Answer to a Jesuit in Ireland, Treatise · Section 7 (3 of 3)

Answer to a Jesuit in Ireland · Treatise · Section 7 (3 of 3)

p. 336First, the materiall Spheres in ancient time were not made moveable in their sockets, as they are now, that they might bee set to any elevation of the Pole: but were ooforeign. G…minus, in Phaenomen. cap. 13.fixt to the elevation of XXXVI. degrees; which was the height of the Rhodian climat. Secondly, the Horizon which devided this Sphere through the middle, and separated the visible part of the world from the invisible, was commonly esteemed the utmost p. 337bound of the earth: so that whatsoever was under that horizon, was accounted to be under the earth. for neyther the common people, nor yet some of the learned Doctros uf the Church (as ppLactant Institut. lib. 3. cap. 23.Lactantius, qqAugustin. de Civit. De…. lib. 16. cap. 9.S. Augustine, rrProcop. in Genes. cap. 1.Gen 1Procopius, and others) could be induced to beleeve that which our daily navigations finde now to bee most certaine; that there should bee another southerne hemisphere of the earth, inhabited by any Antipodes, that did walke with their feete just opposite unto ours. Thirdly, the great Ocean was supposed to be the thing in nature which was answerable to this horizon in the Sphere. Therefore it is observed by ssStrabo, Geograph. lib. 1. ad quem doctiss. Casauhonus hane ex Grammaticis Oceani definitionem producit. foreign.Strabo that Homer, and by ttforeign. Theon in Arat. pag. 6. foreign. Ibid. pag. 59. edit. Paris.Theon, uuforeign. Ach…l. Stat. in Ar…. pag. 93 …dit. Florentin. ubi etiam alius scholiastes, pag. 115. de horizonte similiter notat. foreign.Achilles Statius, and others that Aratus and the rest of the Poets doe put the Ocean for the Horizon: and thereupon where the astronomers say that the Sunne or the starres at their setting, goe under the horizon the common phrase of the Poets is, that they doe tingere se Oceano, dive themselves into the Ocean. for as they tooke the Earth to be but halfe a globe, and not a whole one: so they imagined that demye globe to be as it were a great mountaine or Iland seated in, and invironed round about with the Ocean. Thus the author of the booke de Mundo, affirmeth that xxforeign. Aristot. de Mundo, cap. 3.the whole world is one Iland, compassed about with the Atlanticke sea: and Dionysius Alexandrinus, in the beginning of his Geography,

foreign

foreign.

p. 338wherein he followed Eratosthenes, as his expositor Eustathius there noteth: who compareth also with this, that place of Orpheus foreign,

— foreign,

foreign.

whereunto answereth that of yyCitat ab Arati scholiaste, edit. cum Hipparcho, Florent. an. 1567. pag. 115.Euphorion, or (as zzAchil. Stat. in Arateis, ibid. pag 93.Achilles Statius citeth it) of Neoptolemus Parianus in his foreign.

foreign.

And this opinion of theirs the Fathers of the Church did the more readily entertayne: because they thought it had ground from **Vid. Augustin. Quaest. 132. in Genesim.Psalm. 24.2. and 136.6. and such other testimonies of holy Scripture. aaQuòd autē universa terra in aquis subsistat, nec ulla sit pars ejus, quae infra nos sita est, aquis vacua & denudata, omnibus notum reor. Nam sic docet Scriptura: Qui expandit terram super aquas. Et iterùm: Quia ipse super maria fundavit eam, & super flumina praeparavit eam. &c. Nec decet ut credamus aliquam terram infra nos coli nostro orbi oppositam. Procop. in Genes. cap. 1.Gen 1That the whole earth (saith Procopius Gazaeus) doth subsist in the waters, and that there is no part of it which is situated under us voyde and clear'd of waters; I suppose it be knowne unto all. For so doth the Scripture teach: Who stretcheth out the earth upon the waters. and againe: Hee hath founded it upon the seas, and prepared it upon the floods. Neyther is it fit we should beleeve, that any earth under us is inhabited, opposite unto our part of the world. The same collection is made by S. bbHilari. in Psalm. 2.Ps 2Hilary, ccChrysostom. in Genes. cap. 2. homil. 12.Gen 2Chrysostom, ddCaesar. Dialog. 1.Caesarius, and others. Fourthly, it was thought by the ancient heathen, that the Ocean (supplying the place of the Horizon) did eeforeign. Proclus Diadoch. in Hesiodi foreign. ab Hugone Sanfordo citatus; qui complura Veterum testimonia huc facientia diligenter congessit.separate the visible world from the kingdome of Hades: and therefore that such as went to Hádes (or the world invisible to us) must first p. 339passe the Ocean. and that the pole Antarctick was seene by them there, as the Arctick or North pole is by us here: according to that of Virgil in his Georgicks,

Hic vertex nobis semper sublimis: at illum

Sub pedibus Styx atra videt, manes que profundi.

Fiftly, as they held that Hades was for situation placed from the center of the earth downeward; so betwixt the beginning and the lowest part thereof they imagined as great a space to be interjected, as there is betwixt Heaven and Earth. So saith Apollodorus of Tartarus, the dungeon of torment. ffforeign. Apollodor. Bibliothec. lib. 1.This is a darke place in Hades, having as great a distance from the earth, as the earth from the heaven. and Hesiod in his Theogonia (agreably to that which before we heard from Homer)

foreign,

foreign.

It is as farre beneath the earth, as heaven is from the earth: for thus equall is the distance from the earth unto darke Tartarus. whereunto that of Virgil may be added, in the …ixt of the Aeneids:

— tum Tartarus ipse

Bis patet in praeceps tantum tendit que sub umbras,

Quantus ad aethereum coeli suspectus Olympum.

—then Tartarus it selfe, that sinke-hole steep

Two times as low descends, two times as headlong downright deep

As heaven upright …s hie.

that, see how hye the heaven is over us, when we looke upward to it; the downright distance from thence to Tartarus, should be twice as deepe againe. for so wee must conceive the Poets meaning to bee: if wee will make him to accord with the rest of his fellowes.

p. 340These observations, I doubt not, will be censured by many to savour of a needlesse and fruitelesse curiositie: but the intelligent reader for all that will easily disc…rne, how hereby he may be led to understand, in what sense the ancient both heathen and Christian writers did hold Hades to be under the earth; and upon what ground. For they did not meane thereby (as the Schoolemen generally doe, and as ggNobis inferi, non nuda cavositas, nec subdivalis aliqua mundi sentina credū tur: sed in fossâ terrae & in alto vastitas, & in ipsis visceribus ejus abstrusa profunditas. Tertull. de anima, cap. 55.Tertullian sometime seemeth to imagine) that it was contayned within the bowels of the earth: but that it lay under the whole bulke thereof, and occupied that whole space, which we now finde to be taken up with the earth, ayre and firmament of the southerne hemisphere. hhEsse autem hujus infernae regionis vas…aeque abyssi incolas pl…res, beati Ioannis Apocalypsi docemur. e…c. Hila…. …n P…alm. 2.the inhabitants of which infernall region and vast depth are thereupon affirmed by S. Hilary to be non intra terram sed infra terram, not within the earth but beneath the earth. And this proceeded from no other ground, but the vulgar opinion, that the southerne hemisphere of the earth was not inhabited by living men, as our north…rne is insomuch that some of the heathen atheists, finding the contrary to be true by the discourse of right reason; endevoured to perswade themselves from thence, that there was no such place as Hades at all. iiLucretius ex majore part…, & alij integré docent, inferorum regna ne esse quidem posse. Nam locum ipso…um quem possumus dicere; cùm sub …erris d…a…ur esse Antipodes? in mediâ veró terrâ eos esse, nec soliditas patitur, nec centrum terrae, quae terra si in … …edio mundi est; tanta ejus esse profunditas non potest, ut in medio sui habeat inferos, in quibus est Tartarus: de quo legitur, Bis patet in praeceps tantum, etc. Servius, in Aen…i…. 6.Lucretius for the greater part, (saith Servius) and others fully teach, tha… the kingdomes of Hell cannot as much as have a being. For what place can we say they have; when under the earth our Antipodes are sayd to be? and that they should be in the midst of the earth, neyther will the solidity permit, nor the center of the earth. which earth if it be in the middle of the world, the profundity thereof can p. 341not be so great, that it may have those Inferos within it, in which is Tartarus: whereof we reade,

Bis patet in praeceps tantum, tendit que sub umbras

Quantus ad aethereum coeli suspectus Olympum.

But Chrstiian men, being better instructed out of the word of God, were taught to answere otherwise. kkSi de situ & loco quaesieris, respondebo, dicamque extra terra…ū orbē hunc aliquo esse positam. Non ergo erit, quo fuerit haec loco sita, quin magis quo pacto evitari possit, quaerendū … Chrysostom de p…aemij. sanctor. tom. 3. Oper. Lae…in.If thou dost aske me (saith S. Chrysostom) of the situation and place of Gehenna: I will answere and say, that it is seated somewhere out of this world; and that it is not to be inquired in what place it is situated, but by what meanes rather it may be avoyded.

