Leviathan

being singly sufficient to oblige any other man to regard what he saith.

Miracles Ceasing, Prophets Cease,
And The Scripture Supplies Their Place
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 conformable to the Holy Scriptures, which since the time
of our Saviour, supply the want of all other Prophecy; and from which,
by wise and careful ratiocination, all rules and precepts necessary
to the knowledge of our duty both to God and man, without Enthusiasme,
or supernaturall Inspiration, may easily be deduced.  And this Scripture
is it, out of which I am to take the Principles of my Discourse,
concerning the Rights of those that are the Supream Govenors on earth,
of Christian Common-wealths; and of the duty of Christian Subjects
towards their Soveraigns.  And to that end, I shall speak in the
next Chapter, or the Books, Writers, Scope and Authority of the Bible.



CHAPTER XXXIII

OF THE NUMBER, ANTIQUITY, SCOPE, AUTHORITY,
AND INTERPRETERS OF THE BOOKS OF HOLY SCRIPTURES


Of The Books Of Holy Scripture
By the Books of Holy SCRIPTURE, are 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 Christendome, both Naturall, and Civill.
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 have already
proved, that Soveraigns in their own Dominions are the sole Legislators;
those Books only are Canonicall, that is, Law, in every nation,
which are established for such by the Soveraign Authority.
It is true, that God is the Soveraign of all Soveraigns; and therefore,
when he speaks to any Subject, he ought to be obeyed, whatsoever
any earthly Potentate command to 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 supernaturall revelation, cannot be known,
but by that naturall reason, which guided them, for the obtaining
of Peace and Justice, to obey the authority of their severall
Common-wealths; that is to say, of their lawfull Soveraigns.
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 Catalogue of them here; and they are the same that are
acknowledged by St. Jerome, who holdeth the rest, namely, the Wisdome
of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Judith, Tobias, the first and second of
Maccabees, (though he had seen the first in Hebrew) and the third
and fourth of Esdras, for Apocrypha.  Of the Canonicall, Josephus
a learned Jew, that wrote in the time of the Emperor Domitian,
reckoneth Twenty Two, making the number agree with the Hebrew Alphabet.
St. Jerome does the same, though they reckon them in different manner.
For Josephus numbers Five Books of Moses, Thirteen of Prophets,
that writ the History of their own times (which how it agrees with
the Prophets writings contained in the Bible wee shall see hereafter),
and Four of Hymnes and Morall Precepts.  But St. Jerome reckons Five
Books of Moses, Eight of Prophets, and Nine of other Holy writ,
which he calls of Hagiographa.  The Septuagint, who were 70. learned
men of the Jews, sent for by Ptolemy King of Egypt, to translate
the Jewish Law, out of the Hebrew 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 are equally acknowledged
for Canon by all Christian Churches, and by all sects of Christians,
that admit any Books at all for Canonicall.

Their Antiquity
Who were the originall writers of the severall 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 naturall Reason; for Reason serves only to convince
the truth (not of 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 Bookes themselves: And this light, though it show us
not the writer of every book, yet it is not unusefull to give us
knowledge of the time, wherein they were written.

The Pentateuch Not Written By Moses
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 these titles, The Book of Joshua, the Book of Judges,
The Book of Ruth, and the Books of the Kings, are arguments
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 Livy, denotes the
Writer; but the History Of Scanderbeg, is denominated from the subject.
We read in the last Chapter of Deuteronomie, Ver. 6. concerning
the sepulcher of Moses, "that no man knoweth of his sepulcher
to this day," that is, to the day wherein those words were written.
It is therefore manifest, that those words were written after
his interrement.  For it were a strange interpretation, to say Moses
spake of his own sepulcher (though by Prophecy), that it was not found
to that day, wherein he was yet living.  But it may perhaps be alledged,