downe to suffer which thing I neuer mentioned but that he went downe to manifest his death to triumph in his owne person ouer the Diuell and personally to redéeme vs from hell Then you call them dunces whence I had that distinction I had it from Musculus and Musculus from the word of God and therefore you must embrace these distinctions or else you will speake erroneously Omnia probate quod bonum est tenete Try all things hold that which is best This word is worthy my wit or any other Interpreters Neither wil I leaue the ware that is in my poore pack for all the treasures of Egypt Humes Sectio 16. In the end of your Sermon you bring vs two inconueniences if this article be not beleeued First that men would doubt whether there were an hell Secondly whether Christ had redeemed vs thence In deede you take the way to make men doubt thereof to see learned men to striue about that which all the world doth knowe to be true If you be remembred you tolde the people in the beginning of your Sermon that neyther M. Wisdome nor M. Chalfort did doubt of this article and why are you now contrary to your self Why would you haue it seene that these inconueniences would follow If you should not be beleeued beare the world in hand that we take away both hell and the benefit of Christes death This is good Rhetorique but it is ill Diuinitie It was your part to haue delt plainely and to haue told the people If you would needes speake thereof that neither you nor we did doe either of these points and that thereof they had no matter to doubt but to walke as the children of God if they would eyther auoide the one or possesse the other Hyll I brought two inconueniences if this article were denyed to moue the people not to leaue out any It is not vnknowne to you that Seruetus and Carliell deny it and diuers others now liuing among vs by reason of the negatiue doctrine which is preached of your side will not repeate this branch of the Créede he descended into hell And some haue sayd to my face that Thomas Aquinas did insert it into the Créede Of these men I knowe too many against whome I did direct my speach for feare least some might be in that populous assembly Bad doo they that deny the personall descending but worse do they which denye both personall and potentiall Therefore I was not contrary to my selfe but contrary to those which haue giuen occasion that so comfortable an article of our Christian faith should be put out of the Créede You say it was my parte to deale plainely I hope I did deale plainely for I preached the truth Obsequium amicos veritas odium parit Flatterye getteth sréends truth getteth hatred I knowe the eares of that Auditory did itche for other matter but I am Gods Minister and I haue preached Gods truth which I will by the heâ—he of my God defend against all gainsayers whatsoeuer Humes Sectio 17. We heare that you haue preached since at Leecock condemned al your aduersaries in this matter of ignorance fury and madnes as denying so commodious and comfortable so wholesome and needefull a doctrine as you think yours to be Heere I appeale to your conscience shew vs what coÌ„modity or comfort what wholesome or necessary matter we deny that you do teach If all your comfort and commodite consisteth in our redemption from hell and death to heauen and health there to behold the glorious face of our immortall God and to sing amongst the Angels Osanna in the highest do not we teach this as diligent as you what comfort or coÌ„moditie can it bring vs to send Christ the Sonne of the euerliuing God who hath borne all the torments of hell on his tender bodye for our sakes and paide a full raunsome of our redemption downe to the pit of hell without warrant of his word neither to redeeme vs thence nor them that were there I referre to the godly considerations of all good Christians As for you M. Hill the world is sory to see a man so learned and so eloquent to bestowe his wit and eloquence in so weake a cause As for Chalfout the worlde doth condemne him as a man without iudgement or discretion that so impudently and vnaduisedly as some suppose I praye God they be deceiued enuiouslie did set his face against the truth and did so irreuerently vse the diligent and meek labourer in the Lords haruest M. Wisedome I speake not this for any fauour of him in respect of his owne person more then M. Chalfouts for I haue some great causes to esteeme of the other but truth is truth I will not be caryed for any priuate considerations against it you promised if any man could answere your reasons to recant them in the same place I pray God you meant as you said God open our eyes and giue vs vnderstanding harts and willes obedient to his knowen truth Hill Truth it is I did preach at Leicocke and because I heard that M. Wisdome had set that opinion of yours abroche againe at Cosham I did here also confirme mine Not because I am desirous to be contentious but because I would haue no Christian man to doubt of the articles of his Faith you aske me what comfortable or necessarye matter you déeme that we doo preach I answere and I pray you consider of it we are borne in sinne how are we deliuered from sinne but by Christ which was conceiued by the holy Ghoste we haue the magnitude of sinnes with Peter the multitude of sinnes with Mary Magdalen the turpitude of sinnes with the woman taken in adultery the infamy of sinnes with the Publican the diuturnity of sinnes with the théefe on the gallowes the cruelty of sinnes with Paule and the recidiuation into sinnes with diuers of the Sainies yet if we repent we are pardoned for Christs sake who purely perfectly and perpetually obeyed the law of God By reason of our sinnes we are subiect to all punishments both corporall and spirituall and to the wrath of God All these punishments due to vs did Christ suffer vpon y e crosse both in body and soule and therefore it is called his Passion He suffered in the Garden in Annas and Caiphas house in Pilats hall but vpon the crosse as you say truely he suffered the agonies of death and torments of hell Further by reason of sinne this was laide vpon our first Parentes Thou shalt dye the death so by reason of this sentence not onelye the body was condemned to death but the soule to damnation To deliuer vs from these two punishments the soule of Christ went to hell and returned and the body of Christ that lay dead in the graue rose againe mightily naturallye spéedily and happely Besides Christ arose in déede he gaue himselfe to be felte and handled hereupon we are assured that he conquered death and hell He ascended
THE DEFENCE OF the Article Christ descended into Hell With Arguments obiected against the truth of the same doctrine of one Alexander Humes All which reasons are confuted and the same doctrine cleerely defended By Adam Hyll D. of Diuinity Magna est veritas praeualet AT LONDON Printed for William Ponsonbie 1592. To the right reuerend Father in God Iohn by the grace of God Archbishop of Caunterburye Adam Hyll Minister of the woord of God Wisheth grace peace and life euerlasting DIuers causes most reuerēd Father haue moued me to present this tretise vnto your grace The one because your grace hath been charged to defend an error maintaining this doctrine that Christ in Soule descended into hell The other for that there is like to be as great strife about the true vnderstanding of this Article in England as there was in Germany about the true meaning of This is my body For the better preuention whereof I thought it my parte though the vnwoorthiest of all the Ministers of the Church of England to set down in this short discourse a plain demonstration of the truth and a refutation of the contrary out of Gods Booke and godly Interpreters The last reason that hath moued me to evulgate these my labors is this I see diuers Ministers whome for their learning and life I do honor very often to preach against the true interprutation of this branche of our Creed wherby the Papist reioyceth the Atheist is hardned and the common sort of people deuiding themselues as they affection The Prechers do vpon this occasion striue more bitterly one against another then either of both do against our common aduersarye and by this meanes turning our swords into our own bowels we are a pray to our enemies and a scorne to the world If therefore this controuercie be not shortly by the prouidence of almighty God and your grace his ministery decided there will grow among vs enuy strife sedition and al manner of euill workes Sith then as there is but one God so there is but one truth My humble sute vnto your grace is that if the doctrine contained in this booke be Apostolicall It may be authorized to proceede and they that preach the contrary in this respect may haue their mouths stopped for if one builde and another destroy how can our building prosper if one gather and another scatter what profit will there be in our gathering sith it is more easie to destroy and scatter then to build or gather Agathon said Euery Gouerner must learne these 3. lessons the one that they rule men the other that they must rule by the laws the 3. that they shal not rule foreuer In that vnder her most excellent Maiestie you rule men you must vse continuall care and vigilancy In that you must rule by lawes you may not for feare of superior or multitude for loue of freends for hatred of enemy nor for desire of reward leaue the lawes of your Countrie vnexecuted In that you shall not rule for euer you are put in minde that you shall appeare one day before the God of order being the Iudge of the quick and of the dead who wil seuerely punish you for the disorders which are in the Church of England vnpunished except you endeuour as much as you can to reforme thē Some preach what they please some do what they fancy some liue as they list and the most are impatient of vniformyty for some weare surpleases and they are called Time seruers some gownes and they are like Citizens some clokes and they are like trauailers some Coates and they are like fugitiues Nazianzene saith in his oration of moderation to be vsed in diuine matters Confusion hath engendred thunders in the aire tremblings in the earth shipwrackes in the Sea warres and strifes in Cities and houses sicknes in bodies and sinnes in the soule So that by this learned mans iudgemēt the air the sea the earth euery house Cittie body and soule is ouerthrown by confusion For the purest things as the aire is it infecteth the calmest things as the sea is it troubleth the strongest thinges as Citties are it weakneth the richest thinges as the house is it impouerisheth the vnitedst things as the bodye is it serueth the holyest things as the soule is it profaneth God the giuer of all good gifts giue to our Church a beautifull order that he may dwell among vs least our puritye be turned to vncleannes our stedfastnes to tottering our peace to warre our strength to weaknes our riches to pouerty our vnion to ciuill discension and our religion to Atheisme For the head of this monster Confusion is the diuell the hart is enuy the eares are euill reporte the eyes are trouble and vexation the hands are vprore and sedition the feete are woe and destruction From the which God deliuer my sweete countrey for his sonnes sake Christ Iesus To whom with the holy ghost be all honor and glory for euer and euer Amen Your graces most bounden Orator Adam Hyll Christ descended into Hell THat Christ descended into hell it is an article of our faith and is to be beléeued as the rest of the articles are for it is proued by many and manifest Scriptures as it shal hereafter appeare The first Scripture that proueth that christ went down into hell is the 16. Psal. 9. 10. 11. verses Wherfore my hart is glad my tung reioyceth and my flesh also shall rest in hope for why thou shalt not leaue my soule in hell neither suffer thy holy one to see corruption thou shalt shew me the path of life in thy presence is the fulnes of ioye and at thy right hand are pleasures for euermore They that deny this place to proue the descending of Christ into hell say that the woord Nephesh or soule doth signifie the person of Christ and Sheol the graue But the place it selfe doth confute them for as in the 11. verse he sheweth the resurrection of Christ and his ascension so the 10. containeth his buriall and descending into hell from whence he did arise Some there be that deny that Nephesh the Hebrew word dothsignifie the soule seperated from the body but they are reproued in the 1. of King 17 ver 21. 22. where Elias thus praieth for his Hostesse childe O Lord my God I pray thee let this childes soule come vnto him again then the Lord heard the voice of Elias and the soule of the childe came into him againe and he reuiued wher Npehesh signifieth thesoule seperated from the body Carleil séeing this place to ouerthrow that which he goeth about busily toproue saith that this childe was not dead but in a swoune but the Sonne of Sirach saith otherwise Sir 48. 4. 5. O Elias how honourable art thou by thy wonderous deeds who may make his boast to be like vnto thee which hast raised vp the dead from death and by the woord of the most high out of the graue and
Paul saith Heb. 11. 35. Their women receued their dead raised to life Both these say the childe was dead therfore it is vntrue that Carleil affirmeth in his booke fol. 144. that the childe was not dead and as the wise man saith it was a wōderous déed but it is no wonder to quicken one that is in a swoun as Nephesh in this place doth signifie the soule so dooth it in many other places Pro. 23. 14. Thou shalt smite him with the rod and shalt deliuer his soule from hel Farther y t Nephesh signifieth the Soule it is manifest by this for y e interpreters called Septuaginta haue translated it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There were in times past many Heretiques that did deny that Christ had a soule of whom Appollinaris was one against whom Athanasius thus writeth in his book of the wholsome comming of Christ neither his body was left in the graue neither his soule was left in hell for this the Prophet writeth Thou shalt not leaue my soule in hell nor suffer thy holy one to see corruption And a little after for if the Godhead had béen seperated from the body and death had shewed his force on him how could the body depriued of the immortall God shew forth incorruption or how could the woord finish his going downe to hell or arise from hell Epiphanius writing against the Heretiques called Damaeritae vseth the same proofe haer 77. Fulgentius ad Thrasymundum in his 6. Chapter thus writeth concerning this matter whose flesh neither the diuinity forsooke in death neither did it leaue the soule in hell as the Prophet saith thou shalt not leaue my soule in Hell And in his 8. Chapter alleadging the 2. of the Acts 16. Psalm he addeth these words there blessed Peter being lightned indéede by the holy Ghost and made according to the woord of the Lord the light of the world did shew by the manifest light of preaching how we should vnderstand this place least any man in Christ should so vnderstand the true flesh that he should deny the true soule In this therfore the diuinity of Christ did shew his impossibilitie because hée is present alwaies and in all places and after an vnspeakable manner and was as concerning his soule in hel without sorrowes and as concerning his bodye laye in the Sepulchre without corruption for hee neither was absent from his flesh when he did not suffer his soule to be gréeued in Hell neither did he leaue his soule in hell when he kept his flesh in the graue without corruption But most plaine of all others is Ciril who in his book of the true faith to Theodosius the Emperour thus writeth it is not lawfull to saye that the flesh coupled to the Godhead could be subiect to the corruption at any time and y t diuine soule to be holden within the gates of hell for he was not left in hell as S. Peter saith For we may not saye that that nature which cannot be subdued by death that is the deitye of the onely begotten Sonne should returne from those dennes vnder earth neither should this thing haue any miracle vnlesse the Sonne of God by the efficacy and nature of the diuinity had tarried in hell fulfilling all things marueilouslye and aboue the reach of reason and working in all things for God is aboue measure place circumscription and magnitude he himselfe is comprehended of none This also is wonderfull that his body rose againe being corruptible by nature and his soule being vnited to the Godhead by the vertue and power of the Godhead did appeare to the soules that were there In these places Ciril Fulgentius and Athanasius doo proue y t Christ had a true body and a true soule and to proue that he was a true man in respect both of body and soule they alleadge this text of the 16 Psalm out of S. Peter If then Nephosh doth not signifie the soule the reasons of those learned Fathers were of no validitye And for this cause in the interlineall glosse you shall read this interpretation animam quam haheo vt verus homo My soule which I haue as a true man And thus M. Hutchinson in his most learned woork of the Image of God vseth this Scripture against the Arrians to proue that Christ had a true soule As then Athanasius Epiphanius Fulgentius and Hutchinson with all the rest of the auntient fathers doo vnderstand Nephesh heer to be the Soule euen so doo I with them séeing no reason why I should beléeue otherwise Peter Martyr in the 1. Cor. 15. teacheth vs a doubtfull place of Scripture must be interpreted First saith he it must be conferred with the like places of Scripture Secondly we must sée what the Fathers especially of the Gréek Church which day and night did exercise this book of God in their hands and conferred it with all the books they could doo write of it So haue I doone in handling this place First I haue proued by the woord of God that Nephesh signifieth y e soule seperate from the body Secondly by the Gréeke Fathers who translated it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth the soule Mat. 10. 28. Feare ye not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the Soule but feare him that hath power to cast both bodye and soule into hell As Nephesh signifieth the soule so Sheol doth in the 16. Psalme signifie Hell this phrase of Scripture is in other Psalmes as in the 86. 13. For thy mercye is great towards me and thou hast deliuered my Soule from the nethermost hell and in the 9. Psalme verse 17. The wicked shal be turned into hell and al the people that forget God So in Deut. 32. 22. Iob. 21. 13. Psal. 30. 4. 54. 16 138. 8. Esa. 5. 14. Ose. 13. 14. Habac. 2. 5. Mat. 11. 23. In these and many other places of Scripture it can not be denyed but Sheol signifieth hell and so doth it in this place as by Gods grace I wil proue First Sheol com ming of Nephesh which is to ask signifieth such a place as ne uer is satisfied but alwaies asketh and this is most properly hel which albeit it hath receiued infinite soules yetas it is in y e 5. of Esay His mouth is alwaies open and gapeth for more Secondly it is translated by the Septuaginta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which woord fignifieth in the Scriptures hell alwaies and neuer the graue as yon may sée Mat. 11. 23. Luke 16. 23. Apoc. 1. 18. 6. 8. 20. 13. 14. And therefore to translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a graue which signifieth a place where nothing can be séene is a forced and false translation for sith the holye Ghost doth vse it alwaies for hell I meruaile how any man dareth to translate it graue Theophilact translateth it thus Non derelinques animam meam apud orcum Thou shalt not leaue my soule in hell vsing the
