not take place during
its life on earth, it must be accomplished in future lives.

St. Clement of Alexandria says that, although man was created after
other beings, "the human species is more ancient than all these
things."[205] In his _Exhortations to the Pagans_, he adds:

"We were in being long before the foundation of the world; we existed
in the eye of God, for it is our destiny to live in him. We are the
reasonable creatures of the divine Word; therefore, we have existed
from the beginning, for in the beginning was the Word.... Not for the
first time does He show pity on us in out wanderings. He pitied us
from the very beginning."

He also adds:[205]

"Philolaus, the Pythagorean, taught that the soul was flung into the
body as a punishment for the misdeeds it had committed, and his
opinion was confirmed by the most ancient of the prophets."

As regards Reincarnation, _i.e._, the descent of the human soul into
successive physical bodies, and even its temporary association with
the physical bodies of animals, more than one Christian writer
advocated this teaching.

Chalcidius, quoted by Beausobre in the book just mentioned, says:

"The souls, that are not able to unite with God, are destined to
return to life until they repent of their misdeeds."

In the _Pistis Sophia_, a Christian treatise on the mysteries of the
divine Hierarchies and the evolution of souls in the three worlds, we
find the doctrine of Rebirth frequently mentioned:

"If he is a man who (after passing out of his body)[206] shall have come
to the end of his cycles of transmigrations, without repenting, ... he
is cast into outer darkness."

A few pages earlier, in the same work, we find:

"The disincarnate soul which has not solved the mystery of the
breaking of the bonds and of the seals is brought before the virgin of
light, who, after judging it, hands it over to her agents
(_receivers_), who carry it into a new body."

Let us now see what Origen says on the matter[207]:

"Celsus, then, is altogether ignorant of the purpose of our writings,
and it is therefore upon his own acceptation of them that he casts
discredit and not upon their real meaning; whereas if he had reflected
on what is appropriate[208] to a soul which is to enjoy an everlasting
life, and on the idea which we are to form of its essence and
principles, he would not so have ridiculed the entrance of the
immortal into a mortal body, which took place, not according to