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used, where an assumption into heaven is spoken of. Thus, the same 
writer, in speaking of our Lord’s ascension, says/ an&pn ^ ou ^, and 
Mark/ in relation to the same event, says, eig tov ovgxvov, he was taken up 
into heaven. These words are also used, wherever one is said to be 
conveyed from a lower to a higher situation. But, what is still more 
decisive in this way, where mention is made of passing from Abraham to 
the rich man, and inversely, the verbs employed are, $ict(3xwu and Sux,?re^au, words 
which always denote motion on the same ground or level; as, passing over 
a river or lake, passing through the Red Sea, or passing from Asia into 
Macedonia. But, when heaven is spoken of as the termination to which, 
or from which, the passage is made, the word is, invariably, either in the 
first case, c&vaPouvu, and in the second, xaTufiaivu, or some word similarly formed, 
and of the same import. Thus, both the circumstances of the story, and the 
expressions employed in it, confirm the explanation I have given. For, if 
the sacred penmen wrote to be understood, they must have employed their 
words and phrases in conformity to the current usage of those for whom 
they wrote. 
When our Saviour, therefore, said to the penitent thief upon the cross/ 
To-day shall thou he with me in Paradise , he said nothing that contradicts 
what is affirmed of his descent into hades, in the Psalms, in the Acts, or in 
the Apostles creed. Paradise is another name for what is, in the parable, 
called Abraham’s bosom. But it may be urged, on the other side, that Paul 
has given some reason to conclude that paradise and heaven, or the seat of 
the glorious hierarchy, are the same. It is not, says he,§ expedient for me 
doubtless to glory: I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I 
knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body I 
cannot tell, or whether out of the body (the soul unembodied), I cannot tell, 
God knoweth), such an one was caught up to the third heave N.—dnd I 
knew such a man (whether in the body, or out of the body, 1 cannot tell, God 
knoweth), how that hezuas caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable 
words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter . The Jews make mention 
of three heavens. The first is properly the atmosphere where the birds fly, 
and the clouds are suspended. The second is above the first, and is what 
we call the visible firmament, wherein the sun, moon, and stars appear. 
The third, to us invisible, is conceived to be above the second, and therefore 
* xxiv, 51. 
f Mark, xvi, 19 . 
J Luke, xxiii. 43. 
4 G 
§ 2 Con xii. 1 — 4 . 
