BROUGHTON. 223 and sin, hemight triumph over Satan. But ML Broughton, accounted the very rabbi of the age, convinced the world that the word hades, as used by the Greek fathers for the place into which Christ went after his crucifixion, did' not mean hell, or the place of the damned, but only the state of the dead, or the invisible world.. He was the first of our countrymen who gave this explanation ; which he did in a piece that he published, entitled, " An Explication of the article of Christ'sDescent to Hell." This proved the occa. sion of much controversy, and his opinion, now generally and justly received, was vehemently opposed. His two principal opponents in this controversy were Archbishop Whitgift and Bishop Bilson ; the latter of whom, in the warmth of disputation, he treated with some degree of contempt, and said of him, " Verily I was amazed, when I read his words, to see what a very infant in his mother's lap he is in the Greek tongue."f On this subject he addressed " An Oration to the Gene- veans," which was printed in Greek. In this piece he treats the celebrated Beza with much severity; but he supports his opinion, concerning the meaning of the word hades, in the most satisfactory and conclusive manner, by many quo, tations from Homer, Plato, Pindar, Diogenes, Laertius, and other Greek writers. Bayle says, that our author " was prodigiously attached to the discipline of the church of England, and he censured, in very bitter language, that of the presbyterians. The oration which he addressed to the Geneveans, is a very strong proof of this assertion." It is observed, however, in reply, that this oration does not, by any means, prove all that Bayle supposes. Allow- ance being made for Mr. Broughton's rough method of expressing himself, says the learned biographer, we think it does not appear from his Oration to the Geneveans, that he had any great aversion to them or their discipline. Excepting a fewsarcastic sentences, we can discern little animosity against them but with respect to the particular subject of which he treated, the interpretation of the word ,hades, in which the church at Geneva differed from what he justly supposed to be thetruth. He intimated also to the Geneveans, that they spoke unguardedly and improperly on the subject of predestination ; and that their desire to overthrow Pelagius made them deal their words with more heat than discretion4 Mr. Broughton was so celebrated S.trype's Whitgift, p. 482, 483.-Strype's Aylmer, p. 846, 247. t Biog. Briton. vol. ii. p. 609. t Ibid.
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