the places of the Fathers wherein our Lords rising againe from the Dead is termed his rising againe from Hádes Inferi or Hell would be a needlesse labour for this we need go no further then to the Canon of the Masse it selfe where in the prayer that followeth next after the Consecration there being a Commemoration made of Christs passion resurrection and ascension the second is set out by the title ab inferis resurrectionis of the resurrection from Hell For as the Liturgies of the Easterne Churches doe here make mention 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the resurrection from the dead so those of the West retayne that other title of the resurrection ab inferis that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the Liturgie that goeth under the name of S. Peter or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the Gregorian Office translated into Greek by Codinus If then the resurrection frō the dead be the same with the resurrection from Hades Inferi or Hell why may not the going unto Hades Inferi or Hell be interpreted by the same reason to be the going unto the dead whereby no more is understood than what is intimated in that phrase w ch the Latins use of one that hath left this world Abijt ad plures or in that of the Hebrewes so frequent in the word of God He went or was gathered unto his people he went or was gathered unto his fathers which being applied unto a whole generation Iudg. 2.10 as well as in other places unto particular persons must of necessitie denote the common condition of men departed out of this life Now although Death and Hades dying and going to the dead be of neere affinitie one with the other yet be they not the same thing properly but the one a consequent of the other as it appeareth plainely by the vision Revelat. 6.8 where Hades is directly brought in as a follower of Death Death it selfe as wise men doe define it is nothing else but the separation of the soule from the body which is done in an instant but Hades is the continuation of the body and soule in this state of separation which lasteth all that space of time which is betwixt the day of death and the day of the resurrection For as the state of life is comprehended betwixt two extreames to wit the beginning thereof and the ending and there be two motions in nature answerable thereunto the one whereby the soule concurreth to the body which we call Generation the other whereby the body is severed from the soule which we call Death so the state of death in like maner is contained betwixt two bounds the beginning which is the very same with the ending of the other and the last end the motion whereunto is called the Resurrection whereby the body and soule formerly separated are joyned together againe Thus there be three tearmes here as it were in a kinde of a continued proportion the middlemost whereof hath relation to eyther of the extremes and by the motion to the first a man may be said to be natus to the second denatus to the third renatus The first the third have a like oppositiō unto the middle and therefore are like betwixt themselves the one being a generation the other a regeneration For that our Lord doth call the last Resurrection the Regeneration Matth. 19.28 S. Augustine supposeth that no man doubteth Neyther would our Lord himselfe have beene styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first borne from the dead unlesse the Resurrection were accounted to be a kinde of a new nativitie whereof he himselfe was in the first place to be made partaker that among all or in all things he might have the preeminence the rest of the sonnes of God being to be children of the Resurrection also but in their due time and in the order of Post-nati The middle distance betwixt the first and second terme that is to say the space of life which we lead in this world betwixt the time of our birth and the time of our death is opposite to the distance that is betwixt the second and third terme that is to say the state of death under which man lyeth from the time of his departure out of this life unto the time of his resurrection and see what difference there is betwixt our birth and the life which we spend here after wee are borne the same difference is there betwixt Death and Hades in that other state of our dissolution That which properly we call Death which is the parting a sunder of the soule and the body standeth as a middle terme betwixt the state of life and the state of death being nothing else but the ending of the one and the beginning of the other and as it were a common meare between lands or a communis terminus in a Geometricall magnitude dividing part from part but being it selfe a part of neyther and yet belonging equally unto eyther Which gave occasion to the question moved by Taurus the philosopher When a dying man might be said to die when he was now dead or while hee was yet living whereunto Gellius returneth an answere out of Plato that his dying was to be attributed neyther to the time of his life nor of his death because repugnances would arise eyther of those wayes but to the time which was in the confine betwixt both which Plato calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a moment or an instant and denieth to be properly any part of time at all Therefore Death doth his part in an instant as hath beene said but Hádes continueth that worke of his and holdeth the dead as it were under conquest untill the time of the resurrection wherein shall be brought to passe the saying that is written O Death where is thy sting O Hades where is thy victorie For these things shall rightly be spoken then saith Irenaeus when this mortall and corruptible flesh about which Death is and which is holden downe by a certaine dominion of Death rising up unto life shall put on incorruption and immortalitie for then shall death be truly overcome when the flesh that is holden by it shall come forth out of the Dominion thereof Death then as it importeth the separation of the soule from the body which is the proper acception of it is a thing distinguishable from Hades as an antecedent from his consequent but as it is taken for the whole state of death and the domination which it hath over the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basilius Seleuciensis calleth it in his oration upon Elias it is the selfe same thing that Hades is and in that respect as we have seene the words are sometimes indifferently put the one for the other As therefore our Sauiour that we may apply this now unto him after he was fastned and lifted up on the Crosse if he had come downe from
answer of Ratrannus was directed had then in his Court a famous countrey-man of ours called Iohannes Scotus who wrote a booke of the same argument and to the same effect that the other had done This man for his extraordinarie learning was in England where hee lived in great account with King Alfred surnamed Iohn the wise and had verie lately a roome in the Martyrologe of the Church of Rome though now he be ejected thence Wee finde him indeed censured by the Church of Lyons and others in that time for certaine opinions which he delivered touching Gods foreknowledge and predestination before the beginning of the world Mans freewill and the concurrence thereof with Grace in this present world and the maner of the punishment of reprobate Men Angels in the world to come but we finde not anie where that his book of the Sacrament was condemned before the dayes of x Lanfranc who was the first that leavened that Church of England afterward with this corrupt doctrine of the carnall presence Till then this question of the reall presence continued still in debate and it was as free for anie man to follow the doctrine of Ratrannus or Iohannes Scotus therein as that of Paschasius Radbertus which since the time of Satans loosing obtayned the upper hand Men have often searched and doe yet often search how bread that is gathered of corne and through fires heate baked may be turned to Christs bodie or how wine that is pressed out of manie grapes is turned through one blessing to the Lords blood saith Aelfrick Abbat of Malmesburie in his Saxon Homily written about 650. yeares agoe His resolution is not onely the same with that of Ratrannus but also in manie places directly translated out of him as may appeare by these passages following compared with his Latin layd downe in the margent The bread and the wine which by the Priests ministery is hallowed shew one thing without to mens senses and another thing they call within to beleeving mindes Without they be seene bread wine both in figure and in taste and they be truely after their hallowing Christs body and his blood by spirituall mysterie So the holy font water that is called the well-spring of life is like in shape to other waters and is subject to corruption but the holy Ghosts might commeth to the corruptible water through the Priests blessing and it may after wash the body and soule from all sinne by spirituall vertue Behold now we see two things in this one creature in true nature that water is corruptible moisture and in spirituall mysterie hath healing vertue So also if we behold that holy housel after bodily sense then see wee that it is a creature corruptible and mutable If we acknowledge therein spirituall vertue then understand we that life is therein and that it giveth immortalitie to them that eate it with beleefe Much is betwixt the bodie Christ suffered in and the body that is hallowed to housel The body truely that Christ suffered in was borne of the flesh of Mary with blood and with bone with skin and with sinewes in humane limbs with a reasonable soule living and his spirituall body which we call the housel is gathered of many cornes without blood and bone without lim without soule and therefore nothing is to be understood therein bodily but spiriâ—ually Whatsoever is in that housel which giveth substance of life that is spirituall vertue and invisible doing Certainly Christs body which suffered death and rose from death shall never dye henceforth but is eternall and unpassible That housel is temporall not eternall corruptible dealed into sundry parts chewed betweene teeth and sent into the belly This mysterie is a pledge and a figure Christs bodie is truth it selfe This pledge wee doe keepe mystically untill that we be come to the truth it selfe and then is this pledge ended Christ hallowed bread and wine to housel before his suffering and said This is my body my blood Yet he had not then suffered but so notwithstanding hee turned through invisible vertue the bread to his owne body and that wine to his blood as he before did in the wildernesse before that he was borne to men when he turned that heavenly meate to his flesh and the flowing water from that stone to his owne blood Moses and Aaron and manie other of that people which pleased God did eate that heavenly bread and they died not the everlasting death though they dyed the common They saw that the heavenly meate was visible and corruptible and they spiritually understood by that visible thing and spiritually received it This Homily was appointed publikely to be read to the people in England on Easter day before they did receive the communion The like matter also was delivered to the Clergie by the Bishops at their Synods out of two other writings of the same Aelfrick in the one wherof directed to Wulfsine Bishop of Shyrburne we reade thus That housel is Christs bodie not bodily but spiritually Not the body which he suffered in but the bodie of which he spake when he blessed bread and wine to housel the night before his suffering and said by the blessed bread This is my body and againe by the holy wine This is my blood which is shed for many in forgivenesse of sinnes In the other written to Wulfstane Archbishop of Yorke thus The Lord which hallowed housel before his suffering and saith that the bread was his owne bodie and that the wine vvas truely his blood halloweth daily by the hands of the Priest bread to his body and wine to his blood in spirituall mysterie as wee reade in bookes And yet notwithstanding that lively bread is not bodily so nor the selfe same body that Christ suffered in nor that holy vvine is the Saviours blood which was shed for us in bodily thing but in spirituall understanding Both be truely that bread his body and that wine also his blood as was the heavenly bread which vve call Manna that fedde fortie yeares Gods people and the cleare water which did then runne from the stone in the vvildernesse vvas truely his blood as Paul wrote in one of his Epistles Thus was Priest and people taught to beleeve in the Church of England toward the end of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh age after the Incarnation of our Saviour Christ. And therefore it is not to be wondered that when Berengarius shortly after stood to maintaine this doctrine manie both by word and writing disputed for him and not onely the English but also all the French almost the Italians as Matthew of Westminster reporteth were so readie to entertaine that which hee delivered Who though they were so borne downe by the power of the Pope who now was growne to his height that they durst not make open profession of that which they beleeved yet manie continued even
carkasses are heaped together promiscuously in one certaine pit so when the Heathen write that all the soules of the dead goe to Hades their meaning is not that they are all shut up together in one and the selfe same roome but in generall onely they understand thereby the translation of them into the other world the extreame parts whereof the Poëts place as farre asunder as wee doe Heaven and Hell And this opinion of theirs S. Ambrose doth well like off wishing that they had not mingled other superfluous and unprofitable conceits therewith that soules departed from their bodies did goe to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to a place which is not seene which place saith he wee in Latin call Infernus So likewise saith S. Chrysostom The Grecians and Barbarians and Poëts and Philosophers and all mankinde doe herein consent with us although not all alike and say that there be certaine seats of judgement in Hádes so manifest and so confessed a thing is this and againe The Grecians were foolish in many things yet did they not resist the truth of this doctrine If therefore thou vvilt follow them they have granted that there is a certaine life after this accounts and seats of judgement in Hádes and punishments and honors and sentences judgements And if thou shalt aske the Iewes or heretickes or any man he will reverence the truth of this doctrine although they differ in other things yet in this doe they all agree and say that there are accounts to be made there of the things that be done here Only amoÌ„g the Iwes the Sadducees w ch say that there is no resurrection neyther Angel nor Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 take away the punishments and honours that are in Hádes as is noted by Iosephus For which wicked doctrine they were condemned by the other sectes of the Iewes who generally acknowledged that there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Olam hanneshamoth for so doe they in their language untill this day call that which Iosephus in Greeke tearmeth Hades that is to say the world of spirits into which they held that the soules were translated presently after death and there received their seuerall judgements The same thing doth Theodoret suppose to be signified by that phrase of being gathered to ones people which is so usuall in the word of God For it being said of Iacob before he was buried that he gave up the ghost and was gathered unto his people Genes 49.33 Theodoret observeth that Moses by these words did closely intimate the hope of