Imatges de pàgina
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any one say that he offered himself a sacrifice for himself, and not rather for us only, (for he needed no sacrifice who knew no sin,) let him be accursed.' For fear of which curse, we dare not but acknowledge that Christ truly suffered,' &c.

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ARTICLE III.

Of Christ's Descent into Hell.

AS CHRIST DIED FOR US, AND WAS BURIED; SO ALSO IS IT TO BE BELIEVED, THAT HE WENT DOWN INTO HELL.

THOUGH this article be in itself as clear and certain as any of the rest, yet men having exercised their fancies so variously upon it, have drawn, as it were, a veil over it, and so eclipsed the light of it: and hence it is that some do not rightly understand it, others scruple it, yea, and others do in plain terms contradict and gainsay it. That the first of these may be taught the truth concerning it, the second resolved about it, and the third convinced of their error in denying it, I shall first lay down some propositions to clear it, and then proceed to the confirmation of it.

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First, it will easily be granted that this article, as it is here delivered, was taken out of that which we commonly call the Apostles' Creed, it following and foregoing the same things here that it doth there. For as in that creed we profess our belief, first, that Christ suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried; then, that he descended into hell;' and after this, that he rose again from the dead, and ascended into heaven ;' so we declare, in the article going immediately before this, that Christ truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried;' in this article, that he went down into hell;' in the next immediately following it, that he did truly rise again from death, and ascended into heaven.' Since, therefore, the article of Christ's going down,' or descent into hell,' is taken from that creed, we cannot doubt but the meaning and purport is the same in both places.

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Secondly, I must confess that we cannot prove that this article was inserted in that creed for almost four hundred years after Christ, the Aquileian being the first particular church which is known to have inserted it in theirs ; according to which Ruffinus", being baptized into that church, framed his exposition of the creed with this. article in it; but affirming, that in his time (which was about the end of the fourth century after Christ) it was neither in the Roman nor the Eastern creeds; which words of his some bring to prove the novelty of this article; but I think they are rather an argument of its antiquity than novelty for in that he saith it was not in the Roman nor Eastern creeds, he seems to me plainly to imply, that it was expressed in some other creeds, though omitted in them. But suppose this article was never inserted in any creed before the Aquileian, this derogates nothing at all either from the truth of the doctrine, or the antiquity of its reception; for there are other articles of our faith that were never questioned, but always received as undoubted truths; as that of our Saviour's death, the communion of saints, God's being the Maker of heaven and earth;' all which are left out of the ancient creeds expounded by

a It is not mentioned in the articles of faith delivered by Irenæus, Tertullian, nor in the explications of this creed made by the Nicene and Constantinopolitan councils, nor in the Confessions of Antioch, Sardinia, nor in the particular Confessions of Eusebius Cæsariensis, Marcellus Ancyranus, Acacius bishop of Cæsarea, St. Basil, Eustathius, Epiphanius, Macarius, and others. And St. Augustine, in five several expositions of the creed, makes no mention of this: whence Bellarmine, Augustinus in libro de Fide et Symbolo, quatuor libris de Symbolo ad Catechumenos, non meminit hujus partis cùm totum symbolum quinquies exponat.-De Christ. lib. iv. c. 6. Neither is it in the manuscript creeds set forth by the archbishop of Armagh. Neither can this be any derogation from it, seeing there is still one thing or other in most creeds left out with it, which we make no scruple of. And perhaps the reason why it was left out was, because it was never questioned then, but acknowledged by all; and therefore they needed not have been so diligent in the reciting it, seeing there were none to gainsay it.

b Nos tamen illum ordinem sequimur quem in Aquileiensi ecclesia, per lavacri gratiam, suscepimus.-Ruffin. Exposit. Symboli, ad calcem St. Cypriani. Edit. Oxon. 1682.

c Sciendum sanè est quòd in ecclesiæ Romanæ symbolo non habetur additum, Descendit ad inferna.' Sed neque in Orientis ecclesiis habetur hic sermo.-Ruffin. in Expos. Symb. ibid.

Ruffinus, Maximus, and Chrysologus, and many others d. Yea, and there is only one of them, viz. that of God's being the Maker of heaven and earth,' expressed in the Constantinopolitan. Now none can say, because these are not inserted in these creeds, they are no articles of our faith; especially, it would be a groundless argument against this we are treating of. But though we cannot produce any certain proof of its being in the creed before the Aquileian church brought it in; yet it hath ever since been received as an undoubted truth for these twelve hundred years together. And I can see no reason why we, at this length, after so many centuries' acknowledgment of it, should now bring it to the bar, and accuse it of forgery and usurpation.