resurrection of our soules is by the humble comming of Christ of our bodies by his glorious comming And this is made manifest also in diuers other such like places of Scripture In the 6. chapter of the Romans ver 5. S. Paul thus writeth For if we be grafted with him to the similitude of his death euen so shall we be to the similitude of his resurrection Where the Apostle thus exhorteth vs that euen as y e death of Christ teacheth vs to seperate our selues both in body and soule from sinne so the resurrection of Christ doth teach vs to arise from sinne both in soule and body By these places of Scripture it is to be considered that as Christ did arise both in soule and body so must we and therfore as Christs resurrection is not a full resurrection vnlesse both partes did arise for otherwise he did but arise in body as we doo so these exhortations grounded vpon that doctrine are to no purpose vnlesse Christs soule did arise from hell aswell as his bodye from the graue and last of all there is no more miracle in the buriall of Christ then in any other godly mans which as I proued before ought to be in all the personall actions that Christ wrought for our saluation Thus much of the primitiue place in the 16. Psalme as also of the deriuatiue place in the 2. of the Acts wherby I hope I haue sufficiently proued that Christs soule descended into hell But yet for a farther proofe I thought it not vnfit to adde these that followe namelye in the 2. Chapter to the Phillippians the 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. verses Let the same minde be in you which was in Christ Iesus who being in the forme of God thought it no robberye to be equall with God but hee made himselfe of no reputation and tooke on him the forme of a seruant and was made like vnto men and was found in shape as a man hee humbled himself and became obedient vnto the death euen vnto the death of the crosse wherefore God hath also highly exalted him and giuen him a name aboue euery name that at the name of Iesus euery knee shuld bow both of things in heauen things in earth and things vnder the earth In which place this I conceiue y t Christs death was manifested in heauen in earth and in hell and that the very damned spirits did confesse to the glory of God the Father that Iesus Christ was Lord both of heauen and the Angels of earth and of them that dwell therein and of hell and the diuels But some will say how is it possible that the spirits which are damned should confesse Christ. To this I answere there is the cōfession of our faith and of our sins which is proper only to the elect there is an other confession which is called the confession of experience which is in the wicked and the damned In the 5. of Marke the legions of diuels thus cry in y e 7. ver What haue I to do with thee Iesus the sonne of the most high God Where we sée the diuel is constrained to confesse Jesus Christ and yet dooth rysist him And in the 8. of Mathew the 29. verse the diuels cry Iesus thou Sonne of God what haue we to do with thee art thou come hither to torment vs before the time By which scriptures we learne that the diuels by experience of the maiestie and authoritie of the Sonne of God doo confesse him to haue all power and as ouer these so ouer all hellish spirits therfore did manifest his death by shewing the presence of his soule in hell So Father Damascene interpreteth this place of Scripture the soule of Christ deified descended into hell so that as to thē which are in earth there arose the Sonne of righteousnes so likewise to them which were vnder earth in darkenes and in the shadowe of death a light did appeare and as in earth he preached peace remission to the captiues sight to the blinde and was the cause of saluation to thē that did beléeue and did vpbraid and reproue the vnbeléeuers of infidelitye so did he vpbraide them that are in hell that euery knée may be bowed vnto him both in heauen earth and in hel Robert Samuel Martir is of this iudgement who giuing an account of his faith in the 2. volume of the monuments of Martirs Fol. 1206. hath left this testimony the same Christ went down to the hels and truely rose again y e third day and ascended into the heauens that he might there still raigne and haue dominion ouer al creatures this then is one end of christs going down into hel that y e infernall spirits might be subiected to him and that they might confesse him to be the Sonne of God to their endles shaine and euerlasting glory of God the father The like proofe to this is in the Epistle to the Collossians 2 chapter 14. and 15. verses He hath taken away the hand writing of ordinances which was against vs which was contrary to vs he euen took it out of the way and fastened it to the crosse and hath spoyled the principalityes and the powers and he hath made a shew of them openly and hath triumphed ouer them in his own person I translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in himself so doth Hierome Erasmus Stephanus Pellicanus Pagninus Iunius Tremellius and M. Foxe with many other learned men so translate it yet I sée it otherwise translated in some Bibles now a daies which gréeueth me for it is a false translation as euery learned man knoweth For in the Gréek it is the Masculine gen der and they translate it in Latin in y e feminine gender whō Musculus a very good learned man thus reproueth there be some saith he referre it to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and turne it in Illa these are perswaded it is an incommodity if it be saide that Christ did triumph ouer the principalities and powers But if all these things be attributed to God the Father that hée did them with Christ and in Christ according to the order of all things going before we may truely read héere triumphing ouer them in his own person And for this cause many learned men doo proue the descending of Christ into hell by this place Eusebius writing of the resurrection of our Sauiour thus saith we must know that in the selfe same houre wherin our Sauiour bowing his head gaue vp the ghoste his body being left in the graue his soule with the dignitye went down to spoyle hell Mollerus a learned Minister of Germany in his commentaries on the 16. Psalm hath the like Christ would shew his victory ouer the diuels in a certaine sorte and would strike perpetuall terrors into them and take away from vs the feare of his tiranny To this agréeeth Musculus on the 68. Psalm This God which was in Christ
determining circumscribing the woord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is which were disobedient dooth altogither seperate the time of their incredulitye from the time of this iourneye and preaching For if the meaning of the enemies of this doctrine were true Peter would haue ioyned this annotation of time which the iourney and preaching of Christ and would haue said being quickned in spirit in the which in times past when the patience of God was looked for in the daies of Noah when the arke was a preparing he went and preached to the spirites now holden in prison But Peter ioyneth the time of disobedience not with the iourney or preaching of Christ but with the first incredulitye and preaching of Noah and on the other side knitteth together the prison with this iourney and preaching which if he would haue disioyned he would haue said to the spirits which are now in prison but he simply said he went and preached to the spirits in prison that is which thē were in prison whē he went and preached vnto them This also may be added that it is to no purpose to make mention of a prison or to name them the vnbeléeuing spirits or soules of y e olde world for Noah preached not to spirits or soules only but to whole and beléeuing men the woord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cannot be taken for men endewed with bodies for Christ prouing his resurrection vseth these woords Luke 24. 39. Behold my hands and my feet for it is I my self handle me and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me haue It was no néed also to shew where these vnbeléeuers are or be holden for this both maketh nothing to the matter and also would be vnderstood he holding his peace vnlesse it was the purpose of the Apostle to shew that y e soule of Christ went down to this prison that is to hell and so sheweth first that death parted them as in the 2. of the Acts. Secondly that the body was in the graue and the soule was in hell Thirdly that it was not in hell idle but did manifest his death to them which beléeued it to be but a fable to reproue their incredulitie and to captiue them that we should not feare them Fourthlye he did rise againe triumphing ouer them in his owne person Lastly he did ascend into heauen and there sitteth Lord of heauen and of the Angels of earth and of the inhabitantes of hell and of the very diuels For the diuels are of him imprisoned and chayned that they can doo no more then hee permitteth them Farther where as some doo affirme that there could be no preaching in hell because there is no conuersion to this I answere that this preaching was not vocal but real neither was there in this preaching edification exhortation or consolation but as it is saide before of Damascene a redargution or vpbrayding of those vnbeléeuing soules in this or the like manner beholde ye vnfaithfull and broodes of the serpent how in season and out of season my eight preacher of frée righteousues and other the Patriarkes haue often preached vnto you that there should come a blessed séed of the woman according to y e promise made vnto Adam that both should iustifie the beléeuers deliuer and saue them from the corporall and spirituall deluge and also that he should destroye the serpent with the vnbeléeuing séed for euer but to you being incredulous that promise was a fable But now beholde O ye wretches me to be exhibited of the true God and by my passion the head of Satan and his vnbeléeuing séede is broken and the worlde is ouercome and on the other side you shall be forced to know by liuely experience that the faithful are saued And to conclude you now doo beholde me the conqueronr of Satan and his members against your will and to your great sorrow in soule and shall sée me héereafter in the last iudgement both in body and soule And this manner of spéech is vsed in the Scripture that a verball preaching is put for the reall opperation of a thing so Heb. 11. 4. By faith Abel offered vnto God a better sacrifice then Cain by the which he obtained witnes that he was righteous God testifying of his gifts by which faith he being dead yet speaketh So Gen. 4. 4. God saith vnto Cain the voice of thy brothers bloud cryeth vnto me out of the earth Abels bloud is saide to cry while truely by his example of true faith and of the doctrine of saluation and of martirdome yet dayly not verbally but really and effecttually by speaking he teacheth Last of al the word prison signifieth hell as we may sée in the names of hell Cent. 1. li 2. ca. 4. Now let vs sée the iudgement of the auntient and learned Fathers on this point and especiallye of the Gréeke Fathers Athanasius woords to Epictetus Bishop of Corinth are cited by Epiphanius in the heresie of the Dimerites haer 77. The bodye of Christ was laide in the graue when he went to preach to the spirits that were in Prison as Peter saith Athanasius in his book of the incarnation of the world hath thus written In the death of Christ his body being carried into the graue his soule went into hell the places being far a sunder and a little after he saieth for death could not preuaile on his humaine soule to tye him there neither corruption by tiranny inuading his bodye could shew his force on him to putrefaction as thinges not wel séene vnto For to think so of him were a wicked thing and euen as Adam had a double punishment inflicted on him for his disobedience the one was on his body earth thou art and to earth thou shalt returne again and so by this decrée the body of the Lord departed to the earth the other on his soule thou shalt dye the death héerof it commeth to passe that man is diuided into two partes and is condemned to departe to two places and therefore it was necessarye that by the selfe same iudge which had made this decrée that he by himselfe being vnder the colour of a condemned man shewing himselfe vncondemned and sincere from sinnes should frée from that sentence all beléeuers The like hee hath in his tracte against Appollinarius of the wholesome comming of Christ and in his Sermon against all heresies You sée good Reader how Athanasius a very auntient Father in the Gréek Church shewing the cause of Christs descending into hell proueth out of Gen. that as our body was punished by death for sinne so was our soule and for this cause both partes in Christ must descend that our soule may be deliuered from hell and our body rise to glory For as Fulgentius writeth in his 3. book and 7. chapter to King Thrasimunde he did know that God the suscepter of whole man was wholy with his flesh in the graue wholy with his
in omnibus protectionis tuae muniamur auxilio By whose merites and praiers we pray thée graunt that we may in all things be defended by the aide of thy protection Farther it is finished as concerning the labour and sorrow he tooke in the world for he was sent to preach the Gospell Luk. ◠18. And therfore he went about doing good vnto al. Act. 10. 38. And when he saw Hierusalem which had killed all the Prophets and would kill him also he wept and sorrowed all this labour and sorrowe was finished It is finished also is referred to y e time that Christ was appointed to be amongst men It is finished also is referred to the paines of the body and the soule which he suffered on the crosse which both were finished And last of all it is finished is referred to his obedience for he obeyed as Bernard noteth gladly without spurning simply without dissimulation chéerefully without grudging spéedily without tarrying manfully without estimation of himselfe humbly without presuming and persenerantly in life and death without ceasing Al these interpretations I haue read and doo allow off by which it is manyfest that whatsoeuer was to be doone at the death of Christ was finished The high Priests had taken their counsel Iudas had betraied him the only sacrifice was offered all labour was ended he was entring into rest all sorrowe was turned into ioy the time of his humilitye was at an end he should shortly be exalted the paines and sorrowes of bodye and soule were ended therfore both of them must triumph ouer death and hell he fulfilled euery iotte and title of the Lawe and hath yéelded a pure perfect and perpetuall obedience vnto God his Father both in life and in death therfore euery knée both in heauen earth and hell must bow and obey to him S. Paul saith Hèb. 9. 22. Without shedding of bloud there is no forgiuenes of sinnes If all had béen finished when Christ said it is finished then there néeded no shedding of bloud which as Iohn saith 1. Ioh. 1. 7. purgeth vs from all our sinnes Therfore this is my resolution with Ferus on this Psalme there remained many thinges to be fulfilled as yet namelye his death the opening of his side his buriall the destruction of hell which also were foretolde in the Scriptures but because they were now in the worke of consumation therefore he saith it is finished And a little after there remained also y e resurrection ascension of Christ and sending of the holy Ghoste but these things pertayne to his victory not to his sight and they are rewardes for his fight not labours Moreouer as yée read in the birth of Christ Mat. 1. 22. All this was done that the Scripture might be fulfilled So likewise something was to be fulfilled in his ascension Ephe. 4. 10. He that descended is euen the same that ascended farre aboue all heauens to fulfill all things So some thinges are to be fulfilled in the generall iudgement for Paul saith 1. Cor. 15. 5. 4. then shal be brought to passe the saying that is written O death where is thy sting O hell where is thy victory And therefore Ferus well saith in the same place that our saluation is finished spe non re in hope not in déed For Christ did saý all thinges were finished in such sorte as the Lambe is said to be flaine from the beginning of the worlde not because he was then manifestly slaine but because the killing of Christ was cast forward euen vnto Adam the first man and was spread backward euen vnto the consummation of the worlde and thus our saluation is finished not fullye in déede but in hope This is to be proued by a plaine scripture and so I will end Ioh. 17. 