The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 04 (of 11)Hobbes, Thomas
Philosophy
The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 04 (of 11)
Hobbes, Thomas
Philosophy, English -- 17th century
_J. D._ To what purpose should a _cœlum empyræum_ serve in his
judgment, who denieth the immortality of the soul? _The doctrine is
now, and hath been a long time, far otherwise; namely, that every
man hath eternity of life by nature, inasmuch as his soul is
immortal._ Who supposeth that _when a man dieth, there remaineth
nothing of him but his carcase_? Who maketh the word _soul_ in Holy
Scripture to signify always either the life, or the living creature;
and expoundeth the casting of body and soul into hell-fire, to be
_the casting of body and life into hell-fire_? Who maketh this
orthodox truth, that the souls of men are substances distinct from
their bodies, to be _an error contracted by the contagion of the
demonology of the Greeks, and a window that gives entrance to the
dark doctrine of eternal torments_? Who expoundeth these words of
Solomon (_Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the
spirit shall return to God that gave it_) thus, _God only knows what
becometh of a man’s spirit when he expireth_? He will not
acknowledge that there is a spirit, or any substance distinct from
the body. I wonder what they think doth keep their bodies from
stinking.
_T. H._ He comes here to that which is a great paradox in
School-divinity. The grounds of my opinion are the canonical
Scripture, and the texts which I cited I must again recite, to which
I shall also add some others. My doctrine is this: first, _that the
elect in Christ, from the day of judgment forward, by virtue of
Christ’s passion and victory over death, shall enjoy eternal life,
that is, they shall be immortal_. Secondly, _that there is no living
soul separated in place from the body, more than there is a living
body separated from the soul_. Thirdly, _that the reprobate shall be
revived to judgment, and shall die a second death in torments, which
death shall be everlasting_. Now let us consider what is said to
these points in the Scripture, and what is the harmony therein of
the Old and New Testament.
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