was transferred to Christianity, and the assumption that the real happiness or the final misery of the departed did not commence till after the general judgment and the resurrection of the body, appeared to necessitate the belief in an intermediate state, in which the soul was supposed to remain from the moment of its separation from the body to this last catastrophe (2). Tertullian, however, held that the martyrs went at once to Paradise, the abode of the blessed, and thought that in this they enjoyed an advantage over other Christians (3); while Cyprian does not seem to know of any intermediate state whatever (4). The Gnostics rejected the belief in Hades, together with that of the resurrection of the body, and imagined that the spiritually-minded (the pneumatic) would, immediately after death, be delivered from the kingdom of the demiurge, and elevated to the λńρwμa (5). The ancient Oriental and Parsic idea of a purifying fire already occurs during this period in the writings of Clement of Alexandria and Origen. This purifying fire, however, is not yet transferred to this intermediate state, but is either taken in a very general sense, or supposed to be connected with the general conflagration of the world (6).

(1) Justin M. Apol. i. 8 : Πλάτων δὲ ὁμοίως ἔφη Ραδάμανθον καὶ Μίνω κολάσειν τοὺς ἀδίκους παρ ̓ αὐτοὺς ἐλθόντας, ἡμεῖς δὲ τὸ αὐτὸ πρᾶγμά φαμεν γενήσεσθαι, ἀλλ ̓ ὑπὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ. For the further views of Justin respecting the judgment, see Apol. ii. 9; Semisch, ii. s. 474, 475. Tatian, Contra Gr. 6: Δικάζουσι δὲ ἡμῖν οὐ Μίνως, οὐδὲ ̔Ραδάμανθος . . . δοκιμαστὴς δὲ αὐτὸς ὁ ποιητὴς θεὸς γίνεται. Comp. c. 25. (2) Justin M. Dial. c. Tryph. § 5, makes the souls of the pious take up a temporary abode in a better, those of the wicked in a worse place. He even stigmatizes as heretical (§ 80) the doctrine that souls are received into heaven immediately after death; but he admits that they possess a presentiment of their future destiny, Coh. ad Græc. c. 35; comp. Semisch, s. 464, note 3. The good, even before the final division, dwell in a happier, the evil in a more wretched abode; Dial. cum Tryph. § 5. On his opinion that, at the departure of the

soul from the body, the former fall into the hands of evil angels (Dial. c. Tryph. § 105), see Semisch, ii. s. 465. Iren. ν. 31, p. 331 (Gr. 451): Αἱ ψυχαὶ ἀπέρχονται εἰς τὸν τόπον τὸν ὡρισμένον αὐταῖς ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ, κακεῖ μέχρι τῆς ἀναστάσεως φοιτῶσι, περιμένουσαι τὴν ἀνάστασιν· ἔπειτα ἀπολαβοῦσαι τὰ σώματα καὶ ὁλοκλήρως ἀναστᾶσαι, τουτέστι σωματικῶς, καθὼς καὶ ὁ Κύριος ἀνέστη, οὕτως ἐλεύσονται εἰς τὴν ὄψιν τοῦ θεοῦ (in connection with this, the decensus Christi ad inferos, and Luke xvi. 22 ff.). Irenæus regards it as an evidence of pride, that the Gnostics held, with reference to the pneumatic, that they go, immediately after death, to the Father. According to Irenæus, however, the martyrs go direct to Paradise, which, however, he seems to distinguish from heaven. Tertullian mentions (De Anima, 55) a treatise in which he says he has proved, omnem animam apud inferos sequestrari in diem Domini. The treatise itself is no longer extant; but comp. De Anima, c. 7 (aliquid tormenti sive solatii anima præcerpit in carcere seu diversorio inferum, in igni, vel in sinu Abrahæ) and c. 58. Tertullian rejects the notion of the sleep of the soul, which is not to be confounded with the error of the Arabian false teachers; he also opposes the opinion, founded upon 1 Sam. xxviii., that spirits might be conjured up from the abode of the dead, by appealing to Luke xvi. 26 (comp. Orig. Hom. ii. in 1 Reg. Opp. ii. p. 490-498).

(3) Tert. De Anim. 55, De Resurr. 43: Nemo peregrinatus a corpore statim immoratur penes Dominum, nisi ex martyrii prærogativa, paradiso scilicet, non inferis deversurus. On the meaning of the different terms: inferi, sinus Abrahæ, Paradisus, see Adv. Marc. iv. 34; Apol. c. 47; Orig. Hom. ii. in 1 Reg. 1.c. and Hom. in Num. xxvi. 4; Münscher, von Cölln, i. s. 57, 58; Gieseler, Dogmengesch. s. 225 ff. says most on the subject of the under-world. it (De Anim. 55) as an immense space in the earth, divided by an impassable gulf into two parts. The part assigned to the righteous he calls sinus Abrahæ, that of the wicked ignis, and sometimes inferi. So, too, Hippolytus, in a fragment, Opp. ed. Fabricius, i. 220. Paradise was a different place from this under-world; it is far above this earth, separated from it by a glowing girdle: thither Christ

[Tertullian He describes. depths of the

went; and there, too, martyrs go at once; Enoch and Elijah were also transported thither. Origen held that before Christ no souls, not even those of the prophets and patriarchs, went to Paradise; but when Jesus descended to Hades He transferred them into the lower Paradise (in contrast with the upper), or the third heaven. The souls of pious Christians. also go to this Paradise-which Origen identifies with the bosom of Abraham. Comp. Delitzsch, Bib. Ps. ut s.]

(4) Cypr. Adv. Demetr. p. 196, and Tract. de Mortalitate in various places; he expresses, e.g., his hope that those who die of pestilence will come at once to Christ, p. 158, 164 (where he appeals to the example of Enoch), 166. Rettberg, s. 345.

(5) Neander, Gnost. Systeme, s. 141 ff. ["The Gnostics taught that the soul of the perfect Gnostic, having risen again at baptism, and being enabled by perfection of knowledge to conquer the demiurge, or principle of evil, would ascend, as soon as it was freed from the body, to the heavenly pleroma, and dwell there for ever in the presence of the Father; while the soul of him who had not been allowed while on earth to arrive at such a plenitude of knowledge would pass through several transmigrations, till it was sufficiently purified to wing its flight to the pleroma." Burton, Bampton Lecture, Lect. V. p. 131.]

(6) The views of Clement on this subject are expressed in still more general terms, Pæd. iii. 9, towards the end, p. 282 (Sylb. p. 241), and Strom. vii. 6, p. 851 (Sylb. 709): Paμèv δ ̓ ἡμεῖς ἁγιάζειν τὸ πῦρ, οὐ τὰ κρέα, ἀλλὰ τὰς ἁμαρτωλοὺς ψυχάς· πῦρ οὐ τὸ πάμφαγον καὶ βάναυσον, ἀλλὰ τὸ φρόνιμον λέγοντες, τὸ διϊκνούμενον διὰ ψυχῆς τῆς διερχομένης τὸ πῦρ. From the whole context it appears that he speaks of the purifying efficacy of a mystical fire, even during the present life, perhaps in allusion to Matt. iii. 11; Luke iii. 16.— Origen, on the other hand, referring to 1 Cor. iii. 12, considers the fire which will consume the world at the last day as at the same time a Tûρ каláρoιоv, Contra Cels. v. 15. No one (not even Paul or Peter himself) can escape this fire, but it does not cause any pain to the pure (according to Isa. xliii. 2). It is a second sacramentum regenerationis; and as the baptism of blood was compared with the baptism of water (see above, § 72, note 10), so Origen thought that this baptism of fire at

the end of the world would be necessary in the case of those who have forfeited the baptism of the Spirit; in the case of all others it will be a testing fire. Comp. in Exod. Hom. vi. 4; in Psalm. Hom. iii. 1; in Luc. Hom. xiv. (Opp. iii. p. 948), xxiv. p. 961; in Jerem. Hom. ii. 3; in Ezech. Hom. i. 13; comp. Redepenning, s. 235. Guericke, De Schola Alexand. ii. p. 294. Thomasius, s. 250.

