he elsewhere produces that text of the Psalm, ist, in Psal. cvi. 17. "the earth opened, and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the com pany of Abiram ;" and that passage of the prophet Isaiah, chap. xiv. 15. "yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit," and long before St. Jerome, Tertullian calls hell" a subterranean region, a vastness in the body and depth of the earth, and an abstruse profundity in its bowels ;" and Novatian affirms it to be "a place beneath the earth, whither the souls both of the godly and ungodly are led, receiving in themselves the previous apprehensions of their future doom;" with which agrees the prediction of Sibylla, that at the dissolution of all things by the general conflagration at the last day, a great river of burning flames shall descend from heaven, and burn up every place without the confines thereof; amongst which she reckons not only earth and sea, rivers and fountains, but also unmerciful hades or hell,

Irenæus, Damascen, and others, believed it also to be "a place under the earth;" and Origen likewise one where terms it " a place under ground" though he elsewhere speaks very doubtfully and uncertainly of the situation thereof, as when he writes, " that Christ descended into hell, wheresoever it be, or, in what place soever it is,"

And indeed, though every one believed hell to be the receptacle of all souls, yet they were not agreed in the exact situation thereof. Tertullian, wherein he is followed by the schoolmen, placeth it in the very bowels of the earth; Novatian, Damascen and others, fix it beneath the earth, infra terram, hupo gene, by which they undestood the Southern hemisphere; which space we now find to be filled with earth and air, as our Northern one is : others knew not where to settle it; but in general, every one meant by it that place, wheresoever it was, into which separated souls do pass; only whatsoever their particular opinion was, in conformity to the usual dialect and common manner of speaking, they termed a going thither "a descent into hell," as the foreI mentioned reverend archbishop instanceth in Cicero, who, "wherever he hath occasion to mention any thing that concerneth the dead, speaketh still of inferi, according to the vulgar phrase;" altho' he misliked the vulgar opinion which bred that manner of speaking, and professed it to be his judgment, "the souls when they depart out of the body, are carried up on high, and not downward unto any habitations under the earth."

So that when the creed affirms, that our Saviour" descended into hell," the meaning

thereof is no other than this, viz. that his soul being separated from his body by a real transition and local motion, went into the unseen region of spirits, where, according to the laws of death, it remained amongst other religious and pious departed souls till the resurrection of his body, which was the third day after.

Now that this is the true and proper signification of Christ's descending into hell, will be farther proved from the consideration of the ends for which he descended thither; some of the most pertinent whereof to our present purpose, are as follows.

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First, one end thereof, was to sanctify and sweeten unto us the state of separation; to abate its dread and terror, and to render it the more comfortable and joyful, in that our head and Saviour endured it before us; for, as Irenæus observes, after that our Lord had passed through the several ages of man's life to sanctify them unto us, he "at length came unto death, that he might be the first-born of the dead, and have the pre-eminency in all things: according unto which Athanasius writes, "that Christ condemned sin in his life on earth, took away the curse on the cross, corruption in the grave, and death in his descent into hell, passing through every place, and

appearing in our several conditions, that he might work out the salvation of the whole man."

Secondly, our Saviour descended into hell, because it was a necessary and principal part of his humiliation; for, though his soul was, and the souls of all good men now are in a place of bliss and happiness, yet as long as they continue in their state of separation, they are suffering under the effects of sin, from which they shall not be delivered till the resurrectionday, when death and hell, the executioners of sin, shall lose their sting and victory; according unto which, Irenæus writes, "that as Christ arose from the dead, so the bodies of all good men shall be raised, when the time of their condemnation for sin shall be completed;" and, Athanasius describes the "souls of Adam and other good men, held under the condemnation of death, to be crying unto the Lord in that state of separation for his mercy and pity." And the said father elsewhere remarks, that whereas, when man fell by the eating of the forbidden fruit, the righteous judge pronounced a double sentence upon him, the one relating unto his body, the other unto his soul; that respecting his body being comprehended in those words, dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return;" and that respecting his

soul in these words, "thou shalt die the death;" so when a Saviour was sent to redeem him that he might in his own person undergo the same punishment, he permitted his dead body to be laid in the grave, and with his soul he went into that place of separation, whither the souls of all men were adjudged to go, whereby likening himself to us in those states and conditions, he thereby redeemed us from them.

Thirdly, another end of Christ's descent into hell, was to conquer it in his own person, and as the head and representative of his church and people; that the loosing of his soul from the bonds thereof, might be an earnest and assurance to all his followers, that at the appointed time of their resurrection, their souls should be also rescued through his almighty power, and obtain an eternal victory over death and hell; from whence the ancients represented our Saviour like a mighty champion entering the territories of hell, and “fighting for the space of three days with him, till he had broken the strength of his malice,” and quite destroyed his power and force, setting himself free from all his bonds and fetters, and rendering them unable to detain his saints whensoever it shall please him to command them thence; for a declaration and manifes