end coming;" that is, he died no more after his resurrection; whereas Lazarus, and others, who were risen from the dead, died again, and must continue in hell till the general resurrection-day.

But, I need not produce any more testimonies for this matter, seeing to this very day the same doctrine, with very little alteration, is entertained in the oriental churches and the dependants thereof, as Sir George Sandys relates concerning the Greeks and Armenians, that they believe, "that the dead neither do, nor shall feel joy nor torment until the day of doom;" by which, I suppose, those Christians mean no more that what I remember is related in the embassy of the earl of Carlisle into Muscovy, anno 1663, concerning the Christians of the empire, that they believe, that the souls of all good men are not admitted into heaven, and unto the immediate sight of God, till the general resurrection-day; and, than what Job Ludolphus writes, concerning the modern Ethiopeans, that "their common belief is, that the souls of the faithful shall not enjoy their happiness till after the resurrecti on, which the said Ludolphus doth affirm, to have been the sentiment of the greatest part of the fathers;" wherein he is not at all mistaken, who generally maintained as it hath

been already proved, That as after death the bodies of the faithful remained in the grave, so the souls continued in hell till the general resurrection-day, when their happiness should be compleated and perfected in the highest heavens; which doctrine, as we also see, hath with very little alteration, been preserved in the Eastern churches for these sixteen hundred years.

But in the Western church, it hath been o therwise; where, as the Latin tongue decline ed, the word inferi or hell, was more and more used in an evil sense, till at length it cane to be wholly appropriated to signify a place of torments, or at least of some kind of misery and obscurity.

St. Ambrose was one of the first in the West, who varied from the ancient doctrine, and embraced the opinion of Origen, con cerning the place of the departed souls of good men, which was, that "before the death of Christ the souls of all the patriarchs and saints went to hell, where they remained in joy and happiness till our Saviour's death; when his separated soul came into those in fernal regions, and breaking the bond there of, he freed those captive souls, and at his re surrection triumphantly led them into heaven,

unto which place the departed souls of all be lievers do now immediately and instantly go."

After him, St. Jerome entertained the same notions, that "before the death of Christ, all souls were alike conveyed to hell; that Abra ham's bosom, where Lazarus rested in peace and joy, was a part thereof; that Jacob, Job, Samuel, and all the other saints who lived under the legal dispensation, were detained in hell, till the gospel opened the gates of Paradise, and our Saviour's blood quenched the flaming sword at the entrance thereof, when the thief entered with our Lord thereinto after whom followed into that holy city, the souls of all the saints who had been before detained in hell, and unto which heavenly place, the souls of all good men immediately, upon their dissolution, do now instantly pass, being no longer held in hell since the resur rection of our Lord.

Austin seems to be sometimes wavering and uncertain in his apprehensions of this point; "I do not doubt, saith he, but that the richt man was in an extremity of torments, and the poor man in a confluence of joys; but how that flame of hell and bosom of Abraham is to be understood, will scarcely be found by hum ble seekers, never by contentious strivers.”

In some places he doubts, whether Abraham's bosom, the receptacle of all faithful souls before the coming of Christ, was in hell or no; "I must confess, saith he, that I have not yet found where he habitation of the souls of the just is in scripture called hell; and as I have said, so I say again, that I never yet met with the word hell used in a good sense in the canonical scripture :" But, in other places he seems to grant, that Abraham's bosom, the mansion of the godly before the coming of Christ, was part of hell; "whether Abraham, saith he, was in some parts of hell, I cannot well define; for Christ was not as yet come to hell, that he might deliver from thence the souls of the precedent saints; it is probable that there were two hells, divided by the great gulph; in one whereof, the souls of the just were at peace, whilst in the other, the souls of the wicked were tormented:" And, in his book of the City of God, composed in the extremity of his old age, he writes, that "it is not absurd to belive, that the ancient saints who believed in Christ to come, altho'. they were in a place remote from torments, yet that they were in hell till the blood of Christ, and his descent thither delivered them from thence; since which time, the souls of believers go to hell no more.

I might here farther add the sentiments of Petrus Chrysologus, Gennadius Massiliensis, Gregory the great, and several others of the succeeding writers, but I think it will be an unnecessary as well as tedious labor, seeing the generality of the Latin fathers of the middle ages, embraced the forementioned notion of Origen, Ambrose, and others, which was occasioned through the mutation and declension of the Latin tongue, whereby the word inferi, or hell, received a considerable change in its meaning and signification, being for the most part taken in an evil sense; according to which apprehension and notion thereof, new ways and ends of our Saviour's descent thither, were imagined and invented. But, as I have already shewn, the word hell, according to its primary and original import, doth prinpipally signify no other than the state or place into which all separated souls do pass, and there remain till the resurrection-day; in which sense it is to be frequently understood in the Septuagent, and cannot in any propriety of speech be otherwise accepted in that text, whereon this article of the creed is founded, viz. Acts ii. 27. "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption," because the soul's being in hell, is there opposed to and distin