5. This arrangement of things, then, which God after- wards appointed (for He had, from the very origin of the world, clearly perceived the reasons and causes affecting those who, either owing to mental deficiencies, deserved to enter into bodies, or those who were carricd away by their desire for visible things, and those also who, either willingly or unwillingly, were compelled, [by Him who subjected the same in hope], to perform certain services to such as had fallen into that condition), not being understood by some, who failed to perceive that it was owing to preceding causes, originating in free-will, that this variety of arrangement had been instituted by God, they have concluded that all things 1 Cf. Rom. viii. 20, 21. 2 Dispersi.
Cua. v.] ORIGEN DE PRINCIPHS. 259 in this world are directed cither by fortuitous movements or by a necessary fate, and that nothing i is within the power of our own will. And, therefore, also they were unable to show that the peouidence of God was Leyond the reach of censure.
6. But as we have said that all the souls who lived in this world stood in need of many ministers, or rulers, or assistants; so, in the last times, when the end of the world is already imminent and near, and the whole human race is verging upon the last destruction, and when not only those who were governed by others have been reduced to weakness, but those also to whom had been committed the cares of government, it was no longer such help nor such defenders that were needed, but the help of the Author and Creator Ilimself was required to restore to the one the discipline of obedience, which had been corrupted and profaned, and to the other the discipline of rule. And hence the only-begotten Son of God, who was the Word and the Wisdom of the Tather, when Ife was in the possession of that glory with the Father, which He had before the world was, divested ilimself* of it, and, taking the form of a servant, was made obedient unto death, that Te might teach obedience to these who could not otherwise than by obedience obtain salvation. Ile restored also the laws of rule and government’ which had been corrupted, by subduing all enemies under His feet, that by this means (for it was necessary that IIe should reign until IIe had put all enemies under This feet, and destroyed the last enemy—death) Te might teach rulers themselves moderation in their government. As Ie had come, then, to restore the discipline, not only of government, but of obedience, as we have said, accomplishing in Ilimself first what Te desired to be accomplished by others, He became obedient to the Father, not only to the death of the cross, but also, in the end of the world, embracing in Ilimself all whom Ile subjects to the I'ather, and who by Him come to salvation, Ife Himself, along with them, and in them, is said also to be subject to the Father; all things subsisting in Tim, and He Himself being the Head of all things, and in Him being the 1 Exinanivit semet ipsum. 2 Regendi regnandicue.
260 ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIS. [Book ir.
salvation and the fulness of those who obtain salvation. And this consequently is what the apostle says of Him: “ And when all things shall be subjected to Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject to Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.”
7. I know not, indeed, how the heretics, not understanding the meaning of the apostle in these words, consider the term “subjection” degrading as applied to the Son; for if the propriety of the title be called in question, it may easily be ascertained from making a contrary supposition. Because if it be not good to be in subjection, it follows that the opposite will be good, viz. not to be in subjection. Now the language of the apostle, according to their view, appears to indicate by these words, “And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him,”? that He, who is not now in subjection to the Father, will become subject to Him when the Father shall have first subdued all things unto Him. But I am astonished how it can be conceived to be the meaning, that Ile who, while all things are not yet subdued to Ilim, is not Ilimself in subjection, should—at a time when all things have been subdued to Ilim, and when Ile has become King of all men, and holds sway over all things—be supposed then to be made subject, seeing He was not formerly in subjection; for such donot understand that the subjection of Christ to the Father indicates that our happiness has attained to per- fection, and that the work undertaken by Ilim has been brought to a victorious termination, secing He has not only purified the power of supreme government over the whole of creation, but presents to the Father the principles of the obedience and subjection of the human race in a corrected and improved condition? If, then, that subjection be held to be good and salutary by which the Son is said to be subject to the Father, it is an extremely rational and logical inference 2Cum non solu regendi ac reenandi summam, qttam in universam emendaverit creaturam, verum etiam obedientize ct subjectione correcta reparataque humani generis Patri offerat instituta.
