Hobbes - Leviathan.pdf

that hath not transgressed the law of God. And therefore when we are
said to be justified by works, it is to be understood of the will,
which God doth always accept for the work itself, as well in good as
in evil men. And in this sense only it is that a man is called just,
or unjust; and that his justice justifies him, that is, gives him
the title, in God's acceptation of just, and renders him capable of
living by his faith, which before he was not. So that justice
justifies in that sense in which to justify is the same as that to
denominate a man just; and not in the signification of discharging the
law, whereby the punishment of his sins should be unjust.
But a man is then also said to be justified when his plea, though in
itself insufficient, is accepted; as when we plead our will, our
endeavour to fulfil the law, and repent us of our failings, and God
accepteth it for the performance itself. And because God accepteth not
the will for the deed, but only in the faithful, it is therefore,
faith that makes good our plea; and in this sense it is that faith
only justifies: so that faith and obedience are both necessary to
salvation, yet in several senses each of them is said to justify.
Having thus shown what is necessary to salvation, it is not hard
to reconcile our obedience to God with our obedience to the civil
sovereign, who is either Christian or infidel. If he be a Christian,
he alloweth the belief of this article, that Jesus is the Christ;
and of all the articles that are contained in, or are by evident
consequence deduced from it: which is all the faith necessary to
salvation. And because he is a sovereign, he requireth obedience to
all his own, that is, to all the civil laws; in which also are
contained all the laws of nature, that is, all the laws of God: for
besides the laws of nature, and the laws of the Church, which are part
of the civil law (for the Church that can make laws is the
Commonwealth), there be no other laws divine. Whosoever therefore
obeyeth his Christian sovereign is not thereby hindered neither from
believing nor from obeying God. But suppose that a Christian king
should from this foundation, Jesus is the Christ, draw some false
consequences, that is to say, make some superstructions of hay or
stubble, and command the teaching of the same; yet seeing St. Paul
says he shall be saved; much more shall he be saved that teacheth them
by his command; and much more yet, he that teaches not, but only
believes his lawful teacher. And in case a subject be forbidden by the
civil sovereign to profess some of those his opinions, upon what
just ground can he disobey Christian kings may err in deducing a
consequence, but who shall judge Shall a private man judge, when
the question is of his own obedience Or shall any man judge but he
that is appointed thereto by the Church, that is, by the civil
sovereign that representeth it Or if the Pope or an Apostle judge,
may he not err in deducing of a consequence Did not one of the two,
St. Peter or St. Paul, err in a superstructure, when St. Paul
withstood St. Peter to his face There can therefore be no
contradiction between the laws of God and the laws of a Christian
Commonwealth.
And when the civil sovereign is an infidel, every one of his own
subjects that resisteth him sinneth against the laws of God (for
such are the laws of nature), and rejecteth the counsel of the
Apostles that admonisheth all Christians to obey their princes, and
all children and servants to obey their parents and masters in all
things. And for their faith, it is internal and invisible; they have
the license that Naaman had, and need not put themselves into danger
for it. But if they do, they ought to expect their reward in heaven,