also for all actual sins of men.” Not only, as the "Lamb without spot," making atonement for the sinful nature of humanity, that all who believe and are found in Him should not be judged after the flesh, having received from union with Him that new nature which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness; but "if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins.”

ARTICLE III.—“Of the going down of Christ
into Hell."

The word here rendered “hell" is not Gehenna. It is a confusion in our translation, which interprets Hades (literally, the invisible world), the temporary abode of departed spirits, good or bad, while awaiting resurrection and judgment, and Gehenna, which means the place of the damned, by the same word, Hell.

It is obviously Hades which here is alluded to. Our blessed Lord never could enter Gehenna, that "place prepared for the devil and his angels," into whose everlasting fire shall those depart who are found on the left hand" in that day when we shall all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ.

Hades, too, is the place to which departed spirits at once go on separation from the body, and that our Saviour did but follow the general rule is

evident from His memorable words to the thief on the Cross, "To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." St. Peter also in his Epistle says, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit; by which also He went and preached to the spirits in prison; which some time were disobedient." This prison could not be Gehenna, as the disobedient spirits had not yet received their final doom, but it seems to have been-irreconcilable as it may appear-that "Paradise" to which the repentant thief was admitted. In our Lord's par

able of Dives and Lazarus, the spirits of these two men are represented, the one in "Abraham's bosom," the other "in hell, being in torments," as holding intercourse. The soul of Lazarus "comforted," and that of Dives "tormented," were, though divided by a fixed impassable gulf, still in the same vast spirit-realm in which they could yet converse with and behold each other, but "afar off." This intercourse would be impossible between heaven and hell. "For what communion hath light with darkness?"

From that mysterious passage in St. Peter quoted above it appears that possibly once since the fall of man, on the great day of universal atonement, the spirits of those who had died in their sins unrepentant in this world were offered anew an opportunity of salvation by the presence and preaching in their midst of Him who, having suffered for the sins of

mankind," preached "also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” *

We are not told explicitly of this; therefore how it may be we cannot know; but this we do, that, as the atonement of the world will never be repeated, neither will there be again through time or eternity offers of pardon and peace made to those who have refused the salvation of Christ in this life, and passed through the grave and gate of death with their account all unsettled between them and their Maker. We must make our peace with God through Christ here, if we would enter hereafter, as with Him, first Paradise, then heaven.

ARTICLE IV." Of the Resurrection of Christ."

"And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures."

The Resurrection of Christ is nowhere in the Old Testament clearly expounded, but is rather, like the doctrine of the Trinity, foreshadowed and typified in the "dark sayings" of psalmist and prophet, as a few examples will show. In the second Psalm, which is prophetic of our Lord's rejection by the

* I am aware of the difficulties of this passage, and the various interpretations it has received, and have adopted that formerly accepted by the second clause of this Article, which was omitted on Archbishop Parker's revision.

rulers and people of this world, it is declared that He shall triumph over all by the strength of His Father's decree, "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee." This day, when, on rising conqueror over the grave, He takes to Himself His power and reigns over the heathen, His inheritance, and the utmost part of the earth, His possession, till He return in glory to judge its inhabitants at the last day, when on those who have refused His rule and declared, "We will not have this Man to reign over us," the sentence is gone forth, "He shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." This is to those who rebel; to those who submit to His dominion, "His yoke is easy and His burden is light." In the sixteenth Psalm we have a clearer view of the nature of this triumph. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth; my flesh also shall rest in hope. For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption."

St. Peter in his address to the Jews, given in the second chapter of Acts, refers to this prophecy when declaring that our Crucified Lord was risen, "having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be holden of it." He argues that David, being dead and buried, and his sepulchre in Jerusalem at that day, he could not have spoken those words in allusion to himself, but "being a prophet, and knowing that God had

sworn, He would raise up Christ to sit on His throne; he seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in hell, neither His flesh did see corruption."

Again, the Prophet Isaiah, complaining of the oppression and affliction imposed on the Jews by the various kingdoms which in turn had tyrannised over them, says, "O Lord our God, other lords beside Thee have had dominion over us," going on to thank the Lord for having delivered His people from them. "They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise." Then contrasting the endless reign of Messiah, "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise; awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust, for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." Such are a few of the inspired prophecies of the Resurrection scattered through the Scriptures.

"But how was He raised up, and with what body did He come?" With the same sacred body which was crucified and laid in the grave; only "it was sown in dishonour, it was raised in glory; it was sown in weakness, it was raised in power; it was sown a natural body, it was raised a spiritual body." The same body still to all eternity bearing the marks where "He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities."

"Those dear tokens of His Passion,
Still His dazing body bears,