Books: Leviathan

T >> Thomas Hobbes >> Leviathan

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47

But if there be no Immateriall Spirit, nor any Possession of mens bodies
by any Spirit Corporeall, it may again be asked, why our Saviour
and his Apostles did not teach the People so; and in such cleer words,
as they might no more doubt thereof. But such questions as these,
are more curious, than necessary for a Christian mans Salvation.
Men may as well aske, why Christ that could have given to all men Faith,
Piety, and all manner of morall Vertues, gave it to some onely,
and not to all: and why he left the search of naturall Causes,
and Sciences, to the naturall Reason and Industry of men,
and did not reveal it to all, or any man supernaturally;
and many other such questions: Of which neverthelesse there may be
alledged probable and pious reasons. For as God, when he brought
the Israelites into the Land of Promise, did not secure them therein,
by subduing all the Nations round about them; but left many of them,
as thornes in their sides, to awaken from time to time their Piety
and Industry: so our Saviour, in conducting us toward his heavenly
Kingdome, did not destroy all the difficulties of Naturall Questions;
but left them to exercise our Industry, and Reason; the Scope of
his preaching, being onely to shew us this plain and direct way
to Salvation, namely, the beleef of this Article, "that he was the Christ,
the Son of the living God, sent into the world to sacrifice himselfe
for our Sins, and at his comming again, gloriously to reign over
his Elect, and to save them from their Enemies eternally:"
To which, the opinion of Possession by Spirits, or Phantasmes,
are no impediment in the way; though it be to some an occasion
of going out of the way, and to follow their own Inventions.
If wee require of the Scripture an account of all questions,
which may be raised to trouble us in the performance of Gods commands;
we may as well complaine of Moses for not having set downe the time
of the creation of such Spirits, as well as of the Creation of the Earth,
and Sea, and of Men, and Beasts. To conclude, I find in Scripture
that there be Angels, and Spirits, good and evill; but not that
they are Incorporeall, as are the Apparitions men see in the Dark, or in
a Dream, or Vision; which the Latines call Spectra, and took for Daemons.
And I find that there are Spirits Corporeal, (though subtile
and Invisible;) but not that any mans body was possessed,
or inhabited by them; And that the Bodies of the Saints shall be such,
namely, Spirituall Bodies, as St. Paul calls them.

The Power Of Casting Out Devills,
Not The Same It Was In The Primitive Church
Neverthelesse, the contrary Doctrine, namely, that there be
Incorporeall Spirits, hath hitherto so prevailed in the Church,
that the use of Exorcisme, (that is to say, of ejection of Devills
by Conjuration) is thereupon built; and (though rarely and faintly
practised) is not yet totally given over. That there were many
Daemoniaques in the Primitive Church, and few Mad-men, and other
such singular diseases; whereas in these times we hear of,
and see many Mad-men, and few Daemoniaques, proceeds not from
the change of Nature; but of Names. But how it comes to passe,
that whereas heretofore the Apostles, and after them for a time,
the Pastors of the Church, did cure those singular Diseases,
which now they are not seen to doe; as likewise, why it is not
in the power of every true Beleever now, to doe all that the Faithfull
did then, that is to say, as we read (Mark 16. 17.) "In Christs name
to cast out Devills, to speak with new Tongues, to take up Serpents,
to drink deadly Poison without harm taking, and to cure the Sick
by the laying on of their hands," and all this without other words,
but "in the Name of Jesus," is another question. And it is probable,
that those extraordinary gifts were given to the Church,
for no longer a time, than men trusted wholly to Christ,
and looked for their felicity onely in his Kingdome to come;
and consequently, that when they sought Authority, and Riches,
and trusted to their own Subtilty for a Kingdome of this world,
these supernaturall gifts of God were again taken from them.

