IX.

Consider, he says, whether too the blessed John, when he says, "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it: and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them," ¹ does not mean the parts which are given up by the elements for the reconstruction of each one? By the sea is meant the moist element; by hell, ² the air, derived from aeides, because it is invisible, as was said by Origen; and by death, the earth, because those who die are laid in it; whence also it is called in the Psalms the "dust of death," ³ Christ saying that He is brought "into the dust of death."