dness of their idea of
him. Nevertheless this conception assumes that in the other world there
will be a return of the flesh, which on this side the grave had to be
overcome and regarded as non-existent. A clearly chiliastic element is
found only in Justin.]

[Footnote 444: No uniform conception of this is found in the Apologists;
see Wendt, Die Christliche Lehre von der menschlichen Vollkommenheit
1882, pp. 8-20. Justin speaks only of a heavenly destination for which
man is naturally adapted. With Tatian and Theophilus it is different.]

[Footnote 445: The idea that the demon sovereignty has led to some
change in the psychological condition and capacities of man is
absolutely unknown to Justin (see Wendt, l.c., p. 11 f., who has
successfully defended the correct view in Engelhardt's "Das Christenthum
Justin's des Maertyrers" pp. 92 f. 151. f. 266 f., against Staehlin,
"Justin der Maertyrer und sein neuester Beurtheiler" 1880, p. 16 f.).
Tatian expressed a different opinion, which, however, involved him in
evident contradictions (see above, p. 191 ff.). The apologetic theology
necessarily adhered to the two following propositions: (1) The freedom
to do what is good is not lost and cannot be. This doctrine was opposed
to philosophic determinism and popular fatalism. (2) The desires of the
flesh resulting from the constitution of man only become evil when they
destroy or endanger the sovereignty of reason. The formal _liberum
arbitrium_ explains the possibility of sin, whilst its actual existence
is accounted for by the desire that is excited by the demons. The
Apologists acknowledge the universality of sin and death, but refused to
admit the necessity of the former in order not to call its guilty
character in question. On the other hand they are deeply imbued with the
idea that the sovereignty of death is the most powerful factor in the
perpetuation of sin. Their believing conviction of the omnipotence of
God, as well as their moral conviction of the responsibility of man,
protected them in theory from a strictly dualistic conception of the
world. At the same time, like all who separate nature and morality in
their ethical system, though in other respects they do not do so, the
Apologists were obliged in practice to be dualists.]

[Footnote 446: Death is accounted the worst evil. When Theophilus (II.
26) represents it as a blessing, we must consider that he is arguing
against Marcion. Polytheism is traced to the demons