among the Jews as were of greatest authority with the people; Joseph of Arimathea, rich and honourable, and yet inferior to Nicodemus, one of the great Council of the Sanhedrim: these two, though fearful while he lived to acknowledge him, are brought by the hand of Providence to inter him; that so the prediction might be fulfilled which was delivered by Isaiah to this purpose. The counsel of his enemies, the design of the Jews, made his grave with the wicked," (Isa. liii. 9.) that he might be buried with them which were crucified with him : but "because he hath done no violence, neither was any deceit within his mouth;" (Ibid.) because he was no ways guilty of those crimes for which they justly suffered; that there might be a difference after their death, though there appeared little distinction in it; the counsel of his Father, the design of Heaven, put him "with the rich in his death," (Ibid.) and caused a counsellor and a ruler of the Jews to bury him.

وق

The necessity of this part of the Article appeareth, first, in that it gives a testimony and assurance of the truth both of Christ's death preceding, and of his resurrection following. Men are not put into the earth before they die : Pilate was very inquisitive whether our Saviour "had been any while dead,' and was fully satisfied by the centurion, before he would "give the body to Joseph" to be interred. (Mark xv. 44, 45.) Men cannot be said to rise who never died; nor can there be a true resurrection, where there hath not been a true dissolution. That therefore we might believe Christ truly rose from the dead, we must be first assured that he died; and a greater assurance of his death than this we cannot have, that his body was delivered by his enemies from the cross, and laid by his disciples in the grave.

Secondly, A profession to believe that Christ was buried is necessary, to work within us a correspondence and similitude of his burial: For we are "buried with him in baptism," (Col. ii. 12.) even "buried with him in baptism unto death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father; even so we also should walk in newness of life." (Rom. vi. 4.) That nothing may be done or suffered by our Saviour in these great transactions of the Mediator, but may be acted in our souls, and represented in our spirits.*

and these two powers ruled all them at Jerusalem under the Romans. As appeared when Agrippa prevented a war by the sudden raising of a tax: Εἰς δὲ τὰς κώμας οἵ τε ἄρχοντες καὶ οἱ βουλευταὶ μερισ θέντες φόρους συνέλεγον. Joseph. de Bell. Jud.

l. ii. c. 29.

Quicquid gestum est in cruce Christi, in sepultura, in resurrectione tertio die, in adscensione in cœlum, et in sede ad dexteram Patris; ita gestum est, ut his rebus nou mystice tantum dictis, sed etiam gestis, configuraretur vita Chris

Thirdly, It was most convenient that those pious solemnities should be performed on the body of our Saviour, that his disciples might for ever learn what honour was fit to be received and given at their funerals. When Ananias died, though for his sin, yet they "wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him" (Acts v. 6.) when Stephen was stoned, "devout men carried him to his burial, and made great lamentation over him :" (Acts viii. 2.) and when Dorcas died, they "washed her, and laid her in an upper chamber:" (Acts ix. 37.) so careful were the primitive Christians of the rites of burial. Before, and at our Saviour's time, the Greeks did much, the Romans more, use the burning of the bodies of the dead, and reserved only their ashes in their urns; but when Christianity began to increase, the funeral flames did cease, and after a few emperors had received baptism, there was not a body burnt in all the Roman empire.* For the first Christians wholly abstained from consuming the dead bodies with fire, and followed the example of our Saviour's funeral,+ making use of precious ointments for the dead, which they refused while they lived, and spending the spices of Arabia in their graves. The description of the persons who interred Christ, and the enumeration of their virtues, and the everlasting commendation of her who brake the box of precious

chirid. ad Laur. c. 53. §. 14. And this was before observed by Origen, l. ii. adv. Cels. §. 69. Τὰ συμβεβηκέναι ἀναγεγραμμένα τῷ Ἰησοῦ οὐκ ἐν ψιλῇ τῇ λέξει καὶ τῇ ἱστορία τὴν πᾶσαν ἔχει θεωρίαν τῆς ἀληθείας. Εκαστον γὰρ αὐτῶν καὶ σύμβολόν τινος εἶναι παρὰ τοῖς συνετώτερον ἐντυγχάνουσι τῇ γραφῇ ἀποδείκνυται. Ωσπερ οὖν τὸ σταυρωθῆναι αὐτὸν ἔχε τὴν δηλουμένην ἀλήθειαν ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ συνεσταύρωμαι· καὶ τῷ σημαινομένῳ ἐκ τοῦ· Ἐμοὶ δὲ μὴ γένοιτο καυχᾶσθαι εἰ μὴ ἐν τῷ σταυρῷ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ· δι ̓ οὗ ἐμοὶ κόσμος ἐσταύρωται, κἀγὼ τῷ κόσμῳ, καὶ ὁ θάνατος αὐτοῦ ἀναγκαῖος, διὰ τό· Ο γὰς ἀπέθανεν ἁμαρτίᾳ ἀπέθανεν ἐφάπαξ· καὶ διὰ τὸ λέγειν· Συμμορφούμενος τῷ θανάτῳ αὐτοῦ· καὶ τό· Εἰ γὰρ συναπεθάνομεν, καὶ συζήσομεν. οὕτω καὶ ἡ ταφὴ αὐτοῦ φθάνει ἐπὶ τοὺς συμμόρφους τῷ θανάτῳ αὐτοῦ, καὶ τοὺς συσταυροθέντας αὐτῷ καὶ συναποθανόντας, καθὸ καὶ τῷ Παύλῳ λέλεκται τό· Συνετάφημεν γὰς αὐτῷ διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσματος, καὶ συνανέστημεν αὐτῷ.