Another Relique Of Gentilisme, Worshipping Of Images,
Left In The Church, Not Brought Into It
Another relique of Gentilisme, is the Worship of Images,
neither instituted by Moses in the Old, nor by Christ in the
New Testament; nor yet brought in from the Gentiles; but left
amongst them, after they had given their names to Christ.
Before our Saviour preached, it was the generall Religion of
the Gentiles, to worship for Gods, those Apparences that remain
in the Brain from the impression of externall Bodies upon the organs
of their Senses, which are commonly called Ideas, Idols, Phantasmes,
Conceits, as being Representations of those externall Bodies,
which cause them, and have nothing in them of reality, no more than
there is in the things that seem to stand before us in a Dream:
And this is the reason why St. Paul says, "Wee know that an Idol
is Nothing:" Not that he thought that an Image of Metall, Stone,
or Wood, was nothing; but that the thing which they honored,
or feared in the Image, and held for a God, was a meer Figment,
without place, habitation, motion, or existence, but in the motions
of the Brain. And the worship of these with Divine Honour, is that
which is in the Scripture called Idolatry, and Rebellion against God.
For God being King of the Jews, and his Lieutenant being first Moses,
and afterward the High Priest; if the people had been permitted
to worship, and pray to Images, (which are Representations of
their own Fancies,) they had had no farther dependence on the true God,
of whom there can be no similitude; nor on his prime Ministers,
Moses, and the High Priests; but every man had governed himself
according to his own appetite, to the utter eversion of the Common-wealth,
and their own destruction for want of Union. And therefore the first
Law of God was, "They should not take for Gods, ALIENOS DEOS, that is,
the Gods of other nations, but that onely true God, who vouchsafed
to commune with Moses, and by him to give them laws and directions,
for their peace, and for their salvation from their enemies."
And the second was, that "they should not make to themselves any
Image to Worship, of their own Invention." For it is the same deposing
of a King, to submit to another King, whether he be set up by a
neighbour nation, or by our selves.

Answer To Certain Seeming Texts For Images
The places of Scripture pretended to countenance the setting up of Images,
to worship them; or to set them up at all in the places where God
is worshipped, are First, two Examples; one of the Cherubins over
the Ark of God; the other of the Brazen Serpent: Secondly, some texts
whereby we are commanded to worship certain Creatures for their
relation to God; as to worship his Footstool: And lastly,
some other texts, by which is authorized, a religious honoring
of Holy things. But before I examine the force of those places,
to prove that which is pretended, I must first explain what is to be
understood by Worshipping, and what by Images, and Idols.

What Is Worship
I have already shewn in the 20 Chapter of this Discourse, that to Honor,
is to value highly the Power of any person: and that such value
is measured, by our comparing him with others. But because there is
nothing to be compared with God in Power; we Honor him not but
Dishonour him by any Value lesse than Infinite. And thus Honor
is properly of its own nature, secret, and internall in the heart.
But the inward thoughts of men, which appeare outwardly in their words
and actions, are the signes of our Honoring, and these goe by the name
of WORSHIP, in Latine, CULTUS. Therefore, to Pray to, to Swear by,
to Obey, to bee Diligent, and Officious in Serving: in summe,
all words and actions that betoken Fear to Offend, or Desire to Please,
is Worship, whether those words and actions be sincere, or feigned:
and because they appear as signes of Honoring, are ordinarily
also called Honor.

