wards. I found her becoming more and more acquainted with the way of salvation, under the teaching, chiefly, of the unerring SPIRIT of GOD. The last time I called at her house, I learned that she had de parted this life, and had desired her attendants to tell me, that "she died a witness of the peace of GoD in her soul, and hoped to meet me in heaven." RELIGION: A FRAGMENT. THE truth of the Christian Religion is not any where more exemplified than in the simplicity and ardent love, which burn in the hearts, and shine in the lives, of the illiterate but pious part of mankind. Better is it to be the poorest, weakest, and most distempered person upon earth, with the fear and love of GoD, and of his Son JESUS, than the greatest wit, and highest mind in the world, if void of any just and deep sense thereof; for to such a one, to live is CHRIST, and to die is gain." DR. DODD, preaching at the Magdalen one Sunday, was extolling the charms of Religion, with all the glow of diction which characterized his sermons. The congregation was fixed with admiration. The Doctor observing it, exclaimed, “Ah, my brethren, you are like the libertines of the world, who have brought these poor wretches (pointing to the female penitents) to ruin and remorse; you admire its beauties, but will not take it for life to your bosoms." The Christian Religion is the only one which puts into their proper place those ceremonial niceties, which some deem absolutely and universally necessary to salvation. It teaches us to render our intercourse with the Father of Mercies easy and sweet, by uniting ourselves to him through faith in his Son, the blessed JESUS. We learn that it is not either upon Mount Sion, or Gerizim, exclusively, that we are to raise an altar; but that every faithful heart "is a living temple," where the Holy Trinity is adored "in spirit and in truth." Our great danger is, that we should rest in the mere forms of religion,—a smooth surface without any depth or solidity; like those things to which we give a fine polish, and beautiful gloss, while what is within is untouched. Yet the Forms of Christianity, while they are not to be idolized, must not T. C. be neglected or undervalued. By our Baptism and Church-Communion we are made one body with CHRIST; and by the Faith which works by love, we become one soul. There is nothing more dangerous than inconsiderate censures of those religious ceremonies which are received and respected in the country in which we reside. Some do not think how exceedingly wrong they are acting, when they speak slightingly of the various symbols of public worship yet if they attentively observed the kind of minds, and the first habits, of those to whom they address their discourses, they would know how easy it is to wound them in those sentiments which are the source of all their tranquillity, and the only safeguard of their moral conduct. WILLIAM TELL, the deliverer of Switzerland, struck off, with one of his arrows, an apple placed on the head of his only son; but every one cannot expect to be so fortunate.Few are aware of the mutual corro : boration which takes place between Christian Faith and Works of piety and mercy; for as faith engages practice, so practice strengthens faith. The body first imparts heat to the garment, but the garment returns it with considerable advantage to the body and "as the body without the spirit is dead, even so faith without works is dead also." The Christian Religion teaches that there is no crime in its own nature unpardonable; but that a whole life of persevering crime, impenitence, and unbelief, may be so. It places between the Judge and the criminal a great Mediator; but it teaches too that it is extremely dangerous to affront mercy by new crimes, thereby filling up the measure of iniquity, and going towards that awful point where paternal goodness ends. ON OUR LORD'S DESCENT INTO HELL. To the Editor of the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine. DEAR SIR, : I COULD almost wish that an Act of Uniformity were passed by some competent authority, to regulate the reading of the Liturgy in your Chapels in the Metropolis. I am in the habit of attending several of them occasionally; and have not, I confess, been much edified by the various readings which have been sometimes introduced at the fancy or the judgment of the Minister for the time being. I am not, however, about to dispute with the Pulpit; nor even with the Reading-Desk. That is an aim too high but probably, Sir, I may be allowed to express my surprise, that in a desk lower than the reading-desk, I should have occasionally heard variations in the responses, not sanctioned even by the Minister; and especially, that in repeating that solemn profession of our faith, in words consecrated by so high an antiquity, the Apostles' Creed, the congregations should have been treated with a Greek word, instead of an English one, by two of your learned Clerks, or left, by the total silence of others, to presume that some mistake had occurred. From the lips of two of these generally very useful personages, I