised to His people. And in the New
Testament, "heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not
pass away";*(6) that is, there is nothing that I have promised or