[Footnote 4:  “Elia inde descendente quo conscenderat, et Moyse
    ab inferis resurgente.”—­Hieron. in Matt. xvii. 1.  Paris, 1706.
    vol. iv. p. 77.]

Strange and startling as is this sentiment of Jerome, it is, you will observe, utterly irreconcileable with the theory, that the reason why the ancient Church did not {31} pray to the saints departed, was because they were not yet in heaven.

On this point, among Roman Catholic writers themselves, there prevails a very great diversity of opinion, arising probably from the difficulty which they have experienced in their endeavours to make all facts and doctrines square with the present tenets and practices of their Church[5].  Thus, whilst some maintain that Elijah was translated to the terrestrial paradise in which Adam had been placed, not enjoying the immediate divine presence; others cite the passage as justifying the belief that the saints departed pray for us[6].  But not only are different authors at variance with each other on very many points here; the same writer in his zeal is betrayed into great and palpable inconsistency.  Bellarmin, anxious to enlist the account given by our Lord of the rich man and Lazarus, to countenance the invocation of saints by the example of the rich man appealing to Abraham, maintains that section of Holy Writ to be not a parable, but a true history of a matter of fact which took place between two real individuals; and of his assertion he adduces this proof, that “the Church worships that Lazarus as verily a holy man[7];” and yet he denies that any of the holy men were in heaven before the {32} death of Christ.  Either Abraham was in heaven in the presence of God, or not; if he was in heaven, why did not his descendants invoke his aid? if he was not in heaven, the whole argument drawn from the rich man’s supplication falls to the ground.

[Footnote 5:  See De Sacy on 4 Kings i. 1.  See also Estius, 1629. p. 168.  Pope Gregory’s Exposition; Rome, 1553. p. 99.  Stephen’s Bible in loc. 1557, &c.  The Vulgate ed.  Antwerp, 1624, cites a note, “Thy prayers are stronger than chariots and horsemen.”]

[Footnote 6:  Gaspar Sanctius, Antwerp, 1624. p. 1360, considers the fable not improbable, that Elijah, living in the terrestrial paradise, wrote there the letters to Joram (mentioned 2 Chron. xxi. 12), and sent them by angels.]

    [Footnote 7:  Colit Lazarum ilium ut vere sanctum
    hominem.—­Bellarm.  De Ecd.  Triumph, p. 864.]

Another very extraordinary inconsistency, arising from the same solicitude, forces itself upon our notice, when the same author urges a passage in Leviticus [Levit. xix. 13.] to prove, that the saints are now admitted at once into the enjoyment of the presence of God in heaven, without waiting for the day of final judgment. [Bell vol. ii. p. 865.] “God (such are his words) commanded it to be written, ’The work of the hireling shall not remain with thee till