In respect to the end of the world, opinions wavered between annihilation and transformation. Most of the Fathers seem to have held to the latter view, but Justin (in opposition to the Stoic tenet) believed in a real annihilation; Apol. i. 20 and ii. 7. Comp. Semisch, ii. 475.

§ 78.

State of the Blessed and the Condemned.-Restitution of
all Things.

J. F. Cotta, Historia succincta Dogmatis de Pœnarum Infernalium Duratione, Tüb. 1744. J. A. Dietelmaier, Commenti fanatici áronarustácıng máytwy Historia antiquior, Altorf. 1769. [Jukes, Restitution of all Things, London, var. ed.]

Various expressions were used in religious language to denote the state of the blessed. The idea that different degrees of blessedness are proportionate to the different degrees of virtue exhibited in this life, was in harmony with the views of most of the Fathers of this period concerning the doctrine of moral freedom (1); and was also congruous with the idea of further progress after the present life. Origen, in particular, developed this latter notion (2), and also endeavoured to avoid as much as possible all sensuous representations of the pleasures of the future world, and to place them in purely spiritual enjoyments (3). Notions more or less gross prevailed concerning the punishment of the wicked, which most of the Fathers regarded as eternal (4). From the very nature of the case, it is evident that purely spiritual views on this subject could not reasonably be expected. Even Origen imagined the bodies of the damned to be black (5). But as he looked upon evil rather as a

negation and privation of good, he was induced, by his idealistic tendency, to set limits even to hell, and to hope for a final remission of the punishment of the wicked at the restitution of all things, although in popular discourse he retained the common idea of eternal punishment (6).

(1) According to Justin M., the blessedness of heaven consists mainly in the continuation of the blessedness of the millennial reign, the only difference being the enjoyment of immediate intercourse with God, Apol. i. 8.

Semisch, ii.

s. 477. According to Irenæus also (v. 7), communion with God and the enjoyment of His blessings (ἀπόλαυσις τῶν παρ ̓ αὐτοῦ ἀγαθῶν) is the substance of all blessedness. Different names were given even to the intermediate states before the resurrection (comp. the preceding section, note 6). This was also the case with the abode of the blessed. Thus Irenæus, v. 36, p. 337 (Gr. 460), makes a distinction between οὐρανός, παράδεισος, and πόλις, and endeavours to prove the existence of different habitations from Matt. xiii. 8 and John xiv. 2. Clement of Alexandria also adopted the idea of different degrees of blessedness, Strom. iv. 6, p. 579, 580 (Sylb. 488, 489), which he compared with the degrees of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, Strom. vi. 13, p. 793 (Sylb. 668); and Orig. De Princip. ii. 11 (Opp. i. p. 104).

(2) According to Origen, 1.c., the blessed dwell in the aerial regions (1 Thess. iv. 17), and take notice of what happens in the air. Immediately after their departure from this earth, they go first to Paradise (eruditionis locus, auditorium vel schola animarum), which (like Plato) he imagined to be a happy island; as they grow in knowledge and piety, they proceed on their journey from Paradise to higher regions; and having passed through various mansions which the Scriptures call heavens, they arrive at last at the kingdom of heaven, properly so called. He, too, appeals to John xiv. 2, and maintains that progress is possible even in the kingdom of heaven (effort and perfection). The perfection of blessedness ensues only after the final judgment. Even the glory of Christ will be completed only when He celebrates His victory as the Head of the Church, dwelling entirely in those who are His. Comp. in Lev. Hom. vii.