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| On the Resurrection, and the Judgment, the Fire of Hell, and Punishments.
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Chapter X.—On the
Resurrection, and the Judgment, the Fire of Hell, and
Punishments.
1. But since the discourse has reminded us
of the subjects of a future judgment and of retribution, and of the
punishments of sinners, according to the threatenings of holy Scripture
and the contents of the Church’s teaching—viz., that when
the time of judgment comes, everlasting fire, and outer darkness, and a
prison, and a furnace, and other punishments of like nature, have been
prepared for sinners—let us see what our opinions on these points
ought to be.2238
But that
these subjects may be arrived at in proper order, it seems to me that
we ought first to consider the nature of the resurrection, that we may
know what that (body) is which shall come either to punishment, or to
rest, or to happiness; which question in other treatises which we have
composed regarding the resurrection we have discussed at greater
length, and have shown what our opinions were regarding it. But
now, also, for the sake of logical order in our treatise, there will be
no absurdity in restating a few points from such works, especially
since some take offence at the creed of the Church, as if our belief in
the resurrection were foolish, and altogether devoid of sense; and
these are principally heretics, who, I think, are to be answered in the
following manner. If they also admit that there is a resurrection
of the dead, let them answer us this, What is that which died?
Was it not a body? It is of the body, then, that there will be a
resurrection. Let them next tell us if they think that we are to
make use of bodies or not. I think that when the Apostle Paul
says, that “it is sown a natural body, it will arise a spiritual
body,”2239
they cannot deny
that it is a body which arises, or that in the resurrection we are to
make use of bodies. What then? If it is certain that we are
to make use of bodies, and if the bodies which have fallen are declared
to rise again (for only that which before has fallen can be properly
said to rise again), it can be a matter of doubt to no one that they
rise again, in order that we may be clothed with them a second time at
the resurrection. The one thing is closely connected with the
other. For if bodies rise again, they undoubtedly rise to be
coverings for us; and if it is necessary for us to be invested with
bodies, as it is certainly necessary, we ought to be invested with no
other than our own. But if it is true that these rise again, and
that they arise “spiritual” bodies, there can be no doubt
that they are said to rise from the dead, after casting away corruption
and laying aside mortality; otherwise it will appear vain and superfluous
for any one to arise from the dead in order to die a second time.
And this, finally, may be more distinctly comprehended thus, if one
carefully consider what are the qualities of an animal body, which,
when sown into the earth, recovers the qualities of a spiritual
body. For it is out of the animal body that the very power and
grace of the resurrection educe the spiritual body, when it transmutes
it from a condition of indignity to one of glory.
2. Since the heretics, however, think
themselves persons of great learning and wisdom, we shall ask them if
every body has a form of some kind, i.e., is fashioned according to
some shape. And if they shall say that a body is that which is
fashioned according to no shape, they will show themselves to be the
most ignorant and foolish of mankind. For no one will deny this,
save him who is altogether without any learning. But if, as a
matter of course, they say that every body is certainly fashioned
according to some definite shape, we shall ask them if they can point
out and describe to us the shape of a spiritual body; a thing which
they can by no means do. We shall ask them, moreover, about the
differences of those who rise again. How will they show that
statement to be true, that there is “one flesh of birds, another
of fishes; bodies celestial, and bodies terrestrial; that the glory of
the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial another; that
one is the glory of the sun, another the glory of the moon, another the
glory of the stars; that one star differeth from another star in glory;
and that so is the resurrection of the dead?”2240
According to that gradation, then,
which exists among heavenly bodies, let them show to us the differences
in the glory of those who rise again; and if they have endeavoured by
any means to devise a principle that may be in accordance with the
differences in heavenly bodies, we shall ask them to assign the
differences in the resurrection by a comparison of earthly
bodies. Our understanding of the passage indeed is, that the
apostle, wishing to describe the great difference among those who rise
again in glory, i.e., of the saints, borrowed a comparison from the
heavenly bodies, saying, “One is the glory of the sun, another
the glory of the moon, another the glory of the stars.” And
wishing again to teach us the differences among those who shall come to
the resurrection, without having purged themselves in this life, i.e.,
sinners, he borrowed an illustration from earthly things, saying,
“There is one flesh of birds, another of fishes.” For
heavenly things are worthily compared to the saints, and earthly things
to sinners. These statements are made in reply to those who deny
the resurrection of the dead, i.e., the resurrection of
bodies.