In the Dialogue betwixt Gregory Nyssen and that admirable woman Macrina, S. Basils sister, touching the Soule and the Resurrection, this point is stood upon at large: the question being first proposed by Gregory in this maner. llforeign. Gregor. N…ssen. in Macrin…s, tom. 2 Oper. pag 641.Where is that name of Hádes somuch spoken of? which is so much treated of in our common conversation, so much in the writings both of the heathen and our owne. into which all men thinke that the soules are translated from hence as into a certaine receptacle. For you will not say that the elements ar… this Hades. whereunto Macrina thus replyeth. mmforeign. (fort. foreign.) Ibid. pag. 641.642.It appeareth that thou didst not give much heed to my speech. for when I spake of the translation of the soule from that which is seen unto that which is invisible; I thought I had left nothing behinde to be inquired of Had…s. Neyther doth that name, wherein soules are said to be, seeme to me to signifie any other thing eyther in profane writers or in the holy scripture, save onelyonly a removing unto that which is invisible and unseene. Thereupon p. 342it being further demanded: nnforeign; etc. Ibid. pag. 642.how then doe some thinke that a certaine subterraneall place should be so called, and that the soules doe lodge therein? for answere thereunto it is said, that there is no maner of difference betwixt the lower hemisphere of the earth, and that wherein we live: that as long as the principall doctrine of the immortalitie of the soule is yeelded unto, no controversie should be moved touching the place therof; that locall position is proper to bodies, and the soule being incorporeall hath no need to be detained in certaine places. then the place objected from Philip. 2.10. of those under the earth that should bow at the name of Iesus, being largely skanned: this in the end is laid downe for the conclusion. ooforeign Ibid, pag. 644.These things being thus, no man can constraine us by the name of things under the earth to understand any subterraneall place: forasmuch as the ayre do…h so equally compasse the earth round about, that there is no part thereof found naked from the covering of the ayre. Both these opinions are thus propounded by ppforeign. Theophylact. in Luc. cap. 16.Luke 16Theophylact, and by qqInfernum autem hi quidem putant regionem sub terrâ caliginis & tenebrarum. &c. Alij veró Infernum ex apparitione ad disparitionem animae nominaverunt. Quandiu anima est in corpore, per proprias videtur actiones: sed ubi á corpore discessum est, omnibus modis incognita nobis existit. Hugo. Etherian. de animar. regress. ab Inferis, cap. 11.Hugò Etherianus after him. What is Hades or Hell? Some say that it is a darke place under the earth. Others say, that it is the translation of the soule from that which is visible unto that which is unseene and invisible. For while the soule is in the body, it is seene by the proper operations thereof: but being translated out of the body, it is invisible; and this did they say was Hádes.

So where the author of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy p. 343defineth death to be a separation of the united parts, and the bringing to them foreign, unto that which is invisible to us: his scholiast Maximus noteth thereupon, that rrforeign Maxim. in Dionys. Ecclesiast. Hi… rarch. cap. 2.this invisible thing some doe affirme to be Hádes; that is to say, an unseene and invisible departure of the soule unto places not to be seene by the sense of man. Hitherto also may be referred the place cited ssSuprá, pag. 217.before out of Origen in his fourth book foreign: which by S. Hierome is thus delivered. ttIn isto mundo qui moriuntur separatione carnis & animae, juxta operum differentiā diversa apud Inferos obtinēt loca. Origen. de Prin…ipijs, lib. 4. apud Hieronym. epist. 59. ad Avitum.They who dye in this world by the separation of the flesh and the soule, according to the difference of their workes obtaine diverse places in Hell. Where by Hádes, Inferi, or Hell he meaneth indefinitely the other world: in which how the soules of the godly were disposed, hee thus declareth in another place. uuRelinquit anima mundi hujus tenebras, ac naturae corporeae caecitatem, & transfertur ad aliud seculum: quod vel sinus Abrahae, ut in Lazaro, vel Paradisus, ut in latrone qui de cruce credidit, indicatur; vel etiam si qua novit Deus esse alia loca, vel alias mansiones, per quae transiens anima Deo creden…, & perveniens usque ad flumen illud quod laetificat civitatem Dei, intra ipsum sortem promissae patribus haereditatis accipiat. Origen. in Numer. 31. homil. 2….The soule leaveth the darkenesse of this world, and the blindnesse of this bodily nature, and is translated unto another world: which is eyther the bosome of Abraham, as it is shewed in Lazarus, or Paradise, as in the thiefe that beleeved upon the crosse; or yet if God know that there be any other places, or other mansions, by which the soule that beleeveth in God passing, and comming unto that river which maketh glad the citie of God, may receive within it the lott of the inheritance promised unto the Fathers. For touching the determinate state of the faithfull soules departed this life, the ancient Doctors (as we have shewed) were not so thoroughly resolved.

Now, all the question betwixt us and the Romanistes is, whether the faithfull be received into their everlasting tabernacles presently upon their removeall out of the body, or after they have beene first purified p. 344to the point (as Allen speaketh) in the furnace of Purgatorie: but in the time of the Fathers, as S. Augustin noteth, the xxIlla receptio utrùm statim post istam vitam flat, an in fine suculi in resurrectione mortuorum, atque ultimâ retributione judicij; non minima quaestio est. August. Quaestion Euange… lib. 2. cap. 38.great question was, vvhether the receiving of them into those everlasting tabernacles were performed presently after this life; or in the end of the world, at the resurrection of the dead, and the last retribution of judgement. And so concerning Hell the question was as great among them, whether all, good and bad, went thither or no? whereof the same S. Augustin is a witnesse also; who upon that speech of Iacob, Gen. 37.35. I will goe downe to my sonne mourning into Hell, writeth thus. yySolet esse magna quaestio, quo modo intelligatur infernus: u…rùm illuc mali tantùm, an etiam boni mortui descendere soleant. Si ergo tantùm mali: quo modo iste ad filium suum se dicit lugentem descendere? Non enim in poenis inferni eum esse credidit. An per turbati & dolentis v…rba sunt, mala sua etiam hinc exagggerantis? Id. Quaestio. 126, in Genesim. & Eucher. in Genes. l…b. 3. cap. 18.Gen 50It useth to be a great question, in what maner Hell should be understood: vvhether evill men onelyonly, or good men also when they are dead doe use to goe downe thither. And if evill men only doe; how doth he say that he would goe downe unto his sonne mourning? for he did not beleeve that he was in the paines of Hell. Or be these the words of a troubled & grieving man, amplifying his evils frō hence? and upon that other speech of his, Genes. 42.38. You shal bring down mine old age with sorrow unto Hell. zzVtrùm ideò ad infernum, quia cum tristitiâ? An etiam si abesset tristitia, tanquam ad in…ernum moriendo descensurus haec loquitur? De inferno enim magna quaestio est: & quid inde Scriptura sentiat, locis omnibus ubi fortè hoc commemoratum fuerit, observandum est. Augustin. Quaest. 142. in Genes…m. & Eucher. in Genes. lib. 3. cap. 27.Whether therefore unto Hell, because with sorrow? Or although sorrow were away, speaketh he these things as if he were t… goe down into hell by dying? For of Hell there is a great question: and what the Scripture delivereth thereof, in all the places where it hath occasion to make mention of it, is to be observed. Hitherto S. Augustin: who had reference to this great question, when he said as hath beene aaSupr. pag. 215.before alledged. Of Hell neyther have I had any experience p. 345as yet, nor you: and peradventure there shal be another way, and by Hell it shall not be. For these things are uncertaine. Neyther is there greater question among the Doctors of the Church concerning the Hell of the Fathers of the Old Testament, then there is of the Hell of the faithfull now in the time of the New: neyther are there greater differences betwixt them touching the Hell into which our Saviour went (whether it were under the earth or above, whether a darkesome place or a lightsome, whether a prison or a paradise) then there are of the mansions wherein the soules of the blessed do now continue.

S. Hierome, interpreting those words of King Ezechias, Esai. 38.10. I shall goe to the gates of Hell: saith that this is meant, bbVel communi lege naturae, vel…illas portas, de qu…bus quòd liberatus sit, Psalmista decantat: Qui exaltas me de portis mortis, ut annunciem omnes laudationes tuas in portis filiae Sion Hi…ronym. lib. 11. in Esai. cap. 38.Isa 38eyther of the common law of nature, or else of those gates, from which that he was delivered, the Psalmist singeth; Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death, that I may shew forth all thy prayses in the gates of the daughter of Sion. (Psalm. 9.13, 14.) Now as some of the Fathers doe expound our Saviours going to Hell, of his descending into Gehenna: so others expound it of his going to Hell according to the common law of nature; the common law of nature (I say) which extendeth it selfe indifferently unto all the dead, whether they belong to the state of the New Testament or of the Old. For as Christs soule was in all points made like unto ours (sinne onelyonly excepted) while it was joyned with his body here in the land of the living: so when he had humbled himselfe unto the death, it became him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, even in that state of dissolution. ccforeign. Eustathius Antiochen. in Psal. 15. citatus á …heodoreto in foreign. dialog. 1.Ps 15And so indeed the soule of Iesus had experience of both. For p. 346it was in the place of humaine soules, and being out of the flesh did live and subsist. It was a reasonable soule therefore and of the same substance with the soules of men; even as his flesh is of the same substance with the flesh of men, proceeding from Mary: saith Eustathius the Patriarch of Antioch in his exposition of that text of the Psalme; Thou wilt not leave my soule in Hell, Where by foreign or Hell, you see, he understandeth foreign, the place of humaine soules (which is the Hebrewes foreign or world of spirits) and by the disposing of Christs soule there after the maner of other soules, concludeth it to be of the same nature with other mens soules. So S Hilary in his exposition of the 138. Psalme. ddHumanae ista lex necessitatis est, ut consepultis corporibus ad inferos animae descendant. Quam descensionem Dominus ad consummationem veri hominis non recusavit. Hilari. in Psal. 138.Ps 138This is the law of humaine necessitie, saith he, that the bodies being buried, the soules should goe to Hell. Which descent the Lord did not refuse for the accomplishment of a true man. and a little after he repeateth it, that de supernis ad inferos mortis lege descendit, he descended from the supernall to the infernall parts by the law of death. and upon the 53. Psalme more fully. eeAd explendam quidem hominis naturam etiā morti se, id est, discenssioni se tanquam animae corporisque subjecit; & ad infernas sedes, id quod homini debitum videtur esse, penetravit. Id. in Psalm. 53.Ps 53To fulfill the nature of man he subjected himselfe to death, that is, to a departure as it were of the soule and body; and pierced into the infernall seates, which was a thing that seemed to be du… unto man.

