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Of Abraham's bosom Gregory Nyssen writeth after this manner.^q As by a certain abuse of speech we call a bay of the sea an arm or bosom: so it seemeth to me that the word doth signify the exhibition of those unmeasurable good things by the name of a bosom; into which good bosom, or bay, all men that sail by a virtuous course through this present life, when they loose from hence, put in their souls ⟨p. 265⟩as it were into a haven free from danger of waves and tempests. and in another place.^r If one hearing of a bosom, as it were a certain large bay of the sea; should conceive the fullness of good things to be meant thereby where the Patriarch is named, and that Lazarus is therein: he should not think amiss. True it is indeed, that diverse of the Doctors who make Abraham's bosom to be a place of glory, do yet distinguish it from Heaven: but it is to be considered withal that they hold the same opinion indifferently, of the place whereunto the souls of all godly men are received, aswell under the state of the New as of the Old Testament. For they did not hold (as our Romanists do now) that Christ by his descension emptied Limbus, & removed the bosom of Abraham from Hell into Heaven: their Limbus is now as full of Fathers as ever it was, and is the common receptacle wherein they suppose all good souls to remain until the general resurrection; before which time they admit neither the Fathers nor us unto the possession of the kingdom of Heaven. ^sFor Abraham (saith Gregory Nyssen) and the other Patriarchs, although they had a desire to see those good things, and never left seeking that heavenly country, as the Apostle saith: yet are they notwithstanding that, even yet in expectancy of this favour; God having provided some better thing for us, according to the saying of S. Paul, that they without us should not be made perfect. So Tertullian: ^tIt appeareth to every wise ⟨p. 266⟩man, that hath ever heard of the Elysian fields, that there is some local determination, which is called Abahams bosom, to receive the souls of his sons, even of the Gentiles; he being the Father of many nations that were to be accounted of Abraham's family, and of the same faith wherewith Abraham believed God, under no yoke of the law, nor in te sign of Circumcision.