word "hell" is so often applied, in common speech, and in the English translation of the New Testament, to the place of torment, that the genuine meaning of the word (in which, however, it is used in many passages of the English Bible) is almost forgotten; and the common people never hear of hell but their thoughts are carried to that dismal place "where the fallen angels are kept in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." But the word, in its natural import, signifies only that invisible place which is the appointed habitation of departed souls in the interval between death and the general resurrection. That such a place must be, is indisputable; for when man dieth, his soul dieth not, but returneth unto him that gave it, to be disposed of at his will and pleasure,-which is clearly implied in that admonition of our Saviour, "Fear not them which kill the body, but cannot kill the soul." But the soul existing after death, and separated from the body though of a nature immaterial, must be in some place: for, however metaphysicians may talk of place as one of the adjuncts of body, as if nothing but gross, sensible body could be limited to a place, to exist without relation to place seems to be one of the incommunicable perfections of the Divine Being; and it is hardly to be conceived that any created spirit, of however high an order, can be without locality, or without such determination of its existence at any given time to some certain place, that it shall be true to say of it,Here it is, and not elsewhere." That such at least is the condition of the human soul, were it seasonable to go into so abstruse a disquisition, might be proved, I think, indisputably from holy writ. Assuming, therefore, that every departed soul has its place of residence, it would be reasonable to suppose, if revelation were silent on the subject, that a common mansion is provided for them all, their nature being similar; since we see throughout all nature creatures of the same sort

placed together in the same element. But revelation is not silent. The sacred writers of the Old Testament speak of such a common mansion in the inner parts of the earth; and we find the same opinion so general among the heathen writers of antiquity, that it is more probable that it had its rise in the earliest patriarchal revelations than in the imaginations of man, or in poetical fiction. The notion is confirmed by the language of the writers of the New Testament, with this additional circumstance, that they divide this central mansion of the dead into two distinct regions, for the separate lodging of the souls of the righteous and the reprobate. In this, too, they have the concurrence of the earliest heathen poets, who placed the good and the bad in separate divisions of the central region. The name which the Hebrew writers gave to this mansion of departed souls (without regard to any such division) expresses only that it is a place unknown, about which all are curious and inquisitive. The writers of the New Testament adopted the name which the earliest Greek writers had given it, which describes it by the single property of invisibility. But for the place of torment by itself, they had quite another appellation. The English word "hell," in its primary and natural meaning, signifies nothing more than "the unseen and covered place;" and is properly used, both in the Old and the New Testament, to render the Hebrew word in the one, and the Greek word in the other, which denote the invisible mansion of disembodied souls, without any reference to suffering. But being used also in the translation of the New Testament for that other word which properly denotes the place of torment, the good sense of the word, if we may so call it, is unfortunately forgotten, and the common people know of no other hell but that of the burning lake.

This certainly was not the hell to which the soul of Christ descended. He descended to hell properly so called, to the invisible mansion of departed spirits, and

to that part of it where the souls of the faithful, when they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity.

That he should go to this place was a necessary branch of the general scheme and project of redemption, which required that the Divine Word should take our nature upon him, and fulfil the entire condition of humanity in every period and stage of man's existence, from the commencement of life, in the mother's womb, to the extinction and the renovation of it. The same wonderful scheme of humiliation which required that the Son should be conceived, and born, and put to death, made it equally necessary that his soul, in its intermediate state, should be gathered to the souls of the departed saints.

That the invisible place of their residence is the hell to which our Lord descended, is evident from the terms of his own promise to the repentant thief upon the cross: "Verily, I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." Paradise was certainly some place where our Lord was to be on the very day on which he suffered, and where the companion of his sufferings was to be with him. It was not heaven; for to heaven our Lord after his death ascended not till after his resurrection, as appears from his own words to Mary Magdalen. He was not therefore in heaven on the day of the crucifixion; and where he was not the thief could not be with him. It was no place of torment; for to any such place the name of Paradise never was applied. It could be no other than that region of repose and rest where the souls of the righteous abide in joyful hope of the consummation of their bliss. And upon this single text we might safely rest the proof of this article of our Creed in the sense in which we explain it,— a sense so plain and prominent, in the bare words, to every one who is not misled by the popular misapplication of the word "hell," that it never would have been set aside to make room for expositions of more refinement, much less would the authenticity of the article ever even have

been questioned, but for the countenance which it was supposed to give to the doctrine of purgatory as taught in the Church of Rome, with which, however, it has not even a remote connexion. Time will not permit me to enter into a particular examination of the different interpretations of this article which have been attempted by those who have not gone the length of proposing to expunge it from the Creed, because they were well aware, that although it is not to be found in any copy of the Creed now extant, of an earlier date than the latter end of the fourth century, yet that Christ, in some sense or other, descended into hell was the unanimous belief of the Christian church from the earliest ages. I will offer only this general observation,—that the interpretation which I have given is the only literal interpretation which the words will bear, unless we would admit the extravagant assertion, as to me it seems, of the venerable Calvin, that our blessed Lord actually went down to the place of torment, and there snstained (horrible to think or mention!) the pains of a reprobate soul in punishment,—a notion evidently confuted by our Lord's own description of the place where the companion of his sufferings on the cross was to be with him on the very day of the crucifixion. This sense being thus confuted, I say the personal descent of our Lord to that region where the souls of the righteous rest in hope, is the only literal interpretation which the words of the article will bear; and that any figurative interpretation of the words of a creed or formulary of faith are inadmissible; for, in such a composition, intended to convey the knowledge of the most important truths to the most ordinary understandings, the ornamental figures of rhetoric or poetry would be no less out of place than in the opinion of a judge upon a question of law, or in a mathematical demonstration. They could have no other effect than to introduce doubt, where every thing ought to be precise and unequivocal. Without entering, therefore, into a particular confutation of the figurative interpretations that

have been offered of this article of the Creed, I shall proceed at once to show what proof we find in Scripture of the fact averred, according to the literal meaning of the words, that "Christ descended into hell."

This proof rests, I think, principally upon three texts of Scripture, in addition to that which I have already mentioned, as affording by itself ample confirmation of the truth of the proposition, namely, our Lord's promise to the penitent thief upon the cross. But there are three other texts which conspire with this to put the matter out of doubt. The first is that text of the Psalmist which was alleged by St. Peter, in his first sermon on the day of Pentecost, as a prophecy concerning Christ, verified in his resurrection from the dead. "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption." The apostle having recited these words of the Psalmist, says they were not spoken by David of himself, but that David, being a prophet, spake of the resurrection of Christ,-that his soul was not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption. From this text, if there were no other, the article, in the sense in which we have explained it, is clearly and infallibly deduced; for if the soul of Christ were not left in hell at his resurrection, then it was in hell before his resurrection. But it was not there either before his death or after his resurrection, for that never was imagined: therefore it descended into hell after his death, and before his resurrection: for as his flesh, by virtue of the divine promise, saw no corruption, although it was in the grave, the place of corruption, where it remained until his resurrection; so his soul, which by virtue of the like promise was not left in hell, was in that hell where it was not left, until the time came for its reunion to the body for the accomplishment of the resurrection. Hence it is so clearly evinced that the soul of Christ was in the place called hell, "that none but an infidel,” saith St. Augustine, "can deny it."

Another text which carries us to the same conclusion,