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WINCHESTER:

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THE TERM

KINGDOM OF HEAVEN" AS USED BY OUR LORD, has TWO MEANINGS : ONE FOR THE NOMINAL KINGDOM, THE OTHER FOR THE SPIRITUAL, OR TRUE, KINGDOM. THE ONE MEANING, AS APPLIED TO THE NOMINAL KINGDOM, INCLUDING GOOD AND BAD, IS NOT THE CHURCH. THE OTHER, AS APPLIED TO THE SPIRITUAL KINGDOM ON EARTH, IS THE

CHURCH.

this

Ir will be perceived that to establish the proposition which heads paper, is to cast down a main argument which has been used by divines in favour of a visible community of mingled good and bad, which they call the Church.

In the preceding paper I have attempted to establish, and as I think have done So, that

1. The Church on earth is composed of members in spiritual union with Christ.

2. The Holy City, New Jerusalem, represents the Church, and is the Scripture declaration thereof.

3. The Holy City is called the bride of the Lamb, or of Christ, and the New Testament Church is the bride of Christ. And as there is but one bride, they mean, therefore, one and the same thing.

4. Members of the Church, by reason of spiritual union with Christ, are declared to be pure and sinless, and thus the Church is described as holy, without spot or blemish.

Carrying with us these proved propositions as parts of the argument, to show that the Church on earth is composed of persons in spiritual union with Christ, irrespective of a Clergy order, let us now consider the apparent objections to these

established truths. They consist chiefly in some declarations of our Lord, and in the fact that the early Apostolic churches presented a mixture of good and bad members.

And first of the declarations of our Lord which are to be found in the parables, which seem to describe the Church on earth as made up of mixed good and evil. Our Lord is said to describe what is called the visible Church in these parables. "The kingdom of heaven," said He, "is like a great draw-net, gathering good and bad." Though the declarations with regard to the purity of the Church, as we have shown, are so positive, yet they have been rendered nugatory, as affecting the opinions of men, by the apparently opposite declarations in the parables.

"The kingdom of heaven' is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat."

"The kingdom of heaven' is likened unto ten virgins, of whom five were wise and five were foolish."

"The kingdom of heaven' is as a man travelling into a far country, and he called his servants and delivered unto them his goods. Uuto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to every man according to his several ability." Of these servants one is unprofitable, and "he is cast into outer darkness, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

In the parables describing the mixed good and bad, imagery is used to show the employment of men both good and bad in God's vineyard. Be it remembered I am not arguing against this. I am not arguing that the unprofitable servant is not employed in the ministry. I am attempting to prove that this body of mixed good and bad is not the Church, the affianced of Christ. And I shall, in a future paper, show that none of the promises apply to this body, but only, and exclusively, to those in perfect spiritual union.

Let us enquire into the meaning of the term "kingdom of heaven," as thus used in the sense of including good and bad?

The Church, we have shown, receives only the good; it cannot, therefore, mean the Church. What does it mean?

Throughout God's dealings with men there have been a chosen people. In the patriarchal dispensation they are called the sons of God. They were of the seed of Seth, who was born an appointed seed instead of Abel. Men through this seed began to call upon the name of the Lord, or, as it is in the margin, "to call themselves by the name of the Lord" (Gen. iv. 26). The patriarchs were of this seed. These men and their seed are called the sons of God (Gen. vi. 2).

Under the Mosaic dispensation, the children of Abraham after the flesh, became the sons of God, or children of the kingdom of heaven (2 Chron. xiii. 8; Matt. xxi. 43). Chosen out of, and selected from, the nations, the descendants of Abraham were accepted by covenant with God. Under this covenant the people were God's people. He promised to this people He would be a God (Gen. xxii. 8). All other people had other false gods, but this people had the Almighty for their God. Under this sovereignty, though they often rebelled and fell off to idolatry, yet, they were God's people, and they constituted under the covenant God's kingdom on earth.

As we all know, this covenant kingdom was overthrown, and, as Daniel had predicted, the God of heaven came and set up another kingdom, a kingdom which was to overthrow all other kingdoms, and ultimately to fill the whole earth. John the Baptist proclaimed the coming of this kingdom when he declared "the kingdom of heaven is at hand." God, in the person of Christ, was then on earth to establish the kingdom.

This kingdom was to fill the earth. It included good and bad. It is progressing and will fill the earth, when "the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ" (Rev. xi. 15). When Christ established His kingdom, He commanded His disciples to "Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy

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