in Eccles. xii. 5. (Beth-Olamo) the house of its future age, or hidden period, and the body remains for interment. Of this, connexion of the two places, we have a symbolical representation in the book of Rev. "One called death appears upon a pale horse, and Hades, or the invisible state, follows after him." A. 6.8. : The word Keber, the grave, is so clearly marked by those adjuncts and circumstances which we know to belong to a grave, that it is next to impossible to mistake it such as its being an excavation in the earth, formed for the reception of the bodyits situation, being but a few feet below the surface-the phrase, to bury, being employed to express the act of interment-its having a pillar erected on it, to set forth the name of the person whose remains are deposited there. Thus AbraGen.23.4ham desired to purchase of the children of Heth a piece of ground for a grave. It was said to the prophet, who had acted contrary to the instructions which he had received from God, "Thou IKg.13.22. shalt not come into the sepulchre of thy Fathers." Why should not my countenance be sad," ch. 2.3 says Nehemiah, "when the place of my Father's sepulchre lieth waste ?" In all which passages the unvaried translation of the Septuagint and the Vulgate is monument, tomb, mound, sepulchre : never Hades or Inferi. All these terrific comparisons, as to invisibility, depth, secretness, and distance distance from human investigation, are never drawn from the term Keber, grave, but from that unseen world termed Sheol and Hades. When we turn our view to the New Testament, the same distinction is carefully preserved. there. The invisible state (Hades) and grave (Mnemeion) are never confounded, or taken at times the one for the other. "Marvel not at this," Jn.5.28. says Christ, "for the hour is coming in the which all they who are in their graves (en Mnemeiois) shall hear his voice." So at his crucifixion, it is Matt27.52; said that the graves were opened. On the other hand, when mention is made of being delivered from the power of the grave, Keber, in Hebrew, or Mnemeion, in Greek, are never employed; for what power can be supposed to be lodged in a cave made in the ground? But in Hades, the invisible world, there is that power of detention, termed the cords of Sheol, that souls once there cannot leave it and return back to earth. The reversing their situation must be the deed of Almighty power, an act for which they are looking as he has promised. "I will ransom them from the Hos.13./4 power of Sheol." This is the law of the invisible state, and suspended but once, viz. at the resurrection of Christ; that none who enter into it are ever more to return to earth, until the day of doom. "Man lieth down, and riseth not till the heavens be no more." Job. 14.12. The souls of the pious know that their present situation, however full of rest, peace, and comfort, is not to continue, and that they will one day recover their bodies. The prize of the high calling is their object there, as well as it has been while they were sojourning on earth. On that day this song of triumph may well suit the christian, overjoyed at finding himself in possession of the long lost body; "O death where is thy sting ?". as this had only transmitted him to a pleasant abode of rest, until the indignation should be overpast. "O Hades, where is thy victory?" as this general law of detaining the souls of the saints in the invisible world was now at an end. Cor. 15.55. * It may be remarked here, that the heathen. nations entertained much the same ideas of the unalterable nature of the invisible state, as those delivered in the scripture, but with this difference, that they lived in ne expectation of a resurrection. It was their opinion that being once in that state, all possibility of a return to the body was precluded for ever: that the infernal gods were not of a disposition to be softened by the prayers of mortals ;† hence the river which souls are feigned to pass, is termed irremeabilis, impossible to be recrossed. * Facilis discensus Averni Sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras Hoc opus hic labor est. + Nescia humanis precibus mansuescere corda. Firg. Eneis. 6. It is a leading mark of distinction between Keber, the grave, and Sheol, the place of souls; that while the former takes the possessive pronouns through all their variety, such as my grave, his grave, your graves, &c. the latter never does, and never appears in the plural, but stands by itself as one extended region, the receptacle of all spirits departed. It is never said they buried him in his Sheol, or I will cause your bodies to come out of your Sheol; such expressions as these never once occur through the whole extent of the sacred volume, Keber is invariably employed. On the other hand, when mention is made of the soul's destination, its assigned abode is as invariably Sheol. It is easy to see that by this uniform distinction, the ideas of the antient Hebrews, with respect to the grave and the invisible world, would be invariably regulated. They would never think of putting the one for the other, and of course would understand each term to the full amount of what it was intended to convey. Having thus seen that Sheol in the Old Testament, and Hades in the New, never mean the place of interment, it now remains to be inquired what the antient Hebrews understood to be designated by it. In traversing this invisible region, we shall endeavour to walk behind the divine word, as having here a more sure guide than the priestess Nn 2 priestess, who, as the poet feigns, conducted Eneas to the shades below. In searching why this state was denominated Sheol by the Hebrews, we may derive some small measure of light from etymology. We are at no loss to understand why it is termed Hades by the Greeks, and Inferi by the Latins; the former expressing a place removed from the view of mankind, and the latter its situation, as imagined to be under the earth. In like manner the name Sheol may have taken its rise from the verb shaal, to demand. In these ages of primitive simplicity, when a more lively sense of religion pervaded every heart, the death of an individual would be considered as the requisition of heaven. Conformably to this idea, it is expressed in the evangelist 12-20 Luke, "This night thy soul shall be required of thee." It might then be said of one when he was dead, that he was gone to Sheol, the place of demand or general requisition. Hence it is that, by Solomon, Sheol is represented as one of three things which is never satisfied, but which still continues to demand the souls of mortals from generation to generation. Prov. xxx. 16. It is to be expected that many things relating to this state will be found to be said in conformity to the ideas of the different ages, and the progress made in knowledge-things which in themselves may not be strictly true, but merely adapta |