ye enuyous Iewes ye doo with a shameles face saye to Christ Ioh. 8. 13. Thou doost beare witnes of thy selfe and thy witnes is not true Yet that the trueth of the Maiestye of God may apeare besides so many excellent consents of witnesses euery creture hath séemed to giue testimony to christ their creator Did not the heauen giue witues when as a new Starre in the new generation of a man did as it were with his tung or hand point to God was born a man for al nations did not the sea giue testimony to him when forgetting her selfe after a sorte the liquide humor soliditye being receiued carried the liuely steps of their Lord that it might be fulfilled which is written Psa. 77. 19. Thy way is in the sea and thy paths in the deep waters When the seruant of Christ being wise about himselfe that they might shewe what difference is betwéene the creature and the creator the water had swallowed vp Peter in the flouds vnlesse the Lord of all things had reached him his hand being ready to be drowned did not the earth giue him testimonye when being mingled with his spittle he annointing with it the eyes of the borne blinde restored light to him that saw not and by his woorkemanship like an Artificer he repaired that which he had not out of the dyrte of the earth which made all men out of the earth before did not thinges vnder earth giue testimony vnto Christ when léesing their right they yéelded vp Lazarus whole whom they had taken to be corrupted and kept him 4. dayes y t they might render him safe when they heard the voice of the Lord commanding and in the end thus concludeth O Iudaei daemones qui corda vestra possiderunt dixerunt scimus qui sis quid venisti ante tempus perdere nos the diuels which haue possessed your harts haue sayde We know who thou art why comest thou before thy time to destroy vs Mark 1. 24 Euen as the heauen the sea the earth things vnder earth and the diuels did confesse him to be the Sonne of God in this life so in his death as the same Father noteth the heauen was darkned the earth did moue the vaile of the Temple is rent the stones did cleaue asunder the graues are opened the diuels at the presence of Christ doo tremble and euery diuell in hell confesseth Iesus Christ to be the Lord to the glory of God the father Phil. 2. 10. If then we be led by the woord of God as we should be then I hope I haue sufficientlye proued this article by the blessed woord of God if Fathers al both gréek and Latin teach this doctrine to be true If we estéeme the iudgements of the Ministers of the reformed Churches if the aduersaries of this doctrine haue one to stand in their side we haue fiue on ours if we reuerence the authority of the Synode or conuocation of England they allow this ascertion If we honour reuerend antiquity this doctrine is most auntient for it hath béen deliuered not onlye of late by Nowell Beecon Fox Hutchinson Lamier Peter Martir Hipperius Pomeranus Lucas Lossius Aepnius and Luther But in times past by Augustine Ambrose Hierome Cyprian Fulgentius Vigilius Oecumenius Atha nasius Epiphanius Cyrill Ignatius Yea it is deliuered by Peter and Paul themselues and this antiquity ioyned with verity is very strong as Cyprian saith All these before named with infinite others which for breuities sake I omit were the deuout faithfull learned and zealous defenders of Gods faith and for this cause were hated reuiled persecuted or murdered And besides all these not only Zacharye Dauid and Esau foretolde of this descending into hell but as you haue heard before Sybilla being a Prophitesse of the Heathen And as S Augustine truely noteth not only the creatures in heauen in earth and in the graues but also the very diuels haue confessed it which those that are possessed with diuels as the Iewes Seruetus and Carleil doo denye stubbornlye without relenting and desperately without repenting and obstinately without ceasing notwithstanding all those honourable witnesses of Prophets Apostles Martyrs and Fathers before by me alleadged Ioshua saide to the Israelites Ios. 24. 15. And if it seeme euill to serue the Lord chuse you this day whom you will serue but I and my housholde wil serue the Lord. So let others beléeue as they list I and all those that beléeue my doctrine will beléeue this article litterally as it lyeth and as we beléeue the rest For if hell héere should be taken metaphorically as some wil haue it so may you allegorise the whole créed as doo the Heretiques and so ouerthrow the whole substance of our faith Besides no hell being in our Créed men will not beléeue there is any hell at all as doo the greatest parte of the worlde as their blasphemous mouthes and abhominable liues declare the same euery where Wherfore I exhort all men with S. Augustine in this sorte epist. 