livered that it was once in the Tranflation of the Septuagint, but rafed out from thence by the Jews: which as it can scarce be conceived true, fo, if it were, it would be yet of doubtful authority, as being never yet found in the Hebrew Text. And Hermes in his book, called the Paftor, was (x) thought to give fufficient ftrength to this opinion; whereas the Book itself is of no good authority, and in this particular is most extravagant: for he taught, that not only the Soul of Chrift, but also the Soul of the Apoftles, preached to the Spirits below; that as they followed his steps here, fo did they also after their death, and therefore defcended to preach in Hell.

Nor is this only to be fufpected in reference to those pretended authorities which firft induced men to believe it, and to make forced interpretations of Scripture to maintain it; but also to be rejected in itself, as false, and inconfiftent with the nature, scope and end of the Gofpel (which is to be preached with fuch commands and ordinances as can concern those only which are in this life), and as incongruous to the ftate and condition of thofe Souls to whom Chrift is fuppofed to preach. For if we look upon the Patriarchs, Prophets, and all Saints before departed, it is certain they were never difobedient in the days of Noah; nor could they need the publication of the Gofpel after the Death of Chrift, who by virtue of that Death were accepted in him while they lived, and by that acceptation had received a reward long before. If we look upon them which died in disobedience, and were in torments for their fins, they cannot appear to be proper objects for the Gospel preached. The Rich Man, whom we find in their condition, defired one might be fent from the Dead to preach unto his Brethren then alive, left they alfo fhould come unto that place: but we find no hopes he had that any fhould come from them which were alive to preach to him. For if

the

the living, who heard not Mofes and the Prophets, would not be perfuaded though one rofe from the dead; furely those which had been difobedient unto the Prophets, should never be perfuaded after they were dead.

Whether therefore we confider the Authorities first introducing this opinion, which were Apocryphal; or the teftimonies of Scripture, forced and improbable; or the nature of this Preaching, inconfiftent with the Gofpel; or the Perfons to whom Chrift fhould be thought to preach (which, if dead in the faith and fear of God, wanted no fuch inftruction; if departed in infidelity and disobedience, were unworthy and incapable of fuch a dispensation); this Preaching of Chrift to the Spirits in prifon cannot be admitted either as the end, or as the means proper to effect the end, of his Descent into Hell.

Nor is this Preaching only to be rejected as a means to produce the effect of Chrift's Defcent; but the effect itself pretended to be wrought thereby, whether in reference to the Juft or Unjuft, is by no means to be admitted. For though fome of the Ancients thought, as is fhewn before, that Chrift did therefore defcend into Hell, that he might deliver the Souls of fome which were tormented in thofe flames, and translate them to a place of happinefs; yet this opinion deserveth no acceptance, neither in respect of the ground or foundation on which it is built, nor in refpect of the action or effect itself. The Authority upon which the ftrength of this Doctrine doth rely, is that place of the Acts, whom God hath raised up, loofing the pains of Hell, for fo they read it; from whence the argument is thus deduced: God did loose the pains of Hell when Christ was raised: but those pains did not take hold of Chrift himself, who was not to fuffer any thing after death; and confequently he could not be loosed from or taken out of thofe pains in which he never

was:

was in the fame manner the Patriarchs and the Prophets, and the Saints of old, if they fhould be granted to have been in a place fometimes called Hell, yet were they there in happiness, and therefore the delivering them from thence could not be the loofing of the pains of Hell: it followeth then, that thofe alone which died in their fins were involved in those pains, and when those pains were loofed, then were they released; and being they were loofed when Chrift was raifed, the confequence will be, that he defcending into Hell, delivered fome of the damned Souls from their torments there.

But first, though the (a) Latin Tranflation render it fo, the pains of Hell; though fome Copies and other Tranflations, and divers of the Fathers, read it in the fame manner; yet the original and authentick Greek acknowledgeth no fuch word as Hell, but propounds it plainly thus, whom God hath raifed up, loofing the pains of death. Howfoever if the words were fo expreffed in the original Text, yet it would not follow that God delivered Chrift out of thofe pains in which he was detained any time, much less that the Soul of Chrift delivered the Souls of any other; but (b) only that he was preferved from enduring them.

