Tertullian — On the Soul 55
To us the lower places are not believed a bare hollowness nor some open bilge of the world, but a vastness in earth's trench and in the deep and a depth hidden in her very bowels — since we read Christ's three days of death finished in the heart of the earth, that is, in the inmost and inward recess, covered in the earth herself and shut within her and built over still lower abysses. If Christ, God because also man, died according to the scriptures and was buried according to the same, he also satisfied this law in the form of human death, having discharged it among the lower places, and he did not ascend to the higher parts of the heavens before he descended to the lower parts of the earth, to make the patriarchs and prophets there sharers of himself.
How then will you breathe out the soul into heaven while Christ is still sitting there at the Father's right, the command of God by the archangel's trumpet not yet heard, those whom the Lord's coming will find in the world not yet caught up to meet him in the air, when those who have died in Christ will rise first? To none is heaven open while the earth is still intact — not to say shut. For with the world's winding-up the kingdoms of the heavens will be unlocked. But in paradise, you say, where already then patriarchs and prophets, appendages of the Lord's resurrection, migrated from the lower places? And how does the paradise region revealed to John in the Spirit, which lies under the altar, show no other souls with itself except of martyrs? How did Perpetua, strongest martyr, on the day of her passion see in a revelation of paradise only martyrs there — unless the sword-porter of paradise yields to none except those who have died in Christ, not in Adam? A new death for God and an extraordinary death for Christ is received in another and private lodging. So recognize the difference of pagan and faithful in death if you fall for God, as the Paraclete warns — not in soft fevers and beds, but in martyrdoms, if you take up your cross and follow the Lord. The whole key of paradise is your blood. You have also from us a booklet on paradise, in which we establish that every soul is sequestered among the lower places unto the day of the Lord.
Latin
[1] Nobis inferi non nuda cauositas nec subdiualis aliqua mundi sentina creduntur, sed in fossa terrae et in alto uastitas et in ipsis uisceribus eius abstrusa profunditas, siquidem Christo in corde terrae triduum mortis legimus expunctum, id est in recessu intimo et interno et in ipsa terra operto et intra ipsam clauso et inferioribus adhuc abyssis superstructo. [2] Quodsi Christus deus, quia et homo, mortuus secundum scripturas et sepultus secundum easdem, huic quoque legi satisfecit forma humanae mortis apud inferos functus, nec ante ascendit in sublimiora caelorum quam descendit in inferiora terrarum, ut illic patriarchas et prophetas compotes sui faceret, habes et regionem inferum subterraneam credere et illos cubito pellere qui satis superbe non putent animas fidelium inferis dignas, serui super dominum et discipuli super magistrum, aspernati, si forte, in Abrahae sinu expectandae resurrectionis solacium capere.
[3] 'Sed in hoc', inquiunt, 'Christus inferos adiit, ne nos adiremus. Ceterum quod discrimen ethnicorum et Christianorum, si carcer mortuis idem?' Quo ergo animam exhalabis in caelum Christo illic adhuc sedente ad dexteram patris, nondum dei iussu per tubam archangeli audito, nondum illis quos domini aduentus in saeculo inuenerit, obuiam ei ereptis in aerem, cum his qui mortui in Christo primi resurgent? Nulli patet caelum terra adhuc salua, ne dixerim clausa. Cum transactione enim mundi reserabuntur regna caelorum. [4] Sed in aethere dormitio nostra cum puerariis Platonis aut in aere cum Ario aut circa lunam cum Endymionibus Stoicorum? Immo, inquis, in paradiso, quo iam tunc et patriarchae et prophetae appendices dominicae resurrectionis ab inferis migrauerint. Et quomodo Iohanni in spiritu paradisi regio reuelata, quae subicitur altari, nullas alias animas apud se praeter martyrum ostendit? Quomodo Perpetua, fortissima martyr, sub die passionis in reuelatione paradisi solos illic martyras uidit, nisi quia nullis romphaea paradisi ianitrix cedit nisi qui in Christo decesserint, non in Adam? [5] Noua mors pro deo et extraordinaria pro Christo alio et priuato excipitur hospitio. Agnosce itaque differentiam ethnici et fidelis in morte, si pro deo occumbas, ut paracletus monet, non in mollibus febribus et in lectulis, sed in martyriis, si crucem tuam tollas et sequaris dominum, ut ipse praecepit. Tota paradisi clauis tuus sanguis est. Habes etiam de paradiso a nobis libellum, quo constituimus omnem animam apud inferos sequestrari in diem domini.