Burnet on Article III: Of the going down of Christ into Hell

THIS was much fuller when the Articles were at first prepared and published in King Edward’s Reign: For these words were added to it, That the body of Christ lay in the Grave untill his Resurrection; but his Spirit which he gave up, was with the Spirits which were detained in Prison, or in Hell, and preached to them, as the place in St. Peter testifieth. Thus a determined sense was put upon this Article, which is now left more at large, and is conceived in words of a more general Signification. In order to the explaining this, it is to be premised, That the Article in the Creed, of Christ’s descent into Hell is mentioned by no Writer before Ruffin, who in the beginning of the Fifth Century does indeed speak of it: But he tells us, That it was neither in the Symbol of the Roman, nor of the Oriental Churches; and that he found it in the Symbol of his own Church at Aquileia. But as there was no other Article in that Symbol that related to Christ’s Burial; so the words which he gives us, descendit ad Inferna, he descended to the lower parts, do very naturally signify Burial, according to these words of St. Paul, ¹ He ascended; what is it but that he also descended first to the lower parts of the Earth? and Ruffin himself understood these words in that sense.

None of the Fathers in the first Ages, neither Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clemens, nor Origen, in the short Abstracts that they give us of the Christian Faith, mention any thing like this: And in all that great variety of Creeds that was proposed by the many Councils that met in the Fourth Century, this is not in any one of them, except in that which was agreed to at Arimini, and was pretended, though falsly, to have been made at Sirmium: In that it is set down in a Greek word that does exactly answer Ruffin’s Inferna, […]: And it stood there instead of Buried. When it was put in the Creed that carries Athanasius’s Name, tho’ made in the Sixth or Seventh Century, the word was changed to […], or Hell: But yet it seems to have been understood to signify Christ’s Burial, there being no other word put for it in that Creed: Afterwards it was put into the Symbol of the Western Church: That was done at first in the words in which Ruffin had expressed it, as appears by some Ancient Copies of Creeds which were published the Great Primate Usher. We are next to consider, what the Importance of these words in themselves is; for it is plain that the use of them in the Creed is not very Ancient nor Universal. We have a most unquestionable Authority for this, that our Saviour’s Soul was in Hell. In the Acts o[?] the Apostles, St. Peter in the first Sermon that was preached after the wonderful Effusion of the Spirit at Pentecost, applies these words of David, concerning God’s not leaving his Soul in Hell, nor suffering his Holy one to see corruption, to the Resurrection of Christ. Now since in the composition of a Man, there is a Body and a Spirit, and since it is plain that the raising of Christ on the Third day, was before that his Body in the course of Nature was corrupted. The other Branch seems to relate to his Soul; though it is not to be denied, but that in the Old Testament Soul in some places stands for a dead Body: But if that were the sense of the word, there will be no opposition in the two Parts of this period: The one will be only a redundant repetition of the other: Therefore it is much more natural to think, that this other Branch concerning Christ’s Soul’s being left in Hell, must relate to that which we commonly understand by Soul; if then his Soul was not to be left in Hell, then from thence it plainly follows, that once it was in Hell, and by consequence that Christ’s Soul descended into Hell.

Some very Modern Writers have thought, that this is to be understood Figuratively of the Wrath of God due for Sin, which Christ bore in his Soul, besides the Torments that he suffered in his Body: And they think, that these are here mentioned by themselves, after the Enumeration of the several steps of his bodily Sufferings: And this being equal to the Torments of Hell, as it is that which delivers us from them, might in a large way of Expression be called a descending into Hell. But as neither the word descend, nor Hell, are to be found in any other place of Scripture in this sense, nor in any of the Ancients, among whom the Signification of this Phrase is more likely to be found, than among Moderns; So this being put after Buried, it plainly shews that it belongs to a period subsequent to his Burial: There is therefore no regard to be had to this Notion.

Othets have thought, That by Christ’s descent into Hell. is to be understood his continuing in the State of the Dead for some time: But there is no Ground for this conceit neither, these words being to be found in no Author in that Signification.

