immediate view of himself, and a more sensible manifestation of his glory, than in the other parts of the universe.

That there is a state of future happiness, both reason and Scripture indicate; a general notion of happiness after death has obtained among the wiser sort of heathens, who have only had the light of nature to guide them. If we examine the human mind, it is also evident that there is a natural desire after happiness in all men; and, which is equally evident, is not attained in this life. It is no less observable, that in the present state there is an unequal distribution of things, which makes the providences of God very intricate, and which cannot be solved without, supposing a future state. Revelation, however, puts it beyond all doubt. The Divine Being hath promised it, 1 John ii. 25; 1 John v. 11; James i. 12: hath given us some intimation of its glory, 1 Pet. iii. 4. 22; Rev. iii. 4; declares Christ hath taken possession of it for us, John xiv. 2, 3; and informs us of some already there, both as to their bodies and souls, Gen. v. 24; 2 Kings ii.

a

Heaven is to be considered as a place as well as state; it is expressly so termed in Scripture, John xiv. 2, 3; and the existence of the body of Christ, and those of Enoch and Elijah, is a further proof of it. Yea, if it be not a place, where can these bodies be? and where will the bodies of the saints exist after the resurrection? Where this place is, however, cannot be determined. Some have thought it to be beyond the starry firmament; and some of the ancients imagined that their dwelling would be in the sun. Others suppose the air to be the seat of the blessed. Others think that the saints will dwell upon earth when it shall be restored to its paradisaical state; but these suppositions are more curious than edifying, and it becomes us to be silent where divine revelation is so.

mon language of the heathen; and a rumour of the Saviour's appearance in the flesh was spread far and wide among them. When Christ came, he preached chiefly in Galilee, where there were multitudes of Gentiles. He assured the Greeks that vast numbers of the heathen should be brought into the church. Matt. iv. 23; John xii. 20, 24. For 1700 years past the Jews have been generally rejected, and the church of God has been composed of the Gentiles. Upwards of 480 millions, (nearly half the globe,) however, are supposed to be yet in pagan darkness. Considerable attempts have been made of late years for the enlightening of the heathen; and there is every reason to believe good has been done. From the aspect of Scripture prophecy, we are led to expect that the kingdoms of the heathen at large shall be brought to the light of the Gospel, Matt. xxiv. 14; Isa. lx.; Ps. xxii. 28, 29; ii. 7, 8. It has been much disputed whether it be possible that the heathen should be saved without the knowledge of the Gospel; some have absolutely denied it, upon the authority of those texts which universally require faith in Christ; but to this it is answered, that those texts regard only such to whom the Gospel comes, and are capable of understanding the contents of it. The truth, says Dr. Doddridge, seems to be this: that none of the heathens will be condemned for not believing the Gospel, but they are liable to condemnation for the breach of God's natural law: nevertheless, if there be any of them in whom there is a prevailing love to the Divine Being, there seems reason to believe that, for the sake of Christ, though to them unknown, they may be accepted by God; and so much the rather, as the ancient Jews, and even the apostles, during the time of our Saviour's abode on earth, seem to have had but little notion of those doctrines which those who deny the salvability of the heathens are most apt to imagine, Rom. ii. 10-22; Acts x. 34, 35; Matt. viii. 11, 12. Mr. Grove, Dr. Watts, Saurin, and Mr. Newton, favour the same opinion; the latter of whom thus observes: if we suppose a heathen brought to a sense of his misery; to a conviction that he cannot be happy without the favour of the great Lord of the world; to a feeling of guilt, and desire of mercy; and that, though he has no explicit knowledge of a Saviour, he directs the cry of his heart to the unknown Supreme, to have mercy upon him; who will prove that such views and desires can arise in the heart of a sinner, without the energy of that spirit which Jesus is exalted to bestow? Who will take upon him to say, that his blood has not sufficient efficacy to redeem to God a sinner who is thus disposed, It has been disputed whether there are degrees though he have never heard of his name? Or of glory in heaven. The arguments against dewho has a warrant to affirm, that the supposition grees are, that all the people of God are loved by I have made is, in the nature of things, impossi-him with the same love, all chosen together in ble to be realized? Newton's Messiah; Dr. Watts's Strength and Weakness of Human Reason, p. 106; Saurin's Sermons, vol. ii. p. 314; Grove's Moral Philosophy, vol. i. 128; Turret Loc. vol. i. quæst. 4, § 1, 2. 17; Doddridge's Lectures, lec. 240, vol. ii. 8vo. edit.: Bellamy's Religion Delineated, p. 105; Ridgley's Body of Divinity, qu. 60; Gale's Court of the Gentiles; Considerations on the Religious Worship of the Heathen; Rev. W. Jones's Works, vol. xii. HEAVEN is considered as a place in some remote part of infinite space, in which the omnipresent Deity is said to afford a nearer and more

