this life only zee have hope in Christ; and ver. 32. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow roe die. All which tended to persuade men, that there was nothing after death, either to be feared, or hoped for. If that be true, says the apostle, that all who die perish, if our hope be confined to this life, if the soul neither survives, nor the body is to be raised ; in vain are so many calamities undergone for Christ, and Christians of all men are the most miserable : which is not a false or deceitful, but a solid way of reasoning, and worthy of an apostle. 2. As the dangers and calamities, which the apostle here speaks of, principally concern the body, he justly argues, that the body scems to have been in vain employed for the Lord, if it also was not to be raised, in its appointed time, to a participation of the reward: so that no inference can be deduced from this against the immortality of the soul.

XXIII. Let us now, in the last place, shew, that when the souls of the godly are separated from the body, they are received not only into heavenly joys, but also into heavenly mansions. The apostle assures us of this :* For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made toith hands, eternal in the heavens. He assigns a two-fold receptacle for the soul; one earthly, that is, the body, in which it resides during this animal life, and from which it departs at death, the other heavenly, which it possesses immediately on quitting the former. For here he speaks of that eternal receptacle for man, which death makes way for, and which is said to be eternal in the heavens. In the same heavenly Jerusalcın he places the spirits of just men made perfect ; where are myriads of angels, and Jesus the Mediator of the netv covenant. In like manner also, John sawa it ? Cor. v. 1.

+ Heb. xii. 22, 21.

throne set in heaven, and round about the throne four and twenty elders, who are the patriarchs (or representatives) both of the Old and New Testament church, sitting on so many thrones.*

XXIV. Nor are we to doubt, but this was Christ's meaning, when he said to the penitent thief: Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise. These words are an exact answer to the petition of the thief, who prayed that Christ would remember him : Christ answers, I will not only remember thee, as absent, but promise that thou shall be in my presence in

iny everlasting glory: Thou shalt be with me. The thief fixed the time, in which he desired his petition might be granted, viz. When thou comest into thy kingdom. Christ informed him not only of the place, where he was to reign, which he calls paradise, that is, the third heavens, compare 2 Cor. xii. 2, 4. a very common way, of speaking among the Jews, who place the souls of the godly deceased BEGAN NGEDÆN, in the garden of Eden; but also of the time, in which he was to enter on his kingdom, to-day; and it was about the sixth hour, the noon of the day ; before the expiration of which,

; the death of both intervening, our Lord promised him these joys. But because such a sudden change of condition seemed to be strange and almost incredible, Christ confirms his promise by an asseveration, Amen, I verily. These things are plain. Whereas, on the other hand, the interpretations of our adversaries are strained and foolish. They imagine the words may be thus pointed or distinguished, I say unto thee to-day, Thou shalt be with me in paradise ; as if Christ did not fix the time, when the thief was to be with him in paradise, * Rev. iv. 2, 4,

+ Luke xxiii. 43. I the Amen, who am truth itself, infallibly assure thee, that what I say unto thee shall come to pass this day.

a

but only declared the truth of what he promised. And they refer to Deut. xxx. 11, 15, 17, 18. where Moses says, I command thee this day, &c. But how weak is this ? For, 1. The thief could not be ignorant of the time when Christ said this to him ; he did not want to have that inculcated. 2. It is not our Lord's saying to-day, but his saying Amen, verily, that declares the truth of the promise. 3. To-day denotes a time, and

answers to the* when, which was in the petition of the thief. 4. Maldonat himself looks

upon

this exposition as insipid and weak: Bellarmine accounts it ridiculous, from the same arguments almost with ours. See Riveti Catholicus Orthodorus, quæst. 60.

5. The phraseology of Moses is of a different nature, I command thee this

a day; I denounce unto you this day : for besides that the words there cannot be otherwise construed, here they both may and ought: Moses there prophesies of things that were to come to pass afterwards, and would have the Israelites mindful of that time, in which he had foretold them in such a prophetical protestation ; and therefore this day or to-day, has a remarkable emphasis in the discourse of Moses; but renders the discourse of Christ, if construed as our adversaries would have it, weak and insipid. Moreover, what they contend for, that the thief understood by Christ's coming into his kingdom, his coming to judge the quick and the dead, is asserted without any proof; nor will they ever be able to prove it. He had certainly been mistaken, if he imagined, that Christ's kingdom was to be deferred to the last day. Christ had reigned long before, notwithstanding the vain rage of all his enemies. And Christ's kingdom is so far from beginning at the last day, that Paul declares, he will then deliver up the kingdom to the

ز

Father.* But a grosser impiety, than any Christian could well be imagined guilty of, is what the heretic subjoins, that, “ from all these things, there is not the least pretence to conclude, that Christ, in any respect, lived after death, or that other men live after death." These things are blasphemous, and cannot be either read or heard without horror.

XXV. Let us add Luke xvi. 22. And Lazarus was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. It is the general opinion of the Jews, that God uses the ministry of angels in carrying home the souls of the pious. Thus they relate concerning Moses; that when the moment of his death was come, God said to Gabriel LECHI KECHILI NISHMATHO SHÆL MOSHÆH, GO and bring me the soul of Moses. And Christ confirms the opinion about the ministry of angels by his own authority. But whither was the soul of Lazarus conveyed? Into Abraham's bosom.

From which expression, it is certainly manifest, that the place and state of the blessed are understood, from the opposition to the place and state of the miserable, in which the rich man was. But the learned are not agreed about the derivation of that metaphor. Some think, that this present life is compared to a tempestuous sea, the condition of the pious soul after death to a calm haven, signified by the term, bosom. As in that of Virgil,

Nunc tantum sinus, et statio malefida carinis. “ It is now only a bosom, or bay, and an unsafe

harbour." And James Capellus has observed, that what the Latins called navem appellere, to bring a ship to land, the Greeks express by KELLELU; from which Eustathius

'

* I Cor. xv. 24. Vol. II.

W w

remarks is derived KOLPOS, a bosom, or bay, which is the word that Luke uses here. But Ludov. Capellus thinks, that the bosom of Abraham is an expression borrowed from the custom of parents, who cherish their dear infants in their bosom, in which they also sometimes sweetly rest and sleep: just as the godly are said to sleep, when they die and to rest from their labours : but where can they be said more properly to rest and sleep, than in the bosom of Abraham their spiritual father? For confirming this interpretation, we may add, that little ones, thus tenderly treated, are called by the Greeks ENGKOLPIDIA BREPHE, children in the bosom. See also John i. 18. the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, that is, who is most intimate and familiar with, and extraordinarily beloved by the Father. But, if I mistake not, they explain this expression best, who think, that here, as also Matth. viii. 11. and often elsewhere, eternal happiness is represented under the similitude of some splendid and sumptuous feast. For it was customary, that whoever of the guests was allowed to lean on the bosom of the master of the entertainment, was accounted the most honorable person. Thus John xiii. 23. There was leaning on his bosom one whom Jesus loved. Moreover, there is no doubt, but the Jews ascribed to Abraham, the father of their nation, the principal place among the righteous. Here then is denoted the very great honor conferred on Lazarus, who, in that blessed abode, was placed next to Abraham. See Cameron and Grotius on the place. I conclude in the words of Augustine.* then so very ignorant of this sound and

wholesome article of faith, that souls are judged upon their departure out of the body, before they come to that other judgment, in which they must be judged, at the resti

« Was you