of all creation, "sea exists no longer" (Rev. xxi. 1).
Hades, as apparently might be inferred from the proper sense of the
word, signifies that invisible state of departed spirits which, as just
said, is symbolized as being concealed in the depths of "the sea," and
also, as I have already pointed out, has to death a necessary relation
of sequence ("Hades followed with him" [Rev. vi. 8]). This explains
why Death and Hades are represented as a conjoint power having
possession of the dead. In Rev. i. 18, as well as in Rev. vi. 8, they
are mentioned in close connection, and in the latter passage power is
said to be given to them in common.

I take occasion to make some remarks here on 1 Peter iii. 19, as the
sense of this passage might be thought to be contradictory to the
meaning assigned above to Hades. It affirms that "in spirit Christ
went and preached to the spirits in custody {59} (_en phylake_)." Now,
the literal meaning of the concrete terms, "went and preached"
(_poreutheis ekeruxen_), is _excluded_ by "in spirit" going before, and
they consequently require an abstract interpretation. It has already
been argued (p. 50) that the word "custody" applies to departed spirits
in the sense of their being in the _keeping_ of the Creator of spirits;
whence it follows that "spirits in custody" and "spirits in Hades" have
the same meaning. But neither of these expressions signifies anything
as to _locality_, for the simple reason that locality cannot be
predicated of spirit apart from body. The abstract interpretation of
the passage of St. Peter may, I think, be reached by the following
argument. The word _ekeruxen_ above cited is not that ordinarily used
with respect to preaching the Gospel, and therefore it is the more to
be noticed that where Noah is called "a preacher of righteousness" (2
Peter ii. 5), the Greek word is _keruka_. May we not hence infer that
Noah, by "the spirit of Christ" which was in him (compare 1 Peter i.
11), preached to the unbelieving and "disobedient" of his day, and that
their spirits, although the world in which they lived was so long since
destroyed by the Flood, are, together with all other departed spirits,
still in God's custody, to be hereafter raised up and judged? We are
farther informed respecting Noah's preaching, which consisted
apparently of deeds rather than of words, that "by preparing an ark for
the {60} saving of his house, he condemned the world, and became heir
of the r