99. ad Euodium therefore let vs holde most firmelye which our faith hath being confirmed with most grounded authoritye that Christ dyed and was buried and rose againe the 3. daye and all other things which are written of him amongst which also this one is that he was in hell And againe who but an infidel will deny Christ to haue béen in hell but because I know the Papists dooth reioyce to sée this schisme in the Church of England therefore let them well vnderstond that it hath alwaies béene so and so will be vnto the worlds end Theophilus called Epiphanius an archheretique Hierom thus writeth to S. Augustine in his 9. Epistle in thy Epistle I haue iudged somethings to be heriticall And Augustine to Hierome writeth thus take vpon you the seuerity of a Christian to correct and amend your woorke and to recant Bonifacius saide that Augustine and other Bishops of Africa were inspired with the diuel Clemens Alexandrinus stromatum li. 7. saith that the Gentiles did thus vpbraid the Christians ye Christians disagrée among your selues and you haue sects and albeit all doo challenge vnto themselues the title of christianity yet one of you doth curse and condemne the other Wherefore your religion is not good nor came from God as the Gentiles did vpbraide the Christians so now the Papists the Protestants saying as the heathen did say in Chrisostoms time in Act. homil 3. the Gentile commeth and saith I would gladly be a Christian but I know not to whom I may cleaue what opinion I may chuse or what I may preferre all say I say the truth But as that was no lawfull excuse for the heathen in those dayes no more is it for our Papists now in these daies but rather because we haue enemies on euery side they ought to beléeue that we are the tossed ship of Christs Church and we are the souldiours of our Captaine Iesus which must fight against all Heretiques and schismatiques we are the
16. Psalme hath left to eternall memorye Christ not only dyed but he would also for a litle season that is vntill the third day descend into the darknes of hell where is the image of death and as Iob saith euerlasting horror without any order and a little after for this cause did Christ dye and goe down into hell that thou shouldest not goe thether so that as they shall returne from death so he would redéeme them from hell that he might abolish al thy death by his death and that thou maiest rest in the hope of the glorious resurrection as all the Fathers in the séede of Abraham that is Christ. In which faith whosoeuer dyed are said to be receiued into the bosome of Abraham For in the faith of Abraham and of the blessing which should come by Christ they did rest and they doo rest to arise with vs. All others did dye in desperation and doo dye dayly being holden in horrible death vntill the euerlasting fire shall come vpon them by the last sentence Aretius a professor of diuinity in Berna approueth this doctrine in his Problemes the 2. part and setteth down it was necessary that Christ should descend into hell for 3. causes 1. For the reprobates sake that it might be known to them that he was come already whom they had heard should come so often but they had despised it greatlye to these therefore it was necessarye that Christ should be knowne by vertue of spirite 2. It was méete also he should be manifested vnto Satan that he might know the same Christ whom he had tempted in the desarte and whom by the fraud of the Iewes he had put to death the same was the Messias and the séede of the woman promised This I say was expedient to be made knowne to the verye diuels in the bottome of hell 3. It was expedient in respecte of the elect that Sathan might know that he should haue no power ouer the bodyes of the Sayntes whom he will raise to life euerlasting héerafter Hyperius a man endewed with most excellent giftes of learning in his 3. book of his methode of diuinitye writing de Ecclesia thus saith as Christ when he was dead and buried and descended into hell then he did chéefely conquere death and hell so the Church dooth most encrease and multiply when it séemeth to be destroyed extinguished Peter Martyr who trauailed in this our realme in the most famous vniuersitie of Oxford in planting the Gospelll in his exposition on the articles of the faith thus hath lefte his iudgment the soule of Christe after it departed from the bodye remained not idle but descended into hell For Denmark we haue Hemingius for Scotland Alesius for Berna Aretius for Mapurge Hipperius for Argentorat Peter Martir for Hambrough Aepnius and for other partes of Germany Luther Siluerer Pomeranus Lucas Lossius Vrbanus Rhegius Musculus and the authors of the Centuries whose woorkes be worthy both of eternall memory and credite And for