Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/558

Rh 538 E S C E S C account of them maybe read in Mr Maurice s famous essay. His own struggle to regain for the adjective atwi/ios its ethical sense is well known. Perhaps he took too little account of the element of duration undoubtedly existing in it. The two senses pass imperceptibly into one another, but the scriptural use, when not distinctly ethical, gives it the sense of indefinite not of endless duration. 1 But Mr Maurice vindicated, at least for English clergymen, a perfect freedom on this subject; and though in hid own case the claim was not allowed, his opinion was confirmed by the formal decision in the &quot; Essays and Reviews&quot; case. The result of this is apparent now throughout the think ing part of Christendom ; the subject of eschatology, in con nexion with the wider subject of immortality, is exercising profound attention. Philosophy and science are equally concerned in it with religion. 2 Theologians recognizing this are in many different ways trying to reconcile the voice of Scripture with the voices of science and philosophy. Two prominent attempts perhaps claim notice. The ad vocates of Conditional Immortality or Annihilation maintain, from the letter of Scripture, destruction and not endless suffering to be the destiny of the lost. They take advau tage of the doubt existing as to St Paul s doctrine of the termination of the world in unity whether by unbelievers being completely annihilated, or by their being all finally converted. 3 The view that immortality is not inherent in fallen human nature, but is the gift of God in Christ, has had many supporters, and in this part of their system, the ad vocates of annihilation justly claim the authority of many great names. But the details of their eschatology are some what confused and conflicting. 4 They claim, however, with some doubt, Justin, Irenaeus, Arnobius, and others among the fathers, and Dodwell, Locke, Watts, Whately, &c., among later writers. 5 The best account of the doctrine is contained in a remarkable volume by the Rev. E. White called Life in Christ. The Universalists or Origenists maintain, in tlie language of Acts iii. 21, a hope of the &quot;restitution of all things.&quot; The hope is grounded not on the literal assertion of any one text, though as many are quoted in its favour as in that of any other theory of the future, but on the divine character and purpose as revealed in Christ, and the implied failure of the redemptive work of the Saviour unless all for whom He died ultimately partake of salvation. Between this and the Augustiniati system, which the great doctor candidly confesses dooms the vast majority of men to endless perdi tion, there are of course many gradations of opinion. Possibly Universalists are apt to quote in their favour all who in any degree show themselves, to use Augustine s word, more merciful. Certainly a long list of illustrious names claim rank among them. Origen, of course, heads it, though earlier fathers Athenagoras, for instance are sometimes called in as witnesses of the milder creed. The 1 Mr White says that of the 90 subjects to which it or its cognates are applied 70 are of a temporary nature. See on this subject Farrar, Eternal Hope, p. 79, and Excursus iii. He shows beyond dispute, what scores of writers (see e.g., Burnett, De statu mortuorum) had shown before, that, though applied to some things which are endless, aiwvios does not in itself mean endless. 2 See Unseen Universe, pp. 263 sq. 3 See Pileiderer, Pauline Theol., c. vii., and cf. Baur, Life and Works of Paul, iii. 6, &quot; Whatever he thought on the question, it must be perfectly clear that if death is to be robbed of his last sting there can be no eternal punishment.&quot; 4 For instance, as to the nature and duration of the retributive punishment which the kicked will undergo before destruction, the time of the resurrection, and the principle on which those to be anni hilated will be doomed, &c. 6 The language of the fathers, who adopted Scripture as they found it, is frequently self-contradictory. &quot; In the earliest of them, Justin Martyr and Irenseus, are some well-known passages which seem clearly to imply either the ultimate redemption or the total destruction of sinners.&quot; Farrar, Eternal Hope, p. 155. fate of those who had died before Christ, and of the heathen, began at an early time to exercise the conscience of Christians. The descent of Christ into hell was by many believed to have had for its object the deliverance of souls from thence. 6 The Pastor of Hermas is understood to join the elect with Christ in his benign ministry. Clement of Alexandria, Theophilus of Antioch, Gregory of Nazianzen, and Gregory of Nyssa, Diodorus of Tarsus, Didymus of Alexandria, Theodore of Mopseustia, even Jerome, Ambrose, Scotus Erigena ; and in later times on the Continent, Bengel, Neander, Oberlin, Hahn, Tholuck, and Martensen ; in England, among the Puritans, Jeremiah White and Peter Story ; in the English Church, Jeremy Taylor, Dr H. More, Thomas Burnet, 7 Richard Clark, Bishop Edmund Law, Bishop Rust, William Law, and George Stonehouse ; and many in more recent times still, 8 are all to be ranked among believers in a general restoration. A work by Mr Andrew Jukes, The Restitution of all Things, states the doctrine, though with some peculiarity of scriptural inter pretation, very forcibly. Perhaps the reader of that work may think that it shifts the burden of proof from those who resist to those who maintain the doctrine of an endless hell. 9 (A. s. A.) ESCHEAT (escceta), in English law, is the reversion of lands to the next lord on the failure of heirs of the tenant. &quot; When the tenant of an estate in fee simple dies without having alienated his estate in his lifetime or by his will, and without leaving any heirs either lineal or collateral, the lands in which he held his estate escheat, as it is called, to the lord of whom he held them &quot; (Williams on the Law of Real Property}. This rule is explained by the conception of a freehold estate as an interest in lands held by the free holder from some lord, the king being lord paramount. (See ESTATE.) The granter retains an interest in the land similar to that of the donor of an estate for life, to whom the land reverts after the life estate is ended. As there are now few freehold estates traceable to any mesne or in termediate lord, escheats, when they do occur, fall to the king as lord paramount. Besides escheat for defect of heirs, there was formerly also escheat propter delidum tencntis, or by the corruption of the blood of the tenant through attainder consequent on conviction and sentence for treason or felony. The blood of the tenant becoming corrupt by attainder was decreed no longer inheritable, and the effect was the same as if the tenant had died without heirs. The land, therefore, escheated to the next heir, subject to the superior right of the crown to the forfeiture of the lands, in the case of treason for ever, in the case of felony for a year and a day. All this has been abolished by the 33 and 34 Viet. c. 23 (the Felony Act, 1870), which provides for the appointment of an administrator to the property of the convict. Escheat is also an incident of copyhold tenure. . Trust estates, by a recent Act, are protected from escheat. ESCHEXBACTT, WOLFRAM VON. See WOLFRAM. ESCHENBURG, JOHANN JOACHIM (1743-1820) a German litterateur, was born at Hamburg, 7th December 1743. After receiving his early education in his native town, he studied at Leipsic and Gottingen. In 17C7 he was brought by the court-preacher Jerusalem to Bruns wick, and through his influence he became a professor in the Collegium Carolinum. He was also made an aulic councillor, and senior of the Syriac college, and ultimately 6 This was founded on 1 Pet. iii. 19. See Pearson On the Creed, and Burnet on Art. 3. Justin and Irenzeus especially had this view, but it was also general among the fathers. 7 See his book DC Statu Mortuorum. 8 e.g., Maurice, Milman, Sir J. Stephen, Lord Lyttelton, Kingsley, Thomas Erskine of Linlathen, and Bishop Ewing. u See for full account of opinions Farrar, Eternal Hope, pp. 155 sq.