the resurrection For if men saith he had beene wholy extinguished and did not passe unto another life he would not have sayd Hee was gathered to his people So likewise where it is distinctly noted of Abraham Genes 25.8 9. first that hee gave up the ghost and died then that hee was gathered to his people and lastly that his sonnes buried him Cardinall Cajetan and the Iesuite Lorinus interpret the first de compositi totius dissolutione of the dissolution of the parts of the whole-man consisting of body and soule the second of the state of the soule separated from the body and the third of the disposing of the body parted from the soule Thus the Scriptures speech of being gathered to our people should be answerable in meaning to the phrase used by the heathen of descending into Hell or going to Hades which as Synesius noteth out of Homer was by them opposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a most absolute extinguishment as well of the soule as of the body And forasmuch as by that tearme the immortalitie of the soule was commonly signified therefore doth Plato in his Phaedo disputing of that argument make this the state of his question Whether the soules of men deceased be in Hades or no and our Eccâ—esiasticall writers also doe from thence sometimes fetch a difference betwixt Death and Hades You shall finde saith Theophylact that there is some difference betwixt Hades and Death namely that Hades contayneth the soules but Death the bodies For the soules are immoâ—tall The same we reade in Nicetas Serronius his exposition of Gregory Nazianzens second Paschall oration Andreas Caesareensis doth thus expresse the difference Death is the separation of the soule and the body But Hades is a place to us invisible or vnseene and unknowne which receiveth our soules when they departe from hence The ordinary Glosse following S. Hierome upon the thirteenth of Hosea thus Death is that whereby the soule is separated from the body Hell is that place wherein the soules are included eyther for comfort or for paine The soule goeth to Hádes saith Nicetas Choniates in the Prooeme of his Historie but the bodie returneth againe into those things of which it was composed Caius or whoe ever else was the author of that auncient fragment which wee formerly signified to have been falsely fathered upon Iosephus holdeth that in Hades the soules both of the righteous and unrighteous are contayned but that the righteous are led to the right hand by the Angels that awayte them there and brought unto a lightsome region wherein the righteous men that have beene from the beginning doe dwell and this wee call Abrahams bâ—some saith he whereas the wicked are drawen toward the left hand by the punishing Angels not going willingly but drawen as prisoners by violence Where you may observe how he frameth his description of Hades according to that modell wherewith the Poets had before possessed mens mindes Dextera quae Ditis magni sub moenia tendit Hâc iter Elysium nobis at laeva malorum Exercet poenas ad impia tartara mittit The right hand path goth underneath the walls of Pluto deepe That way we must if paths to Paradise we thinke to keepe The left hand leads to paine and men to Tartarus doth send For as Wee doe allot unto good men a resting place in Paradise so the Greekes doe assigne unto their Heroës the Fortunate Ilandes and the Elysian fields saith Tzetzes And as the Scripture borroweth the terme of Tartarus from the Heathen so is it thought by Tertullian and Gregory Nazianzen that the Heathen tooke the ground of their Elysian fields from the Scriptures Paradise To heape up many testimonies out of the Heathen authors to prove that in their understanding all soules went to Hades and received there eyther punishment or reward according to the life that they led in this world would be but a needlesse worke seeing none that hath reade any thing in their writings can be ignorant therof If any man desire to informe himselfe herein he may repayre to Plutarches consolatory discourse written to Apollonius where he shall finde the testimonies of Pindarus and many others alledged 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 touching the state of the godly in Hades Their common opinion is sufficiently expressed in that
from no other ground but the vulgar opinion that the southerne hemisphere of the earth was not inhabited by living men as our northâ—rne is insomuch that some of the heathen atheists finding the contrary to be true by the discourse of right reason endevoured to perswade themselves from thence that there was no such place as Hades at all Lucretius for the greater part saith Servius and others fully teach thaâ— the kingdomes of Hell cannot as much as have a being For what place can we say they have when under the earth our Antipodes are sayd to be and that they should be in the midst of the earth neyther will the solidity permit nor the center of the earth which earth if it be in the middle of the world the profundity thereof can not be so great that it may have those Inferos within it in which is Tartarus whereof we reade Bis patet in praeceps tantum tenditque sub umbras Quantus ad aethereum coeli suspectus Olympum But Chrstiian men being better instructed out of the word of God were taught to answere otherwise If thou dost aske me saith S. Chrysostom of the situation and place of Gehenna I will answere and say that it is seated somewhere out of this world and that it is not to be inquired in what place it is situated but by what meanes rather it may be avoyded In the Dialogue betwixt Gregory Nyssen and that admirable woman Macrina S. Basils sister touching the Soule and the Resurrection this point is stood upon at large the question being first proposed by Gregory in this maner Where is that name of Hádes somuch spoken of which is so much treated of in our common conversation so much in the writings both of the heathen and our owne into which all men thinke that the soules are translated from hence as into a certaine receptacle For you will not say that the elements arâ— this Hades whereunto Macrina thus replyeth It appeareth that thou didst not give much heed to my speech for when I spake of the translation of the soule from that which is seen unto that which is invisible I thought I had left nothing behinde to be inquired of Hadâ—s Neyther doth that name wherein soules are said to be seeme to me to signifie any other thing eyther in profane writers or in the holy scripture save onely a removing unto that which is invisible and unseene Thereupon it being further demanded how then doe some thinke that a certaine subterraneall place should be so called and that the soules doe lodge therein for answere thereunto it is said that there is no maner of difference betwixt the lower hemisphere of the earth and that wherein we live that as long as the principall doctrine of the immortalitie of the soule is yeelded unto no controversie should be moved touching the place therof that locall position is proper to bodies and the soule being incorporeall hath no need to be detained in certaine places then the place objected from Philip. 2.10 of those under the earth that should bow at the name of Iesus being largely skanned this in the end is laid downe for the conclusion These things being thus no man can constraine us by the name of things under the earth to understand any subterraneall place forasmuch as the ayre doâ—h so equally compasse the earth round about that there is no part thereof found naked from the covering of the ayre Both these opinions are thus propounded by Theophylact and by Hugò Etherianus after him What is Hades or Hell Some say that it is a darke place under the earth Others say that it is the translation of the soule from that which is visible unto that which is unseene and invisible For while the soule is in the body it is seene by the proper operations thereof but being translated out of the body it is invisible and this did they say was Hádes So where the author of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy defineth death to be a separation of the united parts and the bringing to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto that which is invisible to us his scholiast Maximus noteth thereupon that this invisible thing some doe affirme to be Hádes that is to say an unseene and invisible departure of the soule unto places not to be seene by the sense of man Hitherto also may be referred the place cited before out of Origen in his fourth book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which by S. Hierome is thus delivered They who dye in this world by the separation of the flesh and the soule according to the difference of their workes obtaine diverse places in Hell Where by Hádes Inferi or Hell he meaneth indefinitely the other world in which how the soules of the godly were disposed hee thus declareth in another place The soule leaveth the darkenesse of this world and the blindnesse of this bodily nature and is translated unto another world which is eyther the bosome of Abraham as it is shewed in Lazarus or Paradise as in the thiefe that beleeved upon the crosse or yet if God know that there be any other places or other mansions by which the soule that beleeveth in God passing and comming unto that river which maketh glad the citie of God may receive within it the lott of the inheritance promised unto the Fathers For touching the determinate state of the faithfull soules departed this life the ancient Doctors as we have shewed were not so thoroughly resolved Now all the question betwixt us and the Romanistes is whether the faithfull be received into their everlasting tabernacles presently upon their removeall out of the body or after they have beene first purified to the point as Allen speaketh in the furnace of Purgatorie but in the time of the Fathers as S. Augustin noteth the great question was vvhether the receiving of them into those everlasting tabernacles were performed presently after this life or in the end of the world at the resurrection of the dead and the last retribution of judgement And so concerning Hell the question was as great among them whether all good and bad went thither or no whereof the same S. Augustin is a witnesse also who upon that speech of Iacob Gen. 37.35 I will goe downe to my sonne mourning into Hell writeth thus It useth to be a great question in what maner Hell should be understood vvhether evill men onely or good men also when they are dead doe use to goe downe thither And if evill men only doe how doth he say that he would goe downe unto his sonne mourning for he did not beleeve that he was in the paines of Hell Or be these the words of a troubled grieving man amplifying his evils froÌ„ hence and upon that other speech of his Genes 42.38 You shal bring down mine old age with sorrow unto Hell Whether therefore unto Hell because with sorrow Or although sorrow were
beginning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Fatâ—er which art in Hádes which I for my part will then beleeve to be true when I shall see one of those old copies with mine owne eyes But in the meane time for Hádes it hath beene sufficiently declared before out of good authors that it signifieth the place of soules departed in generall and so is of extent large enough to comprehend under it as well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Damascius speaketh that part of Hádes or the unseene vvorld which is in heaven as that which by Iosephus is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the darker Hades and in the Gospell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 outer darknesse And as for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other word in the Acts of the Apostles it is used ten times and in none of all those places signifieth anie descending from a higher place unto a lower but a removing simply from one place unto another Whereupon the Vulgar Latin edition which none of the Romanists upon any pretense may presume to reject doth render it there by the generall termes of abeo venio devenio supervenio and where it retayneth the word descendo it intendeth nothing lesse then to signifie thereby the lower situation of the place unto which the removeall is noted to be made If descending therfore in the Acts of the Apostles imply no such kind of thing what necessitie is there that thus of force it must be interpreted in the Creed of the Apostles Menelaus declared unto us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith King Antiochus in his epistle unto the Iewes 2. Maccab. 11.29 Velle vos descendere ad vestros it is in the Latin edition whereby what else is meant but that they had a desire to goe unto their owne I omitt the phrases of descending in praelium in forum in campum in amicitiam in caussam c. which are so usuall in good Latin authors yea and of descending into heaven it selfe if that be not a jeast which the Poet breaketh upon Claudius Ille senis tremulumque caput descendere jussit In coelum Others adde unto this that the phrase of descending ad inferos is a popular kinde of speech which sprung from the opinion that was vulgarly conceived of the situation of the receptâ—cle of the soules under the earth and that according to the rule of Aristoâ—le in his Topâ—cks we must speake as the vulgar but thinke as wise men doe Even as wee use to say commonly that the Sunne is under a cloude because it is a vulgar forme of speech and yet it is farre enough from our meaning for all that to imagine the cloude to bee indeede higher then the Sunne So Cicero they say where ever hee hath occasion to mention any thing that concerneth the dead speaketh still of Inferi according to the vulgar phrase although hee misliked the vulgar opinion which bred that maner of speaking and professed it to bee his judgement that the soules when they depart out of the body are carried up on high not downward unto any habitations under the earth So Chrysostom and Theophylact thinke that the Apostle tearmed the Death and Hell unto which our Saviour did descend the lower parts of the earth Ephes. 4.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the common opinion of men So in the translation of the holy Scripture S. Hierome sheweth that wee use the names of Arcturus and Orion not approving thereby the ridiculous and monstrous figments of the Poets in this matter but expressing the Hebrew names of these constellations by the vvords of heathenish fables because we cannot understand that which is sayd but by those words which we have learned by use and drunke in by error And just so standeth the case with this word Hades which with the Gâ—eeke Poets is the name of Pluto whom they fayned to be the God of the dead under the earth gave a denomination unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from riches because that all things comming to their dissolution there is nothing which is not at last brought unto him and made his possession Thus Homer and Hesiod with Plato and others after them say that Rhea brought forth three sonnes to Saturne Iupiter Neptune 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and mightie Hades who inhabiteth the houses under the earth having a mercilesse heart for that attribute doth Hesiod give unto him because Death spareth no man So Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is also the description that Hesiod maketh of him in that verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hades was afraid who raigneth over them that lye dead in the earth Now that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Creed is a phrase taken from the heathen and applied to expresse a Christian truth the very Grammaticaâ—l construction may seeme to intimate where the nowne is not put in the accusative case as otherwise it should but after the maner of the Greekes in the genitive case implying the defect of another word necessarily to be understood as if it had beene said He went unto the place or house of Hades as the Poets use to expresse it sometimes defectively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sometimes more fully 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the house or chambers of Hádes Thus then they that take Hádes for the common receptacle of soules doe interpret the context of the Creed as Cardinall Cajetan before did the narration of Moses touching Abrahams giving up the ghost being gathered to his people and being buried Genes 25.8 9. that the article of the death is to be râ—ferred to the whole manhood and the dissolution of the parts thereof that of the buriall to the body sâ—parated from the soule and this of the descending into Hádes to the soule separated fâ—om the body as if he had said He suffered death truely by a reall separation of his soule from his bodie and after this dissolution the same did befall him that useth to betide all other dead men his livelesse bodie was sent unto the place which is appointed to receive dead bodies and his immortall soule went unto the other world as the soules of other men use to doe Having now declared how the Greek Hádes and so the Latine Inferi and our English Hell is taken for the place of the bodies and of the soules of dead men severally it followeth that we shew how the common state of the dead is signified thereby and the place in generall which is answerable unto the parts of the whole man thus indefinitely considered in the state of separation Concerning which that place of Dionysius wherein he setteth forth the signification of our being dead and buried with Christ by Baptisme is to be considered Forasmuch as death is in us not an utter extinguishment of our being as others have thought but a separation of the united parts
