A century of sermons upon several remarkable subjects preached by the Right Reverend Father in God, John Hacket, late Lord Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry ; published by Thomas Plume ...

THE FIRST SERMON UPON THE RESURRECTION. (Book 1)

ACTS ii. 24.

Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.

A Resurrection Text out of the first Sermon that ever the Apostles Preached upon the Resurrection, preached in their full vigour of sanctification, immediately after they had received the Holy Ghost, to let us know that Whitsunday was principally ordeined for this end, to make Easter-day famous over all the world: for when God filled Peter, and all that were gathered together with that new wine of the Spirit which is mentioned in the begining of the Chapter; what did it produce in the first instant? what effect did immediately flow from it as an essential property? read and mark from my Text onward to the end of ver. 36. this is the nail altogether struck upon; this is the Theme gone over and over, that God had raised up Jesus; the Book of the Psalms did prove it, and the Disciples were witnesses of it. O mystery of mysteries, and wonder of Miracles! the first lesson of faith, the Corner-stone of the Build∣ing, the most necessary Pillar of the Gospel, indeed the bloudy passion of our Sa∣viour which was delivered us in the former verse, and the victory over death after that bloudy Passion, which I shall instance upon in this verse; these two are the supporters of all Christianity, take away these two Pillars, as Samson broke down those that held up the Theatre of the Philistins, and you ruinate the whole Tower of Faith, and demolish it to nothing. Very fit it was therefore that all the tongues wherewith the Holy Ghost had endowed the Apostles with utterance to speak, should concur in this one point, and go no further in their first days labour, namely that Christ was become the first fruits of them that slept, that his soul was not left in hell, nei∣ther did his flesh see corruption. And because this Sermon of St. Peters in the forena∣med respects is such an illustrious testimony of our Lords resurrection; therefore both Eastern and Western Churches have selected this Chapter of old to be the second Lesson for the Evening Prayer of this great Festival; so our Liturgie reteins it, which never recedes from good antiquity: and where our Church hath gone be∣fore me in her judgment, I thought it meet to follow her at this time in my duty, and to parcel out my Text from that great variety which the Chapter affords up∣on this occasion in these words, &c.

The division that I will give you upon this verse shall be easie to conceive, and that will help out some things which are a little difficult in the handling of the parts. First here is the Resurrection of our Saviour barely and positively affirmed, whom God hath raised up. Secondly the complement of it, God loosed withall the pains

of death. Thirdly the necessity of it, for it was not possible that He should be holden of death. He humbled himself, and became obedient to death, therefore He was raised up: He undertook the death of the Cross, being fast bound in misery and iron; but as fast as they bound him God loosed him from those pains: neither were these things arbitrary, accidental, obnoxious to any human impe∣diment, but contrived and fixed by Gods inevitable Decree, ought not Christ to suffer, and so to enter into his glory, says the mouth of truth and wisdom? There is an oportuit upon both, he must suffer, and he must overcome those sufferings. Opor∣tuit, the former must be, and it was impossible he should fail of the latter. Or you compose this Text with the Points of the former Text, immediately connexed with it, and see the amends made by Gods mercy for the Jews fury. Ye have slain that holy one, says the Apostle; but what follows? God hath raised him up. Ye have taken and crucified him, but see the alteration, God hath loosened all the pains and pangs of death: He must not escape your hands, it was permitted unto you from above, he was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God: And he must escape all his ghostly enemies, sin, and death, and hell, for it was im∣possible he should be holden of them.

