dialect, the word hell was taken in a larger sense, for the general receptacle of all souls whatsoever; and even no longer ago than the old translation of the Psalms, which is still retained in the Common Prayer Book, it was used in this general acceptation, as in Psalm Ixxxix. 47. " what man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his sout from the hand of hell?" Where hell must be understood of the general receptacle of all souls, or otherwise the words of the Psalmist would not be true, for, all souls do go to that hell which is the place of the damned: and even long before that, as Dr. Towerson in forms us, in a Saxon discoure written above seven hundred years ago, it is said of Adam, "that after he had lived nine hundred years, he went with sorrow into hell;" where, since none but reputed heretics ever denied the salvation of Adam, it is most reasonable to conclude, that by the hell to which he went, nothing else is to be understood than the common receptacle of all departed souls, whether good or bad. Which ancient sense of the word hell, may be farther confirmed from the primary and original signification thereof; ac, cording to which, it imports no more than an invisible and hidden place, being derived from the old Saxon word hil, which signifies

to hide, or from the participle thereof helled, that is to say, hidden or covered; as in the Western parts of England at this very day, to hele over any thing, signifies amongst the common people to cover it; and he that cov ereth an house with tile or slate, is called an hellier. From whence it appears that the word hell, according to its primitive notion, exactly answers to the Greek word hades, which signifies the common mansion of all separated souls, and was so called, quasi ho aidestopos, because it is an unseen place, removed from the sight and view of the living according to which, the translator of Irenæus renders it by" an invisible place;" very fitly so terming it, because of our uncertainty of the places whither departed souls do go, and of their invisibility unto us.

But, from the literal signification of the word, let us proceed to the thing itself; where I shall endeavor to prove, that amongst all the ancients, whether Heathens, Jews, or Christians, the usual acceptation of the term hell was, that it was the common lodge or habitation of separated souls, both good and bad, wherein each of them, according to their deserts in this life, and their expectations of the future judgment, remained either in joy or misery.

I place the Heathens with the Jews and Christians, because the propriety of any Greek or Latin word is to be fetched from them; and the apostles speaking the words of their language, it cannot be imagined, but that they spoke them according to their vulgar signifi cation, intending always by them their usual and universal meaning.

Now that the Heathens, both Greeks and Latins, the one by their Hades, and the other by their Inferi, did generally understand the forementioned place of departed souls, needs no large or copious proof, seeing the least peruser of their writings must without doubt have observed this to have been their general opinion, that as upon the death of all men, whether just or unjust, the grave receiv ed their bodies, so hell received their souls for the demostrating whereof, there will be found sufficient in those books alone, that are usually read in Grammar schools; as in the beginning of Homer's Iliads, the poet invocates his muse to assist him in the description of the anger of Achilles, which was so fatal to the Greeks, that it sent many noble souls to hell, and made their carcases a prey to the dogs."

And in the 11th book of his Odysses, Ulysses

gives a narration of his descent into hades or hell, which be describes to be the common place of souls separated from their bodies, where he met with several of his old acquaint ance, and others, of whom he had heard, both good and bad; there he saw the souls of A chilles, Agamemnon, Patroclus, Antilochus, and others whose names are mentioned with honor and praise in the Pagan histories, as well as the souls of Titius, Tantalus, and Sisyphus whose memories are preserved with brands of infamy and reproach; there he be held the soul of Achilles to skip with joy in a flowry meadow, whilst the souls of other dead men stood by in a mournful posture, relating their particular sufferings. Each of them being suitably affected to the sentence that had been passed on them by Minos, who in that infernal region judged all souls, according to their actions in the body, either to misery or felicity. Æneas also in imitation of Ulysses is feigned by Virgil to have gone down to hell, or to the habitation of departed souls, where he saw not only the proud giants who attempted to pull Jupiter out of heaven, the king of Elis, Ixion, Pirithous, and other great and abominable sinners, in the midst of unconceivable and tremendous torments, but also Ilus, Assaracus, Dardanus, Anchises and a multitude of other heroes, recreating them

selves in green meadows, amidst a full confluence of every thing that could make them blessed and happy. So that hell contained the separated souls of all men whether good or bad, whether adjudged to misery or felicity; being divided into two parts, in the left whereof the ungodly are plagued and tormented for their sins and follies, as in the right the godly are rewarded and blessed for their duty and obedience; according to those verses of Diphilus an old comical poet, preserved by Clemens Alexandrinus.

For good and bad, two different paths are found In hell; both which are cover'd by the ground. Not much unlike to which, Virgil describes two paths in hell; the right leading to the Elysian fields, or the habitation of the blessed; the left, leading to Tartarus, or the place of the damned.

The way in two divides: that on the right
By Pluto's walls, goes to the Elyfian light :
That on the left doth unto torment tend,
And men to wicked Tartarus doth fend.

From all which it manifestly appears, that hell was a general term, and signified the place whereunto all separated souls, whether good or bad, were translated and carried, and there disposed of into two distinct mansions.

P