oners in a dark place; but shews that Christ is commissioned to release them. In the 25th, he promises that the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered.

"I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light to the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prisonhouse."*

"The spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound."t

" And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison [or dungeon] and after many days shall they be visited."‡

* Isa. xlii. 6, 7. † Isa. Ixi. 1. Isa. xxiv. 21, 22.

K

In a translation from the Syriac Bible, the passage reads thus: "In that very day Jehovah shall visit upon the sublime powers in the sublimity (or sublime place) and upon the earthly kings in the earth; and assemblies shall assemble over the imprisoned; and after a multitude of days they shall be delivered."

It is recorded by Luke, that Christ was cruçified between two malefactors, one of whom railed on him, but the other rebuked his fellowculprit, and prayed to Christ to remember him when he came to his kingdom; and Jesus said unto him, verily, I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.*

This promise was made on Friday evening, and was undoubtedly literally fulfilled, as it is most probable that the spirit or soul of Christ went immediately to preach the gospel to the spirits of the inhabitants of the old world, who, for their disobedience in the days of Noah, had been drowned in the universal deluge, and took the soul of the malefactor with him, agreeably to his promise.

We are not ignorant that some of the Partialists have contended, that by the paradise men.

• Luke xxiii. 43.

tioned here, the paradise of God in Heaven is intended. But this opinion is positively refuted by what is recorded in the 20th chapter of John, 16th and 17th verses. When Mary Magdalene went to the sepulchre on Sunday morning, and saw and conversed with Jesus, he said unto her, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your God. It is therefore as certain as testimony can render any fact, that Jesus had not been in Heaven from Friday, when he made the promise, until Sunday morning, when he conversed with Mary; and as certain that the soul of the malefactor could not have been in Heaven with him; and, in consequence, if the paradise intended was Heaven, the promise could not possibly have been fulfilled. It therefore evidently follows, that the paradise alluded to in the promise, was the paradise in Hades (whither Lazarus was conveyed by angels into Abraham's bosom) which probably consists of districts suited to the merits and acquirements of the various inhabitants; where the good may improve in knowledge and virtue, and suitable means be employed to reform the vicious.

"Here Abraham (before the death of Christ) was supposed to preside as the head of the fa,

mily of all the faithful; and, as it seems, in patriarchal honours a representative of Christ : for under his patronage it may be presumed these blessed souls had a hopeful expectation of the time of our Saviour's resurrection, when his heavenly sanctuary should be opened, and themselves received into the presence of God."*

Of this we therefore read, Luke xvi. 22, 23. That Lazarus was seen in it by the rich man, enjoying the comforts of the faithful Abraham. That in Saul or Hades there is a place of residence for happy souls, is again evident from Gen. xxxvii. 35. I shall descend unto my son mourning into Seol, Saul, or Hades. It is plain that Jacob expected to meet his son after death, since he says, I shall go down to my son: but he did not expect that his body should go down to his son's body, because his son's body having been, in his belief, devoured by beasts, was not supposed by him to be in the grave; therefore the expectation in Jacob of going to his son after death, argues that he supposed a place where the departed souls of men resided, where his son's soul then was; and where his own, when dead, should find him.

Again, since it cannot be thought that Jacob expected either that himself, after death, should go into a state of torment, or that his son's soul was then in such a state, he must have understood by the word Saul, or Hades, some happy region, the residence of blessed souls after their bodies are deposited in the grave.

We therefore conclude, that the paradise intended in the promise was that which the Jews called Abraham's paradise, and sometimes Abraham's bosom, where Lazarus found a peaceful asylum,* and where it is probable that the soul of David remained in the days of the Apostles. See Acts ii. 34.

Upon the whole, taking both scripture and reason for our guide, we think it extremely improbable that the souls of the regenerate go immediately to Heaven, or that the souls of the unregenerate go immediately into a place of exquisite torment; but we conceive that every intelligent being must be unhappy as long as they continue to be vicious; as we conceive misery and disorder to be the natural and necessary consequence of vice.