Whom God hath raised up. Since the world began there was never any thing oppo∣sed so much as this, that Christ rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. For what shall we think of others, when the Apostles of our Lord did not only suspend their belief when tidings were brought of it, but with some disdain re∣jected it? For when Mary Magdalen, and Joanna, and Mary the Mother of James did tell the Eleven what the Angel had testified, their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not, Luc. xxiv. 11. Nay, when Christ had appeared to ten of that company, Thomas only being out of the way, they could not all perswade him that they had seen the Lord alive. Was ever any Tenet of faith so difficultly re∣ceived even into the hearts of the best men? Then you may be sure that when this good seed fell into worse soil it was miserably choaked with thorns. A sudden and a strong Faction combined against it instantly after it began to sound abroad, Acts iv. 2. The Priests, and the Captain of the Temple, and the Sadduces were grieved at no other part of their doctrine but this, That they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection of the dead. Josephus says, that as long as the Sadduces continued, till they were all destroyed, they became as horrid, and savage as beasts in cruelty, raging against those that affirmed the immortality of soul and body. When that Doctrine spread it self abroad, and came to the Philosophers of Athens, Some cen∣sured Paul for a babler, some for a setter forth of strange Gods, Acts xvii. 18. And St. Chry∣sostome says upon it, that Anastasia, which signifies the Resurrection, was accoun∣ted a God which the Christians only worshipped. The same Paul opening the know∣ledge of the Gospel before Festus and King Agrippa, that Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead; Festus broke out in reviling at that passage, Paul thou art beside thy self, much learning doth make thee mad. I would the op∣position had gone no further, but St. Austin and Epiphanius in their Catalogues of Hereticks rehearse more Adversaries against the Resurrection of Christ than any other doctrinal Point that concerns our Salvation. Simon Magus wrote many books against it. Basilides, a venemous Dogmatist, taught that Christ as he was led to be crucified vanished away by Art and Praestigiation, and that Simon of Cyrene, who bore his Cross some part of the way, was put to death in his stead, but that Jesus did never die, and therefore was never raised from the dead. The dross of so many Heresies was stained through these wicked wits, that the Church might enjoy truth more triumphantly after such great resistance.

* 1.1But let me go on with the Apostles question, Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the Dead? He that created the soul and body of nothing, doth it not appear much easier to him to joyn them together again in one substance when they are separated? Finemque potentia coeli non habet, & superi quicquid voluere peractum est. To expound that Heathen Poet by our Heavenly Poet, Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, in earth, in the sea, and in all deep places. He that will consider how every day is renewed after the night hath overcast it by the dawning of a new morning; how every year is renewed, after the cold and darkness of Winter, by the return and advancement of the Sun; how the naked Trees reflou∣rish by the Vegetative vertue of the Spring; how Flies, and Moths, and the brood of the Silk-worm have no motion, no quickness, no token of life in them for ma∣ny months together, and yet instantly quicken again when the warmth of the Sun

beams do cherish them: Finally, to end in that chief instance, for the Scripture hath made it so, how the seed of Corn falls into the ground and dies, and then re∣vives again, and brings forth much fruit; he that puts all this together rationally will more easily consent, that it is not improbable that God will shew more won∣derful signs of his workmanship in man, being next under the Angels the beauty of all his Creatures. An unwise man doth not mark this, as the Psalmist said, and a fool doth not understand it. St. Austin says that Tully in his 3. lib. de Repub. disputed against the reuniting of soul and body. His Argument was, To what end?* 1.2 Where should they remain together? For a body cannot be assumed into heaven. I believe God caused those famous monuments of his Wit to perish, because of such impious opinions wherewith they were farced. But to his slender Argument, the body raised up shall have shaken off all malignancy of flesh and bloud, which made it unfit for heaven. And when it is become a glorious body, why not a body inhabit heaven as well as a spiritual coelestial soul converse upon earth? But Plato was more Theological than Tully, and he taught very truly, that souls could not remain separated for ever without their bodies. And though he put not a reason to his opinion, there is a very sufficient one, Posse perficere materiam est animae hominis essentiale.* 1.3 It is the essen∣tial difference, for ought we know, between the Spirit of a man and an Angel who is a spiritual substance, that mans soul hath an aptitude, a desire, a natural refe∣rence to inform, and actuate a body, and so hath not an Angel. Therefore it can∣not be that this natural aptitude to dwell in flesh should be in it unto all eternity, when it is separated from the body, and never be satisfied.

