 beginning of part three of Leviathan this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer visit LibriVox.org this reading by calm Manchester 2008 Leviathan by Thomas Hobbs the third part of a Christian Commonwealth chapter 32 of the principles of Christian politics I have derived the rights of sovereign power and the duty of subjects here the two from the principles of nature only such as experience has found true or consent concerning the use of words has made so that is to say from the nature of man known to us by experience and from definitions of such words as are essential to all political reasoning universally agreed on but in that I am next to handle which is the nature and rights of a Christian Commonwealth whereof their dependeth much upon supernatural revelations of the will of God the ground of my discourse must be not only the natural word of God but also the prophetical nevertheless we are not to renounce our senses and experience nor that which is the undoubted word of God our natural reason for they are the talents which he has put in our hands to negotiate till the coming again of our blessed saviour and therefore not to be folded up in the napkin of an implicit faith but employed in the purchase of justice peace and true religion for though there be many things in God's word above reason that is to say which cannot by natural reason be either demonstrated or confuted yet there is nothing contrary to it but when it seemeth so the fault is either in our unskillful interpretation or erroneous raciocination therefore when anything therein written is too hard for our examination we are bidden to captivate our understanding to the words and not to labour in sifting out a philosophical truth of logic of such mysteries as a not comprehensible nor fall under any rule of natural science for it is with the mysteries of our religion as with wholesome pills for the sick which swallowed whole have the virtue to cure but chewed for the most part cast up again without effect but by the captivity of our understanding is not meant a submission of the intellectual faculty to the opinion of any other man but of the will to obedience where obedience is due for sense memory understanding reason and opinion and not in our power to change but always and necessarily such as the things we see here and consider suggest unto us and therefore and not effects of our will but our will of them we then captivate our understanding and reason when we forebear contradiction when we so speak as by lawful authority we are commanded and when we live accordingly which in some is trust and faith reposed in him that speaketh though the mind be incapable of any notion at all from the words spoken when God speaketh to man it must be either immediately or by mediation of another man to whom he had formerly spoken by himself immediately how God speaketh to a man immediately may be understood by those well enough to whom he has so spoken but how the same should be understood by another is hard if not impossible to know for if a man pretend to me that God has spoken to him supernaturally and immediately I make doubt of it I cannot easily perceive what argument he can produce to oblige me to believe it it is true that if he be my sovereign he may oblige me to obedience so as not by act or word to declare I believe him not but not to think any otherwise than my reason persuades me but if one that has not such authority over me shall pretend the same there is nothing that exacteth either belief or obedience for to say that God has spoken to him in the holy scripture is not to say God has spoken to him immediately but by mediation of the prophets or of the apostles or of the church in such manner as he speaks to all other Christian men to say he has spoken to him in a dream is no more than to say he dreamed that God spoke to him which is not of force to win belief from any man that knows dreams are for the most part natural and may proceed from former thoughts and such dreams as that from self-conceit and foolish arrogance and false opinion of a man's own goodliness or virtue by which he thinks he has merited the favor of extraordinary revelation to say he has seen a vision or heard a voice is to say that he dreamed between sleeping and waking for in such manner a man doth many times naturally take his dream for a vision as not having well observed his own slumbering to say he speaks by supernatural inspiration is to say he finds an ardent desire to speak or some strong opinion of himself for which he can allege no natural and sufficient reason so that though God Almighty can speak to a man by dreams visions voice and inspiration yet he obliges no man to believe he has so done to him that pretends it who being a man may air and which is more may lie how then can he to whom God has never revealed his will immediately saving by the way of natural reason no when he is to obey or not to obey his word delivered by him that says he is a prophet a four hundred prophets of whom the King of Israel asked counsel concerning the war he made against Ramoth Gilead only Micaiah was a true one first Kings chapter 22 the prophet that was sent to prophecy against the altar set up by Jeroboam Ibedem chapter 13 though a true prophet and that by two miracles done in his presence appears to be a prophet sent from God was yet deceived by another old prophet that persuaded him as from the mouth of God to eat and drink with him if one prophet deceive another what certainty is there of knowing the will of God by other way than that of reason to which I answer out of the Holy scripture that there be two marks by which together not a Sunday a true prophet is to be known one is the doing of miracles the other is the not teaching any other religion than that which is already established a Sunday I say neither of these is sufficient quote if a prophet rise amongst you or a dreamer of dreams and she'll pretend the doing of a miracle and the miracle come to pass if he say let us follow strange gods which thou has not known thou shall not harken to him etc but that prophet and dreamer of dreams shall be put to death because he has spoken to you to revolt from the Lord your God end quote Deuteronomy chapter 13 verses one to five in which words two things are to be observed first that God will not have miracles alone serve for arguments to approve the prophet's calling but as it is in the third verse for an experiment of the constancy of our adherence to himself for the works of the Egyptian sorcerers though not so great as those of Moses yet were great miracles secondly that how great so ever the miracle be yet if it tend to stir up revolt against the king or him that governeth by the king's authority he that does such miracle is not to be considered otherwise than is sent to make trial of their allegiance for these words revolt from the Lord your God are in this place equivalent to revolt from your king for they had made God their king by packed at the foot of Mount Sinai who ruled them by Moses only for he only spake with God and from time to time declared God's commandments to the people in like manner after our Savior Christ had made his disciples acknowledge him for the Messiah that is to say for God's anointed whom the nation of the Jews daily expected for their king but refused when he came he admitted not to advertise them of the danger of miracles there shall arise saith he false Christ's and false prophets and shall do great wonders and miracles even to the seducing if it were possible of the very elect Matthew chapter twenty four verse twenty four by which it appears that false prophets may have the power of miracles yet are we not to take their doctrine for God's word Saint Paul says further to the Galatians that quote if himself or an angel from heaven preach another gospel to them than he had preached let him be a cursed Galatians chapter one verse eight that gospel was that Christ was king so that all preaching against the power of the king received in consequence to these words is by Saint Paul accursed for his speech is addressed to those who by his preaching had already received Jesus for the Christ that is to say for King of the Jews and as miracles without preaching that doctrine which God has established so preaching the true doctrine without the doing of miracles is an insufficient argument of immediate revelation for if a man that teachers not false doctrine should pretend to be a prophet without showing any miracle he is never the more to be regarded for his pretense as is evident by Deuteronomy chapter verses twenty one and twenty two quote if thou say in thy heart how shall we know that the word end quote of the prophet quote is not that which the Lord has spoken when the prophet shall have spoken in the name of the Lord that which shall not come to pass that is the word which the Lord has not spoken but the prophet has spoken it out of the pride of his own heart fear him not end quote but a man may hear again ask when the prophet had foretold a thing how shall we know whether it will come to pass or not for he may foretell it as a thing to arrive after a certain long time longer than the time of man's life or indefinitely that it will come to pass one time or other in which case this mark of a prophet is unuseful and therefore the miracles