at length, willing to content the people (Mk. xv. 15), he delivered the Holy One to a centurion1 and a band of soldiers, who led Him forth without the city to a place called Golgotha, the place of a skull2 (Mtt. xxvii. 33). There the soldiers stripped Him of His garments, nailed His hands and feet to a Cross, placed a title over His head, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews, and thus crucified Him between two malefactors3, one on His right hand, the other on His left (Mtt. xxvii. 37, 38).

6. Dead. In the Nicene, as also in some of the earlier Creeds, we say that our Lord was "crucified under Pontius Pilate and suffered." But the Apostles' Creed adds that He "died," that is, that His crucifixion ended in a real death. And this is added in opposition to the opinions of those who taught that His death was not real, but only apparent. The truth however of His

On the Creed, Art. IV. There were four kinds of crosses: (i) the Crux simplex, a simple stake driven through the chest or longitudinally through the body; (ii) the Crux decussata (×); (iii) the Crux immissa (†); and (iv) the Crux commissa (T). From the mention of the "title" placed over the Saviour's head it is probable that His cross was of the third kind. See Class-Book of New Testament History, p. 311, and the notes.

1 Exactor mortis, Tac. Ann. III. 14; XI. 37. Centurio supplicio præpositus. Seneca. 2 In Greek called Kranion, probably from the shape of its rounded summit. The Vulgate has rendered it in locum Calvaria (a skull), whence comes the English Calvary (Lk. xxiii. 33). It was (a) apparently a well-known spot, (b) outside the gate (comp. Heb. xiii. 12), but (c) near the city (Jn. xix. 20), and (d) on a thoroughfare leading into the country (Lk. xxiii. 26), and (e) contained a garden or orchard, κῆπος (Jn. xix. 41).

3 Not thieves (Kλeπтal), but robbers (λñoraι). See Trench's New Testament Synonyms, p. 153.

4 Compare the third Article of the Church of England, "who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried."

5 The error of the Docetæ. See Bp. Browne On the Articles, Art. II.

death is clearly set forth in the Gospels. For they tell us that after He had hung upon the Cross about six hours, i. e. from nine in the morning till three in the afternoon, He cried with a loud voice, Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit (Lk. xxiii. 46), and gave up the ghost, which means that His spirit was separated from His body, and, as death consists in this separation, so far as He was Man, He died. Moreover, when the soldiers deputed for this purpose by Pilate, at the request of the Jewish rulers1, came to Golgotha, they broke the legs of the two malefactors, but when they came to the body of Jesus, they found that He was dead already (Jn. xix. 33). They broke, therefore, not a bone of His body, but one of the soldiers thrust his spear into His side, thus inflicting a wound of itself sufficient to cause death, and immediately there flowed forth blood and water (Jn. xix. 34), showing, by this separation of the blood from the water, that He was truly dead.

7. And buried. And as He truly died, so also was He truly "buried"." For the Gospel narratives relate, that before the tidings of the Saviour's death

1 Death by crucifixion did not generally supervene till after three days, and was at last the result of gradual numbing and starvation. During this time the Romans permitted the sufferers to linger on, instead of shortening their agonies. The Mosaic law did not permit such barbarities, see Deut. xxi. 22, 23.

2 Fracture of the legs, crucifragium (Plaut. Pan. IV. 2, 64), was especially adopted by the Jews to hasten death, and was a mitigation of the punishment.

3 Thus unconsciously fulfilling the type of the Paschal lamb (Ex. xii. 46; Ps. xxxiv. 20), just as the piercing of the side fulfilled the words of Zechariah, that men should look upon Him whom they had pierced (Zech. xii. 10).

4 The spear used is called Móyxŋ (Jn. xix. 34), i. e. the Roman hasta, the iron head of which was the width of a handbreadth, and pointed at the end.

5 The burial of our Lord formed a distinct subject of St Paul's preaching, as appears from 1 Cor. xv. 4. And

could reach the ears of Pilate, Joseph of Arimathæa, a man of wealth, a member of the Sanhedrin, and a secret disciple of Jesus, boldly went to the procurator and requested that the Body of the Redeemer might be given up to him (Mk. xv. 43). Assured by the centurion who had been present at the crucifixion, that death had really taken place, Pilate assented, and Joseph having purchased fine linen proceeded to Golgotha with Nicodemus, who had brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight (Jn. xix. 39). Arrived there, they took down the Holy Body, wrapped it in the linen clothes with the myrrh and aloes, and conveyed it to a new tomb that Joseph had hewed out of a rock in a garden which he possessed near the place of crucifixion. There, in the presence of Mary Magdalene and other women, they laid the Body, rolled a great stone to the entrance, and departed1.

CHAPTER VI.

