being those who in after-ages added it to the burial, did aetually believe that the soul of Christ descended: it followeth that, for the exposition of the CREED, it is most necessary to declare in what that descent consisteth.

Thirdly, I observe again, that whatsoever is delivered in the CREED, we therefore believe, because it is contained in the Scriptures, and consequently must so believe it as it is contained there; whence all this exposition of the whole is nothing else but an illustration and proof of every particular part of the CREED by such Scriptures as deliver the same, according to the true interpretation of them, and the general consent of the Church of God. Now these words as they lie in the CREED, He descended into hell, are no where formally and expressly delivered in the Scriptures; nor can we find any one place in which the Holy Ghost hath said in express and plain terms, that Christ, as he died and was buried, so he descended into hell. Wherefore being these words of the CREED are not formally expressed in the Scripture, our inquiry must be in what Scriptures they are contained virtually; that is, where the Holy Ghost doth deliver the same doctrine, in what words soever, which is contained, and to be understood in this expression, He descended into hell.

Now several places of Scripture have been produced by the ancients as delivering this truth, of which some without question prove it not: but three there are which have been always thought of greatest validity to confirm this Article. First, that of St. Paul to the Ephesians seems to come very near the words themselves, and to express the same almost in terms: "Now that he ascended, what is it but that he first descended into the lower parts of the earth?" (Eph. iv. 9.) This many of the ancient fathers understood of the descent into hell,† as placed in the lowest parts of the earth: and this exposition must be

dit impletum, cum dicit, Domine, eduxisti ab inferno animam meam, salvasti me a descendentibus in lacum.' Expos. Symb. §. 27. Whence it appeareth, that though Ruffinus thought that the sense of descendit ad inferna was expressed in sepultus est; yet he did distinguish the doctrine of Christ's descent into hell from that of his burial.

For the first expression which we find in Ruffinus, descendit in inferna, comes most near to this quotation; especially if we take the ancient Greek translation of it: κατελθόντα εἰς τὰ κατώτατα. For if we consider that xaráraga may well have the signification of the superlative, especially being the LXX. hath so translated Psalm lxiii. 9. εἰσελεύσονται εἰς τὰ κατώτατα τῆς γῆς· and Psalm cxxxix. 15. καὶ ἡ ὑπόστασις μου ἐν τοῖς κατωτάτοις τῆς vic what can be nearer than these two,

κατελθὼν εἰς τὰ κατώτατα, and καταβὰς εἰς τὰ κατώτατα; or these two, κατελθόντα εἰς τὰ καταχθόνια, and καταβάντα εἰς τὰ κατά τερα μέρη τῆς γῆς ;

+ This appeareth by their quotation of this place to prove, or express, the descent into hell, as Irenæus does, l. v. c. 31. Origen. Hom. 35. in Matt. al. §. 132. Athanasius, Epist. ad Epictetum, and Orat. i. contr. Arian. §. 45. Hilarius in Psal. Ixvii. §. 19. St. Jerome upon the place: Inferiora autem terræ infernus accipitur, ad quem Dominus noster Salvatorque descendit.' So also the Commentary attributed to St. Ambrose and St. Hilary 'Si itaque hæc omnia Christus unus est, neque alius est Christus mortuus, alius sepultus, aut alius descendens ad inferna, et alius ascendens in cœlos, secundum illud Apostoli, Ascendit autem quid est, &c. De Trinit. I. x. §. 65.

confessed so probable, that there can be no argument to disprove it. Those "lower parts of the earth" may signify hell, and Christ's descending thither may be, that his soul went to that place when his body was carried to the grave. But that it was actually so, or that the apostle intended so much in those words, the place itself will not manifest. For we cannot be assured that the descent of Christ, which St. Paul speaks of, was performed after his death; or if it were, we cannot be assured that the "lower parts of the earth" did signify hell, or the place where the souls of men were tormented after the separation from their bodies. For as it is written, "No man ascended up to heaven, but he that descended from heaven;" (John iii. 13.) so this may signify so much, and no more, "In that he ascended, what is it but that he descended first!" And for "the lower parts of the earth," they may possibly signify no more than the place beneath: as when our Saviour said, "Ye are from beneath, I am from above; ye are of this world, I am not of this world:" (John viii. 23.) or as God spake by the prophet, "I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath." (Joel ii. 30.) Nay, they may well refer to his incarnation, according to that of David, "My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth:" (Psal. cxxxix. 15.) or to his burial, according to that of the prophet, "Those that seek my soul to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth" (Psal. lxiii. 9.) and these two references have a great similitude according to that of Job, "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither." (Job i. 21.)

