APPENDIX.

NOTE TO SERMON III. PAGE 75.

I am desirous of adding a few words on this important point. All our Creeds, as well as the 3rd Article of Religion, assert that Jesus Christ went into Hell! a case evidently of descent and fall and additional humiliation; for, says the Apostle, quoting and applying the prophecy of David, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption;" a clear rescue this both of the Messiah's body and soul from durance. Beyond, the Church says nothing; but the expression used is fearfully significant, "He descended into Hell!" and the eye of faith may pierce, though but a very little, into the

darkness below, and find strength and comfort even there. For what does it behold? It beholds the Saviour (all praise to his Holy name) finishing the mighty atonement; not partially, not figuratively, not in an allegory, —but himself lying "on the penal fire,” the scorn and the jest perhaps of Satan's fallen hosts, as he had just before been of men! and there suffering in substance, that which otherwise must and would have been done by us because it was our sentence, and our due, suffering in the same degree, the same mode, and in the same place as ourselves,-the full curse of the law!—with this only difference, that by God's omnipotent decree Christ suffered within the term of hours, what to us would have been the ceaseless work of eternity! This magnifies redemption to its proper greatness! This sets my feet upon a rock! fixes my heart in a true courage! This cuts away the ground from the infidel and the objector, and the doubt from the timid believer; —and we say, "Behold the Man! He has borne in the depths of Hell itself my pains and sorrows, whatever they might be; and

This

now, God be thanked, unless we tread under foot the Son of God, and do despite to the Spirit of grace, the God of vengeance is appeased, and those pains will never have to be suffered again."

To this descent into Hell, however, there have been objections raised, (God help us! Why? Are we afraid Christ will pay too much for us?) and Bishop Horsley, in his 20th Sermon, although he insists that Christ was bound "to fulfil the entire condition of humanity," and insists also, that 'descending into Hell' is to be taken as a plain matter-offact in the literal meaning of the words," yet declares boldly, that he can and does safely rest the confutation of any such opinion as that Christ went down to the place of torment, on the sole fact of the promise to the repentant ́thief, “Verily I say unto thee, to-day thou Ishalt be with me in Paradise." This describes the place intended, and he adds, evidently upsets the doctrine. "Paradise," says the Bishop, "was certainly some spot where Jesus must have met the malefactor on the same day he died:"

Be it so. "It could not be Heaven!" No; if, that is, he was to be there on that very day. "It could not be the place of torment, for Hell and Paradise are always distinguished!" Again, be it so. Then what is his conclusion? Why, no other than that "descending into Hell," was going into "that intermediate state of repose, where the souls of the righteous abide in joyful hope of the consummation in bliss!"

But is this a fair inference? If Jesus must needs have visited this peaceful region for any of God's purposes, must his going down into Hell be denied on account of it? Could he not have been in Paradise before his descent, or after or both? Could he not have preached his cross before or after or both, to the Saints in this region, as we are told, iv. 1 Pet. 19, he did go and preach to the disobedient Spirits, in their gloomy prisonhouse? while the cry of the Redeemer, as he descended into the wine press, might have echoed through Hell's utmost and inmost recesses, and Devils must now indeed have