Distinction Between Divine And Civill Worship
The Worship we exhibite to those we esteem to be but men, as to Kings,
and men in Authority, is Civill Worship: But the worship we exhibite
to that which we think to bee God, whatsoever the words, ceremonies,
gestures, or other actions be, is Divine Worship. To fall prostrate
before a King, in him that thinks him but a Man, is but Civill Worship:
And he that but putteth off his hat in the Church, for this cause,
that he thinketh it the House of God, worshippeth with Divine Worship.
They that seek the distinction of Divine and Civill Worship,
not in the intention of the Worshipper, but in the Words douleia,
and latreia, deceive themselves. For whereas there be two sorts
of Servants; that sort, which is of those that are absolutely
in the power of their Masters, as Slaves taken in war, and their Issue,
whose bodies are not in their own power, (their lives depending
on the Will of their Masters, in such manner as to forfeit them
upon the least disobedience,) and that are bought and sold as Beasts,
were called Douloi, that is properly, Slaves, and their Service, Douleia:
The other, which is of those that serve (for hire, or in hope of benefit
from their Masters) voluntarily; are called Thetes; that is, Domestique
Servants; to whose service the Masters have no further right, than is
contained in the Covenants made betwixt them. These two kinds of
Servants have thus much common to them both, that their labour is
appointed them by another, whether, as a Slave, or a voluntary Servant:
And the word Latris, is the general name of both, signifying him that
worketh for another, whether, as a Slave, or a voluntary Servant:
So that Latreia signifieth generally all Service; but Douleia the service
of Bondmen onely, and the condition of Slavery: And both are used
in Scripture (to signifie our Service of God) promiscuously.
Douleia, because we are Gods Slaves; Latreia, because wee Serve him:
and in all kinds of Service is contained, not onely Obedience,
but also Worship, that is, such actions, gestures, and words,
as signifie Honor.

An Image What Phantasmes
An IMAGE (in the most strict signification of the word) is the
Resemblance of some thing visible: In which sense the Phantasticall
Formes, Apparitions, or Seemings of Visible Bodies to the Sight,
are onely Images; such as are the Shew of a man, or other thing
in the Water, by Reflexion, or Refraction; or of the Sun, or Stars
by Direct Vision in the Air; which are nothing reall in the things seen,
nor in the place where thy seem to bee; nor are their magnitudes
and figures the same with that of the object; but changeable,
by the variation of the organs of Sight, or by glasses; and are present
oftentimes in our Imagination, and in our Dreams, when the object
is absent; or changed into other colours, and shapes, as things that
depend onely upon the Fancy. And these are the Images which are
originally and most properly called Ideas, and IDOLS, and derived
from the language of the Graecians, with whom the word Eido
signifieth to See. They are also called PHANTASMES, which is in
the same language, Apparitions. And from these Images it is that
one of the faculties of mans Nature, is called the Imagination.
And from hence it is manifest, that there neither is, nor can bee
any Image made of a thing Invisible.

It is also evident, that there can be no Image of a thing Infinite:
for all the Images, and Phantasmes that are made by the Impression
of things visible, are figured: but Figure is a quantity every
way determined: And therefore there can bee no Image of God:
nor of the Soule of Man; nor of Spirits, but onely of Bodies Visible,
that is, Bodies that have light in themselves, or are by such enlightened.

Fictions
Materiall Images
And whereas a man can fancy Shapes he never saw; making up a Figure
out of the parts of divers creatures; as the Poets make their Centaures,
Chimaeras, and other Monsters never seen: So can he also give
Matter to those Shapes, and make them in Wood, Clay or Metall.
And these are also called Images, not for the resemblance of any
corporeall thing, but for the resemblance of some Phantasticall
Inhabitants of the Brain of the Maker. But in these Idols,
as they are originally in the Brain, and as they are painted,
carved, moulded, or moulten in matter, there is a similitude
of the one to the other, for which the Materiall Body made by Art,
may be said to be the Image of the Phantasticall Idoll made by Nature.

But in a larger use of the word Image, is contained also,
any Representation of one thing by another. So an earthly Soveraign
may be called the Image of God: And an inferiour Magistrate
the Image of an earthly Soveraign. And many times in the Idolatry
of the Gentiles there was little regard to the similitude of their
Materiall Idoll to the Idol in their fancy, and yet it was called
the Image of it. For a Stone unhewn has been set up for Neptune,
and divers other shapes far different from the shapes they conceived
of their Gods. And at this day we see many Images of the Virgin Mary,
and other Saints, unlike one another, and without correspondence
to any one mans Fancy; and yet serve well enough for the purpose
they were erected for; which was no more but by the Names onely,
to represent the Persons mentioned in the History; to which every man
applyeth a Mentall Image of his owne making, or none at all.
And thus an Image in the largest sense, is either the Resemblance,
or the Representation of some thing Visible; or both together,
as it happeneth for the most part.

