Hell (1) Christ's descent into. That Christ locally descended into hell, is a doctrine believed not only by the papists, but by many among the reformed.
1. the text chiefly brought forward in support of this doctrine is the 1 Peter 3:19. "By which he went and preached to the spirits in prison;" but it evidently appears that the "spirit" there mentioned was not Christ's human soul, but a divine nature, or rather the Holy Spirit (by which he was quickened, and raised from the dead;) and by the inspiration of which, granted to Noah, he preached to those notorious sinners who are now in the prison of hell for their disobedience.
2. Christ, when on the cross, promised the penitent thief his presence that day in paradise; and accordingly, when he died, he committed his soul into his heavenly Father's hand: in heaven therefore, and not in hell, we are to seek the separate spirit of our Redeemer in this period, Luke 23:43; Luke 23:46
3. Had our Lord descended to preach to the damned, there is no supposable reason why the unbelievers in Noah's time only should be mentioned rather than those of Sodom, and the unhappy multitudes that died in sin. but it may be said, do not both the Old and New Testaments intimate this? Psalms 16:10. Acts 2:34. but it may be answered, that the words, "thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, " may be explained (as is the manner of the Hebrew poets) in the following words: "Neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to See corruption." So the same words are used, Psalms 89:48.
"What man is he that liveth, and shall not See death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave?" In the Hebrew the word commonly rendered hell properly signifies " the invisible state, " as our word hell originally did; and the other word signifies not always the immortal soul, but the animal frame in general, either living or dead. Bishop Pearson and Dr. Barrow on the Creed; Edwards's Hist. of Redemption, notes, p. 351, 377; Ridgley's Body of Div. p. 308, 3d edit. Doddridge and Guise on 1 Peter 3:19.