(2) 2 Clement has several interesting passages : V. 5, ' our sojourning in this world in the flesh is a little thing and lasts a short time, but the promise of Christ is great and wonderful, and brings us rest, in the kingdom which is to come, and in everlasting life.' In vi. 7 rest is contrasted with eternal punishment {aldivlov KoiXdaeui). The future existence depends on the keeping of the baptism undefiled ; the first occun'ence oi this conception is in vi. 9, vii. 6, viii, 6. In ch. ix. there is the assertion of the resurrection of the flesh to judg- ment, based on the Incarnation and not on the Re- surrection of Christ. Ch. xii. contains the curious Agraphon possibly from the Gospel of the Egyp- tians, ' When the two shall be one, and the outside as the inside, and the male with the female, neither male nor female. ' It is interpreted by the author as referring to the moral perfection and asceticism suited to the kingdom.
In xiv. 5 we have an important passage. After a somewhat strained analogy of the flesh as the Church, referring to the Church as pre-existent and possessing the Spirit, the author says : ' So great a gift of life and immortality {ddavacrlav) has this flesh the power to receive if the Holy Spirit be joined to it.' In xix. 3, 4 we have a statement of immortality in fairly quantitative terms, and the expression ' the immortal fruit of the resurrection ' {rbv dOdvarov ttj^ duaaraffews Kapirov). In xx. 5 Christ is the Saviour and Leader of immortality {dpxrrybv TTJs d<f>dapalas).
(3) Ignatius. — We owe to Ignatius the famous phrase ' the medicine of immortality,' tpdp/j,aKOP ddavafflas (Eph. xx. 2), which is so often repeated by later patristic writers. Ignatius frequently uses the word 'immortality,' but as frequently shows that his conception is ethical — qualitative, not quantitative. What he seeks is not mere duration of bliss, but true life (t6 d\t]divbv ^ijv, xi, 1). Faith and love constitute this true life, the life of God (xiv. 1). Christ has breathed immortality on the Church {d<p6ap(Tlav, xvii. 1). At the Incarnation
' God was manifest as Man, for the newness of eternal life ' (ets KaivdrajTa didiou ^urjs), a reminiscence of Ro 6^, but didLov is never used of life in the NT. In XX. 2 it is the Sacrament, the bread, which is the medicine of immortality.
Other passages are Magn. i. 2, ix. 2: a reference to the Descensus ; Trail, ii. 1, ix. 2 ; Eom. vi. 2 ; Phil. ix. 2 : the gospel is * the perfecting of im- mortality' (dTrdpTL(Tfj.a d(p6apalas) ; Smyrn. xii. 2, ' resurrection both fleslily and spiritual ' ; ad Polyc. ii. 3, ' the prize is immortality and eternal life.'
The remaining literature of our period adds nothing of importance.
III. Conclusion.— ThQ principal trend of the teaching of the NT lies mainly along the lines laid down by our Lord, and expanded by the original thinking of St. Paul and St. John, if we may assume a name for the author of the Fourth Gospel for convenience' sake. The expansion followed lines which were principally determined by the accept- ance of the Resurrection of Christ as a historical fact. The emphasis thus lies on the value of com- plete personality brought into the sphere of the operation of the Kingdom of God. Those opera- tions take on the form of eschatological expecta- tions, but express fundamental and eternal realities of religion. The pale and thin conception of mere duration of existence is of no interest to the apos- tolic writers. It was of fundamental importance to possess true life, the life of God ; and as the meaning of the Incarnation was explored, the con- ception of eternal life grew in depth and breadth and height.
LrrERATURB. — Sanday-Headlam, Romans^ (JCC, 1902); Robertson-Plummer, Corinthiann {ICC, 1911) ; J. Armitage Robinson, Ephesians, 1903; F. J. A. Hort, 1 Peter, 1898; B. F. Westcott, St. John, 2 vols., 1908, and The Epistles of St. John, 1883 ; H. B. Swete, The Apocalypse", 1907. See also A. Sabatier, The Apostle Paul, Eng. tr., 1891 ; P. Gardner, The Religious Experience oj St. Paul, 1911 ; A. Schweitzer, Paul and his Interpreters, Eng. tr., 1912 ; E. Underbill, The Mystic Way, 1913 ; F. von Hiigel, Eternal Life, 191'2 ; S. D. F. Salmond, The Christian Doctrine of Immortality*, 1901 ; E. F. Scott, The Kingdom and the Messiah, 1911, also The Fourth Gospel, 1906; W. Sanday, Christologies, Ancient and Modem, 1910; C. Bigg:, The Christian Platonists of Alexandria, rep. 1913; J. B. Lightfoot, The Apostolic Fathers, 1891; J. Drummond, Philo Judcetis, 2 vols., 1888 ; H. J. Holtzmann, NT Theologie, 2 vols., 1911; A. Harnack, History of Dogma, Eng. tr.3, 7 vols., 1891-99, also The Mission and Expansion of Christianity, Eng. tr.-, 2 vols., 1908; R. H. Charles, Eschato- logy — Hebrew, Jewish and Christian, 1899 ; G. Dalman, The Words of Jems, Eng. tr., 1902 ; F. Cumont, The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism, 1911; S. Reinach, Orpheus, Eng. tr., 1909. S. H. HOOKE.
IMPUTATION.— See Justification.
INCARNATION.— See Christ, Christologt.
INCENSE {dvfila/xa, generally plural).— The burn- ing of aromatic substances on the altar of incense was part of the daily Temple-ritual, and the office for each occasion was assigned by lot to a priest who had never before enjoyed the honour. The moment for the beginning of the rite was carefully fixed, and served to mark the time of day. When the cloud of fragrant smoke ascended, the people outside the Temple bowed in prayer, in accordance with the ancient association of prayers and incense (Ps 14P). In the primitive Semitic cultus the perfume which rose into the upper air was supposed to give a sensuous pleasure to the Deity ; but when more spiritual thoughts of the Divine nature and character prevailed, the incense, if it was to be re- tained, had to be regarded as a symbol of the prayers breathed from earth to heaven. In Rev 58f. (which may, however, be a gloss) the golden bowls full of incense are expressly identified with the prayers of the saints. In Rev 8^ the smoke of incense goes up before God out of the angel's hand