at rest, Job 3d. 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,' does he not intimate he was alive somewhere after death; and, his conversing with Saul a proof of it. To this we answer no; for he that believes it, must take Saul and his sons to heaven, for no one believes Samuel went to hell. Moreover, he must believe, that a woman had power to bring a departed spirit out heaven. But we have shown in Essays, sect. 2d, that this woman was an imposter. The popular notion was, that Sheol was a deep region in the earth, where the ghosts of the dead all resided. This 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 ninteenth century, should suppose there was any truth in them. We have seen above, Professor Stuart says" a deep region beneath, peopled with ghosts, is what we do not believe in."

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 is also proved, 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 futnre existence. But this, we are surprised, that any man should aver; but it would be aside from our present design, to discuss this point. See Jahn's Bib. Arche. sect. 314. We doubt, if this would ever 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. Endless punishment 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 for ever? 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, is given in Christ's resurrection from the dead. No man will deny this, who regards the authority of the scriptures; or doubts its accomplishment, until he doubts the truth of divine revelation, and the power of God to affect 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. xv: 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 cov enant, 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? But 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 tempest of mount Sinai, who can think it is to be heard from mount Zion?

SECTION II.

ALL THE TEXTS, IN WHICH HADES OCCURS CONSIDERED.

ALL critics are agreed, 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, 60 times by the word Hades, out of the 64 instances where it occurs. Hades, also occurs 16 times in the apocryphal books, and is used in a simalar 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, in the passages they cite, see Ps. xvi. 10. compared with Acts ii. 27, etc.

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

Math. xi. 23. "And thou Capernaum which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell, (Hades)." Dr. Campbell, in the dissertation quoted above, 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

sense.

on Isai. vii. 9. above, where Sheol is used in a similar This text has often been quoted to prove, that all who have abused spiritual privileges, shall be brought down to hell, or endless misery.

Math. xvi. 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 in the sequel from Dr. Whitby, that Hades is not a resceptacle 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 x. 15. "And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to Hell, (Hades)." See on Math. xi. 23. above. This is only the parallel text to it, and has there been considered.

Luke xvi. 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 alledged, 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. Let us inquire

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, 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 origen 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 heathens, 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, i. e. 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,