that oblige us to believe a prophet ought to be confirmed by an immediate or a not long deferred event so that it is manifest that the teachings of the religion which God has established and the showing of a present miracle joined together with the only marks whereby the scripture would have a true prophet that is to say immediate revelation to be acknowledged of them being singly sufficient to oblige any other man to regard what he saith seeing therefore miracles now cease we have no sign left whereby to acknowledge the pretended revelations or inspirations of any private man nor obligation to give ear to any doctrine farther than it is comfortable to the holy scriptures which since the time of our saviour supply the place and sufficiently recompense the want of all other prophecy and from which by wise and learned interpretation and careful rationation all rules and precepts necessary to the knowledge of our duty both to God and man without enthusiasm or supernatural inspiration may easily be deduced and this scripture is out of which i am to take the principles of my discourse concerning the rights of those that are the supreme governors on earth of christian commonwealths and of the duty of christian subjects towards their sovereigns and to that end i shall speak in the next chapter of the books writers scope and authority of the bible end of chapter 32 chapter 33 of leviathan this is a libra vox recording all libra vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libra vox.org leviathan by thomas hobs chapter 33 of the number antiquity scope authority and interpreters of the books of holy scripture by the books of holy scripture understood those which ought to be the canon that is to say the rules of christian life and because all rules of life which men are in conscience bound to observe are laws the question of the scripture is the question of what is law throughout all christendom both natural and civil for though it be not determined in scripture what laws every christian king shall constitute in his own dominions yet it is determined what laws he shall not constitute seeing therefore i've already proved that sovereigns in their own dominions are the sole legislators those books only are canonical that is law in every nation which are established for such by the sovereign authority it is true that god is a sovereign of all sovereigns and therefore when he speaks to any subject he ought to be obeyed whatsoever any earthly potentiate command of the contrary but the question is not of obedience to god but of when and what god hath said which to subjects that have no supernatural revelation cannot be known but by that natural reason which guided them for the obtaining of peace and justice to obey the authority of their several commonwealths that is to say of their lawful sovereigns according to this obligation i can acknowledge no other books of the old testament to be holy scripture but those which have been commanded to be acknowledged for such by the authority of the church of england what books these are is sufficiently known without a catalog of them here and they are the same that are acknowledged by saint gerome who holdeth the rest namely the wisdom of solomon ecclesiasticus judas tabias the first and the second of maccabees though he had seen the first in hebru and the third and fourth of estrus for apocrypha of the canonical josephus a learned Jew that wrote in the time of the emperor demission reckoned 22 making the number agree with the hebru alphabet saint gerome does the same though they reckon them in different manner for josephus numbers five books of moses 13 of prophets that writ the history of their own times which how it agrees with the prophet's writings contained in the bible we shall see hereafter and four of hymns and moral precepts but saint gerome reckons five books of moses eight of prophets and nine of other holy writ which he calls of hagiographer the septuagint who were seventy learned men of the jews sent for by tolami king of egypt to translate the jewish law out of the hebru into the greek have left us no other for holy scripture in the greek tongue but the same that are received in the church of england as for the books of the new testament they're equally acknowledged for canon by all christian churches and by all sects of christians that admit any books at all for canonical who were the original writers of the several books of holy scripture has not been made evident by any sufficient testimony of other history which is the only proof of matter of fact nor can be by any arguments of natural reason for reason serves only to convince the truth not a fact but of consequence the light therefore that must guide us in this question must be that which is held out unto us from the books themselves and this light though it show us not the writer of every book yet it is not unuseful to give us knowledge of the time we're in they were written and first for the pentateuch it is not argument enough that they were written by moses because they are called the five books of moses no more than that these titles the book of joshua the book of judges the book of ruth and the book of the kings are argument sufficient to prove that they were written by joshua by the judges by ruth and by the kings for in titles of books the subject is marked as often as the writer the history of livi denotes the writer but the history of scanderberg is denominated from the subject we read in the last chapter of deuteronomy concerning the sepulchre of moses that no man knoweth be sepulchre to this day that is to the day wherein those words were written it is therefore manifest that those words were written after his interment for it were a strange interpretation to say moses spake of his own sepulchre though by prophecy that it was not found to that day wherein he was yet living but it may perhaps be alleged that the last chapter only not the whole pentatouche was written by some other man but the rest not let us therefore consider that which we find in the book of genesis and abraham passed through the land to the place of shechem unto the plain of mora and the canaanite was then in the land which must needs be the words of one that wrote when the canaanite was not in the land and consequently not of moses who died before he came into it likewise numbers 21 14 the writer cited another more ancient book entitled the book of the wars of the lord wherein were registered the acts of moses at the red sea and at the brook of anan it is therefore sufficiently evident that the five books of moses were written after his time though how long after it be not so manifest but though moses did not compile those books entirely and in the form we have them yet he wrote all that which he is there said to have written as for example the volume of the law which is contained asset seamen in the 11th of deuteronomy and the following chapters to the 27th which is also commanded to be written on stones in their entry into the land of canaan and this did moses himself write and deliver to the priests and elders of israel to be read every seventh year to all israel at their assembling in the feast of tabernacles and this is that law which god commanded that their kings when they should have established that form of government should take a copy of from the priests and levites and which moses commanded the priests and levites to lay in the side of the ark and the same which having been lost was long time after found again by hill kyre and sent to king josius who causing it to be read to the people renewed the covenant between god and them that the book of joshua was also written long after the time of joshua may be gathered out of many places of the book itself joshua had set up 12 stones in the midst of jordan for a monument of their passage of which the writer sayeth thus they are there unto this day for unto this day is a phrase that signifies a time past beyond the memory of man in like manner upon the saying of the lord that he had rolled off from the people the approach of egypt the writer sayeth the place is called gilgal unto this day which to have said in the time of joshua had been improper so also the name of the valley of akkor from the trouble that akhan raised in the camp the writer sayeth remaineth unto this day which must needs be therefore long after the time of joshua arguments of this kind there will be many other as joshua 8 29 13 13 14 14 15 63 the same is manifest by like arguments of the book of judges 121 26 4 24 10 4 15 19 18 6 and Ruth 1 1 but especially judges 18 30 where it said that jonathan and his sons were priests to the tribe of dan unto the day of the captivity of the land that the books of samuel were also written after his own time there are the like arguments first samuel 5 5 7 13 15 27 6 and 30 25 after david had adjudged equal parts of the spoils to them that guarded the amnution with them that fought the writer sayeth he made a statue and an ordinance to israel to this day again when david displeased the lord had slain uza for putting out his hand to sustain the ark called the place perez uza the writer sayeth it is called so to this day the time therefore of the writing of that book must be long after the time of the fact that is long after the time of david as for the two books