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

; HIS Article is founded upon the Words W- of the Pialmift, which S. Peter cites, ilCWi ”• 7- ” applies to our BleiTed ’”’ Saviour, er. 31. hou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to fee Corruption. This Text hath, per- haps, in every Age fmce the Apoflles, been understood several Ways: I fball mtniion hut sense of this two. Some have been of Opinion, that Christ * did aduaJly descend into Hell, or that Place allotted to the Wicked after this Life: But another, and more plausible Opinion, is, that by The mofi pro- Hell, in this Place, is only meant the State of i''''' such Sous as are leparated from their Bodies. The W’ords which we translate into Hell are ‘E/f ctcTy, and as these will bear either of these Senses, fo the Church hath imposed neither of them. Among the Fathers, Irenceus Ipcaks of our Lord’s being in the Middle of the Shadow

of

78 An Exposition on the

Article III. of Death, were the Souls of the Dead are *\ yY” ertullian mentions his going through the For— mality of Human Death, among thoie that are in Hell f. And S. Cyprian speaks of his not being to be overcome by Death, and of his not being to remain in Hell §.

I HAVE mentioned no more than these tvva Opinions, because the rest fecm to be univer- fally exploded and given up. I am very far from saying any Thing amifs of those who believe, that our Bleffed Saviour, in the Space betwixt his Death and Reflirredlion, went down locally into Hell, as it signifies the Place of the Damned: But fmce I have alTerted, that the other Opinion is more plausible, I shall con- fider upon what Grounds and Reafonings they are founded, and then leave the judicious Reader to make Choice of either of the two Senses in which this Article is now understood, as his own Judgment Ihall direct him.

O .< E Reason which hath prevailed on fome to believe that our Lord descended into Hell, as it signifies the Place of the Damned, is, be- cause they fancied that whatsoever is threatned by the Law unto them which depart this Life in their Sins, and under the Wrath of God, was fully undertaken and borne by Christ ^ that those which are now saved by Virtue of his Death, fliould otherwise have endured the fame Torments in Hell, which now the Damned do.

f Be Anhna, C. LV.

and

Thirty-Nine Articles. 79

and shall endure ; but that he being their Article III. Surety, did himself sufFer the fame for them, /“VN. even all the Torments which we should have felt, and the Damned shall . This is taken either in a ftrid: Sense of the Words, or in a Latitude of Expreilion j but in neither to be admitted. For firfl, if it be taken in a flridt, rigorous, proper, and formal Sense, it cannot be true : It must not, it cannot be admitted, that Christ did suffer all those Torments which the Damned suffer • and, therefore, it cannot be true, that by suffering them he descended into Hell. There is a Worm that never dieth, which could not lodge within his Bread, that is, a Remorse of Conscience, eated in the Soul, for what that Soul hath done • but such a Remorse of Con- science could not be in Christ, who, though he took upon himself the Sins of those which other- wife had been damned ] yet that Ad: of his was a most virtuous, charitable, and most glorious Ad, highly conformable to the Will of God, and, consequently, could not be the Objedl of Remorse. The Grief and Horror in the Soul of Christ before his Crucifixion, had Reference to the Sins and Punishment of Men, to the Justice and Wrath of God , but clearly of a Nature different from the Sting of Conscience in the Souls condemned to eternal Flames. Again, an Eifential Part of the Torments of Hell, is a present and constant Sense of the everlasting Difpleafure of God, and an ImpofHbility of ob- taining Favour, and avoiding Pain ; an abfb- lute and complete Despair of any better Con- dition, or the least Relaxation : But Christ, we know, had never any such Resentment, who

Calvin InHit. Lib. II. C. XVI. §. lo.

looked

So Jn Exposition on the

Article TIT. looked Upon the Reward which was fet before yy him, even upon the Cross, and offered up him- ili a Tweet-smelling Sacrifice ; which could never be efficacious, except orfered in Faith. If we should imagine any damned Soul to have received an express Promise of God, that after loooo Years he would release him from those Torments, and make him everlailingly happy, and to have a true Faith in that Promise, and a firm Hope of receiving Eternal Life J we could not fay that Man was in the fame Condition wnth the refl of the Damned, or that he felt all that Hell which they were fenfible of, or all that Pain which was due unto his Sins because Hope and Confidence, and Relying upon God, would not only mitigate all other Pains, but wholly take away the bitter Anguish of Despair. Christ then, who knew the Beginning, Continuance, and Conclusion of his Sufferings who underflood the determinate Mhiute of his own Death and Refarredion ; who had made a Covenant with his Father, for all the Decrees of his Pallion, and was fully aifured that he could iuffer no more than he had freely and deliberately undertaken, and should continue no longer in his Paflion than he had himself determined : He, who by these Tor- ments was alTured to overcome all the Powers of Hell, cannot poflibly be said to have been in the fame Condition with the Damned, and ftridlv and properly to have endured the Pains of Hell.

