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ed; and good will exercised to the children of men in the world to come, a world not in subjection to the angels (Heb. ii. 5).

The sons of God, glorified and raised to the throne of Christ, rule in his name, and with his authority, in the world to come (Rev. xxi. 7; ii. 26; iii. 27); instructing and governing not only all things in earth, but-oh the surpassing glory! oh the overwhelming mystery!-instructing and governing ALL THINGS IN HEAVEN likewise! The heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ Jesus, who are now called to wrestle, not only against flesh and blood, but also against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places; and, who having withstood in this evil day, and overcome all, do stand fast in the armour of God, (Eph. vi. 12; 13. marg.) shall "in the dispensation of the fulness of times" (Eph. i. 10) be raised with him to the "heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every other name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come;" Christ having all things under his feet, as the "Head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all" (Eph. i. 20).

The promise of God was wrapped up in the mystery of Christ; which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed by the Gospel. Nor could the angels themselves comprehend the unsearchable riches of Christ, till he himself came to make all see "what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ; to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed by Christ Jesus our Lord" (Eph. iii. 4-11).

When Christ arose from the dead, the Father said to him, "Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool" (Psal. cx.; Acts ii. 34); for the Father must reign till he hath put all things under Christ's feet. But it is manifest He is excepted which did put all things under Christ. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son himself be subject unto Him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all (1 Cor. xv. 25-28). But how thus subject is manifest from the context,-by keeping all things in subjection, and leading all things up to the ever invisible, inscrutable Father: an eternal act of ascription of all power to the incomprehensible God; the kingdom perpetually delivered up by being perpetually retained subject; God truly being all in all when he alone is seen acknowledged and glorified in all things.

The rule and judgment of all things was promised by Christ to his followers: "In the regeneration ye shall sit with me

judging the tribes of Israel" (Matt. xix. 28). "He that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations" (Rev. ii. 26). "To him that over

cometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne; even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne" (Rev. iii. 21). "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them" (Rev. xx. 4). And the Apostles not only assume that this general doctrine is universally admitted by the churches, but that the particulars of the fallen angels being reserved for the judgment to be exercised by the church, were points so universally believed then, that none but the wilfully blind could be ignorant of them. "The angels that sinned are cast down to hell, and delivered into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment" (2 Pet. ii. 4). "The angels which kept not their first estate, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day (Jude 6.) "Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life" (1 Cor. vi. 3).

And as the glory given to the sons of God is first in dignity, so also is it first in possession: they are the first-born from the dead; theirs is the first resurrection; they are the morning stars of that day, in the course of which all the elect of God shall be gathered into the kingdom of heaven, and all the enemies of God shall be cast into the lake of fire. For the elect of God are not all chosen to the highest dignity in the kingdom: there are subjects, as well as kings; least, as well as greatest; judges over the tribes, and tribes to be judged, in the kingdom of heaven.

Election includes all who are to be saved; but salvation does not of necessity imply equality of glory among the saved. The angels who kept their first estate were elected to that end: "I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels" (1 Tim. v. 21). Yet we are taught that among them are different degrees of glory and dignity; "that there are thrones, and principalities, and powers, over whom Christ now exerciseth the supreme dignity in heaven above" (Eph. i. 21, iii. 10; Col. i. 16, xi. 10; Jude 6). And so shall it be in the world to come: the elect bride of the Lamb, the queen of the King of kings, shall be first seated with him on his own throne; and then all the subjects of the kingdom shall be successively gathered, according to the faithfulness of their service and the willing obedience they have learned during this present dispensation of trial and labour, of endurance and patience, which the servants undergo while their Lord is absent. He learned obedience by the things which he suffered, and for the joy set before him despised the shame; and they are called to do the same: the diligent servant shall be welcomed according to his diligence: "Have thou dominion over ten cities," or "Have thou

dominion over five cities." "But the unprofitable servants shall be cast into outer darkness, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. xxv.); when all the people of the Lord are made willing in the day of his power. (Psal. cx.)