4. Christ saith I haue glorified thee on earth I haue finished the worke which thou gauest me to doo As in this Scripture the woord I haue finished signifieth the woorke to be in finishing so dooth it in 19. of Iohn There is alledged also a place of out of the 2. of the Hebrews 39. verse For as much then as the Children were partakers of flesh and bloud he also himself took parte with them that he might destroy through death him that had the power of death that is the diuell Out of this place they thus argue Christ by his death destroyed the diuell therefore his descending into hell was néedlesse In this argumēt is fallacia aidicto secundum quid ad simpliciter for it is not meant that the diuell is already destroyed but that he might be destroyed For this we read Apoc. 12. 12. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the Sea for the diuell is come downe to you which hath great wrath knowing that he hath but a short time And in the Epistle of Iude the 6. verse The Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserued iu euerlasting chaines vnto darkenes vnto the iudgement of the great day Therefore S. Paul praieth that we may tread down Satan vnder our feete Rom. 16. 20. And in an other place he saith that he is a spirite which now worketh in the children of disobedience Ephe. 22. in the 2. of Tim. 2. 26. he saith The wicked are taken in the snare of the diuell and holden at his will In the 2. Cor. 2. 4. he affirmeth That the God of this world hath blynded the eyes of the infidels that the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ which is the image of God should not shine vnto them In the. 1. Pet. 5 6. The diuell is a roaring Lyon going about seeking whome hee may deuoure In the Reuelation 12. 9. 10. verse the diuell is called a dragon an olde Serpent Satan that is a tempter and an accuser All which phrases shew that albeit the diuell hath nothing to doo in Christ yet he snareth blindeth and deuoureth the wicked he accuseth slaundereth tempteth the godly Origen saith in the person of almighty God if my seruant Iob had not béen holy and a worthy man and one that pleased me well thou wouldest neuer haue enuyed him thou hast not enuyed Esau nor Ismael thou wilt not enuy Saul or Achitophel or Doeg or any of them which haue fulfilled thy peruerse wil but thou hast from the beginning of the world enuyed all my seruants and Saints as Abel Ioseph and now Iob himselfe and al other calling on me sincerely It is manifest therefore that the diuel raigneth in the wicked and assaulteth alwaies the godly Therfore the vtter destruction of our euemies shal be in the generall iudgement now they are destroyed in hope then in déed now they are destroyed in fieri thē in facto esse This is proued by S. Paul 1. Cor. 15. 26. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death Upon which place Peter Martir sheweth who are our enemies 1. the diuell
named haue vnderstoode this place so dooth Erasmus writing on the fourth Chapter of the Ephe. certainlye this is the thing that the Palsmists by the inspiration of the holy ghost spake of so long agoe for Christ hauing already conquered the hell is ascended aliue againe into the high kingdome of his Father And a little after he addeth after most low humbling followeth most high aduauncing from the most high heauens then the which nothing is higher he deiected himselfe euen into the hell the which nothing is lower When Mare Magdalene came to Christ Ioh. 20. 17. Christ saith to her Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father but to goe to my brethren and say vnto them Iascend vnto my Father and to your Father and to my God and your God Héer the truth it selfe saith he had not yet ascended into heauen whosoeuer therefore affirmeth the contrary affirmeth an vntruth They wil answere Christ was not ascended in respect of his body but I reply if Christs soule being the principall parte of the humanitye had béene in heauen as they imagine then this speach is vntrue marke my reason for in death when both partes are sundered a man is saide to be where his soule is and not where his body is for the man taketh his name of the principall parte In this forte Christ saith Mat. 8. 11. Many shall come from the East and West and shall sit with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the kingdome of heauen Héere you sée because the soules of those Patriarkes are in heauen they themselues are saide to be in heauen Euen so if Christs soule were in heauen Christ was in heauen and then this saying can not be verefied I haue not yet ascended to my Father for Christ ascended visibly and for this cause willeth Mary to goe tell his brethren whome he calleth to this action as witnesses For as the time of his ascending is noted to be forty dayes after his resurrection and the place to be Bethaniel and that on a mountaine that it might the more esily be séen and y e maner of his going to be meruelous for he was carried vp in a clowde so his faithfull Disciples and glorious Angels were witnesses of his triumphant ascension into heauen Out of these Scriptures this I conclude as Christ was borne but once dyed but once was buried but once so he did but once descend into hell once arise from the dead and once ascended into heauen and but once shall come into iudgement But if the soule of Christ went presently into heauen thē not only this absurditie followeth that he ascended before he descended but also that there are two ascendings of Christ into heauen the one inuisible of his soule the other visible of his body Ignatius who died in the yéere of our Lord 112. For he was cast to beastes to be deuoured this Father lyuing in the time of Policarpus who was Scholler to Iohn Euangelist in his Epistle to the Church of Trallis thus writeth Christ descended into hell alone but he ascended with a multitude Athanasius in his Créed saith who suffered for our saluation and descended into hell and interpreting the 2. Cor. 6. he saith Satan was enuyous against our Sauiour for he killed him not knowing it would be against himselfe for Christ after his crosse going downe into hell hath vanquished death and because he knew no sinne he could not be holden of death so saith Ambrose in his exposition on the 3 Chap. of the Galathians for when they thought y t he should be slaine that he might not teach they profited nothing for his doctryne encreased and he euacuated death in his passion for descending into hell he deliuered mankinde for that cause he suffered himselfe to be murdered knowing that he was for vs against the Diuell And the same Father writing on the 1. Tim. 2. chap. thus confirmeth this doctrine because man now reconciled to God was subiect to infernall death that he could not ascend to God to whom he was reconciled our Sauiour to bring his will to effect suffered himselfe to dye against lawe that descending into hell he might condemne death for the impiety it wrought on him taking away from death those which he hid holde that from hencefoorth whatsoeuer had the signe thereof shovld not be detayned therewith of which thing he shewed a testimony when he arose Therefore to ende these woords into thy hands I commend my spirite doo not shew vs the state of Christs soule but sheweth vs how we must pray in all our tribulations and in the houre of death For the soule of Christ no doubt was in hell but this consider that spirite héere signifieth the soule which in S. Peter they will in no wise confesse Farther where it is obiected that Cyprian saith it is left out of the Créed of the Romane and orientall Church I answere that is not Cyprians woorke for in that treatise is mention made of the Arryans who began their error vnder Constantine the great in the yéere 320. But Cyprian was put to death vnder Valerian in the yéere of our Lord God 249. Therfore Ciprian being dead almost an hundred yéers before that heresie sprāg vp could not write of Arrians for Cyprian is of my opinion as it shal appeare by this y t followeth For in his sermon of the ascending of Christ into heauen he vttereth his iudgement thus Christ did once descend into hel and goeth down into hell no more they shall not sée God no more on the crosse nor those that are damned in hell And in other places he proueth the descension of Christ into hell by the 16. Psalme and by the text of the 1. Pet. 3. Chapter before by me alleadged which héer I omit for breuities sake It is farther obiected that this article is left out of the Nicene créed true it is so Athanasius créed lacketh the buriall Hieroms ad Damas. lacketh it also Tertullian leaueth out in his Créede the catholique Church the resurrection of the flesh and life euerlasting Cirill maketh mention only of the trynity and leaueth out all the rest of the articles therfore this is the answere ab authoritate humana negatiué non valet argumentum It is no good reasoning from the authority of man negatiuely Séeing then that this article is proued by many and manifest Scriptures and by the generall consent of the pure and primitiue Church to beléeue it is safety to deny it peruersely is infidelity Last of all because it hath béen confidently auouched that all the reformed Churches beyond the Seas allowe not this doctrine I will therefore héere reproue that allegation as most false and vntrue First as before I haue proued that Aepnius Luther and the authors of the Centuries confirme this doctrine so héer I will adde to them Pomeranus who trauailed much in the reformation of the Churches of Germany who thus in his exposition of the
first descended into the lowest parts of the earth He that descended is euen the same that ascended farre aboue all heauens to fulfill all things Now if the same Christ did first descend which did ascend then he descended in soule and body as he ascended in soule and body For both these must be effected in a wonderfull maner for they are reconed by Salomon amongst the most stupendious works of the Sonne of God Prou. 30. 4. Who hath ascended vp to heauen descended who hath gathered the winde together in his fyst who hath established all the ends of the world By this scripture I inferre that to ascend and descend are as miraculous works as to create gouern the world But if the soule of Christ did go to heauen immediatly as you affirme contrary to this text then the descending of Christ had not bin so maruelous as his ascending Besides as you after alleage there is but one ascending but if Christs soule first went to heauen and then his body then were there two ascensions But euen as Christ was but once borne and once dyed and was once buried and once rose from the dead and but once commeth into iudgement so as Cyprian saith in his Sermon of the ascending of Christ Christ did once descend into hell they shall sée God no more on the crosse nor they that are damned in hell Wherefore may it please you to accept the iudgement of Athanasius a Gréeke Father and a man persecuted for the truths sake by the Arrians he in his Créede saith thus who suffred for our saluation and descended into hell And interpreting the third Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians he writeth Satan was enuious against our Sauiour for he killed him not knowing that it would make against himself for Christ after his crosse going downe into hell hath vāquished death because he knew not sinne he could not be holden of death Thus you sée that not only Hill Augustine Ierome doo say that Christ after he had vtterd these words into thy hands I will commend my spirit but Athanasius a gréeke father who better then you vnderstood the meaning of these words Therfore it is a wonder to sée how those of your side labour to extinguish this euerlasting light of Gods truth and set vp a consuming candle of your owne making Where you teach that Christs Soule did no more descend into hell then Dauids did therein you are deceaued for Christ was to deliuer vs from hell and Dauid also wherefore if Christs soule had not gone to hell Dauids must and mine and yours And for this cause as you say they are true in Christ figured but not in Dauid the figure And héerevpon Peter thus reasoneth that they could not be true in Dauid For Christs soule was in hell and yet not tormented and his body in the graue but not corrupted Whereas Dauids body saw corruptiō and if his soule had gone to hell it had found no redemption Therefore to be in graue and returne without corruption and to be in hell and returne with conquest of the diuell were two peculiar things to the Sonne of God and not to any other of the sonnes of men And héere you vtter an other blasphemy that Christs soule had no other prerogatiue then Dauids soule for by y e same reason you may argue that Christs body had no greater prerogatiue then Dauids body for as this is false so is the other For as Athanasius saith in his booke of the incarnation of the word Death could not preuaile on the humane soule of Christ to tye him there neither corruption inuading his body by tiranny could shew her force on him to putrefaction as things not well séene vnto for to thinke so of him so were a wicked thing for euen as Adam had a double punishment inflicted on him for his disobedience the one was on his body earth thou art and to earth thou shalt returne and so by this decrée the body of the Lord departed vnto the earth but to the soule he said Thou shalt dye the death Hereof it cōmeth to passe that man is deuided into 2. parts and is condemned to depart to 2. places and therfore it was necessary that the selfesame Iudge which had made this decrée that he by himselfe being vnder the colour of a condemned man should frée from that sentence all beléeuers Héere you sée by this learned Father that Christs soule went to hell to deliuer our soules from hell and his body to the graue to deliuer vs from death and by this meanes both body and soule personally and not potentially as you teach working our deliuerance from death hell haue those prerogatiues which Dauids soule and body had not And for this consideration though the one was in the graue the other in hell yet both were in the hands of the Lord. Héere then we must learne what the hands of the Lord do signifie Sometime the hand of God doth signifie the Sonne of God Psal. 144. 7. Send thy hand from aboue Sometime it signifieth the power of God Psalm 136. 12. With a mighty hand and outstretched arme Thirdly the bountifulnes of God Psal. 145. Thou openest thy hand and fillest euery liuing thing with thy blessing Fourthly it signifieth consolation Ezec. 3. 22. The hand of the Lord was with me comforting me Fiftly grace Psalm 118. 16. The right hand of the Lord hath done valiantly Sixtly it signifieth the gift of prophecie Ezec. 8. 1. The hand of the Lord fell there vpon me Seuenthly mercy Psal. 37. 24. Though he fall he shal not be cast off for the Lord putteth vnder his hand Eightly the protection of the Lord Psal. 31. 15. My times are in thy hand Ninthly the aide of the Lord Psal. 74. 11. Why withdrawest thou thy hand Tenthly the punishment of the Lord Iob. 19. 21. Haue pity on me o yee my friends for the hand of the Lord hath touched me Lastly it signifieth the gouernment of the Lord Psal. 95. 4. In his hand are all the corners of the earth This place therefore must néedes haue this construction into thy consolation mercy protection and gouernment I will commende my soule I hope you your selfe commende your soule into the hands of God euery day but yet you minde not to goe to heauen immediatly So said Dauid Psal. 30. 5. Into thine hands I commende my spirit but he went not to heauen in many yeares after neither did Christ ascend into heauen in many dayes after but went downe to hell where it was in the protection and gouernment of the Godhead which as you confesse descended into hell For as we being in the damned world are in the protection and hand of the highest so Christ being in the place of the damned after a wonderfull manner was also in the Lords aide and protection by meanes whereof he hath wrought our deliuerance from hell Therefore proue you that Christ went straitway to heauen and you