Ciar. v. | ORIGEN DE PLANCIPIIS. 261 to deduce that the subjection also of enemics, which is said to be made to the Son of God, should be understood as being also salutary and useful; as if, when the Son is said to be subject to the Father, the perfect restoration of the whole of creation is signified, so also, when enemies are said to be subjected to the Son of God, the salvation of the conquered and the restoration of the lost is in that understood to consist.
§. This subjection, however, will be accomplished in certain ways, and after certain training, and at certain times; for it is not to be imagined that the subjection is to be brought about by the pressure of necessity (lest the whole world should then appear to be subdued to God by force), but by word, reason, and doctrine; by a call to a better course of things, by the best systems of training, by the employment also of suitable and appropriate threatenings, which will justly impend over those who despise any care or attention to their salvation and usefulness. In a word, we men also, in training either our slaves or children, restrain them by threats and fear while they are, by reason of their tender age, incapable of using their reason; but when they have begun to understand what is good, and useful, and honourable, the fear of the lash being over, they acquiesce through the suasion of words and reason in all that is good. But how, consistently with the preserva- tion of freedom of will in all rational creatures, each one ought to be regulated, te. who they are whom the word of God finds and trains, as if they were already prepared and capable of it; who they are whom it puts off to a later time; who these are from whom it is altogether concealed, and who are so situated as to be far from hearing it; who those, again, are who despise the word of God when made known and preached to them, and who are driven by a kind of correction and chastisement to salvation, and whose conversion is in a certain degree demanded and extorted; who those are to whom certain opportunities of salvation are afforded, so that sometimes, their faith being proved by an answer alone,’ they have unquestionably obtained salvation;*—from what 1 By a profession of faith in baptism. 2 Indubitatam cepcrit salutem.
262 ORMGEw DE PRINCIPITIS, [Book mt.
causes or on what occasions these results take place, or what the divine wisdom sees within them, or what movements of their will leads God so to arrange all these things, is known to Ilim alone, and to Ilis only-begotten Son, through whom all things were created and restored, and to the Holy Spirit, throuch whom all things are sanctified, who proceedeth from the Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
CHAPTER VI. ON THE END OF THE WORLD.
1. Now, respecting the end of the word and the consum- mation of all things, we have stated in the preceding pages, to the best of our ability, so far as the authority of Holy Scripture enabled us, what we deem sufiicient for purposes of instruction; and we shall here only add a few admonitory remarks, since the order of investigation has brought us back to the subject. The highest good, then, after the attainment of which the whole of rational nature is seeking, which. 1s also called the end of all blessings,’ is defined by many philo- sophers as follows: The highest ac they say, is to ‘become as like to God as possible. But this definition I regard not so much as a discovery of theirs, as a view derived from holy Scripture. For this is pointed out by Moses, before all other philosophers, when he describes the first creation of man in these words: “ And God said, Let us make man in our own image, and after our eee °’% and then he adds the words: “So God created man in His own image: in the image of God created He him; male and female created Ile 1 It was not until the third Synod of Toledo, a.p. 589, that the ** Filtoque” clause was added to the Creed of Constantinople,—tlis difference forming, as is weil known, one of the dogmatic grounds for the disunion between the Western and Tastern Churches down to the present day, the latter church denying that the Spirit proceedeth from the Father and the Son.
Cuar. VI. ] ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS. 26:3 them, and He blessed them.”* Now the expression, “In the image” of God created He him,” without any mention of the word “ likeness,”* conveys no other meaning than this, that man received the dignity of God’s image at his first creation; but that the perfection of his likeness has been reserved for the consummation,—namely, that he might acquire it for himself by the exercise of his own diligence in the imita- tion of God, the possibility of attaining to perfection being granted him at the beginning through the dignity of the divine image, and the perfect realization of the divine like- ness being reached in the end by the fulfilment of the [neces- sary] works. Now, that such is the case, the Apostle John points out more clearly and unmistakeably, when he makes this declaration: “ Little children, we do not yet know what we shall be; but if a revelation be made to us from the Saviour, ye will say, without any doubt, we shall be like Him.”* By which expression he points out with the utmost certainty, that not only was the end of all things to be hoped for, which he says was still unknown to him, but also the likeness to God, which will be conferred in proportion to the completeness of our deserts. The Lord Ilimself, in the Gospel, not only declares that these same results are future, but that they are to be brought about by His own interces- sion, He Himself deigning to obtain them from the Father for His disciples, saying, “ Father, I will that where I am, these also may be with me; and as Thou and [ are one, they also may be one in us.” In which the divine likeness itsclf already appears to advance, if we may so express ourselves, and from being merely similar, to become the same,° because undoubtedly in the consummation or end God is “all and in all.” And with reference to this, it is made a question by some’ 5 Cf. John xvii. 24, cf. 21. 6 Ex simili unum ficri.