bringing them unto that which is to us invisible the soule as being by the deprivation of the body made unseene and the body as eyther being covered in the earth or by some other of the alterations that are incident unto bodies being taken away from the sight of man the whole covering of the man in water is fitly assumed for an image of the death and buriall which is not seene Thus Dionysius concerning the separation of the united parts by Death and the bringing of them unto that which is invisible according whereunto as his paraphrast Pachymeres noteth it is called Hádes that is to say an invisible separation of the soule from the body And so indeed wee finde as well in forraine authors as in the Scriptures the writings of the Greek and Latin Fathers that Hádes and Inferi are not only taken in as large a sense as Death and so extended unto all men indifferently whether good or bad but are likewise oftentimes indifferently used for it For proofe whereof out of heathen authors these testimonies following may suffice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Pindarus The man that doeth things befitting him forgetteth Hádes meaning that the remembrance of death doth no whit trouble him and againe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sonne of Cleonicus wisheth that with such manners he may meet and receive Hades that is death and hoare old age So another Poet cyted by Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Death the soveraigne physician come for Hádes is in very truth the haven of the earth So the saying that the best thing were never to have been born and the next to that to dye quickly is thus expressed by Theognis in his elegies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sophocles in the beginning of his Trachiniae bringeth in Dâ—ianira affirming that howsoever it were an old saying among men that none could know whether a man life were happy or unhappy before he were dead yet she knew her own to be heavie and unfortunate before she went to Hádes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before death as both the ancient Scholiast and the matter it selfe doth shew So in his Ajax 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is better that is hidden in Hádes that is to say he that is dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Scholiast rightly expoundeth it then he that is sick past recoverie and in his Antigone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My father and mother being layd in Hádes it is not possible that any brother should spring forth afterward Wherwith Clemens Alexandrinus doth fitly compare that speech of the wife of Intaphernes in Herodotus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My father and mother being now no longer living another brother by no maner of meanes can be had So that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being in Hádes with the one is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not now living in the other or as it is alledged by Clemens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not now being which is the Scripture phrase of them that have left this world Genes 5.24 and 42.36 Psal. 39.13 Ierem. 31.15 and 49.10 used also by Homer Iliad β. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Touching the use of the word Hell in the Scriptures thus writeth Iansenius expounding those words Proverb 15.11 Hell and destruction are before the Lord how much more then the hearts of the children of men It is to be knowen that by Hell and destruction which two in the Scriptures are often joyned together the state of the dead is signified and not of the damned only as wee commonly doe conceave when we heare these words but the state of the deceased in generall So Sanctius the Iesuite with Sà his fellow acknowledgeth that Hell in the Scripture is frequently taken for Death Therefore are these two joyned together Revel 1.18 I have the keyes of Hell and of Death or as other Greeke copies read agreeably to the old Latin and Aethiopian translation of Death and of Hell and Esai 28.15 We have made a covenant with Death and with Hell we are at agreement where the Septuagint to shew that the same thing is meant by both the words do place the one in the room of the other after this maner We have made a covenant with Hell and with Death an agreement The same things likewise are indifferently attributed unto them both as that they are unsatiable and never full spoken of Hell Proverb 27.20 and of Death Haback 2.5 So the gates of Hell Esai 38 10. are the gates of Death Psalm 9.13 and 107.18 and therefore where we reade in the book of Wisedome Thou leadest to the gates of Hell and bringest backe againe the Vulgar Latin translateth it Thou leadest to the gates of Death and bringest back againe So the sorrowes of Death Psal. 18.4 are in the verse following tearmed the sorrowes of Hell and therefore the LXX as hath beene shewed translating the selfe same words of David doe in the Psalme render them the sorrowes of Hell and in the historie 2. Sam. 22.6 where the same Psalme is repeated the sorrowes of Death Whence also that difference of reading came Act. 2.24 aswell in the copies of the text as in the citations of the ancient Fathers which was the lesse regarded because that varietie in the words bredd little or no difference at all in the sense Therefore Epiphanius in one place having respect to the beginning of the verse saith that Christ loosed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sorrowes of Death and yet in another citing the later end of the verse because it was not possible he should be holden by it addeth this explication thereunto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say by Hell And the author of the Sermon upon Christs passion among the workes of Athanasius one where saith that he loosed the sorrowes of Hell and otherwhere that he loosed the sorrowes of Death unto whom wee may adjoyne Bede who is in like maner indifferent for eyther reading In the Proverbs where it is said There is a way which seemeth right unto a man but the end therof are the waies of Death Proverb 14.12 and 16.25 the LXX in both places for Death put 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bottome of Hell and on the other side where it is said Thou shalt beate him with the rod and shalt deliver his soule from Hell Proverb 23.14 they reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt deliver his soule from Death So in Hose 13.14 where the Hebrew and Greeke both reade I will deliver
yet is daily offered for the life of the vvorld Contra quem saith he satis argumentatur Rabanus in Epistolâ ad Egilonem Abbatem Ratrannus quidam libro composito ad Karolum regem dicentes aliam esse Against whom both Rabanus in his Epistle to Abbot Egilo and one Ratrannus in a booke which he made to King Charles argue largely saying that it is another kind of flesh Whereby what Rabanus his opinion was of this point in his Epistle to Abbot Egilo or Egilus consequently what that was which the Monkes of Weingart could not indure in his Penitentiall I trust is plaine enough I omit other corruptions of antiquitie in this same question which I have touched elsewhere only that of Bertram I may not passe over wherein the dishonesty of these men in handling the writings of the ancient is laid open even by the confession of their owne mouthes Thus the case standeth That Ratrannus who joined with Rabanus in refuting the error of the carnall presence at the first bringing in thereof by Paschasius Ratbertus is he who commonly is knowen by the name of Bertramus The booke which he wrote of this argument to Carolus Calvus the Emperour was forbidden to be read by order from the Roman Inquisition confirmed afterwards by the Councell of Trent The Divines of Doway perceiving that the forbidding of the booke did not keepe men from reading it but gave them rather occasion to seeke more earnestly after it thought it better policy that Bertram should be permitted to goe abroad but handled in such sort as other ancient writers that made against them were wont to be Seeing therefore say they we beare with very many errors in other of the old Catholike vvriters and extenuate them excuse them by inventing some device oftentimes deny them and fayne some commodious sense for them when they are objected in disputations or conflicts with our adversaries wee doe not see why Bertram may not deserve the same equitie and diligent reviseall Least the heretickes cry out that we burne and forbid such antiquity as maketh for them Marke this dealing well The world must be borne in hand that all the Fathers make for the Church of Rome against us in all our controversies When we bring forth expresse testimonies of the Fathers to the contrary what must then be done A good face must be put upō the matter one device or other must be invented to elude the testimonies objected and still it must be denied that the Fathers make against the doctrine of the Papists Bertram for example writeth thus The things which differ one from another are not the same The body of Christ which was dead and rose again and being made immortall now dyeth not death no more having dominion over it is everlasting and now not subject to suffering But this which is celebrated in the Church is temporall not everlasting it is corruptible not free from corruption What device must they finde out here They must say this is meant of the accidents or formes of the Sacrament which are corruptible or of the use of the Sacrament which continueth only in this present world But how will this shift serve the turne when as the whole drift of the discourse tendeth to prove that that which is received by the mouth of the faithfull in the Sacrament is not that very bodie of Christ which dyed upon the Crosse and rose againe from death Non malé aut inconsulté omittantur igitur omnia haec It were not amisse therefore say our Popish Censurers nor unadvisedly done that all these things should be left out If this be your maner of dealing with antiquity let all men judge whether it be not high time for us to listen unto the advice of Vincentius Lirinensis and not be so forward to commit the triall of our controversies to the writings of the Fathers who have had the ill hap to fall into such hucksters handling Yet that you may see how confident we are in the goodnesse of our cause we will not now stand upon our right nor refuse to enter with you into this field but give you leave for this time both to be the Challenger and the appointer of your owne weapons Let us then heare your challenge wherin you would so faine be answered I would faine know say you how can your Religion be true which disalloweth of many chiefe articles which the Saints and Fathers of that primitive Church of Rome did generally hold to be true For they of your side that have read the Fathers of that unspotted Church can well testifie and if any deny it it shall be presently shewen that the Doctors Pastors and Fathers of that Church doe allow of Traditions c. And againe Now would I faine know whether of both have the true Religion they that hold all these abovesaid points with the primitive Church or they that do most vehemently contradict and gainsay them they that doe not disagree with that holy Church in any point of Religion or they that agree with it but in very few and disagree in almost all And the third time too for fayling Now would I willingly see what reasonable answer may be made to this For the Protestants graunt that the Church of Rome for 400 or 500 yeares held the true Religion of Christ yet do they exclaime against the abovesaid articles which the same Church did maintaine and uphold as may be shewen by the expresse testimonies of the Fathers of the same Church and shall be largely layd downe if any learned Protestant will deny it If Albertus Pighius had now beene alive as great a Scholer as he was he might have learned that he never knew before Who did ever yet saith he by the Church of Rome understand the Vniversall Church That doth this man say I who styleth all the ancient Doctors and Martyrs of the Church Vniversall with the name of the Saints and Fathers of the primitive Church of Rome But it seemeth a small matter unto him for the magnifying of that Church to confound Vrbem Orbem unlesse he mingle also Heaven and Earth together by giving the title of that unspotted Church which is the speciall priviledge of the Church triumphant in heaven unto the Church of Rome here militant upon earth S. Augustine surely would not have himselfe otherwise understood whensoever hee speaketh of the unspotted Church and therefore to prevent all mistaking hee thus expoundeth himselfe in his Retractations Wheresoever in these bookes I have made mention of the Church not having spot or wrinkle it is not so to be taken as if she were so now but that she is prepared to bee so when she shall appeare glorious For now by reason of certaine ignorances and infirmities of her members the whole Church hath cause to say every day Forgive us our trespasses Now as long as the Church is subject to these ignorances and infirmities it cannot
