The Immortality of the Soul—History of the Doctrine

IT is also noticeable that a large number of those in the Christian church who first began to believe and teach the Platonic notion of the immortality of the soul, with it also taught the restoration, or universal salvation, of all souls. This fact is so well known that I do not stop to give the proof here. If any wish the evidence in full, they can read it in the "Ancient History of Universalism," by Hosea Ballou; or in "Debt and Grace," by C. F. Hudson; or in "The Scriptural Doctrine of Future Retribution," by Edward Beecher.

This view was held by Origen, A. D. 230; Gregory Thaumaturgus, A. D. 243; Pierius and Theognostus, A. D. 282; Methodius, A. D. 290; Pamphilus, A. D. 294; Eusebius, A. D. 320; Titus, A. D. 362; Didynaus, A. D. 370; Jerome, A. D. 380; Gregory Nyssen, A. D. 371; Diodorus, A. n. 378; Theodore, A. D. 394; Maximus, A. D. 662; and Nicholas, A. D. 1096. All these, and probably others, held to restorationism.

Origen went so far as to hold that the devil himself would finally be saved. Others held to the same. Indeed, restorationism and universalism appear to have been the popular faith during the labors of Origen in the third century, and for some time after. Universalists admit that they can find but few traces of their doctrine in the church till the close of the second century. (Preface to Ancient Hist. of Universalism, p. 19.) The fact is, there is no trace of it until the Platonic doctrine of the soul was introduced.

That Origen, who was thoroughly in love with Platonism, and who, as all agree, did more than all others to corrupt the simple doctrines of the gospel by introducing Platonic philosophy, was the man who introduced the doctrine of universalism into the church, is confessed even by Hosea Ballou. He says, "It appears that Origen introduced the doctrine of universalism and that of the pre-existance of souls together." (Anct. Hist. of Univer. p. 86.) He then quotes Origen as saying of the doctrines he was introducing, "Indeed, they are advanced by us with much hesitation, and more in the way of investigation and for the sake of discussing them, than as pronouncing them certain and indisputable." (Anct. Hist. of Univer., p. 86.)

Here, in the beginning of the third century, was the origin of universalism in the Christian church. This doctrine came in naturally with that of the immortality of the soul; but finally the doctrine of an eternal hell and endless suffering crowded it out, and it was condemned as heretical.

THE HEATHEN HELL MAGNIFIED.

Finally, the most horrid of all the results of receiving Plato's dogma of man's natural immortality was, that with it also came the heathen theory of the torments of the damned in Tartarus, or hell. Had even this view been left as the old pagans taught it, it would not have been so fearfully horrid. But getting the idea from thence, the Romish priests, aided by the ignorance and superstition of the people, added greatly to the doctrine, increased its dimensions, and intensified all its infernal horrors. The number of those who went there was vastly larger than the number of those sent there by the Pagans. They only doomed some of the worst cases; but now all out of the church must go there; together with heretics and apostates from the church. Plato's hell only lasted till the periodical renovation of all things, as we have seen. This was a very long time, yet it was only a drop in the ocean compared to an actual eternity. But the Romanists made it eternal, sure, without hope of end. All the strong words the language knew, all the illustrations ingenuity could invent, were exhausted to convey the idea of its unending duration.

Plato had described hell as a place of great suffering; but now these sufferings were multiplied and intensified a hundred-fold. With Plato, hell was only a speculative idea, which affected nobody; with the Romanists it was an ever present, almost visible reality. The first thing the prattling child learned was to fear hell. The mother talked of it, the father warned of it, the teacher described it, and the priest threatened it. "Never," says Michelet, "can we know in what terrors the Middle Age lived. There was all abroad a living fear of men, fear of the State, fear of the church, fear of God, fear of the devil, fear of hell, fear of death. Preaching consisted very much in the invitation,'Submit to the guidance of the church while you live,' enforced by the threat, or you shall go to hell when you die." (Future Life, p. 407.)

