awing description of the living Sheol. This association of sepulchral images with the separate state, passed from the Prophets into the common language of the people; and easily accounts for the entrance of departed men into the invisible world, though they should be saints, being called "a going down," or a descent. The subterraneous grave was, to all, the gate, so to speak, of this region, whether it led to glory or to eternal gloom. He, therefore, who carries his faith no farther than the entrance of the disembodied spirit of our LORD into that region of Sheol, or Hades, where the souls of the faithful of the Old Testament Church were in felicity, may properly enough use the phrase," He DESCENDED into hell." What I have said will show the propriety of the term Descent; and though the word Hell is now of restricted meaning, the proper place to explain it is the Pulpit, unless we allow it to be right, not only in reading prayers, but in reading the Scriptures too, that every obsolete word in the translation should be changed for a modern one, and that every word which has narrowed its signification, by time, should be left out in silence, or substituted by Greek, or what some might consider better English. In that case, none would have to complain of the want of new translations!

But though, Sir, I have said, that I censure no man for not attaching a more extensive sense to this article of his creed, than that just given, I must be allowed to avow my own opinion to be decidedly in favour of another view, not contradictory of the former, but additional to it. That must be held; or we deny that our LORD underwent death in all the essential circumstances by which human beings are affected by it, as well as violently contradict the plainest declarations of Holy Writ: this too, I think, must be held, if we admit the doctrine of the New Testament in its full extent.

My position is, that, in the ordinary sense of the phrase, and taking the term in its most restricted sense, our LORD "descended into Hell."

This, however, is not to be understood as implying that he went there

for the enduring of any punishment; or, as CALVIN and others have fancied, for the completion of his sufferings, and in order that he might undergo both that first and second death which was due to the wicked.* This is sufficiently disproved by his own words in the act of giving up the ghost, "It is finished.”

Nor is his descent into the place of spirits in perdition contradicted by his going into Paradise. There he immediately went, on the very day of his death;" To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." His visit was, at least, first to the souls of saints departed. And since, by his very presence among them, he testified that the sacrifice of their redemption had been actually offered, and that the faith in which they had died was thus justified and rewarded, that day must be conceived to have been to them a day of unutterable joy: and the first reward of his sufferings was probably to receive the grateful homage of those innumerable and holy spirits, even in his intermediate state between death and the resurrection. But all this is perfectly consistent with a manifestation of himself in the lower region of Hades, in Hell proper, between his death and resurrection. The reason of such an act is not recondite. BISHOP PEARSON brings, I think, his very learned and able discussion on this clause of the Creed to rather an impotent conclusion, when he states the reasons to be, (1.) "That he might fully satisfy the law of death,"-which would have been as fully satisfied by his entrance merely into Paradise, like the spirits of the just; (2.) That he might give to all who believe in him a security that they should never come into that place of torment ;-but betwixt the act of his appearing there and such an effect, I profess myself totally unable to discover any kind of connexion. To me, the opinion against which this learned Prelate has made some objections, though he acknowledges it to bave received the sanction of many ancient fathers, as well as of modern divines, appears the true one, "that the end for which

* Si CHRISTUS ad inferos descendisse dicitur, nihil mirum est, cum eam mortem pertulerit, quae sceleribus ab irato Dɛo infligitur."-CALVIN. Instit.

our SAVIOUR descended into hell, was to triumph over SATAN and all the powers below, within their own dominions." Whoever takes the trouble closely to examine the objections of BISHOP PEARSON, will, I think, find them either so trifling or irrelevant, as to be confirmed in this opinion; and the more so, since he has offered so many cogent reasons why we must conclude in favour of CHRIST'S literal descent into the regions of evil spirits and lost souls, and yet has concluded the whole with a theory of his own, to favour which no Scripture at all is adduced. The other view,--that our Lord descended into those regions to display his power and glory; to proclaim his sovereignty; to confound the spirits of darkness, by his appearance there; and formally to take possession of Hell, as a part of his universal domain, the prison of his present and future enemies ;-has not only an obvious reason, but has the support of a very natural, and, I think, the only just interpretation of two passages of Scripture, with which I shall conclude.