of the kings and the two books of the chronicles besides the places which mention such monuments as the writer sayeth remained till his own days such as our first kings 9 13 9 21 10 12 12 19 second kings 222 10 27 14 7 16 6 17 23 17 34 17 41 and first chronicles 4 41 5 26 it is argument sufficient that they were written after the captivity in babelon that the history of them is continued till that time for the facts registered are always more ancient than the register and much more ancient than such books as make mention of and quote the register as these books do in diverse places referring the reader to the chronicles of the kings of juda to the chronicles of the kings of israel to the books of the prophet samuel of the prophet nathan of the prophet ahaja to the vision of jeddo to the books of the prophet surabaya and offer the prophet addo the books of estrus and nehemiah were written certainly after their return from captivity because their return and re-edification of the walls and houses of jerusalem the renovation of the covenant and the ordination of their policy are therein contained the history of queen estra is of the time of the captivity and therefore the writer must have been of the same time or after it the book of jobe hath no mark in it of the time wherein it was written and though it appears sufficiently that he was no fiend person yet the book itself seemeth not to be a history but a treatise concerning a question in ancient time much disputed why wicked men have often prospered in this world and good men have been afflicted and it is the more probable because from the beginning to the third verse of the third chapter where the complaint of jobe beginneth the Hebrew is as saint Jerome testifies in prose and from thence to the sixth verse of the last chapter in hexameter verses and the rest of that chapter again in prose so that the dispute is all in verse and the prose is added as a preface in the beginning and epilogue in the end but verses no usual style of such as either are themselves in great pain as Job or of such as come to comfort them as his friends but in philosophy especially moral philosophy in ancient time frequent the Psalms were written the most part by David for the use of the choir to these are added some songs of Moses and other holy men and some of them after the return from the captivity as the 137th and the 126th whereby it is manifest that the saltier was compiled and put into the form it now hath after the return of the Jews from Babylon the Proverbs being a collection of wise and godly sayings partly of Solomon partly of Agar the son of Jacka and partly of the mother of King Lemuel cannot probably be thought to have been collected by Solomon rather than by Agar or the mother of Lemuel and that though the sentences be theirs yet the collection or compiling them into this one book was the work of some other godly man that lived after them all the books of Ecclesiastes and the Canticles have nothing that was not Solomon's except it be the titles or inscriptions for the words of the preacher the son of David king in Jerusalem and the song of songs which is Solomon's seem to have been made for distinction's sake then when the books of scripture were gathered into one body of the law to the end that not the doctrine only but the authors might also be extant of the prophets the most ancient are Zephaniah, Jonas, Amos, Hussiah, Eziah and Micaiah who lived in the time of Amaziah and Azariah otherwise Ezaias kings of Judah but the book of Jonah is not properly a register of his prophecy for that is contained in these few words 40 days and Nineveh shall be destroyed but a history or narration of his ferociousness and disputing God's commandments so that there is small probability he should be the author seeing he is the subject of it but the book of Amos is his prophecy Jeremiah, Obadiah, Nahum and Habakkuk prophesied in the time of Josiah Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai and Zechariah in the captivity when Joel and Malachi prophesied is not evident by their writings but considering their inscriptions or titles of their books it is manifest enough that the whole scripture of the Old Testament was set forth in the form we have it after the return of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon and before the time of Ptolemaeus Philodaphis that caused it to be translated into Greek by seventy men which were sent him out of Judea for that purpose and if the books of Apocrypha which are recommended to us by the church though not for canonical yet for profitable books for our instruction may in this point be credited the scripture was set forth in the form we have it in by Estrus as may appear by that which he himself sayeth in the second book chapter 14 verses 21 22 etc where speaking to God he sayeth thus thy law is burnt therefore no man knoweth the things which thou hast done or the works that are to begin but if I have found grace before thee send down the Holy Spirit into me and I shall write all that hath been done in the world since the beginning which were written in thy law that men may find my path and that they which will live in the latter days may live and verse 45 and it came to pass when the 40 days were fulfilled that the highest spoke saying the first that thou hast written publish openly that the worthy and unworthy may read it but keep the seventy last that thou mayest deliver them only to such as be wise among the people and thus much concerning the time of the writing of the books of the Old Testament the writers of the New Testament lived all in less than an age after Christ's ascension and had all of them seen our Savior or been his disciples except Saint Paul and Saint Luke and consequently whatsoever was written by them is as ancient as the time of the apostles but the time wherein the books of the New Testament were received and acknowledged by the church to be of their writing is not altogether so ancient for as the books of the Old Testament are derived to us from no higher time than that of Estrus who by the direction of God's Spirit retrieved them when they were lost those of the New Testament of which the copies were not many nor could easily be all in any one private man's hand cannot be derived from a higher time than that wherein the governors of the church collected approved and recommended them to us as the writings of those apostles and disciples under whose names they go the first enumeration of all the books both of the Old and New Testament is in the cannons of the apostles supposed to be collected by Clement I after Saint Peter Bishop of Rome but because that is but supposed and by many questioned the Council of Ladocia is the first we know that recommended the Bible to the then Christian churches for the writings of the prophets and apostles and this council was held in the 364th year after Christ at which time though ambition had so far prevailed on the great doctors of the church as no more to esteem emperors though Christian for the shepherds of the people but for sheep and emperors not Christian for wolves and endeavored to pass the doctrine not for counsel and information as preachers but for laws as absolute governors and thought such frauds as tended to make the people the more obedient to Christian doctrine to be pious yet I am persuaded they did not therefore falsify the scriptures though the copies of the books of the New Testament were in the hands only of the ecclesiastics because if they had had an intention so to do they would surely have made them more favourable to the power over Christian princes and civil sovereignty than they are I see not therefore any reason to doubt but that the old and New Testament as we have them now are the true registers of those things which were done and said by the prophets and apostles and so perhaps are some of those books which are called apocrypha if left out of the canon not for in conformity of doctrine with the rest but only because they are not found in the Hebrew for after the conquest of Asia by Alexander the Great there were few learned Jews that were not perfect in the Greek tongue for the 70 interpreters that converted the Bible into Greek were all of them Hebrews and we have extant the works of Philo and Josephus both Jews written by them eloquently in Greek but it is not the writer but the authority of the church that make it a book canonical and although these books were written by diverse men yet it is manifest the writers were all endured with one and the same spirit in that they conspire to one and the same end which is the setting forth of the rights of the kingdom of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost for the book of Genesis derives the genealogy of God's people from the creation of the world to the going into Egypt the other four books of Moses contain the election of God for the king and the laws which he prescribed for the government the books of Joshua judges Ruth and Samuel to the time of Saul described the acts of God's people till the time they cast off God's yoke and called for a king after the manner of their neighbour nations the rest of the history of the Old Testament derives the succession of the line of David to the captivity of which line was to spring the restorer of the kingdom of God even our blessed