Hobbes - Leviathan.pdf

witness; but to them that deny, or doubt, or have not heard it. Christ
sent his Apostles and his seventy Disciples with authority to
preach; he sent not all that believed. And he sent them to
unbelievers; "I send you," saith he, "as sheep amongst wolves";* not
as sheep to other sheep.
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* Matthew, 10. 16
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Lastly, the points of their commission, as they are expressly set
down in the gospel, contain none of them any authority over the
congregation.
We have first that the twelve Apostles were sent "to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel," and commanded to preach "that the
kingdom of God was at hand."* Now preaching, in the original, is
that act which a crier, herald, or other officer useth to do
publicly in proclaiming of a king. But a crier hath not right to
command any man. And the seventy Disciples are sent out as "Labourers,
not as lords of the harvest";*(2) and are bidden to say, "The
kingdom of God is come nigh unto you";*(3) and by kingdom here is
meant, not the kingdom of grace, but the kingdom of glory; for they
are bidden to denounce it to those cities which shall not receive
them, as a threatening, that it shall be more tolerable in that day
for Sodom than for such a city.*(4) And our Saviour telleth his
Disciples, that sought priority of place, their office was to
minister, even as the Son of Man came, not to be ministered unto,
but to minister.*(5) Preachers therefore have not magisterial, but
ministerial power: "Be not called masters," saith our Saviour, "for
one is your master, even Christ."*(6)
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* Matthew, 10. 6, 7
*(2) Luke, 10. 2
*(3) Ibid., 10. 9
*(4) Ibid., 10. 11
*(5) Matthew, 20. 28
*(6) Ibid., 23. 10
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Another point of their commission is to "teach all nations"; as it
is in Matthew, 28. 19, or as in St. Mark, 16. 15, "Go into all the
world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Teaching,
therefore, and preaching is the same thing. For they that proclaim the
coming of a king must withal make known by what right he cometh, if
they mean men shall submit themselves unto him: as St. Paul did to the
Jews of Thessalonica, when "three Sabbath days he reasoned with them
out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must needs
have suffered, and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus is
Christ."* But to teach out of the Old Testament that Jesus was Christ,
that is to say, king, and risen from the dead, is not to say that
men are bound, after they believe it, to obey those that tell them so,
against the laws and commands of their sovereigns; but that they shall
do wisely to expect the coming of Christ hereafter, in patience and
faith, with obedience to their present magistrates.
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* Acts, 17. 2, 3
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Another point of their commission is to "baptize, in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." What is baptism
Dipping into water. But what is it to dip a man into the water in