3. We now turn our attention to some of our own
(believers), who, either from feebleness of intellect or want of proper
instruction, adopt a very low and abject view of the resurrection of
the body. We ask these persons in what manner they understand
that an animal body is to be changed by the grace of the resurrection,
and to become a spiritual one; and how that which is sown in weakness
will arise in power; how that which is planted in dishonour will arise
in glory; and that which was sown in corruption, will be changed to a
state of incorruption. Because if they believe the apostle, that
a body which arises in glory, and power, and incorruptibility, has
already become spiritual, it appears absurd and contrary to his meaning
to say that it can again be entangled with the passions of flesh and
blood, seeing the apostle manifestly declares that “flesh and
blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God, nor shall corruption
inherit incorruption.” But how do they understand the
declaration of the apostle, “We shall all be
changed?” This transformation certainly is to be looked
for, according to the order which we have taught above; and in it,
undoubtedly, it becomes us to hope for something worthy of divine
grace; and this we believe will take place in the order in which the
apostle describes the sowing in the ground of a “bare grain of
corn, or of any other fruit,” to which “God gives a body as
it pleases Him,” as soon as the grain of corn is dead. For
in the same way also our bodies are to be supposed to fall into the
earth like a grain; and (that germ being implanted in them which
contains the bodily substance) although the bodies die, and become
corrupted, and are scattered abroad, yet by the word of God, that very
germ which is always safe in the substance of the body, raises them
from the earth, and restores and repairs them, as the power which is in
the grain of wheat, after its corruption and death, repairs and
restores the grain into a body having stalk and ear. And so also
to those who shall deserve to obtain an inheritance in the kingdom of
heaven, that germ of the body’s restoration, which we have before
mentioned, by God’s command restores out of the earthly and
animal body a spiritual one, capable of inhabiting the heavens; while
to each one of those who may be of inferior merit, or of more abject
condition, or even the lowest in the scale, and altogether thrust
aside, there is yet given, in proportion to the dignity of his life and
soul, a glory and dignity of body,—nevertheless in such a way,
that even the body which rises again of those who are to be destined to
everlasting fire or to severe punishments, is by the very change of the
resurrection so incorruptible, that
it cannot be corrupted and dissolved even by severe punishments.
If, then, such be the qualities of that body which will arise from the
dead, let us now see what is the meaning of the threatening of eternal
fire.
4. We find in the prophet Isaiah, that the
fire with which each one is punished is described as his own; for he
says, “Walk in the light of your own fire, and in the flame which
ye have kindled.”2241
By these
words it seems to be indicated that every sinner kindles for himself
the flame of his own fire, and is not plunged into some fire which has
been already kindled by another, or was in existence before
himself. Of this fire the fuel and food are our sins, which are
called by the Apostle Paul “wood, and hay, and
stubble.”2242
And I think
that, as abundance of food, and provisions of a contrary kind and
amount, breed fevers in the body, and fevers, too, of different sorts
and duration, according to the proportion in which the collected
poison2243
supplies material
and fuel for disease (the quality of this material, gathered together
from different poisons, proving the causes either of a more acute or
more lingering disease); so, when the soul has gathered together a
multitude of evil works, and an abundance of sins against itself, at a
suitable time all that assembly of evils boils up to punishment, and is
set on fire to chastisements; when the mind itself, or conscience,
receiving by divine power into the memory all those things of which it
had stamped on itself certain signs and forms at the moment of sinning,
will see a kind of history, as it were, of all the foul, and shameful,
and unholy deeds which it has done, exposed before its eyes: then
is the conscience itself harassed, and, pierced by its own goads,
becomes an accuser and a witness against itself. And this, I
think, was the opinion of the Apostle Paul himself, when he said,
“Their thoughts mutually accusing or excusing them in the day
when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my
Gospel.”2244
From which it
is understood that around the substance of the soul certain tortures
are produced by the hurtful affections of sins themselves.
5. And that the understanding of this matter may
not appear very difficult, we may draw some considerations from the
evil effects of those passions which are wont to befall some souls, as
when a soul is consumed by the fire of love, or wasted away by zeal or
envy, or when the passion of anger is kindled, or one is consumed by
the greatness of his madness or his sorrow; on which occasions some,
finding the excess of these evils unbearable, have deemed it more
tolerable to submit to death than to endure perpetually torture of such
a kind. You will ask indeed whether, in the case of those who
have been entangled in the evils arising from those vices above
enumerated, and who, while existing in this life, have been unable to
procure any amelioration for themselves, and have in this condition
departed from the world, it be sufficient in the way of punishment that
they be tortured by the remaining in them of these hurtful affections,
i.e., of the anger, or of the fury, or of the madness, or of the
sorrow, whose fatal poison was in this life lessened by no healing
medicine; or whether, these affections being changed, they will be
subjected to the pains of a general punishment. Now I am of
opinion that another species of punishment may be understood to exist;
because, as we feel that when the limbs of the body are loosened and
torn away from their mutual supports, there is produced pain of a most
excruciating kind, so, when the soul shall be found to be beyond the
order, and connection, and harmony in which it was created by God for
the purposes of good and useful action and observation, and not to
harmonize with itself in the connection of its rational movements, it
must be deemed to bear the chastisement and torture of its own
dissension, and to feel the punishments of its own disordered
condition. And when this dissolution and rending asunder of soul
shall have been tested by the application of fire, a solidification
undoubtedly into a firmer structure will take place, and a restoration
be effected.
