Hobbes - Leviathan.pdf

ecause it is the effect of the immediate hand of God; that is to say,
God hath done it, without using the prophet therein as a subordinate
cause.
Secondly, that no devil, angel, or other created spirit can do a
miracle. For it must either be by virtue of some natural science or by
incantation, that is, virtue of words. For if the enchanters do it
by their own power independent, there is some power that proceedeth
not from God, which all men deny; and if they do it by power given
them, then is the work not from the immediate hand of God, but
natural, and consequently no miracle.
There be some texts of Scripture that seem to attribute the power of
working wonders, equal to some of those immediate miracles wrought
by God Himself, to certain arts of magic and incantation. As, for
example, when we read that after the rod of Moses being cast on the
ground became a serpent, "the magicians of Egypt did the like by their
enchantments";* and that after Moses had turned the waters of the
Egyptian streams, rivers, ponds, and pools of water into blood, "the
magicians of Egypt did likewise, with their enchantments";*(2) and
that after Moses had by the power of God brought frogs upon the
land, "the magicians also did so with their enchantments, and
brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt";*(3) will not man be apt to
attribute miracles to enchantments; that is to say, to the efficacy of
the sound of words; and think the same very well proved out of this
and other such places And yet there is no place of Scripture that
telleth us what an enchantment is. If therefore enchantment be not, as
many think it, a working of strange effects by spells and words, but
imposture and delusion wrought by ordinary means; and so far from
supernatural, as the impostors need not the study so much of natural
causes, but the ordinary ignorance, stupidity, and superstition of
mankind, to do them; those texts that seem to countenance the power of
magic, witchcraft, and enchantment must needs have another sense
than at first sight they seem to bear.
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* Exodus, 7. 11
*(2) Ibid., 7. 22
*(3) Ibid., 8. 7
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For it is evident enough that words have no have now effect but on
those that understand them, and then they have no other but to signify
the intentions or passions of them that speak; and thereby produce
hope, fear, or other passions, or conceptions in the hearer. Therefore
when a rod seemeth a serpent, or the waters blood, or any other
miracle seemeth done by enchantment; if it be not to the edification
of God's people, not the rod, nor the water, nor any other thing is
enchanted; that is to say, wrought upon by the words, but the
spectator. So that all the miracle consisteth in this, that the
enchanter has deceived a man; which is no miracle, but a very easy
matter to do.
For such is the ignorance and aptitude to error generally of all
men, but especially of them that have not much knowledge of natural
causes, and of the nature and interests of men, as by innumerable
and easy tricks to be abused. What opinion of miraculous power, before
it was known there was a science of the course of the stars, might a
man have gained that should have told the people, this hour, or day,
the sun should be darkened A juggler, by the handling of his
goblets and other trinkets, if it were not now ordinarily practised,
would be thought to do his wonders by the power at least of the Devil.