when he was taken from that prison. If the Saviour's soul lay three days and three nights in hell, the work was far from being finished on the cross, though he bowed his head, and declared it was. The word here called pains of death, or sorrows of death, is expressive of the sufferings of his soul under our sins, the wrath of God, the buffetings of Satan, the sword of Justice, the curse of the law, and being forsaken by his Father; and is the same word as is used to express the pangs of child birth, or the sorrows of a woman in labour; which the prophet Isaiah calls his travail, which he was to endure, and then he was to see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied in our salvation: which travail came upon him some days before his death, one pain after another; and every pain stronger and stronger, till the travail was over. "Now is my soul troubled." And in the garden he was sorrowful, and sore amazed, till at length he breaks out and complains of it, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death." Here are the sorrows or pains, of death on him; or, as he himself says, "The terrors of death are fallen upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me." And, when travail came heavier still, he prayed to God; and afterwards, when more bitter pangs came on, he sweat blood; and, when more oppressive still, he, being in agony, prayed the more earnestly, till an angel appeared and strengthened him; after this he said, "Sleep on now, and take your rest." But on the cross all his travail, the pains

or sorrows of death, came on him again; it was the Jews' hour, and the powers of darkness. And here he might truly say, "Behold, all ye that pass by, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow!" Here it was that the snares of death and flames of wrath got hold of him; the sword of Justice, the wrath of God, and the sins of men, met altogether upon him; and, to complete the dreadful scene, his Father forsook him, which he had never done before. Darkness likewise overspread the world; to shew the inexpressible sufferings of his soul as well as his body. At last he cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" At which cry he was heard in that he feared. The horrors of his soul were soon dispelled; the dreadful lower and awful storm blew over; Satan's shafts were spent; the sword of Justice was in its scabbard; the Father began to shine upon him; the dust and ashes of our sins dropped to the foot of the altar; the Holy Ghost sweetly operated as a comforter, and lent his friendly aid; at which the pains of death were loosed from his soul; his sorrows, or soul travail, was at an end; and with a loud voice he cried, "It is finished;" commended his spirit into the hands of his Father; bowed his head, and yielded up the ghost; and "through the eternal Spirit offered himself to God." Thus "the pains of death were loosed, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it" any longer than till the soul was made an offering for sin; which through the eternal Spirit was offered,

and by that Holy Spirit conveyed, or carried, into the hands of God the Father.

There is no suffering in hell, mentioned by the prophet, between the travail of his soul and being satisfied with seeing his seed. No, nor yet between his being obedient unto death and being highly exalted.

But Mr. Loud fetches all his arguments from the words "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." The sufferings of his soul in tasting of death, and the grave, is what is there meant by hell. Hell torments to a sinner lie in bearing his own sins, in the lashes of conscience, in the wrath of God, the curse of the law, the torment of devils, utter darkness, and banishment from God; of all which the Saviour tasted for us, and then these pains were loosed. Hell, in scripture language, does not always mean the bottomless pit. Jonah says, he cried out of the belly of hell, and God heard his voice. But there is a deal of difference between the sufferings of Jonah's mind in the bottom of the sea, and suffering in bottomless perdition; and much more between the regions of the damned and the carcass of a whale. And certain it is, that Jonah was a type of Christ, in being a sign to the Ninevites; and Christ being three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, and then rising from the dead, was to be the only sign that was to be given to that adulterous generation of the Jews.

Furthermore that the soul of our Saviour did not descend into hell, may plainly be seen by his answer to the thief upon the cross. The thief prayed to be remembered by him when he came into his kingdom; whose propitious answer to him was, " Verily, I say unto thee, to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." Which Paradise, Paul says, is the third heaven, 2 Cor. xii. 2. 4. Nor is this to be understood of the divine nature of Christ; for that is omnipresent, and immensity itself, and fills all space; and, in one sense, never left Paradise at all, for he was in the third heaven, though incarnate upon earth; as it is written "And no man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven, even the son of man, which is in heaven," John iii. 13. Here is a coming down from heaven, which is so called because of his humiliation in the assumption of human nature, and yet, in the present tense, it is said that the Son of man is in heaven; which is true respecting his divine presence, though incarnate. The Saviour's answer, therefore, plainly implies thus much; this day I shall make my. soul an offering for sin, and through the eternal Spirit it will be conveyed into my Father's hands in the third heaven, and thy soul shall be conveyed there likewise by the angels; so that thou shalt this day, before midnight, be with me in Paradise; which is a scriptural solution of the text, and by no means contrary to the analogy of faith. Hence it is plain that the Lord suffered no hell

torments between the death of the cross and the third heaven; and it is as plain that there is no place of punishment between the death of the saint and Paradise. Elijah went from earth to heaven in a fiery chariot, and Lazarus went from death, by the angels, into Abraham's bosom; which differs much from purgatory. By the blood of the Cross, peace was made by the Saviour; and God declares that, if we mark the perfect man and behold the upright, we shall see the end of that man to be peace, not purgatory: and so we may conclude that the end of faith is the salvation of the soul.

It is a pity that Mr. Loud did not consider Peter's sermon, recorded in the Acts, a little more minutely, before he had perverted one word, to contradict all the rest; where he would have seen his vile notion, of the Saviour's partaking no more of the human nature than his handkerchief, or his supposed funnel, plainly and fully refuted. But so dexterous is the spirit of error in him, at turning all things into bane, that he can grasp one word to support his notion of a descent into hell, but he could not see the other, which contradicts him to his face with an oath. But, as he has neg

lected this, I must produce it.

"Men and bre

thren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day; therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins,