Hobbes - Leviathan.pdf

Again, he is to be king then no otherwise than as subordinate or
vicegerent of God the Father, as Moses was in the wilderness, and as
the high priests were before the reign of Saul, and as the kings
were after it. For it is one of the prophecies concerning Christ
that he be like, in office, to Moses: "I will raise them up a
prophet," saith the Lord, "from amongst their brethren like unto thee,
and will put my words into his mouth";* and this similitude with Moses
is also apparent in the actions of our Saviour himself, whilst he
was conversant on earth. For as Moses chose twelve princes of the
tribes to govern under him; so did our Saviour choose twelve Apostles,
who shall sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel:
and as Moses authorized seventy elders to receive the Spirit of God,
and to prophesy to the people, that is, as I have said before, to
speak unto them in the name of God; so our Saviour also ordained
seventy disciples to preach his kingdom and salvation to all
nations. And as when a complaint was made to Moses against those of
the seventy that prophesied in the camp of Israel, he justified them
in it as being subservient therein to his government; so also our
Saviour, when St. John complained to him of a certain man that cast
out devils in his name, justified him therein, saying, "Forbid him
not, for he that is not against us is on our part."*(2)
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* Deuteronomy, 18. 18
*(2) Luke, 9. 50
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Again, our Saviour resembled Moses in the institution of sacraments,
both of admission into the kingdom of God and of commemoration of
his deliverance of his elect from their miserable condition. As the
children of Israel had for sacrament of their reception into the
kingdom of God, before the time of Moses, the rite of circumcision,
which rite, having been omitted in the wilderness, was again
restored as soon as they came into the Land of Promise; so also the
Jews, before the coming of our Saviour, had a rite of baptizing,
that is, of washing with water all those that, being Gentiles,
embraced the God of Israel. This rite St. John the Baptist used in the
reception of all them that gave their names to the Christ, whom he
preached to be already come into the world; and our Saviour instituted
the same for a sacrament to be taken by all that believed in him.
For what cause the rite of baptism first proceeded is not expressed
formally in the Scripture, but it may be probably thought to be an
imitation of the law of Moses concerning leprosy; wherein the
leprous man was commanded to be kept out of the camp of Israel for a
certain time; after which time, being judged by the priest to be
clean, he was admitted into the camp after a solemn washing. And
this may therefore be a type of the washing in baptism, wherein such
men as are cleansed of the leprosy of sin by faith are received into
the Church with the solemnity of baptism. There is another
conjecture drawn from the ceremonies of the Gentiles, in a certain
case that rarely happens: and that is, when a man that was thought
dead chanced to recover, other men made scruple to converse with
him, as they would do to converse with a ghost, unless he were
received again into the number of men by washing, as children new born
were washed from the uncleanness of their nativity, which was a kind
of new birth. This ceremony of the Greeks, in the time that Judaea was
under the dominion of Alexander and the Greeks his successors, may
probably enough have crept into the religion of the Jews. But seeing
it is not likely our Saviour would countenance a heathen rite, it is