inhabitants, or what is more probable-a direct reference to the world of miserable spirits. Certain it is, we find no good or happy spirits here.

In many passages in the Old Testament, x is used in immediate contrast with heaven, and of course must be supposed to signify hell. "It is high as heaven, what canst thou do? Deeper than hell, what canst thou know?" Job 11: 8. "If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there." Ps. 139: 8. "Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down," Amos 9: 3. Really, I think there ought to be no dispute respecting the meaning of this word, in passages such as these. It certainly stands for the 'opposite of heaven; and of course must signify, not the grave, nor the general state and region of the dead, but hell.

There are other passages, if possible, still more decisive. "The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." Ps. 9: 17. The hell here spoken of certainly is not the grave, nor any other place in this world or the next, into which the righteous are sent. It is the place prepared for the future abode of the wicked, and for them exclusively. In other words, it is hell. "Thou shalt beat him (the unruly child) with a rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell;" not from the grave, certainly, nor from the future abodes of the righteous, but from hell. Prov. 23: 14.

In the New Testament, dns is used much as is in the Old, except that, in a less proportion of cases, it signifies the grave. Still, there are instances, in which the word is used in this sense; as, "O death, where is thy sting! O grave, where is thy victory! 1 Cor. 15: 55. In general, however, the 8ns of the New Testament is no other than the world of future misery. "Thou Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell;-" a place the opposite of heaven. Mat. 11: 23. "On this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Matt. 16: 18. As, in ancient times, the chief men of a city were accustomed to sit in the gates to decide causes, and execute judgment, so by the gates of hell, I think we are to understand the chiefs of hell, particularly the devils. These shall never be suffered to prevail against the church; and the place of their abode is the hell spoken of in the passage above quoted. It was in this same place that the rich man lifted up his eyes, be

ing in torments. Luke 16: 23. This passage needs no comment. Certainly, the world of future misery is here set before us. I know it is said, that this was the lower Tartarean part of a8ns, and that Abraham and Lazarus were in the upper part, and this is thought to be evident from the fact, that they were sufficiently near to each other to hold conversation. But I see no evidence that Abraham and Lazarus were in ads at all. The Scriptures do not so teach us, and the supposition is altogether gratuitous. The supposed division of this place into the two apartments of paradise and Tartarus is of heathen and not of Christian origin. I can find no trace or intimation of it in the Bible. The fact that Abraham and the rich man were in circumstances to speak to each other no more proves that they were in different apartments of the same place, than does the fact that God and angels are often represented as speaking out of heaven to inspired men prove that earth and heaven are but different apartments of the same place. Without doubt, spirits can see each other, and hold conversation, at much greater distances, than would be possible to us. We certainly know, that the rich man and Lazarus were widely and eternally separated. The former "lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and saw" the latter "afar off." There was an impassable gulf betwixt them— wide enough to sever between the everlasting abodes of the righteous and wicked-between heaven and hell.

I have said that neither nor ons is ever used in the Scriptures to signify the abode of the spirits of the just. In opposition to this statement, a single passage has been referred to. David says: "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption." Ps. 16: 10. The Apostle Peter, having quoted this passage and applied it to Christ, goes on to assure us, that David here " spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption." Acts 2: 31. We have then, in this verse from the Psalms, a poetical prediction of the resurrection of Christ from the tomb, and of nothing else. The prediction is expressed, after the usual manner of the Hebrew poets, in a parallelism; the plain import of which is, that Christ was to be raised from the dead, he was to be raised speedily. His life was not to be left in the grave. His flesh was not to see corruption. The band ons in this passage properly signify the grave, and not the future world of spirits. In this interpretation I am sustained by eminent critics, some of whom are ad

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vocates of the intermediate place. As this passage is the only one on which the semblance of an argument can be founded, that the words in question are ever used, in the Scriptures, to denote the world of happy spirits; and since, properly interpreted, they have no such signification here; I am warranted in affirming that they have it nowhere. They signify the grave --the place of the dead body; and also the world of miserable spirits; but never, the future abode of the righteous.

Another argument for the intermediate place is derived from certain passages of Scripture, in which " things under the earth" are represented as doing homage to God and the Saviour. "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth." Phil. 21: 10. The "things under the earth" are supposed to be the souls of departed saints, who are shut up somewhere in the bowels of the earth, and who, from those deep caverns, are sending up a spiritual worship to the Saviour. But a comparison of passages will show, that the time, when every knee is to bow to Christ, is the day of judgment. "We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ: for it is written: As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God." Rom. 14: 10, 11. In the great day of judgment, every creature will do homage, of some sort, to the Saviour. But then, the bodies of the saints will have been raised, and the intermediate region, if there be any, will have been deserted.

