been thought sufficient grounds and encouragements for the careful and decent sepulture of Christians.* For as natural reason will teach us to give some kind of respect unto the bodies of men though dead, in reference to the souls which formerly inhabited them ;+ so, and much more, the followers of our Saviour, while they looked upon our bodies as living "temples of the Holy Ghost," (1 Cor. vi. 19.) and "bought" by Christ, (2 Pet. ii. 1.) to be made one day "like unto his glorious body,” (Phil. iii. 21.) they thought them no ways to be neglected after death, but carefully to be laid up in the wardrobe of the grave, with such due respect as might become the honour of the dead, and comfort of the living. And the decent custom of the primitive Christians was so acceptable unto God, that by his providence it proved most effectual in the conversion of the heathens and propagation of the Gospel.§

• Ipse Dominus die tertio resurrecturus religiosæ mulieris bonum opus prædicat, prædicandumque commendat, quod unguentum pretiosum super membra ejus effuderit, atque hoc ad eum sepeliendum fecerit. Et laudabiliter commemorantur in Evangelio, qui corpus ejus de cruce acceptum diligenter atque honorifice tegendum sepeliendumque curarunt. Verum ist auctoritates non hoc admonent, quod insit ullus cadaveribus sensus: sed ad Dei providentiam, cui placent etiam talia pietatis officia, corpora quoque mortuorum pertinere significant, propter fidem resurrectionis adstruendam.' S. August. de

Civitate Dei, l. i. c. 13.

† Οὐδὲν δὲ λυπεῖ ἡμᾶς, οὐδὲ τὸ ὑπὸ Ηρακλείτου λεγόμενον, ὅπες Κέλσος, παρείληφεν, ὅτι νέκυές εἰσι κοπρίων ἐκβλητότεροι, καίτοιγε εἴποι τις ἂν καὶ περὶ τούτου, ὅτι τὰ μὲν κόπρια ἔκβλητά ἐστιν, οἱ δ ̓ ἐξ ἀνθρώπων νέκυες, διὰ τὴν ἐνοικήσασαν ψυχὴν, καὶ μάλιστα ἐὰν ᾗ ἀστειοτέρα, οὐκ ἔκβλητοι. Κατὰ γὰρ τοὺς ἀστειοτέρους τῶν νόμων, μετὰ τῆς ἐνδεχομένης ὡς πρὸς τὰ τοιαῦτα τιμῆς, ταφῆς ἀξιοῦται· ἵνα μὴ ὑβρίζωμεν τῇ δυνάμει τὴν ἐνοικήσασαν ψυχὴν ἀποῤῥιπτοῦντες, μετὰ τὸ ἐξελθεῖν αὐτὴν, τὸ σῶμα, ὡς καὶ τὰ τῶν κτηνῶν σώματα. Οrig. adv. Celsum, 1. v. §. 24.

Νεμεσσῶμαί γε μὲν οὐδὲν

Κλαίειν, ὅς κε θάνῃσι βροτῶν καὶ πότμον ἐπίσπῃ.
Τοῦτό νυ καὶ γέρας οἷον οιζυροῖσι βροτοῖσι,

«Κείςασθαί τε κίμην, βαλέειν, τ ̓ ἀπὸ δάκρυ παρειῶν.—Odyss. Δ. 195.

Nec ideo tamen contemnenda et abjicienda sunt corpora defunctorum, maximeque justorum atque fidelium, quibus tanquam organis et vasis ad omnia bona opera sanctus usus est Spiritus. Si enim paterna vestis et annulus, ac si quid hujusmodi tanto carius est posteris, quanto erga parentes major exstitit affectus; nullo modo ipsa spernenda sunt corpora, quæ utique multo familiarius atque conjunctius quam quælibet indumenta gestamus. Hæc enim non ad ornamentum vel adjutorium, quod adhibetur extrinsecus, sed ad ipsam naturam hominis, pertinent.' S. August. de Civit. Dei, l. i. c. 13. Ταῦτα τελέσας ὁ ἱεράρχης, ἀποτίθησιν ἐν οἴκῳ τιμίῳ τὸ σῶμα μεθ ̓ ἑτέρων ὁμοταγῶν ἱερῶν σωμάτων. Εἰ γὰς ἐν ψυχῇ καὶ σώματι τὴν Θεοφιλῆ ζωὴν ὁ κεκοιμημένος ἐβίῳ, τίμιον ἔσται μετὰ τῆς ἱσίας ψυχῆς καὶ τὸ συναθλῆσαν αὐτῇ σῶμα κατὰ τοὺς ἱεροὺς ἱδρῶτας, ἔνθεν ἡ θεία δικαιοσύνη μετὰ τοῦ σφετέρου σώματος αὐτῇ δωρεῖται τὰς ἀμοιβαίας λήξεις, ὡς ὁμοπο ρεύτω καὶ συμμετέχω τῆς ὁσίας ἡ τῆς ἐναντίας ζωής. Dionys. Eccl. Hierarch. c. 7. ' Prop

ter patrem militiam Christi deseram, cui sepulturam Christi causa non debeo, quam etiam omnibus ejus causa debeo?' S. Hieron. Epist. 5. al. 1. ad Heliodorum, de Laud. Vit. Sol. c. 3.