in his Epistle to Bonifacius If Sacraments did not some maner of vvay resemble the things wherof they are Sacraments they should not be Sacraments at all And for this resemblance they doe of oftentimes also beare the names of the things themselves As therefore the Sacrament of the bodie of Christ is after a certaine maner the bodie of Christ and the sacrament of Christs blood is the blood of Christ so likewise the sacrament of faith is faith By the sacrament of faith hee understandeth Baptisme of which he afterward alledgeth that saying of the Apostle Rom. 6.4 Wee are buried with Christ by baptisme into death and then addeth He saith not We signifie his buriall but hee plainly saith Wee are buried Therefore the sacrament of so great a thing hee would not otherwise call but by the name of the thing it selfe And in his Questions upon Leviticus The thing that signifieth saith he useth to be called by the name of that thing which it signifieth as it is written The seven eares of corne are seven yeares for hee said not they signifie seven yeares and the seven Kine are seven yeares and many such like Hence was that saying The Rocke was Christ. For he said not The Rock did signifie Christ but as if it had beene that very thing which doubtlesse by substance it was not but by signification So also the blood because for a certaine vitall corpulencie which it hath it signifieth the soule after the maner of Sacraments it is called the soule Our argument therefore out of the words of the institution standeth thus If it be true that Christ called Bread his bodie and Wine his blood then must it be true also that the things which bee honoured with those names cannot be really his bodie blood but figuratively and sacramentally But the former is true Therefore also the latter The first proposition hath bene proved by the undoubted principles of right reason and the cleare confession of the adverse part the second by the circumstances of the Text of the Evangelists by the exposition of S. Paul and by the received grounds of the Romanists themselves The conclusion therefore resteth firme and so wee have made it cleare that the wordes of the Institution do not only not uphold but directly also overthow the whole frame of that which the Church of Rome teacheth touching the corporall presence of Christ under the formes of Bread and Wine If I should now lay downe here all the sentences of the Fathers which teach that that which Christ called his Body is Bread in substance and the Body of the Lord in signification and sacramentall relation I should never make an end Iustin Martyr in his second Apologie to Antoninus the Emperour telleth us that the bread and the wine even that sanctified food wherewith our blood and flesh by conversion are nourished is that w ch we are taught to be the flesh and blood of Iesus incarnate Irenaeus in his 4 th book against heresies saith that our Lord taking bread of that condition which is usuall among us confessed it to be his body the cup likewise contayning that creature which is usuall among us his blood And in his fift book he addeth That cup which is a creature he confirmed to be his blood which was shedde wherby he increaseth our blood and that bread which is of the creature to be his body wherby he increaseth our bodies Therefore when the mixed cup and the broken bread doth receive the word of God it is made the Eucharist of the blood and body of Christ whereby the substance of our flesh is increased and doth consist Our Lord saith Clemens Alexandrinus did blesse vvine vvhen hee said Take drinke This is my blood the blood of the Vine Tertullian Christ taking bread and distributing it to his Disciples made it his body saying This is my body that is the figure of my body Origen That meate which is sanctified by the word of God and by prayer as touching the materiall part thereof goeth into the belly and is voyded into the draught but as touching the prayer which is added according to the portion of faith it is made profitable enlightning the minde and making it to behold that which is profitable Neyther is it the matter of bread but the word spoken over it which profiteth him that doth not unworthily eate thereof And these things I speake of the typicall and symbolicall bodie saith Origen In the Dialogues against the Marcionites collected for the most part out of the writings of Maximus who lived in the time of the Emperors Commodus and Severus Origen who is made the chiefe speaker therein is brought in thus disputing against the Heretickes If Christ as these men say were without bodie and blood of what kinde of flesh or of what body or of what kinde of blood did hee give the bread and the cup to be Images of when he commanded his Disciples by them to make a commemoration of him S. Cyprian also noteth that it was Wine even the fruit of the Vine which the Lord said was his blood and that floure alone or water alone cannot bee the bodie of our Lord unlesse both be united and coupled together and kneaded into the lumpe of one bread And againe that the Lord calleth bread his body which is made up by the uniting of many cornes and wine his blood which is pressed out of many clusters of grapes and gathered into one liquor Which I finde also word for word in a maner transcribed in the Commentaries upon the Gospels attributed unto Theophilus Bishop of Antioch Wherby it appeareth that in those elder times the words of the institution were no otherwise conceived then as if Christ had plainly said This bread is my body and This wine is my blood which is the maine thing that wee strive for with our Adversaries and for which the words themselves are plaine enough the substance whereof we finde thus laid downe in the Harmonie of the Gospels gathered as some say by Tatianus as others by Ammonius within the second or the third age after Christ. Having taken the bread then afterward the cup of wine and testified it to be his body and blood hee commanded them to eate and drinke thereof forasmuch as it was the memoriall of his future passion and death To the Fathers of the first three hundred yeares we will now adjoyne the testimonies of those that flourished in the ages following The first whereof shall be Eusebius who saith that our Saviour delivered to his Disciples the symboles of his divine dispensation commanding them to make the Image of his owne body and appointing them to use Bread for the symbole of his Body and that we still celebrate upon the Lords table the memory of his sacrifice by the symboles of his body and blood according to the ordinances of the New Testament Acacius
answer Surely this we may say and thinke that God alone doth forgive and retayne sinnes and yet hath given power of binding and loosing unto the Church but He bindeth and looseth one way and the Church another For he only by himselfe forgiveth sinne who both cleanseth the soule from inward blot and looseth it from the debt of everlasting death But this hath he not granted unto Priests to whom notwithstanding he hath given the power of binding and loosing that is to say of declaring men to be bound or loosed Wherupon the Lord did first by himselfe restore health unto the leper and then sent him unto the Priests by whose judgement he might be declared to be cleansed so also he offered Lazarus to his disciples to be loosed having first quickned him In like maner Hugo Cardinalis sheweth that it is onely God that forgiveth sinnes and that the Priest cannot binde or loose the sinner with or from the bond of the fault and the punishment due thereunto but onely declare him to be bound or loosed as the Leviticall Priest did not make nor cleanse the leper but onely declared him to be infected or cleane And a great number of the Schoolemen afterward shewed themselves to be of the same judgement that to pardon the fault and the eternall punishment due unto the same was the proper worke of God that the Priests absolution hath no reall operation that way but presupposeth the partie to be first justified and absolved by God Of this minde were Guilielmus Altissiodorensis Alexander of Hales Bonaventure Ockam Thomas de Argentinâ Michael de Bononiâ Gabriel Biel Henricus de Huecta Iohannes Major and others To lay downe all their words at large would be too tedious In generall Hadrian the sixth one of their owne Popes acknowledgeth that the most apprâ—ved Divines were of this minde that the keyes of the Priesthood doe not extend themselves to the remission of the fault and Major affirmeth that this is the common Tenet of the Doctors So likewise is it avouched by Gabriel Biel that the old Doctors commonly follow the opinion of the Master of the Sentences that Priests do forgive or retaine sinnes while they iudge and declare that they are forgiven by God or retained But all this notwithstanding Suarez is bold to tell us that this opinion of the Master is false and now at this time erroneous It was not held so the other day when Ferus preached at Mentz that man did not properly remit sinne but did declare and certifie that it was remitted by God so that the Absolution received from man is nothing else then if he should say Behold my sonne I certifie thee that thy sinnes are forgiven thee I pronounce unto thee that thou hast God favourable unto thee and vvhatsoever Christ in Baptisme and in his Gospell hath promised unto us he doth now declare and promise unto thee by me Of this shalt thou have me to be a witnesse goe in peace and in quiet of conscience But jam hoc tempore the case is altered these things must be purged out of Ferus as erroneous the opinion of the old Doctors must give place to the sentence of the new Fathers of Trent And so we are come at length to the end of this long question in the handling whereof I have spent more time th◠〈◊〉 aniâ— of thâ— râ—st by reason our Priests doe make this facultie of pardoning mens sinnes to be one of the most principall parts of their occupation and the particular discoverie thereof is not ordinarily by the writers of our side so much insisted upon The performance therefore of my promise of brevitie is to be expected in the briefer treating upon those articles that remaine the fift whereof we are now to take into our consideration which is OF PVRGATORIE FOr extinguishing the imaginarie flames of Popish Purgatory wee need not goe farre to fetch water seeing the whole current of Gods word runneth mainly upon this that the blood of Iesus Christ cleanseth us from all sinne that all Gods children dye in Christ and that such as dye in him doe rest from their labours that as they be absent from the Lord while they are in the bodie so when they be absent from the bodie they are present with the Lord and in a word that they come not into judgement but passe from death unto life And if wee need the assistance of the ancient Fathers in this businesse behold they be here readie with full buckets in their hands Tertullian to begin withall counteth it iniurious unto Christ to hold that such as be called from hence by him are in a state that should be pittied whereas they have obtayned their desire of being with Christ according to that of the Apostle Philip. 1.23 I desire to depart and to be with Chrest What pitie was it that the poore soules in Purgatorie should finde no 〈◊〉 in those dayes to informe men better of their ruefull condition nor no Secretarie to draw up such another supplication for them as this which of late years Sir Thomas Moore presented in their name To all good Christen people In most piteous wise continually calleth and cryeth upon your devoute charitie and most tender pitie for helpe comfort and reliefe your late acquaintance kindred spouses companions playfellowes and friends and now your humble and unacquainted and halfe forgotten suppliants poore prisoners of God the sely soules in Purgatorie here abiding and enduring the grievous paynes and hote clensing fire c. If S. Cyprian had understood but halfe thus much doubtlesse he would have strucken out the best part of that famous treatise which hee wrote of Mortalitie to comfort men against death in the time of a great plague especially such passages as these are which by no meanes can be reconciled with Purgatorie It is for him to feare death that is not willing to goe unto Christ it is for him to bee unwilling to goe unto Christ who doth not beleeve that hee beginneth to raigne with Christ. For it is written that the just doth live by faith If thou be just and livest by faith if thou dost truly beleeve in God why being to be with Christ and being secure of the Lords promise doest not thou embrace the message whereby thou art called unto Christ and rejoycest that thou shalt be ridd of the Divell Simeon said Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seene thy salvation proving thereby and witnessing that the servants of God then have peace then injoy free and quiet rest when being drawen from these stormes of the world vvee arrive at the haven of our everlasting habitation and securitie vvhen this death being ended wee enter into immortalitie The righteous are called to a refreshing the unrighteous are haled to torment safety is quickly
them And therefore it is no marvaile that somewhat not so fitt should be contayned in the foresaid prayers and be tolerated in the Church seeing such prayers were made by private persons not by Councells neyther vvere approved at all by Councells And we easily doe beleeve indeed that their Offices and Legends are fraught not only with untrue and unfit but also with farre worse stuffe neyther is this any newes unto us Agobardus Bishop of Lions complayned about 800. yeares agoe that the Antiphonary used in his Church had many ridiculous and phantasticall things in it and that hee was faine to cut off from thence such things as seemed to be eyther superfluous or light or lying or blasphemous The like complaint was made not long since by Lindanus of the Romane Antiphonaries and Missals wherein not only apocryphall tales saith he out of the Gospell of Nicodemus and other toyes are thrust in but the very secret prayers themselves are defiled with most foule faults But now that wee have the Romane Missall restored according to the decree of the Councell of Trent set out by the command of Pius V. and revised againe by the authoritie of Clemens VIII I doubt much whether our Romanists will allow the Censure which their Medina hath given of the praiers contained therein And therefore if this will not please them he hath another answer in store of which though his country man Mendoza hath given sentence that it is indigna viro Theologo unworthy of any man that beareth the name of a Divine yet such as it is you shall have it Supposing then that the Church hath no intention to pray for anie other of the dead but those that are detayned in Purgatorie this he delivereth for his second resolution The Church knowing that God hath power to punish everlastingly those soules by which when they lived he was mortally offended and that God hath not tyed his power unto the Scriptures and unto the promises that are contayned in the Scripture forasmuch as he is above all things and a◠omnipotent after his promises as if he had promised nothing at all therefore the Church doth humbly pray God that he would not use this his absolute omnipotencie against the soules of the faithfull which are departed in grace therefore shee doth pray that he would vouchsafe to free them from everlasting paines and from revenge and the judgement of condemnation and that he would be pleased to rayse them up againe with his Elect. But leaving our Popish Doctors with their profound speculations of the not limiting of Gods power by the Scriptures and the promises which he hath made unto us therein let us returne to the ancient Fathers and consider the differences that are to be found among them touching the place and condition of soules separated from their bodies for according to the several apprehensions which they had thereof they made different applications and interpretations of the use of praying for the dead whose particular intentions and devotions in that kinde must of necessity therefore be distinguished from the generall intention of the whole Church S. Augustine that I may begin with him who was as the most ingenious so likewise the most ingenuous of all others in acknowledging his ignorance where hee saw cause being to treat of these matters maketh this Preface before hand unto his hearers Of Hell neyther have I had any experience as yet nor you and peradventure it may be that our passage