Savior God the Son whose coming was foretold in the books of the prophets after whom the evangelist wrote his life and actions and he's claimed the kingdom whilst he lived on earth and lastly the acts and epistles of the apostles declaring the coming of God the Holy Ghost and the authority he left with them and their successes for the direction of the Jews and for the invitation of the Gentiles in some the histories and the prophecies of the Old Testament and the gospels and epistles of the New Testament have had one and the same scope to convert men to the obedience of God one in Moses and the priests two in the man of Christ and three in the apostles and the successes to apostolic power for these three at several times did represent the person of God Moses and his successes the high priests and kings of Judah in the Old Testament Christ himself in the time he lived on earth and the apostles and their successes from the day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost descended on them to this day it is a question much disputed between the diverse sects of Christian religion from whence the scriptures derive their authority which question is also propounded sometimes in other terms asks how we know them to be the word of God or why we believe them to be so and the difficulty of resolving it arises chiefly from the improponous of the words wherein the question itself is couched for it is believed on all hands that the first and original author of them is God and consequently the question disputed is not that again it is manifest that none can know they are God's word though all true Christians believe it but those to whom God himself hath revealed it supernaturally and therefore the question is not rightly moved of our knowledge of it lastly when the question is propounded of our belief because some are moved to believe for one and others for other reasons there can be rendered no one general answer for them all the question truly stated is by what authority they are made law as far as they differ not from the laws of nature there is no doubt but they are the law of God and carry their authority with them legible to all men that have the use of natural reason but this is no other authority than that of all other moral doctrine consonant to reason the dictates whereof are laws not made but eternal if they be made law by God himself they are of the nature of written law which are laws to them only to whom God hath sufficiently published them as no man can excuse himself by saying he knew not they were his he therefore to whom God hath not supernaturally revealed that they are his nor that those that published them were sent by him is not obliged to obey them by any authority but his whose commands have already the force of laws that is to say by any other authority than that of the common wealth residing in the sovereign who only has the legislative power again if it be not the legislative authority of the common wealth that give it them the force of laws it must be some other authority derived from God either private or public if private it obliges only him to whom in particular God hath been pleased to reveal it for if every man should be obliged to take for God's law what particular men on pretense of private inspiration or revelation should obtrude upon him in such manner of men that out of pride and ignorance take their own dreams and extravagant fancies and madness for testimonies of God's spirit or out of ambition pretend as such divine testimonies falsely and contrary to their own consciences it were impossible that any divine law should be acknowledged if public it is the authority of the common wealth or of the church but the church if it be one person is the same thing with a common wealth of Christians called a common wealth because it consists of men united in one person they're sovereign and a church because it consists of in Christian men united in one Christian sovereign but if the church be not one person then it hath no authority at all it can either command or do any action at all nor is capable of having any power or right to anything nor has any will reason nor voice for all these qualities are personal now if the whole number of Christians be not contained in one common wealth they are not one person nor is there a universal church that hath any authority over them and therefore the scriptures are not made laws by the universal church or if it be one common wealth then all Christian monarchs and states are private persons and subject to be judged deposed and punished by a universal sovereign of all christened them so that the question of the authority of the scriptures is reduced to this where the Christian kings and the sovereign assemblies in Christian commonwealths be absolute in their own territories immediately under God or subject to one vicar of Christ constituted over the universal church to be judged condemned deposed and put to death as he shall think expedient or necessary for the common good which question cannot be resolved without a more particular consideration of the kingdom of God from whence also we are to judge of the authority of interpreting the scripture for whosoever hath a lawful power over any writing to make it law hath the power also to approve or disapprove the interpretation of the same end of chapter 33 chapter 34 of Leviathan it is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Ashwin Jain Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes chapter 34 of the signification of spirit angel and inspiration in the books of holy scripture seeing the foundation of all true ratiosination is the constant signification of words which in the document following depended not as natural science on the will of the writer nor as in common conversation on vulgar use but on the sense they carry the scripture it is necessary before i proceed any further to determine out of the bible the meaning of such words as by their ambiguity may render for time to infer upon them obscure or disputable i will begin with the words body and spirit which in the language of schools are termed substances corporeal and incorporeal the word body in the most general acceptance signifies that which fillet or occupies some certain room or imagined place and depended not on the imagination but is a real part of that we call the universe for the universe being the aggregate of all bodies there's no real part thereof that is not also body not anything probably a body that is not also part of that aggregate of all bodies the universe the same also because bodies are subject to change that is to say the variety of appearance to the sense of living creatures is called substance that is to say subject to various accidents as sometimes to be moved sometimes to stand still and to seem to our senses sometimes hot sometimes cold sometimes of one color smell taste or sound sometimes of another and this diversity of seeming produced by the diversity of operation of bodies on the organs of our sense we attribute to alterations of the bodies that operate and call them the accidents of those bodies and according to this acceptance of the word substance and body signify the same thing and therefore substance incorporeal our words which when they are joined together destroy one another as if a man should say an incorporeal body but in the sense of common people not all the universe is called body but in such parts thereof as they can discern by the sense of feeling to rinse their force or by the sense of their eyes to hinder them from a father prospect therefore in the common language of men air and ageless substances use not to be taken for bodies but as of men as men are sensible of their effects are called wind or breath or because the same are called in the latin spirit spirits as when they call the ageless substance which in the body of any living creature gives it life and motion vital and animal spirits but for those idols of the brain which represent bodies to us where they are not as in a looking glass in a dream or to a distempered brain waking they are as the postal says generally for all idols nothing nothing at all I say they're where they seem to be and in the brain itself nothing but tumult proceeding either from the action of the objects or from the disorderly agitation of the organs of a sense and men are otherwise employed then to search into their causes know not of themselves for to call them and may therefore easily be persuaded by those whose knowledge they must reverence some to call them bodies and think they're made of air compacted by our powers supernatural because the site is in corporal and some to call them spirits because the sense of touch dishonest nothing in the place where they appear to resist their fingers so the proper signification of spirit in common speech is either a subtle fluid an invisible body or a ghost or other idol of phantasm of the imagination but for metaphorical significations there be many for sometimes it is taken for disposition or inclination of the mind as for the disposition to control the sayings of other men we say a spirit of contradiction for disposition to uncleanness an unclean spirit for perverseness a forward spirit for sullenness a dumb spirit and for inclination to godliness and god's service the spirit of god sometimes