would consider their after-state." These expressions intimate something here which merits consideration, and a just application of wisdom; and at the same time hint a danger of falling into a state of an opposite nature, where a dreadful reverse might be experienced. This rises more into view in two passages of the Psalmist. The first where he says, "I love the habitation of thy house, the place of the dwelling of thy glory."-" Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with men of blood." The second, "The soul shall go to the generation of its Fathers, who never see the light." Gather is a consecrated term in the sacred volume, to express taking out of the world by death. It was the popular belief of these times, that a region was assigned to sinners, which Messiah terms the portion of hypocrites, coming to which the Psalmist so earnestly deprecated.

The abode of the unhappy assumes a more specific form in taking the appellation of the lower Sheol, and what Josephus terms the darker Hades. The epithet lower, is sometimes expressed, and sometimes understood. When the Psalmist says, "who shall deliver his soul from Sheol?" he means the invisible state taken in general: and that such is its law, as that when once there, none can come forth until the day of doom. But when Solomon says, "that the way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from Sheol beneath," he

must

must unavoidably mean the abode of darkness; as it is impossible for any man to be possessed of such wisdom as to escape the stroke of death, or to avoid entering into the region of souls.

When it is threatened that "the wicked shall Ps. 9.17 be turned into Sheol, and all they who forget God;" to constitute this, a discriminative threatening the term lower must be understood, because they who remember God, as well as they who forget him, must all pass through the gates which open into the invisible country.

Instead of lower, the term deeps is employed. So we are told, that to this place of wretchedness the house of the harlot is the way; and that they who have yielded to her lure, are in the deeps of Sheol. Prov. ix. 18.

66

This place is likewise termed the assembly of the giants. They who wander," says Solomon, out of the way of understanding, shall dwell (Be-kahal-rephaim) in the assembly of the giants In the common version, this is no threatening at all; for who is it that shall not dwell in the congregation of the dead, whether he wanders out of, or keeps in the way of understanding? Prov.

xxi. 16.

We have also evidence that there is such a region in the book of job, in this sentence, "For to the day of destruction, the wicked man shall be

kept

"where is the way

1st.

kept in darkness; they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath."* When the Deity asks Job, where light dwelleth; as for darkness, where is the place thereof?" Job. xxxviii. 16, 19. Two things seem to urge here that this is not to be understood of the light and darkness of earth. That the solution of the question, if it respected these natural appearances, is easy; the sun, by his presence, being the cause of the one, and by his absence that of the other. In this latter view light and darkness are transient appearances, and ever in motion; but in the question of the Deity, here is light which has a fixed habitation, and darkness which has a place of its own. 2d. This view is confirmed by several passages, that by darkness is meant the place of the wicked, and by light, the dwellings of the righteous.

I know only of one objection that can be op posed to this interpretation, which is, that this question is put among a variety of other queries, all relating to natural appearances, and therefore it would seem unnatural to start aside from these,

* Jehashec, third per. sing. fut. from the root hushac tenebro sus fuit, signifies not barely reserved, but reserved in darkness. The Masoretes, by their scheme of points, make two verbs of this, but they are evidently but one; and when it is rendered withheld, it is easily reducible to the first signification, to darken from, i. e, to withhold or keep out of view. Job. xxi. 30.

and

and put a question so remote from earth and sense. But if starting aside was a fault, that fault was already committed: for the Deity hav ing asked, "Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? hast thou walked in search of the deep?" immediately follows up this with, "have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death? hast thou perceived even unto the breadths of the land, viz. that invisible world?" and then descending to particulars, he demands if he knew the two divisions of that world. "Where is the way where light dwelleth; and as for darkness, where is the place thereof?" In other words, when thou art got into that land, canst thou declare where the righteous, and where the wicked have each their respective abodes?

When we approach nearer, and take a closer view of the subject, so far from starting aside, the transition is natural and easy. The Deity, to

had

speak in the language of Milton, gone with Job to the wall of creation. When he spoke of the springs of the sea, he was got to nature's boundaries, and could go no farther. The vast abyss. lay before him. In that abyss (Tehom) the antients believed all departed spirits were. Of this, all professed to hear, but it lay too deep and too remote for mortal ken. Having proceeded thus far, nothing was more natural than to ask Job, if going

J5,26.20

in quest of the so much talked of, yet so little known abyss, the gates of death, had been opened to him; plainly informing him, that this invisible land was to be seen only through the medium of death.

Although Solomon warmly inculcates the necessity of fleeing from the lower Sheol, or Abaddon, yet we see that Sheol, taken in general, is also the place of the righteous, or that region where light 1413 dwelleth. "O that thou," says Job, "wouldest hide me in Sheol, that thou wouldest keep me secret till thy wrath be past.' With this coincides the invitation of Jehovah himself, "Come my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee, and hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast." On this passage the comment of Clemens Romanus is remarkable. "All the generations since Adam, even unto this day, have passed away but they having been perfected in love, possess from the gift of Christ the region of the pious. They shall be manifested at the visitation of the kingdom of Christ, for it is written, enter thou into thy chambers for a little, until my indignation and wrath be past, and I will remember the good day, and I will raise you up from your apartments."

12. 13

These places are termed their Gebul, or Lot. "Go thy way," said the angel to Daniel, "for

thou