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Thirdly, I must confess also that the words in the Greek and Latin creeds, which we translate, He descended into hell,' may admit of another interpretation than what in this translation of them we put upon them. The word hades' especially, which we translate hell, being often used to express the state of the dead in general, without any restriction or limitation of happiness or misery. But we have no one English word that gives the full meaning andpurport of the Greek word hades,' when taken in this comprehensive sense. Neither can I tell how to give a better periphrasis of it, than by translating it, The other world, that invisible place where the souls that leave

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As in those extant in Venantius Fortunatus, lib. xi. in Expos. Symb. In Etherius and Beatus, 785 years after Christ; and the two Greek ones also, that of Marcellus, and the other written in the time of the English Saxons.

• Κατελθόντα εἰς ἅδου, are the words of the Apostles' Creed ; κατελθὼν εἰς τὸν ady in Athanasius, and xarλev iv äd, as it is in Hora Beatæ Mariæ Virginis; or as others, xatñλbev eiç ädov: they all amount to the same thing; only in the ancient manuscripts in Bennet College library, cited by the reverend archbishop of Armagh, it is κατελθόντα εἰς τὰ κατώτατα ; and in the Confession of Sirmium, εἰς τὰ καταχθόνια κατελθόντα, which more exactly answers the Latin.

Lat. descendit ad inferos, or descendit ad inferna, or in inferna. Where we must look upon the inferi as the inhabitants of inferna, and inferna the habitations of the inferi. So that descendit ad inferos, and ad inferna, are the same thing; for he could not descend ad inferna, but he must descend ad inferos; neither could he descend ad inferos, but he must descend ad inferua.

their bodies live, whether it be a place of bliss or torments. And in this sense I must confess it is sometimes taken in Scripture, Apocrypha", fathers, yea, and in the heathen

Out of Scripture, omitting some other places wherein it cannot well bear any other sense than this, I shall produce only two; the one out of the Old Testament, the other out of the New. That of the Old is, Psalm

מי גבר יחיה ולא יראה מות ימלט נפשו מיד שאול,lxxxix. 49. where the psalmist saith

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which the Septuagint renders, Τίς ἐστιν ἄνθρωπος ὁ ζήσεται, καὶ οὐκ ὄψεται θάνατον ; ῥύσεται τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἐκ χειρὸς ἄδου ; "What man is he that lives, and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of hades?" Where both the Hebrew w, and Greek adou, cannot signify any more than the state of death; or, as the Targ. nap the house of the grave,' the place of abode after this life, without any respect either to heaven or hell. Heaven cannot here be understood, as every one will grant at the first sight; nor can hell be here meant by scheol' and hades;' for then an answer might soon be given, that there are many who shall deliver their souls from hell; there are many that live here on earth that shall not live hereafter in hell. And again, here we see hades, in the latter part of the verse, answering to Jávaros, ' death,' in the former; and therefore may, yea, and bere must be granted as large an extent as death itself; so that as there is none but must die, so is there none but must go to hades. The place in the New Testament is, Rev. xx. 13. Καὶ ὁ θάνατος καὶ ὁ ἅδης ἔδωκεν τοῦς ἐν αὐτοῖς νεκρούς, “ And death and

hades gave up their dead:" Syr. Ladoo ano ‘And death and scheol,' (where we may note, by the way, how the Septuagint in the Old Testament render 'scheol' by 'hades:' and the Syriac, on the other hand, in the Old Testament, render 'hades' by 'scheol;' whence we may plainly see, how amongst the ancients these two words were taken indifferently for one another,) which cannot be understood of hell: for certainly that will never give up those who are in it. But the only meaning is, that they who are in a state of death, shall be brought back again into a state of life: and in the same sense it must never be taken in the verse immediately following, Καὶ ὁ θάνατος καὶ ὁ ἅδης ἐβλήθησαν εἰς τὴν λίμνην τοῦ πυρὸς, • And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire;' which undoubtedly hell can never be.