for any imminent ability or extraordinary passion or disease of the mind as when great wisdom is called the spirit of wisdom and madmen are said to be possessed with a spirit other signification of spirit i find nowhere any and where none of these can satisfy the sense of that word in scripture the place for is not under human understanding and our faith there inconsistent not in our opinion but in our submission as in all places where god is said to be a spirit or where the spirit of god is meant god himself for the nature of god is incomprehensible that is to say we understand nothing of what he is but only that he is and therefore the attributes we give him are not to tell one another what he is not to signify our opinion of his nature but our desire to honor him with such names as conceive most honorable amongst ourselves the spirit of god moved upon the face of the waters this is 1.2 here if by the spirit of god we made god himself there is motion attributed to god and consequently place the intangible only of bodies not of substances in corporeal and so the place is above our understanding that can conceive nothing moved that changes not place but that has not dimension and whatsoever has dimension is body but the meaning of those words is best understood by the like place where when the earth was covered with waters as in the beginning god intending to obeyed them and again to discover the dry land using the like words i will bring my spirit upon the earth and water shall be diminished i read 8.1 in which place by spirit is understood avid that is an air or spirit moved which might be called as in the former place the spirit of god because it was god's work ferrao called the wisdom of joseph the spirit of god for joseph having advised him to look out the wise and discreet man and to set him over the land of egypt he says thus can find such a man as this is in whom is the spirit of god Genesis 41.38 and Exodus 28.3 thou shalt speak set god to all that are wise hearted whom i have filled with the spirit of wisdom to make Aaron garments to consulate him where extraordinary understanding though but in making garments as being the gift of god is called the spirit of god the same is found again Exodus 31.3 to 6 and 35.31 and Isaiah 11.2 and 3 where the prophet speaking of the messiah said the spirit of lord shall abide upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and fortitude and the spirit of the fear of the lord where manifestly is meant not so many ghosts but so many eminent graces that god would give him in the book of judges and extraordinary zeal and courage the defense of god's people is called the spirit of god as when it excited Othniel, Gideon, Jebtha and Samson to deliver them from servitude this is 3.10, 6.34, 11.29, 13.25, 14.6, 19 and of Saul upon the news of the insolence of the Ammonites towards the men of Jebesh Gilyar it is said that the spirit of god came upon Saul and his anger as it is in the latin his fury was kindled greatly for Samuel 10.6 where it is not probable was meant a ghost but an extraordinary zeal to punish the cruelty of the Ammonites in the like manner by the spirit of god that came upon Saul when he was amongst the prophets that praised god in songs and music i.e. 19.20 is to be understood not a ghost but an unexpected and certain zeal to join with them in their devotion the false prophet Zedekia said to Micaiah which way went the spirit of god from me to speak to the first kings 22.4 which cannot be understood of a ghost for Micaiah declared before the kings of Israel and Judah the event of battle as from a vision and not from a spirit speaking to him in the same manner it appeared in the books of the prophets that though they spake by the spirit of god that is to say by a special grace of prediction yet their knowledge of the future was not by a ghost within them but by a supernatural dream or vision it is said god made man of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man was made a living soul Genesis 2.7 there the breath of life inspired by god signifies no more but that god gave him life and as long as the spirit of god is in my nostrils job 27.3 is no more to say as long as i live so in Ezekiel 1.20 the spirit of life was in the wheels is equivalent to the wheels were alive and the spirit entered into me and me and set me on my feet Ezekiel 2.30 that is i recovered my vital strength not that any ghost or incorporeal substance entered into and possessed his body in the 11th chapter of numbers verse 17 i will take such god of the spirit which is upon thee and will put it upon them and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee that is upon the seventy elders where upon two of the seventy are said to prophecy in the camp of whom some complained and Joshua desired Moses to forbid them which Moses would not do whereby it appears that joshua knew not they had received authority so to do and prophesied according to the mind of moses that is to say by a spirit or authority subordinate to his own in the life sense we read that joshua was full of the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands upon him eutronomy 34.9 that is because he was ordained by moses to prosecute the work he had himself begun namely the begging of god's people into the promised land but prevented by death could not finish in the life sense it is said if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his Romans 8.9 not meaning thereby the ghost of Christ but a submission to his doctrine as also hereby you shall know the spirit of God every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God 1 John 4.2 by which is meant the spirit of unfaith Christianity submission to that main article of Christian faith that Jesus is the Christ which cannot be interpreted of a ghost likewise these words and Jesus full of the holy ghost Luke 4.1 that is as it is expressed Matthew 4.1 and Mark 1.12 of the Holy Spirit may be understood for zeal to do the work for which he was sent by God the Father but to interpret it of a ghost is to say that God himself was so our Savior was was filled with God which is very improper and insignificant how he came to translate spirits by the word ghost to signify nothing neither in heaven nor earth but the imaginary inhabitants of man's brain examine not but this I say the word spirit in the text signifies no such thing but either properly a real substance or metaphorically some extraordinary ability or affection of the mind or of the body the disciples of Christ singing walking upon the sea Matthew 14.26 and Mark 6.49 supposed him to be a spirit meaning thereby an aerial body and not a phantom what is said they all saw him which cannot be understood of the delusions of the brain which are not common to many at once as visible bodies are but singular because of the differences of fancies but of bodies only in like manner where he was taken for a spirit by the same apostles Luke 24.3 and 7 so also when Saint Peter was delivered out of prison it was not to be believed but when the maid said he was at the door they said it was his angel 12.15 by which must be meant a corporeal substance or we must say the disciples themselves did follow the common opinion of both Jews and Gentiles that some such apparitions were not imaginary but real and such as needed not the fancy of man for their existence these the Jews called spirits and angels good or bad as the Greeks called the same by the name of demons and some such apparitions may be real and substantial that is to say subtle bodies which God can form by the same power by which he formed all things and make use of as ministers and messengers that is to say angels to declare his will and exhibit the same when he pleases extraordinary and supernatural manner but when he has to form them their substances and viewed with dimensions and take up room and can be moved from place to place which is peculiar of bodies and therefore are not ghosts not ghosts in corporeal that is to say ghosts that are in no place that is to say that I know where that is to say that seeming to be somewhat are nothing but if corporeal be taken in the most vulgar manner whose substances as a perceptible by our external senses then is substance in corporeal a thing not imaginary but real namely a thin substance invisible but that had the same dimensions that are in cross their bodies by the name of angel is signified generally a messenger and most often a messenger of God and by a messenger of God is signified anything that makes known his extraordinary presence that is to say the extraordinary manifestation of his power especially by a dream of vision concerning the creation of angels there is nothing delivered in the scriptures that their spirits is often repeated but by the name of spirit is signified both in scripture and vulgarly both amongst youths and gintiles sometimes thin bodies as the air the wind the spirit's vital and animal of living creatures and sometimes the images that rise in fancy in dreams and visions which are not real substances nor last any longer than the dream of vision they appear in which apparitions though no real substances but accidents of the brain if in God raises them supernaturally to signify his will they are not improperly termed God's messengers that is to say his angels and as the