creation answered to a definite thought, and therefore, Origen argues, was definite itself. God "could" not create or embrace in thought that which has no limit (ib. ii. fragm. Gr. 6; ii. 9, 1; iv. fragm. Gr. 4). The rational creatures He made were all originally equal, spiritual, free. But moral freedom, including personal self-determination, led to difference. Finite creatures, once made, either advanced, through imitation of God, or fell away, through neglect of Him (ib. ii. 9, 6).
Evil, it follows, is negative—the loss of good which was attainable, the shadow which marks the absence or rather the exclusion of light. But as God made creatures for an end, so He provided that they should, through whatever discipline of sorrow, attain it. He made matter also, which might serve as a fitting expression for their character, and become, in the most manifold form, a medium for their training. So it was that, by various declensions, "spirit" (πνεῦμα) lost its proper fire and was chilled into a "soul" (ψυξή), and "souls" were embodied in our earthly frames in this world of sense. Such an embodiment was a provision of divine wisdom which enabled them, in accord with the necessities of the fact, to move towards the accomplishment of their destiny (ib. i. 7, 4).
Under this aspect man is a microcosm. (Hom. in Gen. i. 11; in Lev. v. 2: intellige te et alium mundum esse parvum et intra te esse solem, esse lunam, etiam stellas.) He stands in the closest connexion with the seen and the unseen; and is himself the witness of the correspondences which exist between visible and invisible orders (Hom. in Num. xi. 4, xvii. 4, xxiv. 1, xxviii. 2; Hom. i. in Ps. xxxvii. 1; in Joh. t. xix. 5, xxiii. 4; de Princ. iv. fragm. Gr. p. 184 R.). He is made for the spiritual and cannot find rest elsewhere.
As a necessary consequence of his deep view of man's divine kinsmanship, Origen labours to give distinctness to the unseen world. He appears already to live and move in it. He finds there the realities of which the phenomena of earth are shadows (cf. in Rom. x. § 39). External objects, peoples, cities, are to him veils and symbols of invisible things; and not only is there the closest correspondence between the constitution of different orders of being, but also even now a continuation of unobserved intercourse between them (cf. de Princ. ii. 9, 3). Angels (ib. i. 8, iii. 2, passim) preside over the working of elemental forces, over plants and beasts (in Num. Hom. xiv. 2; in Jer. Hom. x. 6; c. Cels. viii. 31; de Princ. iii. 3, 3), and it is suggested that nature is affected by their moral condition (in Ezech. Hom. iv. 2). More particularly men were, in Origen's opinion, committed to the care of spiritual "rulers," and deeply influenced by changes in their feeling and character (in Joh. xiii. § 58; cf. de Princ. i. 8, 1). Thus he recognized guardian angels of cities, provinces and nations (Hom. in Luc. xii.; de Princ. iii. 3, 2), a belief which he supported habitually by the LXX version of Deut. xxxii. 8 ( in Matt. t. xi. § 16; in Luc. Hom. xxxv.; in Rom. viii. § 8; in Gen. Hom. xvi. 2; in Ex. Hom. viii. 2; in Ezech. Hom. xiii. 1 f., etc.). Individual men also had their guardian angels (in Matt. t. xiii. 27; in Luc. Hom. xxxv.; in Num. Hom. xi. 4, xx. 3; in Ezech. Hom. i. 7; in Jud. vi. 2 de Princ. iii. 2, 4); and angels in the assemblies of Christians assisted the devotions of the faithful (de Orat. xxxi. p. 283 L.; Hom. in Luc. xxiii.; c. Cels. viii. 64). But while Origen recognizes most fully the reality and power of angelic ministration, he expressly condemns all angel-worship (c. Cels. v. 4, 11).
On the other hand, there are spiritual hosts of evil corresponding to the angelic forces and in conflict with them (in Matt. t. xvii. 2; in Matt. Comm. Ser. § 102; Hom. in Jos. xv. 5) He even speaks of a Trinity of evil (in Matt. xi. § 6, xii. § 20). An evil power strives with the good for the sway of individuals (in Rom. i. § 18); thus all life is made a struggle of unseen powers (e.g. notes on Ps. xxxvii.; in Joh. xx. §§ 29, 32; Hom xx. in Jos. Fragm.)
One aspect of this belief had a constant and powerful influence on daily life. Origen, like most of his contemporaries, supposed that evil spiritual beings were the objects of heathen worship (c. Cels. vii. 5). There was, for him, a terrible reality in their agency. Within certain limits they could work so as to bind their servants to them.
Origen believed also that the dead, too, influenced the living. The actions of men on earth last, in their effects, after the actors have departed (in Rom. ii. 4, p. 80 L.). Disembodied (or unembodied) souls are not idle (in Matt. xv. 35). So the "soul" of Christ preached to "souls" (c. Cels. iii. 43); and the saints sympathize with man still struggling on earth with a sympathy larger than that of those who are clogged by conditions of mortality (de Orat. xi.; in Matt. t. xxvii. 30; in Joh. t. xiii. 57; iii. in Cant. 7).
Without extenuating the effects of man's sin, Origen maintained a lofty view of the nobility of his nature and destiny (c. Cels. iv. 25, 30); held that the world had been made by divine wisdom a fitting place for the purification of a being such as man (de Princ. ii. 1, 1; 2, 2: 3, 1; c. Cels. vi. 44; cf. in Rom. viii. 10, p. 261); and that everything has been so ordered by Providence from the first as to contribute to this end (de Princ. ii. 1, 2). Man can, if he will, read the lesson of his life: he has a spiritual faculty, by which he can form conclusions on spiritual things, even as he is made to form conclusions on impressions of sense. The body, so to speak, reflects the soul; the "outer man" expresses the "inner man" (in Rom. ii. 13, p. 142 L.). There is imposed upon us the duty of service (in Matt. Comm. Ser. § 66), and the offices are many (in Joh. t. x. 23), room being made even for the meanest (Hom. in Num. xiv. 2, p. 162 L.).
The visible creation thus bears, in all its parts, the impress of a divine purpose; and the Incarnation was the crowning of the creation, by which the purpose was made fully known, and provision made for its accomplishment (de Princ. iii. 5, 6).
(2) The Incarnation. The Person of Christ. The Holy Trinity. The Work of Christ.—On no subject is Origen more full or suggestive (de Princ. i. 2; ii. 6; iv. 31). No one perhaps has done so much to vindicate and harmonize the fullest acknowledgment of the perfect humanity of the Lord and of His perfect divinity in one Person. His famous image of