Perhaps some will think that this labour may be spared to shew the possibility of a body to be raised from the dead, for here is that power in act, it is done, it is ma∣nifested in Christ, it cannot be controuled, Whom God hath raised up. Some have wondred at our Saviour for his Birth, his obedience to his Parents, his Poverty, his Passion, that he should humble himself so far; but no man can take hold of any occasion to wonder why he should be raised from the dead, and glorified so far! It was conformable to the eternal justice of his Father to exalt him that had humbled himself so much; Lowliness shall not always be left in the dust to be despised. Therefore some of the ancient Writers make those words by Analogy to suit with Christ, Psal cxxxix. 2. Thou knowest my down-sitting, and mine up-rising. And that of Micah in the same Key, Chap. vii. 8. Rejoyce not against me O mine enemy, when I fall I shall arise. Obedience and patience shall not be forgotten at last. Every Valley that subjecteth it self under the mighty hand of God shall be exalted. Jesus Christ though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God, 2 Cor. xiii. 4. Secondly, Satan must make this restitution for the wrong that he had done to an innocent. Death had dominion no further than sin did reign, so that it was a most unjust usurpation in death to seize upon him who knew no sin; the Devil set on his Instruments to kill our Lord, and prevailed, but Hell and the Grave must needs re∣gorge that which they had so unjustly received. That eternal Law which hath de∣stined most several retributions to the pure and impure, would not suffer that he should continue in death, whose soul was pure, and his body undefiled. The Re∣surrection of us sinners is out of grace and mercy, the Resurrection of Christ is out of merit and justice. Both shall arise alike, as St. Austin says, Similiter surgent corpora, quae dissimiliter orta sunt, Christi, Adami, nostrum.* 1.4 Bodies that were diversly framed and made as Christs, and Adams, and ours, shall not rise after a divers manner, but have the same kind of Resurrection. Yet the excellency of the head is above the members, (for though the head and members are conformable in na∣ture, yet they are not in vertue.) Therefore I bring it home to my second reason that God is pleased in his loving kindness that we should overcome death, but he consented to his own justice that Christ should overcome death for Satan must make restitution again because he had slain an innocent. That is the second reason upon the main, whom God hath raised up.

Thirdly, As God hath turned the sting of death to our benefit, so, much more out of the Resurrection of his Son he hath given us a salve of consolation. For if his humility and reproach were our blessing, how much more his glory? Death is two ways abolished, first, by the pardoning of our sins, for it is now become the passage to heaven for all penitent sinners, which before was the gate of hell for all trans∣gressors. Secondly, It is much more abolished by the Resurrection, evacuating all that mortality had caused by the restauration of soul and body into an integral composition. We have three grand enemies combined together against us, Sin, and

Death, and Hell: But through the happy victory of Christ of all these Enemies Death doth least harm, and therefore of all our Enemies he is last destroyed. Among the Heathen death was their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the most amating terror that could be set before a man, the reason, for they knew neither how that loss should ever be repaired, nor what entertainment their Spirit should find in another world when it was departed. But God hath provided better things for us, not to let us fluctuate in these fears and uncertainties: Nay, we are enlightened to know, that the ma∣lediction which was in death is extinguished, how that which was at first inflicted as an entrance into perpetual pain is now a rest from all our labours, Rev. xiv. Fur∣thermore, that it is a rest from sin, for while we draw in our breath we suck in ini∣quity, grace doth mitigate our pronity to evil, nothing but death will quite stop and repress sin in us, the wisdom of God providing, that as sin brought death into the world, so death should utterly abolish sin out of the world. So death dissolves the works of the Devil, but the Resurrection dissolves the works of death. It is the last thing that the Saints desire of God to be cloathed again. With that request being heard they leave wishing, and the end of all desires must be the crown and top of all felicity. Finally, to bring it home to the Person of Christ, whom God raised up, much was our benefit by his Death, but much more by his Resurrection. For lay these two in comparison together, to be eased of misery, and to be brought into a state of joy and gladness: Is not the addition of some good thing more thanks-worthy than the taking away of some evil? Why, thus it stands with those two blessings which our Saviour obtained for us, they are the words of St. Austin I think, Sicut humiliatus est moriendo ut nos liberaret à malis, ita glorificatus est resurgendo ut nos promoveret ad bona. As he was humbled unto death to deliver us from the evil of death, so he was glorified by rising again that he might bring us to happiness and glory.

