HADES, OR HELL.

Amongst those who embrace the present articles of Christian faith, there is no doctrine more current, and of greater influence, than that Hell is exclusively a place of punishment, to which the souls of the wicked are sent, when the period of their incarnation in this life has expired. So incessantly is it instilled into the mind, in all places of religious instruction, throughout our whole lives, from the nursery to the very border of the grave, that few are able to disabuse their minds of the terrors which it inspires, and contemplate a future state of existence with any tolerable degree of firmness and composure. In the nursery children are taught to abstain from the gratification of their incipient vicious inclinations, not because, by gratifying them, they will prove unworthy members of society, and act a part incompatible with the dictates of wisdom and benevolence, but because the doing of a wicked action, incurs the displeasure of an angry God, and exposes the soul to Hell. With this notion children advance to maturity, not so much admiring virtue, for its beneficial practical effects and moral excellence, as fearing impiety on account of its future consequences, and a thousand times anticipating the terrors of death, merely because they look upon that event as a termination of all their happiness, and the commencement of, perhaps, intolerable existence.

On this subject it would be well to "search the scriptures," without submitting the understanding entirely to the guidance of others. It is in vain that we talk of religious freedom, and of liberty of conscience, if we have more confidence in the theology of nursery maids and pulpit declaimers, than we are willing, to allow to the claims of our own unbiassed understandings. Every Christian professes to make the Bible the ground of his faith. If, however, the faith of all sects and denominations is truly built upon that book, its chief excellence and peculiarity may be found in the diversified forms of faith and practice which it admits. But notwithstanding there is such a diversity in these particulars, all are tenacious of this one point, there is but one faith, while in fact there is nothing men differ so much about as the contents of the Bible.

That we read of, or rather that we meet with the word hell in the Scriptures, or in our common version of them, is not

* That men are so many incarnations of human souls, is a truth most evidently resulting from the proposition that souls are immaterial and yet inhabit bodies of flesh.

to be disputed; but that we meet with any word in the Hebrew Scriptures, in the Septuagint, or in the Greek Testament, which answers to the modern theological sense of the English word Hell, is a question which it will be difficult to determine in the affirmative. According to the general acceptation of this term, it signifies a place of torment, somewhere in the universe, (but no one can tell where) in which the wicked are shut up under the dominion of the first great apostate from truth, Satan or the Devil, who fell from Heaven, no one can tell when, or for what particular offence. This is no caricature, and however offensive it may be to persons of taste and refinement, it is the true. genuine, modern meaning, in every pulpit vocabulary. Nay, more; it is said that this imaginary being, denominated Satan, is permitted to rave and rove about amongst men, tempting and ensnaring them, and finally at death, drag off "vi et armis," their poor souls as the triumphs of his puissance!

It may be considered by some, as indiscreet to attempt to expose the fallacy of popular superstitions and notions; yet one can scarcely avoid inquiring, if the world is indebted to the Bible for this most comfortable doctrine? That we are thus indebted, a very large majority of the public teachers of religion, boldly declare, and a large majority of Christians profess to believe. They say, that there are two separate places, to which souls are adjudged after death; one is called Heaven, and the other Hell; that the souls of the good, when death takes place here, depart from their bodies to Heaven, and are happy; while the souls of the wicked depart to Hell, and are miserable for éver. The truth of this doctrine, may, however, without any hesitation, be questioned, for where is it said in Scripture, that the souls of the good go to Heaven, and the souls of the wicked to Hell, after death? We read of Heaven, and the Kingdom of Heaven, not however, as a place to be inhabited after death, but they are terms used in the New Testament, when the subject of the influence of the Gospel is referred to. What other meaning can the phrases, "Kingdom of Heaven," "Kingdom of God," "Our Father who art in Heaven," "The Son of Man who is in Heaven," "Thy Kingdom come," "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand," have, than the collective number of those who are obedient to the dispensation of the Gospel, and follow the instructions of Christ? The absurdity of praying, "Thy Kingdom come," would be apparent, if the Kingdom of Heaven be a place in some distant and unknown region.