the earth and shalt sleepe in the midst of the vncircumcised These two places by your leaue can not be well meant of hell The text doth shewe plainly that heere is rest and quietnes in the place that heere is spoken of but I hope you will not say that there is any great rest or quietnes in hell In all these places Erets Tacthioth cannot signifye any thing but the graue The same word is vsed also in the 139. Psal. 14. verse My bones are not hid from thee though I was made in a secret place and fashioned beneath in the earth Heere the Prophet I beleeue doth not say of himselfe that hee was fashioned in hell which must needs be if your assertion were true that those Hebrew words doo signify hell as commōly as hell in the english doth note that place Here Beza doth well obserue that the place of the Apostle which you alleage may fitly be applyed to the sence of this place and doth note vnto vs the descension of Christ into the womb of the virgin for Erets Tachioth out of all question doth signifye his mothers womb Hill First you say the place quoted by me Syrac 24. 37. maketh not for the proofe of my assertion If you had considered what went before and what followeth you would haue bin of another minde For before in the 8. verse it is sayd I alone haue gon round about al the compasse of heauen and haue walked in the bottome of the depth Which depth Pellicanus a learned writer doth interprete abyssum mortis inferorum the depth of death and hell Yea the whole Chapter speaketh of the Sonne of God and of his wondrous works in sauing mankinde of the which this is one that he was not only aliue among the liuing but after death his body was among the dead bodies and his soule among the soules in hell which he calleth the lower partes The like scripture to this is in Iob. 38. 16 17. Hast thou entred into the bottom of the sea or hast thou walked to seke out the depth haue the gates of death bin opened vnto thee or hast thou seene the gates of the shadowe of death These words are thus opened by Martin Borrhauius in his learned Commentaries vpon Iob. I haue dwelled in the highest places and my throne is in the pillar of the cloudes I haue gone round about the compasse of heauen aboue and haue walked in the flouds of the sea I pearce through all the lower parts of the earth Haue those in hell or the dead bin searched out of thée and doost thou knowe their state and condition and what shall happen to their bodies hereafter and what doth happen to their soules now The force of death and of hell he maketh manifest by the name of gates as it is manifest in that scripture and the gates of hell shall not preuaile against thée By these words it is euident that the nethermost parts of the earth Syrac 24 37. and Zalmaueth the Hebrew word Iob. 38 17. doo signifye hell and that none but the Sonne of God aboue hath personally shewed himselfe in all these places For the place in Ezechiel that it maketh most significantly for my purpose I will proue it by Esay Ezechiel and diuers other both learned modest writers Esay handling the same matter saith 14 9. Hell beneath is moued for thee to meete thee at thy cōming And Ezechiel in the 15. and 16. verses calleth it hell plainly Sith then both the prophets call it hell how dare you to interpret it graue But that the nethermost parts of the earth do signify hell I prooue it out of the 12. ver of Ezechiel And the strangers haue destroyd him euen the terrible nations and they haue left him vpon the mountaines and in all the valleis his branches are broken Munster on this place saith that by the branches are vnderstoode the carcasses of his hoast which the beasts of the field did deuoure Lauaterus the Minister of Tigurine agréeth with him All the beasts of the field shall dwell vpon his ruine the kings carkas shall not be laid vp into the sepulcher of his elders but shal be a pray to crowes griphins and to other carniuorous birds So doth Pellican a learned Linguist interpret this place At the last there is an auersion or apostrophe to Pharao himselfe or to the Assyrian King To whom art thou likened O thou noble and high among the trées of pleasure thou hast passed all other in power and yet with other kings that were in thy company they were brought to the lowermost parts of the earth that is to hell among the abhominable heathen shalt thou sléepe and lye as a wretched and miserable man Now because you take hold of the word sléepe you must remember that these words are spoken ironically as it is noted in the contents of the 14. Chap. of Esay The derision of the king of Babilon Moreouer Lauaterus on this place of Ezekiel saith These things may be better vnderstood out of the 14. Chap. of Esay which prophecying of the destruction of the king of Babilon Baltassar describeth with what bitter scoffs he is entertained in hell To ende Lauaterus on this place proueth these foure things first that there is an hell secondly that hell in this chapter is called by thrée names that is 1. Sheol 2. Erets Tacthioth 3. and Bor. Hell the lowest parts of the earth and a pit thirdly that this hell is beneath vs and lastly that the tyrants and wicked of the world doo descend into it and this he proueth out of Numb the 16 33. Psal 55 15. And addeth also that Tertullian and Ierome doo prooue hell to be beneath in the earth The conclusion then is thus forasmuch then as the Assyrians dyed with the sword were deuoured of the beasts birds of the field I pray tell me how that can be true that you affirme that the lowest partes of the earth doth signifye the graue for how were they in the graue that were neuer buried therefore they were in hell as both Esay and Ezechiel doo affirme and as Pellican Munster and Lauater thrée notable learned men in the holy toong doo interpret it I thinke your owne friends when they reade this will confesse you either to be ignorant of the word of God or else to wrest it cōtrary to the meaning of the holie ghost Moreouer where you mislike with me because I said that Erets Tacthioth that is the lowermost parts of the earth doth signifye hell generally in the Hebrew toong and you bring an instance out of the 139. Psal. and 14. verse where you prooue that the lower parts of y e earth doth signifie the mothers womb and therefore it doth not signifie hell alwaies this is a childish reason In a metaphoricall signification it signifieth the mothers womb therefore in his proper signification it can not signifie hell Argumentum a metaphora ductum non valet an argument drawen
from a metaphore is of no force And that héere is a metaphor M. Caluin shalbe the iudge He compareth saith Caluin the mothers wombe to the lowest and inward dens of the earth and a little after for no doubt Dauid would expresse metaphorically that inestimable cunning which appeareth in the figure of mās body The mothers womb is cōpared to hel for the darknes of it for as Caluin saith that artificer which maketh a cunning péece of work in a darke place is more to be cōmended then he which doth the like in the light Dauid also is here said to be made in the nethermost partes of the earth because he was by nature the child of wrath of hell if he had not bin deliuered therehence by Iesus Christ. Bréefely where you say that he descended into the Uirgins wombe and that it is the true meaning of the place Eph. 4. 9. both you and your Maister B. are deceaued For Paul reproueth you Ephe. 4. 10. He that descended is euen the same that ascended Now the body and soule of Christ ascended into heauen therefore the body and soule of Christ descended into the virgins womb if the body did descend into the virgins womb then Christ took not flesh of the virgin Thus that you may contradict me you are not afraide ignorantly or wittinglye to deny the incarnation of our Sauiour Theophilact saith well of these woords when you read that the Sonne of man came downe from heauen you may not think that his fleshe came downe from heauen for this is the opinion of Heretiques which did teach that Christ brought his bodye from heauen and did passe through the virgin I hope you holde not this opinion but if you holde this interpretation you must néeds fall into it For he that descended is euen the same that ascended Eph. 4. 10. Humes Sectio 10. But heere to let you alone with your Hebrew these woords can no waies be taken as you beare vs in hand for hell but do purporte to vs the same that Iohn tolde vs in other woords Ioh. 16. 18. I came from my Father into the worlde againe I leaue the world and go to my father For seeing the Apostle in this place bringeth his ascension as an argument of his descension which Iohn the Euangelist did before it must needs follow by necessarie consequence that his discense was rather thither whence he ascended Now I trust you will not say he ascended into heauen from hell but rather from the earth in the sight of his desciples 2. If the place whence he descended was heauen hell could not be the place whether he descended For if he were there at all he went not thither 30. yeeres and more after he descended if you will say that he descended first into the earth and afterward into hell then that descense could not be one motion which was so many yeeres intermitted but needes must be two First from heauen into the earth and next from the earth to hell Lastly if hell were the place whither he descended it must needes be also the place from whence he ascended which cannot be for his returning thence if euer he was there was when his soule returning into his body he came again to his Disciples from whom he was seperated before by death which in the Scripture is called his resurrection and not his ascention For his resurrection as it hath beene heertofore taught is no part of his ascention If it were so as you beare vs in hand that thence his ascention beginneth then his returning againe to his Disciples was but a proceeding so farre in his way and his abode with them but a resting place which was neuer hard of to this day Hill Where you say you will let me alone with my Hebrew woords and yet deny they signifie hel I hope because I haue proued that they signifie not the graue as you haue ignorant ly or against your conscience affirmed at your next aunswering you will say they signifie hell and confesse your disagrée ment with Dauid Esay Ezechiel Now you conclude with certaine pregnant reasons as you imagine your first is this These words do purporte vnto vs that which Iohn tolde vs in other woords I came from my Father into the world aud againe I leaue the world and goe to my Father Ioh. 16. 18. This is nothing pertaining to the matter we haue in hand vnles this be your argument Christ came into the world ergo he went not into hell Héerof I thus argue Christ descended into the virgins wombe as your selfe say ergo he came not into the world Or thus Christ descended into the worlde ergo he descended not into the graue Christ was borne of the virgin and came into the world to reconcile vs to his Father by his death taking away our sinnes and triumphing in his owne person ouer death and hell therefore not only Christ came downe into the worlde but as our body for sinne lyeth in the graue so his body wēt into the graue and because our soule was mancipate vnto hell his soule went into hell that by his discending our soules might be freed from hell In your next reason you say that Christ descended thither whence he ascended Now that is méerely false as appéereth Math. 12. 40. For as Ionas was in the whales belly 3 dayes and 3. nights so shal the Sonne of man be 3. daies and 3. nights in the hart of the earth Now Christ ascended from the superficies of the earth but he descended into the hart of the earth Therefore as this is no good argument Christ ascended from the mount ergo he ascended not from the graue so this is also a weake argument Christ ascended from the world ergo he went not into hell M. Humes lyeth in his bed and early ariseth afterwards many séeing him he rideth towards Bromham ergo M. Humes came from Bath and not from his bed Then you adde this reason if Christ descended into hell then it was 30. yéeres after his birth and so it was not one motion you charge me with cloudes of sophistry but héere is a thick mist of sophisications what you mean by this motion I know not but all the actions of our Sauiour are aptly deuided into humility and glory of his humilitye there are 4. degrées First he came into the virgins womb secondly into the world thirdly to the graue fourthly to hell Of his glory and exaltation likewise there are foure degrées First he came out of hell and the graue secondly he conuersed in the earth thirdly he was carried in the aire in a cloud and then entred the heauens with glory Also where you say that if hel were the place whether he descended it must néeds be the place from whence he ascended This as I haue said before is vtterly false if you mean the immediate place from whēce he ascended for it is known to all beléeuers that Christ did descend into the graue
was manifested in the flesh and also of Peter himselfe 1. Pet. 4. 1. Christ suffred for vs in the flesh Which antithesis of the deuine and humane nature Paule doth also expresse in the same tearmes speaking of Christ which was made of the seed of Dauid according to the flesh and declared mightely to be the Sonne of God according to the spirit Rom. 1. 3. 4. where you see he vseth the words no otherwise then he findeth them vsed in the scriptures Now that this can not be the sence of them you reason thus First you say that this participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is going doth signifye motion from some place which can not stand with the deuine Essence which can not possibly leaue any place being at all times in all places To this I aunswere that it is spoken of the same spirit or deuine essence in Gen. 18. 21. I will go downe and see whether the Sodomites do altogether according to the cry that is come vnto me And in Exod. 3. 8. I am come downe to deliuer them that is the Israelites out of the hand of the Aegiptians You can not be ignorant M. Hill that the holie ghost speaketh oftentimes of the deuine Essence by a figure called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whē God declareth his presence in one place more then in another by some notable effect which in this place was most necessary to expresse the continuall presence of Christ in his Church in those dayes of Noah and so in all ages either past or to come departing as it were from all other places which indeed he can not and sitting as it were a perpetuall moderator and ruler thereof Next you alleage the other participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is quickned that because it is passiue it can not stand with the deuine essence which can not suffer This we deny not for we attribute not this participle to the deuine essence but to the whole Christ God man for we say not Christ the spirit was quickned but Christ was quickned in spirit Thirdly you tell vs that mortified and quickned were both participles and both attributed to Christ at one time We confesse they were attributed to one Christ but we see no matter to leade vs to refer them both to one time But by the contrary me thinks that the order of the wordes haue sufficient matter in them to proue that he was first mortified and then quickned As for the distinction of time the distance was not to great as to require it To this you adde how he was dead and how he was aliue by putting to killed flesh and to quickned spirit The very text as I take it will deny you this for it saith not that the flesh was killed and the spirit quickned but that Christ was killed in the flesh and quickned in the spirit which is all one as if he had said that Christ dyed as he was man and ouercame death as he was God Which thing also Paule doth expresse in other words 2. Cor. 13 4. He was crucified concerning his infirmitie yet liueth he through the power of God Fourthly you say that the scriptures do ioyn together this going preaching close to his passion as if he had said assone as he had suffered he went preached This as if concludeth no necessary matter We expect demonstrations cannot be caried with as and if Fiftly you adde out of Gen. 6. that the preching of Noah is attributed to the 3. person and not to the second which putting on mans flesh redeemed vs. We confesse that ability to preach was giuen Noah by the holy ghoste but he was stirred vp and sent by the whole Trinity The actions whereof seeing they are common to all three he erreth not that attributeth them to any of the three Where you saye that Christ was raised from the dead by the first person and not by the second I see not how that can stand with the truth of the Scriptures which telleth me that the second person did put on man and did neuer forsake him in all his distresses Afterwards you tel me that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is disobedient and sometime doo seperate the time of their disobedience and Christs going to thē But I can not take it at your woord for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not as you seeme to take it a Verbe but a Participle greeing with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is spirits in the verse before and the Aduerb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes belongeth to the principall Verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is preached so that the sence must needs be he preached sometimes to the spirites that are in prison and were disobedient in the dayes of Noah Whereas you argue this can not be spoken of the preaching of Noah because he preached to men and to spirites it is strange to me how he can preach to men and not to spirits seeing that whosoeuer doth instruct men dooth also instruct their soules Lastlye you charge this construction to doo violence to the text taking the woord spirite for the diuinity in one place and for the power thereof in another where you doo vs great wrong for Beza himselfe refuseth it and proueth it is not taken for the power of the deitye in this place at all Hitherto haue I answered all that you can saye against vs now will I proue that your sence which you make of this place can not stand with the truth of the text You take this woord flesh only for the bodye of Christ which dyed and was buried and the woord spirite for his soule which you beare vs in hand descended into hell preached to the soules which had beene rebellious in the dayes of Noah if this your construction shall goe for currant then the apostle speaketh nothing heere of Christ which may not be verified of any man For though our bodyes dye yet our soules liue aswell as his The spirite here as it appeereth by the text doth signifie that which gaue life to that which was dead that I trust was not his soule but his deity thirdly this participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 killed doth signifie not onelye the death of the bodye but also whatsoeuer Christ did suffer either in body or soule for the redemption of our bodies and soules and doth comprise his whole passion which the Spriptures doth many times terme death which if it be so as it is so indeed then the woord flesh noteth vnto vs the whole subiect of his passion that is the whole man Christ for it was expedient that he did aswell suffer in soule for our soules as in body for our bodies or else he had been but halfe a redemer Fourthly seeing his body was quickned that is restored from the graue aswell as his soule from the sorrowes of hell if you take spirite there for the humane soule then you confound those thinges which the Apostle doth distinguish attributing that to