gintiles did vulgarly conceive imagery of the brain for things really subsistent without them are not dependent on the fancy and out of them frame their opinions of demons good and evil which because they seem to substantially they call substances and because they could not feel them with their hands in proper real so also they're used upon the same ground without anything in the old testament that constrained them there unto had generally an opinion except the sect of the seduces that those apparitions which pleased God sometimes produced in the fancy of men for his own surface and they were called them his angels or substances not dependent on the fancy but permanent creatures of God where of those which they thought were good to them they esteemed the angels of God and those they thought would hurt them they called evil angels or evil spirit such as were the spirit of python and the spirits of madmen of lunatics and epileptics for their steam such as were troubled with diseases and demoniacs but if we consider the places of the old testament where angels have mentioned we shall find that in most of them they can nothing else be understood by the word angel but some image raised supernaturally in the fancy to signify the presence of God in the execution of some supernatural work and therefore in the rest where their nature is not expressed it may be understood in the same manner for we read that same apparition is called not only an angel but God where that which is called the angel of the Lord said to haggar I will multiply that seat exceedingly in 16.7 to 10 that is speaketh in the person of God neither was this apparition a fancy figured but a voice by which it is manifest that angels signify their nothing but God himself that caused haggar supernaturally to apprehend a voice from heaven or rather nothing else but a voice supernatural justifying God's special presence there why therefore may not the angels that appear to Lord and are called men I bet 19.10 and to whom though there were two Lord speaketh as but to one I be 19.18 and that one as God for the words are Lord said unto them oh not so my Lord be understood of images of men supernaturally formed in the fancy as well as before by angel was understood a fancied voice when the angel called to Abraham out of heaven to stay his hand from saints Isaac Genesis 22.11 there was no apparition but a voice which nevertheless was called properly enough a messenger or angel of God because it declared God's will supernaturally and saves the labor of supposing any permanent ghost the angels which Jacob saw or the ladder of heaven I bet 28.12 where a vision of his sleep therefore only fancy and a dream yet being supernatural and signs of God's special presence those apparitions are not improperly called angels the same is to be understood when Jacob said thus the angel of Lord appeared to me in my sleep 31.11 for an apparition made to a man in his sleep is that which all men call a dream where such a dream is natural or supernatural and that which there Jacob called an angel was God himself for the same angel said I am the God of Bethel I bet 31.13 also the angel that went before the army of Israel to the Red Sea and then came behind it and the Lord himself because that's only in point 19 and he appeared not in the form of a beautiful man but in form by day of a pillar of cloud and by night in form of a pillar of fire I bet 31.21 and yet this pillar was all the apparition an angel promised to Moses for the army's guide for this cloudy pillar is said to have descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle and to have talked with Moses I bet 33.2 there you see emotion and speech which are commonly attributed to angels attributed to a cloud because the clouds serve as a sign of God's presence and was no less an angel than if it had had the form of a man or his child of never so great beauty or wings as usually they are painted for the false structure of common people which is not the shape but their use that makes them angels but their use is to be significations of God's presence in supernatural operations as when Moses had desired God to go along with the camp as he had done always before the making of the golden calf God did not answer I will go nor I will send an angel in my stead but thus my presence shall go with thee Jesus is 33.14 to mention all the places of the old testament where the name angel is found would be too long therefore to comprehend them all at once I say there's no text that part of the old testament with the church of England holdeth for canonical from which we can conclude there is or has been created any permanent thing understood by the name of spirit or angel that has not quantity and that may not be by the understanding divided that is to say considered by parts so as one part may be in one place as the next part in the next place to it and in some which is not taking body for that which is somewhat or somewhere corporeal but in every place the sense will be at the interpretation of angel for messenger as John Baptist is called an angel and Christ the angel of the covenant and as according to the same analogy the dove and the fairy tongues in that there were signs of God's special presence might also be called angels though we find in Daniel two names of angels Gabriel and Mikhail yet it is clear out of the text itself that by Mikhail is meant Christ not as an angel but as a prince Daniel 12.1 and that Gabriel as I like abrasions made to other holy men in the sleep was nothing but a supernatural phantom by which it seemed to Daniel in his dream that two saints being in talk one of them said to the other Gabriel let us make this man understand his vision for God needed not to distinguish his celestial servants by names which are useful only to the short memories of mortals nor in the new testament is there any place out of which it can be proved that angels except when they are put for such men as God made to be angels and ministers of his word or works are things permanent and withal in corporeal that they are permanent maybe gathered from the words of our savior himself when he said it shall be said to the wicked in the last day going accursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels Matthew 25.41 which places manifest for the permanence of evil angels unless we might think the name of devil and his angels may be understood of Christ's adversaries and their ministers but then it is repugnant to their immateriality because everlasting fire is no punishment to impatiable substances such as are all things in corporeal angels therefore are not things proved to be in corporeal in like manner where Saint Paul says no way not that we shall judge the angels first connections 6.3 and 2nd Peter 2.4 for if God spared not the angels that sinned but cast them down the hell and and the angels that kept not the first estate but left their own habitation he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness into the judgments of the last day Jude 1.6 though it proved by the permanence of angelical nature it confirms also their materiality and in the resurrection men do neither marry nor give in marriage but are as the angels of God in heaven Matthew 22.0 but in the resurrection men should be permanent and not in corporeal so therefore also are the angels they will be diverse other places out of which may be drawn the like inclusion to men that understand the signification of these words substance and in corporeal as in corporeal is taken not for subtle body but for not body they imply a contradiction in so much as to say an angel or spirit in that sense and in corporeal substance is to say in effect there's no angel nor spirit at all considering therefore the signification of the word angel in the Old Testament and the nature of dreams and visions that happened to men by the ordinary way of nature I was inclined to this opinion that angels were nothing but supernatural apparitions of the fancy raised by the special and extraordinary operation of God thereby to make his presence and commandments known to mankind and chiefly to his own people but the many places out of the New Testament and our Savior's own words and such text variants is no suspicion of corruption of the scripture have started from a feeble reason and acknowledgement and belief that there be also angels substantial and permanent but to believe there be in no place that is to say nowhere that is to say nothing as they though indirectly say that will have them in corporeal cannot by scripture be evinced on the signification of the word spirit dependent that of the word inspiration which must either be taken properly and then it is nothing but the blowing into a man some thin and subtle air of wind in such manner as a man filleth a bladder with his spread or spirits be not corporeal but have their existence only in the fancy it is nothing but the blowing in of a phantasm which is improper to say and impossible for phantoms are not but only seem to be somewhat that word therefore is used in the scripture metaphorically only as where it is said that God inspired into man the breath of life it is 2.7 no more is meant that the God gave unto him vital motion for we are not to think that God made first a living breath and then blew it into Adam after he was