To enthrone the bride of the Lamb in her high dignity, the Lord himself shall descend; shall cast Satan, the prince of the power of the air, out of those heavenly regions which he now occupies and into this region all those who have died in the faith of Christ shall be raised; and such as have faith in the blessed hope of his glorious appearing now, even "we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore exhort and comfort one another with these words" (2 Thess. iv. 18).

Thus the first act of judgment which the saints are called to exercise, is upon Satan and the apostate angels, against whom we are now in spirit wrestling, and over whom we are empowered to prevail by the Holy Spirit. And the victory now gained by the regenerate, and as yet known only to God and the spirit, shall then be manifested to the whole spiritual world, in the casting down of Satan, and the exaltation of the sons of God.

And the reign of Christ and his church shall then commence, overruling to the greater glory of God the extremest rage of Satan; which shall then be wrought to the highest pitch of fury by the knowledge of his speedy doom. "Woe to the inhabiters of the earth, for the devil is come down unto you having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time" (Rev. xii. 12). Thus is made the first separation, the first act of salvation, the first manifestation of election, in the first born of the first resurrection; prepared in the heavenly regions to be manifested to all creation as the sons of God, when two other bands of the election shall have been separated from the inhabitants of the earth, and gathered each to its own station in the preparing kingdom of God.

After the translation of the saints to that region of heaven, from which the evil angels shall then be cast down ; in the midst of that tribulation and woe which shall be wrought upon the earth by Satan; there shall be two bands of elect men witnessing for God against the utmost rage of Satan and of Antichrist, and supported by unprecedented strength from God to endure the unprecedented persecution which shall make the land of the living one scene of terror. "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time; no, nor ever shall be: and except those days should be shortened there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened" (Matt. xxiv. 22). The first band of these elect is the foolish virgins" (Matt. xxv.); those who suffer

the loss of all the work they have prided themselves in; the work burnt up, they themselves suffering loss, and saved only as one who escapes with life alone from fire, stript and destitute of all things (1 Cor. iii. 15); himself saved, yet so as by fire. The second band of elect is the Jewish people, who shall then be spoiled in every land, and hunted from land to land, and shall drink of the full cup of the Lord's fury, for so long hardening their hearts and rejecting the Messiah; but who shall still have among them a remnant according to the election of grace, who are beloved for the fathers' sake, and who shall keep up a witness for truth among them, till the Deliverer shall come out of Zion and turn away ungodliness from Jacob. After which the blindness shall be removed from the Jew, and, the fulness of the Gentiles having been already brought in, all Israel shall be saved; and the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God shall be manifested in the election to the admiration of angels, and all the creation of God (Rom. xi.); when the Lord Jesus shall be "revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe in that day" (2 Thess. i. 10). "Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him" (Rev. i. 7).

And-Christ having finished his work of redemption actually as well as virtually; having bruised Satan under the feet of his people, as he hath already himself bruised the serpent's head (Gen. iii. 15; Rom. xvi. 20); and having swept from the earth all the pollution of the Fall-the glory of God shall be revealed in the land of the living, and all flesh shall see it together. "O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain: O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God. Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him : behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him." (Isaiah xl.) "For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand. of thy God. And they shall call them The holy people, The redeemed of the Lord; and thou shalt be called Sought out, A

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city not forsaken." (Isa. lxii.) "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow into it. And many people shall say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." (Isaiah ii.) "And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the East; and his voice was like a noise of many waters; and the earth shined with his glory. And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever." (Ezek. xliii.) "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and the King of Glory shall come in." (Psal. xxiv.) "Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion." (Psal. ii.) The Lord is great in Zion. Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at his holy hill; for the Lord our God is holy." (Psal. xcix.) "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the field be joyful, and all that is therein, before the Lord: for he cometh." (Psal. xcvi.) "Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give to every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last" (Rev. xxii. 13). "And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever. We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear thy name, small and great, and shouldest destroy them that destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened in heaven" (Rev. xi. 19). "And I looked, and lo a Lamb stood on mount Zion, and with him an hundred-forty-four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads..These are the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb" (Rev. xiv. I, 4). " And there shall be no more curse : but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads." "Surely I come quickly: Amen. Even so; come, Lord Jesus" (Rev. xxii. 3, 4, 20).

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