Hobbes - Leviathan.pdf

esurrection of Christ. But whether he intend thereby to entitle the
presbytery to the supreme power ecclesiastical in the Commonwealth
of Geneva, and consequently to every presbytery in every other
Commonwealth, or to princes and other civil sovereigns, I do not know.
For the presbytery hath challenged the power to excommunicate their
own kings, and to be the supreme moderators in religion, in the places
where they have that form of Church government, no less than the
Pope challengeth it universally.
The words are, "Verily I say unto you, that there be some of them
that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen
the kingdom of God come with power."* Which words, if taken
grammatically, make it certain that either some of those men that
stood by Christ at that time are yet alive, or else that the kingdom
of God must be now in this present world. And then there is another
place more difficult: for when the Apostles after our Saviour's
resurrection, and immediately before his ascension, asked our Saviour,
saying, "Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to
Israel" he answered them, "It is not for you to know the times and
the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power; but ye
shall receive power by the coming of the Holy Ghost upon you, and ye
shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth":*(2) which is as
much as to say, My kingdom is not yet come, nor shall you foreknow
when it shall come; for it shall come as a thief in the night; but I
will send you the Holy Ghost, and by him you shall have power to
bear witness to all the world, by your preaching of my resurrection,
and the works I have done, and the doctrine I have taught, that they
may believe in me, and expect eternal life, at my coming again. How
does this agree with the coming of Christ's kingdom at the
resurrection And that which St. Paul says, "That they turned from
idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son
from heaven";*(3) where "to wait for His Son from heaven" is to wait
for his coming to be king in power; which were not necessary if his
kingdom had been then present. Again, if the kingdom of God began,
as Beza on that place*(4) would have it, at the resurrection; what
reason is there for Christians ever since the resurrection to say in
their prayers, "Let thy kingdom come" It is therefore manifest that
the words of St. Mark are not so to be interpreted. There be some of
them that stand here, saith our Saviour, that shall not taste of death
till they have seen the kingdom of God come in power. If then this
kingdom were to come at the resurrection of Christ, why is it said,
some of them, rather than all For they all lived till after Christ
was risen.
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* Mark, 9. 1
*(2) Acts, 1. 6
*(3) I Thessalonians, 1. 9, 10
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But they that require an exact interpretation of this text, let them
interpret first the like words of our Saviour to St. Peter
concerning St. John, "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is
that to thee"* upon which was grounded a report that he should not
die. Nevertheless the truth of that report was neither confirmed, as
well grounded; nor refuted, as ill grounded on those words; but left
as a saying not understood. The same difficulty is also in the place
of St. Mark. And if it be lawful to conjecture at their meaning, by
that which immediately follows, both here and in St. Luke, where the