But the name of Idoll is extended yet further in Scripture,
to signifie also the Sunne, or a Starre, or any other Creature,
visible or invisible, when they are worshipped for Gods.

Idolatry What
Having shewn what is Worship, and what an Image; I will now put them
together, and examine what that IDOLATRY is, which is forbidden
in the Second Commandement, and other places of the Scripture.

To worship an Image, is voluntarily to doe those externall acts,
which are signes of honoring either the matter of the Image,
which is Wood, Stone, or Metall, or some other visible creature;
or the Phantasme of the brain, for the resemblance, or representation
whereof, the matter was formed and figured; or both together,
as one animate Body, composed of the Matter and the Phantasme,
as of a Body and Soule.

To be uncovered, before a man of Power and Authority, or before
the Throne of a Prince, or in such other places as hee ordaineth
to that purpose in his absence, is to Worship that man, or Prince
with Civill Worship; as being a signe, not of honoring the stoole,
or place, but the Person; and is not Idolatry. But if hee that doth it,
should suppose the Soule of the Prince to be in the Stool,
or should present a Petition to the Stool, it were Divine Worship,
and Idolatry.

To pray to a King for such things, as hee is able to doe for us,
though we prostrate our selves before him, is but Civill Worship;
because we acknowledge no other power in him, but humane:
But voluntarily to pray unto him for fair weather, or for any thing
which God onely can doe for us, is Divine Worship, and Idolatry.
On the other side, if a King compell a man to it by the terrour of Death,
or other great corporall punishment, it is not Idolatry: For the Worship
which the Soveraign commandeth to bee done unto himself by the terrour
of his Laws, is not a sign that he that obeyeth him, does inwardly
honour him as a God, but that he is desirous to save himselfe from death,
or from a miserable life; and that which is not a sign of internall honor,
is no Worship; and therefore no Idolatry. Neither can it bee said,
that hee that does it, scandalizeth, or layeth any stumbling block
before his Brother; because how wise, or learned soever he be
that worshippeth in that manner, another man cannot from thence argue,
that he approveth it; but that he doth it for fear; and that it is not
his act, but the act of the Soveraign.

To worship God, in some peculiar Place, or turning a mans face
towards an Image, or determinate Place, is not to worship,
or honor the Place, or Image; but to acknowledge it Holy,
that is to say, to acknowledge the Image, or the Place to be
set apart from common use: for that is the meaning of the word Holy;
which implies no new quality in the Place, or Image; but onely
a new Relation by Appropriation to God; and therefore is not Idolatry;
no more than it was Idolatry to worship God before the Brazen Serpent;
or for the Jews when they were out of their owne countrey,
to turn their faces (when they prayed) toward the Temple of Jerusalem;
or for Moses to put off his Shoes when he was before the Flaming Bush,
the ground appertaining to Mount Sinai; which place God had chosen
to appear in, and to give his Laws to the People of Israel,
and was therefore Holy ground, not by inhaerent sanctity,
but by separation to Gods use; or for Christians to worship
in the Churches, which are once solemnly dedicated to God for
that purpose, by the Authority of the King, or other true Representant
of the Church. But to worship God, is inanimating, or inhibiting,
such Image, or place; that is to say, an infinite substance in
a finite place, is Idolatry: for such finite Gods, are but Idols
of the brain, nothing reall; and are commonly called in the Scripture
by the names of Vanity, and Lyes, and Nothing. Also to worship God,
not as inanimating, or present in the place, or Image; but to the end
to be put in mind of him, or of some works of his, in case the Place,
or Image be dedicated, or set up by private authority, and not by
the authority of them that are our Soveraign Pastors, is Idolatry.
For the Commandement is, "Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any
graven image." God commanded Moses to set up the Brazen Serpent;
hee did not make it to himselfe; it was not therefore against
the Commandement. But the making of the Golden Calfe by Aaron,
and the People, as being done without authority from God, was Idolatry;
not onely because they held it for God, but also because they made it
for a Religious use, without warrant either from God their Soveraign,
or from Moses, that was his Lieutenant.

