his resurrection, even that day he should be with him in paradise: that is to say, in the kingdom of heaven; as the cardinal himself doth prove, both by the authority of St. Paul', making paradise and the third heaven to be the self-same thing, and by the testimony of the ancient expositors of the place. This, belike, stuck somewhat in our jesuit's stomach: who, being loth to interpret this of his Limbus Patrum, as others' of that side had done, and to maintain that paradise, instead of the third heaven, should signify the third or the fourth hell, thought it best to shift the matter handsomely away, by taking upon him to defend, that not before Christ's ascension, lest that of the thief should cross him, but before his passion, none ever entered into heaven. But if none before our Saviour's passion did ever enter into heaven, whither shall we say that Elias did enter? The Scripture assureth us, that he "went up into heaven;" and of this Mattathias put his sons in mind upon his death-bed: that "Elias", being zealous and fervent for the law, was taken up into heaven." Elias, and Moses both, before the passion of Christ, are described to be "in glory;" Lazarus is carried by the angels into a place of comfort, and not of imprisonment. In a word, all the fathers accounted themselves to be strangers and pilgrims in this earth, seeking for a better country, that is, an heavenly, as well as we do; and therefore, having ended their pilgrimage, they arrived at the country they sought for, as well as we. They believed to be saved through the grace h Luke, chap. 23. ver. 43. i Vera ergo expositio est Theophylacti, Ambrosii, Bedæ, et aliorum, qui per paradisum intelligunt regnum cœlorum. Bellarm. de sanct. beatit. lib. 1. cap. 3. k2 Cor. chap. 12. ver. 2, 4. 1 Henr. Vic. de descens. ad infer. sec. 41. pag. 129. Vid. Thom. in 3. part. summ. quæst. 52. art. 4. ad 3. et Lyranum. in Luc. cap. 23. ver. 43. m 2 Kings, chap. 2. ver. 11. • Ηλίας ἐν τῷ ζηλῶσαι ζῆλον νόμου, ἀνελήφθη γἕως εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν. 1 Maccab. cap. 2. ver. 58. • Luke, chap. 9. ver. 31. Heb. chap. 11. ver. 13, 14, 16. p Ibid. chap. 16. ver. 22, 25. Ibid. chap. 13. ver. 14. of our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as we; they lived' by that faith, as well as we; they" died in Christ as well as we; they received remission" of sins, imputation of righteousness, and the blessedness arising therefrom, as well as we; and the mediation of our Saviour being of that present efficacy, that it took away sin, and brought in righteousness from the very beginning of the world; it had virtue sufficient to free men from the penalty of loss, as well as from the penalty of sense, and to bring them unto him, in whose "presence is fulness of joy," as to deliver them from the "place of torment," where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. The first that ever assigned a resting-place in hell to the fathers of the Old Testament was, as far as we can find, Marcion the heretic; who "determined that both kind of rewards, whether of torment or of refreshing, was appointed in hell for them that did obey the law and the prophets." Wherein he was gainsayed by such as wrote against him; not only for making that the place of their eternal rest, but also for lodging them there at all, and imagining that Abraham's bosom was any part of hell. This appeareth plainly by the disputation, set out among the works of Origen, betwixt Marcus the Marcionite, and Adamantius the defender of the catholic cause: who, touching the parabolical history of the rich man and Lazarus, in the sixteenth of St. Luke, are brought in rea Habak. chap. 2. ver. 4. " 1 Thess. chap. 4. ver. 16. Rom. chap. 1. ver. 16, 17. Rom. chap. 4. ver. 6, 7, 8, 9. Gal. chap. 3. ver. 8, 9. Psal. 16. ver. 11. Matt. chap. 8. ver. 11, 12. y Luke, chap. 16. ver. 28. a Sed Marcion aliorsum cogit, scilicet utramque mercedem Creatoris, sive tormenti sive refrigerii, apud inferos determinat eis positam qui legi et prophetis