235 
H E A 
Again, Mn. viii., 137. 
JEtkerios hunter0 qui fujlinet orbcs. 
“Who with his flioulder fuftains the ftars of the iky.” 
The Farnefe Atlas, is a figure which fupports the Hea¬ 
ven in fuch a manner, as that it refts alike on the'head, 
neck, and flibulders, of the bearer. 
The -fa ft, couched under this fable of Atlas, is in 
reality this : Atlas was famous among the anrients for 
his Ikill in aftrology. 
Into that part of their Heaven, through which they 
fuppofed the-Sun to pafs, the ancients transferred living 
animals. At this very day, we know them Ly the ap¬ 
pellation of “Signs in the Zodiac,” and actually refer 
to them on our globes, in order to find the Sun’s place 
in the Ecliptic. Allltfion to thefe animals, and their 
refpedtive fituations, may be feen in the Firft Georgic of 
Virgil, V. 232. and in the Second Book of Ovid’s Met. 80. 
The ancients alfo, for aftronomical purpofes, con¬ 
ceived the Heaven to be furrounded as it were by five 
Belts, which they firft called, and which from them we 
now denominate, “ Zones.” Thefe are defcribed by Vir¬ 
gil in Geor. i. 233. 
Homer draws a beautiful Night-Piece, exhibiting the 
Heaven refulgent with the Moon, Stars, and Luminous 
Ether : 
As when the Moon, refulgent lamp of night, 
O’er Heaven’s clear azure fpreads her facred light, 
Around her throne the vivid planets roll, 
Anil ftars ifnnumber’d gild the glowing pole, 
Then thine the vales, the rocks in profpedt rife, 
A flood of glory burfts from all the Ikies. 
Homer. Pope II. B. viii. 687. 
The fame poet conceives of Heaven, as the manfion of 
the divinities, fliut by gates, which are kept by the 
Hours. From this manfion he makes Juno and Minerva 
come ; at whofe approach, 
Heaven’s gates fpontaneous open to the powers; 
Heaven’s golden gates, kept by the winged Hours; 
Coinmiflion’d in alternate watch they (land, 
The Sun’s bright portals and the (kies command; 
Involve in clouds the eternal gates of day, 
Or the dark barrier roll with eafe atvay. 
Pope II. B. v. 928. 
Heaven was an objedt of religious worfliip, as we may 
collect from a paffage in Ennius, preferved by Cicero: 
Afpice hocfublime cartdens, quern invocant ornnes Jovem. 
It occurs in B. ii. De Nat. Deor. C. 2. It is a fragment 
from the Thyefles of Ennius, and feems copied from a 
fragment of fome play written by Euripides, the name 
of which drama is not row known. Cicero has thus 
tranflated it, in his De Nat. Deor. B. ii. C. 25. 
Videsfublimefufim, immoderatum aether a, 
Qui terrain tenero circumjcEiu ampleElitur : 
, Hunc fummum habeto divom : hunc perhibeto Jovem. 
But on the fubjedt of Heaven, the fame Cicero fpeaks 
his own fentiments more ratiofially and fenfibly. The 
confideration of Heaven and of its Bodies directs him 
to a conclufion, which leaves Atheifm without excufe, 
eveivon principles of Natural Religion. “ When we 
have looked up to Heaven, and have contemplated the 
Heavenly Bodies, what (fays he) can be fo clear and 
evident, as that there is fome Deity of fuperlative Un¬ 
derftanding, by which thefe Bodies are governed!” 
B.ii. C. 2. “He who fuppofes the admirable order 
and incredible regularity obfervable in Heaven, to fhew 
no proof of Underftanding, fhould himfelf be accounted 
void of Underftanding.” B.ii. C. 21. 
Concerning Heaven, there is wide difference of opi¬ 
nion between the Ancients and Moderns, whether that 
fubjedt be taken in a PhilofophicaJ, or in a Religious 
point of view. 
VOL. IX. No. 585. 
y e n. 
