what can fitly symbolize the sacrifice of Christ, his argument in this connection being against the use simply of water in the eucharistic cup. (Epist. ad Cæcil., No. 62, § 14.) Meanwhile, this feature of the eucharist was by no means dwelt upon by the whole body of Christian writers. Speaking of the first three centuries, Gieseler says: “It is to be observed that Justin Martyr, Irenæus, and Cyprian are the only church teachers who speak of the eucharist as a sacrifice." Origen clearly teaches that, apart from the sacrifice made by Christ, none exccpt spiritual offerings have any place under the new dispensation; and other writers give intimations of the same order of thought. "The sacrifice of the Church," says Clement of Alexandria, “is the word breathing as incense from holy souls. . . . The righteous soul is the truly sacred altar, and incense arising from it is holy prayer." (Strom., VII. 6.)

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CHAPTER VI.

ESCHATOLOGY.

1. CHILIASM. The doctrine that the end of the present dispensation is to be preceded by the personal reign of Christ upon earth was entertained in the second century not only by Ebionites, and by writers who, like Cerinthus, mixed with their Gnosticism a large element of Judaism, but by many (very likely a majority) of those in the Catholic Church. There is, to be sure, no inculcation of the doctrine in the writings of Polycarp, Ignatius, Tatian, Athenagoras, and Theophilus. It was expressly advocated, however, by writers as representative of their age as Justin Martyr, Irenæus, and Tertullian, as well as by Papias. “I and others," says Justin Martyr, "who are right-minded Christians on all points, are assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead and a thousand years in Jerusalem, which will then be built, adorned, and enlarged. . . . There was a certain man with us, whose name was John, one of the apostles of Christ, who prophesied, by a revelation made to him, that those who believed in our Christ would dwell a thousand years in Jerusalem; and that thereafter the general, and in short the eternal, resurrection and judgment of all men would likewise take place." (Dial. cum Tryph., LXXX., LXXXI.) Irenæus reproduces some of the extravagant descriptions of Papias respecting the fruitfulness of the earth during the millennial reign, places the coming of Antichrist just before the inauguration of that reign, teaches that the just will be resurrected by the descended Saviour, and dwell, with the remnant of believers still in the

world, in Jerusalem, being there disciplined for the state of incorruption which they are to enjoy in the New Jerusalem, which is from above, and of which the earthly Jerusalem is an image. (V. 33-36.) "Of the heavenly kingdom,” says Tertullian, "this is the process. After its thousand years are over, within which period is completed the resurrection of the saints, who rise sooner or later, according to their deserts, there will ensue the destruction of the world and the conflagration of all things at the judgment." (Adv. Marc., III. 24.)

Near the close of the second century, a current adverse to this order of ideas was started. An initial cause of this was the great prominence which Montanism gave to the doctrines of Chiliasm. This, in connection with the general reprobation of Montanism, tended naturally to lessen enthusiasm for those doctrines. Then came the positive opposition of the Alexandrian school, which, with its bias to idealism, could hardly fail to challenge the theory of a visible personal reign of Christ upon earth. Origen devoted a chapter of his "De Principiis" to a refutation of materialistic notions of the millennial reign (II. 11), and his disciple, Dionysius of Alexandria, controverted, with great zeal, the tenets of the Egyptian Chiliasts. At the end of the third century, therefore, Chiliasm held a disputed place in the Church. In the early part of the next century, it became virtually obsolete. As late a writer as Lactantius, it is true, appears as an ardent believer in it, and pictures at length the second advent and the earthly kingdom (Div. Inst., Lib. VII.); but he in no wise represents the drift of his age, for the cessation of the persecutions and the erection of a Christian Empire gave a new direction to thought and desire. Nothing was more natural, while the storm of heathen violence was raging, than for Christians to long for the coming of their Deliverer, and for a manifest triumph of His kingdom over the kingdom of this world. The storm, however, having ceased, and the kingdom of

this world having passed under a Christian sceptre, their desire for the special and open intervention of their Divine Leader was necessarily relaxed.

2. CONDITION BETWEEN DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION. The doctrine of an intermediate state was prevalent in the early Church, as appears from the writings of Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Irenæus, Hippolytus, Novatian, Origen, and Lactantius. (Dial. cum Tryph., V.; De An., LV., LVIII. ; Cont. Hær., V. 31; Orat. ad Græc., I.; De Trin., I.; De Prin., II. 11. 6; Cont. Cel., VII. 5; Div. Inst., VII. 21.) By some of these writers, this doctrine was asserted, in express opposition to the Gnostic view, that pneumatic Christians pass at once into the pleroma on their departure from the body.

Much after the manner of the later Judaism, the early Christians assumed, in the main, a wide common receptacle for the souls of the dead, the invisible region, or Hades. This was sometimes described (and probably was generally regarded) as an under-world. Though having in a sense a common abode here, the dead were not regarded as being subjected to a common lot; for Hades was described as a place of partial rewards and punishments, the righteous having foretastes of the fruition awaiting them, and the wicked, of the punishments impending over them. Also, in a local respect, the lot of the two classes was regarded as in a measure distinguished, as may be judged from references to the sixteenth chapter of Luke. Paradise seems not to have been reckoned within the bounds of Hades. Tertullian, apparently, describes it as a region. in this world, but inaccessible, save to those for whom it is appointed. (Apol., XLVII.) Origen, also, assigns an earthly location to the more immediate Paradise. (De Prin., II. 11. 6.)

Tertullian expresses with much confidence the belief that all souls are detained in Hades till the resurrection, martyrs alone excepted. "No one," he says, "on becoming absent

from the body, is at once a dweller in the presence of the Lord, except by the prerogative of martyrdom, whereby [the saint] gets at once a lodging in Paradise, not in Hades." (De Res. Carn., XLIII.) "The sole key to unlock Paradise is your own life's blood." (De An., LV.) Just how far Tertullian's view was shared by the Church at large is difficult to determine. He seems to have found those who were disposed to claim that at least the patriarchs and prophets were removed from Hades in the retinue of the Lord's resurrection. At any rate, he introduces one as urging this supposition, and replies as follows: “How is it, then, that the region of Paradise, which, as revealed to John in the spirit, lay under the altar, displays no other souls as in it besides the souls of the martyrs?" (Ibid.) It is to be noted, also, that the language of Cyprian is rather indicative of sympathy with the opinions which Tertullian controverts than otherwise. Speaking of earthly losses and calamities, he asks, "What is this to Christians? What to God's servants whom Paradise is inviting?" (Adv. Demet., XX.) "It is for him to fear death who is not willing to go to Christ. It is for him to be unwilling to go to Christ who does not believe that he is about to reign with Christ. The righteous are called [at death] to their place of refreshing, the unrighteous are snatched away to punishment. . . . Let us greet the day which assigns each of us to his own home, which snatches us hence, and sets us free from the snares of the world, and restores us to Paradise and the kingdom. . . . We regard Paradise as our country. We already begin to consider the patriarchs as our parents: why do we not hasten and run that we may behold our country, that we may greet our parents? There a great number of our dear ones is awaiting us, and a dense crowd of parents, brothers, children, is longing for us, already assured of their own safety, and still solicitous for our salvation." (Tract. de Mortal.) Certainly the man who indulged this language either did not believe that death takes