may lye some other way and not prove to be by Hell For these things be uncertain and having occasion to speake of the departure of Nebridius his deare friend Now he liveth saith he in the bosome of Abraham whatsoever the thing be that is signified by that bosome there doth my Nebridius live But elsewhere he directly distinguisheth this bosome from the place of blisse into which the. Saincts shall be received after the last judgement After this short life saith he thou shalt not as yet be where the Saincts shall be unto whom it shall be said Come ye blessed of my Father receive the kingdome which was prepared for you from the beginning of the world Thou shalt not as yet be there who knoweth it not But now thou mayest be there where that proude and barren rich man in the middest of his torments saw a farre off the poore man sometime full of ulcers resting Being placed in that rest thou dost securely expect the day of judgement when thou mayest receive thy body when thou mayest be changed to be equall unto an Angell and for the state of soules betwixt the time of the particular and generall judgement this is his conclusion in generall The time that is interposed betwixt the death of man and the last resurrection contayneth the soules in hidden receptacles as every one is worthy eyther of rest or of trouble according unto that which it did purchase in the flesh when it lived Into these hidden receptacles he thought the soules of Gods children might carry some of their lighter faults with them which being not removed would hinder them from comming into the kingdome of heaven whereinto no polluted thing can enter and from which by the prayers and almes-deeds of the living he held they might be released But of two things he professed himselfe here to be ignorant First What those sinnes were which did so hinder the comming unto the kingdome of God that yet by the care of good friends they might obtaine pardon Secondly Whether those soules did endure anie temporary paines in the Interim betwixt the time of Death and the Resurrection For howsoever in his one and twentieth book of the City of God and the thirteenth and sixteenth chapters for the new patch which they have added to the foure and twentieth chapter is not worthy of regard he affirme that some of them doe suffer certaine purgatorie punishments before the last and dreadfull judgment yet by comparing these places with the five and twentieth chapter of the twentieth booke it will appeare that by those purgatory punishments he understandeth here the furnace of the fire of Conflagration that shall immediatly go before this last judgement and as he otherwhere describeth the effects thereof separate some unto the left hand and melt out others unto the right Neither was this opinion of the reservation of soules in secret places and the purging of them in the fire of Conflagration at the day of iudgement entertained by this famous Doctor alone diverse others there were that had touched upon the same string before him Origen in his fourth book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we have him translated by Ruffinus for in the Extracts selected out of him by S. Basil and S. Gregory wee finde the place somewhat otherwise expressed saith that such as depart out of this world after the common course of death are disposed of according to their deeds and
other matters that there were places neere unto them that used to cast up burning flames which by the inhabitants were called the Potts of Vulcan wherein the soules of the reprobate according to the qualitie of their deserts did suffer diverse punishments the Divels being there deputed for the execution therof whose voyces angers and terrors and somtimes howlings also he said he often heard as lamenting that the soules of the damned were taken out of their hands by the almes and prayers of the faithfull and more at this time by the prayers of the monkes of Cluny who prayed vvithout ceasing for the rest of those that were deceased The abbot Odilo having understood this by him appointed throughout all the monasteries under his subjection that as upon the first day of November the solemnitie of all the Saints is observed so upon the day following the memoriall of all that rested in Christ should be celebrated Which rite passing into many other Churches made the memory of the faithfull deceased to be solemnized For the elect this forme of prayer was wont to be used in the Romane Church O God unto whom alone is knowne the number of the elect that are to be placed in the supernall blisse grant we beseech thee that the book of blessed predestination may retaine the names of all those whom we have undertaken to recommend in our prayer or of all the faithfull that are written therein And to pray that the names of all those that are written in the book of Gods election should still be retayned therein may be somewhat tolerable considering as the Divines of that side have informed us that those things may be prayed for which we know most certainly wilcome to passe But hardly I think shall you finde in any Rituall a form of prayer answerable to this of the monkes of Cluny for the reprobate unlesse it be that whereby S. Francis is said to have obtained that friat Elias should be made ex praescito praedestinatus an elect of a reprobare Yet it seemeth that some were not very well pleased that what was done so seldom by S. Francis the Angel of the Friars that for a reprobate yet living should be so usually practised by the followers of S. Odilo the Archangel of the Monkes for reprobates that were dead therefore in the cōmon editions of Sigeberts Chronicle they have cleane strucke out the word damnatorū instead of reproborū chopt in defunctorū which depravatiō may be detected aswel by the sincere edition of Sigebert published by Aubertus Miraeus out of the Manuscript of Gemblac abbay w ch is thought to be the originall copie of Sigebert himselfe as by the comparing of him with Petrus Damiani in the life of Odilo whence this whole narration was by him borrowed For there also doe we reade that in those flaming places the soules of the reprobate according to the qualitie of their deserts did suffer diverse torments and that the Divels did complaine that by the almes and prayers of Odilo and others the soules of the damned were taken out of their hands By these things we may see what we are to judge of that which our Adversaries presse so much against us out of Epiphanius that he nameth an obscure fellow one Aërius to be the first author of this heresie that prayers and sacrifice profiteth not the departed in Christ. For neyther doth Epiphanius name this to be an heresie neyther doth it appeare that himselfe did hold that praiers and oblations bring such profite to the dead as these men dreame they do He is much deceived who thinketh everie thing that Epiphanius findeth fault withall in heretickes is esteemed by him to be an heresie seeing heresie cannot be but in matters of faith and the course which Epiphanius taketh in that worke is not only to declare in what speciall points of faith hereticks did dissent from the Catholicke doctrine but in what particular observances also they refused to follow the received customes and ordinances of the Church Therefore at the end of the whole worke hee setteth downe a Briefe first of the faith and then of the ordinances and observances of the Church and among the particulars of the latter kinde he rehearseth this For the dead they make commemorations by name performing or when they doe performe their prayers and divine service and dispensation of the mysteries and disputing against Aërius touching the point it selfe hee doth not at all charge him with forsaking the doctrine of the Scriptures or the faith of the Catholick Church concerning the state of those that are departed out of this life but with rejecting the order observed by the Church in her Commemorations of the dead which being an ancient institution brought in upon wonderfull good considerations should not by this humorous hereticke have beene thus condemned The Church saith he doth necessarily performe this having received it by tradition from the Fathers and who may dissolve the ordinance of his mother or the law of his Father and againe Our mother the Church hath ordinances setled in her which are inviolable and may not be broken Seeing then there are ordinances established in the Church and they are well and all things are admirably done this seducer is againe refuted For the further opening hereof it will not be amisse to consider both of the objection of Aërius and of the answer of Epiphanius Thus did Aërius argue against the practise of the Church For what reason doe you commemorate after death the names of those that are departed He that is alive prayeth or maketh dispensation of the mysteries what shall the dead be profited hereby And if the prayer of those here doe altogether profite them that be there then let no body be godly let no man do good but let him procure some friends by what meanes it pleaseth him eyther perswading them by money or intreating friends at his death and let them pray for him that he may suffer nothing there and that those inexpiable sins which he hath cōmitted may not be required at his hands This was Aërius his argumentation which would have beene of force indeed if the whole Church had held as manie did that the judgement after death was suspended untill the generall Resurrection and that in the meane time the sinnes of the dead might be taken away by the suffrages of the living But hee should have considered as Stephanus Gobarus who was as great an heretick as himselfe did that the Doctors were not agreed upon the point some of them maintayning the soule of every one that departed out of this life received very great profite by the prayers and oblations and almes that were performed for him and others on the contrary side that it was not so and that it was a foolish part of him to confound the private opinion of some with the common faith of the universall Church That he reproved this
least suspition of heresie The narration of Lazarus and the rich man saith the author of the Questions and Answers in the workes of Iustin Martyr presenteth this doctrine unto us that after the departure of the soule out of the body men cannot by any providence or care obtaine any profite Then saith Gregory Nazianzen in vaine shall anie one goe about to relieve those that lament Here men may have a remedie but afterwards there is nothing but bonds or all things are fast bound For after death the punishment of sinne is remedilesse saith Theodoret. and therefore S. Hierome doth conclude that while we are in this present world we may be able to helpe one another eyther by our prayers or by our counsailes but when vvee shall come before the judgement seat of Christ neyther Iob nor Daniel nor Noah can intreate for any one but every one must beare his owne burden Other Doctors were of another iudgement that the dead received speciall profite by the prayers and oblations of the living eyther for the remission of their sinnes or the easing of their punishment but whether this were restrained to smaller offences only or such as lived and died in great sinnes might be made partakers of the same benefite and whether these mens torments might be lessened only thereby or in tract of time quite extinguished they did not agree upon That Stephanus Gobarus whom before I alledged made a collection of the different sentences of the Fathers whereof some contayned the received doctrine of the Church others the unallowable opinions of certaine of the ancient that varied therefrom Of this latter kinde he maketh this sentence to be one that such sinners as be delivered unto punishment are purged therein from their sinnes and after their purging are freed from their punishment albeit not all who are delivered unto punishment be thus purged and freed but some onely whereas the true sentence of the Church was that none at all was freed from punishment If that were the true sentence of the Church that none of those who suffered punishment in the other world were ever freed from the same then the applying of prayers to the helping of mens soules out of any such punishments must be referred to the erroneous apprehension of some particular men and not to the generall intention of the ancient Church from which in this point as in manie others beside the latter Church of Rome hath swarved and quite gone astray The ancient writer of the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchie handling this matter of praying for the dead professedly doth by way of objection move this doubt to vvhat purpose should the Bishop intreat the divine goodnesse to grant remission of sinnes unto the dead and a like glorious inheritance with those that have followed God seeing by such prayers he can be brought to no other rest but that which is fitting for him and answerable unto the life which he hath here ledd If our Romish divinitie had bene then acknowledged by the Church there had beene no place left to such questions and doubts as these The matter might easily have beene answered that though a man did die in the state of grace yet was he not presently to be admitted unto the place of rest but must first be reckoned withall both for the committall of those smaller faults unto which through humane frailtie he was daily subject and for the not performance of full penance and satisfaction for the greater sinnes into which in this life he had fallen and Purgatorie being the place wherein he must be cleansed from the one and make up the iust payment for the other these prayers were directed unto God for the deliverie of the poore soule which was not now in case to helpe it selfe out of that place of torment But this author taking upon him the person of S. Pauls scholler and professing to deliver herein that tradition which he had received from his divine Masters saith no such thing but giveth in this for his answer The divine Bishop as the Scriptures witnesse is the interpreter of the divine judgements for hee is the Angell of the Lord God almightie He hath learned therefore out of the oracles delivered by God that a most glorious and divine life is by his just judgement worthily adwarded to them that have lived holily his divine goodnesse and kindenesse passing over those blots which by humane frailtie he had contracted forasmuch as no man as the Scriptures speake is free from pollution The Bishop therefore knowing these things to be promised by the true oracles prayeth that they may accordingly come to passe and those sacred rewards may be bestowed upon them that have lived holily The Bishop at that time belike did not know so much as our Popish Bishops doe now that Gods servants must dearely smart in Purgatorie for the sinnes wherewith they were overtaken through humane infirmitie he beleeved that God of his mercifull goodnesse would passe by those slipps and that such after-reckonings as these should give no stoppage to the present bestowing of those holy rewards upon the children of the promise Therâ—fore the divine Bishop saith our author asketh those things which vvere promised by God and are gratefull to him and without doubt will be granted theâ—eby aswell manifesting his own good disposition unto God who is a lover of the good as declaring like an interpreter unto them that be present the gifts that shall befall to such as are holy Hee further also addeth that the Bishops have a separating power as the interpreters of Gods judgements according to that commission of Christ Whose sinnes ye remitt they are remitted unto them and whose you shall retaine they are retained and Whatsoever thou shalt binde upon earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven And as in the use of the keyes the Schoolemen following S Hierom do account the minister to be the interpreter onely of Gods judgement by declaring what is done by him in the binding or loosing of mens sinnes so doth this author heâ—e give them power onely to separate those that are alâ—eady judged of God and by way of declaration and convoy to bring in those that are beloved of God and to exclude such as are ungodly And if the power which the Ministers have received by the foresaid commission doe extend it selfe to any further reall operation upon the living Pope Gelasius will denie that it may be stretched in like maner unto the dead because that Châ—ist saith Whatsoever thou shalt binde upon earth He saith upon earth for he that dyeth bound is no where said to be loosed and that which a man remayning in his body hath not received being uncloathed of his flesh he cannot obtaine saith Leo. Whether the dead received profite by the prayers of the living was still a question in the Church Maximus in his Greeke