This was observed by Julian the apostate, who, writing to an idolatrous high-priest, puts him in mind of those things by which he thought the Christians gained upon the world, and recommends them to the practice of the heathen priests. Of these he reckons three; the gravity of their carriage, their kindness to strangers, and their care for the burial of the dead. Τί οὖν ἡμεῖς οἰόμεθα ταῦτα ἀρκεῖν, οὐδ ̓ ἀποβλέπομεν ὃ μάλιστα τὴν ἀθεό. τητα (so he calls Christianity, because they rejected au cne neathen gods) συνηύξησεν, ἡ περὶ τοὺς ξένους φιλανθρωπία, καὶ περὶ τὰς ταφὰς τῶν νεκρῶν προμήθεια, καὶ ἡ περ πλασμένη σεμνότης κατὰ τὸν βίον ; ὧν ἕκαστον οἴομαι χρῆναι παρ ̓ ἡμῶν ἀληθῶς ἐπιτηδεύεσθαι. Epist. 49. ad Arsacium. And as Julian observed the care of burial as a great encouragement to the heathens to turn

Thus I believe the only-begotten and eternal Son of God, for the confirmation of the truth of his deain already past, and the verity of his resurrection from the dead suddenly to follow, had his body, according to the custom of the Jews, prepared for a funeral, bound up with linen clothes, and laid in spices and after that accustomed preparation, deposited in a sepulchre hewn out of the rock, in which never man was laid before, and by rolling of a stone unto the door thereof, entombed there. Thus I believe that Christ WAS BURIED.

ARTICLE V

He descended into hell: the third day he rose
again from the dead.

THE former part of this Article, of the descent into hell, hath not been so anciently in the CREED,* or so universally, as the

rest. The first place we find it used in, was the Church of Aquileia; and the time we are sure it was used in the Creed of that church was less than 400 years after Christ. After that it came into the Roman Creed,* and others,t and hath been acknowledged as a part of the Apostles' Creed ever since.

Indeed, the descent into hell hath always been accepted, but with a various exposition; and the Church of England at the Reformation, as it received the three Creeds, in two of which this Article is contained, so did it also make this one of the Articles of Religion, to which all who are admitted to any benefice, or received into holy orders, are obliged to subscribe. And at the first reception it was propounded with a certain explication, and thus delivered in the fourth year of King Edward the Sixth, with reference to an express place of Scripture interpreted of this descent: That the body of Christ lay in the grave until his resurrection; but his spirit, which he gave up, was with the spirits which were detained in prison, or in hell, and preached to them, as the place in St. Peter (1 Ep. iii. 19) testifieth.' So likewise after the same manner in the CREED set forth in metre after the manner of a psalm, and still remaining at the end of the Psalms, the same exposition is delivered in this stave:

And so he died in the flesh,

But quickened in the spirit:

His body then was buried,

As is our use and right.

His spirit did after this descend
Into the lower parts,

Of them that long in darkness were,
The true light of their hearts.'

vicisse, intrasse inferos et rediisse, venisse in jura tartari, et tartari jura solvise, non est fragilitas, sed potestas.' Ed. Theo. Raunaud. Lugd. 1633. Editor.] nor in that of the Church of Antioch, delivered by Cassianus, De Incarn. 1. vi. c. 3. neither is it to be seen in the MS. Creeds set forth by the learned Archbishop of Armagh. Indeed, it is affirmed by Ruffinus, that in his time it was neither in the Roman nor in the Oriental Creeds: Sciendum sane est, quod in Ecclesiæ Romanæ Symbolo non habetur additum, descendit ad inferna ; sed neque in Orientis Ecclesiis habetur hic sermo.' Ruff. in Exposit. Symbeli, §. 20. It is certain therefore (nor can we disprove it by any acknowledged evidence of antiquity) that the Article of the descent into hell was not in the Roman or any of the Oriental Creeds.