Heaven, however, we are assured, is a place of inexpressible felicity. The names given to it are proofs of this: it is called paradise, Luke xxiii. 43; light, Rev. xxi. 23. A building and mansion of God, 2 Cor. v. 1; John xiv. 2. A city, Heb. xi. 10, 16. A better country, Heb. xi. 16. An inheritance, Acts xx. 32. A kingdom, Matt. xxv. 34. A crown, 2 Tim. iv. 8. Glory, Ps. lxxxiv. 11; 2 Cor. iv. 17. Peace, rest, and joy of the Lord, Isa. lvii. 2; Heb. iv. 9; Matt. xxv. 21, 23. The felicity of heaven will consist in freedom from all evil, both of soul and body, Rev. vii. 17; in the enjoyment of God as the chief good; in the company of angels and saints; in perfect holiness, and extensive knowledge.

Christ, equally interested in the same covenant of grace, equally redeemed with the same price, and all predestinated to the same adoption of children; to suppose the contrary, it is said, is to eclipse the glory of divine grace, and caries with it the legal idea of being rewarded for our works. On the other side it is observed, that if the above reasoning would prove any thing, it would prove too much, viz. that we should all be upon an equality in the present world as well as that which is to come; for we are now as much the objects of the same love, purchased by the same blood, &c., as we shall be hereafter. That re

HELL

with many inconveniences. And, indeed, the apostle seems expressly to intimate as much, when he says, speaking concerning the heavenly state, that tongues shall cease, 1 Cor. xiii. 8; that is, the present variety of languages. Moreover, since the gift of tongues was bestowed on the apostles for the gathering and building up the church in the first ages thereof, which end, when it was answered, this extraordinary dispensation ceased; in like manner it is probable that hereafter the diversity of languages shall cease."

HELL

conjectures respecting the place of the damned. the ancients generally supposed it was a region of fire near the centre of the earth. Mr. Swinden endeavoured to prove that it is seated in the sun. Mr. Whiston advanced a new and strange hypothesis; according to him, the comets are so many hells, appointed in their orbits alternately to carry the damned to the confines of the sun, there to be scorched by its violent heat; and then to return with them beyond the orb of Saturn, there to starve them in those cold and dismal regions. But, as Dr. Doddridge observes, we must here confess our ignorance; and shall be much better employed in studying how we may avoid this place of horror, than in labouring to discover

Of the nature of this punishment we may

"I am sensible," says Dr. Ridgley, "there are some who object to this, that the saints' understanding all languages will be an addition to their honour, glory, and happiness. But to this it may be answered, that though it is, indeed, an accom-where it is. plishment, in this world, for a person to understand several languages, that arises from the sub-form some idea from the expressions made use of serviency thereof to those valuable ends that are answered thereby; but this would be entirely removed, if the diversity of languages be taken away in heaven, as some suppose it will."

in Scripture. It is called a place of torment, Luke xvi. 21; the bottomless pít, Rev. xx. 3 to 6; a prison, 1 Pet. iii. 19; darkness, Matt. viii. 12; Jude 13; fire, Matt. xiii. 42, 50; a worm that never dies, Mark ix. 44, 48; the second death, Rev. xxi. 8; the wrath of God, Rom. ii. 5. It has been debated whether there will be a material fire in hell. On the affirmative side it is observed, that fire and brimstone are represented as the ingredients of the torment of the wicked, Rev. xiv. 10, 11; xx. 10. That as the body is to be raised, and the whole man to be condemned, it is reasonable

"There are some, who, it may be, give too much scope to a vain curiosity, when they pretend to inquire what this language shall be, or determine, as the Jews do, and with them some of the fathers, that it shall be Hebrew, since their arguments for it are not sufficiently conclusive, which are principally these, viz. That this was the language with which God inspired man at first in paradise, and that which the saints and pa-to believe there will be some corporeal punishtriarchs spake, and the church generally made use of in all ages till our Saviour's time; and that it was this language which he himself spake while here on earth; and since his ascension into heaven, he spake to Paul in the Hebrew tongue, Acts xxvi. 14. And when the inhabitants of heaven are described in the Revelations as praising God, there is one word used by which their praise is expressed, namely, Hallelujah, which is Hebrew; the meaning whereof is, Praise ye the Lord. But all these arguments are not sufficiently convincing, and therefore we must reckon it no more than a conjecture."

