and the apostle in Greek, and is translated hell, doth certainly in some other places signify no more than the grave, and is translated so. As where Mr. Ainsworth followeth the word, For I will go down unto my son mourning to hell;' our translation, aiming at the sense, rendereth it," For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning." (Gen. xxxvii. 35.) So again he, 'Ye shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow unto hell,' that is, "to the grave." (Gen. xlii. 38.) And in this sense we say," the Lord killeth and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up." (1 Sam. ii. 6.) Now being the soul is sometimes taken for the body deserted by the soul, and hell is also sometimes taken for the the grave, receptacle of the body dead: therefore it is conceived that the prophet did intend these significations in those words, "Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell;" and consequently, the Article grounded on that Scripture must import no more than this: Christ in respect of his body bereft of his soul, which was recommended into, and deposited in, the hands of his Father, descended into the grave. This exposition hath that great advantage, that he which first mentioned this descent in the CREED, did interpret it of the burial; and where this Article was expressed, there that of the burial was omitted. But notwithstanding those advantages, there is no certainty of this interpretation: first, Because he which did so interpret, at the same time, and in the tenor of that expression, did acknowledge a descent of the soul of Christ into hell;* and those other Creeds which did likewise omit the burial, and express the descent, did shew, that by that descent, they understood not that of the body, but of the soul. Secondly, Because they which put these words into the Roman Creed, in which the burial was expressed before, must certainly understand a descent distinct from that; and translate, Then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave: where the Jerusalem Targum and that of Jona and the ; לבי קבורתא than have it again Persian again in sepulcrum; the Arabic ad pulverem, or ad terram. And it is observed by the Jewish commentators that those Christians are mistaken who interpret those words spoken by Jacob, I will go down into sheol, of hell; declaring that sheol there is nothing else but the grave. Ruffinus, who first mentioned this Article, did interpret it of the grave, as we have already observed; but yet he did believe a descent distinct from that, in the Exposition of the Creed: 'Sed et quod in infernum descendit, evidenter prænunciatur in Psalmis,' &c. and then citing that of St. Peter: Unde et Petrus dixit, Quia Christus mortificatus carne, vivificatus autem spiritu: in ipso, ait, et eis qui in carcere inclusi erant in diebus Noe, in quo etiam quid operis egerit in inferno declaratur,' §. 27. as we before more largely cited the same place. I shewed before, that in the Creed made at Sirmium there was the descent mentioned, and the burial omitted, and yet that descent was so expressed, that it could not be taken for the burial: besides now I add, that it was made by the Arians, who in few years before had given in another Creed, in which both the burial and the descent were mentioned; as that of Nice in Thracia: ἀποθανόντα, καὶ ταφέντα, καὶ εἰς τὰ καταχθόνια κατελθόντα, ὃν αὐτὸς ὁ ᾅδης ἐτρόμαζεν. Theodoret, Hist. l. ii. c. 21. and not long after gave in another at Constantinople to the same purpose: σταυρωθέντα, καὶ ἀποθανόντα, καὶ ταφέντα, καὶ εἰς τὰ κατα· χθόνια διεληλυθότα, ὃν τινα καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ ᾄδος ingy. Socrat. lib. ii. c. 41. therefore, though it might perhaps be thought a probable interpretation of the words of David, especially taken as belonging to David, yet it cannot pretend to be an exposition of the CREED as now it stands. The next opinion is, that the soul may well be understood either for the noble part of man distinguished from the body; or else, for the person of man consisting of both soul and body, as it often is; or, for the living soul, as it is distinguished from the immortal spirit: but then the term hell shall signify no place, neither of the man, nor of the body, nor of the soul; but only the state or condition of men in death, during the separation of the soul from the body. So that the prophecy shall run thus, "Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell," that is, Thou shalt not suffer me to remain in the common state of the dead, to be long deprived of my natural life, to continue without exercise, or power of exercising my vital faculty and then the CREED will have this sense, that Christ was crucified, dead, and buried, and descended into hell; that is, he went unto the dead, and remained for a time in the state of death, as other men do. But this interpretation supposeth that which can never appear, that Hades signifieth not death itself, nor the place where souls departed are, but the state and condition of the dead, or their permansion in death; which is a notion wholly