this is an error arising from the
misinterpretation of the figurative terms in which the Greek
Fathers express themselves. Tatian, Justin, Theophilus, and
Irenaus do not differ from the others in reality, but only in
words. The opinion that the soul is literally mortal is
erroneously attributed to those Greek Fathers, who in truth no
more held it than Tertullian did. "The death" they mean is, to
borrow their own language, "deprived of the rays of Divine light,
to bear a deathly immortality," (in immortalitate mortem
tolerantes,) an eternal existence in the ghostly under world.18
The con

15 They feel, as Novatian says, (De Trinitate, 1,) a prajudicium
futuri judicii. See also Ernesti, Excurs. de Veter. Patrum
Opinione de Statu Medio Animor. a Corpore sejunctorum. In his
Lect. Acad. in Ep. ad Hebr.

16 E. g., see Ambrose, De Paradiso.

17 Adv. Hares., lib. v. cap. v.

18 See this point ably argued in an academic dissertation
published at Konigsberg, 1827, bearing the title "Antiquissimorum
Ecclesia Grsecte Patrum de Immortalitate Anima Sententia
Recensentur."

They held that the inner man was originally a spirit [non-ASCII
characters omitted] and a soul [non-ASCII characters omitted]
blended and immortal, that is, indestructibly united and blessed.
But by sin the soul loses the spirit and becomes subject to death.
that is, to ignorance of its Divine origin, alienation from God,
darkness, and an abode in Hades. By the influences flowing from the
mission of Christ, man is elevated again to conscious communion with
God, and the spirit is restored to the soul. "Si restituitur, manet
[non-ASCII characters omitted] fit autem [non-ASCII characters
omitted]; si non restituitur, manet [non-ASCII characters omitted],
fit autem [non-ASCII characters omitted], quod haud differt a morte."
cordant doctrine of the Fathers as to the intermediate state of the
dead was that, with the exception of a few admitted to Paradise,
they were in the under world waiting the fulness of time, when the
world should be judged and their final destination be assigned to them.
As Tertullian says, "constituimus omnem animam apud inferos
seguestrari in diem Domini."

Finally, the Fathers expected that Christ would return from
heaven, hold a general day of judgment, and consummate all things.
The earliest disciples seem to have looked anxiously, almost from
hour to hour, for that awful crisis. But, as years rolled on and
the last apostle died,