The following passage has been quoted for the same purpose, as that above. "And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and in the sea, heard I saying: Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." Rev. 5: 13. This grand chorus of praise the holy Apostle heard sung in heaven; and every creature in heaven united in it, even those who had left their bodies to moulder and dissolve on the surface of the earth, and under the earth, and in the sea. That this is the proper sense of the passage is to my own mind certain; and thus interpreted, it not only does not prove an intermediate place, but it proves the contrary. It proves that the souls of the righteous dead were, at the time of the vision, in heaven. If the passage before us proves that any

* See Physical Theory of another Life, p. 192.

of the souls of the righteous were, in John's time, "under the earth," it equally proves that some of them were "in the sea”a place to which no critic, I believe, has yet consigned them. ' Another passage, which has been appealed to in proof of the intermediate place, is that in which Christ is said to have gone and "preached to the spirits in prison." 1 Pet. 3: 19. These 'spirits in prison" are supposed to be the holy dead-perhaps the virtuous heathen-imprisoned in the intermediate place, into which the soul of the Saviour went at death, that he might preach to them the gospel. On this interpretation, I remark, in the first place, that the preaching spoken of was bestowed, not upon the holy dead, or the virtuous heathen, but upon the impious antediluvians, who were "disobedient in the days of Noah," and perished in the flood. This is indubitable, from the passage itself. Secondly, Christ did not preach to these imprisoned spirits in person, but by his Spirit, the Holy Spirit,— that Spirit by which his lifeless body was quickened, or raised from the dead. "Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison." Thirdly, this preaching was accomplished, not while the body of the Saviour was entombed, but "when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing." Then, "while the ark was preparing," Christ preached by his Spirit, inspiring and assisting Noah, to those who, in Peter's time, were "spirits in prison" -spirits shut up in the prison of hell. I know of no other interpretation which can fairly be given to this vexed passage of Scripture; and thus explained, it goes not a step towards proving the doctrine of an intermediate place.

Another passage from the Apocalypse has been often quoted, in proof of the intermediate place. "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire." Chap. 20: 14. This is represented as taking place at the close of the general judgment, after which there is to be no more death, and the entire world of dnsparadise, Tartarus, and all-is to be cast into the lake of fire! To me, I must confess, this is a very strange interpretation. The tree of life, which grows in the midst of the paradise of God, is then to be burnt up, root and branch! Those holy seats, in which Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, all the patriarchs and prophets, saints and martyrs had so long dwelt, and where they had offered up their songs of praise, are to be cast into the lake of fire! The whole paradise of God, with all its lovely bowers

and pleasant fruits, is to come to an end, and a most miserable end! It is to be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death. This will be "Paradise Lost," with a vengeance. Suffice it to say, that I reject such an interpretation as this, and adopt one which, to my own mind, seems much more natural and consistent. At the close of the judgment, death, which is the last enemy to the believer, is to be destroyed; and all those who came to the judgment from hell, the world of miserable spirits, are to be cast into the lake of fire. They are to be remanded back to hell again, which is now to be their prison for

ever.

It is further urged, in proof of an intermediate place, that the Scriptures represent the happiness of the righteous as not complete, until after the resurrection. The fact here alleged is admitted; but the conclusion drawn from it is denied. It does not follow, because the happiness of the righteous is not complete, until after the resurrection, that previously their souls are imprisoned in the centre of the earth, or in any other similar place or region. If in the moment of death, their disembodied spirits rise to heaven, and continue there till the resurrection, it is altogether likely that their happiness in heaven will be incomplete. It will be greatly increased, when they shall have received their glorified bodies from the tomb, and entered on the full rewards of eternity.

Again: it is insisted, that the early Christian fathers inculcated the doctrine of an intermediate place. It is admitted that such was the belief of many of the fathers, particularly those in the East. It may be accounted for, too, that such should have been their belief, without supposing that they derived it from the apostles. They were in continual controversy with the Gnostics, who undervalued the body, considered it as the grand corrupter of the soul, and denied altogether its resurrection.. This led those fathers to set a high value on the resurrection of the body, to insist much upon it, and to represent the soul as in a very imperfect condition in abditis receptaculis, vel in exterioribus atriis-while the body was entombed. The effect of this error, on the minds of those fathers who adopted it, was unhappy; leading them early to institute prayers for the dead, and resulting, after a time, in the belief of a purgatory. On the whole, the authority of the fathers, in reference to the matter before us, is of little weight. The question to be decided is not, What thought the fathers? but, What saith the holy Scriptures?