and it came not, the date was fixed more
remotely; and, as other years passed away, and still no clear
signs of its arrival appeared, the date grew more and more
indefinite. Some still looked for the solemn dawn speedily to
break; others assigned it to the year 1000; others left the time
utterly vague; but none gave up the doctrine. All agreed that
sooner or later a time would come when the deep sky would open,
and Christ, clothed in terrors and surrounded by pomp of angels,
would alight on the globe, when:

"The angel of the trumpet Shall split the charnel earth With his
blast so clear and brave, And quicken the charnel birth At the
roots of the grave, Till the dead all stand erect."

Augustine, representing the catholic faith, says, "The coming of
Elias, the conversion of the Jews, Antichrist's persecution, the
setting up of Christ's tribunal, the raising of the dead, the
severing of the good and the bad, the burning of the world, and
its renovation, this is the destined order of events."19 The saved
were to be transported bodily to the eternal bliss of heaven; the
damned, in like manner, were to be banished forever to a fiery
hell in the centre of the earth, there to endure uncomprehended
agonies, both physical and spiritual, without any respite, without
any end. There were important, and for a considerable period quite
extensive, exceptions, to the belief in this last dogma:
nevertheless, such was undeniably the prevailing view, the
orthodox doctrine, of the patristic Church. The strict literality
with which these doctrines were held is strikingly shown in
Jerome's artless question: "If the dead be not raised with flesh
and bones, how can the damned, after the judgment, gnash their
teeth in hell?"

During the period now under consideration there were great
fluctuations, growths, changes, of opinion on three subjects in
regard to which the public creeds did not prevent all freedom of
thought by laying down definite propositions. We refer to baptism,
the millennium, and purgatory. Christian baptism was first simply
a rite of initiation into the Christian religion. Then it became
more distinctly a symbol of faith in Christ and in his gospel, and
an emblem of a new birth. Next it was imagined to be literally
efficacious to

19 De Civ. Del, lib. xx. cap. 30, sect. 5.

personal salvation, solving the chains of the devil, washing off
original sin, and opening the door of heaven.20 To trace the
doctrine through i