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A57655
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Leviathan drawn out with a hook, or, Animadversions upon Mr. Hobbs his Leviathan by Alex. Rosse.
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Ross, Alexander, 1591-1654.
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1653
(1653)
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Wing R1960; ESTC R1490
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70,857
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139
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Adam had not sinned he had had an eternal life on earth And hence he infers That life eternal which Christ hath obtained for his Saints shall be on earth because the Apostle saith as in Adam all dye even so in Christ shall all be made alive for else the comparison were not proper The comparison is not between the two places of heaven and earth but between the two persons of Adam and Christ and between the two lives the one earthly which Adam lost by introducing mortality and the other heavenly which Christ hath purchased by overcoming mortality and as this place fails him so doth that other Psal. 133. 3. Upon Sion God commanded the blessing even life for evermore And Rev. 21. 2. I Iohn saw the holy City New Jerusalem comming down from God out of heaven And Acts 1. 11. This same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven shall so come as you have seen him go up into heaven And Mat. 22. In the resurrection they are as the Angels of God in heaven for they neither marry nor are given in marriage What sober minded man will conclude from these places that our eternal hapiness shall be on earth and not in heaven For when David speaks of life for evermore in Sion he means a lasting happiness which accompanies concord among brethren for the Hebrew word Holam in Scripture signifieth a continuance for some time but not eternity In Exod. 21. 6. The servant whose ear was bored is said to serve his master for ever that is so long as he liveth and not everlastingly Samuel is said to appear before the Lord and there to abide for ever 1 Sam. 1. 22. Will any infer hence that Samuel was to continue in his office for all eternity The Perpetuus Dictator at Rome continued not for ever though he is called perpetual So then life for evermore in Sion is a long continuing happiness and yet Sion in Scripture is divers times taken for heaven where is onely true and eternal life As impertinent is that place which he alledgeth Rev. 2. 7. To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God This saith he was the tree of Adams eternal life but this life was to have been on earth But he is quite out of the way for the Paradise mentioned here is that which Christ speaks of to the good thief Thou shalt be this day with me in Paradise that is in heaven for earthly Paradise was destroyed by the flood and so was the tree of Life which might for some time have prolonged Adams age by supplying the decay of the radical moysture but could not have continued it for ever only our blessed Saviour the true tree of life here mention'd can protract our life into eternity now that Paradise was destroyed by the flood is plain by Moses Gen. 6. saying that the flood rose higher fifteen cubits then the highest mountains Besides if Paradise had been to continue what need was there to build an Ark for Noah and his family seeing they could have been saved in Paradise and so the other creatures likewise And whereas he saith That the New Jerusalem when Christ comes again shall come down to Gods people from heaven and not they go up to it from earth Is ridiculous for Rev. 21. 2. by the New Ierusalem coming down from God is meant the Church of Christ whose original calling protection and happiness is from God so that this is not a proper but a tropical discent The Church is called Ierusalem there and elsewhere because she is or ought to be the City of Peace and as Ierusalem of old was the place of Gods worship and of his peculiar presence so is the Church now which is called new as having cast off the old man and old ceremonies is renewed in the spirit of her minde and is regenerate by water and the spirit So he sheweth his vanity when he proves out of Acts 1. 11. That Christ shall come down to govern his people eternally here and not take them up to govern them in heaven For in that place there is no mention of his government here on earth nor of the eternity thereof but onely that he shall return after the same manner that he went up that is to say gloriously riding on the clouds and attended by Angels Now if any man would know the reason or end of Christs second coming he shall finde in Daniel 2. Mat. 25. and other places of Scripture that it is not to erect an earthly Kingdom which shall continue for ever but as the Apostle saith to render vengeance to the wicked and to us that are afflicted peace Or as it is in our Creed to judge the quick and the dead so then he shall not return as an earthly Prince to set up his throne here on earth which is his foot-stool but as a Judge in his circuit who having condemned some and absolved others returns again to the place of his residence But he says cap. 38. That there is neither Scripture nor Reason to prove that after the resurrection men are to live eternally in heaven What then will he say to these passages Mat. 5. Great is your reward in heaven Christ would have said great is your reward on earth if he had purposed to erect an earthly kingdom So Mat. 6. we are advised to lay up our treasures not on earth but in heaven this were to no purpose if we were to live eternally on earth not in heaven So Ioh. 14. I go to prepare a place for you that where I am there you may be I pray was it not to heaven that Christ went to prepare that place is not heaven his Fathers house where there are many mantions Earth is never called his house nor are the Saints said here to have an house or habitation but to sojourn as in Tents Heaven is the house where we must dwell if we will beleeve St. Paul who was caught up into this house who speaks not by hearsay but by knowledge for we know saith he that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens 2 Cor. 5. 1. Why did St. Paul desire to be dissolved and be with Christ Phil. 1. if he was to enjoy Christ upon earth onely he should rather have desired to be dissolved that Christ might be with him on earth then he to be with Christ in heaven Enoch was translated and Elijah was caught up into heaven to assure us of our right and habitation there for this cause our Saviour opened heaven at his Baptism and after his Resurrection ascended thither to take possession thereof for us and it is fit that where the Head is there the body should be where the King keeps his residence thither his servants should repair Where should the children dwell but in their Fathers house now