7 Jerome, in his Epistle to Avitus, No. 94, has the passage thus: ‘* Since, as we have already frequently observed, the beginning is gene- rated again from the end, it is a question whether then also there will be bodics, or whether existence will be maintained at some time without them when they shall have been annihilated, and thus the life of incorporeal beings must be believed to be incorporeal, as we know is 264 ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS. { Book 1.
whether the nature of bodily matter, although cleansed and purified, and rendered altogether spiritual, does not seem either to offer an obstruction towards attaining the dignity of the [divine] likeness, or to the property of unity,’ because neither can a corporeal nature appear capable of any resem- blance to a divine nature, which is certainly incorporeal; nor can it be truly and deservedly designated one with it, espe- cially since we are taught by the truths of our religion that that which alone is one, viz. the Son with the Father, must be referred to a peculiarity of the [divine] nature.
2. Since, then, it is promised that in the end God will be the case with God. And there is no doubt that if all the bodies which are termed visible by the apostle, belong to that sensible world, the life of incorporeal beings will be incorporeal.” And a little after: ‘ That expression, also, used by the apostle, ‘The whole creation will be freed from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God’ (Rom. vill. 21), we so understand, that we say it was the first creation of rational and incorporeal beings which is not subject to cor- ruption, because it was not clothed with bodies; for wherever bodies are, corruption immediately follows. But afterwards it will be freed from the bondage of corruption, when they shall have reccived the glory of the sons of God, and God shall be all in all.” And in the same place: ‘‘That we must believe the end of all things to be incorporeal, the language of the Saviour Himself leads us to think, when He says, ‘ As I and Thou are one, so may they also be one in us’ (John xvii. 21). For we ought to know what God is, and what the Saviour will be in the end, and how the likeness of the Father and the Son has been pro- mised to the saints; for as they are one in Him, so they also are one in them. For we must adopt the view, either that the God of all things is clothed with a body, and as we are enveloped with flesh, so He also with some material covering, that the likeness of the life of God may be in the end produced also in the saints; or if this hypothesis is unbecoming, especially in the judgment of those who desire, even in the smallest degree, to feel the majesty of God, and to look upon the glory of His uncreated and all-surpassing nature, we are forced to adopt the other alternative, and despair either of attaining any likeness to God, if we are to inhabit for ever the same bodies, or if the blessedness of the same life with God is promised to us, we must live in the same state as that in which God lives.” All these points have been omitted by Rufinus as erroneous, and statements of a different kind here and there inserted instead (Rueus).: 1 Ad unitatis proprietatem.
Cup. VI. ] ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS. 265 all and in all, we are not, as is fitting, to suppose that ani- mals, either sheep or other cattle, come to that end, lest it should be implied that God dwelt even in animals, whether sheep or other cattle; and so, too, with pieces of wood or stones, lest it should be said that God is in these also. So, again, nothing that is wicked must be supposed to attain to that end, lest, while God is said to be in all things, He may also be said to be in a vessel of wickedness. For if we now assert that God is everywhere and in all things, on the ground that nothing can be empty of God, we nevertheless do not say that He is now “all things” in those in whom He is. And hence we must look more carefully as to what that is which denotes the perfection of blessedness and the end of things, which is not only said to be God in all things, but also “all in all.” Let us then inquire what all those things are which God is to become in all.