The Gentiles worshipped for Gods, Jupiter, and others; that living,
were men perhaps that had done great and glorious Acts; and for
the Children of God, divers men and women, supposing them gotten
between an Immortall Deity, and a mortall man. This was Idolatry, because
they made them so to themselves, having no authority from God, neither
in his eternall Law of Reason, nor in his positive and revealed Will.
But though our Saviour was a man, whom wee also beleeve to bee God
Immortall, and the Son of God; yet this is no Idolatry; because wee
build not that beleef upon our own fancy, or judgment, but upon
the Word of God revealed in the Scriptures. And for the adoration
of the Eucharist, if the words of Christ, "This is my Body," signifie,
"that he himselfe, and the seeming bread in his hand; and not onely so,
but that all the seeming morsells of bread that have ever since been,
and any time hereafter shall bee consecrated by Priests, bee so many
Christs bodies, and yet all of them but one body," then is that
no Idolatry, because it is authorized by our Saviour: but if that text
doe not signifie that, (for there is no other that can be alledged
for it,) then, because it is a worship of humane institution,
it is Idolatry. For it is not enough to say, God can transubstantiate
the Bread into Christs Body: For the Gentiles also held God to be
Omnipotent; and might upon that ground no lesse excuse their Idolatry,
by pretending, as well as others, as transubstantiation of their Wood,
and Stone into God Almighty.

Whereas there be, that pretend Divine Inspiration, to be a
supernaturall entring of the Holy Ghost into a man, and not an
acquisition of Gods grace, by doctrine, and study; I think they
are in a very dangerous Dilemma. For if they worship not the men
whom they beleeve to be so inspired, they fall into Impiety;
as not adoring Gods supernaturall Presence. And again, if they
worship them, they commit Idolatry; for the Apostles would never permit
themselves to be so worshipped. Therefore the safest way is to beleeve,
that by the Descending of the Dove upon the Apostles; and by Christs
Breathing on them, when hee gave them the Holy Ghost; and by the
giving of it by Imposition of Hands, are understood the signes
which God hath been pleased to use, or ordain to be used,
of his promise to assist those persons in their study to Preach
his Kingdome, and in their Conversation, that it might not be Scandalous,
but Edifying to others.

Scandalous Worship Of Images
Besides the Idolatrous Worship of Images, there is also a
Scandalous Worship of them; which is also a sin; but not Idolatry.
For Idolatry is to worship by signes of an internall, and reall honour:
but Scandalous Worship, is but Seeming Worship; and may sometimes
bee joined with an inward, and hearty detestation, both of the Image,
and of the Phantasticall Daemon, or Idol, to which it is dedicated;
and proceed onely from the fear of death, or other grievous punishment;
and is neverthelesse a sin in them that so worship, in case they be men
whose actions are looked at by others, as lights to guide them by;
because following their ways, they cannot but stumble, and fall
in the way of Religion: Whereas the example of those we regard not,
works not on us at all, but leaves us to our own diligence and caution;
and consequently are no causes of our falling.

If therefore a Pastor lawfully called to teach and direct others,
or any other, of whose knowledge there is a great opinion,
doe externall honor to an Idol for fear; unlesse he make his feare,
and unwillingnesse to it, as evident as the worship; he Scandalizeth
his Brother, by seeming to approve Idolatry. For his Brother,
arguing from the action of his teacher, or of him whose knowledge
he esteemeth great, concludes it to bee lawfull in it selfe.
And this Scandall, is Sin, and a Scandall given. But if one being
no Pastor, nor of eminent reputation for knowledge in Christian Doctrine,
doe the same, and another follow him; this is no Scandall given;
for he had no cause to follow such example: but is a pretence of
Scandall which hee taketh of himselfe for an excuse before men:
For an unlearned man, that is in the power of an idolatrous King,
or State, if commanded on pain of death to worship before an Idoll,
hee detesteth the Idoll in his heart, hee doth well; though if he
had the fortitude to suffer death, rather than worship it,
he should doe better. But if a Pastor, who as Christs Messenger,
has undertaken to teach Christs Doctrine to all nations,
should doe the same, it were not onely a sinfull Scandall,
in respect of other Christian mens consciences, but a perfidious
forsaking of his charge.