new, and consequently cannot interpret that which representeth something known and believed of old, according to the notions and conceptions of those times. And that this notion is wholly new, will appear, because not any of the ancient fathers is produced to avow it, nor any of the heathen authors which are produced do affirm it: nay, it is evident that the Greeks did always by Hades understand a place into which the souls of men were carried and conveyed, distinct and separate from that place in which we live; and that their different opinions shew, placing it, some in the earth, some under it, some in one unknown place of it, some in another. But especially Hades, in the judgment of the ancient Greeks, cannot consist with this notion of the state of death, and the permansion in that condition, because there were many which they believed to be dead, and to continue in the state of death, which yet they believed not to be in Hades, as those who died before their time, and those whose bodies were unburied.* Thus likewise the ancient fathers dif fered much concerning the place of the Infernus; but never any doubted but that it signified some place or other:* and if hades till their funerals were performed, et Damigeron, et Nectabis, et Bernice. and the souls of them who died an unPublica jam literatura est, quæ animas timely or violent death, were kept from etiam justa ætate sopitas, etiam proba the same place until the time of their na- morte disjunctas, etiam prompta bumatural death should come. This he farther tione dispunctas, evocaturam se ab inexpresses in the terms of the magicians, ferum incolatu pollicetur.' Ibid. c. 57. Of whose art was conversant about souls de- that of the insepulti, he produceth the exparted: Aut optimum est hic retineri, ample of Patroclus: Secundum Homesecundum ahoros (i. e. dúgove), aut pessi- ricum Patroclum funus in somnis de mum, secundum Biæothanatos (Bialoda- Achille flagitantem, quod non alias adire várous), ut ipsis jam vocabulis utar, qui- portas inferum posset, arcentibus eum bus auctrix opinionum istarum Magica longe animabus sepultorum.' Ibid. c. 56. sonat, Hostanes, et Typhon, et Dardanus, The place he intended is that, Iliad. ¥.71. Θάπτε με, ὅττι τάχιστα πύλας είδαο περήσω. Τηλέ με εἰργοῦσιν ψυχαί, εἴδωλα καμόντων, Οὐδὲ μέ πως μίσγεσθαι ὑπὲρ ποταμοῖο ἐῶσιν. In the same manner he describes Elpenor, Odyss. A. 51. Πρώτη δὲ ψυχὴ Ἐλπήνορος ἦλθεν ἑταίρου. Οὐ γάρ πω ἐτέθαπτο ὑπὸ χθονὸς εὐρυοδείης. Where it is the observation of Eustathius : "Οτι δόξα ἦν τοῖς Ἕλλησι, τὰς τῶν ἀθάπτων ψυχὰς μὴ ἀναμίγνυσθαι ταῖς λοιπαῖς. And the same Eustathius ob serves an extraordinary accurateness in that question of Penelope concerning Ulysses, upon that same ground. Odyss. A. 831. Εἴπου ἔτι ζώει, καὶ ὁρᾷ φάος ηελίοιο Τὸ δὲ, καὶ ὁρᾷ φῶς ἡλίου, δι ̓ ὀρθότητα ἐννοίας here very observable that, according to the opinion of the Greeks, to be dead is one thing, and to be in hudes is another: and that every one which died was not in hades, οὐ πᾶς τεθνηκὼς καὶ ἐν ᾅδου γίνεται, 35 Eustathius speaks. Legimus præterea in Sexto insepultorum animas vagas esse. Serv. in Eneid. iii. 67. The place which he intended, I suppose is this, Hæc omnis, quam cernis, inops inhumataque turba est; Portitor ille Charon; hi, quos vehit unda, sepulti. Nec ripas datur horrendas nec rauca fluenta Transportare prius, quam sedibus ossa quierunt. Centum errant annos, volitantque hæc littora circum.—Virg. Æn. vi. 325. Thus he is to be understood in the description of the funeral of Polydorus, Æn.iii. 62. Ergo instauramus Polydoro funus, et ingens Aggeritur tumulo tellus,-animamque sepulcro Condimus. Not that anima does there signify the body, as some have observed; but that the soul of Polydorus was then in rest, when his body received funeral rites, as Servius : "Legimus præterea in Sexto insepultorum animas vagas esse, et hinc constat non Sedibus ut saltem placidis And that the soul of Polydorus was so wandering about the place where his body lay unburied, appeareth out of Euripides in Hecuba, where he speaketh thus: v. 30. «Νῦν ὑπὲρ μητρὸς φίλης *Εκάβης αίσσω, σῶμ ̓ ἐρημώσας ἐμὸν, Τριταῖον ἤδη φέγγος αἰωρούμενος. legitime sepultum fuisse. Rite ergo, red- And in the Troades of the same poeta "Ω φίλος, ὦ πόσι μοι, And when their bodies were buried, then they had conceived any such notion as the state of death, and the permansion of the dead in that state, they needed not to have fallen into doubts or questions; the patriarchs and the prophets being as certainly in the state of death, and remaining so, as Corah, Dathan, and Abiram are, or any person which is certainly condemned to everlasting flames. Though therefore it be certainly true that Christ did truly and properly die, as other men are wont to do, and that after expiration he was in the state or condition of the dead, in deadlihood, as some have learned to speak; yet the CREED had spoken as much as this before, when it delivered that he was dead. And although it is true that he might have died, and in the next minute of time revived, and consequently his death not (precisely taken) signify any permansion or duration in the state of death, and therefore it might be added, he descended into hell, to signify farther a permansion or duration in that condition: yet if hell do signify nothing else but the state of the dead, as this opinion doth suppose, then to descend into hell is no more than to be dead; and so notwithstanding any duration implied in that expression, Christ might have ascended the next minute after he descended thither, as well as he might be imagined to revive the next minute after he died. Being then to descend into hell, according to this interpretation, is no more than to be dead; being no man ever doubted but that person was dead who died; being it was before delivered in the CREED that Christ died, or, as we render it, was dead: we cannot imagine but they which did add this part of the Article to the CREED, did intend something more than this, and therefore we cannot admit this notion as a full or proper exposition. There is yet left another interpretation grounded upon the general opinion of the Church of Christ in all ages, and upon a probable exposition of the prophecy of the Psalmist, taking the soul in the most proper sense for the spirit or rational part of Christ; that part of a man which, according to our Saviour's doctrine, the Jews could not kill; and looking upon hell, as a their souls passed into hades, to the rest. So was it with Polydorus, and that man mentioned in the history of the philosopher Athenodorus, whose umbra or phasma walked after his death. Inveniuntur ossa inserta catenis et implicita, quæ corpus ævo terraque putrefactum nuda et exesa reliquerat vinculis: collecta publice sepeliuntur; domus postea rite conditis manibus caruit.' Plin. 1. vii. Epist. 27. This was the case of the insepulti. And for that of the bigothanati, it is remarkable that Dido threateneth Æneas, Æn. iv. 384. -sequar atris ignibus absens, Upon which place Servius observes: 'Di- diem sum; vaganti mihi dabis pœnas: nam te persequar, et adero quamdiu erravero semper.' ย • Αδης δὲ τόπος ἡμῖν ἀειδὴς, ἔγουν ἀφανὴς καὶ ἄγνωστος, ὁ τὰς ψυχὰς ἡμῶν ἐντεῦθεν ἐκδημούσας δεχόμενος. Andreas Casar. in Apocal. c. 64. place distinct from this part of the world where we live, and distinguished from those heavens whither Christ ascended, into which place the souls of men were conveyed after or upon their death; and therefore thus expounding the words of the Psalmist in the person of Christ: Thou shalt not suffer that soul of mine which shall be forced from my body by the violence of pain upon the cross, but resigned into thy hands, when it shall go into that place below where the souls of men departed are detained; I say, thou shalt not suffer that soul to continue there as theirs have done; but shalt bring it shortly from thence, and reunite it to my body. For the better understanding of this exposition, there are several things to be observed, both in respect to the matter of it, and in reference to the authority of the fathers. First, therefore, this must be laid down as a certain and necessary truth, that the soul of man, when he dieth, dieth not, but returneth unto him that gave it, to be disposed of at his will and pleasure, according to the ground of our Saviour's counsel, "Fear not them which kill the body, but cannot kill the soul." (Matt. x. 28.) That better part of us therefore, in and after death, doth exist and live, either by virtue of its spiritual and immortal nature, as we believe; or at least the will of God, and his power upholding and preserving it from dissolution, as many of the fathers thought. This soul, thus existing after death, and separated from the body, though of a nature spiritual, is really and truly in some place; if not by way of circumscription, as proper bodies are, yet by way of determination and indistancy; so that it is true to say, this is really and truly present here, and not elsewhere. Again, the soul of man, which, while he lived, gave life to the body, and was the fountain of all vital actions, in that separate existence after death, must not be conceived to sleep, or be bereft and stripped of all vital operations, but still to exercise the powers of understanding and of willing, and to be subject to the affections of joy and sorrow. Upon which is grounded the different estate and condition of the souls of men during the time of separation; some of them by the mercy of God being placed in peace and rest, in joy and happiness; others by the justice of the same God left to sorrow, pains, and misery. As there was this different state and condition before our Saviour's death, according to the different kinds of men in this life, the wicked and the just, the elect and reprobate: so there were two societies of souls after death; one of them which were happy in the presence of God, the other of those which were left in their sins and tormented for them. Thus we conceive the righteous Abel, the first man placed in this happiness, and the souls of them that departed in the same faith to be gathered to him. Whosoever it was of the sons of |