dominion knows no bounds, the prophet Habakkuk says: "He enlarges his desire as hell, and is as death-Sheol, and cannot be satisfied," ii. 5. Conformably to this Hebrew usage, Virgil aptly designates the entrance into the Plutonic kingdom, or-in other words, the gullet of this alldevouring monster, as the fauces orci, or the mouth of hell. The Psalmist, Psalm, lv. 15, still further enlarging on Sheol, under the similitude of a fierce and destructive beast, says alluding to his enemies, "Let death-Sheol, seize upon them."*

PARAGRAPH II.

The Bar-Stone at the Entrance of Sheol or the Pit.

The mouth of Sheol or the Pit, Psalm, lxix. 15, or— which amounts to the same thing, the entrance into "the lower parts of the earth:" the melancholy spirit-home of the dead, Psalm, lxiii. 9, is closed by a stone, Isaiah, xiv. 19. According to a prominent and extensively prevailing dogma in heathen mythology, Cerberus—a many-headed beast of the genus Canis, is set to keep diligent watch at the no less ominous than ponderous portals of Pluto's kingdom. The stone, in the one case, and the monster, in the other, are alike designed, not to guard against the ingress into the Hadean realm or Sheol, but only to prevent egress from it, of the inclosed and reluctant manes or departed spirits. For in their descent to the dismal and uninviting

The expression jaws of hell, used in the text, does not occur verbally in the Old Testament, but it is necessarily implied in the connection in which it is employed, for where there is a mouth, at least in the higher order of animals, jaws, as the essential organs of prehension and mastication, cannot be absent.

lower regions "the house appointed for all living," Job, xxx. 23, the departing ghosts have no choice, but once arrived there-such is the idea conveyed to our minds by the precaution adopted at the entrance into Sheol, an idea which is founded upon the knowledge of an irrepressible desire of freedom, animating even the airy ghosts in Sheol or Hades, and owing to which they would, most undoubtedly, escape at the first opportunity, from their loathsome and grievous confinement, if their attempts were not promptly frustrated, and their hopes rudely disappointed.

PARAGRAPH III.

The Bars, Gates, and Doors of Hell.

Sheol or the infernal pit has bars, gates, and doors, as the following texts clearly and abundantly demonstrate, Job, xvii. 16; xxxviii. 17; Psalm, ix. 13; cvii. 18; Jonah, ii. 6; St. Matthew, xvi. 18. By the phrase "the gates of death," Psalm, ix. 13, Cruden thinks the grave is meant. It is true, no doubt, that the Hebrew sepulchers were ordinarily or at least often provided with doors or gates, as they seem to have consisted whenever it was practicable of caves and vaults, Genesis, xxiii. 9; Matthew, xxvii. 60, but notwithstanding this was the case, the expression "the gates of death," evidently signifies the gates of Sheol or of Hell. De Wette, in his able "Commentar ueber die Psalmen," declares the gates of death, Psalm, ix. 13, to be synonymous with the gates of the lower regions, "which," he pertinently adds, "are compared with a strongly fortified and barred or bolted palace, because all escape or deliverance from it, is declared to be impossible. Job, xxxviii. 17; Psalm, evii. 18; Isaiah, xxxviii. 10," etc.

PARAGRAPH IV.

Sheol is a House; a Home.*

Sheol is a house: "the house appointed for all living," Job, xxx. 23. It is the common dwelling of the dead, irrespective of social rank or moral worth. Here the greatest and the meanest take lodgings together in the same somber, cheerless inn, and all are alike subject to a final and inexorable doom. Job, thinking himself to be at the point of death, faintly and sadly exclaims: "Sheol is my house." In the English version, this hero of noble self-denial and patient suffering, is erroneously made to say: "The grave-guebher, is my house." In Ecclesiastes, xii. 5, the sacred writer, after having delineated with picturesque expressiveness the last and inevitable symptoms of human decay, adds with mournful significance, while he thus assigns the reason of these ominous premonitions of a certain and a speedy dissolution: "Because

* Over this Plutonian house or home, presides according to Job, xviii. 14, the King of Terrors, who in Hebrew, is called Melek Ballahoth, meaning-as is stated by Gesenius, "The king of Hades," and is, therefore, the same as Pluto. The learned Kaiser, in his "Biblische Theologie," also interprets Beliyal, Psalm, xviii. 4, to signify the king of Sheol or Hades, the propriety however of doing so, Gesenius flatly denies. The meaning of Beliyal is that which is pernicious, destructive; whatever is hurtful or that destroys, and hence, instead of saying: The floods of Beliyal made me afraid, we should interpret the passage thus: Destructive or raging floods made me afraid. I will only add that floods, waves, deep waters, etc., are often used figuratively among the Hebrew writers to express danger, trouble, calamity, etc. Finally, from the foregoing notice of a solitary example of a king of terrors, the idea of the existence of such a being as a king of Sheol-the frightful realm of ghosts and darkness, never, it seems, became popular among the Jews.

man goeth to his long home." Instead of the words long home, the original text has the phrase everlasting house — Beth Yolamo! It should be remarked here that the epithet everlasting, in this passage, may—as is often the case, in other instances, in the Old Testament, simply denote a period of long duration, and not necessarily imply illimitable duration. Without doubt, however, the author wished to convey the idea that the abode in Sheol, is of a duration incomparably longer than the present brief term of human existence, or that it is, in short, endless!

PARAGRAPH V.

A Panoramic View of the Sheol of the Old Testament, the Hades of the Gospel, and that of Heathen Mythology.

In Sheol-as we shall see in the sequel, are compartments of different degrees of excellence and respectability, adapted to the ideas of the relative rank and worth among the individuals of a certain class of ghosts, Ezekiel, chapter xxxii., but it is not divided into two large and distinct territories or domains, appropriated respectively to the good and the bad spirits, as is the case in the other shadowy abodes of the dead, mentioned in the heading of this Paragraph. In the Gospel, accordingly, we find a case of interlocution between departed spirits, while in Sheol, Isaiah, chapter xiv., notice is taken of a taunting address, without a reply. Besides, though the good and the bad in Sheol have, in some degree, as will appear hereafter, a different destiny, they are not confined to separate localities, adapted either to their guilt or their merits.

To give an example here from the New Testament— though in doing so, I anticipate investigations which be

long to another part of this Work, I shall invite attention to the salient passage in St. Luke, xvi. 19-26, where the unlucky ghost of a certain rich man, "lifted up his eyes in Hell-en to Hade, in Hades, being in torment, and seeing Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom, cried out: "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame." The concise and somewhat harsh reply of the venerable-patriarchal shade, consisted in reminding the suppliant sufferer of the good things, "which he had received during his lifetime;" of the fact, that there was "a great and an impassable gulf between them;" and that-such being the case, he must be content with his unhappy condition, as the natural and unavoidable consequence of a life, misspent amid great and manifold blessings! *

In the next place, a synopsis of the state and arrangement of the more especially Plutonian realm of the lower world, will show either a further agreement or contrast, with the fate and condition of the shadowy inmates of Sheol. Pluto-the puissant son of Saturn and Ops, is, agreeably to the lessons of heathen mythology, as has been already stated, the terrible divinity that presides with inflexible rigor, over the stern and melancholy interests of the Infernal Regions. Life and death-I quote from my Work on "The Heathen Religion in its Popular and Symbolical Development," page 114-117, are in the hands of

The following couplet of Shakespeare, pertinently expresses the punitive principle of the moral law as the hell that awaits all;

"Divines and dying men may talk of hell,

But in my heart her several torments dwell."