any briers there; but the countenance of the and of the just,
which they see, always smiles them, while they wait for that rest
and eternal new life in heaven, which is to succeed this region.
This place we call The Bosom of Abraham.
4. But as to the unjust, they are dragged by force to the left
hand by the angels allotted for punishment, no longer going with
a good-will, but as prisoners driven by violence; to whom are
sent the angels appointed over them to reproach them and threaten
them with their terrible looks, and to thrust them still
downwards. Now those angels that are set over these souls drag
them into the neighborhood of hell itself; who, when they are
hard by it, continually hear the noise of it, and do not stand
clear of the hot vapor itself; but when they have a near view of
this spectacle, as of a terrible and exceeding great prospect of
fire, they are struck with a fearful expectation of a future
judgment, and in effect punished thereby: and not only so, but
where they see the place [or choir] of the fathers and of the
just, even hereby are they punished; for a chaos deep and large
is fixed between them; insomuch that a just man that hath
compassion upon them cannot be admitted, nor can one that is
unjust, if he were bold enough to attempt it, pass over it.
5. This is the discourse concerning Hades, wherein the souls of
all men are confined until a proper season, which God hath
determined, when he will make a resurrection of all men from the
dead, not procuring a transmigration of souls from one body to
another, but raising again those very bodies, which you Greeks,
seeing to be dissolved, do not believe [their resurrection]. But
learn not to disbelieve it; for while you believe that the soul
is created, and yet is made immortal by God, according to the
doctrine of Plato, and this in time, be not incredulous; but
believe that God is able, when he hath raised to life that body
which was made as a compound of the same elements, to make it
immortal; for it must never be said of God, that he is able to do
some things, and unable to do others. We have therefore believed
that the body will be raised again; for although it be dissolved,
it is not perished; for the earth receives its remains, and
preserves them; and while they are like seed, and are mixed among
the more fruitful soil, they flourish, and what is sown is indeed
sown bare grain, but at the mighty sound of God the Creator, it
will sprout up, and be raised in a clothed and glorious
condition, though not before it has been dissolved, and mixed
[with the earth]. So that we have not rashly believed the
resurrection of the body; for although it be dissolved for a time
on account of the original transgression, it exists still, and is
cast into the earth as into a potter's furnace, in order to be
formed again, not in order to rise again such as it was before,
but in a state of purity, and so as never to he destroyed any
more. And to every body shall its own soul be restored. And when
it hath clothed itself with that body, it will not be subject to
misery, but, being itself pure, it will continue with its pure
body, and rejoice with it, with which it having walked
righteously now in this world, and never having had it as a
snare, it will receive it again with great gladness. But as for
the unjust, they will receive their bodies not changed, not freed
from diseases or distempers, nor made glorious, but with the same
diseases wherein they died; and such as they were in their
unbelief, the same shall they be when they shall be faithfully