THE FIFTH ARTICLE.

He descended into Hell, the third day He rose again from the dead.

1. He descended into Hell. Thus in accordance with His own prediction (Mtt. xii. 40), in respect to His body was the Holy One truly buried, and thus did He make His grave with the rich (Isai. liii. 9). The Creed now proceeds to declare what became of His

since in Baptism the Christian is said to be buried with Christ (Col. ii. 12) into death (Rom. vi. 4), the afternoon of Easter Eve was in the Early Church one of the most favourite times for baptizing. See Guericke's Antiq. of the Christian Church, p. 149, and compare the Collect for Easter Even.

1 Mtt. xxvii. 60; Mk. xv. 46; Lk. xxiii. 53, 54.

soul, or spirit, which in death He commended into His Father's hands (Lk. xxiii. 46), and says that in it "He descended into Hell 1."

2. The word Hell here used is the English equivalent of the Greek word Hades, which literally means the unseen or hidden place2. It does not denote the place of torment, for which a different Greek word is always used, but the place of departed spirits3.

3. Scripture Proof. That our Lord did descend into Hades is plain from His own words to the penitent thief, Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be

1 This Article is not found in the oldest Creeds. It first occurs in the Creed of the Church of Aquileia, about A.D. 400, whence in all probability it was taken into the Apostles' Creed. All the earlier fathers, however, of the Church laid great stress on the belief in Christ's descent to Hades, as establishing the true doctrine of His humanity, viz. that He was "perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting;" "for whereas His body was laid in the grave, and His soul went down to Hades, He must have had both Body and Soul." Bp. Browne On the Articles, p. 81; Heurtley On the Creeds, pp. 134-137.

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2 The word Hell is derived from the A.-S. hélan to hide, cover or conceal. Compare Myrc's Instructions for Parish Priests, 1053, 1508 (Early English Text Society, pp. 23, 46), "Hast pou I-founde any þynge,

And helet hyt at askynge?

Tell me, sone, now alle smerte;

For alle pat pou helest now fro me."

"Be it made to him a clope þat he is helid wiþ, and as belt þat he is ai gird wip." Wiclif's Lollard Doctrines, Camden Soc. p. 24. It denotes, like the Hebrew Sheol, "the covered place," the invisible underworld. Tévva is the Greek word for "the place of torment," and aẞuoσos for "the bottomless pit." See Lk. viii. 31, and comp. Trench On the Miracles, p. 471 n.

3 The phrase used in the earlier Creeds in which this word occurs is in Greek eis rà κaтax@óvia, (comp. Eph. iv. 9), in Latin ad inferna or in inferna, in later times ad inferos, "to the inhabitants of the Inferna," as one Anglo-Saxon version exactly renders it, He nither astah to helwarum.

with Me in Paradise1 (Lk. xxiii. 43). Now "Paradise" or the "Garden of Eden" was a term applied by the Jews to that part of Hades containing the souls of the blessed in their intermediate state. Moreover, St Peter, in his address to the Jews on the day of Pentecost, quoting the sixteenth Psalm, Thou wilt not leave My soul in Hades, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption, distinctly states that the Psalmist spake of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, neither His flesh did see corruption (Acts ii. 25—31). From these passages, then, we infer that, as when human beings die, their bodies are laid in the grave, while their souls pass to the realm of spirits, even so our Lord descended thither also, "that He might fulfil the conditions of death proper to human nature3."

1 From the Greek word rapádeloos=a walled garden, or park of a king, rich in fruits and flowers. The Jews disposed of the souls of the righteous till the resurrection under a threefold phrase; (1) "The Garden of Eden" or "Paradise;" (2) "Under the throne of glory" (="under the altar," Rev. vi. 9); (3) "In Abraham's bosom" (Lk. xvi. 22). See Lightfoot's Hor. Heb. on Lk. xvi. 22; and Bp. Browne on the third Article.

2 The Creed does not state the purpose of Christ's descent into Hades, but from 1 Peter iii. 19, according to the most probable interpretation of the verse, we gather that He went and preached, or rather made proclamation (ẻкýpvžev) to the spirits in prison, i. e. in ward or guardianship (èv øvλakî) in Hades; and as to the subject of His proclamation, what can "be more probable than that He should have proclaimed to them that their Redemption had been fully effected, that Satan had been conquered, that the great Sacrifice had been offered up? If angels joy over one sinner that repenteth (Lk. xv. 10), may we not suppose Paradise filled with rapture, when the Soul of Jesus came among the souls of His redeemed, Himself the Herald (Kýpuέ) of His own victory?" See Bp. Browne on the third Article; Horsley's Sermons, Vol. 1. xx.; and Nowell's Catechism.

3 Bp. Browne on the third Article.