INTRODUCTION. 27 



Astronomy and Geology which their Philosophers and Astrol- 

 ogers inculcated. But whether this be, or be not true, the 

 following view would seem to elucidate some passages of scrip- 

 ture, which otherwise appear with far less of beauty and sub-> 

 limity. 



Conceive the earth to have been in their view a flat, circu- 

 lar surface, floating upon the waters of the deep. There would 

 then have been in their minds these three distinct ideas : 

 First, A vast expanse of firmament, or sky, above the earth 

 and water. This in general they called 'the heavens.' 

 Moses, however, often speaks of the first, second, and third 

 heavens. This division is thus explained : The first heav- 

 en, also called the ' open firmament,' and what we call famil- 

 iarly, ' up in the air,' was the space above us in which the 

 birds of the air wing their way, and the clouds are seen to 

 move. The second was the star-studded sky. And the 

 third heaven, beyond the starry-sky, was the place of God's 

 abode. Thus Paul in 2 Cor. xii. speaks of one ' caught 

 up into the third heaven,' ' caught up into paradise.' 



The second idea, in their conceptions, would have been the 

 circular solid earth, floating upon a sea of, to them, unknown 

 and inconceivable extent. 



The third prominent point, in accordance with their views, 

 would have been the situation of the world beneath. They 

 probably supposed the abode of departed spirits in the world 

 of woe, to be far below the bottom of the deep. With such 

 conceptions, in the minds of the ancients, respecting Heaven 

 and Earth and Hell, how sublime and beautiful appears Da- 

 vid's description of God's Omniscience and Omnipresence, in 

 the 139th Psalm. 



' O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou 

 knowestmy down-sitting, and mine up-rising ; thou understand- 

 est my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my 

 lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. ****** 



' Whither shall I go from thy Spirit 1 or whither shall I flee 

 from thy presence? If I ascend up into Heaven, (the highest 

 place which they conceived of, in the universe,) thou art 

 there. 



' If I make my bed in Hell, (that is, the lowest place in 

 God's dominions) behold, thou art there. 



* If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the utter- 

 most parts of the sea; (still stretching his thought in another 

 direction, through the boundless limits of Jehovah's empire,) 



