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14.

(for that it in the New Teftament at least comprehends SERM. the place of torment, is evident by the parable of the rich XXVIII. man and Lazarus.) But I think that St. Auftin had reafon to doubt, whether it were confonant to the style of the New Teftament, that hades, relating to the state of fouls, fhould there be ever taken in a good or middle fenfe, at least, whereas it is faid in the Revelation, that those two infeparable companions, death and hades, (that Rev. xx. hades, which is faid to render up its dead to judgment,) were caft into the lake of fire, it is hard to fuppofe, that paradife was caft in there; yea hard it were to fay, that hades was caft in thither, fuppofing that word did then in its ufual latitude of fignification (as Christians understood it) comprehend paradife. Yea farther, this explication forces us upon this inconvenience, that we must suppose paradise to be feated in a place beneath us, or within the earth; that paradife, which is either the fame with the third (or highest) heavens in St. Paul, or confining thereto; 2 Cor. xii. Οὔτε γὰρ ἐν it is, I fay, hard to be forced by an interpretation of thefe xvis words, to confent, that paradise (that locus divinæ amœni-isäv τὸν παράδει tatis recipiendis fanctorum fpiritibus deftinatus; the place ov, or v of divine comfort and amenity, deftined to receive the fpirits of the faints) fhould have its place in the darksome bowels va, &c. of the earth; no commodious fituation, it seems, for a gar- tom. 2. de Greg. Ny den, for delightfome walks and bowers: yet fo it must be Refur. 1. feated, that our Saviour's foul may (at least in rigour and pol. 47. propriety of speech) be faid to defcend thereinto. The word defcend, taking hell for the ancient sheol, is proper enough, and hath ground both in, authentic use and the nature of the thing; but taking hell in this fenfe, (for the place of fouls,) it is most probably improper, and hath no certain ground or authority to commend it; for it is faid, that our Saviour's foul was in hell, not that it defcended thither; nor can it by confequence be inferred so to have done, according to this meaning of hell. However,

3. I add, that seeing it is a moft certain truth, that our Saviour's foul did immediately go into the place appointed to receive happy souls after their receffion from the body, and refignation into God's hands; if we take hell in a ge

παραδείσῳ

Tertull. A

SERM. neral and common sense for the place, or the state of fouls XXVIII. departed; and descending for paffing thereinto, (by a fall

ing, as it were, from life, or by going away together with the descent of the body; and thence styled descending; what appeareth visibly happening to the body being accommodated to the foul;) if, I say, we do thus interpret our Saviour's defcent into hell, for his foul's going into the common receptacle and manfion of fouls, we shall so doing be sure not substantially to mistake. And this sense, I conceive, if the words can handsomely bear it, would be very proper to this place, as fignifying fomewhat diftinct from what is otherwife expreffed, and ferving to the farther establishment of those great articles adjoining, our Lord's death and refurrection; it implying the perfect accomplishment of death, for the foul to have deserted the body, and to have been tranfated into that ἀδύνατον ἅδην, Wifd. xvii. (as the book of Wisdom calls it,) that invifible region, fo far diftant hence, whence revocare gradum fuperafque evadere ad auras, is a labour indeed, and a work not to be effected, but by the power of him whofe preroga1 Sam.ii. 6. tive it is, to kill, and make alive; to bring down to hell, and to bring up; to lead unto the gates of hell, and to bring Tob. xiii. 2. back again.

14.

Deut. xxxii.

39.

Wifd. xvi.

13.

V. 31.

This is all that I shall say about this intricate point; for I cannot well be at the pain to confider or examine those conceits, which pretend to acquaint us why and to what effect our Saviour defcended into hell.

That our Lord went thither to preach unto, convert, and redeem from thence all, or fome of the damned fouls; Iren. iv. 45. (for fome fay, that he depopulated and emptied that reEufeb. Hift. gion of darkness; others are not fo liberal as to free all thence, but only the fitter objects of compaffion and favour; both saying that which hath very weak or no reavi. p. 271. fons to maintain, very strong and plain objections to affail

1. ult.

