3. It remains that Acts ii. 26, 27, be accepted as the basis of this Article. For if His soul was not left in hell (Hades), and was not there before His death, it must have descended there after His death. The question, therefore, resolves itself into the interpretation of this passage. We shall have to ask what that hell (Hades) was, and how He descended thither.

Pearson then proceeds to give some account of the principal varieties of opinion which have been advanced on this subject, and which may be thus condensed :—

1. Durandus (an early schoolman) held that it was not a local descent, but one of efficacy and influence.

2. Calvin, Beza, and others maintained that Christ actually suffered the torments of the damned to save men from them. This is denied on the sufficient ground that remorse, despair, alienation from God, were far from Him.

3. Some have taken it as an expression simply equivalent to buried.

4. Others have varied the last by making it signify a continuance in the state of the dead.

5. The usual opinion is, that this Article means that the body having been buried, the soul (as distinguished from the body) was carried into those parts where the souls of men before departed were. In this opinion nearly all the fathers agree. They therefore used this Article of the Creed against the Apollinarians, urging that as the Deity did not descend into hell, Christ must have had a human soul capable of such a descent.

As to the purpose of Christ's descent, the fathers widely differed. But the leading varieties of their opinions may be displayed thus:

1. He descended to the faithful dead, and removed them to a better place.

2. He descended to them, but did not so remove them. 3. He descended to hell in its proper sense, and preached the gospel to the souls detained there. It was generally thought heretical to believe (as some did) that He delivered them all. But it was widely held that He delivered some.

Finally, in the middle ages the first of these three prevailed,

and was stated as an article of faith by the schoolmen with most marvellous elaboration of locality and other particulars. The solid earth was described as the bars of the infernal dungeon; volcanoes, its vent, and their roarings the cries of the damned.

Keeping aloof from profitless speculation about that which has been (not without Divine purpose) concealed from us, we may thus state the end of the descent. Christ bore the condition of a dead man, as He had done that of a living one. His body was laid in the grave. His soul was conveyed to the same receptacles as the souls of other men. He has thus assured His people of His power and presence in death as well as in life.

Finally, we may thus represent the usual simple mode of presenting this subject. We may combine the words of our Lord to the dying thief with the quotation of St. Peter from the Psalms. If the thief was to be with Him that day in Paradise, and yet He descended into Hades, that part of Hades to which He descended must be the place where the souls of the just await the resurrection.

THE ROMAN DOCTRINE ON THE DESCENT INTO HELL.

That audacity of assertion which is so marked a character of Roman theology, and which is one of the chief weapons with which it maintains its ground, is well exemplified in its treatment of this doctrine. The Catechism of the Council of Trent (P. I. c. 6) contains the authorised doctrine on this subject.

Q. 2 defines Hell as 'those hidden abodes in which are detained the souls that have not obtained heavenly bliss.'

Q. 3 states that this region contains three different receptacles: 1st. 'the most loathsome and dark prison, in which the souls of the damned, together with the unclean spirits, are tortured in eternal and inextinguishable fire;' 2nd. 'the fire of purgatory, in which the souls of the just are purified by punishment for a stated time;' 3rd. the 'receptacle (commonly called Limbus patrum) in which were received the souls

D

of the saints who died before the coming of Christ our Lord; and where, without any sense of pain, sustained by the blessed hope of redemption, they enjoyed a tranquil abode. The souls, then, of those pious men who, in the bosom of Abraham, were expecting the Saviour, Christ the Lord liberated, descending into hell.'

Q. 5, scarcely in consistency with the preceding, asserts that Christ 'liberated from the miserable wearisomeness of that captivity the holy and the just.'

Q. 6 further dilates upon the same subject, Christ descended into hell in order that, having seized the spoils of the devil, He might conduct into heaven those holy fathers, and the other just souls liberated from prison. . . . His august presence at once brought a glorious lustre upon the captives, aud filled their souls with boundless joy and gladness. Unto them He also imparted that supreme happiness which consists in the vision of God.'

ARTICLE IV.

Of the Resurrection of Christ.

Christ did truly arise again from death, and took again his body, with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection of Man's nature, wherewith he ascended into Heaven, and there sitteth, until he return to judge all men at the last day.

De resurrectione Christi.

Christus vere a mortuis resurrexit, suumque corpus cum carne, ossibus, omnibusque ad integritatem humanæ naturæ pertinentibus, recepit: cum quibus in cœlum ascendit, ibique residet, quoad extremo die ad judicandos homines reversurus sit.

NOTES ON THE TEXT OF ARTICLE IV.

The Latin text presents no points of sufficient consequence to be noted. No special sources are suggested for this Article. It is possible that some doctrinal follies of Anabaptists may have been in the view of its writers; but the obvious necessity of enunciating a complete faith in Christ would, in any case, have required the statement now before us.

OBSERVATIONS ON ARTICLE IV.

This Article is so manifestly a recapitulation of a portion of the Creed, that nothing need be added to a sketch of the treatment by Bishop Pearson of this portion of the Christian faith.1 He first shows from prophecy that the Messiah was to rise again, and enumerates varied testimonies from Scripture to the fact of Christ's resurrection. Then follows the definition of a resurrection, thus stated—‘A substantial change by which that which was before, and was corrupted, is repro

1 Creed,' Art. V. § 2.

duced the same thing again.' For a resurrection must be distinguished from a creation, or a mere alteration of state. A resurrection can only be predicated of a rational being who can retain personal identity. The reunion of the same soul to the same body, in all that is requisite to secure that personal identity, is a perfect and proper resurrection. It must be noted that Pearson in the above definition does not forget that Christ's body 'saw no corruption' (Acts ii. 31). For he further defines 'the separation of the rational soul from its body to be the corruption of a man.'

In the sense above stated Christ did properly rise. He had a real body; for He said, 'Handle me and see.' He had the same body; for He offered His wounds to be examined. The animal soul was present; for He ate before the disciples. The sensitive part was there: He conversed, He saw, He heard. The rational soul was present: He reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. It was the same soul; for the Deity was united to human nature in one man only. And the conjunction of the Godhead with the risen body of Jesus is manifest from His display of divine power after the resurrection. It thus appears that Christ did truly rise again from the dead, with all things appertaining to the perfection of man's nature, and with His own body.

The ascension, which follows next in the Article, will in like manner refer us to Pearson.1 Having shown from type and prophecy that the Messiah was to ascend, he asserts that Christ ascended into heaven neither metaphorically nor figuratively by virtue of the hypostatic union, but actually by a local transfer of the human nature (body and soul), which was upon earth, into heaven. In testimony of this it was necessary that the ascension should be visible, because the ascended body disappeared. Accordingly we have the testimony of the apostles (Acts i. 9, 10), and of angels (Acts i. 10, 11). Further it is asserted that He ascended into that which in the most eminent sense is called heaven, as appears from many passages (e.g. Heb. iv. 14; Eph. iv. 10).

1 Creed,' Art. VI. § 1.