attending to the descriptions which the ancients have left us of hell.

"This word signified among them the residence of souls. Thither, after death, they repaired in crowds to receive remuneration for their deeds. Minos sat as judge, and, as the names were drawn out of the fatal urn, he distributed to each his merited punishment or reward. Pluto, seated on a throne of ebony, presided over the infernal regions; because, as we have already observed, in the symbolical religion of the ancients, part of which was dedicated to the worship of the stars, winter was the night of nature, and because the sun at that time took the name of king of the Shades. For this reason Pluto, who represented the sun, makes so important a figure in mysteries destined to describe the empire of the dead. That gloomy region was situated at an immense distance, far beyond the limits of this universe. According to the author of the Theogony, 'as far as the heaven is distant from the earth, so far is the earth removed from the dark abyss. A mass of iron falling from the top of the starry heavens, would take nine days and nine nights before it reached the surface of the earth; and it would require the same time in falling from thence to Tartarus,' the place destined for the punishment of the wicked.

"This frightful abode was said to be twice as deep as it is distant from the brilliant summit of Olympus. It was surrounded by a triple wall; it was bathed by the flaming waters of Cocytus and of Phlegethon, and towers of iron guarded the entrance. The cruel Tisiphone watched night and day at the gate, armed with serpents, which she shook over the heads of the guilty. Their groans, their doleful cries, mixed with the sound of their stripes, caused the wide abyss to resound. There are forever shut up the impious Titans, and those no less audacious mortals who dared to resist the divinity; Tityus, Ixion, Pirithous, and the impious Salmoneus. Perjury, adultery, incest and parricide, are likewise punished; and those whose life has been sullied with odious

crimes those who have not respected the ties of blood, who have waged unjust wars, who have sold their country-those who have dared to commit enormous wickedness, and enjoyed the fruit of their crimes, are all consigned to the most cruel torments.

"We may conceive what impression these images would make on the mind, when unceasingly presented to the eyes from earliest infancy. It is not to be doubted, that if the hope of felicity unbounded leads to virtue, the idea of endless punishment must have a still stronger influence on the conduct. The religion of the ancients, which to us appears of so light a nature that we are apt to believe its only end was to flatter the senses, yet employed the most proper means for restraining the outrageous multitude.* It alarmed them on all sides with the most frightful representations. A poet of antiquity paints in the strongest colors that continual terror which takes possession of the human heart, which disturbs and poisons the pleasures of life, and which in every part of the earth has erected temples for the purpose of conciliating the gods. Plato, in the beginning of the first book of his Republic, represents an old man seized with fear at the approach of death, and full of inquietude with regard to objects that never occupy the season of health. Then it is, says he, that we reflect on our crimes, on the injustice we have committed, and that often, in our agitation, we start in our sleep, and are frightened like children.† As soon as some were found among the ancients who had overcome these fears, it was pretended that such had never existed among them: we might as reasonably judge of the public belief at this day by the opinions in which

* The doctrine of endless punishment, among the heathen, did not make them moral men, as facts show. Nor has it done this among Christians, as all must admit. The apostles preached the love of God in the gift of his Son. This produced holiness, and it will do so

again.

Preaching endless hell torments, in the present day, produces not only fear, but many cases of insanity and suicide. Can God be the author of such a doctrine?

some modern writers have been pleased to indulge themselves. The testimony of those of antiquity who opposed the prejudices of their times, their very attempt to dissipate those fears, and to turn them into ridicule, rather proves how deeply they were rooted. Observe with what solicitude Lucretius everywhere endeavors to burst the bonds of religion, and to fortify his readers against the threatenings of eternal punishment. The observation of Juvenal, so often cited, that nobody in his day believed in the fables of hell, is that of an enlightened mind which takes no part in the opinions of the vulgar. The same thing is to be said of what we read in Cicero, and in some other writers on the same subject; and when Virgil exclaims, Happy the man that can tread under foot inexorable Destiny, and the noise of devouring Acheron,' he indicates, in a manner sufficiently precise, that it was the province of philosophy alone, to shake off the yoke of custom, riveted by education.

