Apologetics -- History -- Early church, ca. 30-600; Celsus (Platonic philosopher), active 180; Theology -- History -- Early Church, ca. 30-600
5. And that the understanding of this matter may not appear very
difficult, we may draw some considerations from the evil effects of
those passions which are wont to befall some souls, as when a soul is
consumed by the fire of love, or wasted away by zeal or envy, or when
the passion of anger is kindled, or one is consumed by the greatness of
his madness or his sorrow; on which occasions some, finding the excess
of these evils unbearable, have deemed it more tolerable to submit to
death than to endure perpetually torture of such a kind. You will ask
indeed whether, in the case of those who have been entangled in the
evils arising from those vices above enumerated, and who, while existing
in this life, have been unable to procure any amelioration for
themselves, and have in this condition departed from the world, it be
sufficient in the way of punishment that they be tortured by the
remaining in them of these hurtful affections, _i.e._ of the anger, or
of the fury, or of the madness, or of the sorrow, whose fatal poison was
in this life lessened by no healing medicine; or whether, these
affections being changed, they will be subjected to the pains of a
general punishment. Now I am of opinion that another species of
punishment may be understood to exist; because, as we feel that when the
limbs of the body are loosened and torn away from their mutual supports,
there is produced pain of a most excruciating kind, so, when the soul
shall be found to be beyond the order, and connection, and harmony in
which it was created by God for the purposes of good and useful action
and observation, and not to harmonize with itself in the connection of
its rational movements, it must be deemed to bear the chastisement and
torture of its own dissension, and to feel the punishments of its own
disordered condition. And when this dissolution and rending asunder of
soul shall have been tested by the application of fire, a solidification
undoubtedly into a firmer structure will take place, and a restoration
be effected.
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