The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 04 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
destroyed in the Flood, and were not immortal. Matth. xxv. 41:
_Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the
devil and his angels_. These words are to be spoken in the day of
judgment, which judgment is to be in the clouds. And there shall
stand the men that are reprobated alive, where souls, according to
his Lordship’s doctrine, were sent long before to hell. Therefore at
that present day of judgment they had one soul by which they were
there alive, and another soul in hell. How his Lordship could have
maintained this, I understand not. But by my doctrine, that the soul
is not a separated substance, but that the man at his resurrection
shall be revived by God, and raised to judgment, and afterwards body
and soul destroyed in hell-fire, which is the second death, there is
no such consequence or difficulty to be inferred. Besides, it avoids
the unnecessary disputes about where the soul of Lazarus was for
four days he lay dead. And the order of the divine process is made
good, of not inflicting torments before the condemnation pronounced.
Now as to the harmony of the two Testaments, it is said in the Old
(Gen. ii. 17): _In the day that thou eatest of the tree of
knowledge, dying thou shalt die: moriendo morieris_: that is, when
thou art dead thou shalt not revive; for so hath Athanasius
expounded it. Therefore Adam and Eve were not immortal by their
creation. Then (Gen. iii. 22): _Behold the man is become as one of
us: now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of
life, and eat, and live for ever, &c._ Here they had had an
immortality by the gift of God if they had not sinned. It was
therefore sin that lost them eternal life. He therefore that
redeemed them from sin was the author of their immortality, which
consequently began in the day of judgment, when Adam and Eve were
again made alive by admission to the new tree of life, which was
Christ.