SECTION III.

THE PASSAGE CONSIDERED IN WHICH THE WORD TARTARUS IS RENDERED HELL.

"FOR if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell (Tartarosas), and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment." See Jude 6, to which I shall also advert in my remarks.

Although the word Tartarus does not occur in the Bible, yet the word Tartarosas occurs in this single text. It is equivalent to Tartarus; it signifies "to cast into Tartarus.” See Parkhurst. Professor Stuart says, "That a place of punishment is here indicated by Tartarus, is put beyond all doubt by the context, 'he spared not,' 'chains of darkness,' imprisoned for judgment or condemnation."" But what is there in these expressions which says the angels or any other beings suffered pain or misery in Tartarus? They are not even said to be alive there, far less suffering torment. In my reply to his Essays, I have considered pretty fully what he says about Tartarus. See, also, a quotation from Dr. Campbell, in the preceding section, which relates to this subject. In what follows I shall principally confine the reader's attention to what I consider the true sense of the passage or passages in question.

1st. Let us examine what period is referred to, called in the one passage simply "judgment," and in the other "the judgment of the great day." These expressions are supposed to refer to a day of general judgment at the end of this material world. But I know of no sacred writer who uses such language to describe such a day. I find, however, this or very similar language used to describe God's judgments on the Jewish nation at the close of the Mosaic dispensation. "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before

the great and terrible day of the Lord come." Joel 2: 31. Peter, Acts 2: 20, quotes these words, and applies them to this very event. Again, Malachi, 4: 5, says, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord," in reference to the same event. Our Lord, alluding to this period, said, Luke 21: 22, "For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled." Matt. 24: 21," For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." But are the tribulations of this supposed day of judgment to be less than the tribulations which came on the Jewish nation at the destruction of Jerusalem? If not, how can our Lord's words be true? In Rev. 6: 17, we read also of "the great day," and "the great day of God Almighty;" but no man will say that this refers to a day of general judgment at the end of this world. The context shows that this cannot be meant.

2d. Let us now consider who are referred to by the angels that kept not their first éstate (principality), but left their own habitation. The reader ought to notice particularly, that neither of the texts gives the least intimation that they were angelic spirits that sinned in heaven, and were cast out of it. It is said they sinned, but not in heaven. They kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation; but it is not said this habitation was heaven. Indeed, if we admit that angelic spirits once sinned in heaven, and were cast out of it, what security is there that this may not take place again; yea, that all who are there may not become sinners, and share the same fate? The question then is, what angels are meant? It is well known that the term rendered angel, signifies not nature but office. It is frequently rendered messenger, and is often applied to human beings. Some have thought the angels here mentioned were the spies sent out to view the land of Canaan. I am of opinion, however, that Korah and his

company are the angels here intended. Their history is given, Numb. 16. My reasons for entertaining this opinion I shall briefly detail, and let the reader judge for himself.

1st. Korah and his company were "two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown." Numb. 16: 2. From the high station which they held in the congregation, with scriptural propriety they might be termed angels. Certainly, with just as much propriety as men are called angels in many other passages. See, for example, Rev. chaps. 2d and 3d.

2d. It will not be questioned that Korah and his company sinned; that they kept not their first estate, or the station God assigned them in the congregation of Israel. They raised a rebellion against Moses and Aaron, Numb. 16: 3, with a view to their preeminence. They sought the priesthood also, verse 10. Certainly the passage applies much better to them than angelic spirits who sinned in heaven, and were cast out of it. People are more indebted to Milton's Paradise Lost than to their Bible for the information that angelic spirits sinned in heaven and were cast down to Tartarus.

3d. The connection in which the passage is introduced, favors this view of the subject. Peter, in verses 1-4, speaks of false teachers, and the troubles which their heresies gave to the congregation of Christians. At the close of verse 3, he says of them, "whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." Was is not then very natural for him, in verse 4, to refer to Korah and his company, who produced similar troubles in the congregation of Israel, and the judgment which came on them? He then, from verse 5-9, mentions God's judgments on the old world. and the cities of the plain, confessedly inflicted on human beings, and of a temporal nature. It is very incongruous, then, to suppose, that in verse 4 he referred to angelic beings, and punishment of endless duration

in another world. But the connection of the parallel text in Jude is still more clearly in favor of the view I have given. Jude, verse 4, also speaks of false teachers and the pernicious effects of their teaching on others. He adds, by way of warning, verse 5, "I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not." And what could be more natural than for him, in verse 6, to refer to Korah and his company, as a signal example of God's destroying such unbelievers ? It is certainly more rational than to suppose he immediately breaks off, and introduces an example of God's judgment on angels who sinned in heaven. He also refers, in verse 9, to God's judgments on the cities of the plain. But if verse 6 refers to angelic spirits, we must conclude that he first gives an example in general of God's judgments on men, verse 5, then in verse 3, starts off and gives an example of his judgment on angelic spirits in heaven, and then comes back to his judgments on men in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. But if my views are admitted, it makes both writers refer to temporal judgments on men, uniformly throughout both passages. Certainly all will allow that it is not the custom of the sacred writers to blend in this way examples of God's judgments on men and angels together. If it is done here, another example of the kind cannot be produced from the Bible.

4th. It will be admitted that all the other examples mentioned in the contexts of these passages of God's judgments on men were adduced as a warning to ungodly men. They are all of a temporal nature, and are calculated for this purpose. But, if we understand by angels in these passages angelic spirits, how could God's casting them out of heaven down to Tartarus be any warning to ungodly men? No man had seen this done, or had any means of knowing the fact, if it was true. It rested entirely on Peter and Jude's statements in

these passages, for no other sacred writer ever mentions such a remarkable event as angels sinning in heaven and being cast down to Tartarus. But the case of Korah and his company is detailed at length in the Jewish scriptures, was well known, and calculated to be a warning to those who lived ungodly. But it will be asked, what Tartarus did God cast them down to? We shall find an answer by considering,

3d. The punishment here said to have been inflicted on them. Peter says, "God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell (Tartarosas), and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment." Jude says, "He hath reserved them in everlasting chains of darkness, unto the judgment of the great day." Let us here inquire, 1st. What Peter meant by Tartarus? Mr. Stuart says, as "to the usus loquendi of the classics, in Greek, the word Tartarus is employed to designate a supposed subterranean region, as deep down below the upper part of Hades, as the earth is distant from heaven. It is the place where the distinguished objects of Jupiter's vengeance are represented as being confined and tormented. It is placed in opposition to, or in distinction from, Elysium. I remark, moreover, that the heathen had no apprehension of deliverance from Tartarus. Tantalus, Sisyphus, Ixion, and all others sent there, were doomed to endless punishment, in view of the Greeks and Romans." Such are the views given us of Tartarus by Mr. Stuart; and it is commonly supposed that in this sense Peter used the word in the passage before us. But in the preceding section it has been shown that Tartarus and its punishment were heathen fictions, and originally of Egyptian origin. The Egyptians furnished the first hints, and the Greeks and Romans manufactured a tremendous hell out of them.

But Mr. Stuart is obliged to confess that the above is not the exclusive sense in which classical writers use the term Tartarus. He says, "It is occasionally em