,
the idea, which we think was the idea of the author of the Epistle
to the Hebrews, that Christ, by his death, resurrection, and
ascent, demonstrated to the faith of men God's merciful removal of
the supposed outward penalty of sin, namely, the banishment of
souls after death to the under world, and led the way, as their
forerunner, into heaven, this idea, which is not shocking to the
moral sense nor plainly absurd to the moral reason, as the
Augustinian dogma is, not only yields a more sharply defined,
consistent, and satisfactory explanation of all the related
language of the epistle, but is also which cannot be said of the
other doctrine in harmony with the contemporary opinions of the
Hebrews, and would be the natural and almost inevitable
development from them and complement of them in the mind of a
Pharisee, who, convinced of the death and ascension of the sinless
Jesus, the appointed Messiah, had become a Christian.

In support of the last assertion, which is the only one that needs
further proof, we submit the following considerations. In the
first place, every one familiar with the eschatology of the
Hebrews knows that at the time of Christ the belief prevailed that
the sin of Adam was the cause of death among men. In the second
place, it is equally well known that they believed the destination
of souls upon leaving the body to be the under world. Therefore
does it not follow by all the necessities of logic? they believed
that sin was the cause of the descent of disembodied spirits to
the dreary lower realm. In the third place, it is notorious and
undoubted that the Jews of that age expected that, when the
Messiah should appear, the dead of their nation, or at least a
portion of them, would be raised from the under world and be
reclothed with bodies, and would reign with him for a period on
earth and then ascend to heaven. Now, what could be more natural
than that a person holding this creed, who should be brought to
believe that Jesus was the true Messiah and after his death had
risen from among the dead into heaven, should immediately conclude
that this was a pledge or illustration of the abrogation of the
gloomy penalty of sin, the deliverance of souls from the
subterranean prison, and their admission to the presence of God
beyond the sky? We deem this an impregnable position. Every
relevant text that we consider in its light additionally fortifies
it by the striking manner in which such a conception fit