Again, if we take the Torments of Hell in a Metaphorical Sense, for those Terrors and Horrors of the Soul which our Saviour felt, which may therefore be called Infernal ‘torments^ because they are of greater Extremity than any

other

TJjirty^ Kme Articles. 8 1

other Torrures of this Life, and because they Article llf. were accompanied with a Senle of the Vrath of /rv God againll the Unrihteouliiels of Men , yet this cannot be an Interpretation of the Descent into Hell, as it is contained in this Article, and as the Article is grounded on yh ii. 27. For all those Pains which our Saviour felt (whether as they pretend, properly Infernal, or meta- phorically such) were antecedent to his Death 3 Fart of them in the Garden 5 Part on the O’ofs , but all before he commended his Spirit into the Bands of his Father, and gave up the Ghofl. Whereas it is sufficiently evident, that the Descent into Hel), as it now stands in this Article, fignifieth Ibmething commenced after his Death, contra-dlftinguifhed to his Burial ; and as it is considered in the Apostle’s Explication, is clearly to be understood of that which preceded his Refurredlion ; and that also grounded upon a Confidence totally repugnant to Infernal Pains. For it is thus particularly expreffed : Iforefaiv the Lord al’ways hejcre my Face ; for he is on my Right-Hand that J Jljould not he moved. therefore aid my Heart rejoyce and my Tongue was glad ; moreover also my Flesh fljall red in Hope because thou wtlt not leave my Soul in Hell Plalm xvi. 9, 10. Where the Faith, Hope, Confidence, and AfTurance of Christ is fhewn and his Flelh, rhongh laid in the Grave, the Plce of Corruption, is said to rest in Hcpe for this very Reason, because God would not leave his Soul in Hell. 1 conclude therefore, that the De cent into Hell, is not the enduring the Torments of Hell because, if firidly taken it is not true ; if metaphorically taken, though it be true, yet it is not pertinent.

F Secondly,

8 1 An Expofitioii on the

ARTin E III. Secondly, Another Reafon afligncd for

[…]

Place of the Damned, is, That he might triumph

over Satan, and all the Powers below in their own

Dominions. And this is endeavoured to be

proved by the following Texts of Scripture,

Col. ii. 15. […] Hanjtng spoiled Principalities

and PowerSy he made a Shew of them openly^

triumphing ever them in hiinfelf. And Ephef,

J v. 85 9. —If hen he ascended up on high^ he led

[…]

No’-jv that he ascended^ what is it hut that he also

defceuded first into the lower Parts of the Earth ?

By the Conjundlion of these Two, the Favourers

of this Opinion have imagined, that they have

very clearly proved their Point. But as to Col.

ii. 15. our present Translation afcribes our

BlefTed Saviour’s Triumph over Principalities

and Powers, expreily to the Cro/i, rendering

the last Words triumphing over them in it ; that is,

the Cross mentioned in the former Verse : And

[…]

over them in himself^ yet ilill there are these two

great Advantages on our Side ; First, That if

we read, /;/ it^ it proves the Triumph spoken

of in this Place, performed upon the Cross ^

and if we read, in himself^ it proveth not that

the Triumph was performed in any other Place,

becauie he was himself upon the Cross. 2dly,

The antient Fathers of the Greek Church read

it as we do, in it ; and those others of the Latin

Church, which did read it otherwile, did alfb

acknowledge with the Greeks^ the Cross not

only to be the Place in which the Vid:ory over

Satan was obtained, but alio to be the 1 rophy

of that Yidtory, and the triumphal Chariot.