our Realme of England we haue the Catechisme of M. Nowell a man whom those that know not his face doo loue and honour for his great trauailes he hath bestowed in the Church of God but especially for the setting foorth of that Catechisme for the vnity of doctrine which is the band of perfection In which Catechisme he hath deliuered these woords as Christ in his body descended into the bowels of the earth so his soule being seuered from his body he descended into hell And as this was the iudgement of that reuerend Father so was it no doubt the iudgment of the Synode of learned men assembled together in the conuocation house at that time which was Anno Domini 1571. who by an iuiunction there made tooke this order that no other Catechisme in this Realme should be taught Which iniunction if it had béene kept we should not haue so many sectes in our Church as we now haue to the great dishonour of God the ioye of our endlesse aduersaries the Papists and the bitter gréefe of all the good Ministers of this Land The articles also of the Synode of London in y e time of King Edward the 6. in y e yéer of our Lord God 1552 published by the Kings authority approue this doctrine amongst which articles it is thus written as Christ is dead and buried for vs so is it also to be beléeued that he descended into hell for his body lay in the graue vntill his resurrection and his soule seperated from his bodye was with the spirites which were detained in prison or hell and preached to thē as witnesseth the place of Peter which I haue before alleadged But because now the iudgement of boyes is more estéemed then of reuerend Fathers and euery singuler schismatique is more estéemed then a whole Synode of chosen and expert men in diuinitye Héereof it commeth to passe that whatsoeuer hath béene most gladlye and learnedly proued by M. Nowell and approued by our couuocations is accounted error and whatsoeuer euery fantasticall spirite dooth vtter without study rashlye and without feare of God presumptuously is accounted truth as though it had béene méerely reueiled vnto them from heauen For what a rashnes and presumption is this to say all reformed Churches are of their opinion whereas the contrarye dooth appeare by their own writings to y e great glory of God and to the no lesse great shame of them which in the Pulpits affirme most impudently that all reformed Churches beyond the seas are of their iudgement But to lye is an vsual thing to all Martinists as their books in other things can witnes against them aswell as in this behalfe To conclude not only most of the reformed Churches beyond the Seas approue this doctrine but euen the very Infidels haue acknowledged it For Sybilla thus prophecied of Christ as Augustine witnesseth in his 18. booke of the Cytie of God the 23. chapter he shall come into the handes of Infidels and they shall strike him with their filthy handes and with their vncleane mouth shall cast on him their poysoned spittles he shall giue simply his holy back to strips and receiuing buffets shal hold his peace for his meate they gaue him gall for his thirste vinegar shewing this table of inhospitality for thou being a foolish nation didst not vnderstand thy God delighting in mens soules but didst crowne him with thornes and didst giue him bitter gall But the vaile of the Temple shall be rent and at noone it shall be darke for 3. houres and he dying for thrée dayes shall sléepe and then returning from hell shall come into the cléere light being the firste that shewed the beginning of the resurrection The same verses of Sibilla are repeated by the same Augustine in a sermon which he writeth to those that are catechised against the Iewes Pagans and Arrians in the 16. Chapter and in the 17. Chapter of the same booke where he thus reasoneth albeit O
soule did descend into hell And this consent in this point of doctrine to be in the olde and pure Church doth M. Caluin on the 16. Psalme himselfe confesse his woordes be these I confesse saith Caluin that the olde Interpreters both Gréek and Latin haue drawen those woordes to another meaning that the soule of Christ was brought from hell but it is better to tarry in the naturall simplicity of the wordes that we be not mocked of the Iewes For as much then as Caluin can not deny that all the olde Interpreters both Gréek and Latin haue consented in this pointe of doctrine I meruaile that M Caluin would draw it to a Iewish interpretation In the 10 of the Acts ver 43. Luke maketh this a strong argument to proue Christ to be the Sauiour of the world Because al the Prophets did witnes it in like manner because all the Prophets and Interpreters in the pure Church haue concluded this doctrine to be true I doubt not but this knot of vnity in verity