Hobbes - Leviathan.pdf

them, to whom neither God the Father nor our Saviour ever spake, it
cannot be said that the person whom they believed was God. They
believed the Apostles, and after them the pastors and doctors of the
Church that recommended to their faith the history of the Old and
New Testament: so that the faith of Christians ever since our
Saviour's time hath had for foundation, first, the reputation of their
pastors, and afterward, the authority of those that made the Old and
New Testament to be received for the rule of faith; which none could
do but Christian sovereigns, who are therefore the supreme pastors,
and the only persons whom Christians now hear speak from God; except
such as God speaketh to in these days supernaturally. But because
there be many false prophets gone out into the world, other men are to
examine such spirits, as St. John adviseth us, "whether they be of
God, or not."* And, therefore, seeing the examination of doctrines
belongeth to the supreme pastor, the person which all they that have
no special revelation are to believe is, in every Commonwealth, the
supreme pastor, that is to say, the civil sovereign.
-
* I John, 4. 1
-
The causes why men believe any Christian doctrine are various: for
faith is the gift of God, and He worketh it in each several man by
such ways as it seemeth good unto Himself. The most ordinary immediate
cause of our belief, concerning any point of Christian faith, is
that we believe the Bible to be the word of God. But why we believe
the Bible to be the word of God is much disputed, as all questions
must needs be that are not well stated. For they make not the question
to be, why we believe it, but how we know it; as if believing and
knowing were all one. And thence while one side ground their knowledge
upon the infallibility of the Church, and the other side on the
testimony of the private spirit, neither side concludeth what it
pretends. For how shall a man know the infallibility of the Church but
by knowing first the infallibility of the Scripture Or how shall a
man know his own private spirit to be other than a belief grounded
upon the authority and arguments of his teachers or upon a presumption
of his own gifts Besides, there is nothing in the Scripture from
which can be inferred the infallibility of the Church; much less, of
any particular Church; and least of all, the infallibility of any
particular man.
It is manifest, therefore, that Christian men do not know, but
only believe the Scripture to be the word of God; and that the means
of making them believe, which God is pleased to afford men ordinarily,
is according to the way of nature, that is to say, from their
teachers. It is the doctrine of St. Paul concerning Christian faith in
general, "Faith cometh by hearing,"* that is, by hearing our lawful
pastors. He saith also, "How shall they believe in him of whom they
have not heard And how shall they hear without a preacher And how
shall they preach, except they be sent"*(2) Whereby it is evident
that the ordinary cause of believing that the Scriptures are the
word of God is the same with the cause of the believing of all other
articles of our faith, namely, the hearing of those that are by the
law allowed and appointed to teach us, as our parents in their houses,
and our pastors in the churches: which also is made more manifest by
experience. For what other cause can there be assigned why in
Christian Commonwealths all men either believe or at least profess the
Scripture to be the word of God, and in other Commonwealths scarce
any, but that in Christian Commonwealths they are taught it from their