into the place of corruption, as other bodies do. His soul, being separated from his body, departed hence into the other world, as all other men's souls in that case use to do. He went unto the dead and remained for a time in the state of death, as other dead men do. There remaineth now the vulgar acception of the word hell, whereby it is taken for the place of torment prepared for the devil and his angels; and touching this also all Christians do agree thus far, that Christ did descend thither, at least wise in a virtual manner, as God 613 is said to descend when he doth any thing upon earth, which being wonderfully done beyond the usual course of nature, may in some sort shew his presence," or when he otherwise 614 vouchsafeth to have care of human frailty." Thus when Christ's "615 flesh was in the tomb, his power did work from heaven,” saith St Ambrose. Which agreeth with that which was before cited out of the Armenians' confession: 616 According to his body, which was dead, he descended into the grave; but according to his DIVINITY, which did live, he overcame hell in the meantime ;" and with that which was cited out of Philo Carpathius, upon Cantic. v. 2, I sleep, but my heart waketh, 617in the grave spoiling hell;" for which in the Latin collections that go under his name, we read thus: 6618 I sleep, to wit on the cross, and my heart waketh, when my DIVINITY spoiled hell, and brought rich spoils from the triumph of everlasting death overcome and the devil's power overthrown." The author of the imperfect work upon Matthew attributeth this to the divinity, not clothed with any part of the humanity, but naked, as he speaketh. Seeing the devils 6619 feared him," saith he, 613 Descendere dicitur, cum aliquid facit in terra, quod præter usitatum naturæ cursum mirabiliter factum præsentiam quodammodo ejus ostendat. Augustin. de Civit. Dei, lib. xvi. cap. 5. 614 Descendere dicitur Deus, quando curam humanæ fragilitatis habere dignatur. Aug. Serm. LXX. de Tempore. 615 Erat caro ejus in monumento, sed virtus ejus operabatur e cœlo. Ambros. de Incarnat. cap. 5. 616 Supr. p. 307. 617 Supr. p. 302. 618 Ego dormio, in cruce scilicet, et cor meum vigilat, cum divinitas Tartara spoliavit, et opima spolia retulit de triumpho superatæ mortis æternæ atque dejectæ diabolicæ potestatis. Philo Carpath. in Cantic. v. 619 Quem in corpore constitutum timuerunt, dicentes, Quid nobis et tibi, Jesu fili Dei excelsi? venisti ante tempus torquere nos? quomodo nudam ipsam divinitatem contra se descendentem poterunt sustinere? Ecce post tres dies mortis suæ revertetur ab inferis, quasi victor de bello. Op. Imperf. in Matth. Homil. XXXV. Tom. 11. Chrysost. "while he was in the body, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus the Son of the High God? art thou come to torment us before our time? how shall they be able to endure his NAKED DIVINITY descending against them? Behold, after three days of his death he shall return from hell, as a conqueror from the war." This conquest others do attribute to his cross, others to his death, others to his burial, others to the real descent of his soul into the place of the damned, others to his resurrection; and extend the effect thereof, not only to the delivery of the Fathers of the Old Testament, but also to the freeing of our souls from hell. From whence how men may be said to have been delivered who never were there, St Augustine declareth by these similitudes: 620 Thou sayest rightly to the physician, Thou hast freed me from this sickness, not in which thou wast, but in which thou wast like to be. Somebody else having a troublesome business, to be cast into prison; there cometh another and defendeth him. What saith he when he giveth thanks? Thou hast delivered me from prison. A debtor was in danger to be hanged; the debt is paid for him; he is said to be freed from hanging. In all these things they were not; but because such were their deserts that unless they had been holpen there they would have been, they say rightly that they were freed thence, whither by those that freed them they were not suffered to be brought." That Christ destroyed the power of hell, 621 spoiled principalities and powers, and made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them, is acknowledged by all Christians. Neither is there any who will refuse to subscribe unto that which Proclus delivered in his sermon before Nestorius, then Bishop of Constantinople, inserted into the acts of the Council of Ephesus: 622 He was shut up in the grave 620 Recte dicis medico, Liberasti me ab ægritudine; non in qua jam eras, sed in qua futurus eras. Nescio quis habens causam molestam, mittendus erat in carcerem; venit alius, defendit eum. Gratias agens, quid dicit? Eruisti animam meam de carcere. Suspendendus erat debitor: solutum est pro eo; liberatus dicitur de suspendio. In his omnibus non erant: sed quia talibus meritis agebantur, ut nisi subven tum esset, ibi essent; inde se recte dicunt liberari, quo per liberatores suos non sunt permissi perduci. August. in Psal. LXXXV. 621 Ephes. ii. 15. 