Many of the Fathers thought, That Christ’s Soul went locally into Hell, and preached to some of the Spirits there in Prison;² that there he triumphed over Satan, and spoiled him, and carried some Souls with him into Glory. But the account that the Scriptures give us of the Exaltation of Christ, begins it always at his Resurrection: Nor can it be imagined, That so memorable a Transaction as this, would have been passed over by the Three first Evangelists, and least of all by St. Iohn, who coming after the rest, and designing to supply what was wanting in them, and intending particularly to magnify the Glory of Christ, could not have passed over so wonder[?]ul an Instance of it. We have no reason to think, that such a matter would have been only insinuated in general words, and not have been plainly related. The Triumph of Christ over Principalities and Powers, is ascribed by St. Paul to his Cross, and was the Effect and Result of his Death. The place of St. Peter seems to relate to the Preaching to the Gentile World, by virtue of that Inspiration that was derived from Christ; which was therefore called his Spirit; and the Spirits in Prison were the Gentiles, who were shut up in Idolatry as in Prison, ³ and so were under the Power of the Prince of the Power of the Air, who is called the God of this World; that is, of the Gentile World; It being one of the ends for which Christ was Anointed of his Father, to open the prisons to them that were bound. So then, though there is no harm in this Opinion, yet it not being Founded on any part of the History of the Gospel, and it being supported only by passages that may well bear another sense, we may lay it aside, notwithstanding the Reverence we bear to those that asserted it; and that the rather, because the first Fathers that were next the Source, say nothing of it.

Another Counceit has had a great course among some of the latest Fathers and the Schoolmen: They have fancied that there was a place. to which they have given a peculiar name, Limbus Patrum, a sort of a Partition in Hell, where all the Good Men of the Old Dispensation, that had died before Christ, were detained; and they hold that our Saviour went thither, and emptied that Place, carrying all the Souls that were in it, with him to Heaven. Of this the Scriptures say nothing; not a word either of the Patriarchs going thither, or of Christ’s delivering them out of it: And though there are not in the Old Testament express Declarations and Promises made concerning a Future State, Christ having brought life and immortality to light through his Gospel; yet all the Hints given of it, shew that they looked for an Immediate Admission to Blessedness after death. So David, Thou wilt shew me the path of life, ⁴ in thy presence is fulness of joy, and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore. Thou shalt guide me here by thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory. Isaiah says, That the righteous when they dye enter into peace. In the New Testament there is not a Hint given of this; for though some Passages may seem to favour Christ’s delivering some Souls out of Hell, yet there is nothing that by any management can be brought to look this way.

There is another Sense of which these words [descended into Hell] are capable:⁵ by Hell may be meant the Invisible Place to which departed Souls are carried after their death: For though the Greek word so rendred, does now commonly stand for the Place of the Damned, and for many Ages has been so understood; yet at the time of writing the New Testament it was among Greek Authors used indifferently for the place of all departed Souls, whether good or bad; and by it were meant the Invisible Regions where those Spirits were lodged: So if these words are taken in this large sense, we have in them a clear and literal account of our Saviour’s Soul descending into Hell; it imports that he was not only dead in a more common acceptation, as it is usual to say a man is dead when there appear no signs of life in him; and that he was not as in a deep Extasy or Fit that seemed Death, but that he was truly dead; that his Soul was neither in his Body, no[?] hovering about it, ascending and descending upon it, as some of the Iews fancied Souls did for some time after death; but that his Soul was really removed out of his Body, and carried to those unseen Regions of departed Spirits, among whom it continued till his Resurrection. That the Regions of the Blessed were known then to the Iews by the name of Paradise, as Hell was known by the name of Gehenna, is very clear from Christ’s last Words, To day thou shalt be with me in Paradise;⁶ and into thy hands do I commend my spirit. This is a plain and full account of a good Sense that may be well put on the Words; though after all, it is still to be remembred, That in the first Creeds that have this Article, that of Christ’s Burial not being mentioned in them, it follows from thence, as well as from Ruffin’s own Sense of it, that they understood this only of Christ’s Burial.

Footnotes

1. Eph. 4.9. ↩

2. 1 Pet. 3.19. ↩

3. Eph. 2.2. 2 Cor. 4.4. Isa. 61.2. ↩

4. Psal. 16.11. Acts 2.31. Psal. 73.27. Isa. 37.2. ↩

5. See Bishop Person on the Creed, ↩

6. [?]uke 23.4[?], [?]6. ↩