obedierint; Christi vero et Dei sui cœlestem definiat sinum et portum. Tertullian. lib. 4. contr. Marcion. cap. 34. Vid. etiam lib. 3. cap. 24. b Jo. D. Bezæ Græco-Latino evangeliorum venerandæ vetustatis exemplari, (quod olim in S. Irenæi Cænobio Lugdunensi, hodie in publica Cantabrigiensis academiæ bibliotheca asservatur) historiæ huic præmittitur ista præfatio. Elπε δὲ καὶ ἑτέραν παραβολὴν: Dixit autem aliam parabolam. Cui similis etiam in missali Romano (feria 5. post Dominicam 2. Quadragesima) legebatur : Dixit Jesus discipulis suis parabolam hanc. Verum in missali reformato duæ postremæ voces sublatæ nuper sunt. soning after this manner. "MARCUS. He saith that Abraham is in hell, and not in the kingdom of heaven. ADAMANTIUS. Read whether he saith that Abraham was in hell. MARC. In that the rich man and he talked one to the other, it appeareth that they were together. ADAMANT. That they talked one with another, thou hearest; but the great gulf spoken of, that thou hearest not. For the middle space between heaven and earth he calleth a gulf. MARC. Can a man therefore see from earth unto heaven? it is impossible. Can any man lifting up his eyes behold from the earth, or from hell rather see into heaven? if not; it is plain, that a valley only was set betwixt them. ADAMANT. Bodily eyes use to see those things only that are near, but spiritual eyes reach far; and it is manifest that they, who have here put off their body, do see one another with the eyes of their soul. For mark how the Gospel doth say, that he lifted up his eyes: toward heaven one useth to lift them up, and not toward the earth." In like manner doth Tertulliand also retort the same place of Scripture against Marcion, and prove that it maketh a plain difference between hell and the bosom of Abraham. "For it affirmeth (saith he) both that a great deep is interposed betwixt those regions, and • ΜΑΡΚΟΣ. Ἐν τῷ ᾅδῃ εἶπεν εἶναι τὸν ̓Αβραὰμ, οὐκ ἐν τῷ βασιλείᾳ τῶν οὐρανῶν. ΑΔΑΜΑΝΤΙΟΣ. ̓Ανάγνωθι ὅτι ἐν τῷ ᾅδῃ λέγει τὸν ̓Αβραὰμ. ΜΑΡΚ. ̓Απὸ τοῦ συνομιλεῖν αὐτῶ τὸν πλούσιον, δείκνυνται ὁμοῦ ὄντες. ΑΔΑΜΑΝΤ. Τὸ ὁμιλεῖν πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἤκουσας, τὸ δὲ λεγόμενον χάσμα μέγα οὐκ ἤκουσας. τοῦ γὰρ οὐρανοῦ καὶ τῆς γῆς τὸ μέσον χάσμα λέγει. ΜΑΡΚ. δύναται οὖν τὶς ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ἕως οὐρανοῦ ὁρᾶν ; ἀδύνατον· ἐπάρας τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτοῦ ἰδεῖν δύναταί τις ἀπὸ γῆς, ἢ μᾶλλον ἀπὸ τοῦ ᾅδου εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ὁρᾷν ; εἰ μὴ δῆλον ὅτι φάραγξ ἦν ἐν μέσῳ αὐτῶν. ΑΔΑΜΑΝΤ. Οἱ σωματικοὶ ὀφθαλμοὶ τὰ ἔγγιστα μόνον πεφύκασιν ὁρᾷν· οἱ δὲ ψυχικοὶ εἰς μῆκος ἀποτείνονται. καὶ δῆλον, ὅτι τὸ σῶμα ἐντεῦθεν ἀποθέμενοι, τοῖς τῆς ψυχῆς ὄμμασιν ὁρῶσιν ἀλλήλους. Πρόσχες γὰρ, πῶς λέγει τὸ εὐαγγέλιον, ὅτι ἐπάρας τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτοῦ, εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν πέφυκεν ἐπαίρειν, καὶ οὐκ εἰς τὴν γῆν. Orig. dial. 2. contr. Marc. Op. tom. 1. pag. 827. d Respondebimus, et hac ipsa scriptura revincente oculos ejus, quæ ab infernis discernit Abrahæ sinum pauperi: aliud enim inferi, ut puto, aliud quoque Abrahæ sinus. Nam et magnum ait intercedere regiones istas profundum, et transitum utrinque prohibere. Sed nec allevasset dives oculos, et quidem de longinquo, nisi in superiora, et de altitudinis longinquo per immensam illam distantiam sublimitatis et profunditatis. Tert. advers. Marcion. lib. 4. cap. 34. that it suffereth no passage from either side. Neither could the rich man have lifted up his eyes, and that afar off, unless it had been unto places above him, and very far above him, by reason of the mighty distance betwixt that height and that depth." Thus far Tertullian : who, though he come short of Adamantius, in makinge Abraham's bosom not to be any part of heaven, although no member at all of hell; yet doth he concur with him in this, that it is a place of bliss, and a common receptacle wherein the souls of all the faithful, as well of