That men are, and will be punished for their violations of moral law, is no more to be doubted, than that their happiness results, and will result from their practical adherence to the principles of moral rectitude. But it does not follow by.

necessary consequence, that souls are sent to Hell for the sole purpose of suffering punishment, or that Hell is to be considered as a place of misery, and the future abode of the wicked only. It is said in the "Apostles' Creed," which, if frequent repetitions are an evidence of belief, thousands, we may say millions, believe, that Christ" descended into Hell," and it is also said in Acts II, 31,"he seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in Hell, neither his flesh did see corruption." Those who made the "Apostles' Creed," and King James' translators, would not, therefore, have believed, that the wicked are the only persons who descend to Hell, or that it is a place of punishment. The fact is, they considered it as answering in signification to the Greek word ads or asins. Hades, used in the Septuagint, and to the Hebrew word Sheöl, in the Old Testament, neither of which words signify a place of punishment, any more than a place of happiness; for the Hebrews believed, that the good as well as the bad descended to Sheöl, and so also the Greeks believed, that both descended into Hades; and if the word Hell be a correct translation of Sheöl and Hades. the consequence is, that we must believe the same. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus has been understood to afford a sufficient foundation for the common notion attached to this word. But a very slight examination will prove the contrary, if parables and allegories are evidence of facts. "Lazarus died, and was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried, and in (Hades) Hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom." Now according to this parable, Abraham, Lazarus, and the rich man were all in Hades or Hell, seeing and conversing with each other.

Hell, or Sheöl and Hades, according to the Hebrews and Greeks, was the place of all the dead; and in this sense, no doubt it was, that all the original writers of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, and the authors of the Septuagint, used the term. Their idea was, that there was one place or receptacle of the dead, which was what our translators have called Hell. The Greeks also believed, that Hades was inhabited by ghosts or shades. But our business is not with Grecian, but Christian theology; and therefore it may justly be said, that if Christ descended into Hades or Hell, and that he arose En Vegwu from the dead, from those who had been alive, and then ceased to be so, it cannot be true, that there are living beings in Hell, but that those who are there, are dead, are literally the dead, in opposition to the living.

Johnson, whose opinions on religious terms and matters, are. no more infallible than those of others, makes the word Hell,

in its second definition, to signify "the place of separate souls; whether good or bad," and to support it quotes Genesis XLII. 38, "and ye will bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to Hell." The common version has it, "with sorrow to the grave." The Septuagint has it, Hades. We should be shocked, now-a-days to hear an old man say to his children, "ye will bring down my gray hairs, with sorrow to hell," to a place of "everlasting fire and brimstone !!"

The word Sheöl, in the Hebrew Scriptures, is generally in the Septuagint translated hades, and this word occurs in more than forty instances, in that translation, and in the Greek New Testament, in no one of which does it convey an idea of being a place of punishment; notwithstanding, the translators of our common and authorized version, have not hesitated, in more than thirty instances to employ the word hell in giving the meaning of sheöl and hades; in more than a dozen instances they have inserted the word grave, as a translation of those two words, and in one instance they have used the word death; and what is more remarkable, is, that in two instances, where the Septuagint has the word Savaros (which signifies death) our translators have it hell. These facts show, that the words hell, death, and grave, might be indifferently used for hades, and that one no more signifies a place of punishment than another.

It remains to refer to a few other instances, in which the word hell occurs; they are in Mathew V. 22, 29, 30, and X. 28, and XVIII. 9, and also in Mark and Luke, where the same subjects are spoken of. These texts are considered by many as indisputable evidence, that Hell is a place of punishment after death. The curious and inquisitive, however, by reference to the original will find that the Greek word is Teivva is Gehenna, and is the proper name of the valley of the son of Hinnom, a place situated near the city of Jerusalem, and was otherwise called Tophet. How it came to be translated hell, any more than the Greek words for Sodom and Gomorrah, or the name of any other place of "bad odour," is a question which every one may, or may not, answer, as may best please himself. The word, being a proper name, should have been transferred, and not translated. As the latter is the fact, the consequence is that the mass of common readers are impiously imposed upon and misguided in a matter of religious faith. They should be made acquainted with the fact, therefore, that this Gehenna, situated as above mentioned, was a place of slaughter, and that there, in ancient times, the Israelites" caused their children to pass through the fire unto Moloch," a constant fire used to be kept there for consuming the carcasses and other filthiness conveyed from Jerusalem. It may easily be supposed, therefore,