human sense and apprehension? that as there was nothing which the eye could look up to, or the mind could conceive, higher than heaven on the one hand, so there was nothing which the eye could look down upon, or the imagination could conceive, lower than hell on the other. If so-as heaven must be the extreme of sensible or conceivable height; hell or Hades must be the extreme of sensible or conceivable depth. The same word, it is superfluous to remark, is used in all these instances, which I have contended properly to denote Hades; viz. Sheol in the Hebrew, and "Aons in the Greek. To understand this word simply of the grave, or to suppose it could ever be meant to be so understood, as the proper correlative of heaven, in such sublime descriptions as these, and with so peculiar an antithesis of the things compared together would be the height of absurdity, and anticlimax.

Nor is this phraseology, peculiar as it is, confined to the Old Testament, even in the most sublime and poetical of its descriptions. It occurs twice in the New Testament, and each time in the midst of a grave and serious discourse of our Lord himself, with no admixture of the poetical character; nor therefore requiring any allowance to be made for the lofty and rapturous idiom of poetry in general, or the peculiarly soaring and rapturous idiom of Oriental poetry in particular: once Matt. xi. 23. Harmony iii. 9: καὶ σὺ, Καπερναοὺμ, ἡ ἕως τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ὑψωθεῖσα, ἕως ᾅδου Kaтaßißaolon: and again, Luke x. 15: Harmony iv. 26 : καὶ σὺ, Καπερναούμ, ἡ ἕως τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ὑψωθεῖσα, ἕως ᾅδου καταβιβασθήσῃ.

On the first of these occasions, the account which is given us of the origin of this apostrophe is, that Jesus, among the other reflections which arose out of the celebrated message of John, began to reproach the cities in which his πλεῖσται δυνάμεις—the most of his miracles, in point of number, not the greatest and chiefest, in point of degree-had taken place, because they had not repented; of the second, that it was subjoined, along with a similar reproach of the cities in question, to the charge just before delivered to the Seventy, when about to be sent on their mission. On each occasion, after reproaching Chorazin and Bethsaida in very similar terms, he concluded with a direct apostrophe to Capernaum, expressed in the very same words-and with the same antithesis in each instance, between being lifted up unto the heaven, at the time then present, and to be thrust down unto Hades, at some time, then future.

I know not whether it has occurred to the reader to consider these words with that degree of attention to which they are entitled; but in my opinion they are truly significant and important, not only for the light which they throw upon the present question, of the proper opposition of Hades to Heaven, as the extreme of height, to the extreme of depth— but from the testimony which, when rightly explained, they will be found to render to the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For let it be observed, that while simply a woe is denounced against Chorazin and Bethsaida-something more specific, and so far much worse, is denounced against Capernaum. It should be less tolerable even for Chorazin and Bethsaida, in the day

of judgment, than for Tyre and Sidon; but Capernaum should be thrust down " Aidov. The grounds ἕως "Αιδου. of this distinction are also stated-with respect to Chorazin and Bethsaida in general, that though the greatest number of our Saviour's miracles had been done in them, they had not repented; with respect to Capernaum in particular, not only that, but because she had been lifted up to heaven in some manner or other peculiar to herself, and yet had not repented.

Now should any one require a reason, why Bethsaida and Chorazin are mentioned as the places where most of our Saviour's miracles had been wrought-can any be assigned so natural as this, that they were in the immediate vicinity of Capernaum, the place where our Saviour had taken up his abode, and the quarter where he was most regularly to be found? It is reasonable to suppose, that in the benefit of his miracles, the place that would partake most constantly and most largely, would be the place of his stated residence, if he had any; and next to that, the places in its direct vicinity. And if a reason is required in like manner, why Capernaum should be reproached not only on this account, but also on the further account of being raised

b In the Sibylline Oracles, lib. viii. page 694, language borrowed in all probability from this declaration of our Saviour's with respect to Capernaum-what it was at the time, and what it should hereafter become-is applied to the future judgments of God upon Italy or Rome;

μούνη κατὰ κόσμον ἅπαντα

ἐξ ὕψους ἐλθοῦσα κατοικήσεις ὑπὸ γαῖαν.

The context shews that this dwelling under the earth means being thrust down to Hades.

or lifted up to heaven-which Chorazin and Bethsaida were not said to be-what can be assigned so natural as this, that Capernaum was the place of our Saviour's abode-but Bethsaida and Chorazin were not?

That Capernaum was chosen by our Saviour, to be the place of his stated abode during the transaction of his public ministry, from the point of time when he is said to have quitted Nazareth, and gone and lived there, it is superfluous to prove. The words of Matt. xi. 23, were delivered about the middle of the second year of his residence at that place—and those of Luke x. 15. towards the end of the third. It is affirmed by the words, on each occasion, that Capernaum both had been lifted up to heaven before the time when they were spoken, and was still so lifted up at the time when they were spoken; and without assuming that it had been, and still was, so lifted up, by having become, and still continuing to be, the place of our Saviour's residence-we may contend that it could not have become lifted up to heaven, for the time, without having become, for the time, the habitation of God.

The proper notion of heaven, in contradistinction to earth, is the notion of that which is the proper locality of the personal residence of the Supreme Deity, in opposition to that which is not. In one sense, the Supreme Deity, who is omnipresent, may be present on earth as well as in heaven; but in another, he is personally present only in heaven, because he is visibly and sensibly present only in heaven; invisibly and insensibly on earth. The per

c Matt. iv. 13: Harm. ii. 18. Vide my Diss. vol. ii. Diss. viii. part ii. 244-251.

sonal presence of the Deity, therefore, wherever it is visibly and sensibly revealed, makes heaven of that locality. Would we define heaven, as heaven, it must be as the locality of the visible personal presence of the Deity; and conversely, the locality of the visible personal presence of the Deity, as heaven. The stated locality of that description is certainly heaven, in the ordinary sense of the term; but so far as the visible personal presence of the Deity in any locality, is competent to make heaven of that locality, for the time being-any other locality, in which the Deity may be visibly revealed, may be heaven for the time, and not necessarily a locality in heaven. Earth, then, or any particular locality on earth, might become heaven for the time being, if it could become, for the time being, the residence of the God of heaven; and under such circumstances, either heaven it might be said, for the time being, must have been brought down unto earth-or earth, for the time being, must have been raised up unto heaven.

Now such is the language which our Saviour in both these instances employs of Capernaum; that Capernaum had been raised unto heaven-that Capernaum had been put on a par, for the time, with heaven. It had therefore become for the time, the residence of the God of heaven. It is as impossible that there can be heaven in any locality, where there is not the God of heaven to be revealed in that locality, as that there can be a temple, or house of God, where there is no Deity to inhabit it. But whatever Capernaum had become before now, and whatever it was at this present time-is any one prepared to deny, that it had both become so, and