Hades; neither his flesh did see corruption". To make it still

"What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit?

more clear, it is immediately added, and expressly stated, that

Shall the dust praise Thee? shall it declare Thy truth?"

"David is not yet ascended into the heavens" (v. 34), and

therefore had not been raised from the dead. Note, it does not say

Psalm 88:11,

David's body, but David. This is another proof that resurrection

"Shall Thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave?

is the only way of entrance into heaven.

or Thy faithfulness in destruction?"

But this passage (Psalm 16:10) is again referred to in Acts

13:34-37, and here we have the same important lesson restated:

Isaiah 38:18,

"And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no

"For the grave cannot praise Thee, death can not celebrate Thee:

more to return to corruption, he saith...thou shalt not suffer thine

they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth."

Holy One to see corruption...For David fell on sleep, and was

laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption. But he whom God

Isaiah 38:19,

raised again saw no corruption". He saw it not, because He was

"The living, the living, he shall praise Thee, as I do this day:

raised from the dead, and thus brought out of the Sepulchre,

the father to the children shall make known Thy truth."

where He had been "buried". This is the teaching of the Word of

God. It knows nothing whatever of a "descent into hell" as

and as knowing nothing till resurrection. If these Scriptures are

separate, and distinct, from His burial. That is tradition pure and

to be believed (as they most surely are), then it is clear that the

simple. Not one of the Ancient Creeds of the Church knew

teaching of Tradition is not true, which says that death is not

anything of it. Up to the seventh century they all said "And was

death, but only life in some other form.

buried" and nothing more. But the Creed used in the Church of

Hades means the 'grave' (Heb. Sheol): not in Heathen

Aquileia (A.D. 400), instead of saying "buried" had the words

mythology, but in the Word of God. It was in Hades the Lord

"he descended into hell", but only as an equivalent for "he was

Jesus was put: for "He was buried". As to His Spirit, He said,

buried". This was of course quite correct.

"Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit" (Luke 23:46). And

These are the words of Bishop Pearson (Exposition of the

as to His body, it was "laid in a sepulchre". Of this burial He

Creed. Fourth Ed. 1857, pp. 402-3) "I observe that in the

says (Psalm 16:9):

Aquileian Creed, where this article was first expressed, there

was no mention of Christ's burial; but the words of their

"Thou wilt not leave my soul (i.e. me. Myself) in Sheol (or

Confession ran thus, crucified under Pontius Pilate, he

Hades), Neither wilt Thou suffer Thy holy one to see

descended in inferna. From whence there is no question but the

observation of Ruffinus (fl. 397), who first expounded it, was

These two lines are strictly parallel; and the second expands

most true, that though the Roman and Oriental Creeds had not

and explains the first. Hence, Sheol (Greek, Hades) is the place

these words, yet they had the sense of them in the word buried. It

where "corruption" is seen. And resurrection is the only way of

appears, therefore, that the first intention of putting these words

exit from it. This is made perfectly clear by the Divine

in the Creed was only to express the burial of our Saviour, or the

commentary on the passage in the New Testament. We read in

descent of his body into the grave. In a note he adds that "the

Acts 2:31: "He (David) seeing this before spake of the

same may be observed in the Athanasian Creed, which has the

resurrection of Christ, that his soul (i.e. he) was not left in