Hobbes - Leviathan.pdf

tribes of Israel." And then addressing himself to St. Peter, he saith,
"Simon, Simon, Satan seeks, by suggesting a present domination, to
weaken your faith of the future; but I have prayed for thee, that
thy faith shall not fail; thou therefore note this: being converted,
and understanding my kingdom as of another world, confirm the same
faith in thy brethren." To which St. Peter answered (as one that no
more expected any authority in this world), "Lord, I am ready to go
with thee, not only to prison, but to death." Whereby it is
manifest, St. Peter had not only no jurisdiction given him in this
world, but a charge to teach all the other Apostles that they also
should have none. And for the infallibility of St. Peter's sentence
definitive in matter of faith, there is no more to be attributed to it
out of this text than that Peter should continue in the belief of this
point, namely, that Christ should come again and possess the kingdom
at the day of judgement; which was not given by this text to all his
successors; for we see they claim it in the world that now is.
The second place is that of Matthew 16. 18, "Thou art Peter, and
upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it." By which, as I have already shown in this
chapter, is proved no more than that the gates of hell shall not
prevail against the confession of Peter, which gave occasion to that
speech; namely this, that Jesus is Christ the Son of God.
The third text is John, 21. 16, 17, "Feed my sheep"; which
contains no more but a commission of teaching. And if we grant the
rest of the Apostles to be contained in that name of sheep, then it is
the supreme power of teaching: but it was only for the time that there
were no Christian sovereigns already possessed of that supremacy.
But I have already proved that Christian sovereigns are in their own
dominions the supreme pastors, and instituted thereto by virtue of
their being baptized, though without other imposition of hands. For
such imposition, being a ceremony of designing the person, is needless
when he is already designed to the power of teaching what doctrine
he will, by his institution to an absolute power over his subjects.
For as I have proved before, sovereigns are supreme teachers, in
general, by their office, and therefore oblige themselves, by their
baptism, to teach the doctrine of Christ: and when they suffer
others to teach their people, they do it at the peril of their own
souls; for it is at the hands of the heads of families that God will
require the account of the instruction of His children and servants.
It is of Abraham himself, not of a hireling, that God saith, "I know
him that he will command his children, and his household after him,
that they keep the way of the Lord, and do justice and judgement."*
-
* Genesis, 18. 19
-
The fourth place is that of Exodus, 28. 30, "Thou shalt put in the
breastplate of judgement, the Urim and the Thummim": which he saith is
interpreted by the Septuagint, delosin kai aletheian, that is,
evidence and truth: and thence concludeth, God hath given evidence and
truth, which is almost infallibility, to the high priest. But be it
evidence and truth itself that was given; or be it but admonition to
the priest to endeavour to inform himself clearly, and give
judgement uprightly; yet in that it was given to the high priest, it
was given to the civil sovereign (for such next under God was the high
priest in the Commonwealth of Israel), and is an argument for evidence
and truth, that is, for the ecclesiastical supremacy of civil
sovereigns over their own subjects, against the pretended power of the