However undecided we may be as to this and some other circumstances, this we may be assured of, that the happiness of heaven will be eternal. Whether it will be progressive or not, and that the saints shall always be increasing in their knowledge, joy, &c. is not so clear. Some suppose that this indicates an imperfection in the felicity of the saints, for any addition to be made; but others think it quite analogous to the dealings of God with us here; and that, from the nature of the mind itself, it may be concluded. But however this be, it is certain that our happiness will be complete, 1 Pet. v. 4, 10. Heb. xi. 10. Watts's Death and Heaven; Gill's Body of Divinity, vol. ii. p. 495; Saurin's Ser. vol. iii. p. 321; Toplady's Works, vol. iii. p. 471; Bates's Works; Ridgley's Body of Divinity, question 90. HEBREWS. See JEWS.

HELL, the place of divine punishment after death. As all religions have supposed a future state of existence after this life, so all have their hell, or place of torment, in which the wicked are to be punished. Even the heathens had their tartara; and the Mahometans, we find, believe the eternity of rewards and punishments; it is not, therefore, a sentiment peculiar to Christianity.

There have been many curious and useless

ment provided, and therefore probably material fire. On the negative side it is alleged, that the terms above mentioned are metaphorical, and signify no more than raging desire or acute pain; and that the Divine Being can sufficiently punish the wicked, by immediately acting on their minds, or rather leaving them to the guilt and stings of their own conscience. According to several passages, it seems there will be different degrees of punishment in hell, Luke xii. 47; Rom. ii. 12; Matt. x. 20, 21; xii. 25, 32; Heb. x. 28, 29.

As to its duration, it has been observed that it cannot be eternal, because there is no proportion between temporary crimes and eternal punishments; that the word everlasting is not to be taken in its utmost extent; and that it signifies no more than a long time, or a time whose precise boundary is unknown. But in answer to this it is alleged, that the same word is used, and that sometimes in the very same place, to express the eternity of the happiness of the righteous, and the eternity of the misery of the wicked; and that there is no reason to believe that the words express two such different ideas, as standing in the same connexion. Besides, it is not true, it is observed, that temporary crimes do not deserve eternal punishments, because the infinite majesty of an offended God adds a kind of infinite evil to sin, and therefore exposes the sinner to infinite punishment; and that hereby God vindicates his injured majesty, and glorifies his justice. See articles DESTRUCTIONISTS and UNIVERSALISTS. Berry St. Lec. vol. ii. p. 559, 562; Dawes on Hell, ser. x; Whiston on ditto; Swinden, Drexelius, and Edwards on ditto. A late popular writer has observed, that in the 35th sermon, of Tillotson, every thing is said upon the eternity of hell torments that can be known with any certainty.

HELL, Christ''s Descent into. That Christ locally descended into hell, is a doctrine believed

HENOTICON, a famous edict of the empe ror Zeno, published A. D. 482, and intended to reconcile and re-unite the Eutychians with the HELLENISTS, a term occurring in the Catholics. It was procured of the emperor by Greek text of the New Testament, and which, means of Acacius, patriarch of Constantinople, in the English version, 'is rendered Grecians, with the assistance of the friends of Peter MonActs vi. 1. The critics are divided as to the sig-gus and Peter Trullo. The sting of this edict nification of the word. Some observe, that it is not to be understood as signifying those of the religion of the Greeks, but those who spoke Greek. The authors of the Vulgate version render it like our Græci; but Messieurs Du Port Royal, more accurately, Juifs Grecs, Greek or Grecian Jews; it being the Jews who spoke Greek that are here treated of, and who are hereby distinguished from the Jews called Hebrews, that is, who spoke the Hebrew tongue of that time.

the utmost contempt, and held private assemblies | of the emperor Frederic, mentioned by Lyndefor inculcating his peculiar doctrines.

HERACLEONITES, a sect of Christians, the followers of Heracleon, who refined upon the Gnostic divinity, and maintained that the world was not the immediate production of the Son of God, but that he was only the occasional cause of its being created by the demiurgus. The Heracleonites denied the authority of the prophecies of the Old Testament; maintained that they were mere random sounds in the air; and that St. John the Baptist was the only true voice that directed to the Messiah.

HERESIARCH, an arch heretic, the founder or inventor of an heresy; or a chief of a sect of heretics.