was made by the God of peace and spirit of truth Farther as Sheol signifieth the soule and Sheol hell so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sanctum signifieth the body as it may be proued out of the 1. of Luke ver 35. And that holy thing which shall be borne of thee shal be called the Sonne of God And thus doth S. Augustine on the 16. Psalme truelye vnderstand it his enterpretation is this neither shalt thou suffer my soule to be possessed in hell neither shalt thou suffer my holy hody whereby others are sanctified to sée corruption And the body of Christ is called holy for two causes the one because sinne was neuer committed in it the other because by it all others are sanctified And this is made plaine also by the woord corruption which can not haue relation but only to the body for as a learned man saith death is the seperation of the body from the soule but corruption is a resolution of the members other partes into the earth So Iob vseth this woord in his 17. Chapter ver 14. I haue saide vnto corruption thou art my Father Luther in the 2. Chapter of Genesis thus writeth For this is singuler in Christ thou shalt not leaue my soule in hell neither shalt thou suffer thy holy one to sée corruption for neither hell could holde his soule sleeping or resting neither the graue his bodye that it might corrupt as Martha said of Lazarus Lord he stincketh for he hath béen buried foure dayes The like hath S. Augustine in his 57. Epistle ad Dardanum that was spoken of his soule which came from hell so quickly this of his body which could not corrupt by reason of his spéedy resurrection Not vnlike hath Erasmus on the 2. of the Acts thus his body albeit it was laide in graue and was without life did not corrupt but God which can not lye brought his soule from hell and restored it to the body Wherfore thus I end with S. Augustine writing on the 85. Psalme wherefore this is his voice in the Psalme not by any mans coniecture but by the exposition of the Apostle thou shalt not leaue my soule in hel neither shalt thou suffer thy holy one to sée corruption In this discourse by the woord of God and the auntient Fathers I haue proued Nephesh to signifie y e soule seperate from the body Sheol to signifie hell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sanctum to signifie the bodye and why it is so vsed Therefore they y t deny this place to proue the discending of Christ into hell must néedes fall into these absurdeties First that life or person must be in a graue or else a dead mans carkas must be accounted life or a person both which are absurd in diuinity and philosophie Secondly that the soule of man is in a graue and so buried which proueth the Soule to be mortall Thirdly that the Gréek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is translated a graue which properly signifieth hell and so occasion is giuen to the Atheists to think there is no hell For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is compounded of the particle α 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because nothing in hell can be séene and for this cause in the Euangelists Christ calieth hell vtter darknes Fourthly we strengthen the error of the Iewes by following their interpretation which was deuised to take away the comfort of this article Fiftly it maketh voide all the arguments of the Fathers against Arrius Appollinaris and all other Heretiques which denied Christ to haue a true soule Lastlye it is an introduction to the error of the Saduces which denye that there is any Angell spirite or any soule For if there be any then as Ciril noteth it was necessarye that as he was in body and soule with them that then were liuing so was it as necessary that his soule should be present among y e soules to shew that he was a true man The falsehoode of the argument of the aduersaries of this doctrine is called fallatia compositionis that is when those thinges are ioyned together which ought to be sundered For they that deny this place of the 16. Psalme to proue the descending of Christ into hell doo affirme animam sanctum soule and holy one hell and corruption to be one wheras they are diuers as in parte I haue proued already and shal by Gods grace proue more plainely out of the 2. chapter of the Acts where Peter interpreteth this place in such wise that credit must néeds be giuen vnto it of all Gods children Peters Sermon is thus Acts. 2. 29. 30. 