But what? That the souls of the pious remain
somewhere in a better place, and the unjust and wicked in a worse,
waiting for the time of judgment, when it shall be: thus the one
appearing worthy of God do not die any more; and the others are punished
as long as God wills them both to exist and to be punished." [Page 107.]
Not only so; Justin classes among renouncers of the faith those who
maintain the doctrine which is now acknowledged to be the doctrine of
the Church of Rome, and to be indispensable as the groundwork of the
adoration of saints. In his Trypho, sect. 80, he states his sentiment
thus strongly: "If you should meet with any persons called Christians,
who confess not this, but dare to blaspheme the God of Abraham, the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and say there is no resurrection of the
dead ([Greek: nekron]), but that their souls, at the very time of their
death, are taken up into heaven; do not regard them as Christians."
[Page 178.] {104}
This, according to Bellarmin's own principle, is fatal evidence: if the
redeemed and the saints departed are not in glory with God already, they
cannot intercede with him for men. On the subject, however, of worship
and prayer, Justin Martyr has left us some testimonies as to the
primitive practice, full of interest in themselves, independently of
their bearing on the points at issue.
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