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.
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