or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. This last character is not expressed in the original, as in the English translation, by a single word, but by a periphrasis, non doresh

el hamathim, which, rendered literally, is, one who consulteth the dead. It is accordingly translated by the Seventy εлεрwtwv tus vexpus, and by Houbigant. Qui mortuos interroget.

conversation, appears as And Saul, says he, perAnd Samuel said-The

From the narrative of what passed at Endor, it may be observed that, in whatever way the facts are accounted for by expositors, as to which I am not inquiring, it was evidently believed, at the time, not only that the evocation of the spirits of the deceased was possible, but that the spirit of Samuel was actually evoked. Of this Saul, who consulted him, appears to have had no doubt. Nay more, the sacred penmen who records their little doubtful as the king. ceived that it was Samuel. son of Sirach also, who is thought to have written two centuries before the Christian era, expresses himself, on this topic, with the same unhesitating confidence. To a brief account of Samuel's life and character he subjoins"—And, after his death he prophesied, and showed the king his end, and lift up his voice from the earth in prophecy, to blot out the wickedness of the people. In like manner Josephus, a contemporary of the apostles, relates the story,

18 Ecclus. xlvi. 20.

without betraying the smallest suspicion, that it was not the soul of Samuel who, on that occasion, con versed with Saul 79. So that, whatever was the real case, we are warranted to conclude, that the reality of such appearances after death, and consequently of such a state of departed spirits as above described, were standing articles in the popular creed of the Jewish nation.

§ 16. I SHALL add a few things in regard to the metaphorical use of the term. I have observed that heaven and hades are commonly set in opposition to each other; the one is conceived to be the highest object, the other the lowest. From what is literally or locally so, the transition is very natural (insomuch that we find traces of it in all languages) to what is figuratively so; that is, what expresses a glorious and happy state on the one hand, or a humble and miserable state on the other. In this way it is used by our Lord ", And thou Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shall be brought down to hades, ews 'adov. 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 become a flourishing and splendid city, or, as some think, that it had obtained great spiritual advantages; so, by the

79 Antiq. I. vi. c. 15.

80 Matth. xi. 23.

latter, that it should be brought to the lowest degree of abasement and wretchedness.

17. ANOTHER passage, in which the application of the word is figurative, we have in that celebrated promise made to Peter 1, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell, vλau adov, the gates of hades, shall not prevail against it. It is by death, and by it only, that the spirit enters into hades. The gate of hades is therefore a very natural periphrasis for death; insomuch that, without any positive evidence, we should naturally conclude this to be the meaning of the phrase. But we have sufficient evidence, both sacred and prophane, that this is the meaning. The phrase occurs in the Septuagint, in the thanksgiving of Hezekiah, after his miraculous recovery from the mortal disease he had been seized with "2. I said, I shall go to the gates of the grave, ev vλais εν πυλαις adov. It follows, I am deprived of the residue of my years. Nothing can be plainer than that vλαι adov here means death, in other words, I shall die and be deprived of the residue of my years. But, though the phrase is the same (for πυλαι αδου is a literal version of the Hebrew) with that used by our Lord, our translators have not liked to make Hezekiah, who was a good man, speak as if he thought himself going to hell, and have therefore rendered it the grave.

81 Matth. xvi. 18.

32 Isaiah, xxxviii. 10.

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Another example we have in the Wisdom of Solomon, which, though not canonical Scripture, is, in a question of criticism, a good authority Thou hast power of life and death, thou leadest to the gates of hades, εις πυλας αδου, and bringest up again. This passage is as little susceptible of doubt as the former. The classical use of this phrase is the same with that of the inspired writers. Homer makes Achilles say, as rendered by our English poet $4:

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Who can think one thing, and another tell,
My soul detests him as the gates of hell:

-εικος αίδαο πλησι

that is, I hate him as death, or I hate him mortally. To say then that the gates of hades shall not prevail against the church, is, in other words, to say, It shall never die, it shall never be extinct. Le Clerc, though meaning the same thing (as appears by his note), has expressed it inaccurately: "Les portes "de la mort ne la surmonteront point;" The gates of death shall not surmount it. We see at once how appositely death is called the gate of hades. But what should we call the gates of death? Not death itself, surely. They must be diseases; for by these we are brought to death. But in this sense we cannot apply the promise. For many direful diseases has the church been afflicted with, if the introduc

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xvi. 13.

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tion of the grossest errors, the most superstitious practices, and senseless disputes, are to be accounted such; but they have not hitherto proved mortal, and, we have reason to believe, never shall.

18. In the exclamation adopted by the Apostle 85, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, adn, where is thy victory? we cannot say so properly, that the words death and hades are used figuratively, as the words sting and victory, with which they are accompanied. In regard to the sense, there can be no doubt. It is manifestly the Apostle's view to signify that, whatever might have been formerly an object of terror in either death or hades, is removed by Jesus Christ, insomuch that in these very things the true disciples find matter of joy and exultation.

§ 19. BUT is there not one passage, it may be said, in which the word 'adns must be understood as synonymous with yɛɛvva, and consequently must denote the place of final punishment prepared for the wicked, or hell, in the Christian acceptation of the term? You have it in the story of the rich man and Lazarus 86. In hell, ev to adn, he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. This is the only passage in holy writ which seems to give countenance to the opinion that adns sometimes means the same thing 86 Luke, xvi. 23.

85 1 Cor. xv. 5.