31. Men and Brethren I may boldlye speake vnto you of the Patriarch Dauid that he is both dead and buried and his sepulcher remaineth till this day Therefore seeing he was a Prophet and knew that God had sworne by an oathe that of the fruite of his loynes he would raise vp Christ concerning the flesh set him vpon his throne hee knowing of this before spake of the resurrection of Christ that his soule was not left in hel neither his flesh should see corruption which words S. Augustine in his 57. epistle ad Dardanum thus expoundeth of the flesh of Christ that it was put into the Sepulchre the Gospell is manifest but that his soule went down into hell the doctrine of the Apostle proueth it For blessed Peter doth proue this out of the Psalme where he sheweth it was foretolde of him for why thou shalt not leaue my Soule in Hell neither shalt thou suffer thy holye one to sée corruption And in his 99. Epistle ad Enodium he hath these woords quae ne quisquam aliter sapere auderet in actibus Apostolorum Petrus exponit Of which woords that any man should not be so bolde to thinke otherwise Peter himself expoundeth them that is Nephesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. soule and Sheol 〈◊〉
named haue vnderstoode this place so dooth Erasmus writing on the fourth Chapter of the Ephe. certainlye this is the thing that the Palsmists by the inspiration of the holy ghost spake of so long agoe for Christ hauing already conquered the hell is ascended aliue againe into the high kingdome of his Father And a little after he addeth after most low humbling followeth most high aduauncing from the most high heauens then the which nothing is higher he deiected himselfe euen into the hell the which nothing is lower When Mare Magdalene came to Christ Ioh. 20. 17. Christ saith to her Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father but to goe to my brethren and say vnto them Iascend vnto my Father and to your Father and to my God and your God Héer the truth it selfe saith he had not yet ascended into heauen whosoeuer therefore affirmeth the contrary affirmeth an vntruth They wil answere Christ was not ascended in respect of his body but I reply if Christs soule being the principall parte of the humanitye had béene in heauen as they imagine then this speach is vntrue marke my reason for in death when both partes are sundered a man is saide to be where his soule is and not where his body is for the man taketh his name of the principall parte In this forte Christ saith Mat. 8. 11. Many shall come from the East and West and shall sit with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the kingdome of heauen Héere you sée because the soules of those Patriarkes are in heauen they themselues are saide to be in heauen Euen so if Christs soule were in heauen Christ was in heauen and then this saying can not be verefied I haue not yet ascended to my Father for Christ ascended visibly and for this cause willeth Mary to goe tell his brethren whome he calleth to this action as witnesses For as the time of his ascending is noted to be forty dayes after his resurrection and the place to be Bethaniel and that on a mountaine that it might the more esily be séen and y e maner of his going to be meruelous for he was carried vp in a clowde so his faithfull Disciples and glorious Angels were witnesses of his triumphant ascension into heauen Out of these Scriptures this I conclude as Christ was borne but once dyed but once was buried but once so he did but once descend into hell once arise from the dead and once ascended into heauen and but once shall come into iudgement But if the soule of Christ went presently into heauen thē not only this absurditie followeth that he ascended before he descended but also that there are two ascendings of Christ into heauen the one inuisible of his soule the other visible of his body Ignatius who died in the yéere of our Lord 112. For he was cast to beastes to be deuoured this Father lyuing in the time of Policarpus who was Scholler to Iohn Euangelist in his Epistle to the Church of Trallis thus writeth Christ descended into hell alone but he ascended with a multitude Athanasius in his Créed saith who suffered for our saluation and descended into hell and interpreting the 2. Cor. 6. he saith Satan was enuyous against our Sauiour for he killed him not knowing it would be against himselfe for Christ after his crosse going downe into hell hath vanquished death and because he knew no sinne he could not be holden of death so saith Ambrose in his exposition on the 3 Chap. of the Galathians for when they thought y t he should be slaine that he might not teach they profited nothing for his doctryne encreased and he euacuated death in his passion for descending into hell he deliuered mankinde for that cause he suffered himselfe to be murdered knowing that he was for vs against the Diuell And the same Father writing on the 1. Tim. 2. chap. thus confirmeth this doctrine because man now reconciled to God was subiect to infernall death that he could not ascend to God to whom he was