And of this great work of raising up enough at this once, this being the tenth of these Easter Festivals wherein I have spoken upon the same Argument and occasion before you. Yet I have a little to add before I leave this first Point touching the Agent, and the Patient. God was the Author of this great work, and Christ in his own body returned again to life, whom God raised up. May not the Power and Ma∣jesty of Christ seem to suffer in this, that St. Peter says, God raised him up? For our Saviour did often give the Jews to know, that he would raise himself again from the dead on the third day, Destroy this Temple, and I will raise it up again in three days, Joh. ii. 19. And without any Parabolical speech, Joh. x. 18. No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of my self, I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. Why then doth not the Apostle clearly attribute unto him, that he was the Author of his own Resurrection? Because he spake of his Humane Nature first impotently obnoxious to Passion, and then powerfully restored to life. The Omni∣potent vertue to revoke the soul into the body again was in the Divinity of Christ, not in his Humane Nature. Therefore Christ declareth in those words of St. John, that it is not in the power of man to reserve the soul in the body when the pangs of death are upon it; but for his own part, though deadly wounds should be gashed in his body, yet he had power through the union of his Godhead to stay his life, and not to lay it down. Likewise it is far from the ability of man to re-unite his Spirit to his Flesh when it is separated, but the Divinity of our Saviour kept personal uni∣on with the body in the Grave, and with the soul when it is flown away, there∣fore he could bring them together again to remain in incorruption; the ancient similitude was,* 1.5 As a man that draws a Sword out of a Scabbard holds the Sword in one hand, and the Scabbard in another: So the Soul was unsheathed from the body, but the Divine Nature held personal union with them both. And as the Weapon is fit to be put into the Case that held it, yet it cannot sheath it self with∣out the hand of the Ownor thrust it in: So the Soul of Christ was restored again to the body, not by any vertue, or activity in the humane soul, but by the Power of God. Christ was made like unto other men in all things, sin only excepted, and re-made,* 1.6 or raised up like other men. Si homo non vicisset inimicum hominis, non justè victus esset, says Irenaeus; The Enemy of man was overcome by a man, else he would have clamoured that he was overcome by Power and not by Justice. There∣fore St. Paul, to let us know that Christ was left in death as man to be raised up,* 1.7 says he, As by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

Him God raised up, him, that man Christ Jesus that was crucified, the self-same bo∣dy, let me touch upon that, and then I will go on to new matter. The Resurrection

of our Lord is the Samplar of ours, that very same material Flesh that died was re∣vived again in him, and so it shall be in us. The impious Socinians, the last and one of the worst and most pestilent Sects that ever was in the Church, teach that we are not bound to believe it as an Article of Faith that we shall rise again in our own bodies. Why then the same dead shall not rise again, for if they want one essen∣tial part, and the matter is one essential part of our composition, it is not the same man. Matter is the principle of individuation, or numerical distinction say the Metaphysicks. And the old Pythagoraeans could not deny in their Paradox of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, if one mans soul came by many transmigrations into another mans body, it was another man. But leave we the help of humane reason, though that be strong on our side, and come to Divinity. All the Ensamples or Preludiums of the Re∣surrection both in Old and New Testament were of such as had life restored to them in their own body, the Shunamites Child, the Widows Son, Lazarus the Bro∣ther of Mary and Martha, the Saints that came out of their Graves in the holy City, and Christ himself that came out of the Sepulchre. And let any equal Au∣ditor judge if Job were not an Anti-Socinian, Job xix. 26. Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall behold for my self, and mine eyes shall see, and not another. And is it not equity, that the righteous in the same body wherein they have worshipped God they shall be glorified, that the wicked in the same body wherein they have lusted after evil things they shall be punished? I will name no Fathers to Patronize this cause, for all concur with one voice, that as God raised up Christ, so he will raise us up in our own bodies.