So Leo, in one of his Sermons upon our Lords passion. ssLeges inferni moriendo subijt, sed resurgendo dissolvit: & ita perpetuitatem mortis incîdit, ut eam de aeternâ faceret temporalem. Leo de passion. serm. 8.Hee did undergoe the lawes of Hell by dying, but did dissolve them by rising againe: and so did cut off the perpetuitie of death, that of eternall hee might make it temporall. So Irenaeus, having said, that our Lord ggNunc autem tribus diebus conversatus est ubi erant mortui. Irenaeus, lib. 5. cap. ult.conversed three dayes where the dead were, addeth that p. 347therein he hhDominus legem mortuorū servavit, ut fieret primogenitus á mortuis, et commoratus usque ad te…tiā diē in inferioribus terrae, pòst deinde surgens in carne, ut etiā figuras clavorū ostenderet discipulis, sic ascendit ad patrem. Ibid.observed the law of the dead, that hee might be made the first begotten from the dead; staying untill the third day in the lower parts of the earth, and afterward rising in his flesh. Then he draweth from thence this generall conclusion. iiCùm enim Dominus in medio umbrae mortis abierit, ubi animae mortuorum erant, post deinde corporaliter resurrexit, & post resurrectionē assumptus est: manifestū est quia & discipulorum ejus, propter quos & haec operatus est Dominus, animae abibunt in invisibilem locum, definitū eis á Deo, & ibi usque ad resurrectionem commorabuntur, sustinentes resurrectionem; pòst recipientes corpora & perfecté resu…gentes, hoc est corporaliter, quemadmodum & Dominus resurrexit, sic venient ad conspectum Dei. Nemo enim est discipulus super magistrum: perfectus autem omnis erit, sicut magister ejus. Ibid.Seeing our Lord went in the midst of the shadow of death, vvhere the soules of the dead were, then afterward rose againe corporally, and after his resurrection was assumed: it is manifest that the soules of his disciples also, for whose sake the Lord wrought these things, shall goe to an invisible place appointed unto them by God, and there shall abide untill the resurrection, wayting for the resurrection; and afterwards receaving their bodies, and rising againe perfectly, that is to say corporally, even as our Lord did rise againe, they shall so come unto the presence of God. For there is no disciple above his master: but every one shall be perfect, if he be as his master. The like collection doth Tertullian make in his booke of the Soule. kkTertullian de Animâ, cap. 55. vid. supr. pag. 270. ad liter. b.If Christ being God, because he was also man, dying according to the Scriptures, and being buried according to the same, did heere also satisfie the law, by performing the course of an humane death in Hell; neyther did ascend into the higher parts of the heavens, before he descended into the lower parts of the earth, that he might there make the Patriarches and Prophets partakers of himselfe: thou hast, both to beleeve that there is a region of Hell under the earth, and to push them with the elbowe, who proudly enough doe not thinke the soules of the faithfull to be fit for Hell; servants above their Lord, and disciples above their Master, scorning perhaps to take the comfort of expecting p. 348the resurrection in Abrahams bosome. And in the same booke, speaking of the soule: llQuid est illud quod ad inferna transfertur post divortium corporis, quod detinetur illic, quod in diem judicij reservatur, ad quod & Christus moriendo descendit, puto ad animas Patriarcharum. Jbid. cap. 7.What is that, saith he, which is translated unto the infernall parts (or Hell) after the separation of the body? which is detayned there, which is reserved unto the day of judgement, unto which Christ by dying did descend, to the soules of the Patriarches, I thinke. Where he maketh the Hell unto which our Saviour did descend, to be the common receptacle not of the soules of the Patriarches alone, but also of the soules that are now still separated from their bodies: as being the place quò universa humanitas trahitur (as he speaketh mmIbid. cap. 58.elsewhere in that booke) unto which all mankinde is drawne.

So Novatianus after him, affirmeth that the very places nnQuae infraterram jacent, neque ipsa sunt digestis & ordinatis potestatibus vacua. Locus enim est, quò piorum animae impiorumque ducuntur, futuri judicij pra…judicia sentientes Novatian. de Trinitat. cap 1.which lye under the earth be not voyde of distinguished and ordered powers. For that is the place (saith he) whither the soules both of the godly and ungodly are led, receiving the fore-judgements of their future d…ome. Lactantius saith that our Saviour ooLactant. Justitut. lib. 4. cap. 19.rose againe ab inferis, from Hell: but so he saith also that the dead Saints shall be ppI…. lib. 7. cap. 24. vid. & cap. 22.raised up ab inferis at the time of the Resurrection. S. Cyrill of Alexandria saith that the Iewes qqforeign Cyrill. Glaphyr. in Genes. lib. 6. pag. 154.killed Christ, and cast him into the deepe and darke dungeon of death, that is, into Hades: adding afterward, that rrforeign. Ibid. pag 155.Hades may rightly be esteemed to be the house and mansion of such as are deprived of life. Nicephorus Gregoras in his funerall Oration upon Theodorus Metochites, putteth in this for one strayne of his lamentation. ssforeign; Niceph. G…egor. histor. Roman. lib. 10.Who hath brought downe that heavenly man unto the p. 349bottome of Hades? and Andrew archbishop of Crete, touching the descent both of Christ and all Christians after him even unto the darke and comfortlesse Hades writeth in this maner. ttforeign; Andre. Hierosolymitan. serm. in vitam humanam, & in Defunctos.If hee, who was the Lord and master of all, and the light of them that are in darknesse, and the life of all men, would taste death, and undergoe the descent into Hell, that he might be made like unto us in all things, sinne excepted; and for three dayes went thorough the sad, obscure and darke region of Hell: what strange thing is it, that wee who are sinners, and dead in trespasses (according to the great Apostle) who are subject to generation and corruption; should meete with death, and goe with our soule into the darke chambers of Hell, where we cannot see light, nor behold the life of mortall men? For are wee above our Master, or better then the Saints, who underwent these things of ours after the like maner that we must doe?

Iuvencus intimateth, that our Saviour giving up the ghost sent his soule unto heaven, in those verses of his:

uuJuvenc. Histor. Euangel. lib. 4.Tunc clamor Domini magno conamine missus,

Aethereis animam comitem commiscuit auris.

Eusebius Emesenus collecteth so much from the last words which our Lord uttered at the same time; Father, into thine hands I commend my spirit. foreign, saith xxEuseb. Em…sen. á Theodore…o citatus in foreign. dialog. 3.he, foreign. His spirit was above, and his body remayned upon the crosse for us. In the Greeke exposition of the Canticles, collected out of Eusebius, Philo Carpathius and others, that sentence in the beginning of the sixt chapter, My beloved p. 350is gone down into his garden, is interpreted of Christs yyforeign. Euseb. in Cantic. pag. 68.going to the soules of the Saints in Hádes. which in the Latin collections that beare the name of Philo Carpathius is thus more largely expressed. zzPer descensum Sponsi quem patruelem appellat, Domini nost…i Iesu Christi descensum ad inferos possumus intelligere, ut arbitror: nam & haec sequentia probant, cùm dixit; Ad aromatum phialas sive areolas. Prisci enim illi sanctissimi viri, per phialas aromatum non inepté significantur; quales fuere, Noë, Abraham, Isaac, Iacob, Moses, Iob, David, Samuel, Elisaeus, Daniel, alijque quamplurimi ante Legem & in Lege: qui quidem omnes, veluti aromatum phialae sive areolae, sanctissimae justitiae odores ac fructus suavissimé oluerunt. Tunc enim Paradisum triumphator ingressus est, cùm ad inferos penetravit. Adest nobis ipse Deu… hâc in re testis, cùm in Cruce Latroni (sese illi ipsi religiosissime commendanti) clementissimé respondit; Hodie mecū eris in Paradiso. Philo Carpath in Canti…. 6.By this descending of the Bridegrome, we may understand the descending of our Lord Iesus Christ into Hell as I suppose: for that which followeth proveth this, when he sayeth; To the beds of spices. For those ancient holy men are not unfi…ly signified by the beds of spices; such as were, Noë, Abraham, Isaac, Iacob, Moses, Iob, David, Samuel, Elisaeus, Daniel, and very many others before the Law & in the Law: who all of them, like unto beds of spices, gave a most sweete smell of the odours and fruits of holy righteousnesse. For then as a triumpher did he enter into PARADISE, when he pierced into Hell. God himselfe is present with us for a witnesse in this matter, when he answered most graciously to the Thiefe upon the Crosse, commending himselfe unto him most religiously; To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. Lastly touching this Paradise, the various opinions of the ancient are thus layd downe by Olympiodorus; to seeke no farther. aaDigna fané inquisitu res est, ubinā sub Sole justi vitâ functi collocentur. Constat autem quòd in Paradiso: cùm dixerit Christus Latroni; Hodie mecum eris in Paradiso. Sciendum que est, quòd literalis Traditio Paradisum docet esse in terrâ. Nonnulli veró dixerunt, quòd Paradisus etiam est in inferno, id est, subterraneo loco: ad quam suam opinionem illud accommodant Euangelium. Dives Lazarum vidit, ipse tamen in inferiore demersus, cùm Lazarus eminentiore esset in loco, ubi esset Abraham. Verùm quomodocumque se habeant; illud proculdubio constat, tum ex praesenti Ecclesiastae nostri loco, tum ex omni …acrâ …cripturâ, futuros pios in prosperitate ac pace, in…ustos veró in supplicijs ac tormentis. Alijs autem placuit Paradisum esse in coelis: bonus autem ac ingenuus Ecclesiastes historiae sensum potiùs consectabitur. Olympiodor. in Ecclesiast. cap. 3.It is a thing worthy of enquirie, in p. 351what place under the Sunne the righteous are placed which have left this life. Certaine it is, that in Paradise: forasmuch as Christ said unto the Thiefe; This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. And it is to be knowne, that the literall Tradition teacheth Paradise to be in earth. But some have said that Paradise also is in Hell, that is, in a place under the earth: unto which opinion of theirs they apply that of the Gospell; where the rich man saw Lazarus, being yet himselfe sunke downe in a lower place, when Lazarus was in a place more eminent, where Abraham was. But howsoever the matter goeth; this without doubt is manifest, aswell out of Ecclesiastes as out of all the sacred Scripture, that the godly shall be in prosperity and peace, and the ungodly in punishments and torments. And others are of the minde, that Paradise is in the Heavens, &c. Hitherto Olympiodorus.

