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Article of our Creed which affirms that-
Chrift defcended into Hell.

Now it must be acknowledg'd to be very confonant to the Chriftian Doctrine to affert, That the Souls of all Men, when they are feparated from their Bodies, depart into fome Region or other unknown and invifible to us. Since therefore the Word "Adns does properly fignify fuch an invifible Region; fince the antient Grecians did commonly use it in that Signification; fince the Seventy Interpreters, and after them the infpired Penmen of the New Teftament borrowed it from the Grecians, to exprefs by it the State of feperate Souls; What can be more reasonable than to fuppose that they used it in its known and vulgar SigInification, and in the fame Latitude as did the Grecians from whom they took sit? viz. To fignify that invifible Place which is the Receptacle of all the feperate Spirits of Mankind. It is certain that the Writers of the Chriftian Church for feveral Centuries after Chrift took the Word in this general Senfe. For they

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frequently affirm not only wicked Men, but Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob, Samuel and the reft of the antient Patriarchs and Prophets to have been in Hades. There is therefore no Reason to doubt, but that the Scripture ufes the Word Hades in this comprehenfive and general Senfe; fince it bore this Sense all the World over, not only before, but many hundred Years after the coming of Chrift, not only among the Heathens, but among the Chriftians alfo.

FROM what hath been already faid we may collect what it is we profess to believe, when we repeat that Clause of our Creed, He defcended into Hell, or Hades; which Words mean nothing more than this, That the Soul of Jefus Christ, after it was feperated from his Body, did pafs into fome invifible Place, appointed for the Reception of the Souls of Mankind after Death. A Truth which was never fo much as queftion'd in the Primitive Church; for tho' the antient Writers differ from one another in relating what our Lord did when he was in Hades;

Hades; ; yet they do all with one Con-
fent affirm, that he went thither. And
indeed had the Scripture faid nothing at
all of this Matter, yet would it have been
highly reasonable to have beliey'd, That
the Soul of Chrift after its Seperation
from the Body, was difpos'd of in the
fame manner as the Souls of other Men.
For fince our Lord took upon
him our
Nature and Condition, with all the Frail-
ties and Inconveniencies of it; and was
all his Life-time fubject to Hunger and
Thirst, to Wearinefs, Pain and Grief, as
other Men are, and at laft underwent the
Stroke of Death, as all other Men do ;
there feems to be no Room to doubt, but
that when he was dead he submitted to
the Law of Death, and went to the Place
to which the Spirits of all other Men go.

BUT taking it for certain, as we well may, that Chrift did go down into Hell or Hades; there arifes another Question, Into what Part of Hades our Lord went; whether into that Part which is inhabited by the Spirits of good Men, or into that which is inhabited by the Spirits of evil Men?

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Men? Now it is, I think, clear from the Scripture, that our Lord defcended into that Part of Hades, which is the Manfion of good Spirits. For when the penitent Thief on the Crofs requefted to be remembred by our Lord when he should come into his Kingdom, our Lord thus replies to him, This Day fhalt thou be with me in Paradife. As then the Text affures us, that the Soul of Chrift was in Hades; fo from thefe Words of our Lord to the penitent Thief it plainly appears, that he went after Death to Paradise; and from both thefe Texts it is very natural to conclude, That Paradife is a Part of Hades, and to be fure that Part of it which is the Habitation of the Souls of good Men, and which the Heathens called Elyfium. For Paradife is a Hebrew Word, and fignifies a Pleafure Garden, a Region planted with Groves of Myrtle, which answers the Defcription given by the antient Poets of their Elyfium. So that the Scripture teaches us to believe that Jefus Chrift when he died went into Hades, and more particularly into that

Divifion of it which is known by the Name of Paradife. This would have been very credible, tho' the Scripture had been filent about it; for tho' our Lord fuffered the Death of a Malefactor, yet fince he died perfectly innocent and finlefs, his Soul was of course to go to Paradife, whither go the Souls of all juft and holy Men.

As to the other Divifion of Hades, in which are imprison'd the fallen Angels, and the Spirits of evil Men, until the Day of Judgment; St. Peter, I think, warrants us to call it by the very fame Name which it had among the Pagans, i. e. Tartarus. For he tells us in the Id Chapter of his id Epiftle, God fpared not the Angels that finned, but caft them down to Hell; in the Original it is, Taprapwoas, He caft them down to Tar

tarus.

THAT Chrift went alfo into this Part of Hades is affirm'd by fome Christian Writers, who teach, That Chrift went not only among the happy, but alfo among the unhappy Souls, and preach'd the Gospel

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