3. Iam of opinion that the expression, by which God is said to be “all in all,’ means that He is “all” in each individual person. Now He will be “all” in each individual in this way: when all which any rational understanding, cleansed from the dregs of every sort of vice, and with every cloud of wickedness completely swept away, can either feel, or understand, or think, will be wholly God; and when it will no longer behold or retain anything else than God, but when God will be the measure and standard of all its movements; and thus God will be “all,” for there will no longer be any distinction of good and evil, seeing evil nowhere exists; for God is all things, and to Him no evil is near: nor will there be any longer a desire to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, on the part of him who is always in the possession of good, and to whom God is all. So then, when the end has been restored to the beginning, and the termi- nation of things compared with their commencement, that condition of things will be re-established in which rational nature was placed, when it had no need to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; so that when all feeling of wickedness has been removed, and the individual has been purified and cleansed, He who alone is the one good God 266 ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS. [ Book 111.
becomes to him “ all,” and that not in the case of a few in- dividuals, or of a considerable number, but He Himself is “all in all’ And when death shall no longer anywhere exist, nor the sting of death, nor any evil at all, then verily God will be “all in all.” But some are of opinion that that perfection and blessedness of rational creatures, or natures, can only remain in that same condition of which we have spoken above, i.e. that all things should possess God, and God should be to them all things, if they are in no degree prevented by their union with a bodily nature. Otherwise they think that the glory of the highest blessedness is im- peded by the intermixture of any material substance.’ But this subject we have discussed at greater length, as may be seen in the preceding pages.
4, And now, as we find the apostle making mention of a spiritual body, let us inquire, to the best of our ability, what idea we are to form of such a thing. So far, then, as our understanding can grasp it, we consider a spiritual body to be of such a nature as ought to be inhabited not only by all holy and perfect souls, hut also by all those creatures which will be liberated from the slavery of corruption. Respecting the body also, the apostle las said, “ We have a house not 1“ Vere the honesty of Rufinus in his translation seems very suspi- cious; for Origen’s well-known opinion regarding the sins and lapses of blessed spirits he here attributes to others. Nay, even the opinion which he introduces Origen as ascribing to others, he exhibits him as refuting a little further on, sec. 6, in these words: ‘And in this condition [of blessedness] we are to believe that, by the will of the Creator, it will abide for ever without any change,’ ete. I suspect, therefore, that all this is due to Rufinus hinself, and that he has inserted it, instead of what is found in the beginning of the chapter, sec. 1, and which in Jerome's Epistle to Avitus stands as follows: ‘ Nor is there any douht that, after certain intervals of time, matter will again exist, and bodies be formed, and a diversity be established in the world, on account of the varying wills of rational creatures, who, after [enjoying] perfect blessedness down to the end of all things, have gradually fallen away to a lower condition, and received into them so much wickedness, that they are converted into an opposite condition, by their unwillingness to retain their orivinal state, and to preserve their blessedness uncor- rupted. Nor is this point to be suppressed, that many rational creatures Cuap. vi. ] ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS. 267 made with hands, eternal in the heavens,”? i.e. in the man- sions of the blessed. And from this statement we may form a conjecture, how pure, how refined, and how glorious are the qualities of that body, if we compare it with those which, although they are cclestial bodies, and of most brilliant splendour, were nevertheless made with hands, and are visible to our sight. But of that body it is said, that it is a house not made with hands, but eternal in the heavens. Since, then, those things “which are seen are temporal, but those things which are not seen are eternal,”’ all those bodies which we see either on earth or in heaven, and which are capable of being seen, and have been made with hands, but are not eternal, are far excelled in glory by that which is not visible, nor made with hands, but is eternal. From which comparison it may be conceived how great are the comeliness, and splendour, and brilliancy of a spiritual body; and how true it is, that “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, what God hath prepared for them that love Him.”* We ought not, however, to doubt that the nature of this present body of ours may, by the will of God, who made it what it is, be raised to those qualities of refinement, and purity, and splendour [which characterize the body referred to], according as the condi- tion of things requires, and the deserts of our rational nature shall demand. Finally, when the world required variety and retain their first condition (principium) even to the second and third and fourth worlds, and allow no room for any change within them; while others, again, will lose so little of their pristine state, that they will appear to have lost almost nothing, and some are to be precipitated with great destruction into the lowest pit. And God, the disposer of all things, when creating His worlds, knows how to treat each individual agreeably to his merits, and He is acquainted with the occasions and causes by which the government (gubernacla) of the world is sustained and commenced; so that he who surpassed all others in wickedness, and brought himself completely down to the carth, is made in another world, which is afterwards to be formed, a devil, the beginning of the creation of the Lord (Job xl. 19), to be mocked by the angels who have lost the virtue of their original condition’ (exordii virtutem).”— Rvevs. 11 Cor. y. 1. 22 Cor. iv. 18. 31 Cor. ii. 9; cf. Isa. lxiv. 4.
