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words, ans, hades, denoting merely a secret invisible place, and hence applied to the place of departed spirits; and yɛɛvva, gehenna, signifying the place of final torment."

It is made evident, from an elaborate examination into which the Bishop enters, of the meaning of the former word ads, or hades, among the Greeks, and the corresponding word orcus among the Romans, and sheol among the Jews, and also from the signification which the authors of the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament annexed to the term in above sixty places where it occurs, and from the obvious import of it in those passages where it occurs in the New Testament; that when the apostles spoke of hades, they used it in its settled, universal, and appropriate sense of the place of departed spirits. And this is the word which is rendered hell in the passage relating to our Saviour in the sixteenth Psalm.

Some observations are then made in regard to the situation of the place of departed spirits, and to the probability of the souls of the righteous and the wicked existing there in different conditions and different regions of that unknown abode.

"That region of the departed where the souls of the righteous repose, in the interval between death and the resurrection, is denominated by our Saviour Paradise-This day, says he to the penitent thief, 'thou shalt be with me in Paradise.' Not in heaven, the abode of the blessed-for to heaven our Lord ascended not till after his resurrection, as appears from his own words to Mary Magdalene-but to that region where the righteous abide in joyful hope of the consummation of their bliss."

The objections to this opinion, drawn from other parts of Scripture, are then answered; the ends for which our Saviour descended into hell are shown to be of the most important nature; and the distinction is pointed out between this doctrine and the Papal doctrine of purgatory.

The whole argument is thus concisely and admirably summed up by the Bishop himself:

"As the souls of men are not admitted into heaven, the place of happiness, nor into hell, the place of final torment, according to the representation of the sacred writings, until the resurrection and judgment of the great day; and as the soul, both from reason and Scripture, is not previously in a state of unconsciousness-it follows, that during this interval, it must subsist in a separate state.

"As the happiness of heaven; and the misery of hell, the place of final torment, are represented in Scripture as the happiness or misery of the whole man, of his body united to his soul; and as this union, dissolved by death, is not renewed until the resurrection and judgment of the great day; it follows, that previously to this event, the soul cannot be a subject of the happiness of heaven, or of the misery of the final hell of torment, but must be in a separate state of incomplete, though inconceivably great felicity or woe.

"And that there is a place of the departed, denominated, in allusion to its secret and invisible character, adns, hades, or hell, where, in distinct abodes, the souls of the righteous and of the wicked experience inconceivable happiness or misery, expecting the consummation of their felicity or woe,

at the day of judgment, is placed beyond doubt by the fact that Christ's human soul was in hell (hades), in the place of the departed, and in that part of this place denominated Paradise, in the interval between his death and resurrection.

For, during this interval, his human soul was in some place; since, independently of every other consideration, it was declared of him by the prophet, that his soul was not to be left in hell.'

"But his soul, during this period, could not have been in heaven; for he did not ascend to heaven, agreeably to his own declaration, until after his resurrection.

"Nor could his soul have been in the hell of torment; for he declared, as matter of triumph and joy to the penitent thief, that after death they should be together in Paradise.

"In Paradise, then, that region of peace and joy, in hades, the place of the departed, was the human soul of the blessed Jesus in the interval between death and the resurrection.

"And where the human soul of Jesus was during this period, there, during the same period, must be the souls of the human race whose sentence of mortality he sustained, and of whom he was the representative."

The abstract which I have made of this dissertation, though large enough to give the reader a general idea of the manner in which the subject is treated, is, however, but an imperfect representation of the piece itself. It does not exhibit the full force of his reasonings, the aptness and variety of his illustrations, the imposing and overwhelming array VOL. 1.

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of his authorities. He had examined the question with great care, and knowing how little it was understood, and how much less it was regarded, and at the same time considering that it was a doctrine of Scripture, and an article of the Church, he was anxious to place it in such a clear and convincing light, that it might be both fully comprehended and devoutly believed. He therefore brought to it all the powers of his mind and the fruits of his research, that every position might be fortified, every objection overthrown, every doubt removed. And it does appear to me that no one can read it, who is not wholly indifferent to the subject, or blinded by prejudice, without a conviction of the truth of the doctrine in general, however he may differ in regard to certain speculations with which it is connected. It was from the persuasion that some service might be rendered to the cause of truth, on a point which is but little examined, that the notice of this dissertation has been so much extended; and the hope is entertained, that it may still more effectually serve it by leading many to a perusal of the treatise itself.

The labours of Bishop Hobart in his extensive diocese, where the points to be visited were often very remote from his place of residence and from each other, and in the large parish of which he was Rector, where both the temporal and spiritual cares were more weighty than usual, would have been enough to break down the physical strength of most men, and to have distracted and overwhelmed their minds. But, in 1816, he received an invitation to visit the diocese of Connecticut; and deeming it

important to the interests of that section of the Church, that Episcopal duties should not be intermitted there, he cheerfully consented to make this new addition to his labours. In a previous year, during a short visitation of six weeks in our own state, he held confirmation in twenty churches, preached forty times, and travelled eleven hundred miles. During this he confirmed, in thirty-five churches, thirteen hundred and twenty persons, visited ten other congregations, consecrated seven edifices to the worship of God, and ordained twelve deacons and seven priests.

Nothing can be more dry and uninteresting than this naked detail, and yet nothing less so than the circumstances themselves to which it relates. What is thus stated in a few lines, occasioned profound emotion in thousands. Wherever the Bishop was expected for confirmation, the clergyman was roused to extraordinary exertion, and felt all the tenderness of his pastoral care; parents were filled with anxious wishes for their children, or with gratitude to God for inspiring them with a sense of their duty; the young were withdrawn from the world in which they so naturally delighted, engaged in reading, meditation, and prayer, and agitated with the complicated feelings of joy and hope, timidity and awe.

Wherever he came, though merely to visit the congregations, there was always a degree of excitement. From the respect which was entertained for his sacred office, the persuasion of his superior wisdom, and the advantages of his ripe experience,

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