pliciter credimus, quod tota persona (Christi), Deus et hciio, post sepulturam, ad inferos descenderit, Satanain devicerit, potestatem inferoruin everterit, et Diabolo omiiem vim et potentiain eriputyit. Quoiuodo vero Cliristus id effecerit, non est ut argutis et subiimi- bus i ma o;i nation! bus scrutemur."
The Romish Doctrine of the '•'■Descensus ad Inferos^
The Romanists teach that the department of Hades to wliich Christ descended, was not the abode of evil spirits, but that in which dwelt the souls of believers who died before the advent of the Redeemer, and that the object of his descent was neither to preach the gospel, nor to despoil Satan, but to deliver the pious dead from the intermediate state in which they then were (called the Limhus patrum), and to introduce them into heaven. These were the captives which, according to E[)hesians iv. 8, He led in triumph when He ascended on high after his resurrection. This doctrine not only has no Scriptural foundation, but it rests on an unscriptural theory as to the efficacy of the truth and ordinances as revealed and ordained under the old dispensation. Believing, as the Church of Rome does, that saving grace is communicated only tiirough the Christian sacraments, Romanists are consti'ained to believe that there was no real remission of sin, or sanctific?tion, before tlie institution of the Christian Church. The sacraments of tiie Old Testament, they say simply signified grace, while those of the New actually convey it. This being the case, believers dying before the coming of Christ were not really saved, but passed into a state of negative existence, neither of suffering nor of happiness, from which it was the object of Christ's descent into Hades to deliver them. The above are only a few of the specu- lations in vrhich theologians in all ages of the Church have in- dulged as to the nature and design of the descensus ad inferos in which all pi'ofess to believe. Whole volumes have been devoted to this subject.^
The Views of Lutherans and of Modern Theologians on the Hu- miliation of Christ.
As the Lutherans at the time of the Reformation departed from the faith of the Church on the person of Christ, they were led into certain peculiarities of doctrine on other related subjects. In-
1 J. S. Semler, De Vario el Impari Veterum Studio in recolenda Historia Descensus Christi ad Inferos. A. Dietelmaier, Hist. Dogm. de Descensu Chrisli ad Inferos. J. Clausen, Dog' matis de Descensu J. C- ad Inf. Historia Biblicn et Ecclesiastica. Harker, Diss, dt Descensu Jau ad Inferos. Bishop Pearson, On the Creed.
622 PART III. Ch. XII. — humiliation OF CHRIST.
sisting, as Luther did, on the local presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucliarist, he was constrained to believe that Christ as to his human nature was everywhere present. This in- volved the assumption that, in virtue of the hypostatical union, the attributes of the divine, were communicated to his human nature, so that Christ's human soul was omniscient, almighty, and omni- present. And as this communication of attributes took place from the very beginning, the human nature of Clu'ist from the com- mencement of its existence, was endowed with all divine perfec- tions. Yet not only in infancy, but throughout the whole of his earthly pilgrimage. He appeared, except on rare occasions, as an ordinary man, possessed as a man of no attributes which did not belong to other men. His miracles of knowledge and power were occasional manifestations of what as a man He really Avas, as those miracles were effects produced, not by his divine nature or Logos, nor by the Holy Spirit with which his humanity was endowed without measure, but by his human nature itself. His humiliation, therefore, consisted mainly and essentially in his voluntarily abstain- ing from the exercise and manifestation of the divine attributes with which his humanity was endowed and imbued. Li the "Form of Concord"^ it is said, " Credimus .... filium hominis ad dex- teram omnipotentis majestatis et virtutis Dei realiter, hoc est, vere et reipsa secundum humanam suam naturam esse exaltatum, cum homo ille in Deum assumptus fuerit, quamprimum in utero matris
a Spiritu Sancto est conceptus Eamque majestatem, ratione
unionis personalis semper Christus habuit : sed in statu sua3 humili- tationis sese exinanivit .... Quare majestatem illam non semper, sed quoties ipsi visum fuit, exseruit, donee formam servi, non auteui naturam humanam post resurrectionem plene et jirorsus deponeret, et in ])leiiariam usurpationem manifestationem et declarationem
divinse majestatis collocaretur Hanc suam potestatem ubi-
que prsesens exercere potest, neque quidquam illi aut impossibile est aut ignotum. Inde adeo, et quidem facillime, corpus suum varum et sanguinem suum in sacra coena prsesens distribuere po- test." " Humana natura .... inde .... quod cum divina na- tura personaliter unita est ... . prajter et supra iiaturales atque in ipsa perman»ntjs humanas proprietates, etiam singulares .... supernaturales .... praerogativas majestatis, gloriae, virtutis ac potentia3 super omne, quod nominal ur, non solum in hoc secuio sed etiam in futuro, accepit."^ "[Christus,] postquam . . . . super omnes coelos ascendit, et revera omnia implet, et ubique non 1 Art. VIII. 16, 17; Hase, L^ri Symbolici, pp. 608, 609. 2 Art. vni. bl; ML p, " f*.