This

Thirty -Nine ArticIeSo ^3

T H t s PJace then of S. Paul to the Coloffmis Article lir, cannot prove that Christ descended into Hell to V’YX triumph over the Devil there; and if it be not proper for that Purpose of itself, it will not be more effectual by the Addition of that other of the Ephefians. For, firfl, The defcendmg into the lower Parts of the Earthy doth not neceifarily signify his Descent into Hell, and, consequently, cannot prove, that either those Things which are spoken in the lame Place, or in any other, are to be attributed to that Deicent. Those lower Parts of the Earth may signify Hell, and Cbriji’s descending thither may be, that his Soul went to that Place when his Body was carried to the Grave but that it was adually fo or that the Apostle intended fo much in those Words, the Place itself will not manifcft : For we cannot be affured, that the Descent of Christ, which S. Paul speaks of, was performed after his Death j or if it were, we cannot be affured, that the lower Parts of the Earth did signify Hell, or the Place where the Souls of Men were tormented after the Separation from their Bodies. For as it is written, No Man afcendeth up to Heaven hut he that descended from Heaven John ili- 13. fo this may signify ib much and no more, I?: that he cifcended what is it hut that he descended firfi ? And for the lower Parts of the Earthy they may pofHbly signify no more than the Place heneath : As v/hen our Saviour said, Te are from Beneath J avi from Abonje ye are of this llorld I am not of this Iforldy John viii. 23. Or as God fpake by the Prophet, / zvill pezv IFonders in Hea-ven ahroe and Signs in the Earth beneath Acts ii. 19. Nay, they will refer to his Incarnation, according to that of David My Suhfiance wa

F 2 not

84 Jn Exposition on the

Article III. not bid fro/U thee whcu I was made in Secret^ and

onns^

cufiov.Jly wrought in the lowefi Parts of the Earth. Pialm cxxxix. 15. Or to his Burial, according to that of the Prophet, ^hose that feek my Soul to destroy it., Jljall go into the lower Parts of the Earth. Psalm Ixiii. 9. And these tv/o Re- ferences have a great Similitude according to that of J oh J Naked came I out of my Mother’s IVomh^ and naked Jh all I return thither^ Job i. 21.

Again, If it were granted, that by the lower Parts of the Earth is meant Hell ; and that the Article I am now considering is contained in this Place of Scripture, yet it would not follow from that Scripture, that Christ triumphed over Satan while his Soul was in Hell ; for the Con- lequence would be only this, that the fame Christ who led Captivity Captive, descended firfl into Hell. In that he ascended Cand ascending led Captivity Captive) what is it but that he dejcendedfirft ? The Descent then, if it were to Hell, did precede the triumphant Ascent of the fame Perfort, and that is all which the Apostle’s Words will evince. Nay, farther yet, the Ascent mentioned by S. Paul cannot be that which immediately lollowed the Descent into Hell • for it evidently fignifieth the Afcenfion which followed Forty Days after his Refur- redlion. It is not an Ascent from the Parts below the Surface of the Earth, but to the Heavens above, an ascending up on high even far aboue all Hea’vens. Now the leading Cap- tivity CapTi-ve belongeth clearly to this Ascent, and not to any Descent w hich did precede it : It is not said that he descended first to lead Cap- tivity Captive j and yet it must be fo if Christ descended into Hell to triumph there : It is not laid, when he had led Captivity Captive he

ascended

Thirty ^Nine Articles. 8 5

ascended up on high , for then it might be fup- Article III. posed that the Captive had been led before : V./‘V But it is exprefly laid, divcta.i zU C’-.B- hxuLKM- Twaiv d/xMLmctVy that is, dfce7iding up on high he led Captiinty Captive ; and, consequently, that triumphant Adt was the immediate Effed of his Afcenfion : So that by these two Scriptures, no more can be proved than this, SThat Chrifi triumphed c-ver Principalities and Powers at his Death upon the Cross and led Captivity Captive at his Afc€7ifwn into Heaven: Which is fo fkr from proving that Chrifi descended into Hell to triumph there, that it is more proper to perluade the contrary. For why should he go to Hell to triumph over them, over whom he had trium- phed on the Crois ? Why should he go to captive that Captivity then, which he was to captivate when he alcnded into Heaven ?

T H I K D L y, Another Reason ailigned for Christ’s defending into Hell, as it signifies the Place of the Damned, is, that he went thither to preach to thole who died in Disobedience, and were in Torment for their Sins : And this is fup- posed to be founded on i Pet. iii. iS, 19. — Being put to Death in the FlePj but ojiickned ly the Spirit by which alio he went and preached unto the Spirits in Prison which sometime were difobedient when once the Long- Suffering of God waited in the Days of Noah. ‘J he true Meaning of thisPaffage I take to be this. That by the Miniftration of the fime Spirit by which our Saviour was quickened, he preached to those that were difobedient before the Flood ; and because they did not repent upon this Preach- ing, but abused both it and the Long-Suffering of God, their Souls are now in Hell. This proves that Christ was not only hfox Abraham