6. There are also many other things which
escape our notice, and are known to Him alone who is the physician of
our souls. For if, on account of those bad effects which we bring
upon ourselves by eating and drinking, we deem it necessary for the
health of the body to make use of some unpleasant and painful drug,
sometimes even, if the nature of the disease demand, requiring the
severe process of the amputating knife; and if the virulence of the
disease shall transcend even these remedies, the evil has at last to be
burned out by fire; how much more is it to be understood that God our
Physician, desiring to remove the defects of our souls, which they had
contracted from their different sins and crimes, should employ penal
measures of this sort, and should apply even, in addition, the
punishment of fire to those who have lost their soundness of
mind! Pictures of this method of procedure are found also in the
holy Scriptures. In the book of Deuteronomy, the divine word
threatens sinners with the punishments of fevers, and colds, and
jaundice,2245
and with the pains
of feebleness of
vision, and alienation of mind and paralysis, and blindness, and
weakness of the reins. If any one, then, at his leisure gather
together out of the whole of Scripture all the enumerations of diseases
which in the threatenings addressed to sinners are called by the names
of bodily maladies, he will find that either the vices of souls, or
their punishments, are figuratively indicated by them. To
understand now, that in the same way in which physicians apply remedies
to the sick, in order that by careful treatment they may recover their
health, God so deals towards those who have lapsed and fallen into sin,
is proved by this, that the cup of God’s fury is ordered, through
the agency of the prophet Jeremiah,2246
to be offered
to all nations, that they may drink it, and be in a state of madness,
and vomit it forth. In doing which, He threatens them, saying,
That if any one refuse to drink, he shall not be cleansed.2247
By which certainly it is understood
that the fury of God’s vengeance is profitable for the purgation
of souls. That the punishment, also, which is said to be applied
by fire, is understood to be applied with the object of healing, is
taught by Isaiah, who speaks thus of Israel: “The Lord will
wash away the filth of the sons or daughters of Zion, and shall purge
away the blood from the midst of them by the spirit of judgment, and
the spirit of burning.”2248
Of the
Chaldeans he thus speaks: “Thou hast the coals of fire; sit
upon them: they will be to thee a help.”2249
And in other passages he says,
“The Lord will sanctify in a burning fire”2250
and in the prophecies of Malachi he says,
“The Lord sitting will blow, and purify, and will pour forth the
cleansed sons of Judah.”2251
7. But that fate also which is mentioned in the
Gospels as overtaking unfaithful stewards who, it is said, are to be
divided, and a portion of them placed along with unbelievers, as if
that portion which is not their own were to be sent elsewhere,
undoubtedly indicates some kind of punishment on those whose spirit, as
it seems to me, is shown to be separated from the soul. For if
this Spirit is of divine nature, i.e., is understood to be a Holy
Spirit, we shall understand this to be said of the gift of the Holy
Spirit: that when, whether by baptism, or by the grace of the
Spirit, the word of wisdom, or the word of knowledge, or of any other
gift, has been bestowed upon a man, and not rightly administered, i.e.,
either buried in the earth or tied up in a napkin, the gift of the
Spirit will certainly be withdrawn from his soul, and the other portion
which remains, that is, the substance of the soul, will be assigned its
place with unbelievers, being divided and separated from that Spirit
with whom, by joining itself to the Lord, it ought to have been one
spirit. Now, if this is not to be understood of the Spirit of
God, but of the nature of the soul itself, that will be called its
better part which was made in the image and likeness of God; whereas
the other part, that which afterwards, through its fall by the exercise
of free-will, was assumed contrary to the nature of its original
condition of purity,—this part, as being the friend and beloved
of matter, is punished with the fate of unbelievers. There is
also a third sense in which that separation may be understood, this
viz., that as each believer, although the humblest in the Church, is
said to be attended by an angel, who is declared by the Saviour always
to behold the face of God the Father, and as this angel was certainly
one with the object of his guardianship; so, if the latter is rendered
unworthy by his want of obedience, the angel of God is said to be taken
from him, and then that part of him—the part, viz., which belongs
to his human nature—being rent away from the divine part, is
assigned a place along with unbelievers, because it has not faithfully
observed the admonitions of the angel allotted it by God.
8. But the outer darkness, in my judgment, is to
be understood not so much of some dark atmosphere without any light, as
of those persons who, being plunged in the darkness of profound
ignorance, have been placed beyond the reach of any light of the
understanding. We must see, also, lest this perhaps should be the
meaning of the expression, that as the saints will receive those bodies
in which they have lived in holiness and purity in the habitations of
this life, bright and glorious after the resurrection, so the wicked
also, who in this life have loved the darkness of error and the night
of ignorance, may be clothed with dark and black bodies after the
resurrection, that the very mist of ignorance which had in this life
taken possession of their minds within them, may appear in the future
as the external covering of the body. Similar is the view to be
entertained regarding the prison. Let these remarks, which have
been made as brief as possible, that the order of our discourse in the
meantime might be preserved, suffice for the present
occasion. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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