Hobbes - Leviathan.pdf

general, but to be He. There is also some mark of the time of this
special Antichrist, as when that abominable destroyer, spoken of by
Daniel,*(2) shall stand in the holy place,*(3) and such tribulation as
was not since the beginning of the world, nor ever shall be again,
insomuch as if it were to last long, no flesh could be saved; but
for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened,"*(4) (made fewer).
But that tribulation is not yet come; for it is to be followed
immediately by a darkening of the sun and moon, a falling of the
stars, a concussion of the heavens, and the glorious coming again of
our Saviour in the clouds.*(5) And therefore the Antichrist is not yet
come; whereas many Popes are both come and gone. It is true, the Pope,
in taking upon him to give laws to all Christian kings and nations,
usurpeth a kingdom in this world, which Christ took not on him: but he
doth it not as Christ, but as for Christ, wherein there is nothing
of the Antichrist.
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* Matthew, 24. 5
*(2) Daniel, 9. 27
*(3) Matthew, 24. 15
*(4) Ibid., 24. 22
*(5) Ibid., 24. 29
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In the fourth book, to prove the Pope to be the supreme judge in all
questions of faith and manners, which is as much as to be the absolute
monarch of all Christians in the world, he bringeth three
propositions: the first, that his judgements are infallible; the
second, that he can make very laws, and punish those that observe them
not; the third, that our Saviour conferred all jurisdiction
ecclesiastical on the Pope of Rome.
For the infallibility of his judgements, he allegeth the Scriptures:
the first, that of Luke, 22. 31, "Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired you
that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy
faith fail not; and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren."
This, according to Bellarmine's exposition, is that Christ gave here
to Simon Peter two privileges: one, that neither his faith should
fail, nor the faith of any of his successors; the other, that
neither he nor any of his successors should ever define any point
concerning faith or manners erroneously, or contrary to the definition
of a former Pope: which is a strange and very much strained
interpretation. But he that with attention readeth that chapter
shall find there is no place in the whole Scripture that maketh more
against the Pope's authority than this very place. The priests and
scribes, seeking to kill our Saviour at the Passover, and Judas
possessed with a resolution to betray him, and the day of killing
the Passover being come, our Saviour celebrated the same with his
Apostles, which he said, till the kingdom of God was come he would
do no more, and withal told them that one of them was to betray him.
Hereupon they questioned which of them it should be; and withal,
seeing the next Passover their master would celebrate should be when
he was king, entered into a contention who should then be the greatest
man. Our Saviour therefore told them that the kings of the nations had
dominion over their subjects, and are called by a name in Hebrew
that signifies bountiful; "but I cannot be so to you; you must
endeavour to serve one another; I ordain you a kingdom, but it is such
as my Father hath ordained me; a kingdom that I am now to purchase
with my blood, and not to possess till my second coming; then ye shall
eat and drink at my table, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve