opposition to Adam's sin, that therefore the virtue of it was to go no farther than to take away that sin; it has, indeed, removed that, but it has done a great deal more besides.

"Thus it is plain that Christ's death was our sacrifice; the meaning of which is this, that God intending to reconcile the world to himself, and to encourage sinners to repent and turn to him, thought fit to offer the pardon of sin, together with the other blessings of his Gospel, in such a way as should demonstrate both the guilt of sin and his hatred of it; and yet with that, his love of sinners, and his compassion towards them. A free pardon, without a sacrifice, had not been so agreeable either to the majesty of the Great Governor of the world, nor the authority of his laws, nor so proper a method to oblige men to that strictness and holiness of life that he designed to bring them to; and therefore he thought fit to offer his pardon, and those other blessings, through a Mediator, who was to deliver to the world this new and holy rule of life, and to confirm it by his own unblemished life and in conclusion, when the rage of wicked men, who hated him for the holiness both of his life and of his doctrine, did work them up into such a fury as to pursue him to a most violent and ignominious death, he, in compliance with the

secret design of his Father, did not only go through the dismal series of sufferings, with the most entire resignation to his Father's will, and with the highest charity possible towards those who were his most unjust and malicious murderers ; but he at the same time underwent great agonies in his mind, which struck him with such an amazement and sorrow even to the death, that upon it he did sweat great drops of blood, and on the cross he felt a withdrawing of those comforts that till then had ever supported him, when he cried out, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? It is not easy for us to apprehend in what that agony consisted, for we understand only the agonies of pain or of conscience, which last arise out of the horrors of guilt, or the apprehension of the wrath of God. It is, indeed, certain, that he who had no sin could have no such horror in him; and yet it is as certain that he could not be put into such an agony only through the apprehension and fear of that violent death which he was to suffer next day; therefore we ought to conclude that there was an inward suffering in his mind, as well as an outward visible one in his body: we cannot distinctly apprehend what that was, since he was sure of his own spotless innocence, and of his Father's unchangeable love to him. We can only imagine a vast sense of the heinousness of

sin, and a deep indignation at the dishonour done to God by it; a melting apprehension at the. corruption and miseries of mankind by reason of sin, together with a never-before felt withdrawing of those consolations that had always filled his soul; but what might be farther in his agony and in his last dereliction, we cannot distinctly apprehend; only this we perceive, that our minds are capable of great pain as well as our bodies are deep horror, with an inconsolable sharpness of thought, is a very intolerable thing. Notwithstanding the bodily or substantial indwelling of the fulness of the Godhead in him, yet he was capable of feeling vast pain in his body; so that he might become a complete sacrifice, and that we might have from his sufferings a very full and amazing apprehension of the guilt of sin; all those emanations of joy with which the indwelling of the Eternal Word had ever till then filled his soul, might then, when he needed them most, be quite withdrawn, and he be left merely to the firmness of his faith, to the patient resignation to the will of his heavenly Father, and to his willing readiness of drinking up that cup which his Father had put in his hand to drink.

"There remains but one thing to be remembered here, though it will come to be more specially

specially explained when other articles are to be opened; which is, that this reconciliation, which is made by the death of Christ between God and man, is not absolute and without conditions. He has established the covenant, and has performed all that was incumbent on him, as both the priest and the sacrifice, to do and to suffer; and he offers this to the world, that it may be closed with by them on the terms on which it is proposed; and if they do not accept of it upon these conditions, and perform what is enjoined them, they can have no share in it (n).”

(n) Burnet.

ARTICLE THE THIRD.

Of the going down of Christ into Hell.

AS CHRIST DIED FOR US, AND WAS BURIED, SO ALSO IS IT TO BE BELIEVED THAT HE WENT DOWN INTO HELL.

THAT Christ descended into Hell is not expressly asserted by any of the Evangelists; but they all relate that he expired upon the cross, and that after three days he again appeared alive and therefore it may be inferred that in the intermediate time his soul went into the common receptacle for departed souls (a). But a more direct proof of this proposition may be found in St. Peter's Sermon, after the effusion of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost (b), in which he applies to the resurrection of our Saviour the passage in the Psalms: "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy

(a) There is no single word in our language which has this signification; but we are told that this was formerly the sense of the Saxon word Hell, though it now always means the place of the punishment of the wicked, after the general judgment, as opposed to heaven, the place of the reward of the righteous. (b) Acts, c. 2. v. 27.