that is heaven therefore we are taught to lift up our eyes thither and to pray Our Father which art in Heaven Here then Mr. Hobbs hath both authority and reason against his earthly happiness which â—avours too much of Mabumets earthly Paradise It is childish what he saith cap. 38. That the earthly kingdom of the Saints shall be called a new knigdom of heaven because our King shall then be God whose Throne is in heaven I would know of Mr. Hobbs Whether our King Christ Jesus be not God now as well as after the resurrection and whether his Throne be not now in heaven as well as it shall be then If so why may not each earthly kingdom now be called the Kingdom of heaven seeing our King is God and his Throne is in heaven perhaps he will tâ—ll us that Christ is God but not King as yet but I say in that he is God he is also King of all the earth as David witnesseth Psal. 47. 7. And we find in the Apocalyps that theâ—â— is written upon his garment King of Kings and therefore he confesseth before his earthly Judge that he was born to be a King And when he was hanging on the Cross he was King of the Jews To no purpose also doth he alledge that of St. Iohn cap. 3. v. 13. No man hath ascended into heaven but he that came down from heaven even the son of man that is in heaven To prove that man shall ascend to his happiness no higher then Gods foot-stool the earth because no man hath ascended into the highest heaven before Christ will it therefore follow that no man shall ascend after him or because no man hath ascended by his own power but Christ onely therefore no man shall ascend by the power of Christ thither he were as good infer that no man before Christ overcame death by his own power therefore no man after him shall overcom death by Christs power and consequently there shal be no resurrection But if we ascend not higher then the earth the Apostle hath deluded us in saying That we shall be caught up together in the cloudes to meet the Lord in the air and so we shall be ever with the Lord he should have said rather that the Lord shall be ever with us What good will our {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Burgiship or devisation do us in heaven if we shall never go thither what comfort can we take in the society and company of Angels or they of ours if we shall never cohabit together in heaven He will not have cap. 38. the resurrection of the body to be proved out of Christs words to the Sâ—dduces I am the God of Abraham c. for he is not a God of the dead out of the livingâ— for they all live to him Luke 20 37 38. His reason is because the words are to be understood onely of the immortality of the soul But I say these words prove both the souls immortality and the bodies resurrection for if Abraham's soul had been dead how could God have been his God that is his Protector Comforter Saviour Here is the souls immortality And if Abraham's body had been eternally dead how could God have been the God of Abraham for Abraham's soul is not Abraham but a part now God is not the God of a part but of the whole man therefore St. Luke saith They all live to God the departed Saints then are no more dead to God then our children when they are asleep are dead to us Therefore Christ saith of Lazarus being four daies dead that he was asleep so our departed friends are dead to us but asleep to God and indeed the souls immortality and bodies resurrection are so linked together that who denieth or affirmeth the one denyeth or affirmeth the other neither had Christ's answer satisfied the Sadduces had it not proved as well the resurrection of the body as the immortality of the soul for they denied both It is not saith he apparent in Scripture that mans soul is in his own nature eternal That the soul is immortal is apparent by these Scriptures Eccles. 12. 7. The spirit shall return to God that gave it If it dyeth how can it return to God It returns rather to nothing So Matth. 10. 28. Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul If the soul cannot be killed when the body is destroyed how comes it to dye So Matth. 22. 32. God is the God of Abraham c. not of the dead but of the living So Phil. 1. 23. Paul desireth to be dissolved and to be with Christ When he is dissolved his body could not be with Christ it is his soul then which to be with Christ is to live with Christ So 1 Pet. 3. 19. Christ went and preached to the spirits in prison What did he preach to dead spirits So Revel. 6. 9. The souls cry under the Altar and 7. 9. They are clothed in white with palms in their hands those phrases do not speak of dead souls But he would fain prove out of Iob 14. 7. That life immortal beginneth not in man till the resurrection But this place will advantage him nothing for we say the same with Iob That a tree being cast down will bud again and that man riseth not till the heavens be no more that is till the resurrection when the heavens shall be dissolved with fire as St. Peter saith so that life immortal beginneth not in man till then if by man he means the whole man But hence is no argument that can be drawn against the immortality of the soul for though man dye and consume yet the soul dieth not no more then the soul eateth drinketh sleepeth walketh c. for these are the actions of the man not of the soul Because Mr. Hobbs cap. 38. thinks this doctrine will appear to most men a novelty he will maintain nothing in it but attend the end of that dispute of the sword by which all sorts of doctrine are to be approved or rejected He need not trouble himself about the novelty of this doctrine for it is noâ— new but as old as Cerinthus the heretick who lived about ninety years after Christ he was one of the first that maintained the conceit of Christs earthly kingdom who notwithstanding told Pilate that his kingdom was not of this world About one hundred forty five years after Christ the Papuzean herâ—ticks being the spawn of the Cataphrygians whose father was Montanus held the town called Pepuza in upper Phrygia to be the new Ierusalem mentioned Heb. 12. and Rev. 21. Where Christ was to raign eternally whereas Cerinthus his raign was to last but a thousand years whose Sectaries were aâ—te wards called Chiliasts or Millinaries As for the other branch of his opinion concerning the souls sleep or death and its resurrection or vivification in the last day that is also no novelty but an old heresie maintained by