268 ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIS. [Door 117.
diversity, matter yielded itself with all docility throughout the diverse appearances and species of things to the Creator, as to its Lord and Maker, that He might educe from it the various forms of celestial and terrestrial beings. But when things have begun to hasten to that consummation that all may be one, as the Father is one with the Son, it may be understood as a rational inference, that where all are one, there will no longer be any diversity.
5. The last enemy, moreover, who is called death, is said on this account to be destroyed, that there may not be any- thing left of a mournful kind when death does not exist, nor anything that is adverse when there is no enemy. The destruction of the last enemy, indeed, is to be understood, not as if its substance, which was formed by God, is to perish, but because its mind and hostile will, which came not from God, but from itsclf, are to be destroyed. Its destruc- tion, therefore, will not be its non-existence, but its ceasing to be an enemy, and [to be] death. For nothing is impossible to the Omnipotent, nor is anything incapable of restoration’ to its Creator: for He made all things that they might exist, and those things which were made for existence cannot cease to be. For this reason also will they admit of change and variety, so as to be placed, according to their merits, either in a better or worse position; but no destruction of substance can befall those things which were created by God for the purpose of permanent existence.? For those things which agreeably to the common opinion are believed to perish, the nature either of our faith or of the truth will not permit us to suppose to be destroyed. Finally, our flesh is supposed by ignorant men and unbelievers to be destroyed after death, in such a degree that it retains no relic at all of its former substance. We, however, who believe in its resurrection, understand that a change only has been produced by death, but that its substance certainly remains; and that by the will of its Creator, and at the time appointed, it will be restored to life; and that a second time a change will take place in it, so that what at first was flesh [formed] out of 1 Insanabile. 2 Ut essent et permancrent.
Cuap. vi. | ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS, 269 earthly soil, and was afterwards dissolved by death, and again reduced to dust and ashes (“ For dust thou art,”? it is said, “and to dust shalt thou return”), will be again raised from the earth, and shall after this, according to the merits of the indwelling soul, advance to the glory of a spiritual body.
6. Into this condition, then, we are to suppose that all this bodily substance of ours will be brought, when all things shall be re-established in a state of unity, and when God shall be all in all. And this result must be understood as being brought about, not suddenly, but slowly and gradually, seeing that the process of amendment and correction will take place imperceptibly in the individual instances during the lapse of countless and unmeasured ages, some outstripping others, and tending by a swifter course towards perfection,” while others again follow close at hand, and some again a long way behind; and thus, through the numerous and un- counted orders of progressive beings who are being reconciled to God from a state of enmity, the last enemy is finally reached, who is called death, so that he also may be de-’ stroyed, and no longer be an enemy. When, therefore, all rational souls shall have been restored to a condition of this kind, then the nature of this body of ours will undergo a change into the glory of a spiritual body. For as we see it not to be the case with rational natures, that some of them have lived in a condition of degradation owing to their sins, while others have been called to a state of happiness on account of their merits; but as we see those same souls who had formerly been sinful, assisted, after their conversion and reconciliation to God, to a state of happiness; so also are we to consider, with respect to the nature of the body, that the one which we now make use of in a state of meanness, and corruption, and weakness, is not a different body from that which we shall possess in incorruption, and in power, and in glory; but that the same body, when it has cast away the infirmities in which it is now entangled, shall be trans- muted into a condition of glory, being rendered spiritual, 1 Gen, ili. 19. 2 Ad summa.
270 ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS. [Book 1.