Hom. quod Christus sit Deus, tom. 5. ἅδης. Infernus. FULKE, 11. Ante resurrectionem Christi notus in Judæa Deus, et ipsi qui noverant eum, tamen ad inferos trahebantur: that is, "Before the resurrection of Christ God was known in Jury, and they themselves that knew him, yet were drawn unto hell." St Chrysostom in that place of Esay, "I will break the brasen gates, and bruise the iron bars in pieces, and will open the treasures darkened, &c. "So he calleth hell," saith he; "for although it were hell, yet it held the holy souls, and precious vessels, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." Mark that he saith, "though it were hell," yet there were the just men at that time, till our Saviour Christ came to deliver them from thence. Fulke. As wise and humble as he was, he was not ready to yield to every opinion of Jerome, as his epistles written to Jerome do declare. Neither was Jerome so resolute in this matter, whereof he speaketh under a cloud and in an allegory; as it is plain, where he saith the bodies that were raised at the resurrection of Christ were seen in the heavenly Jerusalem, whereas it is certain they were seen only in the earthly Jerusalem actually. But he meaneth, the effect of Christ's redemption was acknowledged either in the catholic church, which is Jerusalem above in one sense; or else that they shall be seen in the new Jerusalem erat Deus; in Israel magnum nomen ejus. Et ipsi qui noverant eum, tamen ad inferos trahebantur. Hieronymi Epitaphium Nepot. Opera, Vol. IV. p. 267. Utrum autem sinus ille Abrahæ, ubi dives impius, cum in tormentis esset inferni, requiescentem pauperem vidit, vel paradisi censendus vocabulo, vel ad inferos pertinere existimandus sit, non facile dixerim. De illo quippe divite legimus dictum esse, Mortuus est autem et dives, et sepultus est in inferno; et, cum apud inferos in tormentis esset. In pauperis autem morte vel requie non sunt inferi nominati: sed, Contigit, inquit, mori inopem illum, et auferri ab angelis in sinum Abrahæ. Deinde ardenti diviti dicit Abraham, Inter nos et vos chaos magnum firmatum est; tanquam inter inferos sedesque beatorum. Non enim facile alicubi scripturarum inferorum nomen positum invenitur in bono. Augustini Epist. clxxxvii. c. 8. Opera, Vol. 1. pp. 1019, 1020.] [ Νῦν δὲ ἑτέρως ὁ Ἡσαίας, πύλας χαλκᾶς συνθλάσω, καὶ μοχλοὺς σιδηροῦς συντρίψω, καὶ ἀνοίξω σοι θησαυρούς σκοτεινούς, ἀποκρύφους, ἀοράτους ἀναδείξω σοι, τὸν ᾅδην οὕτω καλῶν· Εἰ γὰρ καὶ ᾅδης ἦν, αλλὰ ψυχὰς ἐκράτει ἁγίας καὶ σκεύη τίμια, τὸν ̓Αβραάμ, τὸν Ἰσαάκ, τὸν Ἰακώβ, διὰ καὶ θησαυροὺς ἐκάλεσε σκοτεινοὺς δὲ, ἐπείπερ οὐδέπω ὁ τῆς δικαιοσύνης ἥλιος ἦν καταλάμψας αὐτόθι, οὐδὲ τοὺς περὶ ἀναστάσεως κηρύξας Móyous. Chrysost. contra Judæos et Gentiles quod Christus sit Deus. Opera, Vol. I. p. 564 ; Vol. vi. p. 626, edit. Savill.] and blessed felicity of the godly at the world's end; whereof a testimony was given in that sight of their appearing and particular resurrection known at Jerusalem on earth. But you cite another place out of Tertullian, Lib. IV. adversus Marcionem, and in the margin you say, loco citato; but I wot not where. And these be Tertullian's words, if you be an honest man: "I know that the bosom of Abraham was no heavenly place, but only the higher hell, or the higher part of hell." I see you will be as bold with the ancient doctors' works, as you are with my poor writings, whom you make to say even what you list. In the last section before you said, St Augustine, Epistol. 99, et de Gen. ad lit. Lib. XII. cap. 33. doubted whether Abraham's bosom were called "hell." Quod si nusquam, &c. "If it be never read in the holy scriptures (scilicet that hell is taken in the good part) verily that bosom of Abraham, that is the habitation of a certain secret rest, is not to be believed to be any part of hell." And again, by reason of the infinite chaos, Satis ut opinor appareat, "It may appear, as I think, sufficiently, that the bosom of that so great felicity is not a certain part, and as it were a member of hell." In the other place he speaketh to the same effect, and upon the same ground, that he never findeth in the scriptures "hell" taken in good part; and