The summe of that which I have said hitherto, concerning the Worship
of Images, is that, that he that worshippeth in an Image, or any Creature,
either the Matter thereof, or any Fancy of his own, which he thinketh
to dwell in it; or both together; or beleeveth that such things
hear his Prayers, or see his Devotions, without Ears, or Eyes,
committeth Idolatry: and he that counterfeiteth such Worship
for fear of punishment, if he bee a man whose example hath power
amongst his Brethren, committeth a sin: But he that worshippeth
the Creator of the world before such an Image, or in such a place
as he hath not made, or chosen of himselfe, but taken from
the commandement of Gods Word, as the Jewes did in worshipping God
before the Cherubins, and before the Brazen Serpent for a time,
and in, or towards the Temple of Jerusalem, which was also but
for a time, committeth not Idolatry.

Now for the Worship of Saints, and Images, and Reliques,
and other things at this day practised in the Church of Rome,
I say they are not allowed by the Word of God, not brought into
the Church of Rome, from the Doctrine there taught; but partly left in it
at the first conversion of the Gentiles; and afterwards countenanced,
and confirmed, and augmented by the Bishops of Rome.

Answer To The Argument From
The Cherubins, And Brazen Serpent
As for the proofs alledged out of Scripture, namely, those examples
of Images appointed by God to bee set up; They were not set up
for the people, or any man to worship; but that they should worship
God himselfe before them: as before the Cherubins over the Ark,
and the Brazen Serpent. For we read not, that the Priest,
or any other did worship the Cherubins; but contrarily wee read
(2 Kings 18.4.) that Hezekiah brake in pieces the Brazen Serpent
which Moses had set up, because the People burnt incense to it.
Besides, those examples are not put for our Imitation, that we also
should set up Images, under pretence of worshipping God before them;
because the words of the second Commandement, "Thou shalt not make
to thy selfe any graven Image, &c." distinguish between the Images that
God commanded to be set up, and those which wee set up to our selves.
And therefore from the Cherubins, or Brazen Serpent, to the Images
of mans devising; and from the Worship commanded by God, to the
Will-Worship of men, the argument is not good. This also is to bee
considered, that as Hezekiah brake in pieces the Brazen Serpent,
because the Jews did worship it, to the end they should doe so no more;
so also Christian Soveraigns ought to break down the Images which
their Subjects have been accustomed to worship; that there be no more
occasion of such Idolatry. For at this day, the ignorant People,
where Images are worshipped, doe really beleeve there is a Divine Power
in the Images; and are told by their Pastors, that some of them
have spoken; and have bled; and that miracles have been done by them;
which they apprehend as done by the Saint, which they think either
is the Image it self, or in it. The Israelites, when they worshipped
the Calfe, did think they worshipped the God that brought them
out of Egypt; and yet it was Idolatry, because they thought the Calfe
either was that God, or had him in his belly. And though some man
may think it impossible for people to be so stupid, as to think the Image
to be God, or a Saint; or to worship it in that notion; yet it is manifest
in Scripture to the contrary; where when the Golden Calfe was made,
the people said, (Exod. 32. 2.) "These are thy Gods O Israel;"
and where the Images of Laban (Gen. 31.30.) are called his Gods.
And wee see daily by experience in all sorts of People, that such men
as study nothing but their food and ease, are content to beleeve
any absurdity, rather than to trouble themselves to examine it;
holding their faith as it were by entaile unalienable, except by
an expresse and new Law.