Chapter LV.—The Christian Idea of the Position of Hades; The Blessedness of Paradise Immediately After Death. The Privilege of the Martyrs.

By ourselves the lower regions (of Hades) are not supposed to be a bare cavity, nor some subterranean sewer of the world, but a vast deep space in the interior of the earth, and a concealed recess in its very bowels; inasmuch as we read that Christ in His death spent three days in the heart of the earth,311    Matt. xii. 40. that is, in the secret inner recess which is hidden in the earth, and enclosed by the earth, and superimposed on the abysmal depths which lie still lower down. Now although Christ is God, yet, being also man, “He died according to the Scriptures,”312    1 Cor. xv. 3. and “according to the same Scriptures was buried.”313    Ver. 4. With the same law of His being He fully complied, by remaining in Hades in the form and condition of a dead man; nor did He ascend into the heights of heaven before descending into the lower parts of the earth, that He might there make the patriarchs and prophets partakers of Himself.314    1 Pet. iii. 19. (This being the case), you must suppose Hades to be a subterranean region, and keep at arm’s length those who are too proud to believe that the souls of the faithful deserve a place in the lower regions.315    See Irenæus, adv. Hæres. v. [Vol. I. p. 566, this Series.] These persons, who are “servants above their Lord, and disciples above their Master,”316    Matt. x. 24. would no doubt spurn to receive the comfort of the resurrection, if they must expect it in Abraham’s bosom. But it was for this purpose, say they, that Christ descended into hell, that we might not ourselves have to descend thither. Well, then, what difference is there between heathens and Christians, if the same prison awaits them all when dead? How, indeed, shall the soul mount up to heaven, where Christ is already sitting at the Father’s right hand, when as yet the archangel’s trumpet has not been heard by the command of God,317    1 Cor. xv. 52 and 1 Thess. iv. 16.—when as yet those whom the coming of the Lord is to find on the earth, have not been caught up into the air to meet Him at His coming,318    1 Thess. iv. 17. in company with the dead in Christ, who shall be the first to arise?319    Ver. 16. To no one is heaven opened; the earth is still safe for him, I would not say it is shut against him. When the world, indeed, shall pass away, then the kingdom of heaven shall be opened.  Shall we then have to sleep high up in ether, with the boy-loving worthies of Plato; or in the air with Arius; or around the moon with the Endymions of the Stoics? No, but in Paradise, you tell me, whither already the patriarchs and prophets have removed from Hades in the retinue of the Lord’s resurrection. How is it, then, that the region of Paradise, which as revealed to John in the Spirit lay under the altar,320    Rev. vi. 9. displays no other souls as in it besides the souls of the martyrs? How is it that the most heroic martyr Perpetua on the day of her passion saw only her fellow-martyrs there, in the revelation which she received of Paradise, if it were not that the sword which guarded the entrance permitted none to go in thereat, except those who had died in Christ and not in Adam? A new death for God, even the extraordinary one for Christ, is admitted into the reception-room of mortality, specially altered and adapted to receive the new-comer. Observe, then, the difference between a heathen and a Christian in their death: if you have to lay down your life for God, as the Comforter321    Paracletus. counsels, it is not in gentle fevers and on soft beds, but in the sharp pains of martyrdom: you must take up the cross and bear it after your Master, as He has Himself instructed you.322    Matt. xvi. 24. The sole key to unlock Paradise is your own life’s blood.323    The souls of the martyrs were, according to Tertullian, at once removed to Paradise (Bp. Kaye, p. 249). You have a treatise by us,324    De Paradiso.  [Compare, p. 216, note 9, supra.] (on Paradise), in which we have established the position that every soul is detained in safe keeping in Hades until the day of the Lord.

CAPUT LV.

Nobis inferi non nuda cavositas, nec subdivalis aliqua mundi sentina creduntur: sed in fossa terrae, et in alio vastitas, et in ipsis visceribus ejus abstrusa profunditas. Siquidem Christum in corde terrae (Matt. XII) triduum mortis legimus expunctum, id est in recessu intimo et interno et in ipsa terra operto, et intra ipsam clauso , et inferioribus adhuc abyssis superstructo. Quod si Christus Deus, quia et homo, mortuus secundum Scripturas, et sepultus secundum easdem, hic quoque legi satisfecit, forma humanae mortis apud inferos functus; nec ante ascendit in sublimiora coelorum, quam descendit in inferiora terrarum , ut illic Patriarchas et 0743A Prophetas (Eph. IV) compotes sui faceret, habes et regionem inferum subterraneam credere, et illos cubito pellere, qui satis superbe non putant animas fidelium inferis dignas, servi super dominum, et discipuli super magistrum, aspernati, si forte, in Abrahae sinu exspectandae resurrectionis solatium carpere . «Sed in hoc, inquiunt, Christus inferos adiit , ne nos adiremus: caeterum, quod discrimen ethnicorum et Christianorum, si carcer mortuis idem?» Quo ergo anima modo exhalabit in coelum , Christo illic adhuc sedente ad dexteram Patris, nondum Dei jussu per tubam archangeli audito 0744A , nondum illis quos Domini adventus in saeculo invenerit obviam ei creptis in aerem, cum his qui mortui in Christo primi resurgent? Nulli patet coelum, terra adhuc salva, ne dixerim clausa. Cum transactione enim mundi reserabuntur regna coelorum. Sed in aethere dormitio nostra, cum pueris Platonis; aut in aere, cum Ario; aut circa lunam, cum Endymionibus Stoicorum : «Imo, inquis, in paradiso, quo jam tunc et Patriarchae et Prophetae appendices Dominicae resurrectionis, ab inferis migraverint.» Et, quomodo Joanni in spiritu paradisi regio revelata, quae subjicitur altari, 0745A nullas alias animas apud se praeter martyrum ostendit? Quomodo Perpetua fortissima martyr, sub die passionis, in revelatione paradisi, solos illic commartyres suos vidit, nisi quia nullis romphaea paradisi janitrix cedit, nisi qui in Christo decesserint , non in Adam? Nova mors pro Deo, et extraordinaria pro Christo, alio et privato excipitur hospitio. Agnosce itaque differentiam ethnici et fidelis in morte. Si pro Deo occumbas, ut Paracletus monet, non in mollibus febribus et in lectulis, sed in martyriis, si crucem tuam tollas, et sequaris Dominum, ut ipse praecepit (Matt. X); tota paradisi clavus tuus sanguis est. Habes etiam de Paradiso a nobis libellum, quo constituimus omnem animam apud inferos sequestrari in diem Domini.