SERM. unto God who gave them; and that they did abide in God's XXVIII. hand; especially the fouls of the juft, according to that in the book of Wifdom; The fouls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there fhall no torment touch them. And for that,

Wifd. iii. 1. (Deut. xxxiii, 3.)

21.

2. It feems, they did rather conceive the fouls of men, when they died, to go upward than downward; as the Preacher again intimates, when he differenceth the spirit Ecclef. iii. of man dying from the foul of beafts; the foul of beafts defcending with its body to the earth; the Spirit of man afcending unto God, to be difpofed by him according to Gen. v. 24. his pleasure and juftice. And by Enoch's being taken to God, (whofe fpecial refidence is expreffed to be in heaven 2 Kings ii. above,) and by Elias's translation up into heaven, (as it is in the text of the history,) it is probable, they did rather fuppofe the fouls of the righteous to afcend, than to be conveyed downward into fubterraneous caverns, those μvWifd. xvii. xoì adov, clofets of hell, as the book of Wisdom calls them; that Bópos adov, deep pit of hell, as it is in Ben-Sirach; to afcend, I fay, whether into the fupreme heaven, or no, is baros . not material; but fomewhither above, nearer unto God's Chryf. ad moft fpecial refidence, into a happy place.

.11.

24.

Ecclus. xxi. 10, 11.

Οὐρανὸς ἔτι

Heb. ix. 8.

Eph. iii. 15.

xii. 22.

18.

10.

3. I add, that if those ancients had by Sheol meant the Heb. xi. 16. receptacle or manfion of fouls, it is not likely they would Ifa. xxxviii. have used fuch expreffions as those: The grave (Sheol) cannot praise thee; death cannot celebrate thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth; fo HezePfal. vi. 5. kiah fpake: In death there is no remembrance of thee; in fheol who shall give thee thanks? fo David faid: and, Ecclef. ix. There is no works, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in fheol, whither thou goeft; fo the Preacher; who hardly it seems could say so, if by fheol he meant the place of fouls; except he should also mean, that fouls after death became deprived of all life and fenfe. The fon of Sirach likewife fpeaks in the fame manner: ὑψίσῳ τις αἰνέσει ἐν åde; Who fhall praise the Moft High in hell, instead of xvii. 27, 28. them which live and give thanks? Thanksgiving perifheth from the dead, as from one that is not: the living and found in heart fhall praife the Lord.

Ecclus.

I must confefs, that afterwards (even before our Sa- SERM. viour's time) the word ons was affumed by the Jews, to XXVIII. defign (as it did among the Greeks) either the place of fouls in common, or more strictly the place of fouls condemned to punishment and pain, for their bad lives here: Jofephus doth often ufe the word in the first of these fenses; and in the New Teftament it feems peculiarly applied to the latter; as in the parable of the rich man, who being ev tập äồŋ, in hell and torments, did thence lift up his Luke xvi. eyes, and behold afar off Lazarus in Abraham's bofom: but 23. we cannot hence infer the fame concerning the ancient meaning of the word sheol; especially confidering how the Jews, after the prophetical days, in their difperfions becoming acquainted with the world, did borrow fome notions and expreffions from elsewhere; which expreffions our Saviour and his Apoftles might well retain, when they were suitable and accommodable unto truth.

3. But however it be determined concerning the proper fenfe in general of this principal word in the propofition, and of the rest depending thereon, as to their fignification here; I do thus, as to the present cafe, and the last main queftion propounded about the meaning, whereof the words are capable with truth, answer briefly.

1. If we do interpret the descent into hell here affirmed of our Saviour's interment, or being laid in the bosom of that univerfal grave we before fpake of; or if (in a notion little differing from that) we take these words for a phrafe (taking its ground thence in the manner fore-mentioned) importing no otherwise than when it was spoken of Jacob and others, that our Saviour did really pass into the ftate of death; we are fure therein not to err; the propofition fo understood being most certainly true: we shall alfo hereby be able fairly to fatisfy the first and best (if not the only) reason of this propofition being commended to our belief. For that place in the Acts which feems to have been the occafion and the main ground of this propofition being afferted in these terms, doth not refuse, but commodiously admits this interpretation: for our Saviour's foul not being left in hell, and not feeing corruption,

SERM. is plainly by St. Peter himself interpreted of his refurrecXXVIII. tion; David, faith he, foreseeing this, fpake of Christ's reActs 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 feeing corruption; his body being corrupted and confumed in the grave; the Apostles not designing to affert or prove more, than our Lord's refurrection: David, argue they, fell on fleep, and hath continued till now in that state; David remained unto this day in the grave, and fo his body being reduced to duft A&ts ii. 29. faw corruption; éreλsúryσe rápn, he died and was buried, without any reverfion: therefore that speech of his in the Psalm 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, ùv Vʊxív μe, my soul, or my life; nothing can be thence drawn greatly prejudicial to this expofition; for (to omit that bolder expofition of Beza, who sometime 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 perfon, confidered as fometime endued with Exod. xxxi. life; Every one that finneth fhall be put to death, and, That foul shall 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 the power of the grave; What man is he that shall not see 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

14.

Levit. vii.

•2, &c.

Pfal. xxxiii.

lxxxix. 48.

fons there spoken of respectively to be preserved from SERM. death.

Again, taking foul for the living foul, or that faculty by which we live, and hell for the state of death, the words mentioned, Thou wilt not leave my foul in hell, will have this natural expofition, agreeable to the Apoftle'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 see 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 fo contain only a needless repetition; I anfwer,

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 iv adou, according to St. Peter, might imply more than this, although they knew not what distinctly; who also 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 fomewhat above his being dead and buried; wherefore thus understanding the descent 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 should not have done, if they contain any thing highly material, and different from what is here otherwife expreffed; whofe credit is (as I conceive) more

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 first Epistle to the Corinthians, declaring the fum of what he both learned and taught concerning our Saviour's laft 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 fmall advantage to this expofition. But I fay farther, to the main question, that,

οἴονται και

an.

2. Interpreting hell for the mansion, or habitation of fouls departed hence, (to omit, that heol, as I before noted, seems to fignify otherwise in the Old Testament, Eisö avres and confequently thence the place in the Acts applied Sate tide out of the Pfalms would not be proper to this purpose; xov evde whereby the main ground and support of the affertion itτὰς ψυχὰς Tavisa felf, taken according to this fenfe, were removed; waving, 9. Greg. I fay, that confideration, and taking adŋs, according to the Nyff. de Im. meaning which we must confess it fometime to bear in the New Testament, yet,) there seems to follow fome inconvenience thereon. For then we must 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;

Μετάβασις εἰς τὸ ἀειδὲς nai aqavis.

Id.

43.