Clem. Str.

ii. p. 163.

Eufeb. De

monft. x. 8. it.)

Athan.
Cont. Apol-

lin.

That he went to refcue and conduct into glory the fouls of the Patriarchs, and other good perfons, from that infernal limbus, in which till then they were detained, (a place by no likely means to be proved exiftent otherwhere

than in the fancy of its inventors ;) or, that he went to SERM. deliver the fouls of the juft, and Prophets, from the wicked XXVIII. powers, into whofe power they had fallen, (as Juftin Martyr in his Dialogue with Tryphon, p. 105.)

That he went to affront, triumph over, and terrify the Vid. Monpowers of darkness upon their own ground, or in their own dominions.

tac. Orig. Part. Poft.

P. 442. et in

Colof. ii. 15.

These and the like conceits feem enough discounte-Appar. 1. nanced by saying, the Scriptures nowhere plainly declare any fuch thing, and that therefore they have no good ground to stand upon, (they pretend only one or two difficult and obfcure places in the firft Epiftle of St. Peter, which are capable of fair expofitions not favourable to them;) whereas in teaching us, that our Lord preached upon earth falvation to them, who in this life should be converted to believe upon him and obey his laws; damnation irrecoverable to them, who fhould perfift in infidelity and disobedience: that he merited by his obedience, and purchased by his blood, both a redemption from all future Heb. ii. 14. diftrefs and a tranflation into blifs; that he by his death vanquished all the powers of hell, and triumphed over them upon the crofs; in these things the Scripture is very clear and copious: but concerning that redemption of fouls beneath, that translation of fouls out of fubterraneous closets, or *prifons, (as they call them,) that local Bellarm. triumph in the Devil's kingdom, it is quite filent, or very dark in expreffion about them; whence we may well be somewhat backward in yielding affent to fuch devices, of which, if any perhaps fhould be true, yet could not the belief thereof be of neceffity, or great importance to us : for what our Saviour fo did below would not belong to the falvation of the living, which is abundantly provided for by his death and refurrection, with what followed them, nor would it much refer to our practice, which is otherwise sufficiently directed and encouraged. So that Vid. Fidei we may however safely be ignorant in regard to any of Symbola in

Codice Juf

thofe notions. But let it fuffice to have difcourfed thus tinian. Tit. 1. De Gen. far about this endless queftion; except we will end it with ad lit. viii.

SERM. that faying of St. Auftin; Melius eft dubitare de occultis, XXVIII. quam litigare de incertis or with that more peremptory Calv. Inft. faying of Calvin; Atqui ftultum et temerarium eft de reiii. 25, 6. bus incognitis altius inquirere, quam Deus nobis fcire permittit.

"

He rose again from the Dead.

SERMON XXIX.

ACTS i. 3.

To whom alfo he fhewed himself alive after his paffion by many infallible proofs, being feen of them forty days, and Speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

THE most proper and moft ufual way of God, in con- SERM. firming any truth of high moment in special manner re- XXIX. vealed by him, is by lending unto them whom he employs as meffengers thereof his powerful arm, for the performance of works fupernatural or miraculous. Of fuch works there is none more certainly fuch, than raifing a dead perfon to life; the doing which upon feveral accounts plainly furpaffeth the power of any creature; not only as exceeding the ordinary law and course of nature established and upheld by God, but for that the fouls of men departing hence do return into God's hand, or into a ftate by high fentence determined, whence no creature is able to fetch them down, or raise them up; because also God hath referved the prerogative of doing this unto himfelf; he holding (as it is expreffed in the Revelation) Rev. i. 18. the keys of hell and of death; he having faid, I am he, and Deut.xxxii. there is no God befide me; I kill, and I make alive. There could also particularly be no more proper way of Pfal. Ixviii. confirming our religion to come from God, whether we confider the perfons whom it was defigned for, or the doc

39.

1 Sam. ii. 6.

20.

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