Again, as the Authority is moft uncertain, fo is the Doctrine moft incongruous. The Souls of Men were never caft into infernal torments, to be delivered from them. The days which follow after death were never made for opportunities to a better life. The Angels had one inftant either to stand or fall eternally; and what that inftant was to them, that this Life is unto us. We may as well believe the Devils were faved, as thofe Souls which were once tormented with them. For it is an everlasting Matt. xxv. fire, an everlasting punishment, a worm that dieth not. 41, 46. Nor does this only belong to us who live after the 44. Death of Chrift, as if the Damnation of all Sinners now were ineluctable and eternal, but before that

.

Death

Mark ix.

2 Cor. va

30.

Death it were not fo; as if Faith and Repentance were now indifpenfably neceffary to Salvation, but then were not. For thus the condition of Mankind before the fulness of time, in which our Saviour came into the World, fhould have been far more (c) happy and advantageous than it hath been fince. But neither they nor we fhall ever efcape eternal flames, except we obtain the favour of God before we be swallowed by the jaws of Death. We must all appear before the judgment-feat of Chrift, that every one may receive the things done in his body: but if they be in a state of Salvation now by virtue of Chrift's Defcent into Hell, which were numbered among the Damned before his Death, at the day of the general Judgment they must be returned into Hell again; or if they be received then into eternal Happiness, it will follow either that they were not justly condemned to thofe flames at firft, according to the general difpenfations of God, or elfe they did not receive the things done in their Body at the laft; which all fhall as certainly receive, as all appear. This Life is given unto Men to work out their Salvation with fear and trembling, but after Death cometh Judgment, reflecting on the Life that is past, not expecting amendment or converfion then. He that liveth and believeth in Chrift fhall never die; he that believeth though he die, yet fhall he live; but he that dieth in unbelief shall neither believe nor live. And this is as true of those which went before, as of those which came after our Saviour, because he was the Lamb flain before the foundation of the World. I therefore conclude, That the end for which the Soul of Chrift defcended into Hell, was not to deliver any damned Souls, or to tranflate them from the torments of Hell unto the joys of Heaven..

The next confideration is, whether by virtue of his Defcent the Souls of those which before believed in him, the Patriarchs, Prophets, and all the People

of

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of God, were delivered from that place and state in which they were before; and whether Chrift defcended into Hell to that end, that he might tranflate them into a place and ftate far more glorious and happy. This hath been in the later ages of the Church the vulgar opinion of most men, and that as if it followed neceffarily from the denial of the former; He delivered not the Souls of the Damned, (d) therefore he delivered the Souls of them which believed, and of them alone: till at laft the Schools have followed it fo fully, that they deliver it as a point of (e) faith and infallible certainty, that the Soul of Chrift by defcending into Hell, did deliver from thence all the Souls of the Saints which were in the Bofom of Abraham, and did confer upon them actual and effential beatitude, which before they enjoyed not. And this they lay upon two grounds: first, that the Souls of Saints departed faw not God; and fecondly, that Chrift by his Death opened the gate of the Kingdom of Heaven.

But even this opinion, as general as it hath been, hath neither that confent of Antiquity, nor fuch certainty as it pretendeth, but is rather built upon the improbabilities of a worfe. The (f) most ancient of all the Fathers, whofe Writings are extant, were fo far from believing that the end of Chrift's Defcent into Hell was to tranflate the Saints of old into Heaven, that they thought them not to be in Heaven yet, nor ever to be removed from that place in which they were before Chrift's Death, until the general Resurrection. Others, as we have also fhewn, thought the Bofom of Abraham was not in any place which could be termed Hell; and confequently could not think that Chrift fhould therefore defcend into Hell to deliver them which were not there. And others yet which thought that Christ delivered the Patriarchs from their infernal manfions, did not think fo exclufively or in oppofition to the difobedient and damned Spirits, but conceived many

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of