resurrection This is the order of Peter and of our Créede which can not be by man ouerthrowen The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is spirits also is not as you take it for you say it signifieth the men in Noahs time but you can not bring one scripture to proue it Therefore I say as I sayd before it signifieth soules separated from the body That my exposition is true I haue proued by thrée scriptures Eccle. 12 7. Heb. 12 23. Act. 7 59. Now as mine is true so will I proue yours to be false and impossible by Christs owne words Luk. 24 59. where our Sauiour to prooue himselfe to be no ghoste but to haue a true body after his resurrection thus reasoneth behold my hands and my feet that I am the same handle me for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as yee see me haue This was Christs argument I haue a body therefore I am not a spirit and so I reason against you and your teachers The men in Noahs time had bodies ergo they could not be called spirits Euery boy can tell you in Oxford that Substantia is deuided into corpus and spiritum and that one of these opposit species can not be affirmed of an other And therefore to be short when you can proue out of the new testament that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is mournying is spoken figuratiuely of the deity or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is spirit signifieth a man that hath a boy I will geue you the goale but if you will runne on this course vntill you haue prooued these two points which you must doo if you will haue me to recant then take héed least you run your selfe out of breath Lastly the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is prison doth signifye hell as it is to be séene Apoc. 20. 7. When a thousand yeeres shall be fulfilled Satan shall be loosed out of his prison Thus thou séest good reader how I haue proued my interpretation out of the word of God for euery word which our aduersaries can not do for their interpretation therfore thou maist safely assure thy self ours to be good and theirs to be false And that this word prison doth signify hell you may sée Epiphanius Athanasius Fulgentius centuria 1. lib. 2. cap. 14. Peter Martyr on the Créede Nowell in his Catechisine Beacon in the sick mans salue and Crowley in his answere to the reasons of Pound the Papist All these olde and new writers haue alleadged this Scripture as I haue doone with good warrant conscience Now that I haue proued this my owne interpretation I will by Gods grace proue your answere to be friuilous First you confesse that killed and quickned are Participles of one tense and yet you say they are not referred to Christ at one time this is méerlye false as I thus proue Christ was after his passion dead and aliue or neuer if he were neuer dead and aliue at one time then Peter saith not truely if he were dead and aliue at one time then you speak falsely Now you your self cōfessed that he was dead and aliue at one time a little before and proued it out of the 2. Cor. 13. 4. He was crucified concerning his infirmity yet liueth he by the power of God Héere by your owne woordes Christ was aliue when he was crucified so may I say with Peter he was aliue when he was dead and at one time Then you say the flesh signifieth the manhoode and spirite the deitye this also is vntrue for the body may be killed but the soule cannot Againe shew me any Scripture where one and the same woord in one sentence and period is taken for diuers things for in this sentence In which spirite he went and preached to the spirites that are in prison Héere y e woord spirit in the beginning of the sentence signifieth the deity in the latter ende the same woord signifieth the men that liued in Noahs time by your interpretation but by my interpretation it signifieth the soule seperat from the body in both places For as Cirill saith as Christ was with the liuing in body and soule so to shew himselfe a true man his bodye was among the dead bodies and his soule among the soules Then you auouch the preching of Noah is attributed to the whole Trinity be it so but can you proue that Christ after he was killed did preach in Noah for this preaching was after Christs death which is mentioned in the 18. verse and before his resurrection which is spoken of in the 21. verse You goe forward and tell me that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dooth not determin the Participle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is disobedient but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is preached I must tell you plaine you speake neither like a Deuine nor a Gramarian For an Aduerd is sometime put to a Participle as Mathew 2. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then Herod calling priuilye the wise men Sometime to a Noune as Homo egregiè impudens Sometime to an Aduerb as Parum honestè se gerit Therfore the Aduerb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comming after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 next and immediatly and being distinguished from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a Comma cannot by any example in diuinitye or by any rule of Grammer be coupled with the Uerbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now to answere your infallible reasons First you reason against me that if my construction be true then nothing did happen to Christ which might not be verified of any man And did you not blush when you wrote these things Can any mans soule goe to hell and returne againe For his going downe to hell I proue in the 19. verse and his returne from hell in the 21. verse Seconly you say the woord spirite doth signifie that which gaue life what then as God giueth life to the body effectually so the soule giueth life to the body formally Your Geneua translation which you follow saith he was quickned in the spirite not of the spirite And this I note against your side 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the 18. verse you translate In But in the next verse as though you had not doone well in the former you translate it by Now you know the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth by and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it appéereth in the 21. verse and in many places mo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is by the resurrection Moreouer if you had said quickned of the spirite then had you made a probable answere but no diuine is able to proue this exposition that Christ was quickned in the spirit that is in the deity for the deity is life it selfe Your third pregnant reason is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth not only the death of the body but also the whole passion of Christ. This cannot be for the suffrings of Christ are set downe before in the same verse then in this woord 〈◊〉
woord orcus which can not be aptlye applyed to the graue Draconites thus Non tu derelinques animam meam apud tartarum Thou shalt not leaue my Soule in hell vsing the woord tartarus which is a proper woord for hell and not for the graue Pomeranus Westmerus Lucas Lossius on the 16. Psalme and Vrbanus Rhegius in his catechisme all which were singuler learned Ministers in the Churches of Germany are of this iudgement also and therefore it is vntrue that all the reformed Churches doo deny the presentiall descending of Christ into hell as appeareth by these testimonies and shall more largely and euidently appear by that which followeth Aepinus superintendent of Hambrough being called generally for his incomparable knowledge in holy write the Father of diuinity writing on the 16. Psalme thus reproueth them that translate Sheol to be the graue that the wicked Iewes the enemies of Christ and his religion might ouerthrowe the article of our faith concerning the resurrection of Christ and his descending into hell and that they might take away the comfort which the church hath by Christs resurrection and his descending into hell the Rabbins doo turn for soule life and for hel the graue Here we learne who first deuised this translation that is the Rabbins the speciall enemies of Christ and christian religion why did they it to take away the comfort which cōmeth to vs by Christs descending into hell Felinus a learned man in the tungs writing on the 16. Psalme vseth these woords our faith hath that Christ went into hell indéed and that he dyed and was buried but neither his soule was left in hell neither his body was so detained in the graue that it could corrupt To confirme this truth when this place of this present Psalme is brought as Peter and Paul brought it to proue the resurrection the Iewes mocke vs and say that héer Dauid prayeth that he might be kept of the Lord whom he had set before him to be worshipped and in whom only he hoped that he might not goe downe into the sepulchre By this learned mans iudgement also it appeareth that the Iewes translate Sheol to be a graue for the ouerthrowe of Christs resurrection But because the Iewes doo mock vs for this translation of Sheol into hell we ought not to leaue it but rather to cleaue more stedfastly vnto it And for this cause the aforenamed Aepinus thus writeth on the 16. Psalme some Diuines there are louing ouermuch Iewish fables doo embrace this translation of Sheol into a graue and by their own foolishnes confirme the dreames of the Iewes encrease their error and doo make the article of descending into hell suspected to the vnskilfull and weaker sort of people This then is the opinion of this reuerend man that whosoeuer vseth this translation as he discourageth the ignorant and weak from beléeuing so he encreseth the old errour of the hardned Iew. Further as the same Author noteth it is more safe to translate hell for Sheol then graue First because a soule can not be laide in a graue but a body secondly because Peter and Paul haue so translated it whose authoritye we ough t to reckon to be holy and inuiolable and therfore we ought not easily to shrink away from it thirdly because two great errors doo follow it the one that the soule may be buried the other that we maintain the interpretation of the Rabbins the enemies of the truth Those learned men worthy of eternall memory which compiled the Centuries proue that Peter and Paul did so translate Sheol Cent. 1. li. 2. cap. 4. De doctrina de inferno seu loco damnatorum inferni 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellationem Petrus alij Apostoli vsurpant allegantes dictum psalmi non derelinques animam meam in inferno postea non derelicta est in inferno Peter and other y e Apostles doo translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hell alleadging the 16. Psalme Thou shalt not leaue my soule in hell and afterwards he was not left in hell Becon in the Sick mans salue Fol. 250. vseth these spéeches Christ after the death of the body went down in his soule to hell as it cléerely appéereth by the Scriptures quoting the 16. Psalme and other places Fulgentius in his 8. Chapter to Thrasimund thus witnesseth farther it remained for the full effecting of our redemption that man assumpted to God should descend thither whither man being seperate from God by the desert of sinne had fallen that is to hell where the soule of the sinner was wont to be punished and to the graue where the flesh of the sinner was wonte to be corrupted and that so notwithstanding as neither his flesh could corrupt in the graue neither his Soule could be tormented in the sorrowes of hell for his soule being free from sinne was not to be subiected to punishment and his flesh being without sinne corruption ought not to destroye it Mark the reason of this learned Father for because man sinning had deserued to be deuided because he was willing by the gilt of transgression to be deuided from God which can not be denyed therfore it came to passe that the death of the sinner did produce sinfull flesh to be corrupted in y e graue and did mancipate the soule to be tormented in hell but that the sinner might be fréed by a frée gift it came to passe that the sonne of God did suffer vniustlye of sinners the death of the body which man being a sinner had suffered iustly of the iust God and that his flesh should go downe so farre as slesh wrapt in sinne should come and that the Soule of the Sauiour should descend into hell where the soule of the sinner was to be tormented Thus the holye Martirs in times past thought of this matter and if they had liued in these daies to sée so great multitudes which professe the faith to deny it after a sorte no doubt they would haue writen more earnestly against them But sith their woorkes be extant I hope they that deny this manner of descending wil answere their reasons which in my iudgemēt were framed and penned by the holye Ghost Wherefore sith Athanasius Epiphanius Ciril Aepinus Pomeranus Vrbanus Rhegius Lucas Lossius Beecon Hutchinson and many others some Gréek some Latin some olde some new writers but especiallye Peter and Paul themselues the pillers of the Church haue thus translated Sheol to be hell my resolution in this point is with Aepinus let him that will hold this opinion that Sheol signifieth the graue I like not of it it is grounded vpon weak doubtfull vncertain wrested proofes and coniectures they that subscribe vnto it doo without iust and necessary proofes rashly disagrée from the translation of our Psalter from the plain woordes of the Apostles Créede and from the consent of the olde Church which alwaies beléeued that the bodye of Christ did thrée daies rest in the graue and his
soule did descend into hell And this consent in this point of doctrine to be in the olde and pure Church doth M. Caluin on the 16. Psalme himselfe confesse his woordes be these I confesse saith Caluin that the olde Interpreters both Gréek and Latin haue drawen those woordes to another meaning that the soule of Christ was brought from hell but it is better to tarry in the naturall simplicity of the wordes that we be not mocked of the Iewes For as much then as Caluin can not deny that all the olde Interpreters both Gréek and Latin haue consented in this pointe of doctrine I meruaile that M Caluin would draw it to a Iewish interpretation In the 10 of the Acts ver 43. Luke maketh this a strong argument to proue Christ to be the Sauiour of the world Because al the Prophets did witnes it in like manner because all the Prophets and Interpreters in the pure Church haue concluded this doctrine to be true I doubt not but this knot of vnity in verity was made by the God of peace and spirit of truth Farther as Sheol signifieth the soule and Sheol hell so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sanctum signifieth the body as it may be proued out of the 1. of Luke ver 35. And that holy thing which shall be borne of thee shal be called the Sonne of God And thus doth S. Augustine on the 16. Psalme truelye vnderstand it his enterpretation is this neither shalt thou suffer my soule to be possessed in hell neither shalt thou suffer my holy hody whereby others are sanctified to sée corruption And the body of Christ is called holy for two causes the one because sinne was neuer committed in it the other because by it all others are sanctified And this is made plaine also by the woord corruption which can not haue relation but only to the body for as a learned man saith death is the seperation of the body from the soule but corruption is a resolution of the members other partes into the earth So Iob vseth this woord in his 17. Chapter ver 14. I haue saide vnto corruption thou art my Father Luther in the 2. Chapter of Genesis thus writeth For this is singuler in Christ thou shalt not leaue my soule in hell neither shalt thou suffer thy holy one to sée corruption for neither hell could holde his soule sleeping or resting neither the graue his bodye that it might corrupt as Martha said of Lazarus Lord he stincketh for he hath béen buried foure dayes The like hath S. Augustine in his 57. Epistle ad Dardanum that was spoken of his soule which came from hell so quickly this of his body which could not corrupt by reason of his spéedy resurrection Not vnlike hath Erasmus on the 2. of the Acts thus his body albeit it was laide in graue and was without life did not corrupt but God which can not lye brought his soule from hell and restored it to the body Wherfore thus I end with S. Augustine writing on the 85. Psalme wherefore this is his voice in the Psalme not by any mans coniecture but by the exposition of the Apostle thou shalt not leaue my soule in hel neither shalt thou suffer thy holy one to sée corruption In this discourse by the woord of God and the auntient Fathers I haue proued Nephesh to signifie y e soule seperate from the body Sheol to signifie hell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sanctum to signifie the bodye and why it is so vsed Therefore they y t deny this place to proue the discending of Christ into hell must néedes fall into these absurdeties First that life or person must be in a graue or else a dead mans carkas must be accounted life or a person both which are absurd in diuinity and philosophie Secondly that the soule of man is in a graue and so buried which proueth the Soule to be mortall Thirdly that the Gréek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is translated a graue which properly signifieth hell and so occasion is giuen to the Atheists to think there is no hell For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is compounded of the particle α 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because nothing in hell can be séene and for this cause in the Euangelists Christ calieth hell vtter darknes Fourthly we strengthen the error of the Iewes by following their interpretation which was deuised to take away the comfort of this article Fiftly it maketh voide all the arguments of the Fathers against Arrius Appollinaris and all other Heretiques which denied Christ to haue a true soule Lastlye it is an introduction to the error of the Saduces which denye that there is any Angell spirite or any soule For if there be any then as Ciril noteth it was necessarye that as he was in body and soule with them that then were liuing so was it as necessary that his soule should be present among y e soules to shew that he was a true man The falsehoode of the argument of the aduersaries of this doctrine is called fallatia compositionis that is when those thinges are ioyned together which ought to be sundered For they that deny this place of the 16. Psalme to proue the descending of Christ into hell doo affirme animam sanctum soule and holy one hell and corruption to be one wheras they are diuers as in parte I haue proued already and shal by Gods grace proue more plainely out of the 2. chapter of the Acts where Peter interpreteth this place in such wise that credit must néeds be giuen vnto it of all Gods children Peters Sermon is thus Acts. 2. 