That Christs soule went into Paradise, bbBishop answer to Perkin… advertisement, pag. 9.Doctor Bishop saith, being well understood, is true. For his soule in hell, had the joyes of Paradise: but to make that an exposition of Christs descending into hell, is to expound a thing by the flat contrary of it. Yet this ridiculous exposition, he affirmeth to be received of most Protestants. Which is even as true, as that which he avoucheth in the same place; that this article of the descent into Hell is to be found ccIbid. pag. 8.in the old Roman Creed expounded by Ruffinus: where Ruffinus (as we have heard) expounding that article, delivereth the flat contrarie, that it is not found added in the Creed of the Church of Rome. It is true indeed, that more than most Protestants do interprete the words of Christ uttered unto the Thiefe upon the Crosse, Luk. 23.43. of the going of his soule into Paradise: where our Saviour meaning simply and plainly, that hee would be that day in ddSuarez. tom. 2 in 3. part. Thom. quaest. 46. art. 11. & quaest. 52. art. 8. disp. 43. sect. 4. Bellarmin de Sanctor. Beatitud. lib. 1. cap. 3. testim. 4. See before, pag. 254.Heaven; M. Bishop p. 352would have him so to be understood, as if he had meant that that day he would be in Hell. And must it be now held more ridiculous in Protestants, to take Hell for Paradise; then in M. Bishop, to take Paradise for Hell? foreign, be the wordes of the Apostles Creed in the Greeke: and, foreign, in the Symbol of eeTom. 2. Oper. Athanas pag. 39. edit. Graecolat.Athanasius. Some learned Protestants do observe, that in these words there is no determinate mention made, eyther of ascending or descending, either of Heaven or Hell (taking Hell according to the vulgar acception) but of the generall only, under which these contraries are indifferently comprehended: and that the words literally interpreted, import no more but this; HEE WENT UNTO THE OTHER WORLD. Which is not to expound a thing by the flat contrary of it, as M. Bishop fancieth: who may quickly make himselfe ridiculous, in taking upon him thus to censure the interpretations of our learned linguistes; unlesse his owne skill in the languages were greater, then as yet he hath given proofe of.

Master Broughton (with whose authoritie hee elsewhere presseth us, as of a man ffBishop. Preface to the second part of his Reformat. of Perkins Catholick pag. 19.esteemed to be singularly seene in the Hebrew and Greeke tongue) hath beene but too forward in maintayning that exposition, which by D. Bishop is accounted so ridiculous. In one place, touching the terme Hell, as it doth answer the Hebrew Sheol and the Greeke Hádes, he writeth thus. ggBrought. in his epistle to the Nobilitie of Engl. edit. an. 1597. pag. 38.He that thinketh it ever used for Tartaro or Gehenna, otherwise then the terme Death may by Synecdoche import so: hath not skill in Ebrew or that Greeke, vvhichwhich breathing and live Graecia spake, if God hath lent me any judgement that way. In hhId. in alio Opusculo, edit. an. 1604.another place he alledgeth out of Portus his Dictionary, that the Macedonians call foreign Heaven. p. 353And one of his acquaintance beyond the Sea, reporteth that he should deliver, that in iiInveniri insupe… asserit in multis vetussissimis exemplaribus MS…. orationem Dominicam in hunc modum; foreign Pater noster qui es in inferno etc. Veteres quoque Macedones aliter orationem Dominicam nunquam precatos fuisse. Io. Rodolph. Lavator. de descensu ad inferos, lib. 1. part 1. cap 8.many most ancient Manuscript copies the Lords prayer is found with this beginning: foreign, Our Fat…er which art in Hádes. which I for my part will then beleeve to be true, when I shall see one of those old copies with mine owne eyes. But in the meane time for Hádes, it hath beene sufficiently declared before out of▪ good authors, that it signifieth the place of soules departed in generall; and so is of extent large enough to comprehend under it, as well foreign (as Damascius speaketh) that part of Hádes (or the unseene vvorld) which is in heaven, as that which by kkIoseph. de Bello Iudaic. lib. 3. cap. 25. pag. 785.Iosephus is called foreign the darker Hades, and in the llMatth 8.12. & 22.13. & 25.30.Matt 8:12Matt 22:13Matt 25:30Gospell foreign outer darknesse. And as for foreign the other word; in the Acts of the Apostles it is used ten times: and in none of all those places signifieth anie descending from a higher place unto a lower, but a removing simply from one place unto another. Whereupon the Vulgar Latin edition (which none of the Romanists mmNemo illam rejicere quovis praetextu audeat, vel praesumat. Conci…. Tridentin. sess. 4.upon any pretense may presume to reject) doth render it there by the generall termes of nnAct. 13.4.Acts 13:4abeo, oo18.5. et 27.5.venio, pp9.32.devenio, qq11.27. & 21.10.supervenio. and where it retayneth the word rr8.5. & 12.19. & 15.1. & 18.22.descendo, it intendeth nothing lesse, then to signifie thereby the lower situation of the place unto which the removeall is noted to be made. If descending therfore in the Acts of the Apostles imply no such kind of thing: what necessitie is there; that thus of force it must be interpreted in the Creed of the Apostles? Menelaus declared unto us, foreign: saith King Antiochus, in his epistle unto the Iewes, 2. Maccab. 11.29. Velle vos descendere ad vestros, it is in the Latin edition: whereby p. 354what else is meant, but that they had a desire to goe unto their owne?

I omitt the phrases of descending in praelium, in forum, in campum, in amicitiam, in caussam, &c. which are so usuall in good Latin authors: yea and of descending into heaven it selfe; if that be not a jeast which the Poet breaketh upon Claudius.

ssIuvenal. Satyr. 6.Ille senis tremulum que caput descendere jussit

In coelum.

Others adde unto this, that the phrase of descending ad inferos, is a popular kinde of speech, which sprung from the opinion that was vulgarly conceived of the situation of the recept…cle of the soules under the earth: and that according to the rule of Aristo…le in his Top…cks, we must speake as the vulgar, but thinke as wise men doe. Even as wee use to say commonly, that the Sunne is under a cloude, because it is a vulgar forme of speech: and yet it is farre enough from our meaning for all that, to imagine the cloude to bee indeede higher then the Sunne. So Cicero, they say, where ever hee hath occasion to mention any thing that concerneth the dead, speaketh still of Inferi according to the vulgar phrase: although hee misliked the vulgar opinion, which bred that maner of speaking; and professed it to bee his judgement, that ttAnimos cùm é corpore excesserint, in sublime ferri. Cic lib 1. Tusculan. quaest.the soules when they depart out of the body are carried up on high, & not downward unto any habitations under the earth. So Chrysostom and Theophylact thinke that the Apostle tearmed the Death and Hell unto which our Saviour did descend, the lower parts of the earth, Ephes. 4.9. uuChrysost. in Ephes. homil. 11.foreign, xxTheop…lact. in Ephes. cap. 4.Eph 4from the common opinion of men. So in the translation of the holy Scripture, p. 355S. Hierome sheweth that wee use the names of Arcturus and Orion, not approving thereby the ridiculous and monstrous figments of the Poets in this matter, but expressing the Hebrew names of these constellations by the vvords of heathenish fables; because yyQui non possumus intelligere quod dicitur, nisi per ea vocabula, quae usu didicimus, & errore combibimus. Hieronym. lib. 2. in Amos cap. 5.Amos 5we cannot understand that which is sayd, but by those words, which we have learned by use, and drunke in by error.

And just so standeth the case with this word Hades: which with the G…eeke Poets is the name of Pluto, whom they fayned to be the God of the dead under the earth, & gave a denomination unto foreign, from riches; zzPhurnutus de naturâ D…or. in Plutone.because that all things comming to their dissolution, there is nothing which is not at last brought unto him, and made his possession. Thus Homer and Hesiod, with aaPlato, in Gorgia.Plato and others after them, say that Rhea brought forth three sonnes, to Saturne; Iupiter, Neptune,

bbHesiod. in Theogoniâ.foreign,

foreign.

and mightie Hades, who inhabiteth the houses under the earth, having a mercilesse heart: for that attribute doth Hesiod give unto him, because Death spareth no man. So Homer: — ccHomer. Iliad. 15.foreign: which is also the description that Hesiod maketh of him in that verse: ddHesiod. Theog…n.foreign, Hades was afraid, who raigneth over them that lye dead in the earth. Now that foreign in the Creed p. 356is a phrase taken from the heathen, and applied to expresse a Christian truth; the very Grammatica…l construction may seeme to intimate: where the nowne is not put in the accusative case (as otherwise it should) but after the maner of the Greekes in the genitive case, implying the defect of another word necessarily to be understood; as if it had beene said, He went unto the place or house of Hades. as the Poets use to expresse it, sometimes defectively foreign, and sometimes more fully eeforeign. Pindar. Phyth. od. 3.foreign or ffforeign foreign. Homer. Iliad. foreign.foreign, into the house or chambers of Hádes. Thus then, they that take Hádes for the common receptacle of soules, doe interpret the context of the Creed, as Cardinall Cajetan before did the narration of Moses touching Abrahams giving up the ghost, being gathered to his people, and being buried, Genes. 25.8, 9. that the article of the death is to be r…ferred to the whole manhood, and the dissolution of the parts thereof; that of the buriall, to the body s…parated from the soule, and this of the descending into Hádes, to the soule separated f…om the body as if he had said. He suffered death truely, by a reall separation of his soule from his bodie: and after this dissolution, the same did befall him that useth to betide all other dead men; his livelesse bodie was sent unto the place which is appointed to receive dead bodies, and his immortall soule went unto the other world, as the soules of other men use to doe.

