537 tion of the locality. It is situated to the west near the " mountain of metals," and has by some been referred to the solfatara in South Italy. 1 But more probably the region is that of the Dead Sea, to which Jude refers by | name in his account of the fate awaiting the fallen angels. 2 ! Wheu in the Apocalypse the New Jerusalem is about to descend from heaven, Hell 3 itself with Death is cast into this sulphureous lake not only symbolizing the final dis appearance of all evil, but also the removal as far as possible from the heavenly city of all the dread associations of the dark valley of Hinnom. On the other side of Hades was placed Paradise a term whose origin is self-evident. Apocalyptic literature loved to imagine a restored Edeu, and fill it with all the delights of sense streams of milk and honey, twelve trees laden with divers fruits, mighty mountains whereon grow lilies and roses (2 Esdras ii. 19). Prophetical language supplied other symbols of joy especially the happy banquet with the forefathers of the race (Luke xiii. 29, xvi. 22, cf. Isa. xxv. G, &c.). In later times long controversies have turned on those localities ; the " minds at once logical and sensuous ask questions, and the answers are wildly conjectural ; " and no one can yet decide whether paradise, Abraham s bosom, and the third heaven are identical or different places. 4 Further extravagancies may be found in the Rabbinical writings and in the many apocalypses which the early church produced. The limboes of patristic speculation have their antitypes in the chambers (prompt uaria) out of which come to Esdras the querulous voices of the dead. 5 In the Talmudic representations of hell there is a fore shadowing of the Roman purgatory. 6 But we cannot pursue Jewish eschatology into all its fanciful recesses. Enough has been said to show that when our Lord came he found the doctrines of last things presented in forms already fixed, and the terms Gehenna, Paradise, &.C., in familiar and even proverbial use (Matt, xxiii. 15, cf. James iii. G). The popular views of a future state regard the use Jesus made of current terms as a sanction of their literal mean ing. But from the very earliest Christian times another interpretation has been given. It has been understood that Christ treated popular religious terms as only the symbols of a false creed can be effectually treated. He rescued them for the service of the new and true. " He took from their future and remote, in order to give them a present and immediate, force and aspect." He employed the familiar images of heaven and hell to impress on men s consciences the supreme bliss of righteousness and the awful misery of sin. 7 If His words have been misap prehended and misrepresented in this particular, so were they, even by the first disciples, in others (John xi. 13; Mark viii. 16, &c.). He taught on the principle of His 1 In Enoch, however, this " flaming womb of hell " is apparently the temporary place, Gehenna being the final abode of woe (Stanley, p. 374). 2 Jude G, 7. See Uenan, L Antichrist, p. 333, note. 3 The word yi.tvva. however does not appear iu the Apocalypse ; Hades has quite taken its place (cf. Luke xvi. 23). 4 See art. " Paradise, " in Smith s Bib. Did. 5 2 Esd. iv. 35 ; see Renan, Lts Evangiles, p. 357, rote. 6 If we may determine the Jewish view of Gehenna in the time of our Lord from the opinion of modern rabbis and their exegesis of the Talmud, endless torment by no means formed part cf the doctrine; "it meant not a material and everlasting fire, but an intermediate, a re medial, a metaphorical, a terminable retribution." Farrar, Jiterna! Hope, p. 81, and Excursus v. 7 This view is very generally adopted with regard to the "worm " of Gehenna, which is interpreted to mean the gnawing of an evil con science. Unfortunately the fashion set by Augustine of choosing what terms shall be literal and what metaphorical has prevailed. See Aug., Civ. Dei, xxi. 9,- " Let each one make his own choice, either assigning the fire to the body and the worm to the soul, the one figuratively, the other really, or assigning both really to the body. well-known saying, " He that iiath ears to hear, let him hear." 8 Special instances would take us to too great a length. Christ s treatment of the resurrection, both with sceptics and believers (Matt. xxii. 30-32 ; John xi. 25), was such as to dislodge His hearers thoughts from the accidents (so to speak) of the great change, and fix them on its moral and spiritual aspects. The same intention appears also in His allusion to the judgment (John v. 25) ; while in the one unmistakable reference to the future heaven, He fastens the hope of His followers entirely on the thought of abiding communion with Himself (John xiv. 1-3). There are still certain features of eschatological doctrine which require notice. The notion of an Intermediate State was generally prevalent during the first three centuries. It was exactly analogous to the Jewish notion of a divided under-world. The souls of the pious, says Justin (D. c. Tryph., 5), take up their abode in a better, those of the wicked in a worse place. Tertulliau, however, believed that the martyrs went direct to the bliss of heaven a view probably founded on Rev. vii. 1-4, 15. The doctrine changed its shape many times. It produced an Arabian heresy combated by Origen, that both soul and body fall into a death sleep, 1 iom which they will not awake to the last day. Revived at a latsr time, under the name Psychopannychy, it was made the subject of a treatise by Calvin. But tbe existence of an intermediate state re mains a dogma of the Eastern Church to this day. In the Western the doctrine of Purgatory gradually absorbed it. The idea of a purifying fire seems to have grown originally out of the belief in the general conflagration of the world. This belief, which so much occupies the Sibylline books, came perhaps from the Stoic philosophy. 9 It was supported by Deut. xxxii. 22, and though it finds no place in the Apocalypse, had penetrated religious thought before the composition of the second epistle of Peter (2 Pet. iii. 7-12). The early fathers agree in ascribing to this fire a purgative virtue, but with every variety cf opinion as to the mode o. its operation. Augustine first transferred it to Hades and the intermediate state, thus laying the foundation for the view of purgatory which Gregory the Great formulated into a dogma. Distinction must always be made between the early puri fying flames, through which good and bad alike were destined to pass, and the Roman purgatory, in which only those destined at last for heaven worked out the residue of the temporal penalty for sin. 10 Reformed eschatology differs from that of the primitive church in the absence of the intermediate state, from that of Rome in the rejection of purgatory. Both these forms of belief are felt to have mitigated in some degree the doctrine of an endless hell, which in Protestantism is brought more prominently into the foreground, the final doom being fixed not now at the general judgment, but at death, at which, without any authority from Scripture, the popular creed supposes the sinner s fate to be unalterably determined. Many attempts iu different quarters have been made to revive the milder creeds of the early church. 11 A touching 8 Still a careful regard to His audience is traceable iu His use of apo calyptic language about His second coming ; it is to Jews only, the twelve, or the High Priest, or the Sanhedrim, or N:.thanael the " Israelite indeed," that he speaks of cleft heavens, cloud chariots, and attendant troops of angels. With the Roman governor be avoids { Jewish metaphors. 9 Justin, Apol. i. 44, &c. See Renan, Les Evangiles, p. 170, note, where the Stoic authorities are given. 16 Authorities for the history of Purgatory will be found in Hag- enbach and Meander. 11 Modern divines (at least In the English Church) have tried to re vise the ancient doctrines.
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