29. 30. 31. Men and Brethren I may boldlye speake vnto you of the Patriarch Dauid that he is both dead and buried and his sepulcher remaineth till this day Therefore seeing he was a Prophet and knew that God had sworne by an oathe that of the fruite of his loynes he would raise vp Christ concerning the flesh set him vpon his throne hee knowing of this before spake of the resurrection of Christ that his soule was not left in hel neither his flesh should see corruption which words S. Augustine in his 57. epistle ad Dardanum thus expoundeth of the flesh of Christ that it was put into the Sepulchre the Gospell is manifest but that his soule went down into hell the doctrine of the Apostle proueth it For blessed Peter doth proue this out of the Psalme where he sheweth it was foretolde of him for why thou shalt not leaue my Soule in Hell neither shalt thou suffer thy holye one to sée corruption And in his 99. Epistle ad Enodium he hath these woords quae ne quisquam aliter sapere auderet in actibus Apostolorum Petrus exponit Of which woords that any man should not be so bolde to thinke otherwise Peter himself expoundeth them that is Nephesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. soule and Sheol 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is hell and holy one flesh Which interpretation who so dooth peruerte no doubt hee peruerteth the meaning of the holy Ghost Rabbi Lebaurish thus openeth this text after that Peter declared that this could not be spoken of Dauid himself for that his graue remained among them and his body suffereth corruption he addeth for as much as Dauid was a prophet and did know that God sware vnto him that Christ should come of the fruit of his loynes touching the flesh he spake euidently of the resurrection of Christ because his soule should not be left in hell nor his flesh sée corruption you sée how S. Peter applyeth this sentence of the Prophet to set foorth Christ his resurrection and in stead of this woord sanctum eius his holy one S. Peter hath carnem eius his flesh ver 31. is not resurrection contrary to death and what thing is death but the seperation of the body and the soule and what other thing then can resurrection be but a renuing and knitting to gether againe of the bodye and the soule S. Peter applying this sentence to the resurrection of Christ doth as it were point out with his finger to the places from whence these two partes seuered must be brought againe namelye the soule from hel for hel could not holde it and the bodye from the graue that it should not corrupt Here it is opened that death is a seperation of the body and the soule and that the resurrection is a knitting of both partes together and because Christ was a true man and had in him both a very body and a true soule S. Peter sheweth that these two partes were not onely diuided but also where they were during the time of their seperation and that miraculously neither the flesh did corrupt in the graue as all other mens doo nor the soule was left in hell as the sinners soules were For albeit he was accounted amongst sinners yet he was none Therefore wonderfully he came from the graue from hell for as euery article of our faith is an vnsearchable misterie so is this It is miraculous that the world was made of nothing that Christ was conceiued by the holy Ghoste that hée was borne of a virgin that hée should suffer and dye for the sinnes of the whole world and that at his death y e sunne should be abashed the earth tremble the flints cleue asimder and the valle of the Temple rent so in his resurrection the rolling away of the stone the appearing of the Angell the arising of many of the dead and especiallye the rising of Christ himselfe so mightily naturally spéedily and happily was most wonderfull so his ascending into Heauen in a cloud was in like manner to be meruailed at and likewise his comming into indgement shal be most wonderful in like sorte his buriall and going downe to hell are wonderfull things as Cirill noteth before whose woords are these neither should this thing haue had any miracle vnlesse y e sonne of God by the efficacy and nature of the diuinity had tarried in hell fulfilling all things merueilously aboue the reach of reason in his treatise of y e right faith to Theodosius S. Augustine in his book of the essence of the diuinity thus saith hée came from heauen into y e Uirgins wombe from the virgins wombe as he was borne he was laid in a maunger after he had fulfilled all things for the which being sent by his father he came he was fastened vnto the wood of the crosse but being taken downe from the crosse according to the flesh hee was buried but according to the Soule he descended into hell and the third day by the power of his diuinitye he raised his flesh out of the sepulchre and the 40. daye after his resurrection he ascended into heauen the Apostles beholding him For my parte therefore I admit the counsaile of Ambrose who willeth vs in matters of faith to beléeue the poore Fishermen Peter and his fellowes rather then the subtile Sophisters because then Peter affirmeth in the 2. chapter of the Acts that neither his soule was left in hell neither his flesh did sée corruption it is therefore manifest that these two partes flesh and soule are not one as I saide before These 3. things then would I craue of the aduersaries of this doctrine the one where they finde in the woord of God the coniunction nec to be a coniunction that coupleth and interpreteth secondly where they finde in the woord of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a graue thirdlye that those thinges which are seperated by nec the coniunction are one Lylly in his Latin grammar handling the vse of coniunions hath thus taught some are coniunctions copulatiue as et ac que atque quoque etiam item itidem cum tum tum doubled hither pertaine they which are contrary to these nec neque neu neue now if nec doo not couple but as Lylly saith is cleare contrary then it must néeds come to passe that in y e 2. of the Acts and 16. Psalme soule and holy one are diuers things and that héer is a plain demonstration not onely of y e seperation of both parts of y e humanity but also of the knitting together of the same In the 13. of the Acts ver 27. It is written that they Knew him not albeit the wordes of the prophet were read euery day So now albeit we often read these words yet we doo not vnderstand thē and the reason is giuen after in the 14. verse Beholde you despisers and wonder vanish away for I work a worke in your dayes a work y t ye shal not beleeue though a man would declare it So albeit the Apostles proue manifestly the resurrection of the soule and body of Christ yet will not they beléeue that read the Scriptures very often but denye the descending of Christs soule and so likewise his resurrection and by this meanes make of none effect those Scriptures which proue there must be a two folde resurrection in vs as there was in Christ a resurrection of the soule and of the body In the 3. of the Colossians ver 1. S. Paul vseth these words If ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are aboue where Christ sitteth at the right hand of the Father Euen as saith the Apostle Christ his soule did arise aswel as his body so must you haue the resurrection of your soule aswell as the resurrection of your bodye And thereupon diuers learned men interpreting this parcell of Scripture haue noted that there is a two folde resurrection in vs of soule of body and that our bodies shall neuer arise to glory vnles our soules doo first arise from sinne to grace And therefore this is a generall distinction in learned writers when they open this text of Scripture that there is a double resurrection of our soules and bodies the
héere argued by some why should Peter héere dispute of the spirits or soules detayned in hell considering he exhorteth to suffer afflictions I answere that he might shew to the faithfull which then were persecuted very often to death that the soules doo not perish with the bodies as the soule of Christ did not perish when he descended into hell but as the soule of Christ did triumph ouer the diuell so shal the godly triumph ouer them that persecute them But some will say how did Christ triumph ouer the diuell by descending into hell sith it was the extreamest degrée of his humilitie To this I reply that euerye article of our faith is a misterye 1. Tim. 1. 9. Hauing the misterye of the faith in a pure conscience And therfore in all the actions of Christs humility he shewed himselfe alwaies to be a glorious God he was borne of a poore Uirgin in a small towne in an Inne yea and in a Stable he was wrapte in cloutes and layde in a cratch yet the Shepheards of y e féeld the noble men of the East the starre in the firmament and the Angels from heauen did witnes in a merueilous sorte that he was the sonne of God The birdes as our Sauiour saith haue nestes the foxes holes but the Sonne of man hath not where to lay his head he was called a glutton a drunkard a Samaritane a fréend of Publicanes sinners a man possessed with a diuell his Disciples also were very poore but yet he gaue sight to the blinde hearing to y e deafe spéech to the dumme cleansed the Leapars raysed the dead commaunded the windes the sea yea and the very diuels In like manner when he was humbled to the death of the crosse albeit he was in the state of dereliction and cryed my God my God why hast thou forsaken me yet at that time the Sunne was abashed the earth trembled the vaile of the Temple was rent the stones claue asunder the dead arose yea and vpon the crosse he forgiueth the théefe on the right hand and euen as in his natiuity in his life and death he shewed himselfe to be both God and man so in his descending into hell he proueth the same and in this lowest degrée of his humility as he proueth himselfe a true man for that his soule was among y e soules in hell so by triumphing ouer thē he sheweth himself to be a true God And for this cause it standeth well with the mistery of our faith that his going down to hell is both the lowest degrée of his humilitye to shew him to be a true man and also the beginning of his endlesse triumph to proue him a glorious God in all places and at all times ouer all persons for euer Some curius body will say what néeded he to manifest his death to those in hel it was néedful in respect of thē y t were in hel in respect of vs that liue now and in respect of thē y t haue preached in times past and in respect of Christ himself In respect of thē which were in hell because that those which would not hear the vocal preaching of Noah should sée Christ really present in soule and so confesse that the destruction of their bodies in the deluge and y e damnation of their soules in hell was iust In respect of vs which liue now because that whē we finde by Gods woord that he manifested his death in earth and hell we should not remaine incredulous but beléeue in Christ least hearing of the wondrous workes of the Sonne of God which he hath wrought for vs. and for our saluation both in earth and hell and despising the same we féele by experience with the damned olde worlde that Christ was in hell for our deliuerance from hell and denying with the reprobate Iewes this comfortable article of our faith we be cast into those insufferable torments of extreme damnation from which to deliuer vs Christ in a maruelous manner descended into hell It was néednfull in respect of them which preached in times past for sith Dauid and other prophets haue foretolde of this going downe of our Sauiour and that his soule should not be left in hell it was I say most requisite that the Scripture should be fulfilled It was néedfull also in respect of Christ himselfe for he came to subdue our enemies therefore as Dauid trampled on the face of Goliah so was it méet that Christ in soule should triumph ouer the diuell that he might haue all power not onlye in heauen ouer Angels or in earth ouer all the inhabitantes therof but also in hell ouer the diuels And for this cause as he hath saide O death where is thy sting O hell where is thy victorye so shall all his members say and shall for this their wonderfull and glorious deliuerance from death bell and the diuell sing reioyce and giue thankes for euer Moreouer wheras diuers Scriptures are alleadged by Carleil Vrsinus and others that Christ descended not into hell I will answere them by Gods grace and proue that it was not the meaning of the holy Ghoste to haue them alleadged to that purpose The first Scripture is that which is written in Ioh. 19. ver 30. It is finished therfore Christ néeded not to goe down into hell this is a false kinde of reasoning á dicto secundum quid ad simpliciter for if all had béen finished then christ néeded not to haue dyed nor to haue shed his bloud for he was aliue when he spake these woords Therefore these woords It is finished are to be referred to all the prophecyes that precéeded the death of Christ that is that all the prophecies of the Iewes and Gentiles which should conspire together against him either of Iudas that should betray him or of the Souldiours that should apprehend him or of y e false witnesses which should belye him or of the place where he should dye or of the time when or of the manner how and of the Iudge vnder whome he should suffer or of the transgressors with whom he should be crucified al scriptures concerning al these things were fulfilled And therfore in the 28. verse are these woords After that Iesus did know that al things were fulfilled and that the Scripture might be fulfilled he saith I thirst It is finished also signifieth the woorke of our redemption was finished and so Paul expoundeth it by one sacrifice once offered he hath made perfect for euer those that are sanctified Therfore there néedeth no other sacrifice of the olde lawe nor no other merite of any creature in heauen or in earth therefore the Papists doo dishonour God which doo say they dayly offer a sacrifice propitiatory and doo ioyne to the merites of Christ the merits of all the Saintes Mary Peter Paul and many other and in the end of the canon of their Masse vse these woords Quorum meritis praecibusque concedas vt
2. sinne 3. al the miseries of this life 4. death death is vanquished but not wholy taken away and againe death is vnarmed but not extinguished For albeit they are not felt yet they are as a Serpent without poyson and as a Bée without a sting this he manifesteth by a prittie similitude As poyson first infecteth the vaines 2 the bloud 3. the members and last of all the hart so the Diuell and all our enemies are by little and little dayly subdued but in the day of iudgement shall be vtterly conquered and cast downe for euer so that euerye Saint shall sing O death where is thy sting O hell where is thy victorye the Scriptures as Musculus noteth writing on this place sometime speaketh in the preterperfect tense sometime in the present tense sometime in the future tense therfore Christ both hath abolished dooth abolish and will abolish death he hath abolished death by dying for our sinnes not that it should be no more but that it should no more destroy the faithfull he doth abolish it while he doth translate his Saints from death to life and he will abolish death for euer in the end of the worlde For then shall that saying be fulfilled Apoc. 21. 4. There shall be no more death As by all that hath béene spoken it is manifest that the death of Christ dooth not take away the iudgemēt wherin all our enemies shal be for euer and vtterly ouerthrowe so it doth not take away his descending into hell wherby he strake a terror into the diuell and all the hellish Spirites Therefore as Bude saith then shall there be no contention of death which now is and maketh vs to sigh for our defect for the mutability of thinges for the frailtye of mans flesh temptations striue with vs daily pleasures striue with vs dayly and although we consent not yet are we troubled by resisting pleasures the enemy dieth not but in the resurrection of the dead By all these reasons it is manifest the Diuell is chayned but not cast out vtterly that the gilt of sinne is taken away but the matter remaineth that as we haue many sorrowes in this life so we haue greater comfortes that death albeit he is vnarmed yet his neck is not broken and so the destroying of death dooth no more take away the descending into hell then it dooth the resurrection ascenfion and comming of Christ vnto iudgement All which must néeds be in our Sauiour to the vtter and euerlasting ouerthrow of our enemies An other Scripture which they alleadge is the saying of Christ to the théefe on the crosse Luk. 22. 