"Those who were unable to conquer these vain terrors, found consolations of a different kind. Religion stretched forth her kind hand to encourage their hopes, and to relieve their despondency. When remorse had brought back, within her pale, an unfortunate wanderer from the paths of justice, she informed him that by a true confession of his guilt, and sincere repentance, forgiveness was to be obtained. With this view expiatory sacrifices were instituted, by means of which the guilty expected to participate in the happiness of the just."

Such were the views of the ancient Greeks about Hades or Tartarus, and its punishment. There is considerable similarity in the above quotation to some descriptions given of hell torments by modern preachers. I shall leave all to their own reflection on it. One or two things I shall merely notice.

1st. The doctrine of punishment in Tartarus seems to have originated with legislators, for the purpose of restraining the passions of the multitude, and to alarm "them on all sides with the most frightful representa

tions." The Persians, Chaldeans, Egyptians and Greeks, all introduced punishment after death. The Jewish nation is an exception. Some deistical writers have blamed Moses, as a legislator, for not introducing eternal punishment into his code of laws, as a curb on men against licentiousness. It is generally allowed that the punishments threatened in the Old Testament are of a temporal

nature.

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2d. From the above quotation it appears that though punishment after death in Tartarus was believed by the heathen generally, yet the better informed among them did not believe in the fables of hell," but turned them into ridicule. Juvenal took no part in those opinions of the vulgar; and Virgil says, "It was the province of philosophy alone, to shake off the yoke of custom riveted by education." Is it not then strange, that a doctrine which was invented by heathens, and treated with contempt by their own wisest men, should be a fundamental article in the faith of Christians?

3d. I may just add, that, when the heathens were made converts to the Christian faith, all allow that many of their previous notions were soon incorporated with it. This, together with the erroneous views held by the Jewish converts, laid a foundation for such a corruption of Christianity, which, if it were not attested by evidence indisputable, could not be believed. That punishment in Tartarus is not a part of this corruption of Christianity derived from the heathen, deserves to be seriously considered. The evidence we have adduced, proving that it is, we submit to the reader's judgment.

We have shown that neither Sheol, Hades, nor Tartarus, is ever used by the sacred writers to signify a place of endless misery for the wicked. This was all we were bound to do, in opposing the common opinion on this subject. But we have also shown that this opinion originated with the heathen, and that the Jews learned it from them. To invalidate the evidence which has been produced, the very reverse must be proved.

CHAPTER II.

GEHENNA, UNIFORMLY TRANSLATED HELL IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, CONSIDERED AS A PLACE OF ENDLESS PUNISHMENT,

WE have now arrived at a part of this inquiry which requires the utmost attention. It is generally believed that the New Testament teaches the doctrine of endless misery, and that Gehenna is the place in which it is suffered. The truth or falsehood of this doctrine, then, depends upon the answer given to the following question: What is the scripture meaning and usage of the word Gehenna?

SECTION I.

DR. CAMPBELL'S VIEWS OF GEHENNA.

WE have seen, from a consideration of the texts in which Sheol, Hades, and Tartarus occur, that these words never ought to have been translated hell, at least in the sense used by most Christians. Dr. Campbell and others, who believed in endless misery, fully confirm this.

The word, and I believe the only word, supposed to express the place of this misery, is Gehenna. As Dr. Campbell conclusively proves that Sheol, Hades, and Tartarus, do not mean this place, he as positively asserts that this is always the sense of Gehenna in the New Testament. He thus writes in his sixth preliminary dissertation, Part ii. Sect. 1. "That Gehenna is employed in the New Testament to denote the place of future punishment, prepared for the devil and his angels, is indisputable. In the Old Testament we do not find this place in the same manner mentioned. Accordingly, the word Gehenna does not occur in the Septuagint. It is not a