"A gloomy mist of credulity enwrapped the cathedral and the hall of justice, the cottage and the throne. In the dark shadows of the universal ignorance, a thousand superstitions, like foul animals of night, were propagated and nourished." (Alger, Future Life, p. 417.) The learned author continues: "Suffice it to say, the monks appear at midnight in the cells of various persons, now impersonating devils, in horrid attire, breathing flames and brimstone; now claiming to be the souls of certain sufferers escaped from purgatory; and again pretending to be celebrated saints, with the Virgin Mary at their head. By the aid of mechanical and chemical arrangements, they wrought miracles, and played on the terror and credulity of the spectators in a frightful manner." (Alger, Future Life, p. 419.)

The Medieval belief in a future life was practically concentrated, for the most part, around the ideas of Satan, purgatory, the last Judgment, hell. Says Neander, "The inmost distinction of Medieval experience was an awful sense of another life and an invisible world." "No oblivious draught, no pure spiritualization, had freed the departed souls from earthly bonds and associations. Light pretexts drew them back to their wonted haunts. A buried treasure allowed them no rest till they had led someone to raise it. An unfinished task, an uncanceled obligation, forced them again to the upper world. In ruined castles, the ghosts of knights, in their accustomed habiliments, held tournaments and carousals. The priest read mass; the hunter pursued his game; the specter-robber fell on the benighted traveler." (Alger, Future Life, p. 415.)

Ghosts and specters walked on every hand, and lurked in every dark corner. The devil, with his cloven feet, long tail, horns, and breathing fire, was often seen. He made special contracts with desperate men to serve him for so long for certain worldly prosperity. Souls from purgatory frequently appeared, and told of their awful sufferings and who were there with them. They warned their surviving friends to believe the church and obey the priests. Now and then the door of hell was opened, and certain persons saw the smoke and the flames, and heard the cries and moans of the damned. Hell was no myth, no merely symbolical place, not simply a guilty conscience. No; hell was a dread reality, a real place, a lake of burning, literal fire. The belching of a volcano was the vomit of uneasy hell. If a man wishes to get a correct idea of the popular feeling touching hell in the Middle Ages, let him read the "Divine Commedia" of Dante. The transactions of hell were thought of and spoken of as familiarly as we now speak of the business of a neighboring city from which come the cars and papers daily!

THE FIRES OF HELL LITERAL.

"Many persons who have not taken pains to examine the subject, suppose that the horrifying descriptions given by Christian authors of the state and sufferings of the lost were not intended to be literally received, but were meant as figures of speech, highly wrought metaphors, calculated to alarm and impress with physical emblems corresponding only to moral and spiritual realities. The progress of thought and refinment has made it natural that recourse should often be had to such an explanation; but unquestionably it is a mistake. The annals of theology, both dogmatic and homiletic, from the times of the earliest fathers till now, abound in detailed accounts of the future punishment of the wicked, whereof the context, the train of thought, and all the intrinsic characteristics of style and coherence, do not leave a shadow of doubt that they were written as faithful though inadequate accounts of facts. The church, the immense bulk of Christendom, has in theory always regarded hell and its dire concomitants as material facts, and not as merely spiritual experiences.

"Tertullian says, 'The damned burn eternally without consuming, as the volcanoes, which are vents from the stored subterranean fire of hell, burn forever without wasting.' Cyprian declares that 'the wretched bodies of the condemned shall simmer and blaze in those living fires.' Augustine argues at great length, and with ingenious varieties of reasoning, to show how the material bodies of the damned may withstand annihilation in everlasting fire. Similar assertions, which cannot be figuratively explained, are made by Irenaeus, Jerome, Athanasius, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventura, Gerson, Bernard, and indeed, by almost all the Christian writers. Origen, who was a Platonist, and a heretic on many points, was severely condemned for saying that the fire of hell was inward and of the conscience, rather than outward and of the body.

"For the strict materiality of the fire of hell we might adduce volumes of authorities from nearly every province of the church. Dr. Barrow asserts that 'our bodies will be afflicted continually by a sulphurous flame, piercing the inmost sinews.' John Whitaker thinks 'the bodies of the damned will be all salted with fire, so tempered and prepared as to burn the most fiercely, and yet never consume.' Jeremy Taylor teaches that 'temporal fire is but a painted fire in respect of that penetrating and real fire in hell.' Jonathan Edwards soberly and believingly writes thus:—

"The world will probably be converted into a great lake, or liquid globe of fire,—a vast ocean of fire, in which the wicked shall be overwhelmed, which will always be in tempest, in which they shall be tossed to and fro, having no rest day or night, vast waves or billows of fire continually rolling over their heads, of which they shall forever be full of a quick sense within and without; their heads, their eyes, their tongues, their hands, their feet, their loins, and their vitals shall forever be full of a glowing, melting fire, fierce enough to melt the very rocks and elements; and also they shall eternally be full of the most quick and lively sense to feel the torments; not for one minute, nor for one day, nor for one age, nor for two ages, nor for a hundred ages, nor for ten thousands of millions of ages one after another, but forever and ever, without any end at all, and never, never be delivered.'

"Outraged humanity before the contemplation cries, 'O God, horror hath overwhelmed me; for thou art represented as an omnipotent fiend.' It is not the Father of Christ, but his antagonist, whose face glares down over such a scene as that! The above diabolical passage—at the recital of which, from the pulpit, Edward's biographers tell us, whole congregations shuddered and simultaneously rose to their feet, smiting their breasts, weeping, and groaning—is not the arbitrary exaggeration of an individual, but a fair representation of the actual tenets and vividly held faith of the Puritans. It is, also, in all its uncompromising literality, a direct and inevitable part of the system of doctrine, which, with insignificant exceptions, professedly prevails throughout Christendom at this hour. We know most persons will hesitate at this statement; but let them look at the logic of the case in the light of its history, and they must admit the correctness of the assertion."

"The world is to be burned up, and the damned, restored to their bodies, are to be driven into the everlasting fire prepared for them. The resurrection of the body,—still held in all Christendom,—taken in connection with the rest of the associated scheme, necessitates the belief in the materiality of the torments of hell. That eminent living divine, Dr. Gardiner Spring, says, 'The souls of all who have died in their sins are in hell; and there their bodies too, will be after the resurrection.' Mr. Spurgeon also, in his graphic and fearful sermon on the 'Resurrection of the Dead,' uses the following language:—

"When thou diest, thy soul will be tormented alone; that will be a hell for it; but at the day of Judgment thy body will join thy soul, and then thou wilt have twain hells, thy soul sweating drops of blood, and thy body suffused with agony. In fire exactly like that which we have on earth, thy body will lie, asbestos-like, forever unconsumed, all thy veins roads for the feet of pain to travel on, every nerve a string on which the devil shall forever play his diabolical tune of "Hell's Unutterable Lament"! and, if this doctrine be true, no ingenuity, however fertile in expedients and however fiendish in cruelty, can possibly devise, emblems and point pictures half terrific enough to present in imagination and equal in moral impression what the reality will be to the sufferers. It is easy to speak or hear the word "hell," but to analyze its significance and realize it in a sensitive fancy, is difficult; and whenever it is done, the fruit is madness, as the bedlams of the world are shrieking in testimony at this instant. The revivalist preachers, so far from exaggerating the frightful contents latent in the prevalent dogma concerning hell, have never been able—and no man is able— to do anything like justice to its legitimate deductions.

"'Edwards is right in declaring, "After we have said our utmost, and thought our utmost, all that we have said and thought is but a faint shadow of the reality." Think of yourselves seized just as you are now, and flung into the roaring, glowing furnace of eternity; think of such torture for an instant, multiply it by infinity and then say if any words can convey the proper force of impression. It is true these intolerable details are merely latent, and unappreciated by the multitude of believers; and when one, roused to fanaticism by earnest contemplation of his creed, dares to proclaim its logical consequences and to exhort men accordingly, they shrink, and charge him with excess. But they should beware ere they repudiate the literal horrors of the historic orthodox doctrine for any figurative and moral views accommodated to the advanced reason and refinement of the times,—beware how such an abandonment of a part of their system affects the rest.'"(Alger's Doctrine of a Future Life, chap. iv. pp. 516, 517, 518.)