43. To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Héerupon they frame this argument to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise therfore the soule of Christ and of the théefe went both that day to heauen They that so conclude are deceiued in two things the one is in that they imagine this woord me to signifie the soule of Christ which signifieth the Godhead the other in that they take this woord to daye to signifie the space of 12. or 24. houres which indéed signifieth for euer both these shal be strengthened by Gods grace with proofes First the circumstances of the place doo proue these thinges most euidentlye For what dooth the théefe aske deliuerance from the gilte of sinne from the cursse of the lawe from the wrath of God from the terrors of death from the tormentes of hell and the tirannye of of the diuell He asketh not only forgiuenes of his sinnes but that he may be a new creature that the righteousnes of God may be giuen him that he may haue the adoption and liberty of Gods children and so after his death glory honour peace and immortality that is familiarity with God he asketh to be an heire with God and a ioynt heire with Christ for euer In one woord he asketh a kingdome pure in righteousnes perfect in peace perpetual in ioy Who can forgiue sinnes but God only Mar. 2. 7. Who can giue this kingdome but God and therfore these woords with me signifie the Godhead and not the soule of Christ as some 〈◊〉 haue it And so all the Fathers that euer I read vnderstoode it and the new writers also Hierome on these words writeth thus Christ brought the théefe from the crosse into Paradise least any man should think conuersion to be too late at any time he made the punishment of homicide martyr dome the truth being accounted among the wicked he left th'one on the left hand and tooke the other on the right hand as he will doo in the day of iudgement Where I note that Christ did on the crosse as he will doo in the day of iudgmēt that is seperate the bad from the good and cast the wicked into hell which is the office of the Godhead Psalm 7. 11. God iudgeth the righteous and him that contemneth God euery day And in the 2. Tim. 4. 8. From hence foorth is laide vp for me the crowne of righteousnes which the lord the righteous iudge shal giue me at that day not to me only but to all them also that loue his appearing Augustine hath y e like saying also vpon this place the crosse if you marke it was the iudgement seate the Iudge was set on the middle the one théefe which beléeued was deliuered the other which blasphemed was condemned To saue and condemne is the office of God and therefore must néeds be vnderstoode of the Godhead So saith Ambrose in his Sermon of the holy théefe he sawe him hanging on the crosse and praieth to him as though he were sitting in heauen he séeth him cōdemned and yet he praieth to him as to a king So Ferus on the 27. of Mat. Thou shalt be with me which am euery where which am all in all To be with me therfore is not spoken of the soule of Christ but of the Godhead Damascene saith to speake more expressely he was in the Sepulcre according to his body and in hell according to his soule but as God he was both in Paradise with y e théefe and in the throne with the Father aud the holy Ghost And as with me signifieth the Godhead so to day fignifieth for euer For as Aristotle noteth in his Metaphisicks in aeternis non est tempus In eternall thinges there is no time for time is the measure of those things which are subiect to motion now in hell all shall suffer in earth all must labour so in heauen all must rest Apoc. 12. 13. Blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord euen so saith the Spirit for they rest from their labours aud their woorks follow thē For where no mutation is there is no time and for this cause Apoc. 10. 6. it is said And he sware by him that liueth for euermore which created the heauens the things that therin are and the earth and the things that
lay the pride of them which sought his soule and a comfort to himselfe that their enmitye must needs haue an end one daye when the graue shall deuoure them The woordes following confirme this sence They shall fall on the edge of the Swoord Psal. 63. which cannot be spoken but of temporall death Hill Indéede I brought this place Ephe. 49 to proue that Christ descended into Hell And whereas you charge me with immodesty for so alleadging of it I must néeds charge you with two vntruthes in answering this allegation The one is that I called it the pit of Hell which phrase I neuer vsed The other is you haue impudently auouched that none of the modester sorte of deuines haue euer alleadged this place to proue the descending of Christ into hel For many and those both learned and modest haue alleadged this place to this purpose Athanasius interpreting this Epistle and text thus writeth Into what place did he descend Into hell truely which he calleth according to the common opinion of men the lowest partes of the earth Ambrose on this place saith thus This Christ therfore comming down from heauen into the earth was borne a man afterward he dyed descended into hell from whence rising the third day he wēt vp to heauen before all mortall men that he might shewe death to be vanquished to euery creature Chrisostome on this place saith He went to those partes of the earth then the which nothing is lower and from thence he ascended into heauen then the which nothing is higher The like hath Augustine li. de Trin. cap. 19. Ierome on this text thus noteth That Hell is vnder the earth no man doubteth for he that descended in soule into hell ascended both bodye and soule into heauen Mollerus a learned Minister of Germany on the sixtéene Psalme saith that the descending into hel is plainely proued out of the Ephesians the fourth chapter Musculus on the 68. Psal. thus writeth This God which was in Christ reconciling the worlde vnto himselfe first descended into the lowest partes of the earth then he led captiuitie captiue and not only we are deliuered from the captiuity of Satan sinne death and damnation but also Christ triumphing ouer them as tirants hath ascended aboue all heauens to fulfill all things Hemingius on the 2. Chapter to the Colossians thus also teacheth As by his deathe he conflicted with the enemye on the crosse so by his glorious descending into hel resurrection and ascention he triumphed as it is Ephe 4. Leauing his crosse lift vp as a monument of his victory To conclude Alesius a very learned preacher of Scotland on the 19. chapter of Iohn affirmeth that the 1. Pet. 3. and Eph. 4. do manifestly proue the descending of Christ into hell if Athanasius Chrysostome Ambrose Augustine and Ierome of the olde fathers and Mollerus Musculus Hemingius and Alesius of the new writers be all immodest diuines then haue you truelye saide but if in the iudgement of the learned all these were most reuerend men then most shameles are you to accuse them of the want of modesty Moreouer where you saye no deuine dareth to dispute where hell is it is true in some sorte for no deuine can circumscribe the place of hell which is infinite nor yet of heauen only the woord of God affirmeth that heauen is aboue Gal. 4. 26. And hell is beneath Prouerbs 15. 24. Therefore the lowest partes of the earth may well be taken for hell Then you goe farther and say that Erets tachthioth doth not signifie hel Psal. 63. and for this you bring two reasons the one is that it were a presumption in the Prophet to iudge his enemies 2 that it standeth not with the affection of a godly minde to assigne hell to his enemies but to pray for them to your first reason this I answere In the Psalme 9. 18. Dauid vseth the like spéeche The wicked shall be turned to hell and all the people that forget God which text Caluin thus expoundeth the Hebrewe woord Sheolah which was doubtfull I haue not doubted to translate hell for though it doth not displease me that others turne it Sepulcher yet it is sure héere is something noted besides common death otherwise he should speak nothing of the reprobate but that which did generally happen to all beléeuers In the hnndred and ninth Psalme also Dauid thus praieth Let Satan stand at his right hand let his prayer be turned iuto sinne let the wickednes of his Father be had in remembrance in the sight of the Lord and let not the sinne of his mother be done away Do you think this to be spoken presumptuously Many such texts could I alleadge to proue that Dauid inspired with the spirite of prophecye did foretell not onely of the tragicall destruction of bodies of his enemies but also of the extreme damnation of their soules This then is my replye to your second reason these enemies were not priuate enemies but publique and did hate Dauid for his religions sake Dauid therefore by the gift of prophecye doth foretell that their soules should go to hell to be tormented and their bodies should be the portion of Foxes that is should neuer come to the graue for what néed Dauid tell vs they should dye which we know is common to all or how can that betrue which you say that they should be in graue when Dauid himselfe saith they were not in any graue but were the portion of Foxes And so M. Caluin whom I hope you will beléeue teacheth you writing vpon this Psalme and verse To be the portion of Foxes is as much as to be deuoured and torne of wicked beastes for God saith Caluin doth threaten this punishment to the reprobate that they shall be a pray to Wolues and dogges because he would depriue them of the honor of their graue Héer you sée M. Caluin saith they came not into their graue you say they did How M. Caluin and you may be reconciled I knowe not for Caluin addeth this reason It hapneth sometime that we know the same temporall punishments to be common to the good the bad but this is the difference the bones of the godly are gathered together and kept in safety that not one of them shall perish but the scattring of the bones of the reprobate is a signe of their eternall destruction Therefore how can the lower partes of the earth signifie the graue as you say since as M. Calùin truly saith they were in no graue Aunswere me this good M. Humes plainely Psal. 63 9. The lower parts of y e earth signifie not the graue but hell Christ descended into the lower parts of the earth Eph. 4. 9. Ergo Christ descended into hell Humes Sectio 9. Next you quote Ecclesiasticus 24 37. I will pearce through all the lowest parts of the earth and looke vpon them that be asleepe Also the 31. of Ezechiel the 18. vers Thou shalt be cast downe into the lower parts of
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is shewed the manner of the death that Christ suffred that is he was killed and suffred a violent death For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being deriued of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must néeds signifie put to death Now I hope you will not say Christ was put to death in soule and body but in body only And where you say that Christ suffered in soule aswell as in body that is true and that is gathered not of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is killed but out of these words antecedent for Christ suffered the iust for the vniust No reasonable man but he will say that the sufferings of Christ are comprised rather in the word suffered then in the word killed To your fourth reason I reply that Christ was raysed from the dead but it is specially signifyed in the word resurrection verse 21. and therefore I doo not confound those things that are distinguished but your selfe for you make suffered and killed all one and quickned and the resurrection all one and so make not only a confusion but a fantology and néedelesse repetition which neuer was read in the word of God To your fift argument where you say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to receaue life I confesse it is to be made aliue Then you vrge it can not be spoken of the soule which neuer lost life Then by the same reason more strongly it can not be spoken of the Godhead which hath doth and shall liue for euer for God can not receaue life but the soule is sayd to liue when he is out of the body not because he liued not before but because the body doth hinder the actions of the soule Iohn 11 25. Hee that beleeueth in mee though he were dead yet shall he liue Sap. 9 15. The corruptible body is heauie vnto the soule and the earthie mansion keepeth downe the minde that is full of cares 2. Cor. 4 16. Therefore wee faint not but though our outward man perish yet our inward man is dayly renewed Héere Paule sayth the weaker the body is the stronger is the soule therefore the death of the body is the life of the soule To drawe to an ende your Antithesis of the Deuinitie and humanitie is answered before For your Antithesis must be of things contrary or at the least diuers and separate but as you affirme truly the Godhead was neuer separated from the humanitie therefore this antithesis is of the body and soule which at this time were deuided and not betwéene the deity and humanitie which were alwayes vnited wherefore this bulwarke I can assure you will stand and you haue ouershot both it and your selfe in attempting to ouerthrowe it For the very scope of the Apostle is this All Christians must suffer afflictions for well doing for Christ did not only suffer both in body and soule but also was put to a shamefull death in his body and in his soule went downe to the soules in hell which were vnbeléeuers in the dayes of Noah but Christ did arise againe from hell and the graue and ascended both in body and soule to heauen therefore shall you that suffer for well doing be deliuered from death and hell by his merits and goe vp into heauen and be partakers of his glory as you haue bin partakers of his afflictions Moreouer as you referre me to reade Bezas great notes on this text so I pray you to reade Aretius handling this place whose wordes are these Generally sayth Arctius Peter repeateth thrée effects of Christs death if you marke it well The first pertaineth to the damned The second to the elect The third to the person of Christ. The first was declared in his descending into hell The second in his resurrection The third in his ascention into heauen This is the true and naturall meaning of this place which we will follow leauing the intrications of other interpretations I willinglie confesse this place is very hard for Augustine doubteth of it and Luther doubteth of it how it is to be vnderstoode but this obscuritie ariseth not of the place but of the varietie of Interpretations If thou marke the plainnesse of the place the matter will be easye but that pleaseth not all men therefore that euery one may establish his owne sence they apply the words of the Apostle Peter to their owne conceit But leauing these let vs embrace that which the words do teach vs in the which if we attaine to the truth it is well if not yet they shall be probable because they haue warrant out of the scripture and leaue to the very letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 otherwise it is certaine the knowledge of man to be vnperfect in many questions of holie scripture of the which the Apostle doth warne vs 1. Corin. 15. For now we knowe vnperfectlie I haue sayd héere is declared thrée effects of Christs death which differ in time and are set in order in the Créede The first effect is that Christ being dead denounced eternall paines to the wicked in hell The words of the Apostle are these In which spirit hee went and preached to the spirits detained in prison I take the place simply of the descence into hell for so the words doo plainely sound and I sée all the Fathers so to interprete them sée Augustine Epist. 99. and Cyprian doth manifestly interprete this place of the descending into Hell Neither doth the word prison hinder this Interpretation which in the Apocal. 20. 5. is taken for hell When a thousand yeeres shall be fulfilled Satan shall be loosed out of his prison Therefore the prison that Peter héere speaketh of is the place deputed to the damned Hyther came Christ as we confesse in the Créede he went downe into Hell Where Hell is it is a foolish and curious question to enquire sith no man comming to that place euer returned but only Christ. Furthermore what Christ did there Peter expresseth he preached to the spirits that is he declared that he shewed himselfe manifestly to the world and made that dire and mournefull sermon namely to the wicked that the merit of his death did nothing pertaine vnto them but by his presence were confirmed those punishments of the which Noah and other Prophets had forewarned them And the tyme of this Preaching I referre not to the tymes of Noah but to the tyme of hys descending into Hell Whereunto agréeth the worde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is spirits for hée preached to the spirits that is to dead and not to liuing men Thus farre Aretius I could héere alleage many other newe Writers whiche are of my iugement but because you yéelde them no credite therefore of purpose I will omit them Humes Sectio 13. These things being thus I pray you good M. Hill seeing you would haue vs vndoubtedly to beleeue that Christ descended into hell Tell vs vndoubtedly to what end he should descend thither I trust you will not teach vs neither Augustine neither