• That the descent into hell came afterwards into the Roman Creed appeareth, not only because we find it there of late, but because we find it often in the Latin Church many ages since: as in that produced by Etherius against Elipandus in ⚫he vear 785, in the 115th al. 241st ser

mon, de Tempore, falsely ascribed to St.Augustin, where it is attributed to Thomas the apostle; and in the exposition of the Creed falsely ascribed to St. Chrysostom.

As in the Creed attributed to St. Athanasius, which though we cannot say was his, yet we know was extant about the year 600, by the epistle of Isidorus Hispalensis ad Claudium Ducem. It was also inserted into the Creed of the Council of Ariminum, Socrat. Hist. Eccl. 1. ii. c. 37. and of the fourth Council of Toledo, held in the year 633: and of the sixteenth Council of the same Toledo, held in the year 693.

Quis nisi infidelis negaverit fuisse apud inferos Christum?' S. August. Epist 99. al. 164. §. 3.

Nam corpus usque ad resurrectionem in sepulcro jacuit; Spiritus ab illo emissus cum spiritibus qui in carcere sive in inferno detinebantur fuit, illisque prædicavit, ut testatur Petri locus,' &c. Articuli ann. 1552. Which place was also made use of in the Exposition of the Creed contained in the Catechism set forth by the authority of King Edward, in the seventh year of his reign.

But in the Synod ten years after, in the days of Queen Elizabeth, the Articles, which continue still in force, deliver the same descent, but without any the least explication or reference to any particular place of Scripture, in these words: As Christ died for us and was buried, so also it is to be believed that he went down into hell.'* Wherefore being our Church hath not now imposed that interpretation of St. Peter's words, which before it intimated; being it hath not delivered that as the only place of Scripture to found the descent into hell upon; being it hath alleged no other place to ground it, and delivered no other explication to expound it: we may with the greater liberty pass on to find out the true meaning of this Article, and to give our particular judgment in it, so far as a matter of so much obscurity and variety will permit.

Fist, then, it is to be observed, that as this Article was first in the Aquileian Creed, so it was delivered there not in the express and formal term of hell, but in such a word as may be capable of a greater latitude, 'descendit in inferna:' which words as they were continued in other Creeds,† so did they find a double interpretation among the Greeks; some translating 'inferna,' hell; others, the lower parts: the first with relation

Article III. 1562.

+ Descendit in inferna, or ad inferna, is the general writing in the ancient MSS. as the learned Archbishop testifieth of those in the Benedictine and Cottonian libraries; to which I may add those in the library at Westminster: we see the same likewise in that of Elipandus, Descendit ad inferna. Which words are so recited in the Creed delivered in the Catechism set forth by the authority of Edward VI. An. Dom. 1553.

་

So the ancient MSS. in Bene't college library, Κατελθόντα εἰς τὰ κατώτατα· and the confession made at Sirmium, siç τὰ καταχθόνια κατελθόντα. Since that it is Descendit ad inferos, and κατελθόντα εἰς adov, or Descendit ad infernum, as Venantius Fortunatus. 1. xi. art. 1. in Biblioth. Patr. Lat. t. vi. par. 2. p. 382. For rà naTaTaTa is a fit interpretation, if we take inferna according to the vulgar etymology; as St. Augustin: Inferi, eo quod infra sint, Latine appellantur.' De Gen. ad lit. 1. xii. c. 34. or as Nonius Marcellus, c. i. §. 221. Inferum ab imo dictum, unde inferi quibus inferius nihil.' Again, inferna may be well translated adns, if it be taken according to the true origination, which is from the Greek Evepo, with the Eolic digamma, from which dialect most of the Latin language came, "ErFegos, inferni. Now ivega, according to the Greek composition, is nothing else but ὑποχθόνιοι. Etym. Ενεροι, οι νεκροί, ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐν τῇ ἔρα κεῖσθαι ὅ ἐστιν. ἐν τῇ γῆ· and

Suid. 'Ενέροις, νεκροῖς, ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐν τῇ ἔρα κεῖσε Ba. "Epa is anciently the earth, from whence igalt, xauals, to the earth: agu then are in the earth, as they supposed the manes or spirits of the dead to be; from whence Homer, Iliad. O. 188.

̓Αίδης ἐνέροισιν ἀνάσσων,

of Pluto; and Hesiod, Theog. 850.
Τρέσσ ̓ ̓Αΐδης ἐνέροισι καταφθιμένοισιν ἀνάσο

σων

and in imitation of them Eschylus in Persis, v. 635. ed. Blomf.