V 3 buc

v^.y’VN^

8,6 j4n Exposition on the

Artjcleiii. but also before the Flood ; but it does not prove that he preached to those difobedient Sinners after they were dead : For, surely such Men must not be looked upon as proper Objeds of fo great a Favour, if we consider the Nature, the Scope and End of the Gospel, which is to be preached with such Commands and Ordinances, as can concern those only which are in this Life, and plainly enough informs us, that the Souls of Men were never cafl: into Infernal Torments to be delivered from them. The Days which follow afrer Death, xcre never made for Op- portunities to a better Life : The Angels had one Instant either to stand or fall Eternally; and what thap Instant was to them, this Life is to us. We may as well believe the Devils were saved, as those Souls which were once tor- mented with them 5 for their FuntJIwient is an e’vedajling Punipment a Uorm that dieth not ]Vlark ix. 44. Nor does this only belong to us who live after the Death of Christ ; as if the damnation of all Sinners were now Eternal, but before his Death it were not fo ; as if Faith and Repentance were now indifpenfably necef- fary to Salvation, but then were not : For according to this Way ofReafoning, the Con- dition of Mankind before the Fulnefs of Time, In which our Saviour came into the World, should have been far more Happy and Advan- tageous than it hath been since, which can never be reconciled with what our BlefTed Saviour faith. Mat. xiii. 17. and Luke x. 24. I’bat many Prophets and Righteous Men, and Kings had defiyed to fee those things which his Dif ciplcs faw and had 7Jot feen them , and to he a;”’ those I’hings ‘juhich they had heard and had not heard them. But neither they nor we shall escape Eternal Flames, except we obtain \\

favour

Thirty -Wine Articles. 87

Favour of God before we be swallowed by the Article ill. Jaws of Death. We rnufi all appear before the V’VX Judgment’ Seat of Christ that every one may receive the ‘hings done in his Body 2. Cor. v. 10. But if they be now in the State of Salva tion by Virtue of Christ’s Descent into HelJ, which were numbered amongfl: the Damned before his Death, at the Day of the general Judgment they must be returned into Hell again 5 or if they be received then into Eternal Hap- pinefs, it will follow, either that they were not juftly condemned to these Flames at firfl:, ac- cording to the general Difpenfations of God, or elfe they did not receive the Things done in their Body at the last ; which all Sail as cer- tainly receive as all appear. This Life is given unto Men to work out their Salvation with Fear and Tremblings but after Death cometh Judgment, reflecting on the Life that is past, not expecting Amendment or Conversion then. He that liveth and helteveth in Chrifi Jlj all never die and he that helievethy though he die yet jloall he live John xi. 25, 26. But he that dicth in Unbelief, (hall neither believe nor live. And this is as true of thoie which went before, as of thoie which came after our Savfour, because he was the Lamb Jlain from the Foundation of the IForldy Rev. xiii. 8. I therefore conclude, that the End for which the Soul of Christ descended into Hell, was not to deliver any damned Souls, or to translate them from the Torments of Hell, to the Joys of Heaven. There is indeed an Objedion against this Reafoniog, which seems to be of Weight, and is worth considering, ‘tis founded on yc’s ii. 24, IVhoin God hath raised up having loofed the Tains of Hell because it was not pojfible that he fjoiild be holden of it. From whence the Argu-.

F 4 men^

88 A?i EYpofitton on tie

Article III, ment I am to answer Is thus deduced, God did -yy’ looie the Pains of Hell when Christ was raised : But those Pains did not take hold of Christ him- self, who was not to suffer any thing after Death and, consequently, he could not be looled from, or taken out of thoie Pains in which he never was. In the lame manner the Patriarchs ?nd the Prophets, and the Saints of old, if they should be granted to be in a Place fometmes called Hell, yet they were there in Hnppinefs, and therefore the delivering them from thence, could not be the loonng of the Pains of Hell : It followeth then, that those alone which ditd in their Sins, were involved in those Pains, and when thoie Pains were loofed, then were they released ; and being they were looled when Chrifl was raised, the Confeq- enc will be, that he descending into Hell delivered lome of the damned Souls from their Torments there.

But though the Lathi Translation render it fo, the Pains of Hell -^ t hoi 2, h fome Copies, and other Translations, and divers of the Fathers read it in the fame manner, yet the Original and Authentick Greek, acknowle-geth no such Word as //(?//, but propounds it plainly thus 5 Whom God hath raised np^ looflng the Fains of Death. Howfbever, if the Words were fo ex- prefTed in the Orignal Text, as the Objedors read them, yet it would not follow that God delivered Christ out of those Pains in which he was detained any time, much less that the Soul of Christ delivered the Souls ol any other ; but only that he was preserved from enduring them.

