who were detained there, fixing or ordaining the time of their resurrection; and that he conquered the grave and hell, that where corruption had been sown, there incorruption should arise; and where death had reigned, there he appearing with his human soul, should exhibit immortty, and so should make us partakers of his incorruption, in hopes of the resurrection from the dead, when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality."

Lastly, the chief and principal end of our Saviour's descent into hell was, that he might subject himself unto the laws of death, and be in every thing conformable unto us; for seeing that he became our high priest to redeem and save us, it behoved him in all things to be made like unto us, sin only excepted. Wherefore when he died, his body like unto ours, was committed to the grave; and in the same manner, his spirit fled to the receptacle of holy and religious souls, where, as all we must, it awaited his resurrection-day; and which is very observable, amongst those infinite and various ends, which the ancients imagined, according to their different conceptions, to be the reason of this descent, they frequently alledged this to be the most proper and principal cause thereof.

Thus Irenæus writes, that our Lord by his abode in hell, "observed the law of the dead;" and Tertullian, that his body was not only buried, but that." he satisfied this law also, viz. that he underwent the manner of human death in hell;" and Athanasius writes, that

our death was described by the separation of the soul of Christ from his body, who being found in our shape and figure, underwent the manner of our death, that by it he might prepare a resurrection for us, shewing his soul in hell, and by his body in the grave, that being in hell the exhibition of his soul there, he might destroy it, and being in the grave by the burial of his body there, he might anni, hilate corruption, and so might bring forth immortality and incorruption from hell and the grave, going thither in our form and manner, and loosening our detention there."

Leo Magnus writes, that our Lord "by dying, underwent the laws of hell, as by rising again he did dissolve them;" and that I may not mention any more, Hilary of Poitiers assures us, that "to fulfil the nature of man, he subjected himself to death, that is, to a departure as it were, both of soul and body, and penetrated into the infernal seats, which was a thing that seemed to be due unto man;"

for, as he elewhere writes, "it is a law of human necessity, that the bodies being buried, the souls should descend into hell, which descent the Lord did not refuse for the consummation of a perfect man."

So that one principal end of our Saviour's going into hell, was to undergo the laws of death, that in every thing both living and dying, and after death he might submit himself to the rules and states of that nature which he came down from heaven to redeem. In his life-time he appeared in the similitude of sinful flesh, not disdaining to undergo all the natural actions and infirmities thereof; at his death, his body was committed to the grave, whilst his separated soul fled unto the invisi ble world of departed spirits; which reason of his descent into hell, together with the others forementioned, is a more evident proof, that the meaning of this article in the creed is no other than this, viz. that our Saviour's soul being separated from his body by death, went unto the unseen mansion of separated spirits in the other world; that as his body according to the laws of death, was laid in the grave, so in a conformity thereunto, his soul also passed into the habitation of de parted spirits, where it remained in its separate state amongst the souls of Abraham, Samuel, Da

vid, and all the godly in rest and peace, till the day of his resurrection; describing thereby unto all his followers, the manner of their death and resurrection, that their bodies must remain in the grave, and their souls in hell, or in their separate state, till the time of their resurrection, when they shall be raised to life again, and in their perfect manhood receive eternal honor and glory from him.

But, now having at large explained this article, and shewn the true and proper sense thereof, it yet remains to enquire into the oc casion, manner, and time of its being inserted in the creed. Now that which gave occasion thereunto, was an heretical opinion of the Arjans and Eunomians, but especially of the Apollinarians; between whom and the two former, the difference was very small, if any at all in this particular, as shall be hereafter shewn.

These heretics violently assaulted the truth of our Saviour's humanity; but as they were more subtle and learned than that gross and sottish tribe beforementioned, against whom our Lord's birth, passion, crucifixion, death and burrial, are inserted in the creed, so they managed their cause with greater wit and cunning, and proceeded in a more refined and politic

method for whereas, those forementioned heretics in a direct opposition and contradiction to the senses of all mankind, denied the substance and reality of Christ's body; these allowed that to be true and certain, whilst in a more dangerous and plausible way, they as effectually overturned the truth of his humanity, by maintaining that he had no human, rational soul, but that his divinity supplied the room thereof.

Now that the Arians and Eunomians, or at least some of them, led the way to Apollinarius in this error, is abundantly attested by Epiphanius, Athanasius, and others, who charged them with this doctrine as held and believed by all, or, I think, rather by some of them, (seeing it is most probable, that all the Arians were not infected therewith,) that the body which Christ assumed, was destitute both of a rational and sensitive soul; wherein they something differed from the Apollinarians, who allowed Christ a sensitive soul, and only divested him of a rational one; into which difference between them, I shall not here enquire, seeing it is sufficient for my present purpose, that they both agreed, in denying Christ an human reasonable soul: which that the Arians so did, we are assured by the unquestionable testimony of Athanasius, who