Γῆτε, καὶ Ἑρμῆ, βασιλεύς τ' ἐνέρων, Πέμψατ ̓ ἔνερθεν ψυχὴν εἰς φάος. Thus are those which schylus elsewhere calls τοὺς γᾶς νέρθεν εἰ τοὺς γῆς ἕνερBev. And as vegas, the souls of the dead in the earth, so are inferi in the first acceptation; that is manes. Pomponius Mela, de Sit. Orb. I. i. c. 9. Augylæ manes tantum Deos putant;' which Pliny delivers thus, Hist. Nat. 1. v. c. 8. Augylæ inferos tantum colunt;' and Solinus, Polyhist. c. 31. Augylæ vero solos colunt inferos.' Inferi were then first ivego, the souls of men in the earth and as manes is not only put for the souls below, but also for the place, as in the poet; Manesque profundi, Virg. Georg. i. 243.

and

Hæc manes veniat mihi fama sub imos; Æn. iv. 387. so inferi is most frequently used for the place under ground where the souls departed are. and the inferna must then be

to St. Peter's words of Christ, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell" (Acts ii. 27.) the second referring to that of St. Paul, "He descended into the lower parts of the earth." (Eph. iv. 9.) Secondly, I observe that in the Aquileian Creed, where this Article was first expressed, there was no mention of Christ's burial; but the words of their confession ran thus: crucified under Pontius Pilate, he descended in inferna. From whence there is no question but the observation of Ruffinus, who first expounded it, was most true, that though the Roman and Oriental Creeds had not their words, yet they had the sense of them in the word buried. It appeareth therefore, that the first intention of putting these words in the CREED was only to express the burial of our Saviour, or the descent of his body into the grave. But although they were first put in the Aquileian Creed, to signify the burial of Christ, and those which had only the burial in their Creed, did confess as much as those which without the burial did express the descent; yet since the Roman Creed hath added the descent unto the burial, and expressed that descent by words signifying more properly hell, it cannot be imagined that the CREED, as it now stands, should signify only the burial of Christ by his descent into hell. But rather, being the ancient Church did certainly believe that Christ did some other way descend beside his burial; being, though he interpreted those words of the burial only, yet in the relation of what was done at our Saviour's death, Ruffinus makes mention of his descent into hell, beside, and distinct from, his sepulture;+

those regions in which they take up their habitations. And so descendit ad inferna, xañadev siç adov, and descendit ad inferos, are the same.

So are the words cited in Ruffinus: 'Crucifixus sub Pontio Pilato, descendit in inferna.' §. 16. And his observation upon them is this: Sciendum sane est, quod in Ecclesiæ Romanæ Symbolo non habetur additum, descendit ad inferna: sed neque in Orientis Ecclesiis habetur hic sermo: vis tamen verbi eadem videtur esse in eo quod sepultus est.' Expos. Symh. §. 20. The same may also be observed in the Athanasian Creed, which has the descent, but not the sepulture: Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead. Nor is this only observable in these two, but also in the Creed made at Sirmium, and produced at Ariminum, in which the words run thus: σταυρωθέντα, καὶ παθόντα, καὶ ἀποθανόντα, καὶ εἰς τὰ καταχθόνια κατελθόντα. Socrat. Hist. Eccles. 1. ii. c. 37. Where, though the descent be expressed, and the burial be not mentioned, it is most certain, those men which made it (heretics, indeed, but not in this) did not understand his burial by that descent; and that appears by addition of the following

words: εἰς τὰ καταχθόνια κατελθόντα, καὶ τὰ ἐκεῖσε οἰκονομήσαντα, ὃν πυλωροὶ ᾅδου ἰδόντες ἔφριξαν. For he did not dispose and order things below by his body in the grave: nor could the keepers of the gates of hell be affrighted with any sight of his corpse lying in the sepulchre.

For having produced many places of Scripture to prove the circumstances of our Saviour's death, and having cited those particularly which did belong unto his burial, he passes farther to his descent, in these words: Sed et quod in infernum descendit, evidenter prænuntiatur in Psalmis, ubi dicit, Et in pulverem mortis deduxisti me; et iterum, Quæ utilitas in sanguine meo dum descendo in corruptionem; et iterum, Descendisti in limum profundi, et non est substantia. Sed et Matthæus dicit, Tu es qui venturus est, an alium exspectamus? Unde et Petrus dixit, Quia Christus mortificatus carne, vivificatus autem spiritu. In ipso, ait, et eis qui in carcere inclusi erant in diebus Noe? in quo etiam quid operis egerit in inferno decla ratur. Sed et ipse Dominus per Prophetam dicit tanquam de futuro, Quia non derelinques animam meam in inferno, nes dabis sanctum tuum videre corruptionem: quod rursus prophetice nihilominus osten