Answer. That in my greatest temptations, I may be assured, and wholly comfort myself in this, that my Lord Jesus Christ, by his inexpressible anguish, pains, terrors, and hellish agonies, in which he was plunged during all his sufferings, but especially on the cross, hath delivered me from the anguish and torments of hell.
Exposition
There are two things which it is proper for us to consider in relation to this Article of the Creed. The first is: What is its meaning or sense? And the second, What is its use?
I. What Is the True Sense of This Article of the Creed; Or, What Does the Descent of Christ into Hell Signify?
The term hell is used in the Scriptures in three different senses. 1. It is used for the grave. “Then ye shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.” “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell.” (Gen. 42:38. Ps. 16:10.) 2. It is employed to represent the place of the damned, as in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. “In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off.” (Luke 16:23.) 3. It is employed to signify the most extreme distress and anguish. “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me.” “The Lord bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up,” that is, he brings us into the most extreme pains, from which he afterwards again delivers us. (Ps. 116:3. 1 Sam. 2:6.)
In this Article the term hell is to be understood according to the third signification. That it cannot be taken in the sense of the grave is evident; 1. Because it is already declared in the Creed, he was buried. If any one affirms that this last article is explanatory of the one that precedes, he will affirm nothing thereby; because, whenever two declarations, expressing the same thing, are joined together, in order that the one may explain the other, it is proper that the last be clearer and more easily understood than the former. But here it is just the reverse; for to descend into hell is much more obscure than to be buried. 2. It is not probable, in such a brief and concise Confession as the Creed, that the same article would be expressed twice, or that the same thing would be reiterated in other words. Again, when it is said that Christ descended into hell, it cannot mean the place of the damned, which is the second signification of the term as above considered; as is proven from this division: The Divinity did not descend, because this is, and was everywhere: neither did his body, because it rested in the grave three days, according to the type of Jonah; nor did it arise from any other place than the grave.
Neither did the soul of Christ descend:
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Because the Scriptures in no place affirm this.
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Because Christ said in relation to this when dying upon the cross, “Father into thy hands I commend my spirit;” and to the malefactor, he said, “To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:46, 43.) The soul of Christ, after his death, was, therefore, in the hands of his Father in Paradise, and not in hell. Neither has the sophism any force, which affirms that he was also in the hands of his Father in hell, according to\the declaration of the Psalmist, “If I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there;” (Ps. 139:8.) that is, he was there also the object of the divine regard, and was defended that he should not perish: for it is first said, “Into thy hands,” &c., that it might next be declared, “To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.” But the felicity, and deliverance here spoken of is not found in hell. The meaning is, both of us, who now suffer will this day be in Paradise, in the place of eternal salvation and blessedness, free from all these tortures. But Paradise is neither hell, nor is it in hell, which is the place of torment. Hence it is evident that Christ spoke this to the malefactor, not of his Divinity, but of his soul, which suffered with his body; for his Divinity was now with the thief; neither did he suffer, nor was he delivered according to his Divinity, but according to his soul.
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If Christ descended into hell, (as to his soul) he descended either that he might there suffer something, or that he might deliver the fathers from that place, as the Papists affirm. But he did not descend for the purpose of suffering any thing, because when hanging upon the cross he said. “It is finished.” (John 19:30.) Neither did he descend to liberate the fathers: 1. Because he did this by suffering for them on earth. 2. He accomplished the same by the power, and efficacy of his Godhead from the very beginning of the world, and not by any local descent of his body, or soul into hell. 3. The fathers were not in hell; therefore they could not be liberated from that place. The souls of the just are in the hands of God, neither do they suffer any pain. “Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed; so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us that would come from thence.” (Luke 16:26.) And Lazarus having died was carried by angels into Abraham’s bosom, and not into Limbus Patrum.