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mans, state an opposition between the death of Christ, and ART. the sin of Adam; the ill effects of the one being removed by the other: but he plainly carries the death of Christ much further, than that it had only healed the wound Rom. v. 12. that was given by Adam's sin; for as the judgment was of to the end. one (sin) to condemnation, the free gift is of many offences to justification. But in the other places of the New Testament, Christ's death is set forth so fully, as a propitiation for the sins of the whole world, that it is a very false way of arguing to infer, that because in one place that is set in opposition to Adam's sin, that therefore the virtue of it was to go no farther, than to take away that sin. It has indeed removed that, but it has done a great deal more besides.

Thus it is plain, that Christ's death was our sacrifice : the meaning of which is this, that God, intending to reconcile the world to himself, and to encourage sinners to repent and turn to him, thought fit to offer the pardon of sin, together with the other blessings of his Gospel, in such a way as should demonstrate both the guilt of sin, and his hatred of it; and yet with that, his love of sinners, and his compassions towards them. A free pardon without a sacrifice had not been so agreeable neither to the majesty of the great Governor of the world, nor the authority of his laws, nor so proper a method to oblige men to that strictness and holiness of life that he designed to bring them to: and therefore he thought fit to offer his pardon, and those other blessings, through a Mediator, who was to deliver to the world this new and holy rule of life, and to confirm it by his own unblemished life: and in conclusion, when the rage of wicked men, who hated him for the holiness both of his life and of his doctrine, did work them up into such a fury as to pursue him to a most violent and ignominious death, he, in compliance with the secret design of his Father, did not only go through that dismal series of sufferings, with the most entire resignation to his Father's will, and with the highest charity possible towards those who were his most unjust and malicious murderers; but he at the same time underwent great agonies in his mind; which struck him with such an amazement and sorrow even to the death, that upon it he did sweat great drops of blood, and on the cross he felt a withdrawing of those comforts, that till then had ever supported him, when he cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It is not easy for us to apprehend in what that agony consisted for we understand only the agonies of pain, or of conscience, which last arise out of the horror of guilt,

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ART. or the apprehension of the wrath of God. It is indeed certain, that he who had no sin could have no such horror in him; and yet it is as certain, that he could not be put into such an agony only through the apprehension and fear of that violent death, which he was to suffer next day: therefore we ought to conclude, that there was an inward suffering in his mind, as well as an outward visible one in his body. We cannot distinctly apprehend what that was, since he was sure both of his own spotless innocence, and of his Father's unchangeable love to him. We can only imagine a vast sense of the heinousness of sin, and a deep indignation at the dishonour done to God by it, a melting apprehension of the corruption and miseries of mankind by reason of sin, together with a neverbefore-felt withdrawing of those consolations that had always filled his soul. But what might be further in his agony, and in his last dereliction, we cannot distinctly apprehend; only this we perceive, that our minds are capable of great pain as well as our bodies are. Deep horror, with an inconsolable sharpness of thought, is a very intolerable thing. Notwithstanding the bodily or substantial indwelling of the fulness of the Godhead in him; yet he was capable of feeling vast pain in his body: so that he might become a complete sacrifice, and that we might have from his sufferings a very full and amazing apprehension of the guilt of sin; all those emanations of joy, with which the indwelling of the eternal Word had ever till then filled his soul, might then when he needed them most be quite withdrawn, and he be left merely to the firmness of his faith, to his patient resignation to the will of his heavenly Father, and to his willing readiness of drinking up that cup which his Father had put in his hand to drink.

There remains but one thing to be remembered here, though it will come to be more specially explained, when other Articles are to be opened; which is, that this reconciliation, which is made by the death of Christ, between God and man, is not absolute and without conditions. He has established the covenant, and has performed all that was incumbent on him, as both the priest and the sacrifice, to do and to suffer; and he offers this to the world, that it may be closed with by them, on the terms on which it is proposed; and if they do not accept of it upon these conditions, and perform what is enjoined them, they can have no share in it.

ARTICLE III.

Of the going down of Christ into Hell.

As Christ died for us and was buried, so also is it to be believed, that he went down 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 until 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, he ascended; what is it, but that he also Eph. iv. 9. 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 Irenæus, 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 falsely, to have been made at Sirmium: in that it is set down in a Greek word that does exactly answer Ruffin's Inferna, Karay Jóvia: and it stood there instead of buried. When it was put in the Creed that carries Athanasius's name, though made in the sixth or seventh century, the word was changed to "Ans, 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

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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 by 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 of 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 would 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 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.

Others 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 ART. signification.

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Many of the fathers thought, that Christ's soul went locally into Hell, and preached to some of the spirits there in prison; that there he triumphed over Satan, and 1 Pet. iii. 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. John, 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 wonderful 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, and so were under the power of the Prince of the power of the air, who is called the God of this world; Eph. ii. 2. that is, of the Gentile world: it being one of the ends for 2 Cor. iv. 4. 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 conceit 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 into 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

Is. lxi. 1.

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