Hobbes - Leviathan.pdf

to that special grace which was not allowed to the people; which
was, as in the verse after appeareth, to see God and live. "God laid
not His hand upon them, they saw God, and did eat and drink" (that is,
did live), but did not carry any commandment from Him to the people.
Again, it is everywhere said, "The Lord spake unto Moses," as in all
other occasions of government, so also in also in the ordering of
the ceremonies of religion, contained in the 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th,
29th, 30th, and 31st chapters of Exodus, and throughout Leviticus;
to Aaron, seldom. The calf that Aaron made, Moses threw into the fire.
Lastly, the question of the authority of Aaron, by occasion of his and
Miriam's mutiny against Moses, was judged by God Himself for
Moses.*(3) So also in the question between Moses and the people, who
had the right of governing the people, when Korah, Dathan, and Abiram,
and two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly "gathered themselves
together against Moses, and against Aaron, and said unto them, ye take
too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one
of them, and the Lord is amongst them, why lift you up yourselves
above the congregation of the Lord"*(4) God caused the earth to
swallow Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, with their wives and children,
alive, and consumed those two hundred and fifty princes with fire.
Therefore neither Aaron, nor the people, nor any aristocracy of the
chief princes of the people, but Moses alone had next under God the
sovereignty over the Israelites: and that not only in causes of
civil policy, but also of religion: for Moses only spoke with God, and
therefore only could tell the people what it was that God required
at their hands. No man upon pain of death might be so presumptuous
as to approach the mountain where God talked with Moses. "Thou shalt
set bounds," saith the Lord, "to the people round about, and say, Take
heed to yourselves that you go not up into the Mount, or touch the
border of it; whosoever toucheth the Mount shall surely be put to
death."*(5) And again, "Go down, charge the people, lest they break
through unto the Lord to gaze."*(6) Out of which we may conclude
that whosoever in Christian Commonwealth holdeth the place of Moses is
the sole messenger of God and interpreter of His commandments. And
according hereunto, no man ought in the interpretation of the
Scripture to proceed further than the bounds which are set by their
several sovereigns. For the Scriptures, since God now speaketh in
them, are the Mount Sinai, the bounds whereof are the laws of them
that represent God's person on earth. To look upon them, and therein
to behold the wondrous works of God, and learn to fear Him, is
allowed; but to interpret them, that is, to pry into what God saith to
him whom He appointeth to govern under Him, and make themselves judges
whether he govern as God commandeth him, or not, is to transgress
the bounds God hath set us, and to gaze upon God irreverently.
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* Exodus, 24. 1, 2
*(2) Ibid., 24. 9
*(3) Numbers, 12
*(4) Ibid., 16. 3
*(5) Exodus, 19. 12
*(6) Ibid., 19. 21
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There was no prophet in the time of Moses, nor pretender to the
spirit of God, but such as Moses had approved and authorized. For
there were in his time but seventy men that are said to prophesy by
the spirit of God, and these were all of Moses his election;
concerning whom God said to Moses, "Gather to me seventy of the elders