Ih the last Place we may observe, that fome have looked on Hell as the common Recep- tacle

Thirty ‘Wine Articles. 89

tacle for the Souls of all Men, both the Just Article iil

[…]

Soul of Cbrift descended unto those which

departed in the true Faith and Fear of God,

the Souls of the Patriarchs and Prophets, and

all the Righteous who had departed this Life

from the Beginning of the World, home to his

own Time, and dilTolving all the Power by

which they were detained below (though not

in Torments, but in a State of Happinefs) tran-

slated them into a far more glorious Place, and

to a Condition far more happy in the Heavens

above.

But the Scriptures no where inform us. That the Patriarchs and Prophets, c. are now in another Place, and a better Condition than they were before our Bleffed Saviour died there is no Intimation of any such Alteration of their State ; no Place that can with any Pro- bability be pretended to prove any aclual Accef- fion of Happiness and Glory already past. And though it were admitted, yet it would not fol- low that Christ defcejided into Hell to make this Alteration for it might not be performed before his Refurredion, it might not be effeded ‘till his Afcenfion, it miht be attributed to the Merit of his Paflion, it might have no Depen- dance on his Deicenfion.

I Come now to consider the Grounds and Reafonings which the other Opinion concerning Christ’s descending into Hell is built upon, ‘viz. That what is meant by it is only this, ’ “tbat his Soul was in the fame State or Condition ‘coith the Souls of other Men ivhen they are separated from their Bodies. I might fhew from Prophane, as ^^W as Sacred Authors, That there is no Necef-

fity

An Expofitioii on the

[…]

UOTN^

the Word Hell signifies the Place of the Damned ; but, I presume, the Greek Translators of the Old Testament will conduce most towards ex- plaining the New. / will go down to the Grave to my Son raourning faith Jacob. Gen, xxxvii. 35. The Words in H are made ufe of in the Greeks and our Translators have rendered them Cto the Grave J which cannot be a right Tran- flation, because Jacob believed that his Son was torn in pieces by wild Beads, and not buried: And therefore, the Addition of these Words (to my Son) makes it necefTary to ren- der them in that Place thus — I will go mourn- ing out of this Lije I will live no longer feeing my Son is dead j and the Phrase — / will go down to Hades is meant exadlly parallel to this in the Article we are now diicourfing on - — He went down into Hellor Hades and may very well be thought the fitted to interpret it, being the nearest to it of any in the Scripture. As to the Word which is rendered — to go down it fbme- times signifies in the Original to go up as in Judges XV. II. where the Greek Translators ufe the very Word which in Greek is rendered 0 down.

The Reafbns which have prevailed on Divines to argue in this manner, over and above what hath been urged under this and the fore- going Head, are, First, That there is nothing in the second Opinion, which can, with the least Shew of Probability, be {aid to be inconfiftent with any Paflages of the Old or New Testament. And, Secondly, That the End which they con- ceive to be secured by it, is neither iuperfluous, absurd, nor repugnant to the Analogy of Faith. And, I conceive, that the End for which our

BlelTed

Tljirty-Wme Articles. 91

Blefled Saviour went down into Hell, or, in Article III.

other Words, why his Soul, when separated ^""-^“tN-^

from his Body by Death, did truly pals into

that State or Condition in which the Souls of

other Men departed were, was, That he might

undergo the Condition of a dead Man, as well

as of a living, in order to Ihew us, that we are

under the Protection of an Almighty and AJl-

Seeing God, as well when we are out of the

Body, as when we are in it. That as the Devil

had no more Power over him in the other

World, than he had in this, fb all such as belong

to Christ, may be affured, that they shall be as

far from coming under the Power of Satan when

they depart this Life, as he himself was, who,

by securing himfejf, and returning to Life

again, hath given us a Proof of his Capacity of

prelerving us in the iam.e manner , fo that we

may fay with Holy Joh^ chap. xiii. ver. 15.

though he flay me^ yet will I trust in him ; and

with the Pfalmift, though I walk through the

Valley of the Shadow of Beathy I will fear no

E’vil : for thou art with me^ thy Rod and thy

Staff they comfort me^ Pialm xxiii. 4.

r

Article

An Exposition on the

Notes

• Mver. HJir. Lib. V, C. XXXI.
• See Fearfo?i on the Creed, Art. V. Haya777ond\ VraFt.Cat. Lib. V, §. 2. Kowelli Cfitccb. p. 70, 71. i’idd of the Church, Lib. V. C, IX.