"Now that he ascended, what is it but that he descended first into the lower parts of the earth." (Eph.iv.9.) I know that I have here against me the authority of many commentators, who interpret these "lower parts of the earth" to mean either this world, or the grave: but when the connexion of this text with the quotation from the Psalms, made by the Apostle in the verse preceding, Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive," &c., is considered, I think it much more reasonable to interpret it of CHRIST's descent into Hell, to show his power over evil spirits, and to give an earnest of the final captivity of those who had led others captive at their will. And, to set authority against authority, I may here adduce the observations of BISHOP HORSLEY: "The lower parts of the earth is a periphrasis for Hell in the proper sense of that word, as the miserable mansion of departed spirits. The phrase is so equivalent to the word Hell, that we find it used instead of that word in some of the Greek copies of the Creed in this very article."-Another passage, equally

decisive, is, "And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it." (Col. ii. 15.) The observation of MACKNIGHT on this passage is important and just. "The evil angels, by exciting the Jews to crucify CHRIST, thought they had put an end to his pretensions. But by his death he spoiled them of their usurped dominion; he triumphed over them by his Cross." In this interpretation most Commentators agree; but when they speak of the time of this triumph, they usually refer us to the public overthrow of heathen idolatry. This was, it is true, an open triumphing over evil spirits; but the Apostle speaks of a past event, not of a fature; of something in immediate consequence upon the death of our LORD. Now no event took place on earth, or in the sight of man, immediately consequent upon the death of CHRIST, to which the words can be applied. When or where, on earth and in the sight of men, did our LORD "make a show" of these ruling evil spirits "openly ?” -alluding to a public triumph, and the leading of captives in procession ; for the verb used signifies to make a public show or spectacle. This cannot be answered; and the passage, so similar to that in the Ephesians just quoted, can only be fairly interpreted in connexion with the prophecy, "Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive." To do this, our LORD must first descend into the lower parts of the earth," which, according to the Greek idiom, is into Hades. There he found these wicked and seducing spirits; and there "openly,' in the presence of the disembodied faithful, and of adoring angels, he displayed that power over them, which he had obtained by his Cross.

I would have examined a passage (Rev. i. 18,) usually adduced in this argument, and which I think might be shown to depend very much for its proper interpretation upon this idea, had I not trespassed too greatly upon your limits. This consideration precludes every other remark; but, that I am

Yours, &c. &c.
London, Dec. 1823.

W

the diabolical purpose of the writer; but, supposing it impossible that a sober man should adopt so horrible a design, concluded that he had been seized by a delirium. DR. FARNSWORTH, however, hastened with the note to the Honourable STEPHEN MIX MITCHELL, now Chief Justice of the State. This gentleman realized the tragedy at once. The house was immediately opened, and all the family were found dead in the manner which has been specified.

I knew this family intimately. MRS. BEADLE possessed a very pleasing person, a fine mind, and delightful manners. The children were unusually lovely and promising. BEADLE in his writings, which were numerous, professed himself a Deist, and declared that man was, in his opinion, a mere machine, unaccountable for his actions, and incapable of either virtue or vice. The idea of Revelation he rejected with contempt: at the same time, he reprobated the vices of others in the strongest terms, and spoke of duty, in the very same writings, in language decisively expressive of his belief in the existence of both duty and sin. The Jury of inquest pronounced him to be of sound mind, and brought in a verdict of murder and suicide.

The inhabitants of Wethersfield, frantic with indignation and horror at a crime so unnatural and monstrous, and at the sight of a lady and her children, for whom they had the highest regard, thus butchered by one who ought to have protected them at the hazard of his life, took his body, as they found it, and dragged it on a small sled to the bank of the river, without any coffin, with the bloody knife tied upon it, and buried it, as they would have buried the carcase of a beast, between high and low water mark.

The corpses of the unhappy family were the next day carried, with every mark of respect, to the Church, where a sermon was preached to a very numerous concourse of sincere mourners. They were then interred in the common buryingground, and in one grave.

MRS BEADLE was thirty-two years of age, and the eldest child about fifteen. BEADLE was fifty-two

years of age, of small stature, and of an ordinary appearance. He was contemplative, possessed good sense, loved reading, and delighted in intelligent conversation. His manners were gentlemanly, and his disposition hospitable. His countenance exhibited a strong appearance of determination; yet he rarely looked the person, with whom he was conversing, in the face, but turned his eye askance, the only suspicious circumstance which I observed in his conduct, unless a degree of reserve and mystery, which always attended him, might merit the name of suspicious. Such as he was, he was cheerfully admitted to the best society in this town; and there is no better society.