reconciled our Sauiour to bring his will to effect suffered himselfe to dye against lawe that descending into hell he might condemne death for the impiety it wrought on him taking away from death those which he hid holde that from hencefoorth whatsoeuer had the signe thereof shovld not be detayned therewith of which thing he shewed a testimony when he arose Therefore to ende these woords into thy hands I commend my spirite doo not shew vs the state of Christs soule but sheweth vs how we must pray in all our tribulations and in the houre of death For the soule of Christ no doubt was in hell but this consider that spirite héere signifieth the soule which in S. Peter they will in no wise confesse Farther where it is obiected that Cyprian saith it is left out of the Créed of the Romane and orientall Church I answere that is not Cyprians woorke for in that treatise is mention made of the Arryans who began their error vnder Constantine the great in the yéere 320. But Cyprian was put to death vnder Valerian in the yéere of our Lord God 249. Therfore Ciprian being dead almost an hundred yéers before that heresie sprāg vp could not write of Arrians for Cyprian is of my opinion as it shal appeare by this y t followeth For in his sermon of the ascending of Christ into heauen he vttereth his iudgement thus Christ did once descend into hel and goeth down into hell no more they shall not sée God no more on the crosse nor those that are damned in hell And in other places he proueth the descension of Christ into hell by the 16. Psalme and by the text of the 1. Pet. 3. Chapter before by me alleadged which héer I omit for breuities sake It is farther obiected that this article is left out of the Nicene créed true it is so Athanasius créed lacketh the buriall Hieroms ad Damas. lacketh it also Tertullian leaueth out in his Créede the catholique Church the resurrection of the flesh and life euerlasting Cirill maketh mention only of the trynity and leaueth out all the rest of the articles therfore this is the answere ab authoritate humana negatiué non valet argumentum It is no good reasoning from the authority of man negatiuely Séeing then that this article is proued by many and manifest Scriptures and by the generall consent of the pure and primitiue Church to beléeue it is safety to deny it peruersely is infidelity Last of all because it hath béen confidently auouched that all the reformed Churches beyond the Seas allowe not this doctrine I will therefore héere reproue that allegation as most false and vntrue First as before I haue proued that Aepnius Luther and the authors of the Centuries confirme this doctrine so héer I will adde to them Pomeranus who trauailed much in the reformation of the Churches of Germany who thus in his exposition of the
woord orcus which can not be aptlye applyed to the graue Draconites thus Non tu derelinques animam meam apud tartarum Thou shalt not leaue my Soule in hell vsing the woord tartarus which is a proper woord for hell and not for the graue Pomeranus Westmerus Lucas Lossius on the 16. Psalme and Vrbanus Rhegius in his catechisme all which were singuler learned Ministers in the Churches of Germany are of this iudgement also and therefore it is vntrue that all the reformed Churches doo deny the presentiall descending of Christ into hell as appeareth by these testimonies and shall more largely and euidently appear by that which followeth Aepinus superintendent of Hambrough being called generally for his incomparable knowledge in holy write the Father of diuinity writing on the 16. Psalme thus reproueth them that translate Sheol to be the graue that the wicked Iewes the enemies of Christ and his religion might ouerthrowe the article of our faith concerning the resurrection of Christ and his descending into hell and that they might take away the comfort which the church hath by Christs resurrection and his descending into hell the Rabbins doo turn for soule life and for hel the graue Here we learne who first deuised this translation that is the Rabbins the speciall enemies of Christ and christian religion why did they it to take away the comfort which cōmeth to vs by Christs descending into hell Felinus a learned man in the tungs writing on the 16. Psalme vseth these woords our faith hath that Christ went into hell indéed and that he dyed and was buried but neither his soule was left in hell neither his body was so detained in the graue that it could corrupt To confirme this truth when this place of this present Psalme is brought as Peter and Paul brought it to proue the resurrection the Iewes mocke vs and say that héer Dauid prayeth that he might be kept of the Lord whom he had set before him to be worshipped and in whom only he hoped that he might