laid me down and slept, I awaked, for the Lord sustained me." And Lactantius that verse of Sibyll,

Καὶ θανάτου μοῖραν τελέσει τρίτον ἦμαρ ὑπνῶσας,

The term 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 down: but his rapn τριήμερος οι τριημερόνυκτος, (as Dionysius calleth it his three days' burial, and his continuing for that time in the state of death, is that which answereth unto his sleeping" or being in Hades. And therefore the fathers of the fourth council of Toledo, declaring how in baptism "the" death and resurrection of Christ is signified," do both affirm, that "the dipping in the water is as it were a descension into hell, and the rising out of the water again, a resurrection;" and add likewise out of Gregory, with whom many other doctors do herein agree, that" the three-fold dipping is used to signify the three days' burial. Which differeth as much from the simple burial, or puting into the earth, as μετοικισμός doth from μετοικία, the transportation or leading into captivity from the detaining in bondage, the committing of one to prison from the holding of him there, and the sowing of the seed from the remaining of it in ground.

Dionys. ecclesiast. hierarch. cap. 2.

* Τὸ δὲ, ὑπνώσω, τῆς κατακλίσεως ἐπίτασις ἐστὶν. Euthym. in Psalm. 4. ver. 9.

• Et ne forte cuiquam sit dubium hujus simpli mysterium sacramenti; videat in eo mortem et resurrectionem Christi significari. Nam in aquis mersio, quasi in infernum descensio est ; et rursus ab aquis emersio resurrectio est. Concil. Toletan. IV. cap. 5. (al. 6.)

1 Dionys. eccles. hierar. cap. 2. Cyrill. vel Johan. Hierosolymitan. cateches. 2. Mystagogic. Petrus Chrysologus, serm. 113. Leo I. epist. 4. cap. 3. Paschasius de Spiritu S. lib. 2. cap. 5. Joh. Damascen. orthodox. fid. lib. 4. cap. 10. Germanus in rer. ecclesiast. theoria. Walafrid. Strab. de reb. ecclesiastic. cap. 26. Theophylact. in Johan. cap. 3.

" Nos autem quod tertio mergimus, triduanæ sepulturæ sacramenta signamus : ut dum tertio infans ab aquis educitur, resurrectio triduani temporis exprimatur. Concil. Toletan. ex Gregorio, lib. 1. registri, epist. 41.

And thus have I unfolded at large the general acceptions of the word Hades and inferi, and for the ecclesiastical use of the word hell answering thereunto: which being severally applied to the point of our Saviour's descent, made up these three propositions that by the universal 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 do. His soul, being separated from his body, "departed hence into the other world," as all other men's souls in that case use to do. "He went unto the dead, and remained for a time in the state of death," as other dead men do. There remaineth now the vulgar acception of the word hell, whereby it is taken for the place of torment prepared for the devil and his angels: and touching this also, all Christians do agree thus far, that Christ did descend thither at least wise in a virtual manner: as "God" is said to descend, when he doth any thing upon earth, which being wonderfully done beyond the usual course of nature may in some sort shew his presence," or when he otherwise "vouchsafeth to have care of human frailty." Thus when "Christ's flesh was in the tomb, his power did work from heaven:" saith St. Ambrose. Which agreeth with that which was before cited out of the Armenian's confession: "According to his body which was dead, he descended into the grave; but according to his DIVINITY, which did live, he overcame hell in the mean time;" and with that which was cited out of Philo Carpathius, upon Cantic. chap. 5. ver. 2. "I sleep, but my heart waketh: in the grave spoiling hell;" for which, in the Latin collections that go under

w Descendere dicitur, cum aliquid facit in terra, quod præter usitatum naturæ cursum mirabiliter factum præsentiam quodam modo ejus ostendat. Augustin. de civit. Dei, lib. 16. cap. 5.

* Descendere dicitur Deus; quando curam humanæ fragilitatis habere dignatur. Aug. serm. 70. de tempore.

y Erat caro ejus in monumento; sed virtus ejus operabatur e cœlo. Ambros. de incarnat. cap. 5.

2 Supra, pag. 356.

a Supra, pag. 351.

his name, we read thus: "I sleep, to wit on the cross, and my heart waketh: when my DIVINITY spoiled hell, and brought rich spoils from the triumph of everlasting death overcome, and the devil's power overthrown." The author of the imperfect work upon Matthew, attributeth this to the Divinity, not clothed with any part of the humanity, but naked as he speaketh. Seeing the devils "feared him,” saith he, "while he was in the body, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus the son of the high God? art thou come to torment us before our time? how shall they be able to endure his NAKED DIVINITY descending against them? Behold after three days of his death he shall return from hell, as a conqueror from the war."

