15. If Christ has merited eternal salvation for all men, why, then, are not all saved?
Because not all do, on their part, what is necessary for obtaining salvation; that is, because they do not all believe, keep the Commandments, and use the means of grace.
'He [Christ] became to all that obey Him the cause of eternal salvation' (Hebr. v. 9).— Example of St. Paul (Col. i. 24). 'He who made you without your concurrence, will not save you without it' (St. Augustine).
Application. Oh! that you would never forget how much Jesus has loved you, and what He has suffered for you. For out of mercy, and 'for His exceeding charity wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins' (Eph. ii. 4, 5), He has redeemed us through His most bitter Passion and death, and has placed us in the kingdom of His grace. Let this charity of Christ urge you to live unto Him who died for you, and rose again (2 Cor. V. 14, 15). (Devotion to the Sufferings of Christ; the Way of the Cross, or Stations; Visiting the Holy Sepulchre in Holy-week; Abstinence on Fridays, etc.)
The Fifth Article.
'He descended into hell, the third day He rose again from the dead.'
(See Short Hist, of Revealed Rel., 27.)
1. What means, 'He descended into hell'?
That the soul of Jesus Christ, after His death, descended into 'Limbo'—i.e., to the place where the souls of the just who died before Christ were detained, and were waiting for the time of their redemption.
'He was put to death indeed in the flesh, but enlivened in the spirit; in which also coming He preached to those spirits that were in prison' — that is, announced to them their redemption (2 Pet. iii. 18, 19).
2. Why were the souls of the just detained in Limbo?