Having now declared, how the Greek Hádes (and so the Latine Inferi, and our English Hell) is taken for the place of the bodies and of the soules of dead men, severally: it followeth that we shew, how the common state of the dead is signified thereby, and the place in generall which is answerable unto the parts of the p. 357whole man thus indefinitely considered in the state of separation. Concerning which, that place of Dionysius, wherein he setteth forth the signification of our being dead and buried with Christ by Baptisme, is to be considered. ffforeign Dionys. Ecclesiastic. Hierarch. cap. 2.Forasmuch as death is in us, not an utter extinguishment of our being, as others have thought, but a separation of the united parts, bringing them unto that which is to us invisible; the soule as being by the deprivation of the body made unseene, and the body as eyther being covered in the earth, or by some other of the alterations that are incident unto bodies, being taken away from the sight of man: the whole covering of the man in water is fitly assumed for an image of the death and buriall which is not seene. Thus Dionysius, concerning the separation of the united parts by Death, and the bringing of them unto that which is invisible: ggforeign. Georg pachymer thid.according whereunto, as his paraphrast Pachymeres noteth, it is called Hádes, that is to say, an invisible separation of the soule from the body. And so indeed wee finde as well in forraine authors, as in the Scriptures & the writings of the Greek and Latin Fathers, that Hádes and Inferi are not only taken in as large a sense as Death (and so extended unto all men indifferently, whether good or bad) but are likewise oftentimes indifferently used for it. For proofe whereof, out of heathen authors these testimonies following may suffice.

hhPindar. Olymp. od. 8.foreign

foreign:

saith Pindarus. The man that doeth things befitting him, forgetteth Hádes: meaning, that the remembrance of death doth no whit trouble him. and againe:

iiId. Isthm. Od. 6.foreign

foreign—

foreign

foreign.

p. 358The sonne of Cleonicus wisheth that with such manners he may meet and receive Hades (that is, death) and hoare old age. So another Poet, cyted by kkPlutarch. de consolat ad Apollon.Plutarch:

foreign.

foreign.

O Death, the soveraigne physician, come: for Hádes is in very truth the haven of the earth. So the saying, that the best thing were, never to have been born, and the next to that, to dye quickly; is thus expressed by Theognis, in his elegies:

foreign,

foreign.

foreign,

foreign.

Sophocles in the beginning of his Trachiniae, bringeth in D…ianira affirming that, howsoever it were an old saying among men, that none could know whether a man, life were happy or unhappy before he were dead; yet she knew her own to be heavie and unfortunate before she went to Hádes.

foreign,

foreign.

where foreign, is the same with foreign before death: as both the ancient Scholiast and the matter it selfe doth shew. So in his Ajax: foreign. He is better that is hidden in Hádes (that is to say, he that is dead, foreign, as the Scholiast rightly expoundeth it) then he that is sick past recoverie. and in his Antigone:

foreign,

foreign.

My father and mother being layd in Hádes, it is not possible that any brother should spring forth afterward. Wherwith llClem. Strom. lib. 6.Clemens Alexandrinus doth fitly compare that speech of the wife of Intaphernes in mmHerodot. histor. lib 3.Herodotus: foreign p. 359foreign. My father and mother being now no longer living, another brother by no maner of meanes can be had. So that foreign or foreign, being in Hádes, with the one, is the same with foreign, not now living, in the other; or as it is alledged by Clemens, foreign, not now being: which is the Scripture phrase of them that have left this world, Genes. 5.24. and 42.36. Psal. 39.13. Ierem. 31.15. and 49.10. used also by Homer, Iliad. β.

foreign

foreign.

Touching the use of the word Hell in the Scriptures, thus writeth Iansenius, expounding those words, Proverb. 15.11. Hell and destruction are before the Lord: how much more then, the hearts of the children of men? nnSciendum quòd per Infernum (pro quo dictio Hebraica proprié significat sepulchrum) & perditionem, quae duo in scripturis saepè conjunguntur, significatur status mortuorum; & non solùm damnatorum, ut nos feré ex his vocibus auditis concipimus, sed in genere status defunctorum. Cornellansen. in Proverb 15.It is to be knowen, that by Hell and destruction (which two in the Scriptures are often joyned together) the state of the dead is signified; and not of the damned only, as wee commonly doe conceave when we heare these words, but the state of the deceased in generall. So ooGasp. …anct. in Act. 2. sect. 56.Acts 2Sanctius the Iesuite, with Sà his fellow, acknowledgeth, that Hell in the Scripture is frequently taken for Death. Therefore are these two joyned together, Revel. 1.18. I have the keyes of Hell and of Death, or (as other Greeke copies read; agreeably to the old Latin and Aethiopian translation) of Death and of Hell. and Esai. 28.15. We have made a covenant with Death, and with Hell we are at agreement. where the Septuagint, to shew that the same thing is meant by both the words, do place the one in the room of the other, after this maner: We have made a covenant with Hell, and with Death an agreement. The same things likewise are indifferently attributed unto them p. 360both: as that they are unsatiable, and never full; spoken of Hell, Proverb. 27.20. and of Death, Haback. 2.5. So the gates of Hell, Esai. 38:10. are the gates of Death, Psalm. 9.13. and 107.18. and therefore where we reade in the book of Wisedome; ppforeign. Sapient. 16.13.Thou leadest to the gates of Hell, and bringest backe againe: the Vulgar Latin translateth it; qqDeducis ad portas mortis, & reducis. Lat. ibid.Thou leadest to the gates of Death, and bringest back againe. So the sorrowes of Death, Psal. 18.4. are in the verse following tearmed, the sorrowes of Hell: and therefore the LXX. (as hath beene shewed) translating the selfe same words of David, doe in the Psalme render them the sorrowes of Hell, and in the historie 2. Sam. 22.6. (where the same Psalme is repeated) the sorrowes of Death. Whence also that difference of reading came, Act. 2.24. aswell in the copies of the text as in the citations of the ancient Fathers: which was the lesse regarded, because that varietie in the words bredd little or no difference at all in the sense. Therefore Epiphanius in one place, having respect to the beginning of the verse, saith that Christ loosed rrEpiphan in Anacephalaeosi, pag. 531. edit. Graec.foreign the sorrowes of Death: and yet in another, citing the later end of the verse, because it was not possible he should be holden by it, addeth this explication thereunto, ssId. in Anchora…o, pag. 484. Vid. etiam eund. contra Ariomani…. haeres. 69. pag. 337.foreign, that is to say, by Hell. And the author of the Sermon upon Christs passion, among the workes of Athanasius, one where saith that he loosed the sorrowes of ttAthana…. Oper. Gra…olat. tom. 1. pag. 801.Hell, and otherwhere that he loosed the sorrowes of uuIbid. pag. 805.Death. unto whom wee may adjoyne Bede, xxSolutos per Dominū dicit dolores inferni, sive mortis. Bed. Retract. in Act. cap. 2.Acts 2who is in like maner indifferent for eyther reading.

In the Proverbs, where it is said; There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end therof are the waies of Death: Proverb. 14.12. and 16.25. the LXX. in both p. 361places for Death put foreign the bottome of Hell. and on the other side, where it is said; Thou shalt beate him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soule from Hell: Proverb. 23.14. they reade, foreign, Thou shalt deliver his soule from Death. So in Hose. 13.14. where the Hebrew and Greeke both reade: I will deliver them from the hand of Hell: the Vulgar Latin hath; De manu mortis liberabo eos, I will deliver them from the hand of Death. which S. Cyrill of Alexandria sheweth to be the same in effect. for yyforeign Cyrill. in Hoseam. pag. 371.he hath redeemed us (saith he) from the hand of Hell, that is to say, from the power of Death. So out of the text, Matth. 16.18. Eusebius noteth, that the Church doth zzforeign. Euseb. lib. 1. Praeparat. Euangelic. pag. 7.not give place to the gates of DEATH, for that one saying which Christ did utter: VponUpon the rocke I will build my Church, and the gates of HELL shall not prevaile against it. S. Ambrose also from the same text collecteth thus, that aaFides ergo est Ecclesiae fundamentū. Non enim de carne Petri, sed de fide dictum est, quia portae mortis ei non praevalebunt; sed confessio vicit infernum. Ambros. de Incarnat. sacrament. cap. 5.faith is the foundation of the Church. For it was not said of the flesh of Peter, but of the faith, that the gates of DEATH should not prevaile against it: but the confession (of the faith) overcame HELL. So Theodoret noteth, that the bbInfernum autem ex opinione, quae invaluit, usurpavit; hoc etiam morti nomen imponens. Theodoret. in Cantic. 8.Song 8name of Hell is given unto Death, in that place, Cantic. 8.6. Love is strong as death, jealousie is hard or cruell as Hell. which in the writings of the Fathers is a thing very usuall. Take the Poems of Theodorus Prodromus for an instance: where delivering an historie out of the life of S. Chrysostom, of a woman that had lost foure of her sonnes; he saith that they foure were gone unto Hádes,

— foreign

foreign.

p. 362and relating how S. Basil had freed the countrey of Cappadocia from famine, thus he expresseth it:

foreign

foreign

foreign.

and shewing how Gregory Nazianzen, when he was a childe, was recovered from death by being brought to the communion Table; he saith he was brought unto the Sunne from Hádes: foreign.

