CHAPTER X. · SECKER. AMONGST the "glorious company" of English divines, (and surely men so distinguished for intellectual power and virtuous practice deserve to be so designated,) none has been more eminent than Secker, either for deep learning, or for simple, unaffected piety. No one better understood, or has more clearly explained the principles of the Christian religion. In his Catechetical Lectures he thus writes: The last part of this article is, that he descended into hell: an assertion founded on Psal. xvi. 10. where David prophesies of Christ, what St. Peter in the Acts of the Apostles explains of him, that his soul should not be left in hell; which imports, that once he was there. And hence, after some time it was inserted into our Creed, which in the beginning had it not. However being taught in *Acts ii. 24-32. Scripture, the truth of this doctrine is indubitable : the only question is about the meaning of it. The first thought of most, or all persons, to be sure, will be, that the word hell, in this article, signifies what it doth in common speech, the place where devils and wicked men are punished. And it hath been imagined, that Christ went to triumph over the devil there; and some add, to rescue part of the souls which he held under confinement*, by preaching, as the Scripture saith he did, to the spirits that were in prison †. But the place of torment is never determinately expressed in Scripture by the word Hades, which both the Scripture and the Creed use in this article, but by very different ones; though unhappily our translation hath used the same English word for both, instead of calling the former, what it strictly signifies, the invisible state or region. Besides, we do not read of our Saviour's triumphing over the devil any where, but on the Cross ‡. And the spirits in prison, to whom St. Peter saith, Christ by his spirit preached, he saith also were those, which were disobedient, when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah §. And therefore Christ's preaching to them by his spirit, probably • Origen against Celsus, 1. 2. § 42. saith, that Christ converted souls to himself there, τὰς βουλομένας, ἢ ἃς ἑώρα ἐπιτηδειοτέρας. § 1 Peter iii. 20. 1 Peter iii. 19. Col. ii. 14, 15. means, his exciting by his spirit, which strove with them for a time, that patriarch to be a preacher of righteousness among them, as the same St. Peter, in his other Epistle, calls him †. But not hearkening to him then, they are now in prison, reserved for the sentence of the last day. This opinion therefore hath no sufficient foundation. Nor would it be found, on further trial, agreeable either to reason or scripture. Others have thought the word, translated hell, to signify in this article, as it seems to do in some passages of the Old Testament, and as the English word anciently did, merely a place under ground, by which they understand the grave. And they plead for it, that the first Creeds, which mentioned our Saviour's descending into hell, used no other words to express his being buried, and therefore designed to express it by these. But allowing that, still our Creed, expressing the descent into hell, after the burial, must mean a different thing by it. And indeed the most common meaning, not only among heathens, but Jews and the first Christians, of the word Hades, here translated hell, was in general, that invisible world, one part or another of which, the souls of the deceased, whether good or bad, inhabit. And this, how strange soever it may *Gen. vi. 3. † 2 Pet. ii. 5. seem to the unlearned, yet is by others acknowledged. Probably therefore all that was intended to be taught by the expression, now before us, is, that when our Saviour died, as his body was laid in the grave, so his spirit went where other separate spirits are. And we should remember, in repeating these words of the Creed, that this is the whole of what we are bound to profess by them. But in what part of space, or of what nature, that receptacle is, in which the souls of men continue from their death till they rise again, we scarce know at all: excepting that we are sure it is divided into two extremely different regions, the dwelling of the righteous, called in St. Luke, Abraham's bosom, where Lazarus was; and that of the wicked, where the rich man was; between which there is a great gulph fixed t. And we have no proof, that our Saviour went on any account into the latter: but since he told the penitent thief, that he should be that day with him in Paradise ; we are certain he was in the former; where they, which die in the Lord, rest from their * See Pearson on this article, p. 239, 240. Luke xvi. 22, 23. 26. Luke xxiii. 43. Non ex his verbis in cælo existimandus est esse paradisus. Neque enim ipso die in cælo futurus erat homo Christus Jesus: sed in inferno secundum animam, in sepulchro autem secundum carnem. Aug. Ep. 57. ad Dardanum. Pearson, p. 237. labours, and are blessed; waiting for a still more perfect happiness at the resurrection of the last day. How the soul of our Saviour was employed in this abode, or for what reasons he continued there during this time, further than that he might be like unto his brethren in all things, we are not told, and need not guess. But probably this article was made part of the Creed, in order to assert and prove, that he had really a human soul, which was really separated from his body. And its residence, during the separation, in the same state and place, where other spirits of just men made perfect are, surely made a vast addition to their felicity. For Abraham, who rejoiced to see his day § at a distance, must be inexpressibly more rejoiced to see him present there. All the good persons, whose going thither preceded the death of our Lord, must certainly partake in the joy. And all who came, or shall come, after, must feel much greater consolation for being in a place, where their Redeemer had been seen by such numbers of his saints; and to which, in some peculiar sense, his presence is yet continued: for we learn from St. Paul, that the immediate consequence of a pious man's departure hence is being with Christ ||. *Rev. xiv. 13. § John viii. 56. || Phil. i. 23. See Peters on Job, § 11. p. 399. |