Ptolemy, who was an 'Egyptian philofopher, and 
who was eminent for his /kill in Mathematics and Aftro- 
logy, about 138 years before the Chriftian iEra, formed 
that Syftem, which.has ever frrice been known by the 
name of the Ptolemaic Syjlem. .According to his Princi¬ 
ples, the Earth is the Centre of the Univerfe, above 
which is the Air, and Fire : then, comes Mercury ; then 
Venus; then the Sun ; then.Mars-; then Jupiter; then 
Saturn; then the Firmament with Fixed Stars ; then 
the Cryftalline Orbs ; laftly, the Caelum Empyreum, 
i. e. Heaven of Heavens. All thefe Bodies; each in its 
refpedlive Orbit, were fuppofed by Ptolemy to move 
round the Earth in twenty-four hours. 
In the beginning of the Sixteenth Century of the 
Chriftian A2ra, Copernicus, who was a native of 
Thorn in the year 1472, introduced a new Syftem of 
Philofophy refpefting the Heavens and Heavenly Bodies. 
Improving oil the hints fuggefted by Pythagoras, and 
proceeding on obfervations made by himfelf, Copernicus 
maintained that the-Sun was the Centre of this our 
Planetary Syftem, and that Mercury, Venus, the Eaith 
with its Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, all move round 
the Sun, each in certain given times. Above all thefe, 
h.e conceived were the Fixed Stars in the Firmament. 
Taking for their bafis the Copernican Syjlem , fubfequent 
philofophers have progrelfively unfolded more magnifi¬ 
cent ideas concerning The Heavens. As the Sun is the 
Centre of our Planetary Syftem, they conceive each Fixed 
Star to be the Centre and the Sun of other Planetary 
Syftems. So that the Heavens are the Region in which 
are contained Suns, Syftems, and Worlds, innumerable. 
For this purpofe, the Space of the Heavens muft be 
nnmeafurable. And when we confider, that the Uni¬ 
verfe is the work of Infinite Power, it is analogous to 
fuch Power, that the Space in which its energy is ex¬ 
erted ftiould be without bounds or limits. How fublime 
a conception of Almighty God ftiould arife in our 
minds, from contemplation of Innumerable Worlds ex- 
ifting through Infinite Space, and all diredted in their 
refpedlive courfes with uniform regularity, need fcarcely 
be remarked to any one who thinks and feels as a Man ! 
living in the light of enlarged Philofophy and of Chrif¬ 
tian Religion. “An Undevout Philofopher is mad,” fays 
the excellent Author of Night-Thoughts, Dr. Young, 
On Heaven, as. connedted with Revealed Religion, 
we fliall fpeak what we colledt from the Scriptures of 
the Old and New Teftament. 
In the Old Teftament, the word “Heaven” is ufed 
to exprefs, fometimes that Region above us, in which 
Birds fly, and from which dews and fiiowers defcend : 
being what we commonly call the Air, or Atmofphere. 
Sometimes the word' “ Heaven ” means the Firmament' 
in which the Sun, Moon, and Stars, are feen placed. 
But the Inlpired Lawgiver of the Jews entertained more 
lofty ideas of the Supreme Being, than to fix His ha¬ 
bitation ,in either of thefe Heavens; and therefore he 
fpeaks of “The Heaven of Heavens,” (Deut. x. 14.) 
i. e. the Regions above all other Heavens, as belonging 
to the Lord Qod. 
St. Paul, in his Second Epiftle to the Corinthians, 
makes mention of a “ Third Heaven,” (2 Cor. xii. 2.) 
Sclater, Eftius, and Camerarius, interpret this to mean 
that place of reft,, into which the Souls of good Men 
enter, and where they will continue till the Final Retri¬ 
bution ; the place which we call Paradife, after St. Luke 
and the Apoftle. But that St. Paul did not conceive 
this to be the peculiar refidence of CHRIST after his 
Refurredtion and Afcenfion, we learn from Eph. iv..io. 
where he fays, Our Lord “afcended far above all 
Heavens;” and if “ far above all,” above that “Third 
Heaven” mentioned in 2 Cor. xii. 2. Indeed on a com- 
parifon of Eph. iv. 10. with Deut. x. 14. we may infer, 
that whatever Mofes intimated by the expreflion “ the 
Heaven of Heavens,” St. Paul intended by the word_s 
“ far above all Heavensand both writers would con- 
4 D veyj 