have several times heard, "He descended into Hades," instead of "Hell;" and from others I have heard nothing in response to the Minister when reciting this article;-they having, I suppose, some scruple at repeating what the Church of CHRIST, in all its confessions which have used a Liturgy, has almost universally believed and professed in these or similar words. This novelty has led me to consider the subject which has been thus obtruded upon the attention of your congregations, and that not in the most gracious manner, or under the most influential authority; and the following is the result." I do not, indeed, profess to write for the instruction of these learned Clerks, who appear to feel themselves quite at ease in setting at nought the authority of the numerous and weighty names, beginning with the Apostolic Fathers, and going on to the name of WESLEY, who have been the guides of the faith of successive ages. I write, Sir, for the plainer people of your congregations. I shall not, however, imitate your Grecians of the second reading-desk, by a display of learning on this subject, which I could easily find ready to my hand, in those criticisms on Hades and Sheol, which are to be met with in Lexicographers, and in various Expositions of the Apostles' Creed. I, Sir, think the Descent of CHRIST into Hell au important part of the christian faith, and I shall give you my reasons for it. I. And, first, I am sure that this clause has been in this blessed form of sound doctrine,-this epitome of the Gospel, which has shone throughout the darkness of the worst ages of the Christian Church, the steady constellation of pure and heavenkindled truths, in lofty contrast with the fleeting earthly meteors of human opinions,-up to the period of a high antiquity; and it is of no small weight with me, that it has been adopted in its present form by the Protestant Church of these realms, of whose Founders it may be very safely said, in every thing fundamental, "whose faith follow." II. Though this clause should not be found in some of the earlier formularies of the Greek and Latin Churches, the Descent of CHRIST into Hell was a part of the avowed faith of the Universal Church up to the apostolic ages; and of the heretics, as well as the orthodox, with scarcely any exception. It was, in fact, a truth so undoubted, so fully admitted, as to be made the principle and ground of reasoning in certain important controversies; which sufficiently proves, that in this the parties were agreed. Their opinions as to the reasons for which CHRIST descended into Hell, and the objects to be answered by it, were, it is true, very various. Some thought that he went to raise the spirits of the just to a higher state of blessedness; and others, that he went to liberate the imprisoned spirits of the damned,-misinterpreting a passage in ST. PETER. These discussions gave rise to other varieties of opinion; but the fact itself was held by all, however interpreted. "There is nothing," says BISHOP PEARSON, in his Discourse on this Article, "in which the Fathers agree more than in this, the real Descent of the soul of CHRIST unto the habitations of souls departed." He adds his authorities, beginning with IRENEUS, who lived in the second century; and he might have gone higher. III. But we have better authority than this; even that of the celebrated passage in the Psalms, quoted and explained by ST. PETER in his Sermon: "Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell." For, as the same learned Expositor of the Creed, whom we have just quoted, observes, "If the soul of CHRIST were not left in hell at his resurrection, then his soul was in hell before his resurrection; but it was not there before his death; therefore, upon or after his death, and before his resurrection, the soul of CHRIST descended into hell.'" 6 Having gone up to inspired authority, I hope that at least I have given a reason to those who refuse to respond to this Article in the Creed, which proves that their scruple as to the term may as well be applied to the Scriptures as to the Apostolic Symbol; and that this part of ST. PETER'S Sermon, and MESSIAH's prophetic hope, ought for the same reason to go unread. The sense of the term Hell will now, however, naturally be demanded. "Hades" is the reply of your learned Clerks; and, as they advance from Greek to Hebrew, by and by your Chapels will probably resound with the more sonorous Sheol. What then is Sheol, Hades, or Hell? And first I observe, that they all express, when taken in their large and ancient sense, precisely the same thing, the place of departed souls, unseen, or invisible, and that, whether these departed souls were good or bad. With respect to the Hebrew term Sheol, the learned VITRINGA remarks on the celebrated passage in ISAIAH,-which LoWTH translates, "Hades (Sheol) from beneath is moved, because of thee, to meet thee at thy coming; He rouseth for thee the mighty dead, all the great chiefs of the earth; (the Rephaim, shades, or manes;}”— that though the word is used, (though very rarely,) for the grave or sepulchre, it cannot be so taken in this passage; that it is here the place of the souls of men released from the body by death; and that this entire region was called by the Jews Sheol, by the Greeks, Hades, and by the Latins, Inferi. As to the origin of the word, DR. MAGEE has given us a striking criticism, which, though not relevant to my main purpose, will be read with interest. "It has been best derived from the verb, quæsivit, postulavit, indicating its insatiable craving. At the same time, I confess, I cannot but think that there has been overlooked by the Critics a particular acceptation of the word 87, which would more adequately convey the true character and nature of Sheol. The verb is known not only to signify, to demand or crave, but to demand or plies that what is sought for is to crave AS A LOAN; and therefore imbe rendered back. the case, Sheol is to be understood, In this view of not simply as the region of departed spirits; but as the region which is to form their temporary residence, and from which they are, at some future time, to be rendered up; thus indicating an intermediate state of the soul between its departure from this world, and some future stage of its existence." If the Hebrew Sheol was then souls, good or bad, so the common receptacle of departed Greek Hades. Thus HOMER, in the was the eleventh book of the Odyssey, makes ULYSSES meet there many of his deand wicked; and ENEAS, in his deceased acquaintance, both virtuous state of torment, but the most illusscent, sees not only the wicked in a trious and excellent of different ages; "..... pulcherrima proles, Magnanimi heroes, nati melioribus annis." The same notion was conveyed by the English term Hell; which, as LORD KING, in his Critical History of the Creed, observes, is derived from the Saxon word hil, which signifies to hide, or from the participle thereof, hilled, hidden or covered, and so exactly answers to the Greek Hudes, an unseen, or hidden place To this I may add, that in the Edda, the record of our pagan northern mythology, we have a personified Hela, or Death; and that the invisible regions of our Gothic ancestors answered, though under ruder forms, and wilder creations of the fancy, to the classical Hades, both being probably borrowed from the Sheol of the Jews. But, 2. Though these words stand for the common receptacle of departed souls, yet it is to be carefully noted, that this common abode had its two distinct regions, of felicity and of torture; that the souls of the righteous were in joy and felicity; and that the wicked were in a state of hopeless wretchedness. WINDET tells us, that the Rabbins assert that Sheol contains Paradise, and Gehenna or Hell. “Tam Parudisum quam Gehennam in Sheol contineri certum est." Thus also the Greeks fixed their Tartarus in Hades. But there is no need to refer either to Rabbinical or mythological representations. The testimony of Scripture on the subject of the division of the place of the dead into two distinct regions of felicity and misery, is express. "Hell (Sheol) is naked before him; and destruction hath no covering." (Job xxvi. 6.) The word rendered destruction (8) means the place of perdition, "interitûs seu perditionis locus." CASTELL. We have here, then, the place of departed souls, under its general name Sheol: invisible to mortal eye, it is yet naked before the eye of GOD, and that to its greatest depths, to that lowest and most engulfed part into which evil angels were cast down, and into which the wicked are banished: "the place of destruction hath no covering." I need not say to you that the root of this word signifies to be lost, to perish, and the noun formed from it is, therefore, the most appropriate appellative of the place of those who, having passed through the only state of trial on earth, are now lost for ever. The Targum paraphrases this place, "the house of perdition." A similar passage occurs in Proverbs xv. 11; "Hell and destruction are before the LORD, how much more the hearts of the children of men;" where no sense can be made of the word destruction, except it be taken as above. Sheol, and the place of destruction, are before the LORD." In Psalm 1xxxviii. 12, "Bishop HORSLEY more elegantly translates it, "the seats of destruction." It is also to be observed, that our LORD adopts the Jewish terms for the two distinct regions of Sheol, or Hades, -Gehenna, for the place of punishment, and Paradise for the place of felicity; and that his account of the Rich Man and LAZARUS is constructed upon the same view. LAZARUS is in ABRAHAM's bosom, that is, in the society of the departed holy and blessed saints; the Rich Man, in a place of torment, lifting up his eyes; ABRAHAM a great way off'; and an impassable gulf between. 3. This distinction of Sheol, or Hades, into two distinct regions, being made out, I proceed to observe that nothing is more certain than that our LORD did enter, at least, into one of them. To prove this, I need only quote his words to the thief upon the Cross. Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." He spoke in language familiar to a Jew, and, therefore, such as would convey clear and satisfactory information to this accepted penitent. It was as much as to tell him, that he should accompany him to ABRAHAM's bosom, or in other words, to the society of the faithful in heaven: for our LORD gives this sense to the phrase when he speaks of "many coming from the east and from the west, and sitting down with ABRAHAM in the kingdom of GOD," as we have it, according to our customs; but xx ανακλιθήσονται μετα Αβρααμ, discumbent cum ABRAHAMO, means, shall recline, or lie in the bosom of ABRAHAM, at the feast. Into this part of Sheol, or Hades, this Paradise, this region where the departed righteous of all ages, at the head of whom was ABRAHAM, the Father of the Faithful, were collected, the disembodied spirit of our LORD, in personal union with the divine nature, entered. Now, Sir, provided any person go no farther with me in my views on this subject than to this point, I shall not quarrel with him; and I think that there is a good reason why even this may be called a Descent into Hell, as it unquestionably has been by many in former ages, and is by many still, who do not think that our LORD went into that region of Hades, to which, in the modern use of the term, the word Hell is restrained. I shall not here urge that, in a philosophic sense, descent is just as proper a term as ascent; and that we speak even popularly of the depth of heaven. I rest nothing on this but as all who know any thing of the opinions of the ancient Greeks will recollect, that they placed their Hades within, or as they would say, below the earth; so that circumstance may be supposed to have given rise to a common mode of expression on such subjects, which, as it signified little, was adopted by the early Churches which used the Greek language. The going of CHRIST into Hades, might be called a Descent for a stronger reason, It was a general opinion, at an early period, that the souls of saints were not in that heaven to which they will be exalted after the General Resurrection; and that in comparison of that highest heaven, the heaven of heavens, the place they inhabited in the intermediate time, though a place of felicity, was low and inferior. Another opinion, also, had great currency, viz. that CHRIST visited this comparatively low and inferior Hades, in which the souls of the faithful who had died before his advent were kept; and that they were, at his ascension, exalted with him to the right hand of GoD, to which, also, all who now die in the faith are, by the mercy of GoD, conducted for when they are "absent from the body," it is certain, they shall be " present with the LORD." I own, Sir, that after all I have read against this opinion, it appears to me a very noble one; much incidental evidence, at least, I think, might be collected from the Scriptures in its favour; and I recollect nothing against it. However, I lay no stress upon it. Whether this was one of the honours of CHRIST'S ascension or not, is in no wise material. The true reason why an entrance into the invisible world, by any departed spirit, was expressed by Descent, or any word conveying a similar notion, as 'going down," &c., will, I conceive, be found in the Old Testament. Sheol, sometimes, though, as VITRINGA observes, but rarely, signifies the Grave. This, however, is certain, that the representations of Sheol are frequently taken from the Jewish and Eastern modes of burial in caverns of the earth, where the dead were laid in celis, "in the sides of the pit," in obscure galleries and lengthened aisles. Of this kind were the vaults or sepulchres of Kings, of opulent families, and sometimes of towns. These were the mansions which furnished the Prophets and Poets of the Hebrews with their figures and allusions; an eminent instance of which we see in the 14th chapter of ISAIAH beforementioned. In like manner, as HOMER, in his Odyssey, sends the souls of the slaughtered warriors to Hades, where they meet with the Manes of ACHILLES, AGAMEMNON, and other heroes; so the Hebrew Poet, in this passage of inimitable grandeur, describes the King of Babylon, when slain and brought to the grave, as entering Sheol, and there meeting the Rephaim, or Manes of the dead, who had descended thither before him, and who are poetically represented as arising from their seats at his approach.” * Nothing can be more evident, than that he pursues the spirit of the fallen monarch into another state of being, and that all the images are taken from the sepulchre. "He maketh to rise up from their thrones all the kings of the nations; All of them shall accost thee, and shall say unto thee, Art thou, even thou too, become weak as we? art thou made like unto us? Is then thy pride brought down to the grave? the sound of thy sprightly instruments? Is the vermin become thy couch, and the earth-worm thy covering," &c. LOWTH's Translation. We have the Kings of the earth in their respective sepulchral chambers, the silence,-the powerless condition, and the very vermin, of the grave,-in this deep-toned and over DR. MAGEE. |