622 Εν τάφῳ κατεκλείετο, καὶ τὸν οὐ ρανὸν ἐξέτεινεν ὡσεὶ δέῤῥιν· ἐν νεκροῖς ἐλογίζετο, καὶ τὸν ᾅδην ἐσκύλευεν. Procli. Cyziceni Episc. Homil. de Nativit. Domin. in Act. Concil. Ephes. part. 1. cap. i. edit. Rom. who stretched out the heavens like a skin; he was reckoned among the dead and spoiled hell;" and that which St Cyril and the Synod of Alexandria wrote unto the same Nestorius concerning the confession of their faith, approved not only by the 623 third general Council held at Ephesus, but also by the 624 fourth at Chalcedon, and the 625 fifth at Constantinople: 626 To the end that by his unspeakable power treading down death in his own, as the first and principal, flesh, he might become the firstborn from the dead, and the firstfruits of those that slept; and that he might make a way to man's nature for the turning back again unto incorruption; by the grace of God he tasted death for all men, and revived the third day, spoiling hell:" all, I say, do agree that Christ spoiled, or, as they were wont to speak, harrowed hell; whether you take hell for that which keepeth the soul separated from the body, or that which separateth soul and body both from the blessed presence of him who is our true life; the one whereof our Saviour hath conquered by bringing in the resurrection of the body, the other he hath abolished by procuring for us life everlasting. Touching the manner and the means whereby hell was thus spoiled, is all the disagreement: the manner, whether our Lord did deliver his people from hell by way of prevention, in saving them from coming thither, or by way of subvention, in helping those out whom at the time of his death he found there: the means, whether this were done by his divinity, or his humanity, or both; whether by the virtue of his sufferings, death, burial, and resurrection, or by the real descending of his soul into the place wherein men's souls were kept imprisoned. That he descended not into the hell of the damned by the essence of his soul, or locally, but virtually only, by extending the effect of his power thither, is the common doctrine of 627 Thomas Aquinas and the rest of the school. Cardinal 623 Act. Concil. Ephes. part. 1. cap. καὶ ἀπαρχὴ τῶν κεκοιμημένων, ὁδοποιήσει xxvi. edit. Rom. 624 Concil. Chalced. Act. v. 625 Quint. Synod. Constantinop. Col lat. vi. 626 "Ινα γὰρ ἀῤῥήτῳ δυνάμει πατήσας τὸν θάνατον, ὡς ἔν γε δὴ πρώτῃ τῇ ἰδίᾳ σαρκί, γένηται πρωτότοκος ἐκ νεκρῶν, τε τῇ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου φύσει τὴν εἰς ἀφθαρσίαν ἀναδρομὴν, χάριτι θεοῦ ὑπὲρ παντός ἐγεύσατο θάνατον, τριήμερος δὲ ἀνεβίω σKVλEVÕαS TÒV äoŋv. Synod. Alexandrin. Epist. ad Nestor. 627 Thom, in Sum. part. 111. Quæst. LII. Art. 2. Bellarmine at first held it to be 62 probable that Christ's soul did descend thither, not only by his effects, but by his real presence also; but afterwards, 629 having considered better of the matter, he resolved that the opinion of Thomas and the other schoolmen was to be followed." The same is the judgment of 630 Suarez, who concerning this whole Article of Christ's descent into hell doth thus deliver his mind: 631 If by an article of faith we understand a truth which all the faithful are bound explicitly to know and believe, so I do not think it necessary to reckon this among the articles of faith, because it is not a matter altogether so necessary for all men, and because that for this reason, peradventure, it is omitted in the Nicene Creed; the knowledge of which Creed seemeth to be sufficient for fulfilling the precept of faith. Lastly, for this cause, peradventure, Augustine and other of the Fathers expounding the Creed, do not unfold this mystery unto the people." And to speak the truth, it is a matter above the reach of the common people to enter into the discussion of the full meaning of this point of the descension into hell; the determination whereof dependeth upon the knowledge of the learned tongues and other sciences that come not within the compass of their understanding; some experiment whereof they may observe in this, that whereas in the other questions here handled they might find themselves able in some reasonable sort to follow me; here they leave me, I doubt, and let me walk without their company. It having here likewise been further manifested, what different opinions have been entertained by the ancient doctors of the Church concerning the determinate place wherein our Saviour's soul did remain during the time of the separation of it from his body, I leave it to be considered by 66 the learned, whether any such controverted matter may fitly be brought in to expound the 632 rule of faith by," which being common both to the great and the small ones in the Church," must contain such verities only as are generally agreed upon by the common consent of all true Christians; and if the words of the Article of Christ's going to hades or hell may well bear such a general meaning as this, that he went to the dead, and continued in the state of death until the time of his resurrection, it would be thought upon, whether such a truth as this, which findeth universal acceptance among all Christians, may not safely pass for an Article of our Creed, and the particular limitation of the place unto which our Saviour's soul went, whether to the place of bliss, or to the place of torment, or to both, be left, as a number of other theological points are, unto further disputation. In the articles of our faith common agreement must be required, which we are sure is more likely to be found in the general than in the particular. And this is the only reason which moved me to enlarge myself so much in the declaration of the general acceptions of the word hades, and the application of them to our Saviour's descent spoken of in the Creed. Wherein if the zeal which I bear to the peace of the Church, and the settlement of unity among brethren, hath carried me too far, I entreat the reader to pardon me; and so ceasing to be further troublesome unto him in the prosecution of this intricate argument, I pass to the next question OF PRAYER TO SAINTS. THAT one question of St Paul, Rom. x. 14, How shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? among such as lust not to be contentious will quickly put an end unto this question. For if none can be invocated but such as must be believed in, and none must be believed in but 632 Regulam fidei pusillis magnisque communem in ecclesia perseveranter te nent. danum. Augustin. Epist. LVII. ad Dar |