company of captives and thus was Hell spoyled and Adam delivered from his griefes Which is agreeable to that which we reade in the works of Athanasius that the soule of Adam was detayned in the condemnation of death and cryed continually unto the Lord such as had pleased God and were justified in the law of nature being detayned together with Adam and lamenting and crying out with him and that the Divell beholding himselfe spoyled did bemoane himselfe and beholding those that sometime were weeping under him now singing in the Lord did rent himselfe Others are more favourable to the soules of the Fathers though they place them in Hell for they hold them to have beene there in a state of blisse and not of miserie Thus the author of the Latin homily concerning the Rich man and Lazarus which is commonly fathered upon Chrysostom notwithstanding he affirmeth that Abraham was in Hell and that before the comming of Christ none ever entred into Paradise yet doth he acknowledge in the meane time that Lazarus did remaine there in a kinde of Paradise For the bosome of Abraham saith he vvas the poore mans Paradise and againe Some man may say unto me Is there a Paradise in Hell I say this that the bosome of Abraham is the truth of Paradise Yea and I confesse it to be a most holy Paradise So Tertullian in the fourth booke of his Verses against Marcion placeth Abrahams bosome under the earth but in an open and lightsome seate farre removed from the fire and from the darknesse of Hell sub corpore terrae In parte ignotâ quidam locus exstat apertus Luce sua fretus Abrahae sinus iste vocatur Altior á tenebris longé semotus ab igne Sub terrâ tamen Yea he maketh it to be one house with that which is eternall in the heaven distinguisht onely from it as the outer and the inner Temple or the Sanctum and the Sanctum Sanctorum were in the time of the Law by the Vayle that hung between which vayle being rent at the passion of Christ he saith these two were made one everlasting house Tempore divisa spatio ratione ligata Vna domus quamvis velo partita videtur Atque adeò passo Domino velamine rupto Coelestes patuere plagae coelataque sancta Atque duplex quondam facta est domus una perennis Yet elsewhere hee maketh up the partition againe maintaining very stiffly that the gates of Heaven remaine still shut against all men untill the end of the world come and the day of the last judgement Only Paradise he leaveth open for Martyrs as that other author of the latin Homily seemeth also to doe but the soules of the rest of the faithfull he sequestâ—eth into Hell there to remaine in Abrahams bosome untill the time of the generall resurrection And to this part of Hell doth he imagine Christ to have descended not with purpose to fetch the soules of the Fathers from thence which is the only errand that our Romanistes conceive he had thither but ut illic Patriarchas Prophetas compotes sui faceret that he might there make the Patriarches and Prophets partakers of his presence S. Hierome saith that our Lord Iesus Christ descended into the furnace of Hell wherein the soules both of sinners and of just men were held shut that without any burning or hurt unto himselfe he might free from the bonds of death those that were held shut up in that place and that hee called upon the name of the Lord out of the lowermost lake when by the power of his divinitie hee descended into Hell and having destroyed the barres of Tartarus or the dungeon of Hell bringing from thence such of his as he found there ascended conquerour up againe He saith further that Hell is the place of punishments and tortures in which the rich man that was cloathed in puâ—ple is seeâ—e unto which also the Lord did descend that he might let forth those that were bound out of prison Lastly tâ—e Sonne of God saith he following Origen as it seemeth too unaduisedly here descended into the lowermost parts of the earth and ascended above all heavens that he might not only fulfill the law and the prophets but certaine other hidden dispensations also which hee alone doth know with the Father For wee cannot understand how the bloud of Christ did profite both the Angels and those that were in Hell and yet that it did profite them wee cannot be ignorant Thus farre S. Hierome touching Christs descent into the lowermost Hell which Thomas and the other Schoolemen will not admitt that hee ever came unto Yet this must they of force grant if they will stand to the authority of the Fathers It remayned saith Fulgentius for the full effecting of our redemption that man assumed by God without sinne should thither descend whither man separated from God should have fallen by the desert of sinne that is unto Hell where the soule of the sinner was wont to be tormented and to the Grave where the flesh of the sinner was accustomed to bee corrupted yet so that neyther the flesh of Christ should be corrupted in the Grave nor his soule be tormented with the paines of Hell Because the soule free from sinne was not to be subjected to such punishment neither ought corruption to tainte the flesh without sinne And this hee saith was done for this end that by the flesh of the just dying temporally everlasting life might be given to our flesh and by the soule of the just descending into Hell the paines of hell might be loosed It is the saying of S. Ambrose that Christ being voyd of sinne when hee did descend into the lowermost parts of Tartarus breaking the barres gates of Hell called backe unto life out of the jawes of the Divell the soules that were bound with sinne having destroyed the dominion of death and of Eusebius Emissenus or Gallicanus or who ever was the author of the sixt Paschall homily attributed to him that the sonne of man laying aside his body pierced the lowest hidden seates of Tartarus but where he was thought to have beene detained among the dead there binding death did hee loose the bonds of the dead Presently therefore saith Caesarius in his third Paschall homily w ch is the same with the first of those that goe under the name of the former Eusebius the everlasting night of Hell at Christs descending shined bright the gnashing of the mourners ceased the burthens of the chaines were loosed the bursted bands of the damned fell from them The tormentors astonished in minde were amazed the whole jmpious shoppe trembled together when they beheld Christ suddainly in their dwellings So Arnoldus Bonaevallensis in his booke de Cardinalibus operibus Christi commonly attributed to S. Cyprian noteth that at that time there was a cessation from infernall
in Hell who shall give thee thankes of which there can bee no better paraphrase then that which is given in Psalm 88.11 12. Shall thy loving kindnesse bee declared in the grave or thy faithfulnesse in destruction Shall thy wonders bee knowne in the darke and thy righteousnesse in the land of forgetfulnesse Andradius in his defence of the faith of the Councell of Trent speaking of the difference of reading which is found in the sermon of S. Peter Act. 2.24 where God is sayd to have raysed up our Saviour loosing the sorrowes of death as the Greeke bookes commonly reade or the sorrowes of Hell as the Latin saith for reconciliation thereof that there will be no disagreement betwixt the Latin and Greeke copies if we do marke that Hell in this place is used for Death and the Grave according to the Hebrews maner of speaking as in the 15 th Psalme which Peter presently after citeth Because thou wilt not leave my soule in Hell and Esai 38. For Hell cannot confesse unto thee For when he disputeth saith hee of the resurrection of Christ he confirmeth by many and most evident testimonies of David that Christ did suffer death for mankinde in such sort that he could not be overwhelmed with death nor long lye hidden among the dead And it seemeth to me that by the sorrowes of Hell or Death a death full of sorrow and miseries is signified according to the Hebrewes maner of speaking as in Matthew 24. the abomination of desolation is taken for an abominable desolation Thus farre Andradius clearely forsaking herein his fellow-defenders of the Tridentine faith who by the one text of loosing the sorrowes of death would faine prove Christs descending to free the soules that were tormented in Purgatory and by the other of not leaving his soule in Hell his descending into Limbus to deliver the soules of the fathers that were at rest in Abrahams bosome The former of these texts Act. 2.24 is thus expounded by Ribera the Iesuite God raysed him up loosing and making voyde the sorrowes of death that is to say that which death by so many sorrowes had effected namely that the soule should bee separated from the bodie His fellow Sà interpreteth the loosing of the sorrowes of death to be the delivering of him from the troubles of death although sorrow saith hee may be the epithet of death because it useth to bee joyned with death The Apostles speech hath manifest reference to the wordes of David 2. Sam. 22.5 6. and Psalm 18. al. 17. 4 5. where in the former verse mention is made of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sorrowes of death in the latter of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which by the Septuagint is in the place of the Psalmes translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sorrowes of Hell in 2. Sam 22.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sorrowes of Death according to the explication following in the end of the selfe same verse The sorrowes of Hell compassed me about the snares of Death prevented me and in Psalm 116.3 The sorrowes of Death compassed me the paines of Hell found me or gate hold upon me where Lyranus hath this note In the Hebrew for Hell is put Sheol which doth not signifie onely Hell but signifieth also the pit or the grave and so it is taken heere by reason it followeth upon Death The like explicatorie repetition is noted also by the interpreters to have beene used by the Prophet in that other text alledged out of Psalm 16.10 as in Psalm 30. al. 29. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou hast brought up my soule from Hell thou hast kept me safe or alive from those that goe downe to the pit and Iob. 33.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His soule drew neere unto death and his life unto Hell whence that in the prayer of Iesus the sonne of Sirach is taken Ecclesiastic 51. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My soule drew neere unto death my life was neere to Hell beneath And therefore for Hell doth Pagnin in his translation of the sixteenth Psalme put the Grave being therein also followed in the Interlineary Bible approved by the Censure of the Universitie of Lovaine in the notes upon the same that goe under the name of Vatablus the word Soule is by comparing of this with Levitic 21.1 expounded to be the Bodie So doth Arias Montanus directly interpret this text of the Psalme Thou shalt not leave my soule in the grave that is to say my body and Isidorus Clarius in his annotations upon the second of the Acts saith that My soule in hell in that place is according to the maner of speech used by the Hebrewes put for My bodie in the grave or tombe least any man should thinke that Master Beza was the first deviser or principall author of this interpretation Yet him alone doth Cardinall Bellarmine single out here to try his manhood upon but doth so miserably acquite himselfe in the encounter that it may well bee doubted whether he laboured therein more to crosse Beza then to strive with himselfe in the wilfull suppressing of the light of his owne knowledge For whereas Beza in his notes upon Act. 2.27 had shewed out of the 1. and 11. verses of the 21. Chapter of Leviticus and other places of Scripture that the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which wee translate Soule is put for a dead bodie the Cardinall to rid himselfe handsomely of this which pinched him very shrewdly telleth us in sober sadnesse that there is a very great difference betwixt the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he is a most generall word and signifieth without any trope as well the soule as the living creature it selfe yea and the body it selfe also as by very many places of Scripture it doth appeare And therefore in Leviticus where that name is given unto dead bodies one part is not put for another to wit the soule for the body but a word which doth usually signifie the bodie it selfe or the whole at leastwise is put for the part namely the living creature for the body thereof But in the second of the Acts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put which signifieth the soule alone Now did not the Cardinall know thinke you in his own conscience that as in the second of the Acts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is put where the originall text of the Psalme there alledged hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so on the other side in those places of Leviticus which he would faine make to be so different from this where the originall text readeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there the Greeke also putteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doe we not there reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Levit. 21.1 and in the 11. verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall not goe in to any dead soule that is to anie dead bodie The