With the Resurrection of our Saviour, which I have handled hitherto in the first part of my Text, there is adjoyned in the next place the Complement of his Re∣surrection, the full weight and excellency of it, having loosed the pains of death. Solu∣tis doloribus inferni, having loosed the pains of hell, so the vulgar Latine; and I will now go over the divers interpretations of both readings. The first, which is the reading of our Translation is the right and best, therefore I will begin with that. First, St. Chrysostomes judgment upon it is, that when Christ came out of the Grave death it self was delivered from pain and anxiety, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, death knew it held him captive whom it ought not to have seized upon, and there∣fore it suffered torments like a woman in travel, till it had given him up again. Thus he. But the Scripture elsewhere testifies that death was put to sorrow, because it had lost its sting, rather than released from sorrow by our Saviours Resurrection. Secondly, Cajetan understands by the loosening of the pains of death, the undoing or taking off those penalties which he suffered in triduo mortis, in those three days while he lay asleep in the Sepulchre. But what penalties are those in his con∣struction? Why one thing irksom unto him was that the body and soul should be divided in sunder, the other that the very place of hell, to which his soul descen∣ded is in it self ordained for torment? Et mora in inferno erat paena infamiae, as ano∣ther said, any stay or delay in hell was a derogation to his honour: and for the bo∣dy resting in the Grave, though then it have no sense of smart, yet for that while it is sub mortis victoriâ & imperio, under the charge and Empire of death. There is somewhat near to truth in this Exposition, as I will manifest by and by, and some∣what clean mistaken. For all the sorrow and punishment of Christ was finished in his death, that was the consummation of all his penal sufferings. Wherefore his body was not kept in the Grave, much less his soul made progress to Hell, to bear any penalty, revenge, or sorrow for our sakes, or to satisfie for our sins, but to ful∣fill all righteousness, to confirm our faith that he was truly dead, and to captivate the Devil. Therefore his Resurrection did not cut off or mitigate any sorrows which he sustained in death, I cannot consent to Cajetan if he mean the contrary. But if he take not sorrows in a proper signification, but Metaphorically for the bands of death, as the Syrian Paraphrast reads it, Solvens funes mortis, loosening the cords or twists of death, so I think it to be the very marrow and true sense of the Text, that God raised up his Son, not Christ, but God, the sense continuing in the same person, having loosened or unbound him from that death wherein he was de∣tained three days.

But if it agree to the Person of Christ, that he loosed the pains of death, though it be a little violence to Grammer, me thinks then thirdly it comes to this inter∣pretation, that Christ had paid, (you know that is solvere too) he had undergone, he had satisfied the pains of death, or a most painful death. So Beza says it may be taken here, Dolores mortis pro morte dolorum; The pains of death, for a death full

of pains, even all that spight and malice could wreck upon him, Andradius like∣wise in his defence of the Tridentine Faith agrees with Beza, that Christ after he had given up the Ghost, and paid the debt of Nature upon the Cross, was ac∣quitted or exempted from the sorrows of death, that is, from a death full of sor∣rows, sorrows that were not only deeply impressed into the body, as far as whips, and thorns, and nails could reach, but exceeding anguish and pain of mind, sighs and horrors that we can not conceive: Thus far only we may peep into it, that God was represented to him most ••ngry at our sins, that He felt the malediction of his wrath lying upon him for our sakes, especially that He was troubled to shed his bloud for so many ungrateful wretches that had no regard of it; these were the sorrows of death that compassed him about; but that He should put on the horror of our guiltiness so far, and suppose himself to stand in our person at his Fathers Tribunal, even to the forgetting of himself, to the confusion of his reason, to the pangs of desperation, as if He felt hell about him, whatsoever a grave and worthy Author says to this point upon my Text, and in other places, I draw my consent from it. Exceeding sorrows both of body and mind gat hold of him, but they were loosened and finished upon the Cross. But will some man say, why doth St. Luke speak of these in order after his Resurrection? I answer, that Christ satisfied the wrath of God to the full upon the Cross, and paid that debt for which He was our surety, to the utmost farthing: Thereby He loosed the deadly sorrows, yet it did not appear so well that He had loosed those sorrows, till the time He rose from the dead, therefore the victory over those sorrows being estated as it were in his rising again, St. Luke ascribes it to his resurrection. I have not spared you see to open this third and most common opinion unto you; yet I rather satisfie my self in this Interpretation, that as it was Gods work to raise up Christ, so it was his act to loose the pains of death, solvere i. e. irritum reddere, all that the pains and sharpness of death could do was to divorce his Soul from his Body, and God did frustrate and dissolve all that by uniting them again in the Resurre∣ction.