not goe downe into the sepulchre By this learned mans iudgement also it appeareth that the Iewes translate Sheol to be a graue for the ouerthrowe of Christs resurrection But because the Iewes doo mock vs for this translation of Sheol into hell we ought not to leaue it but rather to cleaue more stedfastly vnto it And for this cause the aforenamed Aepinus thus writeth on the 16. Psalme some Diuines there are louing ouermuch Iewish fables doo embrace this translation of Sheol into a graue and by their own foolishnes confirme the dreames of the Iewes encrease their error and doo make the article of descending into hell suspected to the vnskilfull and weaker sort of people This then is the opinion of this reuerend man that whosoeuer vseth this translation as he discourageth the ignorant and weak from beléeuing so he encreseth the old errour of the hardned Iew. Further as the same Author noteth it is more safe to translate hell for Sheol then graue First because a soule can not be laide in a graue but a body secondly because Peter and Paul haue so translated it whose authoritye we ough t to reckon to be holy and inuiolable and therfore we ought not easily to shrink away from it thirdly because two great errors doo follow it the one that the soule may be buried the other that we maintain the interpretation of the Rabbins the enemies of the truth Those learned men worthy of eternall memory which compiled the Centuries proue that Peter and Paul did so translate Sheol Cent. 1. li. 2. cap. 4. De doctrina de inferno seu loco damnatorum inferni 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellationem Petrus alij Apostoli vsurpant allegantes dictum psalmi non derelinques animam meam in inferno postea non derelicta est in inferno Peter and other y e Apostles doo translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hell alleadging the 16. Psalme Thou shalt not leaue my soule in hell and afterwards he was not left in hell Becon in the Sick mans salue Fol. 250. vseth these spéeches Christ after the death of the body went down in his soule to hell as it cléerely appéereth by the Scriptures quoting the 16. Psalme and other places Fulgentius in his 8. Chapter to Thrasimund thus witnesseth farther it remained for the full effecting of our redemption that man assumpted to God should descend thither whither man being seperate from God by the desert of sinne had fallen that is to hell where the soule of the sinner was wont to be punished and to the graue where the flesh of the sinner was wonte to be corrupted and that so notwithstanding as neither his flesh could corrupt in the graue neither his Soule could be tormented in the sorrowes of hell for his soule being free from sinne was not to be subiected to punishment and his flesh being without sinne corruption ought not to destroye it Mark the reason of this learned Father for because man sinning had deserued to be deuided because he was willing by the gilt of transgression to be deuided from God which can not be denyed therfore it came to passe that the death of the sinner did produce sinfull flesh to be corrupted in y e graue and did mancipate the soule to be tormented in hell but that the sinner might be fréed by a frée gift it came to passe that the sonne of God did suffer vniustlye of sinners the death of the body which man being a sinner had suffered iustly of the iust God and that his flesh should go downe so farre as slesh wrapt in sinne should come and that the Soule of the Sauiour should descend into hell where the soule of the sinner was to be tormented Thus the holye Martirs in times past thought of this matter and if they had liued in these daies to sée so great multitudes which professe the faith to deny it after a sorte no doubt they would haue writen more earnestly against them But sith their woorkes be extant I hope they that deny this manner of descending wil answere their reasons which in my iudgemēt were framed and penned by the holye Ghost Wherefore sith Athanasius Epiphanius Ciril Aepinus Pomeranus Vrbanus Rhegius Lucas Lossius Beecon Hutchinson and many others some Gréek some Latin some olde some new writers but especiallye Peter and Paul themselues the pillers of the Church haue thus translated Sheol to be hell my resolution in this point is with Aepinus let him that will hold this opinion that Sheol signifieth the graue I like not of it it is grounded vpon weak doubtfull vncertain wrested proofes and coniectures they that subscribe vnto it doo without iust and necessary proofes rashly disagrée from the translation of our Psalter from the plain woordes of the Apostles Créede and from the consent of the olde Church which alwaies beléeued that the bodye of Christ did thrée daies rest in the graue and his