§ 121. THE FUTURE STATE. 757
ginning when God said, " Let us make man in our own im age." There can be no belief in the incarnation without belief in the Trinity. Faith ceases when the mind dis believes a single article of the faith.1 He who disbelieves a single one of the articles of the Apostles' Creed has no faith at all.2 After quoting Rom. 4 : 5, this great theologian stops with saying, that, in justification, an act of faith is re quired to the extent that a man believe that God is the justifier of men through the atonement of Christ.3
The Schoolmen did not understand Paul. The Reformers were obliged to re-proclaim the doctrine of justifying faith as taught in the epistles to the Romans and the Galatians. On the other hand, it is the merit of the Schoolmen that they emphasize the principle, that true faith worketh by love and that all other faith is vain, inanis. The failure 'of Protestant theologians always to set this forth distinctly has exposed the Protestant doctrine to the charge that faith is sufficient, even if it be unaccompanied by good works, or works of love towards God and man.4 The fault of the Schoolmen lay chiefly in their unscriptural and dangerous theory of sacra mental grace which led to the substitution of a series of out ward exercises, recommended by the priest, for simple trust in Christ's free grace.
§ 121. The Future State.
The unseen world of spirits was divided by the mediseval theology into five distinct regions or abodes, — receptacula animarum, — as Thomas Aquinas calls them — heaven, hell, pur gatory, the limlus patrum, or the temporary abode of the Old
1 Fides non remanet in homine postquam discredit unum articulum fidei. Summa, IV. 6. 3, I. 7 sqq., Migne, III. 63 sq.
2/n heretico discredente unum articulum fidei, non manet fides neque formata neque informis. IV. 6, 3, Migne, p. 63.
8 Summa, II. 113, 4, Migne, II. 948.
4 This is one of the charges brought with great vehemence against Luther and the Keformation hy Denifle, Luther und Lutherthum, I. 374-456. He misunderstood or wilfully misrepresented Luther, who never intended to de tach a life of good works from faith as its necessary consequence.
758 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
Testament saints, and the limbus infantum, or the abode of children who die without being baptized.
Hell, the place of punishment or eternal dolors,1 is the lake of sulphur and fire in which lost men and demons suffer eter nal torment. It is a region of jet darkness, a deep prison as compared with heaven, into which the demons are thrust down.2 The longings and passions of those confined there go on continually burning and are never satisfied. Its fires burn but do not consume. No other heat can compare with its heat. 3 The Schoolmen are agreed that the passages of Scripture, bearing on the fire of hell, are not figurative. The fire is material fire which afflicts both the spirits and bodies of the lost.4 The degree of torture is according to the desert.
The limbus patrum corresponds to Abraham's bosom in the parable of Dives and Lazarus, the place where the worthies of the Old Testament dwelt till Christ descended into hades and released them. Before that time they en joyed exemption from pain. Since then they have enjoyed heavenly bliss. Circumcision released them from original sin. Hell and this locality are probably in the same region or, at any rate, contiguous.5 The view, that the patriarchs remained in hades till Christ's death, goes back to Hermas and Clement of Alexandria.
The limbus puerorum or infantum is the abode of children
1 Thomas Aquinas calls it locus dolorum and infernum damnatorum.
2 Profundus career respectu amcenitatis cceli et cst aer iste caliginosus in quern detrusi sunt demones, etc. Alb. Magnus, In Sent., III. 22, C, 4, Borgnet's ed., XXVIII. 393.
3 Ignis est in fortissimo, candidate . . . cui nil est comparable. Alb. Mag nus, Borgnet's ed., XXX. 597.
4 Gehenna ilia quce stagnnm ignis et sulphuris dicta est, corporeus ignis erit et cruciabit damnatorum corpora vel hominum vel dcemonum. P. Lomb., Sent., IV. 44, 6. Absque dubietate corporeus ignis cruciat, etc. Alb. Mag., In Sent., Borgnet's ed., XXX. 393. Ignis corporalis qui concremabit et affliget spiritus et etiam corpora . . . sed semper affliget, alios plus alios minus, secundum exigentiam meritorum. Bonavent., Brev., VII. 0.
5 Probabile est, quod idem locus vel quasi continuus, sit infernus et limbus. Th. Aq., Migne, IV. 1222. Thomas calls the infernal regions interchange ably infernus and inferni. Alb. Magnus uses the neuter plural inferna. In Sent , III, 25, C, 392.