The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 03 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
reason, that another has had a supernatural revelation of God’s will;
but only a belief; every one, as the signs thereof shall appear greater
or lesser, a firmer or a weaker belief.
But for the second, how can he be bound to obey them; it is not so hard.
For if the law declared, be not against the law of nature, which is
undoubtedly God’s law, and he undertake to obey it, he is bound by his
own act; bound I say to obey it, but not bound to believe it: for men’s
belief, and interior cogitations, are not subject to the commands, but
only to the operation of God, ordinary, or extraordinary. Faith of
supernatural law, is not a fulfilling, but only an assenting to the
same; and not a duty that we exhibit to God, but a gift which God freely
giveth to whom he pleaseth; as also unbelief is not a breach of any of
his laws; but a rejection of them all, except the laws natural. But this
that I say, will be made yet clearer, by the examples and testimonies
concerning this point in holy Scripture. The covenant God made with
Abraham, in a supernatural manner, was thus, (_Gen._ xvii. 10) _This is
the covenant which thou shalt observe between me and thee and thy seed
after thee_. Abraham’s seed had not this revelation, nor were yet in
being; yet they are a party to the covenant, and bound to obey what
Abraham should declare to them for God’s law; which they could not be,
but in virtue of the obedience they owed to their parents; who, if they
be subject to no other earthly power, as here in the case of Abraham,
have sovereign power over their children and servants. Again, where God
saith to Abraham, _In thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed;
for I know thou wilt command thy children, and thy house after thee to
keep the way of the Lord, and to observe righteousness and judgment_, it
is manifest, the obedience of his family, who had no revelation,
depended on their former obligation to obey their sovereign. At Mount
Sinai Moses only went up to God; the people were forbidden to approach
on pain of death; yet they were bound to obey all that Moses declared to
them for God’s law. Upon what ground, but on this submission of their
own, _Speak thou to us, and we will hear thee; but let not God speak to
us, lest we die_? By which two places it sufficiently appeareth, that in
a commonwealth, a subject that has no certain and assured revelation
particularly to himself concerning the will of God, is to obey for such,
the command of the commonwealth: for if men were at liberty, to take for
God’s commandments, their own dreams and fancies, or the dreams and
fancies of private men; scarce two men would agree upon what is God’s
commandment; and yet in respect of them, every man would despise the
commandments of the commonwealth. I conclude therefore, that in all
things not contrary to the moral law, that is to say, to the law of
nature, all subjects are bound to obey that for divine law, which is
declared to be so, by the laws of the commonwealth. Which also is