And according to this true reading of the words which I have hitherto beaten upon the Expositions are easie and full of consolation; full of consolation I say; for neither could the Scripture say that the sorrows of death were all paid, neither had it been possible for Christ to have got out of the Grave, if there had been any one sin, though the least in the world unsatisfied. The other reading is strange to the Original, yet admitted by all them that are bound even to the errors of the vulgar Latin Translation, and often quoted and cited for great authority in some Con∣troversies, solvens dolores inferni, having loosed the pains of Hell. 'Tis true that Ire∣naeus and some others of good credit of old do use the same; and our Criticks tell us of one antient Greek Copy that concurrs with them; and a learned Bishop of our own Church reconciles the seeming difference on this wise, that by death in that place is meant, not the first but the second Death; the second Death you know is eternal punishment in Hell fire, and in his opinion it comes all to one pass to say, having loosed the sorrows of death, and having loosed the sorrows of hell. This will be examined by and by: but first I will premise how some have blundered themselves in this reading.

* 1.8St. Austin in that famous Epistle of his to Evodius, propounds it, though very faintly, that it is not improbable that the Soul of Christ went into Hell in triduo mortis, and carried away with him some that were there tormented; and if none other were released, yet at least Adam was: If the Father can be expounded to mean that Christ blotted out the hand-writing against us, harrowed Hell, and took away all power from it against penitent sinners, and so preserved Adam and other just men from that place of torment, his Judgment is right; but if his Sentence be flat for the other meaning, that any of the damned were redeemed of those pains, that so he loosed the sorrows of Hell, then we forbear to give him credit. But you shall hear him in the right anon. Secondly there are more than many that think they have found their so much contended for fire of Purgatory in my Text: for neither the Schoolmen, nor almost any other of the Church of Rome do take the word Hell in the Creed properly and litterally as they ought, for the Hell of the Damned, it is their Doctrine that Christ went virtually thither, but not locally; no in their common Tenent he descended but to the Limbus of the Fathers, or to the place of temporal sorrows, where some were deteined for a while for the satisfaction of some venial sins. Therefore Bellarmine having laid his conclusion at first that Christ

descended to the nethermost Hell, afterward went from it, and held with their common way, that in his substantial presence he went at the most no further than Purgatory. This Pill being commonly swallowed among men, it purgeth this fancy out of divers of their Authors, that Christ redeemed not the damned out of Hell, but He released many by a Plenary Indulgence out of Purgatory. This is nothing else but to make the Scriptures chime according to that idle conceit that runs in their brains. And thirdly Aquinas shuts this opinion out of doors to take in another, to wit, that to loose the pains of Hell, was to loose the pains of the Patriarchs and Fathers, who were sequestred in a Receptacle of ease, but not admitted into any joys of Heaven till Christ had first ascended: but what pains had these that were to be mitigated, if they lived in quiet re∣freshment, and in no pain at all? he answers that they were full of sadness and affliction of mind, because their deliverance was so long stopt, and Christ staid so long before He came in the flesh to release them. But I rejoyn, if they were in such a state as they describe, dato non concesso, they might be full of desire and expectation, but without any molestation or anxiety. All these opinions which I have rankt formost, as they miss the meaning of the Text, so neither are they right according to analogie of faith.

But the last Paraphrase of the words, though it rove from the meaning of the Text, yet it is sound according to analogie of faith, 'tis thus that Christ loosed the sorrows of Hell, not as if ever He had felt the sorrows of Hell in himself, and shook them off, but He subdued Satan for our sakes,* 1.9 and delivered us from those pains, with which we should have been held and captivated. And herein St. Austin speaks to this point most intelligently, that it is easie to understand how these sorrows were loosed to set us free, quemadmodum solvi possunt laquei venantium ne teneant, non quia tenuerunt; as the snares of Hunters may be untied, not to re∣deem that which is caught, but that they may never catch any thing. No man will ever deny but that we may be as well delivered from that torment which is deserved, as from that which is inflicted, and to prevent the Devil that he should not tyrannise over us, is to loose and break in sunder the fetters that he had pre∣pared for us, and enough to make us confess with David, Thou hast brought my soul out of hell, thou hast kept my life from them that go down into the pit. The three headed Monster that fights against us is the strength of Sin, and Death, and Hell put to∣gether: Sin must not reign, Death must no more sever Soul and Body, Hell must have no power to receive and torment us, all these must be vanquished, or else Satans Kingdom is not quite destroyed: and Christ subdued them all: but the greatest and most perfect Conquest that He made, whereof we most triumph in this life is, that He overcame Hell, or loosened the sorrows of Hell: For Sin doth remain in us here, though the force be broken; Death also prevails against our body, though it shall be but for a time; but here is the fulness of our Redempti∣on, and of Christs Victory, that Hell is absolutely conquered, and shall never lay hold of them that believe.

