church, and therefore terminated when he preached the gospel to Cornelius the Roman Centurion, his kinsmen, and near friends, as recorded in the 10th chapter of the Acts. Whoever claims such a power on earth now, must trace it to some other source than that of Peter; and they who are so much concerned to prove their spiritual descent through a long line of spiritual ancestors from the Lord's apostles, might save themselves a world of trouble, if they would look within their own hearts for the Spirit that dwelt in the apostles. Truly the apostles have successors; but they are not priests. The true successors of the apostles, are those, in whose spirit the Spirit of Christ bears witness that they are Christ's; and every such one, without exception, is a successor of the apostles; and all the true worshippers of God, who believe him to be a Spirit, and worship Him in spirit and in truth, are priests unto God, every one, without exception.

CHAPTER VI.

We must now ascend an exceeding high mountain, from the summit of which alone can be obtained a correct view of the origin and the end of God's kingdom; and by the attainment of which, not a little of what is confessedly mysterious in the history of the intermediate dispensation may be in part explained. In one sense, the kingdom of God is already come in another sense, it is yet to come. Immediately after Satan had usurped God's throne in this world, which he effected by the ruin of our first parents, God re-established His kingdom; the curse pronounced against the serpent contained this important intimation. It is needful to bear in mind the distinction between God's universal kingdom, which includes righteous and wicked intelligences, and God's peculiar kingdom, which is exclusively a kingdom of righteous intelligences, as opposed to the kingdom of wicked intelligences. The government and care of God's peculiar kingdom is committed to His Son, Jesus Christ. Unto the Son, God saith, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." (Heb. i. 8.) Satan rules in the kingdom of wicked intelligences. Since the time of the fall, these two kingdoms have co-existed in this world, and have been arrayed against each other in

perpetual and uncompromising hostility. In this state of warfare, and in this sense only, has the kingdom of God as yet come. It is, however, destined to fill the whole earth, for Christ must reign till he hath put all enemies under His feet; and in this other sense, the kingdom of God is yet to come, with power and great glory.

"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." (Rev. i. 8.) The will and purpose of Jehovah, is the only measure, by which man can reach a partial knowledge of the unsearchable ways of God. Of that will and purpose no man can know any thing beyond what God has been pleased to reveal in His written word; but thanks be to God, the Scriptures are able to make wise unto salvation all who search them with faith, humility, and diligence. The same word that reveals to us God's unlimited and uncontrolled sovereignty over all things in this life, makes known to us as clearly and distinctly the existence of a similar sovereignty, in relation to the solemn matters of a coming eternity. I am conscious that I am now approaching the consideration of things into which angels desire to look; things into which many of the excellent of the earth have been afraid to look; things which not a few have rashly ventured to pronounce a judgment upon, not knowing what they say, neither whereof they affirm; things which I approach with much fear and trembling, lest by any means I should transgress the boundary which God has set, and beyond which neither angels nor men dare with impunity pass.

The question now before us is, who are the citizens of God's kingdom, and what are the terms of citizenship?

To both sections of this question the apostle Paul gives a most direct and unequivocal answer. "Whom he (God) did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren." (Rom. viii. 29.) Those descendants of Adam and Eve whom God foreknew and predestinated, are the citizens of the heavenly kingdom. Were this an isolated passage of God's word, it is so distinct and explicit, that it would be impossible to interpret its meaning, except in one way, however disagreeable the truth it contains may appear in the estimation of some. This single passage effectually shuts up every individual who regards the Bible as of divine authority, to a belief in the great and glorious doctrine that God foreknew, and therefore predestinated, all who are citizens of Zion. The passage quoted is not, however, a solitary one; it is one of many which the Bible contains, all of which declare the same great truth. The same apostle writes as follows to the Ephesians "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved." (Eph. i. 3 -6.) The apostle Peter is not less explicit on this point: "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of

the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." (1 Peter i. 1, 2.)

All discussions about the difficulty which attends the belief of this doctrine, and its alleged tendency, are entirely apart from the question of its truthfulness. If man himself were the framer of his own religious creed, then the mystery in which some of its tenets was enveloped, and their problematical tendency, might be a fair subject of discussion; but when God, the incomprehensible God, is the author of man's faith, and the revealer of the truths upon which it is to be founded, who can dispute the peril and the danger which hang over the individuals who, above and beyond the evidence which God has been pleased to give to convince men that it is He Himself who speaks, demand further, as a condition of their believing Him, that all He says must correspond with the views they entertain of what the Holy and the Just One ought or ought not to do. The desire to understand what God says is one thing, but the refusal to receive and believe what we know God has said, until we do understand it, is a very different thing. To the former God may give greater light; from the latter, except they humble themselves, He may take away the light they possess.

The truth in question, mysterious though it be, is nevertheless the truth of God; yea, it is the most glorious truth in the sacred page: it is thus expressed by the apostle John, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John iv. 10.) I know not a theme of meditation more lofty and sublime, than this truth furnishes to every sincere believer in Jesus Christ. To know and be assured that we are the objects of eternal