cap. 34, where he proveth that paradise is heaven, he saith: Quanto magis ergo, "How much more then may that bosom of Abraham after this life be called paradise ?" This saith Augustine, and much more to this purpose; wherein I thought to have forborne you, but that you come upon us still with new forgeries. Tertullian in the book by you quoted, p. 274 of Frob. printed 1550, thus writeth: Sed Marcion aliorsum cogit, &c. "But Marcion driveth it another way, so forsooth, that [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 definit sinum et portum. Respondebimus, et hac ipsa scriptura revincente oculos ejus, quæ ab inferis discernit Abrahæ sinum pauperis. Aliud enim inferi, ut puto, aliud quoque 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 he determineth both the rewards of the Creator, either of torment or of refreshing, to be laid up for them in hell, which have obeyed the law and the prophets. But of Christ, and his God, he defineth an heavenly bosom and heaven. We will answer, and even by this self-same scripture, convincing his blindness, which against hell discerneth this Abraham's bosom to the poor man. For one thing is hell, (as I think,) and Abraham's bosom another thing. For a great depth, he saith, is between those regions, and that doth let the passage to and fro. But neither should the rich man have lifted up his eyes, and that truly from afar off, but into higher places, and that of an exceeding height, by that infinite distance of height and depth. Whereof it appeareth to every wise man, that hath ever heard of the Elysian fields, that there is some local determination, which is called Abraham's bosom, to receive the souls of his sons, even of the gentiles; he being the father of many nations, to be accounted of Abraham's family, and of the same faith, by which Abraham believed God under no yoke of the law, nor in the sign of circumcision. That region therefore I call the bosom of Abraham, and if not heavenly, yet higher than hell, which shall give rest in the mean season to the souls of the just, until the consummation of things do finish the resurrection of all with the fulness of reward." This is as much as I can find in Tertullian touching Abraham's bosom, which is clean contrary to that you affirm him to speak. For by this saying it is manifest, that your opinion is Marcion's heresy. Secondly, that Abraham's bosom is not hell, but higher by an infinite distance, although not in full perfection of heavenly glory. Thirdly, that it is not limbus patrum, but the receptacle of all the just souls to the end of the world. Ter et profunditatis. Unde apparet sapienti cuique, qui aliquando elysios audierit, esse aliquam localem determinationem, quæ sinus dicta sit Abrahæ, ad recipiendas animas filiorum ejus, etiam ex nationibus; patris scilicet multarum nationum in Abrahæ censum deputandarum et ex eadem fide, qua et Abraham Deo credidit, nullo sub jugo legis, nec in signo circumcisionis. 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. Tertull. Adv. Marcion, Lib. iv. Edit. Rigult. p. 559.] tullian's authority therefore doth you small pleasure, and less honesty, unless you did cite him more truly. But I am unwise to look for plain dealing and sincerity at your hands. Well, your limbus patrum, the very brim, or uppermost, or outmost part of hell, wherein all the patriarchs should rest, we have now found from whence it came, even from your old acquaintance, the mouse of Pontus, Marcion the abominable heretic. The other saying of Jerome, but that the opinion of the fathers in hell had by that time taken some strength, might be understood of the mortality whereunto they were subject, and never should have been raised, but by the resurrection of Christ; as it seemeth by that which he opposeth of all nations, since the passion and resurrection of Christ, acknowledged to speak like philosophers of the immortality of the soul, and rejoicing in the resurrection of the dead, as the fathers mourned at their death. Chrysostom's place is more apparent for your error, although he also may be understood to speak allegorically of the effect of Christ's death and resurrection, by which all the patriarchs were delivered from death, and hell was spoiled; not that they were in prison there, but that the justice of God had condemned them thither, if Christ's death had not redeemed them but I will not stand to clear Chrysostom of this error, which it is sufficient for me to have found that Marcion the old heretic was the first author thereof, by Tertullian's confession; howsoever it came to pass, that many good men afterward, deceived by the words adns and infernus, did hold it. 12. Martin. Therefore did Jacob say, "I will go down to my son unto MARTIN, hell." And again he saith: "If any misfortune happen to (Benjamin) Gen. xlviii. by the way, you shall bring my grey head with sorrow unto hell," which is repeated again twice in the chap. xliv.; by which phrase the holy scripture will signify, not only death, but also the descending at that time of all sorts of souls into hell, both good and bad. And there- 1 Kings ii 1. [' Καὶ οὐ μὴ ἀθωώσῃς αὐτὸν, ὅτι ἀνὴρ σοφὸς εἶ σὺ, καὶ γνώσῃ ἃ ποιήσεις αὐτῷ, καὶ κατάξεις τὴν πολιὰν αὐτοῦ ἐν αἵματι εἰς ᾅδου. 1 Kings ii. 9. "Tu noli pati eum esse innoxium. Vir autem sapiens es, ut scias quæ facies ei, deducesque canos ejus cum sanguine ab inferos," Vulg. "Deal with him therefore according to thy wisdom, and bring not his hoar head down to the grave in peace," Edit. 1562. "But thou shalt not count him as unguilty: for thou art a man of wisdom, and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him, his hoar head thou shalt bring fore it is spoken of all sorts in the holy scripture, both of good and of bad. For all went then into hell; but some into a place there of rest, others into other places there of torments. And therefore St Jerome saith, speaking of hell, according to the old testament: "Hell is a place Psal. lxxxv. wherein souls are included; either in rest, or in pains, according to the quality of their deserts"." In cap. 13. 131. FULKE, 12. Fulke. Jacob said he would be joined to his son by death, as in the other text you bring it is more manifest than the sun at noon days. For Jacob, speaking of his grey head, must needs mean of his body, and therefore of the grave, and not of hell. So in the 3 Reg. 2, which you quote, David chargeth Salomon, that he suffereth not the grey head of Joab to go down to the grave in peace, and that he shall cause the hoar head of Shemei to go down to the grave with blood; which by no means can be understood of his soul going to hell, which goeth not with blood; although it is plain enough by the word "hoar head," that he meaneth his body in age, or his old body. And this text Pagnine, in his dic to the grave with blood," Edit. 1584. "Therefore thou shalt cause his hoar head to go down to the grave with blood," Geneva, 1560. "But his hoar head bring thou down to the grave with blood," Authorised version. Καὶ κατέβησαν αὐτοὶ, καὶ ὅσα ἐστὶ αὐτῶν ζῶντα εἰς ᾅδου. Numb. xvi. 33. "Descenderuntque vivi in infernum," Vulg. “They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit," Authorised version.] [Et descenderunt ipsi, et omnia quæcumque sunt eis, viventes ad inferos. Notandum secundum locum terrenum dictos esse inferos, hoc est in inferioribus terræ partibus. Varie quippe in scripturis et sub intellectu multiplici, sicut rerum de quibus agitur sensus exigit, nomen ponitur inferorum, et maxime in mortuis hoc accipi solet. Sed quoniam istos viventes dictum est ad inferos descendisse, et ipsa narratione quid factum fuerit satis apparet; manifestum est, ut dixi, inferiores partes terræ inferorum vocabulo nuncupatas, in comparatione hujus superioris terræ in cujus facie vivitur; sicut in comparatione cœli superioris, ubi sanctorum demoratio est angelorum, peccantes angelos in hujus aëris detrusos caliginem scriptura dicit tanquam carceribus inferi puniendos reservari. Augustini Quæstiones in Numeros, c. xxix. Opera, Vol. III. pp. 838, 839. Edit. Bened. Paris. 1836.] [Inter mortem autem et inferos hoc interest: mors est, qua anima separatur a corpore; infernus, locus in quo animæ recluduntur, sive in refrigerio, sive in pœnis, pro qualitate meritorum. Comment. Hieronymi in Osee. c. xiii. Opera, Vol. I. p. 1329.] |