Order of the Empyrean Heaven
ORDER OF THE EMPYREAN HEAVEN.
There is a God, all-powerful, all-intelligent and supremely perfect; eternal and infinite; omnipotent and omniscient; who endures from eternity to eternity, and is present from infinity to infinity.
But though, from the nature and perfections of the Deity, he is invisibly present in all places and nothing happens without his knowledge and permission; yet it is expressly revealed in Scripture, and admitted by all wise and intelligent authors, that he is visibly present with the angels and spirits, and blessed souls of the departed, in those mansions of bliss called Heaven. There he is pleased to afford a nearer and more immediate view of himself, and a more sensible manifestation of his glory, and a more adequate perception of his attributes, than can be seen or felt in any other parts of the universe; which place, for the sake of pre-eminent distinction, and as being the seat and center, from whence all things flow and have their beginning, life, light, power, and motion, is called the interior or Empyrean Heaven.
The position and order of this interior heaven, or center of the Divinity, has been variously described, and its locality somewhat disputed among the learned; but all agree as to the certainty of its existence. Hermes Trismegistus defines heaven to be an intellectual sphere, whose center is everywhere, and circumference nowhere, but by this he meant no
more than to affirm, what we have done above, that God is everywhere, and at all times, from infinity to infinity, that is to say, without limitation, bounds, or circumference. Plato speaks of this internal heaven in terms which bear so strict a resemblance with the books of Revelation, and in so elevated and magnificent a style, that it is apparent the heathen philosophers, notwithstanding their worshiping demi or false gods, possessed an unshaken confidence in one omnipotent, supreme, overruling power, whose throne was the center of all things, and the abode of angels and blessed spirits.
To describe this interior heaven, in terms adequate to its magnificence and glory, is utterly impossible. The utmost we can do is to collect, from inspired writers, and from the words of Revelation, assisted by occult philosophy, and a due knowledge of the celestial spheres, that order and position of it, which reason and the divine lights we have, bring nearest to the truth. That God must be strictly and literally the center from whence all ideas of the Divine Mind flow, as rays in every direction, through all spheres and through all bodies, cannot admit of a doubt. That the inner circumference of this center is surrounded, filled or formed, by arrangements of the three hierarchies of angels, is also consonant to reason and Scripture, and forms what may be termed the entrance or inner gate of the empyrean heaven, through which no spirit can pass without their knowledge and permission, and within which we must suppose the vast expanse or mansions of the Godhead, and glory of the Trinity, to be. This is strictly conformable to the idea of all the prophets and evangelical writers. From this primary circle, or gate of heaven, Lucifer, the grand Apostate, as Milton finely describes it, was hurled into the bottomless abyss; whose office, as one of the highest orders of angels, having placed him near the eternal throne, he became
competitor for dominion and power with God himself.
The circles next surrounding the hierarchies, are