to my Father who while thou searchest for me among the infernalls dost distrust that I am returned to the celestials while thou seekest me among the dead dost not hope that I doe live with my father Where his Inferi and Inferna doe plainely import no more but tumulos and sepulchra Heereupon Ruffinus in his exposition of the Creed having given notice that in the Symbol of the Church of Rome there is not added He descended into hell nor in the Churches of the East neyther adjoyneth presently Yet the force or meaning of the word seemeth to bee the same in that he is sayd to have bene buried For the tearmes of buriall and descending into hell in the Scripture phrase tend much to the expressing of the selfe same thing but that the bare naming of the one doth lead us only to the consideration of the honor of buriall the addition of the other intimateth unto us that which is more dishonourable in it Thus under the buriall of our Saviour may be comprehended his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his funeration and his interring which are both of them set down in the end of the 19. chapter of the Gospell according to S. Iohn the latter in the two last verses where Ioseph and Nicodemus are said to have laid him in a new Sepulchre vvherein was never man yet laid the former in the two verses going before where it is recorded that they wound his body in linnen clothes with spices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is the maner of the Iews to bury for to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or funeratioÌ„ belongeth the imbalming of the dead body all other offices that are performed unto it while it remaines above ground So Gen. 50.2 where the PhysiciaÌ„s are said to have imbalmed Israel the Greek translators render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and when Mary poured the pretious ointment upon our Saviour himselfe interpreteth this to have beene done for his funeration or buriall For it was a custome in times past saith Eusebius commonly called Emissenus that the bodies of noble men being to be buried should first be annointed with pretious ointments and buried with spices And who knoweth not saith Stapleton that a sepulchre is an honour to the dead and not a disgrace But the mention of Sheol which hath speciall relation as hath beene shewed to the disposing of the dead body unto corruption and so of Hades Infernus or Hell answering thereunto carrieth us further to the consideration of that which the Apostle calleth the sowing of the body in corruption and dishonour 1. Corinth 15.42 43. For which that place in S. Augustine is worth the consideration Did not the Hells or the Grave give testimony unto Christ when loosing their power they reserved Lazarus whom they had received to dissolve for foure dayes together that they might restore him safe againe when they did heare the voyce of their Lord commanding it where you may observe an Hâ—ll appointed for the dissolution of dead mens bodies the descending into which according to Ruffinus his note differeth little or nothing from the descending into the Grave In the thirteenth of the Acts S. Paul preacheth unto the Iewes that God raysed up his Sonne from the dead not to returne now any more unto corruption and yet presently addeth that therein was verified that prophecie in the Psalme Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy one to see corruption implying thereby that he descended in some sort for a time into corruption although in that time he did not suffer corruption And doe not wonder saith S. Ambrose how he should descend into corruption whose flesh did not see corruption He did descend indeed into the place of corruption who pierced the Hells but being uncorrupted he shut out corruption For as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Prophet useth in the Psalm doth signifie as well the pit or place of corruption as the corruption it selfe so also the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereby S. Luke doth expresse the same is used by the Greek Interpreters of the old Testament to signifie not the corruption it selfe alone but the verie place of it likewise as where we read in Psalm 7.15 He is fallen into the pit which he made and Psalm 9.16 The heathen are sunke downe in the pit that they made and Proverb 26.27 Who so diggeth a pit shall fall therein Aquila in the first place the Septuagint in the second Aquila and Symmachus in the third retaine the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that our Saviour descending into Sheol Hades or Hell may thus be understood to have descended into corruption that is to say into the pit or place of corruption as S. Ambrose interpreteth it although hee were free in the meane time from the passion of corruption And because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hell and Corruption have reference to the selfe same thing therfore doth the Arabick interpreter translated by Iunius in Act. 2.31 or as the Arabian divideth the book Act. 4.10 confound them together and retaine the same word in both the parts of the sentence after this maner Hee was not left in perdition neyther did his flesh see perdition even as in the 29. Psalme or the 30. according to the division of the Hebrewes the Arabick readeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 al-gehim or Hell where the Greek hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Chaldee paraphrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the house of the grave Athanasius in his booke of the Incarnation of the Word written against the Gentiles observeth that when God threatned our first parents that whatsoever day they did eate of the forbidden fruite they should die the death by dying the death hee signified that they should not onely die but also remaine in the corruption of death that our Saviour comming to free us from this corruption kept his owne body uncorrupted as a pledge and an evidence of the future resurrection of us all which hath wrought such a contempt of death in his disciples that as he addeth afterwards wee may see men which are by nature weake leaping or dauncing unto death being not agaste at the corruption thereof nor fearing the descents into Hell So the Grecians sing in their Liturgy at this day The corruption-working pallace of Hell was dissolved when thou didst arise out of the Grave O Lord and againe The stone is rouled away the grave is emptied Behold corruption is troaden under by life That which was mortall is saved by the flesh of God Hell mourneth For God saith Origen will neyther leave our soules in hell nor suffer us to remaine for ever in corruption but he that recalled him after the third day from hell will recall us also in
fit time and he who granted unto him that his flesh should not see corruption will grant also unto us that our flesh shall not see corruption but that in fit time it shall bee freed from corruption Neyther is it any whit strange unto them that are conversant in the writings of the ancient Doctors to heare that our Saviour by his buriall descended into Hell spoyled Hell and brought away both his owne body and the bodies of the Saints from Hell Wee finde the question moved by Gregory Nyssen in his sermon upon the Resurrection of Christ how our Lord did dispose himselfe at the same time three maner of wayes both in the heart of the earth Matth. 12.40 and in Paradise with the thiefe Luk. 23.43 and in the hands of his Father Luk. 23.46 For neither will any man say quoth he that Paradise is in the places under the earth or the places under the earth in Paradise that at the same time he might be in both or that those infernall places are called the hand of the Father Now for the last of these hee saith the case is plaine that being in Paradise he must needs be in his Fathers hands also but the greatest doubt hee maketh to be how he should at the same time be both in Hades and in Paradise for with him the heart of the earth the places under the earth and Hades or Hell are in this question one and the same thing And his finall resolution is that in this Hell Christ remained with his dead body when with his soule hee brought the thiefe into the possession of Paradise For by his body saith he wherein he sustayned not the corruption that followeth upon death hee destroyed him that had the power of death but by his soule he ledd the thiefe into the entrance of Paradise And these two did worke at the selfe same time the Godhead accomplishing the good by them both namely by the incorruption of the body the dissolution of death and by the placing of the soule in his proper seat the bringing backe of men unto Paradise againe The like sentence doe wee meet withall in the same Fathers epistle unto Eustathia Ambrosia and Basilissa His body he caused by dispensation to be separated from his soule but the indivisible deitie being once knit with that subject was neyther dis-joyned from the body nor the soule but was with the soule in Paradise making way by the thiefe for an entrance unto mankinde thither and with the body in the heart of the earth destroying him that had the power of death Wherewith wee may compare that place which we meet withall in the workes of S. Gregory Bishop of Neocaesarea wherein our Saviour is brought in speaking after this maner I must descend into the very bottome of Hell for the dead that are detay-there I must by the three dayes death of my flesh overthrow the power of long continuing death I must light the lamp of my BODY unto them vvhich sit in darkenesse and in the shadow of death and that of S. Chrysostom who is accounted also to be the author of that other sermon attributed unto S. Gregory How vvere the brasen gates broken and the iron barres burst By his BODY For then appeared first a body immortall and dissolving the tyrannie of death it selfe whereby was shewed that the force of death was taken away not that the sinnes of those who dyed before his comming were dissolved and that which we reade in another place of his workes He spoyled Hell descending into Hell hee made it bitter when it tasted of his flesh Which Esay understanding before hand cryed out saying Hell was made bitter meeting thee below so the Septuagint render the words Esai 14.19 It was made bitter for it was destroyed It was made bitter for it was mocked It received a BODY and light upon God it received Earth and met with Heaven it received that vvhich it saw and fell from that which it did not see Thus Caesarius expounding the parable Luk. 13.21 wherein the kingdome of God is likened unto leaven vvhich a woman tooke and hid in three pecks of floure till all was leavened saith that the three pecks of floure are first the whole nature of mankind then death and lastly Hell wherein the divine BODY being hidden by BURIALL did leaven all unto resurrection and life Whereupon he bringeth in our Saviour in another place speaking thus I will therefore be buried for their sakes that be in Hell I will therefore as it were a stone strike the gates thereof bringing forth the prisoners in strength as my servant David hath said So S. Basil asketh How we do accomplish the descent into Hell and answereth that we doe it in imitating the BURIALL of Christ in Baptisme For the bodies of those that be baptized are as it were buried in the water saith he S. Hilary maketh mention of Christs flesh quickened out of Hell by himselfe and Arator in like maner Infernum Dominus cùm destructurus adiret Detulit inde suam spoliato funere carnem When the Lord went to Hell to destroy it He brought from THENCE his owne flesh spâ—yling the grave Philo Carpathius addeth that in his grave he spoyled Hell Whereupon the Emperour Leo in his oration upon the buriall of our Saviour wisheth us to honour it by adorning our selves with vertues and not by putting him in the grave againe For it behoved saith he that this should be once done to the end that Hell might be spoyled and it was done And the Grecians retaine the commemoration hereof in their Liturgies unto this day as their Octoëchon Anastasimon and Pentecostarion do testifie wherein such hymnes and prayers as these are frequent Thou didst receive death in thy flesh working thereby immortalitie for us O Saviour and didst dwell in the grave that thou mightest free us from Hell raysing us up together with thy selfe When thou vvast put in the tombe as a mortall man the keepers of Hell gates shooke for feare for having overthrowne the strength of Death thou diddest exhibite incorruption to all the dead by thy Resurrection Although thou didst descend into the grave as a mortall man ô giver of life yet didst thou dissolve the strength of hell ô Christ raysing up the dead together with thy selfe whom it had also swallowed and didst exhibit the resurrection as God unto all that in faith and desire doe magnifie thee Thou who by thy three-dayes buriall didst spoyle Death and by thy life-bringing resurrectioÌ„ didst raise up corrupted man ô Christ our God as a lover of mankinde to thee be glory Thou who by thy three-dayes buriall didst spoyle Hell and by thy resurrection didst save man have mercy upon me By thy three-dayes buriall the enemy was spoyled the dead loosed from the bands of Hell death deaded the palaces of hell voyded Therefore in hymnes doe we
honour and magnifie thee ô giver of life Thou wast put in the tombe being voluntarily made dead and didst emptie all the palaces of hell ô immortall King raysing up the dead with thy ResurrectioÌ„ Thou who spoyledst hell by thy buriall be mindfull of me Hitherto also belongeth that of Prudentius in his Apotheosis tumuloque inferna refringens Regna resurgentes secum jubet ire sepultos Coelum habitat terris intervenit abdita rumpit Tartara vera fides Deus est qui totus ubique est where in saying that our Saviour by his grave did break up the infernall kingdomes and commanded those that were buried to rise up with him he hath reference unto that part of the history of the Gospell wherein it is recorded that The graves were opened and many bodies of the Saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection and went into the holy citie and appeared unto many Matth. 27.52 53. upon which place S. Hilary writeth thus Inlightning the darkenesse of death and shining in the obscure places of Hell by the resurrection of the Saints that were seene at the present he tooke away the spoyles of death it selfe To the same effect writeth S. Ambrose also Neither did his sepulchre want a miracle For when he was anoynted by Ioseph and buried in his tombe by a new kinde of worke he that was dead himselfe did open the sepulchres of the dead His body indeed did lye in the grave but he himselfe being free among the dead did give libertie unto them that were placed in Hell dissolving the law of death For his flesh was in the tombe but his power did worke from heaven which may be a sufficient commentary upon that sentence which we reade in the Exposition of the Creed attributed unto S. Chrysostom He descended into Hell that there also he might not want a miracle For many bodies of the Saints arose with Christ. namely HELL rendring up the BODIES of the Saints alive againe as eyther the same or another author that goeth under the like name of Chrysostom doth elsewhere directly affirme which is a further confirmation of that which we have heard delivered by Ruffinus touching the exposition of the article of the Descent into Hell that the substance thereof seemeth to be the same with that of the Buriall for what other Hell can we imagin it to be but the Grave that thus receiveth and giveth up the bodies of men departed this life And hitherto also may bee referâ—ed that famous saying of Christs descending alone ascending with a multitude which we meet withall in foure severall places of antiquitie First in the hâ—ads of the sermon of Thaddaeus as they are reported by Eusebius out of the Syriack records of the citie of Edessa He was crucified and descended into Hades or Hell and brake the rampiere never broken before since the beginning and rose againe and raysed up with him those dead that had slept from the beginning and descended alone but ascended to his Father with a great multitude Secondly in the epistle of Ignatius unto the Trallians He was truly and not in opinion crucified and died those that were in heaven and in earth and under the earth beholding him those in heaven as the incorporeall natures those in earth to wit the Iewes and the Romanes and such men as were present at that time when the Lord was crucified those under the earth as the multitude that rose up together with the Lord for many bodies saith he of the Saints which slept arose the graves being opened And hee descended into Hades or Hell alone but returned with a multitude and brake the rampiere that had stood from the beginning and overthrew the partition thereof Thirdly in the disputation of Macarius Bishop of Ierusalem in the first generall Councell of Nice After death wee were carried into Hades or Hell Christ tooke upon him this also and descended voluntarily into it he was not detayned as wee but descended onely For hee was not subjected unto death but was the Lord of death And descending alone