the New as of the Old Testament, do still remain in expectation of the general resurrection: which quite marreth the Limbus Patrum of our Romanists, and the journey which they fancy our Saviour to have taken, for the fetching of the fathers from thence. With these two doth St. Augustine also join in his ninety-ninth epistle to Euodius: concerning whose judgment herein, I will not say the deceitful, but the exceeding partial, dealing of cardinal Bellarmine can very hardly be excused. " Although Augustine," saith he, "in his ninety-ninth epistle do seem to doubt, whether the bosom of Abraham, where the souls of the fathers were in times past, should be in hell, or somewhere else; yet in the twentieth book of the City of God, the fifteenth chapter, he affirmeth that it was in hell, as all the rest of the fathers have always taught." If St. Augustine in that epistle were of the mind, as he was indeed, that Abraham's bosom was no part of hell, he was not the first inventor of that doctrine; others taught it before him, and opposed Marcion for teaching otherwise. Σύν τε δύ' ἐρχομένω· alone he went not, two there were at least, as we have e Eam itaque regionem sinum dico Abrahæ, etsi non cœlestem, sublimiorem tamen inferis, interim refrigerium præbituram animabus justorum, donec consummatio rerum resurrectionem omnium plenitudine mercedis expungat. Id. ibid. f Augustinus, etsi in epist. 99. ambigere videtur, an unus Abraham, ubi erant animæ patrum olim, in inferno esset, an alibi: tamen lib. 20. de civit. Dei, cap. 15. affirmat in inferno fuisse ; ut cæteri omnes patres semper docuerunt. Bellarm. de Christ. lib. 4. cap. 11. in fine. seen, that walked along with him in the same way. But for that which he is said to have doubted of in one place, and to have affirmed in another; if the indifferent reader will be pleased but to view both the places, he shall easily discern that the cardinal looked not into these things with a single eye. In his ninety-ninth epistle, from that speech of Abraham: "Between you and us there is a great gulf fixed," he maketh this inference: "In these words it appeareth sufficiently, as I think, that the bosom of so great happiness is not any part and member of hell." These seem unto the cardinal to be the words of a doubtful man with what words then, when he is better resolved, doth he affirm the matter? With these forsooth. "Ifh it do seem no absurdity to believe that the old saints, which held the faith of Christ to come, were in places most remote from the torments of the wicked, but yet in hell; until the blood of Christ, and his descent into those places, did deliver them; truly from henceforth the good and faithful, who are redeemed with that price already shed, know not hell at all." If, "satis ut opinor apparet, it appeareth sufficiently, as I think," must import doubting, and "si non absurde credi videtur, if it do seem no absurdity to believe," affirming: I know not, I must confess, what to make of men's speeches. The truth is St. Augustine in handling this question discovereth himself to be neither of the Jesuit's temper nor belief. He esteemed not this to be such an article of faith, that they who agreed not therein must needs be held to be of different religions; as he doth modestly propound the reasons, which induced him to think that Abra Quanquam in his ipsis tanti magistri verbis, ubi ait dixisse Abraham, Inter vos et nos chaos magnum firmatum est; satis, ut opinor, appareat non esse quandam partem et quasi membrum inferorum tantæ illius felicitatis sinum. Augustin. epist. 99. al. 164. Op. tom. 2. pag. 575. h Si enim non absurde credi videtur, antiquos etiam sanctos, qui venturi Christi tenuerunt fidem, locis quidem a tormentis impiorum remotissimis, sed apud inferos fuisse, donec eos inde sanguis Christi, et ad ea loca descensus erueret : profecto deinceps boni fideles effuso illo pretio jam redempti, prorsus inferos nesciunt, donec etiam receptis corporibus bona recipiant quæ merentur. Id. de civit. Dei, lib. 20. cap. 15.. |