ELE AA. 
This is alfo Pegeey sie called a Senies the Lingdom of 
heaven, the heaven of he by St. Paul zg third 
aven: fometimes Parad; if, ae res Jerufalem, & 
This eaven is conceived as a lace in fome of in- 
finite {pace, wherein the Deity is pleafed to afford a nearer 
and more immediate view of himfelf, anda more fenfible 
manifeftation of his glory ; and a more adequate perception 
of his attributes, than i “2 er other parts of the univerfe, 
where he is likewife prefe 
This makes what the Aeris alfo call the beatific vifion. 
ftances that pertain to it. We have reafon-to believe that 
heaven will be a focial ftate, and that its happinefs will, in 
me meafure, arife from mutual communion and NT 
and the expreffions and eb of aan benevolence, 
(See ik xii. 22. 1 The 19, 2 
The ancient Romans had a kind of cea in their fyftem 
of theology, ‘which ei called e/y/um, or the elyfian felds. 
e Mahometan heaven, or paradife, is very grofs, agree- 
able to the genine of their religion 
EAVEN, among Afronomers, called alfo the etheria/ and 
pesthors are much divided as to the reality of fuch local flarry heaven, is A immenfe region wherein the ftars, pla- 
“The infpired writers give us very magnificent defcriptions 
of heaven, the ftru€ture, a paratus, and attendance there- 
of; particularly Ifaiah, seh St. John the onc tad ash. in 
ial. de Ani 
3 
B 
‘5 
peaks 
neat a refemblance to thofe of Scripture, hy re 
fe imacgi 
eis cove 
t 
a 
es 
= 
g 
& 
wn 
a 
a 
F oy 
5 
ce 
F: 
a 
cifms of this kind, may confult a work, blithe’ in a1 
entitled » “ Morfels of 
hn crn fpeci i 
to be able. Mr. Hallet, neers of sip judg- 
ment, has endeavoured to prove, will: a 
- earth, when it Ba hosed 10, its paradi 
cout on — vol. i. p. ol ps vol. ii. 
Sera expeét and png. saegh a we cannot 
Boman f urious queftions, relating to. various circum- 
' between our 
vens as they obferv 
nets, and comets are difpofed. 
This is what Mofes calls the firmament, {peaking of it as 
the work of the fecond day's creation ; at leaft it is thus t 
word 199% is ufually rendered by his interpreters ; 
famewhiat 
edicuah 
abufively, to countenance their own notion of the 
olid. 
hohe whence, 
in other parts of ‘a eh the heaven is cieabeeih to acur- 
tain, or a tent ftretched out to dwellin. The LXX i 
added to this idea of expanfion, Me of frm or folid; 
dering it by Pnged according to the philofophy of ‘ hofe 
h modern 
times; in w. they have been followed by the 
tranflators. 
The later philofophers, as Des Cartes, Kircher, &c’ 
have eafily demonttrated this heaven not to be folid, but 
fluid ; but they {till fuppofe it full, or perfeétly denfe, with- 
out any vacuity, and cantoned out into many vortices. 
others carry the thin 
not only the folidity, but the 
heavens. 
much farther, and overturn 
e 
alinoft ance, and, confequently, <a 
almoft all matter: this he proves from the ph 
Hea eaven, h. in this — eneral “eRe ed the whole expanfe 
earth an 
(tars, may be divided into ang a9 vely aon. arts, according 
to the matter found therein ; viz. the atmofphere, or aerial 
heaven, by air; and the ee — polfeffed 
ed different saben inthem. Thefe they 
fuppofed all to be a as nord they could not other, 
wile fultain the s fixed we am and fpherical, that 
being the moft sadidishe rm for 
Thus we had feven ‘as bie the fev Ss 3; viz. the 
heavens of the Moon, n, Mars, 
Feast: and ‘Saturn. . The eighth was 9 the rome ftars, 
which they particularly called the jrmament; which fee. 
Ptolemy adds a nat heaven, which he called the primum 
mobile. 
- After him eis cryftalline z sabia were added, 
Alpbontus & &c. to account for fome in hemes 
tions of the heayens : _ "altly, an rbinncs A dele, 
was drawn over the whole, for the the Laps 
which m jumber t 
ni twelve. oe 
But others admitted ore! more € heavens, ccording aa 
fuppofed twenty- Calipp iene’ Regiomontanus 
