THE DECENT INTO HELL.

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IX.

"HE DESCENDED INTO HELL."

It is my purpose now, if the Lord be pleased to continue his blessing upon us, to ask your attention to the first part of the fifth Article of our Creed just recited: "He," that is, "Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell." I do not, as is my custom, name any text of holy Scripture this evening, because I cannot find one that teaches what these words of the Creed are generally supposed to mean, if they are received in their popular or usual sense. Even St. Paul's language in Ephesians, about Christ's descending, do not affirm that He descended after his death into hell. Nor does St. Peter say in his sermon on the day of Pentecost that Jesus descended into hell. He says that the 16th Psalm is a prophecy of the resurrection of Christ, and proves that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the true Messiah. And it is candid also, to admit, that the words of the Psalmist applied to Jesus: "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell," do imply that in some sense He was in hell, for if He was not left in hell, He must once have been there. There is a sense, then, in which the Creed does affirm that Christ descended into hell. What is this

sense, and is it true? Is it according to the Scriptures? As the words: "He descended into hell," are not found in the Bible applied to Messiah, who is called Christ, in the sense attached to them by the Church of Rome, it is important for us to ascertain, if possible, the sense in which this Article is to be received as containing the truth of God. The meaning of the word hell, and of descended, will come more appropriately under discussion in another place, and an examination of those passages of Scripture which it is alleged teach the literal, local descent of Christ into hell, and so authorize the doctrine of Purgatory and its kindred errors, I must reserve for the next Discourse.

It is not surprising this Article of our Creed should have attracted great attention and given rise to much learned discussion, and yet, perhaps, there never was a time when it was more worthy of attention than the present. The current of religious thought in our day is so spasmodic and unsettled, that a subject of this nature receives, perhaps, greater attention because it is obscure, and the terms in which the doctrine is taught are harsh and repulsive. And, besides, important doctrines are supposed to depend upon the interpretation of this Article. In a general way, we may say the Church of Rome, the Lutheran Church, and a portion of the High Church party of England are arranged on one side in the discussion, and almost all other branches of the Church. are on the other side. The most learned men, and men of the greatest intellect and culture of the last generation and of the present, have given their profoundest investigations to this subject.

In the works of Barrow and Lightfoot, Pearson and Burnet, Witsius and Harold Browne, and the late Archbishop Whately, we have learned, able, and exhaustive

DIFFICULTIES OF THIS SUBJECT.

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Almost

dissertations on this Article or kindred topics. every actual or possible side of the questions involved is presented, and yet, after one has toiled through them all, it is very much to be doubted whether he is really any wiser, or any better satisfied, than he was when he began his investigations. All learning is not wisdom. Nor are we all able for all things. One of the great Calvin's best sayings is, that "God has not given it to any one man to know all the truth." On many subjects, as if to mock the pride of human intellect, it is still true that ignorance is bliss. The indefinite and unsatisfactory results of the learning, time, and talents that have been spent on this subject may be accounted for, perhaps, by remembering that great and good men are not always free from bigotry and prejudice. Their investigations are often carried on to support certain dogmas of faith or peculiar views, and every thing is seen with that coloring on it which favors them. The great authors I have named, and many others might be added, scarcely agree on the leading points of this Article, and yet they do not so differ as to materially affect a single doctrine or precept of the Gospel which is in order to salvation. Again, a great difficulty in all discussions of this kind is to determine the meaning of the terms used in presenting the doctrine, and its explanation; and in this particular case the difficulty is increased, from the fact that the terms used are taken from four different languages embracing in their range of historic signification a period of, let us say, three or four thousand years; and these terms are used, moreover, in different senses in our historic documents even in the same age, and greatly modified in their meaning by the subjects to which they are applied, and their adjuncts. And let it also be distinctly kept in mind, that we are not obliged to believe any doctrine or Article of faith simply because it is in the Catechism, Creed, Confession, or Thirty-nine Articles, but

because it is taught in the Word of God. And if there is any doctrine in our formularies that is contrary to the Word of God, I do not and will not believe it-though all the patriarchs and czars of Russia, and all the emperors, popes, and councils and convocations and assemblies on earth should affirm it.

In order to be brief and as easily understood as I can in my presentation of such a subject, the following method is proposed: namely,

I. A condensed history of the Article.

II. Endeavor to ascertain historically, and from the Scriptures, the meaning of the terms used.

III. Examine briefly some of the passages of Scripture alleged to teach the literal, local descent of Christ into hell, and which are thus perverted to the support of the doctrine of Purgatory, and kindred follies which are subversive of salvation by grace. This last head must, however, lie over altogether, for the evening of next Lord's day.

I. Then let us attempt a condensed notice of the history of the Article itself. The words: "He descended into hell," do not appear to have had a place in the most ancient Creeds, either private or public, and consequently their authority and meaning have been much disputed in ancient times among the Fathers, just as they are now among learned men. It may not be for our edification in this presence, to attempt an exhaustive review of the opinions and explanations that have been given of it. And in view of the confusing and unsatisfactory nature of the results obtained by those who have engaged so laboriously and so learnedly in the investigations of this Article, I have often been ready to wish that our Creed, like that

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of Nice, had omitted the words altogether, or that some Scriptural and definite interpretation had been affixed to them. Still, I do not feel myself at liberty to pass over these words altogether, however difficult they may be, or however unsuccessful I may be in presenting my thoughts concerning them, because they occur in the symbolic books of all Christendom, and are taught by the catechisms in our schools and in our families by every Church of the Reformation as well as by the Church of Rome. Formerly it was the custom, in all the Reformed churches, for their ministers to read the Scriptures regularly and in course, and to explain the Catechism systematically and regularly before their congregations on the Lord's day. And to aid them in this method of instruction, and so secure an intelligent acquaintance of the people with the Articles of our holy religion, and promote as far as possible a uniform and Scriptural exposition of God's truth, summaries of Christian doctrineepitomes or heads of our great common faith-were drawn up and printed for the use of ministers. Numerous works of this kind were published in Holland and in Great Britain. The late Dr. A. Alexander, of Princeton, N. J., prepared a synopsis of Bible Truth, or of Christian doctrines of this character; and in former years, and in fact until quite a recent period, the greatest theologians and the men of most mind and culture employed themselves a great deal in preparing catechisms and abstracts of Bible truth for the young.

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'The Institutes of Christian Doctrines," by the "great theologian," John Calvin, were prepared professedly as a Commentary on the Apostles' Creed.

Many of our best bodies of Divinity, or treatises on Theology, have been written on and according to the order