There is full reason for concluding from the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, that the angels are employed on the death of all just men to convey their spirits into Abraham's bosom; and it may therefore be presumed that they who had carried the spirit of Samuel into those realms of peace were most probably the agents who reconveyed his spirit to his body, and after he had uttered his prophetic denunciations unto the Jewish monarch, took up his re-united natures, and bore them into paradise. We do not think that part of the prophecy which testifies to Saul, that on the morrow he and his sons should be with him, (that is, with Samuel,) materially militates against our supposition as to the translation of the twofold natures of the good old prophet. The prophecy does certainly clearly foretell, that Saul and his sons would die upon the morrow, and appalled him who was forsaken of his God with agonizing terror. But whether the judgments inflicted upon Saul and his descendants for his partial disobedience, extended to their souls, we think admits of doubt: Saul was the anointed of the Lord-in many instances had well fulfilled his will. He had cut off those who had familiar spirits, and the wizards, from out the land; he had humbled himself before the Lord, and before his servant Samuel, for the very sin for which he now was punished. Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words; because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice-(a very common stumbling-block.) And on Samuel

repeating God's denunciations, Saul confesses, I have sinned; yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me that I may worship the Lord thy God. (1 Samuel xv. 24, 30.) Saul was certainly a very mixed character; the prophet told him, that his rebellion against God, by disobeying his commands, was as the sin of witchcraft, and that stubbornness was as iniquity and idolatry; yet, as we find that he never utterly forsook the worship of his God-that he had offered in faith the prefigurative sacrifices of that pure and spotless blood which cleanseth from all sin, and though visited with the severest temporal judgments, which was God's usual way of dealing with the Israelites, He may still have had mercy his immortal soul: and the prophet may upon have meant, that his spirit would be with him in Paradise. It is not, however, certain that Samuel knew (supposing our conjecture to be just) that he should be translated in his twofold natures at the moment he came up: the probability is, that he was not aware of the mercy that awaited him, for if he had, he would hardly have upbraided Saul for having disquieted him. Take the matter either way, whether the prophet meant that Saul's soul would be in paradise, or whether he meant (not knowing the intended blessing of his own translation at the moment when he uttered the prophecy) that Saul's body would be with him in the earth, it does not militate against our supposition as to the human nature of the prophet Samuel being carried up unto the secondary hea

vens, there to be glorified together with his spirit, as we know with certainty the prophet Elijah's twofold natures subsequently were.

There is also a further circumstance that renders it very probable that mercy was extended to the soul of Saul; for it is observable, that the sentence passed upon the erring Jewish monarch involved the fate of Jonathan and other of his sons for the prophecy runs thus-" To-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me." God, we know, has himself declared, that He ofttimes visits the sins of fathers upon their children, by sharing their temporal punishment, (though such visitations, when they fall upon the guiltless only, serve to constitute their necessary trials, and are doubtless all working for their good.) But we have the express assurance of God's word, that He does not eternally punish the innocent for the guilty. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die; the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him." (Ezek. xviii. 20.) Therefore, as Jonathan the son of Saul was an amiable, estimable character, we must conclude that his spirit was received into the realms of peace; and, as it is pretty clear from the prophecy, that the souls of Saul and Jonathan, together with the souls of Saul's other sons who were slain by the Philistines, were taken to the same place, and that place we know to be the secondary heavens.

These considerations are powerfully supported

by the following ones: Jonathan was the bosom friend of him who was above all others the man after God's own heart. And David was the very man who so pathetically lamented the death of Saul and Jonathan. "How are the mighty fallen! Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain upon you, nor fields of offerings for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil. From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of Saul returned not empty. Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives; and in their death they were not divided."

It may therefore be presumed from this declaration of the royal prophet, as well as the reasons we have already stated, that their souls were not divided, but that the souls of Saul and Jonathan were borne to that pure region, wherein are many mansions, where imperfect spirits will be made perfect. And if the re-united natures of the good old prophet were by the angels carried up unto, and glorified in, paradise, Saul and his sons would be with Samuel, and a very noble purpose in this case effected, by the permission granted to the power of darkness; though, as before observed, we do not think that power could have raised Samuel, without the assistance of the power of light, and unto which the power of Satan is ever subordinate.

We shall not pursue these remarks any further in the Old Testament; but we cannot quit the subject

without remarking, that the New Testament as plainly asserts throughout the gospels a permitted malign agency, as does the Old Testament. And again, in the Acts of the Apostles, we read of "a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination, who brought her masters much gain by soothsaying the same followed Paul and the apostles, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation. And this she did many days.

But

Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her; and he came out the same hour. And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they laid hold on Paul and Silas." (Acts xvi. 16—19.) In another instance, we find the power of darkness presuming and attempting to imitate the miracles wrought by the power of light. God, we are told in the nineteenth chapter, "wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul; so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits

* We do not think this relation at all contradictory to our former comments respecting persons who are said in the gospels to be possessed of devils; and which we think was satisfactorily proved to be nearly synonymous to insanity amongst us-that is to say, that these persons acted in the same manner as madmen often do in the present day, actuated by the same source from whence originates all evil. This great evil agent operates in divers and various manners; and though the young woman here spoken of may not have been a lunatic, she was influenced in a very grievous manner by an infernal agent, till Paul compassionately, by the name of Jesus, released her from her wicked inmate.