world of the dead; and the small and the great are there. There the wicked cease from troubling; there the weary be at rest. Job 3. David knew his child had gone there; and, impressed with his own mortality, he says, "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me."

2d. It may be objected, when Samuel said to Saul, "To-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me," that he intimates he was alive somewhere after death, and his conversing with Saul is proof of it. He that believes this, must take Saul and his sons to heaven, for no one supposes Samuel went to hell. Moreover, he must believe that a woman had power to bring a departed spirit out of heaven. But we have shown, in Essays, Sect. 2, that this woman was an impostor. The popular notion was that Sheol was a deep region in the earth, where the ghosts of the dead all resided. The woman's trade was to consult with the dead, and for this purpose Saul resorted to her. But all such superstitious practices God condemned, and expressly prohibited the Jews from giving any countenance to them. It is strange Christians in the nineteenth century should suppose there was any truth in them.

3d. It may be objected, future existence was not known under the Old Testament; and if its silence on the subject of endless misery proves it false, it also proves there is no future existence. Answer. We admit the force of this argument, if it can be proved the Old Testament is silent on the subject of future existence. But we are surprised that any man should aver this. As it would be aside from our present design to discuss the point, we refer to Jahn's Bib. Arch. Sect. 314. We doubt if this ever would be denied, except for the purpose of getting rid of the stumbling argument that the Old Testament does not teach the doctrine of endless punishment. That it does not teach, and, rather than abandon it, some are willing to allow future existence is not taught there.

4th. It may be further objected, if men are at death

reduced to dust, lose their powers and personal identity, and for a time cease to be susceptible of either enjoyment or suffering, why may not this state continue forever? What reason have we to hope that their powers and personal identity will ever be restored? To this I answer, God has promised man a future and an immortal life by a resurrection from the dead; and the example and pledge of it are given in Christ's resurrection. No man will deny this who regards the authority of the Scriptures, or doubt its accomplishment, until he doubts the truth of divine revelation, and the power of God to effect it. But to doubt the competency of God's power to restore to man his powers and personal identity is not doubting enough. The man who doubts this ought also to doubt the competency of his power to create man at first with such powers and personal identity. Creating at first, and a resurrection from the dead, are both ascribed to the power of God in Scripture. If I am asked, How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come? I refer the reader to 1 Cor. 15: 36-50, for the answer.

To conclude. It is now generally conceded, by all critics and intelligent men, that endless punishment was not taught under the first covenant. But it is generally believed to be taught under the new and better covenant. If this is true, how can it be called a better covenant, and "established upon better promises"? Is endless punishment a better promise? And was it the fault in the first covenant, which required the second and better covenant, that it did not teach the doctrine of endless punishment? If all this be true, how is Christ the mediator of a better covenant? If endless punishment is not threatened in the law which came by Moses, how can it be threatened in the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ? If it is not heard in the thunders, fire, and tempests of Mount Sinai, who can think it is to be heard from Mount Zion?

6*

SECTION II.

ALL THE TEXTS IN WHICH HADES OCCURS, CONSIDERED.

ALL critics agree that the Greek Hades in the New Testament corresponds in meaning to the Hebrew Sheol in the Old. In the Septuagint version the translators have rendered the term Sheol sixty times by the word Hades, out of the sixty-four instances where it occurs. Hades also occurs sixteen times in the apocryphal books, and is used in a similar way as the Hebrew Sheol is in the canonical writings of the Old Testament. Besides, the New Testament writers, in quoting from the Old, use Hades as the rendering of Sheol. See Psalms 16: 10, compared with Acts 2: 27, etc.

The term Hades occurs eleven times in the Greek of the New Testament. In the common version it is once rendered grave, and in the other ten places by the word hell. The following are all the passages.