And I must go one step further with them that follow this interpretation, wherein my judgment favours them for true Doctrine, that Christ did locally go down into Hell, when He loosed the sorrows of Hell for his Elects sake.* 1.10 Christus inferos adiit ne nos adiremus, says Tertullian; Christ went into Hell that we might ne∣ver come thither: and Fulgentius is a great light to this Article of the Creed.* 1.11 It was fit that the Son of God being without sin should descend as far as man had faln by sin, and so He freed all the faithful of the world from the beginning to the end, that they should never come thither. I will fill the Scale with no more authorities than St. Austin's, this is his Sentence, it was convenient that Christ should descend into Hell to procure us freedom from Hell; as it behoved him to die, and to rise again the third day, that we might not die for ever, but rise from death. Some that affect not this way of Christs local descending into Hell, re∣joyn thus, that no man denies but Christ delivered us from the power of dark∣ness, and that He spoiled Principalities and Powers,* 1.12 and made a shew of them o∣penly; but it is not certain by what means this was done, by his Divinity, or by his Humanity, or both; by the vertue of his Sufferings, Death, Burial, Resur∣rection, or by the real Descending of his Soul in that place: nay one Lutheran Confession is not averse to think that He went thither both in Body and Soul in the very moment of his Resurrection.* 1.13 I believe by the penetration of the gross body of the Earth they would bring in some succour to help forward their Con∣substantiation.

The most equal way to try this is the express Letter of the Scrip∣ture, the clearest exposition of the Apostles Creed, and the greatest consonancy of reason.

The Testimonies of Scripture most firmly to be insisted on is Ephes. iv. 9. That he ascended, what is it but that he first descended into the lowest parts of the earth I know this may well be expounded, that Christ was humbled to be a man upon earth in the form of a Servant But if the learned and pious Fathers that were of old may be the Judges of the interpretation: And who fitter? the lowest parts of the earth are the nethermost Hell. Beza hath cited a parallel place out of the Psalms to make these words of the Apostle agree unto the Incarnation of our Lord, Psal. cxxxix. 15. My sub∣stance was hidden from thee, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth: But St. Paul doth not use to obscure plain Doctrin with strange Poetical Phrases: and Estius hath requited Beza with another place out of the Psalms to confirm my Doctrin, Psal. lxiii. 9. Those that seek my Soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth; that is, the enemies of the innocent should go into the place of the damned: The other Testimony of Scripture, for I will press no more, is Psal. xvi. 10. and rehear∣sed by St. Peter in this Chapter, Thou shalt not leave my Soul in hell, &c. What pains some men have taken, to no fruitful end that I know, to make these words bear any sense rather than that which is literal; no man that marks their diligence must deny, but the Soul in divers Authors is taken for the Body, and Hell for the Grave, and so they patch it up, Thou wilt not leave my life in the Sepulcher: but why should literal Scripture be so eluded? St. Austins rule is, that when the literal sense of the Text sounds somewhat that is sinful or impossible, then dis∣creet and learned Interpretations must mollifie the letter: but it is not to be suf∣fered, where good divinity is conteined in the letter, as there is in this: the meaning is, as no flesh in the Sepulcher was ever free from corruption but only Christs, so no Soul in Hell was ever supported and assisted by God, and not forsa∣ken, but only Christs. So Fulgentius most divinely, anima immunis à peccato non erat subdenda supplicio, & carnem sine peccato non debuit vitiare corruptio: Christs Soul know∣ing no sin, went not to Hell to pay any debt of punishment, for an innocent could not be obnoxious to those flames and torments; and his Body never executing any evil act, could not be tainted with corruption and putrefaction. Is it not there∣fore consonant to reason to stick to the letter of Scripture, when it bears an Or∣thodox exposition of faith: and whether we say that Christ being free among the dead, to walk whither he would, his Soul being separated in death first shewed it self to the Saints in Joy to their exceeding comfort, then to the Unbelievers in Hell to their woe and confusion; or whether we say He descended, that such as be∣lieved may never be thrust into that infernal Prison, or rather that He brought his triumph over death with him before the face of Hell, and brought those un∣ruly spirits under his yoke, entred upon the strong mans house, and spoiled his house, as it is in the Parable Matth. xii. All these ways are agreeable to Gods word, and to be admitted without contention.

