Question #43

of An Orthodox Catechism

Question

Why is there added, he descended into Hell?

Answer

That in my greatest pains and most grevious temptations I may support my self with this comfort, that my Lord Jesus Christ¹ ⁠ ^*hath delivered me (by the unspeakable distresses, torments and terrors of his Soul, into which he was plunged both before, and then especially when he hanged on the Cross) from the straits and torments of Hell.

* Not that he (to wit, Christ) went into the Place of the damned, but that he went absolutely into the state of the dead. See Dr. Usher in his Body of Divinity, pag. 174. and Mr. Perkins, on the Creed.