things, may be safely and most confidently placed,—where, viz., these, after their apprehension and their chastisement for the offences which they have undergone by way of purgation, may, after having fulfilled and discharged every obligation, deserve a habitation in that land; while those who have been obedient to the word of God, and have henceforth by their obedience shown themselves capable of wisdom, are said to deserve the kingdom of that heaven or heavens; and thus the prediction is more worthily fulfilled, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth;”[178] and, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall inherit the kingdom of heaven;”[179] and the declaration in the Psalm, “He shall exalt thee, and thou shalt inherit the land.”[180] For it is called a descent to this earth, but an exaltation to that which is on high. In this way, therefore, does a sort of road seem to be opened up by the departure of the saints from that earth to those heavens; so that they do not so much appear to abide in that land, as to inhabit it with an intention, viz., to pass on to the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven, when they have reached that degree of perfection also. Footnote 159: 1 Cor. xv. 53-56; cf. Hos. xiii. 14 and Isa. xxv. 8. Footnote 160: Dogmatibus. Schnitzer says that “dogmatibus” here yields no sense. He conjectures δειγμασι, and renders “proofs,” “marks.” Footnote 161: Rom. xiii. 14. Footnote 162: This passage is found in Jerome’s epistle to Avitus; and, literally translated, his rendering is as follows: “If these (views) are not contrary to the faith, we shall perhaps at some future time live without bodies. But if he who is perfectly subject to Christ is understood to be without a body, and all are to be subjected to Christ, we also shall be without bodies when we have been completely subjected to Him. If all have been subjected to God, all will lay aside their bodies, and the whole nature of bodily things will be dissolved into nothing; but if, in the second place, necessity shall demand, it will again come into existence on account of the fall of rational creatures. For God has abandoned souls to struggle and wrestling, that they may understand that they have obtained a full and perfect victory, not by their own bravery, but by the grace of God. And therefore I think that for a variety of causes are different worlds created, and the errors of those refuted who contend that worlds resemble each other.” A fragment of the Greek original of the above is found in the epistle of Justinian to the patriarch of Constantinople. “If the things subject to Christ shall at the end be subjected also to God, all will lay aside their bodies; and then, I think, there will be a dissolution (ἀνάλυσις) of the nature of bodies into non-existence (εἰς τὸ μὴ ὄν), to come a second time into existence, if rational (beings) should again gradually come down (ὑποκαταβῇ).” Footnote 163: