The reasons are: (1) the formula of the covenant of grace under which the fathers lived does not suffer them to be hurled into a limbo, but demands that they should be admitted into heaven. For since God promised that he would be their God, not temporarily, but eternally (nor is he the God of the dead, but of the living)—the fathers must necessarily still live even after death, at least as to some part of them (i.e., as to the soul), not with any kind of life, but with a happy and heavenly life, necessarily included in this promise (as has been proved before, Question 2). Christ expressly teaches this. When speaking of the dead fathers he says “All live unto him” (pantes autō zōsi, Lk. 20:38), not only in the mind and power of God because he can recall them to life and was really about to do this according to his decree; but they live because they are before him always and enjoy a divine life. This is both “from him” (as the beginning) and terminates “on him” (as its object and end). Now who would say that they live in God who being thrust into hell are without the vision of God and feel the punishment of loss (at least the temporal).
V. Second, the ancients immediately after death were received into the bosom of Abraham, as appears from the example of Lazarus (Lk. 16:22, 23). Therefore they were also received into heavenly joy. For “the bosom of Abraham” can be referred to no other thing than to eternal life; this is shadowed forth under the symbol of a sumptuous feast, in allusion to a custom of the ancients in which they were accustomed so to recline at their feasts that the one rested his head on the bosom of the other. This is said of John, because Christ reclining upon the higher part of the couch had John next to him, who is therefore said to have leaned upon his bosom (Jn. 13:23). Thus nothing is more natural than that it should be said here that Lazarus was to Abraham what John was to the Lord; in the heavenly feast especially since Christ elsewhere clearly unfolds this mystery when he says, “Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 8:11), i.e., shall enjoy with him the celestial banquet. “To sit down with Abraham” and “to be in the bosom of Abraham” are the same except that to be in the bosom is a mark of greater love because not all shall recline upon his bosom, as Maldonatus aptly remarks on this passage (Commentaria in quatuor evangelistas [1863], 2:287–88 on Lk. 16:22). Now mention is made of Abraham rather than of Jacob or any other saint; both because he was the father of believers in whose bosom (i.e., most loving embrace) they are collected who partake of the fruit of the same faith with him, as sons come together in the bosom of their father when they are graciously received by him; and also on account of his liberal hospitality during life, so that the hospitality of the good but wealthy Abraham may be opposed to the inhospitality of the wealthy provider of the feast.
VI. Hence it is evident that to no purpose does Bellarmine maintain that the bosom of Abraham is nothing else than limbo and that the souls of Abraham and of Lazarus were in the same abyss with the soul of the provider of the feast, distinct indeed from each other, but having nothing solid interposed, but only a great gulf (mega chasma) (“De Purgatorio,” 2.6* in Opera [1857], 2:396). For first, our interpretation concerning the reclining in the heavenly banquet being established, this figment falls to the ground. Hence, after mention of this sitting down, it is added that others shall be cast out “into outer darkness” (eis to skotos exōteron, Mt. 8*:12)—the similitude being taken from a magnificent banquet in which on the inside the ceiling glitters with lamps, but outside there is nothing but the blackness of night. Thus whatever is outside the kingdom of heaven (where the eternal light shines) will be darkness. Again, in the bosom of Abraham good things are received and consolation is given to Lazarus for the torture he had suffered. Thus “the alternate changes of evil and good things are compensated by an ample retribution” (Tertullian, De Idolatria 13.14–15 [trans. J. H. Waszink and J. C. M. van Winden, 1987], pp. 46–47). But in limbo neither can this good be possessed, nor any place for consolation be had because there is the punishment of loss and exclusion from the face of God. Third, if Abraham was in hell, how can it be said that the abyss was so profound that there could be no passage from one to the other? How could Lazarus be said to have been carried away (apenechtheis) to a different place from hell, where the rich man is said to have been? Fourth, the Roman Ritual itself favors our opinion. For among other things which the clergy ought to sing, as soon as the funeral enters the church, they sing, “May Christ who called receive thee and angels carry thee into the bosom of Abraham” (“Caput 8: De Exspiratione*,” Rituale Romanum [1944], p. 141). In reality the whole of this discourse (whether it be a history or a parable or a history parabolically described) must be understood not according to the letter (kata to rhēton) and historically, but parabolically, for neither tongues nor speech nor fingers can belong to souls.
* Corrected citation
Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, 12.11.4&ndash6;, ed. James T. Dennison Jr., trans. George Musgrave Giger, vol. 2 (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1992–97), 257–59.
Turretin Contra The Limbus Patrum
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