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SERM. is plainly by St. Peter himself interpreted of his refurrecXXVIII. tion; David, faith he, foreseeing this, fpake of Chrift's reA&s ii. 31. furrection: and, in like manner, by St. Paul, As concerning

xiii. 34.

that he raised him from the dead, now no more to see corruption, he said in this wife-that speech, I say, Our Saviour's foul not being left in hell, and, not seeing corruption, is by the Apostles interpreted to denote our Saviour's refurrection; that is, his being freed from the bands of death, and raised from the grave, before his flesh had underwent corruption; and it is opposed unto David's continuing in death and seeing corruption; his body being corrupted and confumed in the grave; the Apostles not defigning to affert or prove more, than our Lord's refurrection: David, argue they, fell on fleep, and hath continued till now in that ftate; David remained unto this day in the grave, and fo his body being reduced to duft A&s ii. 29. faw corruption; TEλEÚTYσe éτán, he died and was buried, without any reverfion: therefore that speech of his in the Pfalm must not fully and ultimately be understood of him, to whom they did not fo exactly agree; but of fuch an one, who did not abide in that deadly sleep; whose flesh, being opportunely raised, did avoid the fight (or undergoing) of corruption. And whereas it is faid, rǹv vuxnv μe, my foul, or my life; nothing can be thence drawn greatly prejudicial to this expofition; for (to omit that bolder expofition of Beza, who fometime did by the foul understand the dead body, tranflating the words, Non derelinques cadaver meum in fepulchro) nothing is more ufual than both for the flesh and for the foul (each of them fynecdochically) to fignify the person, confidered as fometime endued with Exod. xxxi. life; Every one that finneth fhall be put to death, and, That foul fhall be cut off, are terms equivalent in the 25, 27. v. Law; The foul that eateth, The foul that toucheth, and the like phrases, do often occur; and thofe expreffions, To de19. xlix.15. liver their foul from death; God will redeem my foul from

14.

Levit. vii.

2, &c.

Pfal. xxxiii.

lxxxix. 48.

the power of the grave; What man is he that shall not fee death, that shall deliver his foul from the hand of the grave? do feem parallel to this, Thou shalt not leave my foul in hell; which yet do import no more, than the per

fons there spoken of refpectively to be preferved from SERM. death.

Again, taking foul for the living foul, or that faculty by which we live, and hell for the ftate of death, the words mentioned, Thou wilt not leave my foul in hell, will have this natural expofition, agreeable to the Apofile's defign; Thou wilt not suffer me to continue deprived of life, till my flesh be corrupted. It is alfo obfervable, that St. Paul, in the 13th of the Acts, neglecting the former part, Thou shalt not leave my foul in hell, contents himself with the latter, Thou wilt not yield thy Holy One to fee corruption; intimating both parts to fignify the fame thing.

If it be objected as an inconvenience to this explication of the words here in the Creed, that, admitting it, they fignify no more, than what was before expreffed in plain words, dead and buried; and so contain only a needless repetition; I answer,

1. That this objection concerns them who inferted the words here; who yet, even fuppofing this expofition to be good, might be excufable, as fufpecting it poffible, that our Saviour's being ev adou, according to St. Peter, might imply more than this, although they knew not what dif tinctly; who alfo might perhaps intend fomewhat by these words different from this fenfe, but not fo truly applicable to them, or agreeable to the truth of the thing; I answer,

2. That to say our Saviour did continue in the state of death for fome time, doth add somewhat above his being dead and buried; wherefore thus understanding the defcent doth not render it altogether fuperfluous.

3. That a greater inconvenience feems to arife from expounding them otherwife; the doing so reflecting upon the more ancient compilers both of this and other breviaries of faith, as the Nicene and Conftantinopolitan Councils, Irenæus, Tertullian, &c. who left them out; which they fhould not have done, if they contain any thing highly material, and different from what is here otherwife expreffed; whose credit is (as I conceive) more

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XXVIII.

SERM. to be tendered, than of their juniors and followers unXXVIII. known to us; and fo much the more, for that in a matter

3,4.

of this kind, defect or omiffion is lefs tolerable, than any redundance in expreffion. Which inconvenience may seem in a manner to reach higher, even to St. Paul himself; who in the fifteenth chapter of his firft Epiftle to the Corinthians, declaring the fum of what he both learned and taught concerning our Saviour's last grand performances, 1 Cor. xv. only mentions his death, burial, and refurrection; I delivered unto you first, that Chrift died for our fins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rofe again the third day; which enumeration of his, we may, it feems, well acquiefce in, as fufficient and complete, and may thence with great probability infer, that no other defcent of our Saviour into hell, befide his death and burial, was by him understood, or delivered in his catechetical discourses and preachings as a point of faith; so that what is objected as an inconvenience, proves no small advantage to this expofition. But I say farther, to the main question, that,

οἴονται και

χεῖον ἐνθένδε

τὰς ψυχὰς

Nyff. de Im.

an.

Μετάβασις

2. Interpreting hell for the manfion, or habitation of fouls departed hence, (to omit, that fheol, as I before noted, feems to fignify otherwise in the Old Testament, Els & avis and confequently thence the place in the Acts applied Jante sis do out of the Pfalms would not be proper to this purpose; whereby the main ground and support of the affertion itsavisa felf, taken according to this fenfe, were removed; waving, Ja. Greg. I fay, that confideration, and taking ans, according to the meaning which we must confefs it fometime to bear in Mers the New Testament, yet,) there feems to follow fome innai pavis. convenience thereon. For then we muft either take it for the place of damned spirits, shut up in torment or despair, (according to which acception the propofition itself would be most certainly uncertain, having no folid ground for it; and most probably false, for that it is affirmed, our Saviour's foul, the fame day he died, did go into paradife; Luke xxiii. This day, faid he to the penitent thief, fhalt thou be with me in paradife,) or we must take it for a place common to all fouls, as well good and bleffed, as bad and miserable;

εἰς τὸ ἀειδὲς

Id.

43.

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 Testament, that hades, relating to the state of fouls, fhould there be ever taken in a good or middle. fenfe, at leaft, 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 suppose, 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 Chriftians 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 higheft) 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-x Tis äv tatis recipiendis fanctorum spiritibus deftinatus; the place, of divine comfort and amenity, deftined to receive the fpirits of the faints) fhould have its place in the darkfome bowels, &c. of the earth; no commodious fituation, it feems, for a gar- ode Greg. Nyl. den, for delightfome walks and bowers: yet so 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 moft probably improper, and hath no certain ground or authority to commend it; for it is said, that our Saviour's foul was in hell, not that it defcended thither; nor can it by confequence be inferred fo to have done, according to this meaning of hell. However,

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

τὸν παράδει

οὔτε ἐν

παραδείσῳ

Tertull. A

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

be

ing, as it were, from life, or by going away together with the defcent of the body; and thence styled descending; what appeareth vifibly happening to the body being accommodated to the foul;) if, I fay, we do thus interpret our Saviour's defcent into hell, for his foul's going into the common receptacle and manfion of fouls, we fhall fo doing be fure not fubftantially to mistake. And this fense, I conceive, if the words can handfomely bear it, would very proper to this place, as fignifying somewhat 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 deferted the body, and to have been tranflated into that ἀδύνατον ἅδην, Wifd. xvii. (as the book of Wifdom 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 whose preroga1 Sam. ii. 6. tive it is, to kill, and make alive; to bring down to hell, Deut. xxxii. and to bring up; to lead unto the gates of hell, and to bring Tob. xiii. 2. back again.

14.

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 faying 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

monst. 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

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