Purgatory, By The Rev. M. Canty, P.P., Part 18.

DOGMATIC AND SCHOLASTIC - THE VARIOUS QUESTIONS CONNECTED WITH IT CONSIDERED AND PROVED.

CHAPTER XIII. THE PLACE WHERE PURGATORY IS. Part 4.

II. The limbus of the fathers is proved to be under the earth. cont.

There are other places in the sacred books, in which God anticipated the soothsayer, as he did in causing Samuel to appear before the woman exercised her dark craft. In the Fourth Book of Kings (Ch. i. 16.), there is a description of how, when Ochozias, king of Israel, had sent messengers to consult Beelzebub, the god of Accaron, as to whether he should recover from his illness, God anticipated the Accaronite idol, by sending an angel to command the prophet Elias to go and tell the sick ruler that he should not rise out of the bed on which he lay, but that he should surely die. It is also related in the Book of Numbers(Ch. xxii. 32.), that when Balaam, the sooth sayer, would consult the devil on behalf of Balac, king of Moab, he was prevented by an angel of the Lord to do so; and, instead thereof, he uttered a sublime prophecy about Israel and her long-expected Messias, whom she was to slay.
But, Samuel complained to Saul: " Why hast thou disturbed my rest, that I should be brought up?" It does not follow from this mode of speech that he was brought up by the witch of Endor. The rest of the prophet may be said to be disturbed, because, as Cornelius a Lapide and Menochius observe, he was moved to anger, according to our way of thinking, at the unworthy manner in which Saul endeavoured to raise him up, and to learn his fate from him. Or we can hold again with the same two interpreters, that he may be said to be disturbed, because he was called forth from the state of rest and peace which he enjoyed, and asked to implicate himself in the troublesome affairs of this world. But that Saul may be said to have disturbed the rest of Samuel, and brought him up, it is enough that his profane curiosity was the occasion of his coming up. Nothing more than this is required. It is not required that the witch should be the efficient cause of it.

However, there would be nothing indiscreet or absurd in our concession, were we to allow that the demon resuscitated Samuel. There is nothing more remarkable or impossible in his doing this, than in his bearing Jesus Christ, the Lord of Samuel and all the prophets,to the pinnacle of the temple, or to the top of the mountain. Hence, St. Augustine *, speaking on the matter, says : " If this causes alarm, that it may have been allowed to the malicious spirit to raise the soul of a just person, and as if to call forth from the hidden receptacles of the dead, is it not more wonderful that Satan took our Lord Him self, and placed Him upon the battlement of the temple ? The manner in which he may have done this is hidden to us ; just as is also the manner in which it happened that Samuel was raised up. Unless by chance some one may say, that the liberty to take the living Lord whence he wished, and to place him where he wished, came easier to the devil, than to raise up from his abode the spirit of the dead Samuel."

2. The opinion which maintains that the true Samuel appeared is strengthened by the authority of many Fathers, who hold it, although it must be admitted that other Fathers take an opposite view.
The first we shall name as in favour of the real apparition of Samuel, is Origen. He accepts it in this sense, and proves it to be so, by many arguments, when treating on the twenty-eighth chapter of the First Book of Kings.
Justin the Martyr, in his dialogue with Tryphon, proving the immortality of the soul, speaks thus : " That souls survive (the body) could prove even from this, that the ventriloquous Pythoness called up the soul of Samuel, such as Saul had requested."(Ita ut Saul petierat.) In the opinion of St. Justin, the true Samuel was called up. If it was a demon, under his spectre, that came forth, Justin could not adduce this fact as a proof of the immortality of the soul. In addition, it will strike the reader, that Justin states the soul of Samuel rose, " such as Saul had requested." But Saul requested to have brought before him the soul of Samuel, and not a demon representing him or assuming his appearance. Then Justin the Martyr was under the conviction that the true soul of Samuel appeared.
St. Augustine was of the same opinion. This is evident from the following quotation, which is taken from one of his works. (De Cura pro mortuis gerenda, Ch. 15) "The divine Scripture testifies that some of the dead have been also sent to the living, as on the contrary Paul from among the living was taken up into paradise. For Samuel, the dead prophet, even foretold the things that were about to happen to the living king Saul (although some may think it was not he who could have been called up by magic arts, but that some spirit, fit for such evil works, had formed his likeness) since the book of Ecclesiasticus, which Jesus the son of Sirach, is handed down to have written . . . contains, in praise of the Fathers, that Samuel even after death, prophesied," &c.
St. Ambrose too, holds, that it was Samuel in person who appeared, and foretold his unhappy, but merited, fate to Saul. This holy Father (In C. I. S. Luc.) says: "Samuel after death according to the testimony of Scripture, was not silent as to future events."
Other Fathers may be quoted in defence of the true apparition of Samuel. But it would be superfluous to do so; because when the Fathers disagree on any subject, we should attend not to their authority, but to the arguments by which the subject is sustained.

* Lib. 2 de diversis quaestionibus a Simpliciane propositis, q. 4.

Purgatory, By The Rev. M. Canty, P.P., Part 16.

DOGMATIC AND SCHOLASTIC - THE VARIOUS QUESTIONS CONNECTED WITH IT CONSIDERED AND PROVED.

Dives and Lazarus

CHAPTER XIII. THE PLACE WHERE PURGATORY IS. Part 2.

