17. Some man may say: “If
there be not in the dead any care for the living, how is it that
the rich man, who was tormented in hell, asked father Abraham to
send Lazarus to his five brothers not as yet dead, and to take
course with them, that they should not come themselves also into
the same place of torments?”2750
But does it follow, that because
the
rich man said this, he knew what his
brethren were doing, or
what they were suffering at that time? Just in that same way had he
care for the living, albeit what they were doing he wist not at
all, as we have care for the dead, albeit what they do we
confessedly wot not. For if we cared not for the dead, we should
not, as we do, supplicate
God on their behalf. In fine,
Abraham did
not send
Lazarus, and also answered, that they have here
Moses and
the
Prophets, whom they ought to hear that they might not come to
those
torments. Where again it occurs to ask, how it was that what
was doing here,
father Abraham himself wist not, while he knew that
Moses and the
Prophets are here, that is, their books, by obeying
which men should
escape the
torments of
hell: and knew, in short,
that
rich man to have lived in
delights, but the
poor man
Lazarus
to have lived in
labors and
sorrows? For this also he says to him;
“Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime hast received good
things, but
Lazarus evil things.” He knew then these things which
had taken place of course among the living, not among the dead.
True, but it may be that, not while the things were doing in their
lifetime, but after their
death, he
learned these things, by
information of Lazarus: that it be not false which the Prophet
saith, “Abraham hath not known us.”
2751
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