HERESY. This word signifies sect or choice; it was not, in its earliest acceptation, conceived to convey any reproach, since it was indifferently used either of a party approved, or of one disapproved by the writer. See Acts v. 17; xv. 3. Afterwards it was generally used to signify some fundamental error adhered to with obstinacy, 2 Pet. ii. 1; Gal. v. 20.

wede, adjudging all persons, without distinction, to be burnt with fire, who were convicted of heresy by the ecclesiastical judge. The same emperor, in another constitution, ordained, that if any temporal lord, when admonished by the church, should neglect to clear his territories of heretics within a year, it should be lawful for good Catholics to seize and occupy the lands, and utterly to exterminate the heretical possessors. And upon this foundation was built that arbitrary power, so long claimed, and so fatally exerted by 'the pope, of disposing even of the kingdoms of refractory princes to more dutiful sons of the church. The immediate event of this constitution serves to illustrate at once the gratitude of the holy see, and the just punishment of the royal bigot; for, upon the authority of this very constitution, the pope afterwards expelled this very emperor Frederic from his kingdom of Sicily, and gave it to Charles of Anjou. Christianity being thus deformed by the dæmon of persecution upon the continent, our own island could not escape its Scourge. Accordingly we find a writ de hæreAccording to the laws of this kingdom, heresy tico comburendo, i. e. of burning the heretic. See consists in a denial of some of the essential doc- that article. But the king might pardon the contrines of Christianity, publicly and obstinately vict by issuing no process against him: the writ avowed. It must be acknowledged, however, that de hæretico comburendo being not a writ of particular modes of belief or unbelief, not tending course, but issuing only by the special direction of to overturn Christianity, or to sap the foundations the king in council. In the reign of Henry IV. of morality, are by no means the object of coer- when the eyes of the Christian world began to cion by the civil magistrate. What doctrines shall open, and the seeds of the Protestant religion (untherefore be adjudged heresy, was left by our old der the opprobrious name of Lollardy) took root constitution to the determination of the ecclesias- in this kingdom, the clergy, taking advantage tical judge, who had herein a most arbitrary lati- from the king's dubious title to demand an intude allowed him; for the general definition of an crease of their own power, obtained an act of parheretic, given by Lyndewode, extends to the small-liament, which sharpened the edge of persecution est deviations from the doctrines of the holy church: "Hereticus est qui dubitat de fide catholica, et qui negligit servare ea quæ Romana ecclesia statuit, seu servare decreverat:" or, as the statute, 2 Hen. IV. cap. 15, expresses it in English, "teachers of erroneous opinions, contrary to the faith and blessed determinations of the holy church." Very contrary, this to the usage of the first general councils, which defined all heretical doctrines with the utmost precision and exactness; and what ought to have alleviated the punishment, the uncertainty of the crime, seems to have enhanced it in those days of blind zeal and pious cruelty. The sanctimonious hypocrisy of the Canonists, indeed, went, at first, no farther than enjoining penance, excommunication, and ecclesiastical deprivation, for heresy; but afterwards they proceeded boldly to imprisonment by the ordinary; and confiscation of goods in pios But in the mean time they had prevailed upon the weakness of bigoted princes to make the civil power subservient to their purposes, by making heresy not only a temporal but even a capital offence; the Romish ecclesiastics determining, without appeal, whatever they pleased to be heresy, and shifting off to the secular arm the odium and drudgery of executions, with which they pretended to be too tender and delicate to intermeddle. Nay, they affected to intercede on behalf of the convicted heretic, well knowing at the same time they were delivering the unhappy victim to certain death. See ACT OF FAITH.-Hence the capital punishments inflicted on the ancient Donatists and Manichæans by the emperors Theodosius and Justinian; hence, also, the constitution

usus.

to its utmost keenness. See HERETICO COMBURENDO. By statute 2 Henry V. c. 7. Lollardy was also made a temporal offence, and indictable in the king's courts, which did not thereby gain an exclusive, but only a concurrent jurisdiction with the bishop's consistory. Afterwards, when the Reformation began to advance, the power of the ecclesiastics was somewhat moderated; for though what heresy is was not then precisely defined, yet we are told in some points what it is not; the statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 14. declaring that offences against the see of Rome are not heresy; and the ordinary being thereby restrained from proceeding in any case upon mere suspicion; i. e. unless the party be accused by two credible witnesses, or an indictment of heresy be first previously found in the king's courts of common law. And yet the spirit of persecution was not abated, but only diverted into a lay channel; for in six years afterwards, by stat. 31 Hen. VIII. c. 14. the bloody law of the six articles was made, which were "determined and resolved by the most godly study, pain, and travail of his majesty; for which his most humble and obedient subjects, the lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons in parliament assembled, did render and give, unto his highness their most high and hearty thanks!" The same statute established a mixed jurisdiction of clergy and laity for the trial and conviction of heretics; Henry being equally intent on destroying the supremacy of the bishops of Rome, and establishing all their other corruptions of the Christian religion. Without recapitulating the various repeals and revivals of these sanguinary laws in the two succeeding