Gregory himselfe likewise in his Poems, setting out the dangers of a sea-faring life, saith that ccforeign. Nazianz. Carm. 15. de Vitae itinerib. tom. 2. edit. Graecolat. pag. 91.the greater part of them that saile the seas is in Hades. Baesil of Seleucia, speaking of the translation of Enoch and Elias, saith in one place, that ddforeign. Basil. Se…enc. in Ionam orat. 2. pag. 114.Enoch remayned out of Deaths nett, Elias obeyed not the lawes of nature; and in another, that eeforeign. Id in illud: Ecce as…endimus Hierosolym. pag. 268.Elias remayned superior to death, Enoch by translation declined Hades: making Death and Hades to be one and the same thing. So he maketh Elias to pray thus, at the raysing of the widowes sonne. ffforeign. Id. in Eliam. pag. 97.Shew, ô Lord, that Death is made gentle towards men, let it learne the evidences of thy humanity; let the documents of thy goodnesse come even to Hades. And as he there noteth that ggforeign. Ibid.Death received an overthrow from Elias: so in another place he noteth that hhforeign. Id. in illud: Ecc… ascendimus Hierosolym. pag. 265.Hades received a like overthrow, by Christs raysing of the dead. whereupon he bringeth in S. Peter, using this speech unto our Saviour: p. 363iiforeign; …b. pag. 268.Shall Death make any youthfull attempt against thee, whose voyce Hades could not endure? The other day thou didst call the widowes sonne that was dead; and Death fled, not being able to accompany him unto the grave whom he had overcome: how shall Death therefore lay hold on him, whom it feareth? and our Saviour himselfe speaking thus unto his Disciples. kkforeign. Ibid. pag. 267.I will arise out of the grave, renewing the Resurrection: I will teach Hades that it must expect the Resurrection to succeed it. For in me both Death ceaseth, and immortalitie is planted. So saith S. Cyrill of Alexandria: llforeign. Cyrill. Alexand…. Glaphyr. in Genes. lib. 5. pag 121.Christ was raysed up for us. for he could not be detayned by the gates of Hades, nor taken at all by the bonds of Death. And therefore Cyrill of Hierusalem having sayd that our Saviour did mmCyrill Hierosolym. Cateches. 14.descend into Hades, doth presently adde as an explication thereof. foreign. for he did descend into Death. nnforeign. Athanas. de Incarnat. Verbi, contra Gentes, pag. 77.He descended into Death as a man: saith Athanasius. ooDivina natura in mortem per carnem descendit; non ut lege mortalium detineretur á morte, sed ut per se resurrecturus januas mortis aperiret. Ruffin. in exposit. Symbol.The diuine nature (saith Ruffinus, meaning the divine person) by his flesh descended into Death; not that according to the law of mortall men he should be detayned of death, but that rising againe by himselfe he might open the gates of death. ppforeign. Octoēch. Anastas. Graec. & Li…urg. Chr…sost. Latin. á …eone Thus…o edit.When thou didst descend into Death, ô immortall Life, (say the Grecians in their Liturgie) thou didst then mortifie Hades or Hell with the brightnesse of thy divinitie.

And thus, if my memory do not faile me, (for at this present I have not the booke lying by me) is the article expressed in the Hebrew Creed, which is printed with Potkens qqSyllabar. Aethiopic. ad calcem Psalterij, edit. Hebraic. Graec. Latin. & Aethiopic. in fol.Aethiopian Syllabarie. foreign He descended p. 364into the shadow of death. where the Hebrew Interpreter doth render Hades by the shadow of death: as the Greeke Interpreters, in that text (which by the rrAthanas. …rat. 4. contra Arian. tom. 1. edit Graecolat. pag. 291. serm. in passion. & Cruc. Dom. ibid. pag. 801. quaest. ad Antio…h. tom. 2 pag. 321. Euseb. lib. 5. Demonstrat. Euangeli…. pag. 155. & lib. 10. pag. 313. edit. Graec. Caesarius. Dialog. 3. pag. 1132. edit. Basil. See before, pag. 282.Fathers is applied to our Saviours descent into Hell) Iob. 38.17. doe render the shadow of death by Hades. for where the Hebrew hath foreign the gates of the shadow of death, they …eade; foreign, the keepers of the gates of Hades seeing thee, shranke for feare. ssforeign. Euseb. Demonstrat. Euangelic. lib. 10. pag. 307.The resurrection from the dead therefore being the end of our Saviours s…ffering (as Eusebius notes) and so the beginning of his glorifying: the first degree of his exaltation would thus very aptly answer… unto the last degree of his humiliation that as his Resurrection is an arising from the dead, so his descending unto Hades or ad inferos should be no other thing but a going to the dead. For further confirmation whereof, let it be considered, that S. Hierome in the vulgar Latin translation of the Bible, hath ad inferos deducentur, Ecclesia…is 9.3. where the Hebrew and Greeke reade, to the dead: and in like manner, Proverb 2.18. he hath ad inferos againe, where foreign is in the Hebrew; which being a word that somtimes signifieth the dead, and somtimes Gyants, the LXX. doe joyne both together and reade, foreign, in Hades …ith the Giants. So in the Sibylline verses cyted by ttLactant. Institut. lib. 4. cap. 18.Lactantius, — foreign, that he may speake unto the dead; is in uuProsper de promiss & praedict part. 3. cap. 20.Prosper translated, Vt inferis l…quatur: and those other ve…ses touching our Saviours Resurrection

xxLactāt ut sup. cap. 19.foreign

foreign.

Then comming forth from the Dead, &c. are thus turned p. 365into Latin in Prosper. yyProsp. ut sup. cap. 29.Tunc ab inferis regressus, ad lucem veniet primus resurrectionis principio revocatis ostenso. Then returning from Hell, he shall come unto the light first shewing the beginning of the Resurrection unto those whō he shall call back from thence. for zzforeign. Basil. Seleuc. in Ionam, orat. 2.Christ returning backe a conqueror from Hádes unto life (as Basil of Seleucia writeth) the dead were taught the reviving againe unto life. His aaforeign (leg foreign. Gregor. Nazianz. in Definitionib. Jambic. 15. tom. …. edit. Graecolat. pag. 201.rising from the Dead, vvas the loosing of us from Hádes: saith Gregory Nazianzen. bbExcitatus est ab infe…is, me que mortuum simul excitavit. Nectar. …rat. in Theodor. martyr. á Perionio convers.He was raysed from Hádes or from the dead; and raysed me being dead with him: saith Nectarius, his successor in the See of Constantinople. Therefore is he called ccforeign. Tract. de Definitionib tom. 2. Oper. Athanas. Graecolat. pag. 59.the first begotten of the dead, because he was the first that rose from Hádes; as we also shall rise at his second comming: saith the author of the Treatise of Definitions, among the workes of Athanasius.

To lay downe all the places of the Fathers, wherein our Lords rising againe from the Dead, is termed his rising againe from Hádes, Inferi or Hell, would be a needlesse labour: for this we need go no further then to the Canon of the Masse it selfe; where in the prayer that followeth next after the Consecration, there being a Commemoration made of Christs passion, resurrection, and ascension, the second is set out by the title ab inferis resurrectionis, of the resurrection from Hell. For as the ddLiturg. Ia…obi, Marci, Clementis, Basilij, & Gregorij Theologi.Liturgies of the Easterne Churches doe here make mention foreign of the resurrection from the dead: so those of the eeAmbros. de Sacrament. lib. 4. cap. 6. Offic. Ambrosian. tom. 1. Liturgic. Pamelij. pag. 302. Sacramentar. Gregorian. tom. 2. pag. 181.West retayne that other title of the resurrection ab inferis, that is foreign (as it is in the Liturgie that goeth under the name p. 348of S. Peter) or foreign, as it is in the Gregorian Office translated into Greek by Codinus. If then the resurrection frō the dead be the same with the resurrection from Hades, Inferi or Hell: why may not the going unto Hades, Inferi or Hell, be interpreted, by the same reason, to be the going unto the dead? whereby no more is understood, than what is intimated in that phrase w^ch the Latins use of one that hath left this world; Abijt ad plures: or in that of the Hebrewes, so frequent in the word of God; He ffGenes. 25.8. compared with 15.15. Numb. 20.24. and 27.13. &c.Gen 25:8Num 20:24Num 27:13went or was gathered unto his people, he went or was gathered unto his fathers. which being applied unto a whole generation, Iudg. 2.10. as well as in other places unto particular persons; must of necessitie denote the common condition of men departed out of this life.

