AND THE OCCULT SCIENCES.

Hills and mountains; the flames of devouring fire darting through the sky original: "firmament"; the heavens bending down with forked thunderbolts; his riding on the clouds and flying on the wings of a whirlwind; the bursting of the lightnings from the horrid darkness; the tremendous peals of thunder; the storms of fiery hail; the melting of the heavens and dissolving into floods of tempestuous rains; the earth opening and swallowing up her inhabitants; the rocks and mountains splitting original: "cleaving" asunder and disclosing their subterranean channels, their torrents of water, and volcanic original: "bituminous" fire, at the very breath of the nostrils of the Almighty—these are all circumstances which fill the guilty mind with horror and dismay, and admirably express the power, the presence, and the all-knowing nature original: "omniscience" of God!

To what has been stated above, I would earnestly recommend a careful reading original: "attentive Perusal" of what I have written in the first volume of my Complete Illustration of the Occult Sciences, from page 71 to 80. From that text, it will be made clear to the full conviction of the most stubborn atheist (if such a thing can really exist) that there is a God: all-powerful and intelligent; supremely perfect; eternal and infinite; omnipotent and all-knowing; who endures from eternity to eternity, and is present from infinity to infinity!

But though, from the nature and perfections of God original: "the Deity", he is invisibly present in all places, and nothing happens without his knowledge and permission, it is still expressly revealed in Scripture and admitted by all wise and intelligent authors that he is visibly present with the angels, spirits, and blessed souls of the departed in those mansions of bliss called Heaven. There, he is pleased to provide a closer and more direct view of himself, a more perceivable original: "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. This place is called the interior, or empyrean the "highest" heaven, traditionally thought to be composed of pure light or fire, heaven, for the sake of its superior distinction, and as being the seat and center from which all things flow and have their beginning, life, light, power, and motion.

The position and order of this interior heaven, or center of the Divinity, has been described in various ways, and its location is somewhat debated among scholars original: "the learned"; but all agree as to the certainty of its existence. Hermes Trismegistus a legendary Hellenistic figure often credited with ancient wisdom and the foundation of Hermeticism 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 stated above: that God is present 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 such a strict resemblance to the books of Revelation, and in such an elevated and magnificent style, that it is apparent the pagan original: "heathen" philosophers (despite their worship of lesser or false gods) possessed an un-