HELL (DESCENT INTO). to the said Baron Hunsdon; but if the fictitious baron had said the same to six common citizens, they would probably have believed him. Were the time ever to arrive in which no citizen of London shall believe in a hell, what course of conduct should be adopted? What restraint upon wickedness will exist?-There will exist the feeling of honour, the restraint of the laws, that of the Deity himself, whose will it is that mankind shall be just, whether there be a hell or not. HELL (DESCENT INTO). < 613 Lenthius, who resuscitated, for the express purpose of giving evidence of the fact to the priest Ananias and Caiphas, and to doctor Gamaliel, at that time St. Paul's master. This gospel of Nicodemus has long been considered as of no authority. But a confirmation of this descent into hell is found in the first epistle of St. Peter, at the close of the third chapter:-"Because Christ died once for our sins, the just for the unjust, that he might offer us to God; dead indeed in the flesh, but resuscitated in spirit, by which he went to preach to the spirits that were in prison.' Many of the fathers interpreted this OUR colleague who wrote the article "Hell," has made no mention of the de- passage very differently, but all were scent of Jesus Christ into hell. This is agreed as to the fact of the descent of an article of faith of high importance; it Jesus into hell after his death. A frivois expressly particularised in the creed of lous difficulty was started upon the subwhich we have already spoken. It is ject. He had, while upon the cross, said asked, whence this article of faith is de- to the good thief:-"This day shalt thou rived; for it is not to be found in either be with me in paradise." By going to of our four gospels, and the creed called hell, therefore, he failed to perform his the Apostles' Creed, is not older than the promise. This objection is easily anage of those learned priests, Jerome, Au-swered, by saying, that he took him first to hell, and afterwards to paradise; but, gustin, and Rufinus. then, what becomes of the stay of three days? It is thought, that this descent of our Lord into hell is taken originally from the gospel of Nicodemus, one of the oldest. In that gospel, the Prince of Tartarus and Satan, after a long conversation with Adam, Enoch, Elias the Tishbite, and David, hear a voice like the thunder, and a voice like a tempest. David says to the Prince of Tartarus, "Now, thou foul and miscreant prince of hell, open thy gates, and let the king of glory enter," &c. While he was thus addressing the prince, the Lord of Majesty appeared suddenly in the form of man, and he lighted up the eternal darkness, and broke asunder the indissoluble bars, and by an invincible virtue he visited those who lay in the depth of the darkness of guilt, in the shadow of the depth of sin. Eusebius of Cæsarea says, that Jesus left his body, without waiting for Death to come and seize it; and that, on the contrary, he seized on Death, who, in terror and agony embraced his feet, and afterwards attempted to escape by flight, but was prevented by Jesus, who broke down the gates of the dungeons which inclosed the souls of the saints, drew them forth from their confinement, resuscitated them, then resuscitated himself, and conducted them in triumph to that heavenly Jerusalem which descended from heaven every night, and was actually seen by the astonished eyes of St. Justin. It was a question much disputed, whether all those who were resuscitated died Mi-again before they ascended into heaven. St. Thomas, in his "Summary," asserts that they died again. This also is the opinion of the discriminating and judi'We maintain," says he, cious Calmet. Jesus Christ appeared with St. chael; he overcame Death; he took Adam by the hand; and the good thief followed him, bearing the cross. All this took place in hell, in the presence of Carinus and in his dissertation on this great question, "that the saints who were resuscitated, after the death of the Saviour died again, in order to revive hereafter." God had permitted, ages before, that the profane Gentiles should imitate in anticipation these sacred truths. The ancients imagined, that the gods resuscitated Pelops; that Orpheus extricated Eurydice from hell, at least for a moment; that Hercules delivered Alcestes from it; that Esculapius resuscitated Hippolytus, &c. &c. Let us ever discriminate between fable and truth, and keep our minds in the same subjection with respect to whatever surprises and astonishes us, as with respect to whatever appears perfectly conformable to their circumscribed and narrow views. END OF VOLUME THE FIRST. PRINTED BY WILLIAM DUGDALE, 16, HOLYWELL STREET, STRAND. A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY. FROM THE FRENCH OF M. DE VOLTAIRE. Without Philosophy, we should be little above the animals that dig or erect their habitations, prepare their food in them, take care of their little ones in their dwellings, and have, besides, the good fortune, which we have not, of being born ready-clothed. Article ANTIQUITY, Vol. 1. p. 89. How charming is divine Philosophy! Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, But musical as is Apollo's lute, And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets, Where no crude surfeit reigns. MILTON'S COMUS, Scene 2. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOLUME THE SECOND. WITH A FULL-LENGTH LIKENESS OF THE AUTHOR. LONDON: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY W. DUGDALE, 16, HOLYWELL STREET, STRAND. |