Hobbes - Leviathan.pdf

sovereign thereof Out of this place therefore it followeth that he
which heareth his sovereign, being a Christian, heareth Christ; and he
that despiseth the doctrine which his king, being a Christian,
authorizeth despiseth the doctrine of Christ, which is not that
which Bellarmine intendeth here to prove, but the contrary. But all
this is nothing to a law. Nay more, a Christian king, a pastor and
teacher of his subjects makes not thereby his doctrines laws. He
cannot oblige men to believe, though as a civil sovereign he may
make laws suitable to his doctrine, which may oblige men to certain
actions, and sometimes to such as they would not otherwise do, and
which he ought not to command; and yet when they are commanded, they
are laws; and the external actions done in obedience to them,
without the inward approbation, are the actions of the sovereign,
and not of the subject, which is in that case but as an instrument,
without any motion of his own at all, because God hath commanded to
obey them.
The eleventh is every place where the Apostle, for counsel,
putteth some word by which men use to signify command, or calleth
the following of his counsel by the name of obedience. And therefore
they are alleged out of I Corinthians, 11. 2, "I commend you for
keeping my precepts as I delivered them to you." The Greek is, "I
commend you for keeping those things I delivered to you, as I
delivered them": which is far from signifying that they were laws,
or anything else, but good counsel. And that of I Thessalonians, 4. 2,
"You know what commandments we gave you": where the Greek word is
paraggelias edokamen, equivalent to paredokamen, "what we delivered to
you," as in the place next before alleged, which does not prove the
traditions of the Apostles to be any more than counsels; though as
is said in the eighth verse, "he that despiseth them, despiseth not
man, but God": for our Saviour himself came not to judge, that is,
to be king in this world; but to sacrifice himself for sinners, and
leave doctors in his Church, to lead, not to drive men to Christ,
who never accepteth forced actions (which is all the law produceth),
but the inward conversion of the heart, which is not the work of laws,
but of counsel and doctrine.
And that of II Thessalonians, 3. 14, "If any man obey not our word
by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that
he may be ashamed": where from the word obey, he would infer that this
epistle was a law to the Thessalonians. The epistles of the emperors
were indeed laws. If therefore the Epistle of St. Paul were also a
law, they were to obey two masters. But the word obey, as it is in the
Greek upakouei, signifieth hearkening to, or putting in practice,
not only that which is commanded by him that has right to punish,
but also that which is delivered in a way of counsel for our good; and
therefore St. Paul does not bid kill him that disobeys; nor beat,
nor imprison, nor amerce him, which legislators may all do; but
avoid his company, that he may be ashamed: whereby it is evident it
was not the empire of an Apostle, but his reputation amongst the
faithful, which the Christians stood in awe of.
The last place is that of Hebrews, 13. 17, "Obey your leaders, and
submit yourselves to them, for they watch for your souls, as they that
must give account": and here also is intended by obedience, a
following of their counsel: for the reason of our obedience is not
drawn from the will and command of our pastors, but from our own
benefit, as being the salvation of our souls they watch for, and not
for the exaltation of their own power and authority. If it were
meant here that all they teach were laws, then not only the Pope,