Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

112 Different Interpretations
CHAP. iv.
ginal sin, though shut out from a supernatural or heavenly
the penalty of which sin was therefore, as regards a
one ;
future life, made a privation only, and not a positive pun
ishment. As regards
the present life, the exchange of
pain, labour, and sorrow for the happiness of Paradise was
indeed in itself positive punishment. But if transient
pain leads to an eternity of happiness, even of the natural
kind, the existence of the creature is on the whole a good
to him, not an evil. And therefore, however it may have
pleased God to lighten
the state of trial in the first
instance, and even to make it painless and happy, a pain
ful trial is, as the means to so valuable an end, not other
wise than a good.
The assignment of such a punishment to original sin
was in substance the doctrine of a middle state ; and early
theology may be considered as having pointed to such a
state as the final condition of the heathen and unbaptized.
In saying this, however, I give what theology before the
time of S. Augustine upon this subject as a whole comes
to, rather than any definite doctrine that was held. If we
examine the particulars of the early Church s view, or what
was said at different successive times on this
subject, these
will appear mainly under the three following heads :
I. The statements of the three first centuries bearing
on the question are principally confined to a general ac
knowledgment of real goodness existing among the heathen;
such an acknowledgment as immediately suggests future
reward as the necessary result, under (rod s moral govern
ment, of such goodness ; but without any reference, express
or implicit, to such a result. These statements, however,
assume occasionally a greater significance in this direction,
and appear to include without expressly mentioning, a
future state of reward. The Logos or Son of God is,
according to Clement, not only the Teacher and Light of
all mankind in different degrees, but the Saviour of all ;
to their fitness for it ;
dispensing His bounty, in proportion
to the Greeks and barbarians a lesser, to the faithful and
elect a greater share ; to all, according to the measure
in which He has dispensed His gifts, and the use made