The next place of Scripture brought to confirm the descent is not so near in words, but thought to signify the end of that descent, and that part of his humanity by which he descended. For Christ, saith St. Peter, was "put to death in the flesh, and quickened by the Spirit, by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison:" (1 Ep. iii. 18, 19.) where the Spirit seems to be the soul of Christ, and the spirits in prison, the souls of them that were in hell, or in some place at least separated from the joys of heaven: whither, because we never read our Saviour went at any other time, we may conceive he went in spirit then when his soul departed from his body on the cross. This did our Church first deliver as the proof and illustration of the descent, and the ancient Fathers did apply the same in the like manner to the proof of this Article. But yet those words of St. Peter have no such power of probation; except we were certain that the Spirit there spoken of were the

*

soul of Christ, and that the time intended for that preaching were after his death, and before his resurrection. Whereas if it were so interpreted, the difficulties are so many, that they staggered St. Augustin, and caused him at last to think that these words of St. Peter belonged not unto the doctrine of Christ's descending into hell. But indeed the Spirit by which he is said to preach was not the soul of Christ, but that Spirit by which he was quickened; as appeareth by the coherence of the words, "being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison." Now that Spirit by which Christ was quickened is that by which he was raised from the dead,† that is, the power of his Divinity, as St. Paul expresseth it, "Though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God:" (2 Cor. xiii. 4.) in respect of which he preached to those that were disobedient in the days of Noah, as we have already shewn.‡

The third, but principal text, is that of David, applied by St. Peter. "For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face; for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad: moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope. Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." Thus the apostle repeated the words of the Psalmist, (xvi. 8-10.) and then applied them: he "being a prophet, and seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption." (Acts ii. 25, 26, 27. 30, 31.) Now from this place the Article is clearly and infallibly deduced thus: If the soul of Christ were not left in hell

*For in his answer to Euodius, Epist. 99. al. 164. he thus begins: Quæstio, quam mihi proposuisti ex Epistola Apostoli Petri, solet nos, ut te latere non arbitror, vehementissime commovere, quomodo illa verba accipienda sint tanquam de Inferis dicta. Replico ergo tibi eandem quæstionem, ut, sive ipse potueris, sive aliquem qui possit inveneris, auferas de illa atque finias dubitationem meam.' §. 1. Then setting down in order all the difficulties which occurred at that time in the exposition of the descent into hell, he concludes with an exposition of another nature: Considera tamen, ne forte totum illud quod de conclusis in carcere spiritibus, qui in diebus Noe non crediderant, Petrus Apostolus dicit, omnino ad Inferos non pertineat, sed ad illa potius tempora, quorum formam ad hæc tempora transtulit.' §. 15.

+Quid est enim quod visificatus est spiritu, nisi quod eadem caro, qua sola fuerat mortificatus, vivificante spiritu resurrexit? Nam quod fuerit anima

mortificatus Jesus, hoc est, eo spiritu qui hominis est, quia audeat dicere cum mors animæ non sit nisi peccatum, a quo ille omnino immunis fuit, cum pro nobis carne mortificaretur.' S. August. Epist. 99. al. 164. §. 18, 19. And: Certe anima Christi non solum immortalis secundum cæterarum naturam, sed etiam nullo mortificata peccato vel damnatione punita est ; quibus duabus causis mors animæ intelligi potest; et ideo non secundum ipsam dici potuit, Christus vivificatus spiritu. In ea re quippe vivificatus est, in qua fuerat mortificatus: ergo de carne dictum est. Ipsa enim revixit anima redeunte, quia ipsa erat mortua anima recedente. Mortificatus ergo carne dictus est, quia secundum solam carnem mortuus est: vivificatus autem spiritu, quia illo spiritu operante, in quo ad quos volebat veniebat et prædicabat, etiam ipsa caro vivificata surrexit, in qua modo ad homines venit. Ibid. §. 20.

+ Page 170, sqa.

at his resurrection, then his soul was in hell before his resurrection but it was not there before his death; therefore upon or after his death, and before his resurrection, the soul of Christ descended into hell; and consequently the CREED doth truly deliver, that Christ being crucified, was dead, buried, and descended into hell. For as his flesh did not see corruption by virtue of that promise and prophetical expression, and yet it was in the grave, the place of corruption, where it rested in hope until his resurrection; so his soul, which was not left in hell, by virtue of the like promise or prediction, was in that hell, where it was not left, until the time that it was to be united to the body for the performing of the resurrection. We must therefore confess from hence that the soul of Christ was in hell; and no Christian can deny it, saith St. Augustin, it is so clearly delivered in this prophecy of the Psalmist and application of the apostle.*

