nion that the spirits to which Christ preached, and whose deliverance he effected, were those who were in torments, argue in this manner, from a passage in Acts ii. 24. "God raised him up, loosing the pains of hell; but these pains did not take hold of Christ, of course he could not be taken out of that in which he never was. In Hades none suffer pains but the damned, therefore such as Christ delivered must have been of that number." Such is the statement given of these sentiments by the learned and judicious Pearson, bishop of Chester, who himself saw a difficulty in applying these pains to Christ; but who, instead of properly explaining in what these consisted, has, to get rid of the difficulty, closely followed Augustine, by understanding the term pains to signify the torments of the damned, and that by Christ's being delivered from these, it only means that he was preserved from enduring them. If any one should be at a loss," says Augustine," in what sense, the phrase, the pains of hell being loosed from him, is to be taken, it is easy to understand that they were so loosed, as the toils of hunters may be loosed, by way of prevention, not that they have actually taken hold."* Now the whole * Quod si movet aliquem quemadmodum accipiendum sit, inferni ab illo solutos dolores, facile est intelligere, sic illos solutos, quemadmodum solvi possunt laquei venantium; ne teneant non quia tenuerunt. Aug. Epist. 99. difficulty difficulty may be disposed of by denying the major proposition, that these heblim, or cords signify, or are ever employed to signify, the torments of the damned. From a misunderstanding of this term, the whole of their mistaken reasonings have originated, and consequently must, when the term is placed in its due light, fall to the ground. The phrase Heble Sheol, cords of Sheol, means nothing more than fixation to place not reversible by finite power; that souls once separated from their bodies, and arrived in the invisible state, possess in themselves no power of reversing their situation, or of returning back to the body. This equally applies to the righteous as well as the wicked, as to the impossibility of breaking away from that state. Let it be observed, however, that this has nothing to do with the character each may have carried with him out of life; for although this restraint, termed the cords of Sheol, cutting off all return to the mortal body, presses equally on both, yet their internal situation, as to hope and comfort, will be very different. While light and joy are in the dwellings of the righteous, the wicked have their lot assigned them in outer darkness. This power of detention is termed, in scripture, the hand of Sheol, and by Ps.49.15 St. Peter Phylake, which, and also the Latin 89.48 custodia, is softer than the English term prison. From the declaration of Jehovah, that to bring Fff 2 them Heb them out of this state, it required a ransom, nothing is more evident than that being in it, whatever rest, comfort, and assurance of a happy resurrection, they, in the mean time enjoy, it is, in itself, a disadvantage. This position is advanced, not absolutely, but on a comparative view. To depart and to be with Christ, is undoubtedly superior to remaining in life; but this again is much diminished when put in the balance with that exceeding and eternal weight of glory, which yet remains to be revealed. "I will ransom them from the hand of Sheol, and redeem them from death." Hosea, xiii. 14. Two acts are here promised, in order to their deliverance from their intermediate station; 1st. a loosing the power which detains their souls; 2d. a bringing back to form and beauty the scattered particles of their dust, which had lain invisible to every finite eye. To shew that this detainer, although rendered pleasant by the presence of Christ, is an enemy to believers, the Deity personifies it and denounces vengeance against it. "O death I will be thy plagues, O Sheol I will be thy destruction." So it is said that " death and Hades were cast into the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." Rev. 20. 14. Messiah then by submitting to this law of death, and by "being made like unto his brethren in all things," fell under this power of detention also. Loosing Loosing these pains or cords, meant a dissolution of that power under which his human soul was kept, and so enabling it to leave that state and to return to reanimate the body. This dissolution Messiah looks to, when he says, Psal, xvi. Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell (Sheol) nor suffer thine holy One to see corruption." An inspection of the original will shew that the loosing these pains, and this raising up of Messiah, follow each other as cause and effect. Whom God raised Acts 2.24 up by having loosed the pains of Hades." The trust so often expressed by the psalmist, of being delivered from the hand of Sheol, is neither more nor less than declaring his expectation of the resurrection of the body. We proceed now to take a view of the two celebrated passages of St. Peter; 1st. that of chap. iii. 18, 19. "Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit, by which he went and preached to the spirits in prison." So speaks our version. These words, form the proof adduced by the church of England, in the time of Edward the sixth, in support of that article in the creed, "he descended into hell." Her words are, "the body of Christ lay in the grave until his resurrection; but his spirit, which he gave up, was with the spirits which were detained in prison, or in Hades, and preached to them as the passage in St. Peter testifieth." Of Of this remarkable verse many an explication has been given by writers both of the Protestant and Catholic communion, in which, however lengthened and ingenious, I confess I found little satisfaction. On this passage, the latter build the limbus patrum, to which they say Christ descended, to deliver the souls of the patriarchs; and the former send us back to the antideluvian world, to mark Christ striving by his Spirit among the people of that period. To make this appear the more plausible, they foist in the word were before prison, although the article (tois) reclaims, and tells us that its adjunct to be supplied is (ousi) and of the same concord, which can never be rendered were, but being. The chief difficulty, however, still remains. Why specify the antideluvian world as the subject of the Spirit's striving, when the same thing may be affirmed of other cities and nations, such as his striving with Nineveh, by the preaching of Jonah, and with Jerusalem, by the exhortations and the threatenings of Isaiah and Jeremiah? When we ask, what prison was there in the days of Noah, in which these spirits were confined, we are told the prison of the body!! This answer is a mere evasion, for look through both Testaments, where is it that the body is ever put to denote a prison? and admitting for a moment this sense, why should that be remarked of the antideluvians, which was common with them |