Matt. 11: 23. "And thou Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell (Hades)." Dr. Campbell,. in the dissertation already quoted, says, "As the city of Capernaum was never literally raised to heaven, we have no reason to believe that it was to be literally brought down to Hades. But, as by the former expression we are given to understand that it was to become a flourishing and splendid city, or, as some think, that it had obtained great spiritual advantages; so by the latter, that it should be brought to the lowest degree of abasement and wretchedness." See on Isa. 7: 9, where Sheol is used in a similar sense. This text has often been quoted to prove that all who have abused spiritual privileges shall be brought down to hell, or endless misery. Matt. 16: 18. "Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell (Hades) shall not prevail against it."

Dr. Campbell says, "It is by death, and

by it only, the spirit enters into Hades. The gates of Hades is, therefore, a very natural periphrasis for death." But this is not altogether in unison with what the Dr, has said elsewhere concerning Hades; and we shall see, from Dr. Whitby, that Hades is not a receptacle of souls or spirits. This was not believed by the ancient Hebrews, but was a mere heathen notion. Certainly, no text in the Bible says it is by death the spirit enters into Hades, or speaks of souls or spirits being there.

Luke 10: 15. "And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell (Hades)." See on Matt. 11: 23. This is the parallel text.

Luke 16: 23. "And in hell (Hades) he lifted up his eyes, being in torment." As this is the only text in which Hades occurs, where it is alleged it signifies hell, the world of woe, we shall give it a full consideration. The following are all the remarks which Mr. Stuart makes on this passage. "That in the heathen Hades was a Tartarus, a place of punishment and suffering, is too well known to need illustration and proof on the present occasion. More will be said on this point when I come to treat of Tartarus. That in Hades, Sheol, according to the views of the Hebrews and of Jesus himself, there was a place of torment, is put out of all question by the passage now before us." All this is mere assertion, but, as it comes from Mr. Stuart, we shall examine it. us inquire,

Let

1st. Was the Tartarus in the heathen Hades real, or was it fictitious? This question ought to be fully examined; for if it was fictitious, the mere fancy of the poets, Mr. Stuart's hell is built on the sand. But he is so confident it was a reality, he says, "That in the heathen, Hades was a Tartarus, a place of punishment and suffering, is too well known to need illustration and proof on the present occasion." We are surprised that he should take this bold ground, for we shall show from his own statements that the heathen Tartarus was a mere fiction. Sorry are we to think he should allege our Lord in this

passage sanctioned a heathen fable for truth. That Tartarus was a mere heathen fable, and had its origin in heathenism, we shall now show.

Cicero, one of the wisest men among the heathen, in his seventh oration, says, "For it was on this account that the ancients invented their infernal punishments of the dead, to keep the wicked under some awe in this life, who, without them, would have no dread of death itself." Intelligent heathen had no more faith in infernal punishments, than people now have in the Salem witchcraft. See my letters to Mr. Hudson, pp. 266, 267, where I have quoted Mosheim, who says, "Such punishments were invented for state and military purposes.' See, also, the next section.

But, as Mr. Stuart will not dispute his own testimony, let us see what he has said elsewhere about Tartarus. After describing Cimmeria as an imaginary place, and Erebus as no better, though contiguous to Hades, he thus describes it. "Last and lowest of all was Hades, which is subdivided into the upper and lower. In the upper part are the Elysian fields, the abode of the good; and beneath these, that is, in the deepest dungeon in the bowels of the earth, is Tartarus, the place of punishment for the wicked, answering in some respects to the Gehenna of the Hebrews. Hades, then, in the view of the Greeks and Romans, was the under-world, the world of the dead, a place deep in the earth, dark, cheerless, where everything was unsubstantial and shadowy. The Manes were neither body nor spirit, but something intermediate, not palpable to any of the senses, except to the sight and hearing; pursuing the mere shadows of their occupations on earth, and incapable of any plans, enjoyments, or satisfaction which were substantial.". Exeget. Essays, pp. 124-128. Such is the heathen Hades and its Tartarus, as described by Mr. Stuart himself. This Tartarus, he avers, Jesus sanctions as real in the passage in question. But did Jesus convert a heathen fable into truth? Did the heathen invent a hell for him? But let us look at