Now, although Death and Hades, dying and going to the dead, be of neere affinitie one with the other: yet be they not the same thing properly, but the one a consequent of the other; as it appeareth plainely by the vision, Revelat. 6.8. where Hades is directly brought in as a follower of Death. ggMortem nihil aliud esse definiunt sapientes, nisi separationem animae á corpore. Origen. tractat. 35. in Matth. cap. 27. Vid. Tertullian. de Animâ, cap. 27. & 51. & August. de Civit. Dei. lib. 13. cap. 6.Matt 27Death it selfe, as wise men doe define it, is nothing else but the separation of the soule from the body; which is done in an instant: but Hades is the continuation of the body and soule in this state of separation, which lasteth all that space of time which is betwixt the day of death and the day of the resurrection. For as the state of hhforeign. Gregor. Nyssen. orat. Catechetic. cap. 27.life is comprehended betwixt two extreames, to wit, the beginning thereof and the ending; and there be iiforeign. Ibid. cap. 16.two motions in nature answerable thereunto, the one whereby the soule concurreth to the body, (which we kkforeign. Ibid.call Generation) the other whereby p. 349the body is severed from the soule (which we call Death:) so the state of death in like maner is contained betwixt two bounds, the beginning, which is the very same with the ending of the other; and the last end, the motion whereunto is called the Resurrection, whereby the body and soule formerly separated are joyned together againe. Thus there be three tearmes here, as it were in a kinde of a continued proportion, the middlemost whereof hath relation to eyther of the extremes: and by the motion to the first a man may be said to be natus, to the second denatus, to the third renatus. The first & the third have a like oppositiō unto the middle; and therefore are like betwixt themselves: the one being a generation, the other a regeneration. For that our Lord doth call the last Resurrection the Regeneration, Matth. 19.28. llRegenerationem quippe hoc loco, ambigente nullo, novissimam resurrectionem vocat. August. contra duas epist. Pelagian. lib. 3. cap. 3.S. Augustine supposeth that no man doubteth. Neyther would our Lord himselfe have beene styled mmRevel. 1.5.Rev 1:5foreign the first borne from the dead; unlesse the Resurrection were accounted to be a kinde of a new nativitie: whereof he himselfe was in the first place to be made partaker, nnforeign. Coloss. 1.18.Col 1:18that among all or in all things he might have the preeminence; the rest of ooLuc. 20.36.Luke 20:36the sonnes of God being to be children of the Resurrection also, but in their due time, and in the order of Post-nati.

The middle distance betwixt the first and second terme, that is to say, the space of life which we lead in this world betwixt the time of our birth and the time of our death; is opposite to the distance that is betwixt the second and third terme, that is to say, the state of death under which man lyeth from the time of his departure out of this life unto the time of his resurrection: and see what difference there is betwixt our p. 368birth, and the life which we spend here after wee are borne; the same difference is there betwixt Death and Hades, in that other state of our dissolution. That which properly we call Death (which is the parting a sunder of the soule and the body) standeth as a middle terme betwixt the state of life and the state of death, being nothing else but the ending of the one, and the beginning of the other: and as it were a common meare between lands, or a communis terminus in a Geometricall magnitude, dividing part from part, but being it selfe a part of neyther, and yet belonging equally unto eyther. Which gave occasion to the question moved by Taurus the philosopher: ppQuando moriens moreretur; cùm jam in morte esset, an tum etiam cùm in vitâ foret. Taur.When a dying man might be said to die; when he was now dead, or while hee was yet living? whereunto Gellius returneth an answere out of Plato: qqPlato ne que vitae id tempus, ne que morti dedit (vidit quippe utrumque esse pugnans) sed tempori in confinio. A. Gell. N…ct. Attic. lib. 6. cap. 13.that his dying was to be attributed neyther to the time of his life nor of his death (because repugnances would arise eyther of those wayes) but to the time which was in the confine betwixt both; which Plato calleth rrforeign. (al. foreign.) Plat…. in Parmenide, pag. 67,foreign, a moment or an instant, and denieth to be properly any part of time at all. Therefore Death doth his part in an instant (as hath beene said) but Hádes continueth that worke of his, and holdeth the dead as it were under conquest, untill the time of the resurrection; ss1. Corinth. 15.54, 55.1 Cor 15:541 Cor 15:55wherein shall be brought to passe the saying that is written. O Death, where is thy sting? O Hades, where is thy victorie? For ttHaec justé dicentur tunc, quando mortalis haec & corruptibilis caro (circa quam & mors est, quae & quodam dominio mortis pressa est) in vitam conscendens, induerit incorruptelam & immortalitatē. Tunc enim veré erit victa mors, quando ea quae continetur ab eâ caro, exierit de dominio ejus. Irenae. lib. 5. cap. 13.these things shall rightly be spoken then (saith Irenaeus) when this mortall and corruptible flesh (about which Death is, and which is holden downe by a certaine dominion of p. 369Death) rising up unto life shall put on incorruption and immortalitie. for then shall death be truly overcome, when the flesh that is holden by it, shall come forth out of the Dominion thereof. Death then, as it importeth the separation of the soule from the body (which is the proper acception of it) is a thing distinguishable from Hades, as an antecedent from his consequent: but as it is taken for the whole state of death, and the domination which it hath over the dead (foreign Basilius Seleuciensis calleth it, in his oration upon Elias) it is the selfe same thing that Hades is; and in that respect (as we have seene) the words are sometimes indifferently put, the one for the other.

As therefore our Sauiour (that we may apply this now unto him) after he was fastned and lifted up on the Crosse, if he had come downe from thence (as uuMatth. 27.40, 41, 42.Matt 27:40Matt 27:41Matt 27:42the standers by in mocking wise did wish him to doe) might be truly said to have beene crucified, but not to have dyed: so when he gave up the ghost, and layde downe his life, if he had presently taken it up againe, he might truly be said to have dyed, but not to have gone to the dead, or to have beene in Hádes. His remayning under the power of Death untill the third day, made this good. Whom God did rayse up, loosing the sorrowes of death, xxforeign. Act. 2.24.Acts 2:24forasmuch as it was not possible that he should be holden of it: saith S. Peter. and Christ being raysed from the dead, dyeth now no more, yyforeign. Rom. 6.9.Rom 6:9Death hath no more dominion over him: saith S. Paul. implying thereby, that during the space of time that passed betwixt his death and his resurrection, he was holden by death, and death had some kinde of domination over him. And therefore Athanasius (or who ever else was author of that writing to Liberius the Roman Bishop) having reference p. 352unto the former text; affirmeth that zzforeign. Athanas. Rescript. ad Liberium, tomo 1. pag. 397.he raysed up that buried body of his, and presented it to his Father, having freed it from Death, of which it was holden. and Maximus (or he that collected the Dialogues against the Marcionites, under the name of Origen, out of him) expounding the other text; aaforeign. Origen. Dialog. 3.Over whom then had Death dominion? saith he. For the saying that it hath no more dominion, sheweth that before it had dominion over him. Not that Death could have any dominion over bbAct. 3.15.Acts 3:15the Lord of Life, further than he himselfe was pleased to give way unto it: but as, when Death did at the first sease upon him, ccAct. 8.33.Acts 8:33his life indeed vvas taken from the earth, yet ddIoh. 10.18.John 10:18none could take it from him, but he layd it downe of himselfe; so his continuing to be Deaths prisoner for a time, was a voluntarie commitment only, unto which he freely yeelded himselfe for our sakes, not anie yoake of miserable necessitie that Death was able to impose upon him. For eeIbid.he had power to lay downe his life, and he had power to take it again: yet would he not take it againe, before he had first not layd himselfe downe only upon Deaths bed, but slept also upon it; that arising afterward from thence, he might become ff1. Cor. 15.20.1 Cor 15:20the first fruits of them that slept. In which respect, the ggCyprian testimon. advers. Iudaeos, lib. 2. sect. 24. Lactant. Institut. lib. 4. cap. 19. Ruffin. in exposit. Symbol.Fathers apply unto him that text of the Psalme; I layd me down and slept, I awaked, for the Lord sustained mee. (Psalm. 3.5.) and Lactantius that verse of Sibyll,

foreign,

The tearme of death he shall finish, when he hath slept unto the third day.

His dying, or his burying at the farthest, is that which here is answerable unto his lying downe: but his foreign or foreign (as hhDionys Ecclesiast. Hierarch. cap. 2.Dionysius calleth it) his p. 353his three-dayes buriall, and his continuing for that time in the state of death, is that which answereth unto his sleeping or being in Hádes. And therefore the Fathers of the fourth Councell of Toledo, declaring how in Baptisme iiEt ne fortè cuiquam sit dubium hujus simpli mysteriū sacramenti; videat in eo mortem & resurrectionem Christi significari. Nam in aquis mersio, quasi in infernum descensio est; & rursu… ab aquis emersio, resurrectio est. Concil. Toletan. IIII. cap. 5. (al. 6.)the death and resurrection of Christ is signified, do both affirme, that the dipping in the water is as it were a descension into Hell, and the rising out of the water againe, a resurrection; and adde likewise out of Gregory (with whom many other kkDionys ut sup. Cyrill. vel Iohan. Hierosolymitan. Cateches. 2. Mystagogic. Petrus Chrysologus, serm. 113. Leo I. epist 4. cap. 3. Paschasius de Spiritu S. lib. 2. cap. 5. Io. Damascen. Orthodox. fid. lib. 4. cap. 10. Germanus in rer. Ecclesiast. Theoria. Walafrid, Strab. de reb. Ecclesiastic. cap. 26. Theophylact. in Iohan. cap. 3.Doctors doe herein agree) that llNos autem quòd tertiò mergimus, triduanae sepulturae sacramenta signamus: ut dum tertiò infans ab aquis educitur, resurrectio triduani temporis exprimatur, Concil. Toletan. ex Gregorio, lib. 1. Registri, epist. 41.the three-fold dipping is used to signifie the three-dayes buriall. which differeth as much from the simple buriall or putting into the earth, as foreign doth from foreign, the transportation or leading into captivitie from the detayning in bondage, the committing of one to prison from the holding of him there, and the sowing of the seed from the remayning of it in ground.