made whether that breath were real or seeming but only as it is that he gave him life and breath acts 17.25 that is made him a living creature and where it is said all scripture is given by creation from God 2 Timothy 3.16 speaking the air of scripture of the Old Testament it is an easy metaphor to signify that God inclined the spirit or mind of those writers to write that which should be useful in teaching, reproving, correcting and instructing men in the way of righteous living but where St. Peter said that prophecy come not in old time by the will of man but by the holy men of God's pig as they were moved by the holy spirit 2 Peter 1.21 by the holy spirit is meant the voice of God in a dream of region supernatural which is not inspiration nor when our savior breathing on his disciples said receive the holy spirit was that read the spirit but a sign of spiritual graces he gave unto them and though it be said of many and for savior himself that he was full of the holy spirit he that fullness is not to be understood for infusion of the substance of God but for accumulation of his gifts such as are the gift of sanctity of life of tongues and the like were attained supernaturally of a study and industry for in all cases they are the gifts of God so likewise where God says I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions we are not to understand it in the proper sense as if his spirit was like water subject to effusion or infusion but as if God had promised to give them prophetical dreams and visions for the proper use of the word infused in speaking of the graces of God is an abuse of it for those graces are virtues not bodies to be carried hither and tilther and to be poured into men as into barrels in the same manner to take inspiration in the proper sense or to say that good spirits enter into men to make them prophecy or evil spirit into those that became frenetic lunatic or epileptic not to take the word in the sense of the scripture for the spirit there is taken for the power of God working by causes to us unknown and also the wind that is there said to fill the house where in the apostles were assembled on the day of Pentecost acts 2.2 is not to be understood for the Holy Spirit which is the deity itself but for an external sign of God's special working on their hearts to effect in them the internal graces and holy virtues he taught requisite for the performance of the apostleship chapter 34 of Leviathan recording by Ashwin jen chapter 35 of Leviathan this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes chapter 35 of the signification in scripture of kingdom of God of holy sacred and sacrament the kingdom of God in the writings of divines and specially in sermons and treatises of devotion is taken most commonly for eternal felicity after this life in the highest heaven which they also call the kingdom of glory and sometimes for the earnest of that felicity sanctification which they term the kingdom of grace but never for the monarchy that is to say the sovereign power of God over any subjects acquired by their own consent which is the proffer signification of kingdom to the contrary I find the kingdom of God to signify in most places of scripture a kingdom properly so named constituted by the votes of the people of Israel in peculiar manner wherein they chose God for their king by covenant made with him upon God's promising them the possession of the land of Canaan and but seldom metaphorically and then it is taken for domination over sin and only in the New Testament because such a domination as that subject shall have in the kingdom of God and without prejudice to the sovereign from the very creation God not only reigned over all men naturally by his might but also had peculiar subjects whom he commanded by a voice as one man speaketh to another in manner which he reigned over Adam and gave him commandment to abstain from the tree of cognizance of good and evil which when he obeyed not but tasting thereof took upon him to be as God judging between good and evil not by his creator's commandment but by his own sense his punishment was a privation of the estate of eternal life wherein God had at first created him and afterwards God punished his posterity for their vices all but eight persons with a universal deluge and in these eight did consist the then kingdom of God after this it pleased God to speak to Abraham and to make a covenant with him in these words I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God to thee and to thy seed after thee and I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land wherein thou art a stranger all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession Genesis 17-7-8 in this covenant Abraham promisedeth for himself and his posterity to obey as God the Lord that spake to him and God on his part promisedeth to Abraham the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession and for a memorial and a token of this covenant he ordainedeth the sacrament of circumcision this is it which is called the Old Covenant or Testament and containeth the contract between God and Abraham by which Abraham obligedeth himself and his posterity in a peculiar manner to be subject to God's positive law for to the law-moral he was obliged before as by an oath of allegiance and though the name of King be not yet given to God nor of kingdom to Abraham and his seed yet the thing is the same namely an institution by pact of God's peculiar sovereignty over the seed of Abraham which in the renewing of the same covenant by Moses St. Matt Sinai is expressly called a peculiar kingdom of God over the Jews and it is of Abraham not of Moses St. Paul sayeth that he is the father of the faithful Romans 411 that is of those that are loyal and do not violate their allegiance sworn to God then by circumcision and afterwards in the new covenant by baptism this covenant at the foot of Mount Sinai was renewed by Moses where the Lord commandedeth Moses to speak to the people in this manner if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant then ye shall be a peculiar people to me for all the earth is mine and ye shall be unto me a sacerdotal kingdom and and holy nation Exodus 19 5 for a peculiar people the vulgar Latin hath Peculium decunctus populus the English translation made in the beginning of the reign of King James hath a peculiar treasure unto me above all nations and the Geneva French the most precious jewel of all nations but the truest translation is the first because it is confirmed by St. Paul himself where he sayeth Titus 214 alluding to that place that our blessed Savior gave himself for us that he might purify us to himself a peculiar that is an extraordinary people for the word is in the Greek peresios which is opposed commonly to the word epiosus and as this signifyeth ordinary quotidian or as in the Lord's prayer of daily use so the other signifyeth that which is over plus and stored up and enjoyed in a special manner which the latins call Peculium and this meaning of the place is confirmed by the reason God rendereth of it which followeth immediately in that he addeth for all the earth is mine as if he should say all the nations of the world are mine but it is not so that you are mine but in a special manner for they are all mine by reason of my power but you shall be mine by reason of your own consent and covenant which is an addition to his ordinary title to all nations the name is again confirmed in express words in the same context you shall be to me a sacerdotal kingdom and in holy nation the vulgar latin hathet regnum sacerdotal to which agreeeth the translation of that place sacerdotium regale a regal priesthood as also the institution itself by which no man might enter into the sanctum sanctorum that is to say no man might inquire God's will immediately of God himself but only of the high priest the English translation before mentioned following that of Geneva has a kingdom of priests which is either meant of the succession of one high priest after another or else it accordeth not with Saint Peter nor with the exercise of the high priesthood for there was never any but the high priest only that was to inform the people of God's will nor any convocation of priests ever allowed to enter into the sanctum sanctorum again the title of a holy nation confirms the same for holy signifies that which is God's by special not by general right all the earth as said in the text is God's but all the earth is not called holy but that only which is set apart for his a special service as was the nation of the Jews it is therefore manifest enough by this one place that by the kingdom of God is properly meant to commonwealth instituted by the consent of those which were to be subject there too for their civil government and the regulating of their behavior not only towards God their king but also towards one another in point of justice and towards other nations both in peace and war which properly was a kingdom wherein God was king and the high priest was to be after the death of Moses his sole viceroy or lieutenant but there be many other places that clearly prove the same at first when the elders of Israel grieved with the corruption of the sons of Samuel demanded a king Samuel displeased therewith prayed unto the Lord and the Lord answering said unto