Course 2, Chapter 19: Union of our intellect with our Lord, the new Adam, by faith. — Third, fourth and fifth articles of the Symbol

1. What is the third article of the creed?

At Who was conceived by the Holy Ghoxt, born of the Virgin Mary. This article teaches us that Jesus Christ, the only Son of God from all eternity, became in time the Son of Mary.

2. What is the mystery of the Son of God made man, called?

The mystery of the Son of God made man, is called the incarnation. The body of our Lord was formed of the most pure blood of the Virgin by the power of the Holy Ghost, whilst Mary preserved a perpetual and unalterable virginity.

3. Which is the fourth article of the creed?

Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. It was for very wise reasons that the apostles named the Roman governor who condemned the Saviour to death.

4. What are they?

The first was to afford a proof of their sincerity. Had they been guilty of imposition, they would there by have given to the whole world the means of detecting their imposture. To expose it, it would only be necessary to show that Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea, did not put to death any man named Jesus of Nazareth.

The second was to give the whole world a certain assurance of the death of the Saviour by pointing out the means of proving it; for Pontius Pilate sent to the emperor Tiberius an account of the life and death of our Lord, and it was preserved in the archives of the empire.

5. How do you know this?

We know, 1st, from Tacitus, a pagan historian,

that our Lord was put to death in the reign of Tiberius, whilst Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, who, by the laws of the empire was obliged to send to the emperor an account of the transactions of the province. 2d. We know it from St. Justin, martyr, who lived one hundred years after the event; and from Tertullian, Eusebius, and other authors, who re ferred the Romans to their archives for the truth of what they advanced on the subject of the life, death and resurrection of the Saviour.

6. For whom did our Lord die?

Our Lord died for all men, without exception; he has merited for all, without exception, the graces necessary to work out their salvation; but in order to profit by these graces, we must be united to the new Adam.

7. Which is the fifth article of the creed?

He descended into hell, the third day he arose again from the dead. Christ having died for all men, wished that all should feel the effects of his redemption; therefore he descended into hell. Although the soul of the Saviour was during this time really separated from his body, his divinity was never separated from his body, nor from his soul.

8. What do you mean by the word hell?

The word hell has several significations; 1st, it designates that dark and gloomy prison where the souls of the reprobate are forever tormented with the devils, night and day, by a fire which is never extinguished; 2d, it designates purgatory; 3d, the place where the souls of the saints were before the coming of our Lord.

4^. What is this place called?

A . It is commonly called limbo; and in the Scrip tures it is called the bosom of Abraham. It was the souls resting in this place that our Lord went to visit, to make known to them the gospel, and conduct them to heaven.

178 CATECHISM OF PERSEVERANCE.

9. What do you remark on the resurrection of our Lord?

I remark that it differs from the resurrection of others, in this: 1st, that our Lord raised himself to life by his own inherent power; 2d, that being once raised to life, he was never more subject to death as others who had been raised from the dead; 3d, that he is the cause and the principle of the resurrection of all men.