And thus have I unfolded at large the generall acceptions of the word Hádes and Inferi, and so the Ecclesiasticall use of the word Hell answering thereunto: which being severally applyed to the point of our Saviours descent, make up these three propositions that by the universall consent of Christians are acknowledged to be of undoubted verity. His dead body, though free from corruption, yet did descend into the place of corruption, as other bodies doe. His soule, being separated from his body, departed hence into the other world, as all other mens soules in that case use to doe. He went unto the dead, and remayned for a time in the state of death, as other dead men doe. There remayneth now p. 372the vulgar acception of the word Hell, whereby it is taken for the place of torment prepared for the Divell and his Angells: and touching this also, all Christians do agree thus farre, that Christ did descend thither at leastwise in a virtuall maner; as God mmDescendere dicitur, cùm aliquid facit in terrâ, quod praeter usitatū naturae cursum mirabiliter sactum praesentiam quodam modo ejus ostendat. August. de Civit. Dei, lib. 16. cap. 5.is said to descend, when he doth any thing upon earth, which being wonderfully done beyond the usuall course of nature may in some sort shew his presence, or when he otherwise nnDescendere dicitur Deus; quando curam humanae fragi litatis habere dignatur. Aug. serm. 70. de Tempore.vouchsafeth to have care of humaine frailtie. Thus when Christs ooErat caro ejus in monumento; sed virtus ejus operabaturé coelo. Ambros. de Incarnat. cap. 5.flesh was in the tombe, his power did worke from Heaven: saith S. Ambrose. which agreeth with that which was before cyted out of the Armenians Confession: ppSupr. pag. 3 22According to his body which was dead, he descended into the grave; but according to his DIVINITIE, which did live, he overcame Hell in the meane time. and with that which was cyted out of Philo Carpathius, upon Cantic. 5.2. I sleepe, but my heart waketh: qqSupr. pag. 317in the grave spoyling Hell. for which, in the Latin Collections that goe under his name, we reade thus. rrEgo dormio, in Cruce scilicèt, & cor meū vigilat: cùm divinitas Tartara spoliavit, & opima spolia retulit de triumpho superatae mortis aeternae, atque dejectae diabolicae potestatis. Philo Carpath. in Cantic. 5.Song 5I sleepe, to wit on the Crosse, and my heart waketh: vvhen my DIVINITIE spoyled Hell, and brought rich spoyles from the triumph of everlasting death overcome, and the Divells power overthrowne. The author of the imperfect worke upon Matthew, attributeth this to the Divinitie, not cloathed with any part of the Humanitie, but naked, as he speaketh. Seeing the Divels ssQuem in corpore constitutum timuerunt, dicentes; Quid nobis & tibi, Iesu fili Dei excelsi? venisti ante tempus torquere nos? quomodo nudam ipsam divinitatem contra se descendentem pote…unt sustinere? Ecce post tres dies mortis suae revertetur ab inferis, quasi victor de bello. Op. imperfect. in Matth. homil. 35. tom. 2. Chr…sost…m.feared him, (saith he) while he was in the body, saying; What have we to doe with thee, Iesus the sonne of the high God? art thou come to torment us before our p. 373time? how shall they be able to endure his NAKED DIVINITIE descending against them? Behold after three dayes of his death he shall returne from Hell, as a conqueror from the warre.

This conquest others do attribute to his Crosse, others to his Death, others to his Buriall, others to the reall descent of his soule into the place of the damned, others to his Resurrection: and extend the effect therof not only to the deliverie of the Fathers of the old Testament, but also to the freeing of our soules from Hell. from whence how men may be said to have been delivered, who never were there, S. Augustin declareth by these similitudes. ttRecté dicis medico, Liberâsti me ab aegritudine; non in quâ jam eras, sed in quâ futurus eras. Nescio quis habens caussā 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 subventum esset, ibi essent; inde se recté dicunt liberari, quò per liberatores suos non sunt permissi perduci. Augustin. in Psalm. 85.Ps 85Thou sayest rightly to the physician, Thou hast freed me from this sicknesse; not in vvhichwhich thou wast, but in which thou wast like to be. Some bodie else having a troublesome businesse, was to be cast into prison: there commeth another, and defendeth him. vvhat saith he, when he giveth thankes? Thou hast delivered me from prison. A debtor was in danger to be hanged: the debt is payd for him; he is said to be freed from hanging. In all these things they were not: but because such were their deserts, that unlesse they had beene holpen, there they would have beene; they say rightly that they were freed thence, vvhither by those that freed them they vvere not suffered to be brought. That Christ destroyed the power of Hell, uuEphes. 2.15.Eph 2:15spoyled principalities and powers, and made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them: is acknowledged by all Christians. Neyther is there anie 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 Councell p. 374of Ephesus.) xxforeign. Procli C…ziceni episc. homil. de Nativitate Domini, in Act. Concil. …phes. part. 1. cap. 1. edit. Rom.He was shut up in the grave, who stretched out the heavens like a skinne: he was reckoned among the dead, and spoyled Hell. and that which S. Cyrill and the Synod of Alexandria, wrote unto the same Nestorius, concerning the Confession of their faith: (approved not only by the yyAct. Concil. Ephesin. pa…t. 1. cap 26. edit. Rom.third generall Councell held at Ephesus, but also by the zzConcil. Chalced. Act. 5.Acts 5fourth at Chalcedon, and the aaQuint. Synod. Constantinop. Collat. 6.fifth at Constantinople.) bbforeign. Synod. Alexandrin epist. ad Nostorium.To the end that by his unspeakable power treading down death in his own as the first and principall flesh, he might become the first borne from the dead and the first fruits of those that slept; and that he might make a way to mans nature for the turning back againe unto incorruption: by the grace of God he tasted death for all men; and revived the third day, spoyling Hell. All, I say, do agree, that Christ spoyled or (as they were wont to speake) harrowed Hell: whether you take Hell for that which keepeth the soule separated from the body, or that which separateth soule and body bothe 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 maner and the meanes, whereby Hell was thus spoyled, is all the disagreement. The maner: whether our Lord did deliver his people from Hell by way of prevention, in saving them from comming thither; or by way of subvention, in helping those out whom at the time of his death he found there. The meanes: whether this were done by his Divinity or his Humanitie or both, whether by the vertue of his sufferings, death, buriall and resurrection, or by the reall descending of his soule into the place wherein mens soules were kept imprisoned. That hee descended not p. 375into the Hell of the damned by the essence of his soule or locally, but virtually onelyonly by extending the effect of his power thither: is the common doctrine of ccThom. in Sum. part. 3. quaest 62. art. 2.Thomas Aquinas and the rest of the Schoole. Cardinall Bellarmine at first held it to be ddBellarm lib. 4. …e Ch…isto, cap. 16.probable, that Christs soule did descend thither, not only by his effects, but by his reall presence also: but afterwards eeRe meliùs conside…atá, sequendam esse existimo sententiā S. Thoma…, quae estaliorum Scholastico…um in 3. Sent dist. 22. Id. in Recognitione Op…rum.having considered better of the matter, he resolved that the opinion of Thomas and the other Schoolemen was to be followed. The same is the judgement of ffSuarez. tom. 2. in …. part. Thom. disput. 43. sect. 4.Suarez: who concerning this whole article of Christs descent into Hell, doth thus deliver his minde. ggSi nomine articuli intelligamus veritatem, quam omnes fideles explicité scire ac c…edere teneantur: sic non existimo necessarium hunc computare inter articulos fidei. Quia non est res ad modùm necessaria singulis hominibus: & quia ob hanc fortassè caussamin symbolo Niceno omittitur cujus symboli cognitio videtur esse sufficiens ad praeceptum fidei implendum. Denique proptero… fortè Aug. & alij Patres in principio citati exponentes symbolum, non explicant populo hoc mysterium. Id. ibid. sect. 2.If by an Article of faith we understand a truth, which all the faithfull are bound explicitly to know and beleeve: so I doe not thinke it necessarie 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 Augustin and other of the Fathers expounding the Creed, doe not unfold this mysterie unto the people. And to speake 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 compasse of their understanding. some experiment whereof they may finde in this; that whereas in the other questions here handled, they might finde themselves able in some p. 376reasonable forre to follow me; here they leave me, I doubt, and let me walke without their company.

It having here likewise beene further manifested, what different opinions have beene entertayned by the ancient Doctors of the Church concerning the determinate place wherein our Saviours soule did remaine during the time of the separation of it from his body: I leave it to be considered by the learned, whether any such controverted matter may fitly be brought in to expound the hhRegulam fidei pusillis magnisque communem in Ecclesiâ perseveranter tenent. August. epist. 57. ad Dardaenum.Rule of faith by, which being common both to the great and the small ones in the Church, must contayn such verities only as are generally agreed upon by the common consent of all true Christians. and if the words of the article of Christs going to Hades or Hell, may well beare such a generall meaning as this; that he went to the dead, and continued in the state of death untill the time of his Resurrection: it would be thought upon, whether such a truth as this, which findeth universall acceptance among all Christians may not safely passe for an article of our Creed; and the particular limitation of the place unto which our Saviours soule went (whither to the place of blisse, or to the place of torment, or to both) be left, as a number of other Theologicall points are, unto further disputation. In the articles of our faith common agreement must bee required: which wee are sure is more likely to be found in the generall, than in the particular. And this is the onelyonly reason which moved me to enlarge my selfe so much in the declaration of the generall acceptions of the word Hades, and the application of them to our Saviours descent spoken of in the Creed. wherein if the zeale which I beare to the peace of the Church, and the settlement of unitie p. 377among brethren hath carried me too farre, (as it hath made me indeede quite to forget my intended brevity) I intreate the Reader to pardon me; and ceasing to be further troublesome unto him in the prosecution of this intricate argument, I passe to the next question