he returned with a multitude For he was that spirituall graine of wheat falling for us into the earth and dying in the flesh who by the power of his godhead raysed up the temple of his body according to the Scriptures which brought forth for fruite the Resurrection of all mankinde Fourthly in the Catechises of Cyrill Bishop of Ierusalem whose wordes are these I beleeve that Christ was raysed from the dead For of this I have many witnesses both out of the divine scriptures from the witnesse and operation even unto this day of him that rose againe of him I say that descended into Hades or Hell alone but asceÌ„ded with many For he did descend unto death many bodies of the Saints that slept were raised by him which resurrection he seemeth afterward to make common unto all the Saints that dyed before our Saviour All the righteous men saith he were delivered whom death had devoured For it became the proclaymed King to be the deliverer of those good proclaymers of him Then did every one of the righteous say O death where is thy victory ô Hell where is thy sting for the conqueror hath delivered us wherewith we may compare that saying of S. Chrysostom If it were a great matter that Lazarus being foure dayes dead should come forth much more that all they who were dead of old should appeare together alive which was a signe of the future resurrection For many bodies of the Saints which slept arose saith the text and these articles of the Confession of the Armenians According to his body which was dead he descended into the grave but according to his divinitie which did live he over came Hell in the meane time The third day he rose againe but withall raysâ—d up the soules or persons of the faithfull together with him and gave hope thereby that our bodies also should rise againe like unto him at his second comming Of those who arose with our Saviour from the Grave or as anciently they used to speake from Hell two there be whom the Fathers nominate in particular Adam and Iob. Of Iob S. Ambrose writeth in this maner Having heard what God had spoken in him and having understood by the holy Ghost that the Sonne of God was not onely to come into the earth but that he was also to descend into Hell to that he might rayse up the dead which was then done for a testimony of the present and an example of the future he turned himselfe unto the Lord and said O that thou wouldest keepe me in Hell that thou vvouldest hide me untill thy wrath be past and that thou wouldest appoint me a time in which thou wouldest remember me Iob. 14.13 in which wordes he affirmeth that Iob did prophecie that he should be raysed up at the passion of
away speaketh he these things as if he were tâ— goe down into hell by dying For of Hell there is a great question and what the Scripture delivereth thereof in all the places where it hath occasion to make mention of it is to be observed Hitherto S. Augustin who had reference to this great question when he said as hath beene before alledged Of Hell neyther have I had any experience as yet nor you and peradventure there shal be another way and by Hell it shall not be For these things are uncertaine Neyther is there greater question among the Doctors of the Church concerning the Hell of the Fathers of the Old Testament then there is of the Hell of the faithfull now in the time of the New neyther are there greater differences betwixt them touching the Hell into which our Saviour went whether it were under the earth or above whether a darkesome place or a lightsome whether a prison or a paradise then there are of the mansions wherein the soules of the blessed do now continue S. Hierome interpreting those words of King Ezechias Esai 38.10 I shall goe to the gates of Hell saith that this is meant eyther of the common law of nature or else of those gates from which that he was delivered the Psalmist singeth Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death that I may shew forth all thy prayses in the gates of the daughter of Sion Psalm 9.13 14. Now as some of the Fathers doe expound our Saviours going to Hell of his descending into Gehenna so others expound it of his going to Hell according to the common law of nature the common law of nature I say which extendeth it selfe indifferently unto all the dead whether they belong to the state of the New Testament or of the Old For as Christs soule was in all points made like unto ours sinne onely excepted while it was joyned with his body here in the land of the living so when he had humbled himselfe unto the death it became him in all things to be made like unto his brethren even in that state of dissolution And so indeed the soule of Iesus had experience of both For it was in the place of humaine soules and being out of the flesh did live and subsist It was a reasonable soule therefore and of the same substance with the soules of men even as his flesh is of the same substance with the flesh of men proceeding from Mary saith Eustathius the Patriarch of Antioch in his exposition of that text of the Psalme Thou wilt not leave my soule in Hell Where by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Hell you see he understandeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the place of humaine soules which is the Hebrewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or world of spirits and by the disposing of Christs soule there after the maner of other soules concludeth it to be of the same nature with other mens soules So S Hilary in his exposition of the 138. Psalme This is the law of humaine necessitie saith he that the bodies being buried the soules should goe to Hell Which descent the Lord did not refuse for the accomplishment of a true man and a little after he repeateth it that de supernis ad inferos mortis lege descendit he descended from the supernall to the infernall parts by the law of death and upon the 53. Psalme more fully To fulfill the nature of man he subjected himselfe to death that is to a departure as it were of the soule and body and pierced into the infernall seates which was a thing that seemed to be duâ— unto man So Leo in one of his Sermons upon our Lords passion Hee did undergoe the lawes of Hell by dying but did dissolve them by rising againe and so did cut off the perpetuitie of death that of eternall hee might make it temporall So Irenaeus having said that our Lord conversed three dayes where the dead were addeth that therein he observed the law of the dead that hee might be made the first begotten from the dead staying untill the third day in the lower parts of the earth and afterward rising in his flesh Then he draweth from thence this generall conclusion Seeing our Lord went in the midst of the shadow of death vvhere the soules of the dead were then afterward rose againe corporally and after his resurrection was assumed it is manifest that the soules of his disciples also for whose sake the Lord wrought these things shall goe to an invisible place appointed unto them by God and there shall abide untill the resurrection wayting for the resurrection and afterwards receaving their bodies and rising againe perfectly that is to say corporally even as our Lord did rise againe they shall so come unto the presence of God For there is no disciple above his master but every one shall be perfect if he be as his master The like collection doth Tertullian make in his booke of the Soule If Christ being God because he was also man dying according to the Scriptures and being buried according to the same did heere also satisfie the law by performing the course of an humane death in Hell neyther did ascend into the higher parts of the heavens before he descended into the lower parts of the earth that he might there make the Patriarches and Prophets partakers of himselfe thou hast both to beleeve that there is a region of Hell under the earth and to push them with the elbowe who proudly enough doe not thinke the soules of the faithfull to be fit for Hell servants above their Lord and disciples above their Master scorning perhaps to take the comfort of expecting the resurrection in Abrahams bosome And in the same booke speaking of the soule What is that saith he which is translated unto the infernall parts or Hell after the separation of the body which is detayned there which is reserved unto the day of judgement unto which Christ by dying did descend to the soules of the Patriarches I thinke Where he maketh the Hell unto which our Saviour did descend to be the common receptacle not of the soules of the Patriarches alone but also of the soules that are now still separated from their bodies as being the place quò universa humanitas trahitur as he speaketh elsewhere in that booke unto which all mankinde is drawne So Novatianus after him affirmeth that the very places which lye under the earth be not voyde of distinguished and ordered powers For that is the place saith he whither the soules both of the godly and ungodly are led receiving the fore-judgements of their future dâ—ome Lactantius saith that our Saviour rose againe ab inferis from Hell but so he saith also that the dead Saints shall be raised up ab inferis at the time of the Resurrection S. Cyrill of Alexandria saith that the Iewes killed Christ and cast him into the deepe
thence as the standers by in mocking wise did wish him to doe might be truly said to have beene crucified but not to have dyed so when he gave up the ghost and layde downe his life if he had presently taken it up againe he might truly be said to have dyed but not to have gone to the dead or to have beene in Hádes His remayning under the power of Death untill the third day made this good Whom God did rayse up loosing the sorrowes of death forasmuch as it was not possible that he should be holden of it saith S. Peter and Christ being raysed from the dead dyeth now no more Death hath no more dominion over him saith S. Paul implying thereby that during the space of time that passed betwixt his death and his resurrection he was holden by death and death had some kinde of domination over him And therefore Athanasius or who ever else was author of that writing to Liberius the Roman Bishop having reference unto the former text affirmeth that he raysed up that buried body of his and presented it to his Father having freed it from Death of which it was holden and Maximus or he that collected the Dialogues against the Marcionites under the name of Origen out of him expounding the other text Over whom then had Death dominion saith he For the saying that it hath no more dominion sheweth that before it had dominion over him Not that Death could have any dominion over the Lord of Life further than he himselfe was pleased to give way unto it but as when Death did at the first sease upon him his life indeed vvas taken from the earth yet none could take it from him but he layd it downe of himselfe so his continuing to be Deaths prisoner for a time was a voluntarie commitment only unto which he freely yeelded himselfe for our sakes not anie yoake of miserable necessitie that Death was able to impose upon him For he had power to lay downe his life and he had power to take it again yet would he not take it againe before he had first not layd himselfe downe only upon Deaths bed but slept also upon it that arising afterward from thence he might become the first fruits of them that slept In which respect the Fathers apply unto him that text of the Psalme I layd me down and slept I awaked for the Lord sustained mee Psalm 3.5 and Lactantius that verse of Sibyll 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The tearme of death he shall finish when he hath slept unto the third day His dying or his burying at the farthest is that which here is answerable unto his lying downe but his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Dionysius calleth it his his three-dayes buriall and his continuing for that time in the state of death is that which answereth unto his sleeping or being in Hádes And therefore the Fathers of the fourth Councell of Toledo declaring how in Baptisme the death and resurrection of Christ is signified do both affirme that the dipping in the water is as it were a descension into Hell and the rising out of the water againe a resurrection and adde likewise out of Gregory with whom many other Doctors doe herein agree that the three-fold dipping is used to signifie the three-dayes buriall which differeth as much from the simple buriall or putting into the earth as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the transportation or leading into captivitie from the detayning in bondage the committing of one to prison from the holding of him there and the sowing of the seed from the remayning of it in ground And thus have I unfolded at large the generall acceptions of the word Hádes and Inferi and so the Ecclesiasticall use of the word Hell answering thereunto which being severally applyed to the point of our Saviours descent make up these three propositions that by the universall consent of Christians are acknowledged to be of undoubted verity His dead body though free from corruption yet did descend into the place of corruption as other bodies doe His soule being separated from his body departed hence into the other world as all other mens soules in that case use to doe He went unto the dead and remayned for a time in the state of death as other dead men doe There remayneth now the vulgar acception of the word Hell whereby it is taken for the place of torment prepared for the Divell and his Angells and touching this also all Christians do agree thus farre that Christ did descend thither at leastwise in a virtuall maner as God is said to descend when he doth any thing upon earth which being wonderfully done beyond the usuall course of nature may in some sort shew his presence or when he otherwise vouchsafeth to have care of humaine frailtie Thus when Christs flesh was in the tombe his power did worke from Heaven saith S. Ambrose which agreeth with that which was before cyted out of the Armenians Confession According to his body which was dead he descended into the grave but according to his DIVINITIE which did live he overcame Hell in the meane time and with that which was cyted out of Philo Carpathius upon Cantic 5.2 I sleepe but my heart waketh in the grave spoyling Hell for which in the Latin Collections that goe under his name we reade thus I sleepe to wit on the Crosse and my heart waketh vvhen my DIVINITIE spoyled Hell and brought rich spoyles from the triumph of everlasting death overcome and the Divells power overthrowne The author of the imperfect worke upon Matthew attributeth this to the Divinitie not cloathed with any part of the Humanitie but naked as he speaketh Seeing the Divels feared him saith he while he was in the body saying What have we to doe with thee Iesus the sonne of the high God art thou come to torment us before our time how shall they be able to endure his NAKED DIVINITIE descending against them Behold after three dayes of his death he shall returne from Hell as a conqueror from the warre This conquest others do attribute to his Crosse others to his Death others to his Buriall others to the reall descent of his soule into the place of the damned others to his Resurrection and extend the effect therof not only to the deliverie of the Fathers of the old Testament but also to the freeing of our soules from Hell from whence how men may be said to have been delivered who never were there S. Augustin declareth by these similitudes Thou sayest rightly to the physician Thou hast freed me from this sicknesse not in vvhich thou wast but in which thou wast like to be Some bodie else having a troublesome businesse was to be cast into prison there commeth another and defendeth him vvhat saith he when he giveth thankes Thou