The only question then remains, not of the truth of the proposition, but the sense and meaning of it. It is most certain that Christ descended into hell; and as infallibly true as any other Article of the CREED: but what that hell was, and how he descended thither, being once questioned, is not easily determined. Different opinions there have been of old, and of late more different still, which I shall here examine after that manner which our subject will admit. Our present design is an exposition of the CREED as now it stands, and our endeavour is to expound it according to the Scriptures in which it is contained: I must therefore look for such an explication as may consist with the other parts of the CREED, and may withal be conformable unto that Scripture upon which the truth of the Article doth rely: and consequently, whatsoever interpretation is either not true in itself, or not consistent with the body of the CREED, or not conformable to the doctrine of the apostle in this particular, the expositor of that CREED by the doctrine of the apostle must reject.

First, then, we shall consider the opinion of Durandus, who, as often, so in this, is singular. He supposeth this descent to belong unto the soul, and the name of hell to signify the place where the souls of dead men were in custody but he maketh a metaphor in the word descended, as not signifying any local motion, nor inferring any real presence of the soul of

'Dominum quidem carne mortificatum venisse in infernum satis constat. Neque enim contradici potest vel prophetiæ quæ dixit, Quoniam non derelinques animam meam in inferno (quod ne aliter quisquam sapere auderet, in Actibus Apostolorum idem Petrus exponit), vel ejusdem Petri illis verbis, quibus eum asserit solvisse inferni dolores, in quibus impossibile erat eum teneri. Quis ergo nisi infidelis negaverit fuisse apud inferos

Christum?' Epist. 99. al. 164. §. 3.

+Cum Articulus sit, Christum ad inferos descendisse, et non possit intelligi ratione Divinitatis, secundum quam est ubique; nec ratione corporis, secundum quod fuit in sepulcro; restat quod intelligatur ratione animæ: quo supposito, videndum est qualiter anima Christi descendit ad infernum.' Durand in Sent. Theol. 1. iii. dist. 22. q. 3.

Christ in the place where the souls of dead men were; but only including a virtual motion, and inferring an efficacious presence, by which descent the effects of the death of Christ were wrought upon the souls in hell: and because the merits of Christ's death did principally depend upon the act of his soul, therefore the effect of his death is attributed to his soul as the principal agent; and consequently, Christ is truly said at the instant of his death to descend into hell, because his death was immediately efficacious upon the souls detained there. This is the opinion of Durandus, so far as it is distinct from others.

But although a virtual influence of the death of Christ may be well admitted in reference to the souls of the dead, yet this opinion cannot be accepted as to the exposition of this Article; being neither the CREED can be thought to speak a language of so great scholastic subtilty, nor the place of David, expounded by St. Peter, can possibly admit any such explication. For what can be the sense of those words, "Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell," if his being in hell was only virtually acting there? If the efficacy of his death were his descent, then is he descended still, because the effect of his death still remaineth. The opinion therefore of Durandus, making the descent into hell to be nothing but the efficacy of the death of Christ upon the souls detained there, is to be rejected, as not expositive of the CREED's confession, nor consistent with the Scripture's expression.

The next opinion, later than that of Durandus, is, that the descent into hell is the suffering of the torments of hell ;* that the soul of Christ did really and truly suffer all those pains which are due unto the damned; that whatsoever is threatened by the Law unto them which depart this life in their sins, and under the wrath of God, was fully undertaken and borne by Christ; that he died at true and natural death, the death of Gehenna, and this dying the death of Gehenna was the descending into hell; that those which are now saved by virtue of his death, should otherwise have endured the same torments in hell which now the damned do and shall endure, but that he, being their surety, did himself suffer the same for them, even all the torments which we should have felt, and the damned shall.

This interpretation is either taken in the strict sense of the words, or in a latitude of expression; but in neither to be admitted as the exposition of this Article. Not if it be taken

• Si Christus ad inferos descendisse dicitur nihil mirum est, cum eam mortem pertulerit quæ sceleribus ab irato Deo infligitur:' which he expresseth presently in another phrase: Cum diros in anima cruciatus damnati ac perditi hominis pertulerit.' Calvin. Instit. l. ii. c. 16. §. 10.

+ [Some Copies read: true supernatural death, the second death, the death of Gehenna.]

Quid igitur? Christus persona sua secundum humanitatem pœnam gehennalem nobis debitam passus est, anima principaliter, corpore secundario, utroque causaliter ad merendum, ad nos suo ipsius merito liberandos.' Parkerus de Descensu. 1. iii. §. 48. Et statim, § 49. 'Descendisse namque Servatorem, modu supra memorato, ad haden mortis gebennalis, innumeris patet argumentis."