Here, if sepultos mean buried, cinis and manes are synonymous: if manes mean ghosts, then sepultos is equivalent to deductos ad infernum. Yet it would not be easy to say to what trope the author has, in these instances, had recourse, if it be not the catachresis. Nor is this promiscuous application of the words peculiar to the poets. Livy, the historian, uses the word manes in prose with equal latitude. Sepulchra diruta, nudati manes. To these instances of confusion in the meanings of the words mentioned, nothing parallel has been alleged from the Hebrew Scriptures, except only that sometimes, like anima in the example above quoted, means a dead body. Yet nobody considers the examples aforesaid as invalidating those distinctions in Latin, which an usage incomparably more extensive has established in the language. With much less reason then can a few expressions, confessedly hyperbolical and figurative, be pleaded for subverting the uniform acceptation of the Hebrew words in question, in their proper and natural application. Taylor's remark, that keber grave, is one particular cavity, &c. and that sheol is a collective name for all the graves, &c. tends more to perplex the subject than to explain it. He would hardly be thought to apprehend distinctly the import of the Latin words, who should define them by telling us, that sepulchrum is one particular cavity digged for the interment of a dead person, and that infer nus is a collective name for all the sepulchra, &c. The definition would be both obscure and unjust; yet, from what has been shewn, more might be produced to justify it, than can be advanced in vindication of the other. 13. BESIDES, we have another clear proof from the New Testament, that hades denotes the intermediate state of souls between death and the general resurrection. In the Apocalypse 69, we learn that death and hades, by our translators rendered hell as usual, shall, immediately after the general judgment, be cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. In other words, the death which consists in the separation of the soul from the body, and the state of souls intervening between death and judgment, shall be no more. To the wicked, these shall be succeeded by a more terrible death, the damnation of gehenna, hell properly so called. Indeed, in this sacred Book, the commencement as well as the destruction of this intermediate state, are so clearly marked, as to render it almost impossible to mistake them. In a preceding chapter 70, we learn that hades follows close at the heels of death; and, from the other passage quoted, that both are involved in one common ruin, at the universal judgment. Whereas, if we interpret ådns hell, in the Christian sense of the word, the whole passage is rendered nonsense. Hell is represented as being cast into hell: for so the lake of fire, which is, in this place, also denominated the second death, is universally interpreted. § 14. THE Apostle Paul, without naming hades, conveys to us the same idea of the state of souls departed". The righteousness which is of faith, speak. eth on this wise, Say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above;) or, who shall descend into the deep? εis tnv aßvoσov into the abyss, (that is, to bring up Christ agam from the dead)-in other words, faith does not require, for our satisfaction, things impracticable, either to scale the heavens, or to explore the profound recesses of departed spirits. The word here used shows this. It is aẞvooos, that is, a pit or gulph, if not bottomless, at least, of an indeterminable depth. The very antithesis of descending into the deep, and ascending into heaven, also shows it. There would be a most absurd disparity in the different members of this illustration, if no more were to be understood by the abyss than the grave, since nothing is more practicable for the living than a descent thither. The women, who went to visit our Lord's sepulchre, did actually descend into it". Besides, to call the grave the abyss, is entirely unexampled. Let it be also observed, that it is not said to bring Christ up from the grave, but from the dead, ɛx vɛxpov, for which end, to bring back the soul is, in the ρων, first place, necessary. I do not say that the Greek word aẞvooos, or the corresponding Hebrew word Din thehom, is confined to the signification here given it. I know that it often means the ocean, be. 71 Rom. x. 6, 7. 72 Mark, xvi. 5. Luke, xxiv. 3. } cause conceived to be of an unfathomable depth, and may indeed be applied to any thing of which the same quality can be affirmed. 15. So much for the literal sense of the word hades, which, as has been observed, implies properly neither hell nor the grave, but the place or state of departed souls. I know that it has been said, and speciously supported, that, in the Mosaical economy, there was no express revelation of the existence of souls after death. Admitting this to be in some sense true, the Israelites were not without such intimations of a future state as types, and figures, and emblematical predictions, could give them: yet certain it is, that life and immortality were, in an eminent manner, brought to light only by the Gospel. But, from whatever source they derived their opinions, that they had opinions on this subject, though dark and confused, is manifest, as from many other circumstances, so particularly from the practice of witchcraft and necromancy, which prevailed among them, and the power they ascribed to sorcerers, justly or unjustly, it matters not, of evoking the ghosts of the deceased. The whole story of the witch of Endor 73 is an irrefragable evidence of this. For, however much people may differ, in their manner of explaining the phenomena which it presents to us; judicious and impartial men, whose minds are not pre-occu pied with a system, can hardly differ as to the evidence it affords, that the existence of spirits, in a separate state, was an article of the popular belief, and that it was thought possible, by certain secret arts, to maintain an intercourse with them. Our question here is not, what was expressly revealed to that people on this subject? but, what appear to have been the notions commonly entertained concerning it? or, what it was which the learned Bishop of London styles, the infernum poeticum of the Hebrews? Indeed, the artifices employed by their wizards and necromancers, alluded to by Isaiah, of returning answers in a feigned voice, which appeared to those present, as proceeding from under the ground", is a demonstration of the prevalency of the sentiments I have been illustrating, in regard both to the existence, and to the abode of souls departed. For that these were the oracles intended to be consulted, is manifest from the Prophet's upbraiding them with it, as an absurdity, that the living should recur for counsel, not to their God, but to the dead. It is well expressed in Houbigant's translation, Itane pro vivis mortui interrogantur. But what can be clearer to this purpose than the law itself, whereby such practices are prohibited?” There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, 74 Notes on ch. xiii. and xiv. of Isaiah. 75 Isa. xxix. 4. |