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Heaven opened; or, Our home in heaven, and the way thither
Heaven opened or Our home in heaven and the way thither Author:Henry Collins Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. jptabtn our pomr, IT is probable that even in paradise before the fall the promise of heaven was made to Adam as his last end, the reward of fide... more »lity. The abrupt way, also, in which the Woman and her Seed are spoken of, would lead us to con- clude that Adam had heard of them before, and was aware of the plan of the Incarnation, the tidings new to him being that they should crush the serpent's head. The tradition about heaven passed on to the Patriarchs and to the Jewish people, for S. Paul assures us that they styled themselves strangers and pilgrims on the earth, as testifying that they sought a better a heavenly country. But outside God's chosen people they lived without hope of heaven, for the Elysian fields of paganism were a sorry substitute for the joys of earth. The shade of Achilles, in Homer, prefers the life of the meanest drudge on the earth to the place of king over all the dead in the Elysian fields. The lowest place in this life was thought by them better than the highest happiness of the dead. How the gates of heaven should be opened was not revealed by God, even to His chosen people. This was God's secret, not to be known till the fulness of time should come. The veil that hid God's plan of redemption was only lifted a little, and just a few streaks of light shone through the cloud that concealed it from their eyes. In the prophecy of Isaias concerning the "Child" to be born, the six names given Him in the Hebrew are by the Septuagint comprised in one, and it is said: " His Name shall be called the Angel of the Great Counsel." Such a Name for our Lord seems a strange mystery. For as God He is infinitely above the very highest Angels. S. Paul bears witness to this, when he says of the Eternal Father: " To which of the Angels hath He said at an...« less