him harken unto the voice of the people for they have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them first Samuel eight seven out of which it is evident that God himself was then their king and Samuel did not command the people but only delivered to them that which God from time to time appointed him again where Samuel said to the people when you saw that Nehosh king of the children of Ammon came against you you said unto me Neh but a king shall reign over us when the Lord your God was your king first Samuel twelve twelve it is manifest that God was their king and governed the civil state of their commonwealth and after the Israelites had rejected God the prophets did foretell his restitution as then the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem Isaiah twenty four twenty three wherein he speaketh expressly of his reign in Zion in Jerusalem that is on earth and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion Micah four seven this Mount Zion is in Jerusalem upon the earth and as I live say it the Lord God surely with a mighty hand and a stretched out arm and with fury poured out I will rule over you Ezekiel twenty thirty three and I will cause you to pass under the rod and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant I bid twenty thirty seven that is I will reign over you and make you to stand that covenant which he made with me by Moses and broken your rebellion against me in the days of Samuel and in your election of another king and in the New Testament the angel Gabriel sayeth of our savior he shall be great and be called the son of the most high and the Lord shall give him the throne of his father David and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there shall be no end Luke one thirty two thirty three there is also a kingdom upon earth for the whole claim whereof as an enemy to Caesar he was put to death the title of his cross was Jesus of Nazareth king of the Jews he was crowned in scorn with a crown of thorns and for the proclaiming of it it is said of the disciples that they did all of them contrary to the decrees of Caesar saying there was another king one Jesus acts seventeen seven the kingdom therefore of God is a real not a metaphorical kingdom and so taken not only in the Old Testament but the new when we say for thine is the kingdom the power and glory it is to be understood of God's kingdom by force of our covenant not by the right of God's power for such a kingdom God always hath so that it were superfluous to say in our prayer thy kingdom come unless it be meant of the restoration of that kingdom of God by Christ by which revolt of the Israelites had been interrupted in the election of Saul nor had it been proper to say the kingdom of heaven is at hand or to pray thy kingdom come if it still had continued there be so many other places that confirm this interpretation that it were a wonder there is no greater notice taken of it but that it gives too much light to Christian kings to see their right of ecclesiastical government this they have observed that instead of a sacerdotal kingdom translate a kingdom of priests for they may as well translate a royal priesthood as it is in st. Peter into a priesthood of kings and whereas for a peculiar people they put a precious jewel or a treasure man might as well call the special regiment or company of a generals the generals precious jewel or his treasure in short the kingdom of God is a civil kingdom which consisted first in the obligation of the people of Israel to those laws which Moses should bring unto them from Mount Sinai and afterwards the high priest for the time being should deliver them from before the cherubim in the sanctum sanctorum and which kingdom having been cast off in the election of Saul the prophets were told should be restored by Christ and the restoration whereof we daily pray for when we say in the Lord's prayer thy kingdom come and the right wherewith we acknowledge when we add for thine is the kingdom the power and glory forever and ever amen and the proclaiming whereof was the preaching of the apostles and to which men are prepared by the teachers of the gospel to embrace which gospel that is to say to promise obedience to God's government is to be in the kingdom of grace because God hath gratis given to such power to be the subjects that is children of God hereafter when Christ shall come into majesty to judge the world and actually to govern his own people which is called the kingdom of glory if the kingdom of God called also the kingdom of heaven from the gloriousness and admirable height of the throne were not a kingdom by which God by his lieutenants or vickers who deliver his commandments to the people did exercise on earth there would not have been so much contention and war about who it is by whom God speaketh to us nor would many priests have troubled themselves with spiritual jurisdiction nor any king have denied at them out of this literal interpretation of the kingdom of God arises also the true interpretation of the word holy for it is a word which in God's kingdom answereth to that which men in their kingdoms used to call public or the kings the king of any country is the public person or representative of all his own subjects and God the king of Israel was the holy one of Israel the nation which is subject to one earthly sovereign is the nation of that sovereign that is of the public person so the Jews who were God's nation were called a holy nation exodus nineteen six for by holy is always understood either God himself or that which is God's impropriety as by public is always meant either the person or the commonwealth itself or something that is so the commonwealth as no private person can claim any propriety therein therefore the Sabbath God's day is a holy day the temple God's house a holy house sacrifices tithes and offerings God's tribute holy duties priests prophets and anointed kings under Christ God's ministers holy men the celestial ministering spirits God's messengers holy angels and the like and wheresoever the word holy is taken properly there is still something signified of propriety gotten by consent in saying hallowed be thy name we do but pray to God for grace to keep the first commandment of having no other gods before him mankind is God's nation in propriety but the Jews only were a holy nation why but because they became his propriety by covenant and the word profane is usually taken in the scripture for the same with common and consequently their contraries holy and proper in the kingdom of God must be the same also but figuratively those men are also called holy that led such godly lives as if they had forsaken all worldly designs and holy devoted and given themselves to God in the proper sense that which is made holy by God's appropriating or separating it to his own use is said to be sanctified by God as the seventh day in the fourth commandment and as the elect in the New Testament were said to be sanctified when they were endued with the spirit of godliness and that which is made holy by the dedication of men and given to God so as to be used only in his public service is called also sacred and said to be consecrated as temples and other houses of public prayer and their utensils priests and ministers victims offerings and the external matter of sacrament of holiness there be degrees for of those things that are set apart for the service of God there may be some set apart again for a nearer and more special service the whole nation of the Israelites where people holy to God yet the tribe of Levi was amongst the Israelites a holy tribe and amongst the Levites the priests were yet more holy and amongst the priests the high priests was the most holy so the land of Judea was the holy land but the holy city wherein God was to be worshiped was more holy and again the temple more holy than the city and the sanctum sanctorum more holy than the rest of the temple a sacrament is a separation of some visible thing from common use and a consecration of it to God service for a sign either of our admission into the kingdom of God to be of the number of his peculiar people or for a commemoration of the same in the Old Testament the sign of admission was circumcision in the New Testament baptism the commemoration of it in the Old Testament was the eating at a certain time which was the anniversary of the partial lamb by which they were put in mind of the night wherein they were delivered out of their bondage in Egypt and in the New Testament the celebrating of the Lord's supper by which we are put in mind of our deliverance from the bondage of sin by our blessed Savior's death upon the cross the sacraments of admission are but once to be used because their needs but one admission but because we have need of being often put in mind of our deliverance and of our allegiance the sacraments of commemoration have need to be reiterated and these are the principal sacraments and as it were the solemn oaths we make of our allegiance there be also other consecrations that may be called sacraments as the word implies only consecration to God service but as it implies an oath or promise of allegiance to God there were no other in the Old Testament but circumcision in the Passover nor are there any other in the New Testament but baptism and the Lord's Supper.