Ieroms lesson that he went thither to deliuer prisoners As for that new lesson that he went thither to triumph that is a base deuise to send him thither to triumph who had conquered hell on the crosse For my owne part I haue oftentimes read the name of hell ioyned with shame and ignominy but to this day I neuer hard it ioyned with triumph and glory But be it so and tell me if you can how Christ who was yet in the graue and bands of death could triumph ouer hell Is it likely that he could triumph before the victory You adde two other causes to binde the deuill and to deliuer vs from hell You bring vs many places of scripture to confirme this geare Gen. 3 15. The seed of the woman shall breake the serpents head Osee. 13 15. O death I will be thy death O hell I will be thy victory 1. Cor. 15 55. O death where is thy sting O hell where is thy victory In all which places there is not a syllable sounding that Christ descended into hell As for his triumphing ouer hell we neuer denied it and doo auouch that he perfourmed that most gloriouslye by the power of his Godhead which did present his most noble victory ouer his enemies hell and death both in heauen earth and hell without his bodily presence Hill You aske me why Christ descended into hell and yet you confesse I noted 3. ends of Christs descending into hell the one to triumph ouer the Diuels the other to binde the Diuels and to take away their power ouer mankinde the 3. to deliuer vs from hell There was also set downe a fourth end that is to manifest his death vnto those in hell to reproue them of their incredulity and héere labouring to catch me in a snare you are fallen into it your selfe for firste you say Christ conquered hell on the crosse then as hauing forgotten your selfe you aske this question with admiration How could he conquere being in the graue Is it likely that he would triumph before the victory First you stoutlye affirme that he had conquered then you boldely deny it Conuenit nulli qui secum dissidet ipse Next you saye you haue not read the name of hell but ioyned with shame and infamy why doo you write then that the Godhead did triumph ouer hell Did you not read your owne writing I am sure in this place 1. Cor. 15. 55. O death where is thy sting O hell where is thy victory The name of hell is ioyned with triumph but you answere these places with a flat negatiue Héere is not a sillable to proue the descending of Christ into hell I am sure Paule proueth héere the resurrection of Christ and of our selues and how can he proue the resurrection vnlesse he proue the knitting together of the body and soule for as death is the parting of body and soule so resurrection is the reuniting of them together againe and héere Paule sheweth that the body comming out of y e graue and the soule from hell Christ did conquere both And therefore it is not the deity as you say but the humane nature of Christ did vanquish death and Hel. Heb. 2. 14. For as much then as the children were partakers of fleshe and bloud he also himselfe likewise tooke parte with them that he might destroye through death him that had power of death that is the Diuell Therefore Hemingius on the Col. 2. saith As on the Crosse he conflicted with the diuell so by his glorious descending into hel resurrection and ascention he did triumph Therefore these places proue the descending into hell aswell as the buriall for the reason of the apostle is this Christ came out of the graue ergo he conquered death and Christ came out of hell ergo he ouercame hel Therefore thus I reason against you that did conquere which did fight but the humane nature of Christ did fight ergo it did also conquere and is gon vp into heeuen to whom the Angels powers and mightes be subiect 1. Pet. 3. 22. Col. 2. 15. Phil. 2. 9. 10. Eph. 1. 20. 21. 22. Therefore sith all these Scriptures doo witnes that Christ as man did trivmph and is exalted and hath all power I doubt not but in your next answere you will reforme your iudgement Humes Sectio 14 You alledge for his descending into hell to binde the diuels this how can a man enter into a strong mans house and spoyle his goods vnles he first binde the strong man Here is not that you took vpon you to proue that he descended into hell to binde the Diuell The house of this strong man which is heere spoken off by the circumstances of the place is apparantly to any man of iudgement not hell but this world whereof the diuell had taken possession and had polluted many hartes out of the which he was cast by Christ who thereby proueth himselfe to be stronger then he Hill Your interpretation is true and the other is true also for Christ did not only ouercome the diuell in the world but also in hell For as Cyrill noteth on this place there was before the comming of Christ much violence taking away the flocke of God and carrying them to his owne house wherfore before the comming of Christ the heathen and people of the world went into eternall death but Christ hath deliuered both their bodies from the graue and their soules from hell by his death and personall descending into hell This place is alleadged by one Georgius Princeps Anhaltinus in his learned commentaries on the 16. Psalme which you may read it if you please for as Dauid trampled on the face of Goliah so did the soule of Christ trample on Satan in hell and trod on his face and this is noted by the Prophetesse Sibilla as also by the Heathen Poets whose woordes I haue set downe in my Sermon at large And therefore Clenard in his grammer giueth this obseruation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he went downe into hell that is into the house of hell Humes Sectio 15. Now one thing remained wherin you seemed to run beyond your selfe and most men doo wonder what you meant thereby whereas Christ vpon the Crosse did vtter to the hearers then and to all ages after that he had finished the woork of our redemption in these woords It is finished you take on you to proue that he meant not so alleadging these places Ioh. 17. 4. I haue finished the woorke which thou gauest me Act. 13. 29 And when they had fulfilled all things that were written of him Ioh. 19 28. Seeing all things were finished that the Scriptures might be fulfilled Out of al these places say you it may be seen that there remained somewhat to doo Good M. Hill remember your selfe and you shall finde no man of our side that will deny you so much When our Sauiour cryed out It is finished he had
into Heauen and therefore our praiers are hard when we pray vnto him and he giueth vs gifts for our ministery and so he shal come to iudgement at the last day to giue vs perfect blessednes You confesse that Christ was borne in déed liued and fulfilled the law in the likenes of our flesh sinne excepted he dyed in déede he was buried indéed he arose and ascended indéede and yet you will not confesse that he personallye descended How can all these articles going before and comming after be vnderstoode of the person of Christ and of his humanity and not this Therefore you denying this personall descending of Christ into hell take away the great comfort of our deliuerance from hell You say we are deliuered from hell by Christs death so are we too by his birth For if Christ had not bene borne he had not dyed so if there had not béene a seperation of the bodye and soule of Christ he could neuer haue conquered death or hell for by descending into y e graue and that personally he conquered death and hath deliuered vs from death and by going downe into hell personallye he hath conquered hell And for this cause the Scripture applieth it to the death of Christ because death was as Paule saith Phil. 3. A dissolution of body and soule and these 2. partes being dissolued Christ came from the graue and from hell and so Christ did conquere both and triumph ouer them in him selfe as it is Col. 2. 15. These Iewes doo aske a signe from heauen Math. 22 38. Luke 11. 29. to whom Christ said A wicked aduoulterous Generation doth aske a signe but no signe shalbe giuen thē but the signe of Ionas the Prophet for as Ionas was in the whales belly three dayes and three nights so shall the sonne of man be in the hart of the earth three daies and three nights Which woords Basilius Magnus interpreteth very well These woords a signe is a matter made manifest conteyning the declaration of some thing that was hidden as the signe of Ionas representeth the descending of Christ into hel and the resurrection of Christ and as Bede saith and Rhabanus also he gaue them a signe but not from heauen because they were vnworthy to see it but from the deapth of hell Therfore M. Humes this is a most comfortable doctrine that Christ doth deliuer vs from hell which albeit you agnise aswell as we yet because you deny the meane whereby it was purchased you deny a most comfortable doctrine for not only the body of Christ was in the hart of the earth but the Sonne of man which signifieth the whole humanity that is the soule and the body Ionas was in the whales belly aliue and yet came forth Christ was in the graue dead in flesh and aliue in hell and yet came forth Therefore to take away this maner of descending taketh away from the Church a singuler comfort and openeth a gapp to many errors confuted already by the Fathers For if Christ did conquere hell by the power of the Godhead only and not as he is man what néed had he to take vpon him our nature but because as man he might be Lord not of heauen and the Angells but of the earth and the inhabitants therofand of hell and the diuells You say the worlde is sory for me In the worlde saith Christ you shall haue affliction And he telleth me the world will hate me I way not these thinges for I am no man-pleaser nor louer of the worlde But if in my Sermon I had disagréed with Dauid Ezechiel Esay Peter Paule and Christ himselfe as you haue done in your answere I hope I should be both sory and ashamed Touching M. Chalfoult whom you terme a man without iudgment and that he spake impudently and enuiously I neuer saw him before that time and but ouce since but by that spéech and conference which I had with him I finde him to be learned and voide of gall Such of his neighbours as I haue talked with did giue him the deserued praise of a learned and honest man And forasmuch as he hath preached sound doctrine in preaching the affirmatiue and that doctrin which is allowed by the learned conuocation of this land it doth not become you to libell against him for in speaking against him you traduce all those reuerend and learued men which made an Iniunction for kéeping of vnitie that no other Catechisme should be taught of any Schoolemaister then M. Nowels Therefore because you are a strauger you ought not be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and speake euill of those Ministers which vpholde the doctrine established and because you are a Schoolemaister you ought to teach and not to gainsaye it Qui pergit dicere ea que vult audiet ea que non vult As you reuile at M. Chalfoult so doo you and your freends priuily against me calling me a Bishoppling and a timeseruer Indéed I was brought vp vnder Bishop Iewell who catechised me in this faith therfore I will not easily or rashly departe from it I confesse my selfe also to be a timeseruer for it is the day time of saluation accepted Let them murmure with Martin that list I praye God my dayes may end with this time and my time may continue no longer then these daies of the state of our Church that now is do continue I haue séene the beginning I haue séene the propagation of the Gospell I haue séene God hath defended our Church mercifully and miraculously from heauen God graunt that I and all my Auditors may walk worthy of our calling Godly iustly and soberly Therefore I end with this saying of S. Paule 1. Cor. 4. 3. As touching me I passe very little to be iudged of you or of mans iudgment And in the 5. verse Therefore iudge nothing before the time vntill the Lord come who shall lighten things that are hidden in darkenes and make the counsels of the hart manifest and then shall euery man haue praise of God The conclusion to M. Humes M. Humes in the latter end of your answere you request me to recant if your answere did please me as it doth you I would be as willing to recant as you and your fréendes would be glad to heare it But I will plainely set down my reasons why I do not recant The first is I alleadged Act. 2. and proued out of Peters sermon my assertion and to the reasons I drew out of that place you haue answered nothing Secondly I alleadged Syrach 17. 21. To proue that this phrase the nethermost partes of the earth doth signifie hell to this you haue in like manner saide nothing Thirdly in all your answeres to my allegations you haue disagréeed with the word of God In answering of the 16. Psalme you say my allegation is to be vnderstoode of the passion of Christ And Peter Act. 2. saith it is spoken of y e resurrection whether is to be beléeued of Peter or you
soule in hell wholy in the world wholy in heauen wholy in the vnity of the nature in the Father of whom he came and wholy by the omnipotency of his diuinity in all y e creatures which he made The Apostle kéeping this vnitye of person doth thus confirme the Church of Corinth in the faith of the truth For first of all I haue deliuered you that which I haue receiued that Christ died for our sinnes according to the Scriptures and that he was buried and rose againe the third day according to the Scriptures He saith not that the body of Christ was dead but Christ that he might kéep the vnity of the person of God and man and that he might shew the substantial propriety of the deity and humanity In another place he sayth for although he was crucified of infirmie yet he liueth by the power of God Héer we are taught that the whole humanity was assumpted into the Godhead and that death albeit it did sunder the body and the soule yet it it did not sunder the Godhead from either parte and for this cause the Godhead being with the flesh in the graue it conld not corrupt and the same Godhead vnited to the soule the soule could not he left in hell but euen as his body was in graue to shew him to be true man and it rose againe without corruption to shew him very God so his soule was iu hel to shew himself a true man it came from hel to shew himself a true God and a most glorious conquerour of al his enemies both in earth and in hell The like hath Ciril in his treatise of the right faith to Theodosius the soule of Christ being coupled to his Godhead descended into hel vsing the power of God did appeare to the soules that were there And writing on Iohn in his 12. book and 36. chapter and when the time was come that he should preach to the soules that were in hell for he came to be Lord of the liuing and of the dead he dyed for vs and this proper passion of our nature he willingly took on him as concerning this flesh albeit as God he is life naturally that hell being spoyled he might be the first fruites of them that fléepe and being made the first begotten of the dead as the Scripture calleth him he might giue to our nature a returne to life And of this iudgement is Oecumenius interpreting the Scripture Christ dyed for the vniust not only for them which were after him but also for them that were before him and therefore went down into hell As the death of Christ was auaileable vnto thē that dyed before him so the descension of Christ into hell was profitable to them that liued before Christ as well as to those that liued after him Vigilius also in his 2. book and 3. chapter thus saith the flesh of Christ was not in Paradice nor in hell but lay in the graue without life the soule for y t 3. dayes was in hell and not in the graue and yet we say well that out Lord Iesus Christ lay in the sepulchre but in his onlye fleshe and that our Lord Iesus Christ was not lefte in hell but in his only soule and albeit Christ is in all these and euerye one of these yet it is but one Christ whereof one parte of his humanity was so in the graue and another in hell that he notwithstanding is one wholy euery where albeit he hath seuerally deuided himselfe by places and therfore we say the Lord lay in the graue but in only flesh and the Lord went down to hell but in only soule Alesius one of the first reformed Ministers of Scotland in his learned treatise vpon the Gospell of S Iohn thus writeth concerning this controuersie but this encourageth me that I haue a manifest place and text in Peter that Christ preached in hell to them which in the dayes of Noah were vnbeléeuers that is condemned in the nethermost hell then he alleageth the place of Ephe. 4. before by me alleadged and therupon thus concludeth I expound therefore this article simply and againe I meruaile what men meane that they deny that Christ descended into hell Alesius did wonder that any man would deny this article because it hath so many confirmations and in euery confirmation in such order as they are set in the Créed are proued the death descending into hell resurrection and ascension of Christ together For in the 16 Psalme he beginneth with the death of Christ in the 10. verse but in the last verse he speaketh of his resurrection and of his exaltation at the right hand of God So in the Act. 2. chap. First he speaketh of the death of Christ in the 29. verse Secondly of his buriall in y t same verse of his descending into hell in the 13. verse of his resurrection in the 32. verse and of his ascending and exaltation to glory and his giuing of the holy Ghost in the 33. verse so in the 4. chapter of the Ephe there is not onlye mention made of Christ descending into the lowest partes of y e earth but also it is saide in the 10. verse that he ascended far aboue all heauens And also in the 3. chap. of the Philippians not only the Apostle declareth the humility of Christs death but also setteth downe his presence in hell and that euerye knée did bow vnto him and euery tung did confesse him to be the Lord and thus he sheweth first who was highly exalted he that hath made himselfe of no reputation from whence he was exalted from those that were vnder earth where he was exalted that is farre aboue al heauens and lastly who exalted him that is God his Father So in this place Peter proueth in the 18. verse the death of Christ in the 19. verse the descending of Christ into hell in the 20. verse the end of his descending that is to reproue them of ther disobedience to the preaching of Noah in the 21. ver he speaketh of the resurrection of Christ in the 22. verse he endeth the ascending vp into heauen vnto the right hand of God that all Angels powers and might might be subiect vnto him In all these Scriptures the order of our Créed being kept and all these thinges plainlye proued very great cause of maruell is giuen to Alesius and many learned men why this article should be denyed which is confirmed by the scriptures that the death buriall resurrection and ascension of Christ are confirmed and therefore those that deny these Scriptures to proue the descending of Christ into hell may aswell deny the resurrection of Christ for the resurrction being the ioyning of both partes of the manhood of Christ together cannot cléerely be proued vnlesse it be shewed from whence both partes seuered came which is proued before to be thus the soule of Christ from hell and the body from the graue Further where it is