Thus far upon Scripture attended by reason. Indeed Stapleton says, that two Articles of the Creed are not to be found in Scripture, this of Christs descent in to Hell, the other of the Catholick Church. I confess in his sense they are not to be found in Scripture, but in ours they are. But last of all attend what light the ve∣ry Creed it self will give to the confirmation of this Doctrin. The ground that a learned Father of our own Church lays I take to be most rational. Thus take these words properly and not figuratively, as it is fit in a short abstract of faith; next let them have a sense different in matter from all other Articles, or else they were a superfluous repetition; then let every Article keep a true consequent order of time one after another, or else it would make a strange confusion, and all other Expositions will give place. Some of the Romish and some of our own part have taught, that when Christ was crucified he susteined the pains of Hell: but ob∣serve against them how this Article should come in most preposterously after his death and burial, which was in time before. Others make this sense of it, that he was dead, and deteined in death; others to be no more but that he was buried; but according to these opinions there shall neither be property of phrase, nor diffe∣rence of matter in this Article from them that went before. To be dead and bu∣ried are as plain speeches as be in all the Creed, and should these be explained by an enigmatical Phrase to descend into Hell, rather to obscure than to explain the former. Observe how our Church of England hath differenced it from death and bu∣rial,

art. 3. As Christ died for us, and was buried, so also it is believed (mark, that's another point) that He went down into Hell. And the thirtieth Article of the Church of Ireland doth not satisfie me, that this line is in one comma, I know not whether by the negligence of the Printer, He was buried and descended into Hell.

I cannot come to the third part of my Text, and I have done as much as the time will permit upon the second; only let me add, let weak capacities be no ways discomforted, though they cannot explicitly understand the meaning of this con∣troverted Article of the Creed, Christs descending into Hell: they must believe that Christ vanquished the Devil for our sakes, that's necessary both for their comfort and salvation. And all Articles of Faith are not equally necessary and funda∣mental. Gregory Valenza, and many others, I think not imprudently, hold that the main and necessary points for unlearned simple people to believe, are the great works of God remembred in the principal Feasts of the year, Christs Nativity, his Passion, Resurrection, Ascension into Heaven, and the coming of the Holy Ghost. And though this Article of the Descent into Hell contein an excellent mystery of Faith, yet it comes not near the excellent knowledg and use of the former. Suarez the Jesuit writes confidently, that if by an Article of Faith we understand a Truth which all faithful people are bound explicitly to believe, so he did not think it necessary to reckon it among the Articles of Faith. The Nicene Creed in our Common-prayer Book hath left it out. Ruffinus says that after 400 years it came into the Latin Church, and like enough, for St. Austin expounds the Creed five times, and Chrysologus of Ravenna, ann. 440. six times and never glance it. For that Creed called the Apostles, was not so drawn up by the Apostles, for ought we can find in good antiquity, but called so because it conteins the sum of all Apostoli∣cal Doctrin: one part of it was laid too after another, and this I believe was the last addition of all. Therefore it is a main arm of faith, that Christ loosed the sor∣rows of death, and a Truth it is no doubt, though not of such prime consequence, that He descended into Hell to loose those sorrows for our liberty: but the main Pillar of Faith is the first Comma of my Text, that God raised up Jesus from death, and it was impossible He should be holden of it. AMEN.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Acts 26.8
• * 1.2

  Civ. Dei. lib. 22. c 4.
• * 1.3

  Biel. lib. 2. Senten. c. 2.
• * 1.4

  August. Ep. 49.
• * 1.5

  Tolet in 10. Jo.
• * 1.6

  Lib. 3. heres. c. 20.
• * 1.7

  1 Cor. 15.21.
• * 1.8

  Ep. 99.
• * 1.9

  Ep. praedi••.
• * 1.10

  Lib. de An. cap. 55.
• * 1.11

  De Pas. Dom. lib 3.
• * 1.12

  Colos. 1.13.2.15.
• * 1.13

  Confes, Sue∣vica. art. 2.