Tertullian, A Treatise on the Soul 58

"So all souls end up in the underworld?" you ask. Whether you like it or not, punishments and refreshments are already both there. You have the poor and the rich. Since I deferred something to this section, I will now deliver it at the close. Why shouldn't you think the soul is both punished and comforted in the underworld in the meantime, under the expectation of both judgments, in a kind of usurpation and candid appraisal of it? "Because," you say, "divine judgment must keep its business intact without any pre-tasting of the sentence. Then, too, because the restoration of the flesh must be accomplished, so that it may be a partner in works and rewards" (Matt 5:28). What, then, happens in that time? Shall we sleep? But souls do not sleep even among the living, for sleep belongs to bodies, and death itself is the mirror of sleep. Or do you suppose nothing goes on there, the place to which all humanity is drawn, where all hope is sequestered? Do you think judgment is being weighed, or begun, rushed, or administered? Tell me, how grossly unjust it would be even in the underworld if the guilty still fare well there while the innocent do not yet. What do you want: a postponement after death, with confused hope and uncertain expectation toying with you, or a reckoning of life and an ordination of judgment already dreaded? Does the soul always wait for the body so that it may grieve or rejoice? Does it not suffice for both kinds of suffering from its own resources? How often, with the body unharmed, the soul alone is tormented by bile, anger, disgust, often without even knowing itself! How often, with the body afflicted, the soul seeks a furtive joy for itself and withdraws from the body's importunate company! I would be lying if the soul were not accustomed to glory and rejoice alone even in the torments of the body. Look at the soul of Mucius, when he surrendered his right hand to the flames. Look at the soul of Zeno, when he passed beyond the torments of Dionysius. The bites of wild beasts are ornaments of youth, like the scars of the bear on Cyrus. So much does the soul know how to grieve and rejoice without the flesh even in the underworld, because even in unharmed flesh it grieves if it wishes, and in harmed flesh it rejoices if it wishes. If this is from its own will in life, how much more from the judgment of God after death! But the soul does not share all its works with the ministry of the flesh; for divine censure also pursues solitary thoughts and naked wills: whoever has looked to lust has already committed adultery in his heart (Matt 5:28). Therefore it is most fitting that the soul be punished, even without the flesh, because it committed the offense without the flesh's partnership. So also, on account of pious and benevolent thoughts, in which the flesh did not cooperate, it will be comforted without the flesh. What now, if the soul is prior even in carnal matters, conceiving, arranging, commanding, impelling? And even when unwilling, it still handles beforehand what it will do through the body. Conscience will never come after the deed. So it belongs to this order as well: to weigh the rewards beforehand, which are due to it beforehand. In sum, when we understand that prison which the Gospel depicts to be the underworld, and interpret the final small quadrant — that every minor fault is to be paid there by the delay of the resurrection — no one will doubt that the soul pays something among the dead, with the fullness of the resurrection preserved through the flesh as well. The Paraclete also commended this very frequently, if anyone has accepted his discourses from the recognition of the promised charisms. To every human opinion about the soul, having met the doctrine of faith, we have satisfied just and necessary curiosity. But for enormous and idle curiosity, it will lack learning as much as it pleased to inquire.