This conquest others do attribute to his cross, others to his death, others to his burial, others to the real descent of his soul into the place of the damned, others to his resurrection: and extend the effect thereof not only to the delivery of the fathers of the old Testament, but also to the freeing of our souls from hell. From whence how men may be said to have been delivered, who never were there, St. Augustine declareth by these similitudes: "Thou sayest rightly to the physician, Thou hast freed me from this sickness, not in which thou wast, but in which thou wast like to be. Some body else having a troublesome business, was to be cast into prison: there

b Ego dormio, in cruce scilicet, et cor meum vigilat: cum divinitas Tartara spoliavit, et opima spolia retulit de triumpho superatæ mortis æternæ, atque dejectæ diabolicæ potestatis. Philo Carpath. in Cantic. cap. 5.

c Quem in corpore constitutum timuerunt, dicentes; Quid nobis et tibi, Jesu fili Dei excelsi? venisti ante tempus torquere nos ? quomodo nudam ipsam divinitatem contra se descendentem poterunt sustinere? Ecce post tres dies mortis suæ revertetur ab inferis, quasi victor de bello. Op. imperf. in Matth. homil. 35. tom. 2. Chrysost. ed. Lat.

d Recte dicis medico, Liberasti me ab ægritudine; non in qua jam eras, sed in qua futurus eras. Nescio quis habens causam molestam, mittendus erat in carcerem venit alius, defendit eum. Gratias agens, quid dicit? Emisti animam meam de carcere. Suspendendus erat debitor: solutum est pro eo; liberatus dicitur de suspendio. In his omnibus non erant; sed quia talibus meritis agebantur, ut, nisi subventum esset, ibi essent; inde se recte dicunt liberari, quo per liberatores suos non sunt perduci. Augustin. in Psalm. 85.

cometh another, and defendeth him. What saith he, when he giveth thanks? Thou hast delivered me from prison. A debtor was in danger to be hanged, the debt is paid for him, he is said to be freed from hanging. In all these things they were not: but because such were their deserts, that unless they had been holpen, there they would have been; they say rightly that they were freed thence, whither by those that freed them they were not suffered to be brought." That Christ destroyed the power of hell," spoilede principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them :" is acknowledged by all Christians. Neither is there any who will refuse to subscribe unto that which Proclus delivered in his sermon before Nestorius, then bishop of Constantinople (inserted into the acts of the council of Ephesus:)" He was shut up in the grave, who stretched out the heavens like a skin: he was reckoned among the dead, and spoiled hell;" and that which St. Cyril and the synod of Alexandria wrote unto the same Nestorius, concerning the confession of their faith: (approved not only by the third general council held at Ephesus, but also by the fourth at Chalcedon, and the fifth at Constantinople): "To the end that by his unspeakable power treading down death in his own as the first and principal flesh, he might become the first born from the dead, and the first fruits of those that slept; and that he might make a way to man's nature for the turning back again unto incorruption: by the grace of God he tasted death for all men, and revived the third day, spoiling hell." All, I say, do

Ephes. chap. 2. ver. 15.

* Εν τάφῳ κατεκλείετο, καὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐξέτεινεν ὡσεὶ δέῤῥιν· ἐν νεκροῖς ἐλογίζετο καὶ τὸν ᾅδην ἐσκύλευεν. Procli Cyzicni episc. homil. de nativit. Domin. in act. concil. Ephes. part. 1. cap. 1. edit. Rom.

Act. concil. Ephes. part. 1. cap. 26. edit. Rom.

h Concil. Chalced. act. 5.

i Quint. synod. Constantinop. collat. 6.

κ "Ινα γὰρ ἀῤῥήτῳ δυνάμει πατήσας τὸν θάνατον, ὡς ἔν γε δὴ πρώτη τῇ ἰδίᾳ σαρκὶ, γένηται πρωτότοκος ἐκ νεκρῶν, καὶ ἀπαρχὴ τῶν κεκοιμημέν νων· ὁδοποιήσῃ τε τῇ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου φύσει τὴν εἰς ἀφθαρσίαν ἀνάδρομαν, χάριτι θεοῦ ὑπὲρ παντὸς ἐγεύσατο θάνατον, τριήμερος δὲ ἀνεβίω σκυλεύσaç Tòv ädny. Synod. Alexandrin. epist. ad Nestor.

agree, that Christ spoiled, or (as they were wont to speak) harrowed hell: whether you take hell for that which keepeth the soul separated from the body, or that which separateth soul and body both from the blessed presence of him who is our true life; the one whereof our Saviour hath conquered by bringing in the resurrection of the body, the other he hath abolished by procuring for us life everlasting.

Touching the manner and the means, whereby hell was thus spoiled, is all the disagreement. The manner; whether our Lord did deliver his people from hell by way of prevention, in saving them from coming thither or by way of subvention, in helping those out whom at the time of his death he found there. The means; whether this were done by his divinity or his humanity, or both; whether by the virtue of his sufferings, death, burial, and resurrection, or by the real descending of his soul into the place wherein men's souls were kept imprisoned. That he descended not into the hell of the damned by the essence of his soul or locally, but virtually only by extending the effect of his power thither, is the common doctrine of Thomas Aquinas', and the rest of the school. Cardinal Bellarmine at first held it to be probable", that Christ's soul did descend thither, not only by his effects but by his real presence also: but afterwards "having" considered better of the matter, he resolved that the opinion of Thomas and the other schoolmen was to be followed." The same is the judgment of Suarez: who concerning this whole article of Christ's descent into hell, doth thus deliver his mind: "If by an article of faith we under

1 Thom. in Sum. part. 3. quæst. 52. art. 2.

m Bellarm. lib. 4. de Christo, cap. 16.

n Re melius considerata, sequendam esse existimo sententiam S. Thomæ, quæ est aliorum scholasticorum in 3. sent. dist. 22. Id. in Recognitione ope

rum.

Suarez, tom. 2. in 3. part. Thom. disput. 43. sec. 4.

P Si nomine articuli intelligamus veritatem, quam omnes fideles explicite scire ac credere teneantur: sic non existimo necessarium hunc computare inter articulos fidei. Quia non est res admodum necessaria singulis hominibus: et quia ob hanc fortasse causam in symbolo Niceno omittitur; cujus symboli cogVOL. III.

E E