Hobbes - Leviathan.pdf

the higher powers, for there is no power but of God"; which is
meant, he saith, not only of secular, but also of ecclesiastical
princes. To which I answer, first, that there are no ecclesiastical
princes but those that are also civil sovereigns, and their
principalities exceed not the compass of their civil sovereignty;
without those bounds, though they may be received for doctors, they
cannot be acknowledged for princes. For if the Apostle had meant we
should be subject both to our own princes and also to the Pope, he had
taught us a doctrine which Christ himself hath told us is
impossible, namely, to serve two masters. And though the Apostle say
in another place, "I write these things being absent, lest being
present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the
Lord hath given me";* it is not that he challenged a power either to
put to death, imprison, banish, whip, or fine any of them, which are
punishments; but only to excommunicate, which, without the civil
power, is no more but a leaving of their company, and having no more
to do with them than with a heathen man or a publican; which in many
occasions might be a greater pain to the excommunicant than to the
excommunicate.
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* II Corinthians, 13. 10
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The seventh place is I Corinthians, 4. 21, "Shall I come unto you
with a rod, or in love, and the spirit of lenity" But here again,
it is not the power of a magistrate to punish offenders, that is meant
by a rod; but only the power of excommunication, which is not in its
own nature a punishment, but only a denouncing of punishment, that
Christ shall inflict, when he shall be in possession of his kingdom,
at the day of judgement. Nor then also shall it be properly a
punishment, as upon a subject that hath broken the law; but a revenge,
as upon an enemy, or revolter, that denyeth the right of our saviour
to the kingdom: and therefore this proveth not the legislative power
of any bishop that has not also the civil power.
The eighth place is Timothy, 3. 2, "A bishop must be the husband but
of one wife, vigilant, sober," etc., which he saith was a law. I
thought that none could make a law in the Church but the monarch of
the Church, St. Peter. But suppose this precept made by the
authority of St. Peter; yet I see no reason why to call it a law,
rather than an advice, seeing Timothy was not a subject, but a
disciple of St. Paul; nor the flock under the charge of Timothy, his
subjects in the kingdom, but his scholars in the school of Christ.
If all the precepts he giveth Timothy be laws, why is not this also
a law, "Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for health's
sake" And why are not also the precepts of good physicians so many
laws, but that it is not the imperative manner of speaking, but an
absolute subjection to a person, that maketh his precepts laws
In like manner, the ninth place, I Timothy, 5. 19, "Against an elder
receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses," is a
wise precept, but not a law.
The tenth place is Luke, 10. 16, "He that heareth you, heareth me;
and he that despiseth you, despiseth me." And there is no doubt but he
that despiseth the counsel of those that are sent by Christ
despiseth the counsel of Christ himself. But who are those now that
are sent by Christ but such as are ordained pastors by lawful
authority And who are lawfully ordained that are not ordained by
the sovereign pastor And who is ordained by the sovereign pastor in a
Christian Commonwealth that is not ordained by the authority of the