This appeareth by Macrobius, who lived in the time of Theodosius junior, and testifieth thus much: Licet urendi corpora defunctorum usus nostro seculo nullus sit, lectio tamen docet, eo tempore quo igni dari honor mortuis habebatur.' Saturnal. 1. vii. c. 7. That this was done by the Christians is certain, because the heathens anciently did object it to the Christians: Inde videlicet et exsecrantur rogos, et damnant ignium sepulturas.' And the answer given to this was: 'Nec,

ointment for his burial, have

ut creditis, ullum damnum sepulturæ timemus, sed veterem et meliorem consuetudinem humandi frequentamus.' Minut. Fel. in Octavio, c. 11. and 54. And Tertullian: Et hoc etiam in opinione quorundam est; propterea nec ignibus funerandum aiunt, parcentes superfluo animæ. Alia est autem ratio pietatis istius, non reliquiis animæ adulatrix, sed crudelitatis etiam corporis nomine aversatrix, quod et ipsum homo non utique mereatur pœnali exitu impendi.' De Anima, c. 51. At ego magis ridebo vulgus, tunc quoque, cum ipsos defunctos atrocissime exurit, quos postmodum gulosissime nutrit, iisdem ignibus et promerens et offendens. O pietatem de crudelitate ludentem! sacrificet, an insultet, cum crematis cremat?' Idem de Resur. Carn. c. 1.

The heathens objected it to the primitive Christians: Reservatis unguenta funeribus.' Minutius Fel. c. 12. And Tertullian confesseth it: Thura plane non emimus. Si Arabiæ queruntur, sciant Sabæi pluris et cariores suas merces Christianis sepeliendis profligari, quam Diis fumigandis.' Apol. c. 42. And speak ing of spices, lib. de Idololat. c. 11. Etiam hominibus ad pigmenta medicinalia, nobis quoque insuper ad solatia sepulturæ usui sunt.' So Clemens Alex. Mupilovas οἱ γὰρ νεκροί· and again: Αἱ γὰρ ὑπέρμετροι χρίσεις τῶν μύρων κηδείας, οὐ συμβιώσεως anonvioυow. Pædag. 1. ii. c. 8.

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 istæ 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 Ηρα κλείτου 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, l. v. §. 24.

Νεμεσσῶμαί γε μὲν οὐδὲν

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

Κείρασθαί τε κόμην, 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 γὰρ ἐν ψυχῇ καὶ σώματι τὴν Θεοφιλῆ ζωὴν ὁ κεκοιμημένος ἐβίῳ, τίμιον ἔσται μετὰ τῆς ἐσίας ψυχῆς καὶ τὸ συναθλῆσαν αὐτῇ σῶμα κατὰ τοὺς ἱεροὺς ἱδρῶτας, ἔνθεν ἡ θεία δικαιοσύνη μετὰ τοῦ σφετέρου σώματος αὐτῇ δωρεῖται τὰς ἀμοιβαίας λήξεις, ὡς ὁμοποι ρεύτω καὶ συμμετόχῳ τῆς ὁσίας ἢ τῆς ἐναντίας ζωῆς. 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 ἀθεότητα (so he calls Christianity, because they rejected all the heathen gods) συνηύξησεν, ἡ περὶ τοὺς ξένους φιλανθρωπία, καὶ περὶ τὰς ταφὰς τῶν νεκρῶν προμήθεια, καὶ ἡ πεπλασμένη 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 death 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, 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. Rannaud. Lugd. 1633. Editor.] nor in that of the Church of Antioch, delivered by Cassianus, De Incarn. I. 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. Symboli, §. 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 the year 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.