COLONEL BELDEN adds to his account the following note:

"This deed of horror seems to have been marked by the indignation of Heaven in the treatment of the body of the perpetrator.

"The ground, in which he was first buried, happened to belong to the township of Glastenbury, although lying on the western side of the river. The inhabitants of Glastenbury, thinking themselves insulted by the burying of such a monster within its limits, manifested their uneasiness in such a manner as to induce the select-men of the town of Wethersfield to order a removal of the body. Accordingly, it was removed in the night, secretly, and by a circuitous route, and buried again at some distance from the original place of sepulture. Within a few days, however, the spot where it was interred was discovered. It was removed again in the night, and buried near the western bank of the river, in Wethersfield. The following spring it was uncovered by the freshet. The flesh was washed from the bones. At this season, a multitude of persons customarily resort to Wethersfield, to purchase fish. By these and various other persons, in the indulgence of a strange, and, I think, unnatural curiosity, the bones were broken off, and scattered through the country."

Pride was unquestionably the ruin of BEADLE. He was, obviously, a man of a very haughty mind. This passion induced him, when he had

once determined that the paper-currency would escape a depreciation, to continue selling his goods at the former prices, after the whole community had, with one voice, adopted a new rate of exchange. Under the influence of this passion he refused to lay out his money in fixed property, although prudence plainly dictated such a measure. When he saw his circumstances reduced, so as to threaten him with a necessary and humiliating change in his style of living, pride prompted him, instead of making new exertions to provide for his family, to sit down in a sullen hostility against GoD and man, and to waste the whole energy of his mind in resentment against his lot, and in gloomy determinations to escape from it. He doated upon his wife and children. His pride could not bear the thought of leaving them behind him, without a fortune sufficient to give them undisputed distinction in the world.

A gentleman, who had long been a friend to BEADLE, offered him letters of credit, to any amount which he should wish. Of this his friend informed me personally.Pride induced BEADLE to refuse the offer.

In these charges I am supported by BEADLE'S own writings. He alleges this very cause for his conduct, and alleges it every where, not in so many words, indeed, but in terms which, though specious, are too explicit to be misconstrued.

BEADLE, as I have observed, denied the existence of a Divine Revelation; yet he placed a strong reliance upon dreams, as conveying direct indications of the will of GoD, -so strong as to make them the directories of his own moral conduct in a case of tremendous magnitude. He appears, by his writings, to have been long persuaded that he had a right to take the lives of his children, because they were his children; and therefore, in his own view, his property, and to be disposed of according to his pleasure; i.e. as I suppose, in any manner which he should judge conducive to their good. But he thought himself unwarranted to take away the life of his wife; because, being the child of another person, she was not in the same sense his property,

nor under his control. This you will call a strange current of thought; but the manner in which he removed his scruples was certainly not less strange. His wife, under the influence of very painful impressions from his extraordinary conduct, particularly from the fact, that he continually brought an axe, and other instruments of death, into his bedchamber, dreamed frequently, and in a very disturbed manner. One morning she told him, that in her sleep, the preceding night, she had seen her own corpse, and the corpses of her children, exposed in coffins in the street; that the sun shone on them for a long time; and that they were ultimately frozen. This dream made a deep impression on BEADLE's mind. In his writings he mentions it as having solved all his doubts, and as a direct revelation from heaven, that it was lawful for him to put his wife also to death!

We have here a strong proof of the propriety with which infidels boast of their exemption from superstition and credulity.

Had this man possessed even a little share of the patience and fortitude of a Christian; had he learned to submit to the pleasure of GoD with resignation; had that humility, which is so charming a feature of the christian character, formed any part of his own; he might even now have been alive, and might, in all probability, have seen his children grow up to be the support and joy of his declining years.

He died worth three hundred pounds sterling. The farmers in Connecticut were, at an average, probably, not worth more, at the same period. Every one of them, at least every one of them whose property did not overrun this sum, might, therefore, with equal propriety, have acted in the same man

ner.

What would become of the world, if every man in it, who was worth no more than three hundred pounds sterling, were to murder himself and his family!

I think you will agree with me, that we have here a strong specimen of the weakness of infidelity, and of the wickedness to which it conducts its votaries.