And as for the Apocrypha, it is very plentiful in giving us instances of this nature, as Ecclus. xlviii. 5. ò iyeípas tov vengòv in Davátou, who raised the

dead from death and hades;' that as the Syriac renders it, w):

who restored those who were dead fron ܡܝܬܐܡܢ ܫܥܘܠ

death to life;' where we may also observe how the Syriac renders both Jávaros and ads by one word, And so doth the Arabic too

القبر

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crowd them both into the grave.' And so, 2 Mac. vi. 23. Taxtãs λέγων προπέμπειν εἰς ἅδην, • Statim dicens præmitti se in hadem, that he would rather go to hades: which certainly could not be understood of hell; that is no such good place to be desired. Vide et Ecclus. li. 5. We have seen the canonical and apocryphal Scriptures, what sense they sometimes put upon this word, which the fathers frequently imitate; St. Cyril of Alexandria expressly

authors too. And as for the Latin word' inferi,' it is often taken in the same sense, yea, and mostly used to express * hades' by.

saying, Τῶν γὰς ζωῆς ἐστηρημένων νοἶτ ̓ ἂν εἰκότως ὁ ἅδης οἰκός τε καὶ ἐνδιαίτημα, ‘Hades may rightly be accounted the house and mansion of such as are deprived of life.'—In Gen. lib. vi. p. 155. Hence Theophylact. Tì dì i ädne; oi μèv aùtòv φάσι χῶρον ὑπόγειον σκότεινον, οἱ δὲ τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐμφανοῦς εἰς τὸ ἀφανὲς καὶ ἀειδὲς μετάστασιν τῆς ψυχῆς ἅδην ἔφασαν, ἄχει μὲν γὰρ ἐν σώματι ἐστὶν ἡ ψυχὴ φαίνεται διὰ τῶν οἰκείων ἐνεργείων, μεταστᾶσα δὲ τοῦ σώματος ἀειδὴς γίνεται, τοῦτο γοῦν ἔφασαν εἶναι τὸν ἅδην.—Ιn Luc. c. xvi. p. 1. Edit. Par. 1635. And Chrysostom, . Αλλὰ καὶ Έλληνες, καὶ βάρβαροι, καὶ ποιηταὶ, καὶ φιλόσοφοι, καὶ πᾶν ἀνθρώπων γένος, συμφωνοῦσιν ἐν τοῦτοις ἡμῖν εἰ καὶ μὴ ὁμοίως, καὶ φάσιν εἶναι τίνα δικαστήρια ἐν ἅδου, οὕτω φανερὸν καὶ ὡμολογουμένον τὸ πρᾶγμα ἐστι, i. e. But the very Greeks, and barbarians, and poets, and philosophers, and all sorts of men, agree with us in these things, though not all alike, and say that there are judgment-seats in hades; so clear and confessed a thing is it.'-In 2 Cor. Hom. 9. Where it is plain, the word 'hades' cannot have respect particularly either to heaven or hell; but that it denotes only the other world; and in this sense also the Latin fathers use the word inferi' and 'infernum : as Jerome, Neque nostras animas derelinquet in inferno, nec dabit nos in corruptione in perpetuum manere. -- - Tract. 35. in Matt. 27. And Augustine, Nonne inferna Christo testimonium perhibuerunt, quando jure suo perdito Lazarum quem dissolvendum acceperant integrum per quatriduum reservaverunt, et incolumem redderent cùm vocem Domini sui jubentis audirent ?—Orat. contra Judaos, Paganos, et Ar. c. 17. tom. vị. p. 65. A. Edit. Basil. 1542. Where we cannot say that 'inferna' signifies hell, but we must say too that Lazarus was in hell which no wise man either will or can; to which may be added those ancient verses, made, as it is thought, about the emperor Commodus's time, called the Sibylline oracles, where, in the first book, p. 79. Edit. Gal. Amst. 1689. there is this account given of the word ἅδης.

“Αδην δ ̓ αὖτε κάλεσσαν ἐπεὶ πρῶτος μόλεν Αδαμ

Γευσάμενος θανάτου, γαία δὲ μὲν ἀμφεκάλυψε
Τοῦνεκα δη πάντες οἱ ἐπιχθόνιοι γεγαῶντες
Ανέρες εἰς Αίδαο δόμοις εναι καλέονται.

Where we may plainly see how hades is put for the common state of all mortal men. And to all these we may in the last place add the testimony of the ancient Greek poets; for even these had sometimes this same notion of ἅδης, As Pindar. Isthm. Od. 6.

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Τοίαισιν ὀργαῖς εὔχεται

Αντιάσας ἀϊδαν γῆς

ξάς τε δέξασθαι πολιὸν

ὁ Κλεονίκου παῖς.—Antist. 1. 8.

i. e. The son of Cleonicus wisheth that with such manners he might meet and receive hades ;' which would be a sad wish, if ädne should signify hell. So Sophocles in his Ajax,

Κρείσσων γὰρ ἅδα κεύθων ἢ νοσῶν μάταν.

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