II. The limbus of the fathers is proved to be under the earth.

Lessius, a theologian of great erudition, says that it is of faith that the limbus of the fathers is under the earth. It is unnecessary to observe that when he speaks thus, he is to be understood as speaking of divine faith, or of a matter that is contained in the Scripture or tradition, as distinguished from Catholic divine faith, or a matter not alone contained in the Scripture or tradition, but also defined by the Church. But the Church has never defined the situation of limbus, though this may be contained in the Scripture or tradition.

I. The subterranean location of the limbus of the fathers is proved from the Book of Genesis : (xxxvii., 35.) " I will go down to my son into hell" These are the words of Jacob, a just and holy man, in reference to his son Joseph, who was likewise just and holy. Both after death descended into hell. They did not enter heaven, for it is evident that heaven is not understood by the word hell. Nor by hell are we to understand the grave. Though hell is sometimes used for the grave, it cannot be understood in this sense here. Jacob did not believe his son was in the grave. He supposed that a wild beast had devoured him, and being under this impression he could not hope to go down to, or to join him in the grave. One who is devoured by a wild beast finds not a grave, in which the ashes of his relatives can commingle with his.

II. Another proof of the subterranean situation of the limbus of the fathers is taken from the first Book of Kings. (xxviii) Saul sought a woman with a divining spirit to bring up to him Samuel, who was dead and buried. She replied : " I saw gods (the soul of Samuel) ascending out of the earth." Thus the soul of the prophet, which was in limbo, was seen to ascend out of the earth. This is a strong evidence to sustain the opinion that limbus is under the earth. But as some do not admit that Samuel did in truth appear, it will be necessary to dwell a while on this subject, and to lay before the reader the arguments which demonstrate his real apparition.

What follows is the full text in which this remark able apparition is recorded. Saul, having consulted God, and having been found unworthy to receive an answer, changed his dress, and went in disguise to consult a pythoness 1 at Endor. " He (Saul) said to her : ' Divine to me by thy divining spirit, and bring me up him whom I shall tell thee.' . . . And the woman said to him : ' Whom shall I bring up to thee?' And he said: 'Bring me up Samuel.' And when the woman saw Samuel she cried out with a loud voice, and said to Saul: ' Why hast thou deceived me ? for thou art Saul.' And the king said to her : ' Fear not: what hast thou seen ? ' And the woman said to Saul: ' I saw gods ascending out of the earth.' And he said to her: ' What form is he of ?' And she said : ' An old man cometh up, and he is covered with a mantle.' And Saul understood that it was Samuel, and he bowed himself with his face to the ground, and adored. And Samuel said to Saul: 'Why hast thou disturbed my rest, that I should be brought up ? ' And Saul said : * I am in great distress : for the Philistines fight against me, and God is departed from me, and would not hear me, neither by the hand of prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest show me what I shall do.' And Samuel said: ' Why askest thou me, seeing the Lord has departed from thee, and is gone over to thy rival: for the Lord will do to thee as he spoke by me, and he will rend thy kingdom out of thy hand, and will give it to thy neighbour, David ; because thou didst not obey the voice of the Lord, neither didst thou execute the wrath of his indignation upon Amalec. Therefore hath the Lord done to thee what thou sufferest this day. And the Lord also will deliver Israel with thee into the hands of the Philistines, and to-morrow thou and thy sons shall be with me, and the Lord will also deliver the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines.' And forthwith Saul fell all along on the ground, for he was frightened with the words of Samuel."

Now, in what sense are we to understand this whole passage ? In what light are we to view it ? Does it indicate merely a phasm, a fancied apparition, in order that Saul, with the permission of God, may be deceived, or rather the true and real apparition of Samuel ? There have been four different opinions held on this subject.

1. The more common opinion of the fathers, interpreters, and theologians is that Samuel in reality appeared to Saul, and addressed him. They who hold this opinion, however, differ as to the power that called up Samuel. Some maintain that the apparition was directly caused by the power of God, and not by the art of the magician. Others attribute it to the magic evocation of the pythoness. But while they differ as to the manner of the apparition, they agree as to the truth of it.

2. Some thought it was a phasm or fancied apparition of Samuel, but not Samuel himself, nor the demon simulating him. They said that this phantom was either immediately produced by God, or by angels, at His command.

3. Others, like Tertullian, St. Jerome, St. Basil the Great, St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and many more, whose opinion appears probable to Natalis Alexander, say that it was not Samuel himself, but the demon representing or assuming his form, that appeared. These writers think that the demon deceived at the same time Saul and the pythoness.

4. Finally, there is another opinion which says that the whole thing was a fraud by which Saul was deceived. The diviner, while in fact she saw nothing, feigned to see Samuel. But Calmet, writing on the passage, says that this opinion is rash, dangerous, and contrary to the sacred text.

1 A diviner, or one who fortells future events, or discovers secret things by preternatural means, is sometimes called a python. He is so called because he was accustomed to deliver his answers after the manner in which the oracles of idols were delivered, and as the oracles of Apollo were the most famous, he is hence called a python. A diviner is also called a ventriloquist, because he used to endeavour to speak after the manner of ventriloquists. Some attain great perfection, without magic, in the art of ventriloquism. But the diviner or magician practises it with diabolic invocation, and under diabolic influence.