at more scientific views, although, of course, they re- tained much of the old phraseology, and are fiuctuating and undecided in their terms. Elsewhere, for instance, the heavens are likened to a curtain (Psa. civ, 2 ; Isa. xl, 22).— Smith. See Cosmogony.
IV. Metaphorical Application of the Visille Heavens. —A door opened in heaven is the beginning of a new revelation. To ascend up into heaven signifies to be in fidl power. Thus is the symbol to be miderstood in Isa. xiv, 13, 14, where the king of Babylon says, "I will as- cend into heaven; I AviU exalt my throne above the stars of God." To descend from heaven signifies, sym- bolically, to act by a commission from heaven. Thus our Savioiu- uses the word " descending" (John i, 51) in speaking of the angels acting by divine commission, at the command of the Son of man. To fall from heaven signifies to lose power and authority, to be deprived of the power to govern, to revolt or apostatize.
The heaven opened. The natural heaven, being the symbol of the governing part of the political world, a new face in the natural, represents a new face in the political. Or the heaven may be said to be opened when the day appears, and consequently shut when night comes on, as appears from Virgil (y/sw. x, 1), " The gates of heaven unfold," etc. Thus the Scripture, in a poet- ical manner, speaks of the doors of heaven (Psa. lxxviii, 23) ; of the heaven beinff shut (1 Kings viii, 35) ; and in Ezek. i, 1, the heaven is said to be opened.
Midst of heaven may be the air, or the region be- tween heaven and earth ; or the middle station between the corrupted earth and the throne of God in heaven. In this sense, the air is the proper place where God's threatenings and judgments should be denounced. Thus, in 1 Chron. xxi, 16, it is said that David saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the heaven as he was just going to destroy Jerusalem with the pesti- lence. The angel's hovering there was to show that there was room to pray for mercy, just as God was go- ing to inflict the punishment : it had not as yet done any execution. — Wemyss.
C. Spiritual and Everlasting Sense, i. e. the state and place of blessedness in the life to come. Of the nature of this blessedness it is not possible that we should form any adequate conception, and, consequently, that any precise information respecting it shoidd be given to us. Man, indeed, usually conceives the joys of heaven to be the same as, or at least to resemble, the pleasures of this world ; and each one hopes to obtain with certainty, and to enjoy in fidl measure beyond the grave, that which he holds most dear upon earth— those favorite employ- ments or particular delights which he ardently longs for here, but which he can seldom or never enjoy in this world, or in the enjoj-ment of which he is never fully satisfied. But one who reflects soberly on the subject will readily see that the happiness of heaven must be a very different thing from earthly happiness. In this world the highest pleasiures of which oiu: nature is ca- pable satiate by their continuance, and soon lose the poAver of giving positive enjoyment. This alone is suf- ficient to show that the bliss' of the future world must be of an entirely different kind from what is called earthly joy and happiness, if we are to be there ti-uly happy, and ha.\)\\y forever. But since we can have no distinct conception of those joys which never have been and never will be experienced by us here in their full extent, we have, of course, no words in human language to express them, and cannot therefore expect any clear description of them even in the holy Scriptiu-es. Hence the Bible describes this happiness sometimes in general terms, designating its greatness (as in Kom. viii, 18-22; 2 Cor. iv, 17, 18), and sometimes by various figurative images and modes of speech, borrowed from ever\'thing which we know to be attractive and desirable.
The greater part of these images were alreadj' com- mon among the Jewish contemporaries of Christ ; but Christ and his apostles employed them in a purer sense than the great multitude of the Jews. The Orientals
HEAVEN
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HEAVE J^
are rich in such fis^ires. They were employed by IMo- liammed, who carried them, as his manner was, to an extravasant excess, but who at the same time said ex- pressly tiiat thev were mere figures, although many of liis followers afterwards understood them literally, as has been often done in a similar way by many Christians.
The following are the principal terms, both literal and figurative, which are appUed in Scripture to the condition of future happmess.
a. Among the lileral appellations we find Zwr/, ^wr] rtiwvior, which, according to Hebrew usage, signify "a happy life," or " eternal well-being," and are the words rendered '-life," " eternal life," and "life everlasting" in the A. Vers. (e. g. Matt, vii, 14 ; xix, 16, 29 ; xxv, 46) : c6Ka, fio^a Toil Oiov, " glory," " the glory of God" (Rom. ii, 7, 10 ; V, 2) ; and i!pnv7], " peace" (Kom. ii, 10). Also alwviov jSapoQ C('>'^i]g, '• an eternal weight of glory" (2 Cor. iv, 17); and (jnoTripia, aix)-t]{tia aluviog, "salva- tion," " eternal salvation" (Ileb. v, 9), etc.