Hobbes - Leviathan.pdf

odily.*(9) And lastly, to say he spake by the Holy Spirit, as it
signifieth the graces or gifts of the Holy Spirit, is to attribute
nothing to him supernatural. For God disposeth men to piety,
justice, mercy, truth, faith, and all manner of virtue, both moral and
intellectual, by doctrine, example, and by several occasions,
natural and ordinary.
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* I Samuel, 13. 9
*(2) Ibid., 14. 18
*(3) Ibid., 14. 19
*(4) Ibid., 23. 2
*(5) Ibid., 23. 9
*(6) I Kings, 2. 27
*(7) Ibid., 2. 35
*(8) Numbers, 12. 6, 7, 8
*(9) Colossians, 2. 9
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And as these ways cannot be applied to God, in His speaking to Moses
at Mount Sinai; so also they cannot be applied to Him in His
speaking to the high priests from the mercy-seat. Therefore in what
manner God spake to those sovereign prophets of the Old Testament,
whose office it was to enquire of Him, is not intelligible. In the
time of the New Testament there was no sovereign prophet but our
Saviour, who was both God that spake, and the prophet to whom He
spake.
To subordinate prophets of perpetual calling, I find not any place
that proveth God spake to them supernaturally, but only in such manner
as naturally He inclineth men to piety, to belief, to righteousness,
and to other virtues all other Christian men. Which way, though it
consist in constitution, instruction, education, and the occasions and
invitements men have to Christian virtues, yet it is truly
attributed to the operation of the Spirit of God, or Holy Spirit,
which we in our language call the Holy Ghost: for there is no good
inclination that is not of the operation of God. But these
operations are not always supernatural. When therefore a prophet is
said to speak in the spirit, or by the Spirit of God, we are to
understand no more but that he speaks according to God's will,
declared by the supreme prophet. For the most common acceptation of
the word spirit is in the signification of a man's intention, mind, or
disposition.
In the time of Moses, there were seventy men besides himself that
prophesied in the camp of the Israelites. In what manner God spake
to them is declared in the eleventh Chapter of Numbers, verse 25: "The
Lord came down in a cloud, and spake unto Moses, and took of the
spirit that was upon him, and gave it to the seventy elders. And it
came to pass, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and
did not cease." By which it is manifest, first, that their prophesying
to the people was subservient and subordinate to the prophesying of
Moses; for that God took of the spirit of Moses put upon them; so that
they prophesied as Moses would have them: otherwise they had not
been suffered to prophesy at all. For there was a complaint made
against them to Moses;* and Joshua would have Moses to have
forbidden them; which he did not, but said to Joshua "Be not jealous
in my behalf." Secondly, that the Spirit of God in that place
signifieth nothing but the mind and disposition to obey and assist
Moses in the administration of the government. For if it were meant
they had the substantial Spirit of God; that is, the divine nature,