CHAPTER X.

On the various senses of the phrase, Kingdom of Heaven. THERE is no perceptible difference in the use or signification of this form of words, "the kingdom of "heaven," and of the other, "the kingdom of God," beyond a mere variety of idiom; the use of the former being peculiar to the Gospel of St. Matthew, the other being found in all the four, but chiefly in the Gospels of St. Mark and of St. Luke.

We may perhaps collect from the frequency of the former phrase, kingdom of heaven, in St. Matthew's Gospel, that it was familiar to the Jews; and such as they in particular would readily comprehend and apply. Among the significations of the phrase, then, some one, we may expect to find, will appear to be the popular one in particular; though there may be others of a more evangelical character, and beyond the mere vulgar apprehension of its meaning.

This popular notion of the phrase, is the temporal kingdom of the Messiah. The same kingdom, which the persuasions and expectations of the people so confidently anticipated, from the appearance of the Messiah, was, in its most obvious and familiar acceptation, with them, the kingdom of heaven or Goda.

Another of its meanings, as employed by our Lord himself, and, consequently, no longer in the popular, but in a strictly evangelical sense, is to denote some personal kingdom of Jesus Christ, in his

a See Matt. xviii. i. Luke xvii. 20, 21: xix. 11.

proper capacity of the Son of man". If such a kingdom seems to be implied in the common expectation of the kingdom of the Messiah also, yet the popular apprehension of the immediate nature of that kingdom, and of the time and circumstances when, and with which, it was to be manifested, are sufficient to discriminate them asunder; and to make the kingdom, which is the personal right and possession of Jesus Christ, as the Son of man, a different thing from the popular notion of the kingdom of the Messiah, in his time.

A third signification of the phrase, and a more evangelical one even than the last, is, to stand for the complex of the Gospel dispensation; for the commencement, propagation, and continuance of the Christian religion, as a formal, systematic rule of doctrine and discipline, such as until then had not existed in the world: the local profession of which religion is within the limits of the visible church, and the final end is to prepare those, who embrace and profess it, by a state of probation here, for a state of happiness hereafter.

A fourth signification is, to stand for that ultimate state of felicity, which is proposed to the faith and well doing of believers here, as their proper and personal reward hereafterd.

A fifth signification is, to express the local habitab Matt. xvi. 28. Mark. ix. 1. Luke ix. 27.

c Matt. iii. 2: iv. 17. 23: xi. xxiii. 14. Mark i. 14, 15: iv. 11. 1. 10: ix. 2. 60. 62: x. 9. 11: xix. 8: xx. 25: xxviii. 23. 31. Col. iv. 11.

11, 12: xii. 28: xiii. 11:

Luke iv. 43: vii. 28: viii. xvi. 16. Acts i. 3: viii. 12: Rom. xiv. 17: 1 Cor. iv. 20.

d Matt. v. 3. 10. 19. 20: vi. 10. 33: vii. 21: xviii. 3, 4: xix. 14. 23, 24. Mark ix. 47: x. 14, 15. 23. 25: xiv. 25.

tion within which the blessed immortality awarded to the faith and obedience of Christians in this life, is to be supposed transacted (as it must be somewhere transacted) in the nexte.

The above are all the significations of the phrase, kingdom of heaven, or kingdom of God, in the Gospels, or out of the Gospels, which appear really to differ from each other, and to require a distinct enumeration. Among these, as is evident from the simple inspection of the passages adduced, the third and the fourth are by far the most numerous in their occurrence; so as almost to deserve to be considered the only regular and legitimate meanings of the phrase itself.

Upon these two in particular we may observe, first, that the most simple and obvious one, is the second. The phrase, kingdom of heaven, or kingdom of God, has a natural fitness for expressing the kind of felicity which will sometime be enjoyed in a state of being, that can be considered in any sense a personal kingdom, or reign of God; since it is impossible to detach the idea of such a state of being, from the idea of that felicity which is the necessary consequence of the presence, the protection, and the visible enjoyment of God. Secondly, that there is an intimate connexion between them: for unless the Gospel dispensation as such, is to be regarded as finite and complete in itself, it must be subservient to some further end: and unless each individual Christian meets with his proper, personal reward in

Luke vi. 20: xi. 2: xii. 31, 32: xviii. 16, 17. 24. 25: xxii. 16. 18. John iii. 3. 5. Acts xiv. 22. 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10: xv. 50. Gal. v. 21. Ephes. v. 5. 2 Thes. i. 5. Rev. xii. 10.

e Matt. viii. 11, 12. Luke xiii. 28, 29:

xiv. 15.

believing, here, the Gospel dispensation must be intended to conduct him gradually to it, hereafter ; leading through a state of probation, transacted on Christian principles of discipline in the present life, to a state of retributive happiness or misery in the

next.

If then, there is this connexion between the Gospel dispensation, as such, which places mankind in a state of probation on Christian principles here, and the literal enjoyment of a kingdom of heaven hereafter-if there is no difference between them, except what there necessarily is between a cause and an effect; an instrumental means and a final end; a beginning and a consummation of the same progressive scheme; it ought not to surprise us that even the Gospel dispensation in the complex, should be expressed and described by a name, which is taken from its final relation to the kingdom of heaven or God. This is no more than is often done, when, by way of compendium, an entire process is designated by its upshot and result; or on the principle of synecdoche, the proper denomination of any one principal part of a thing, is transferred to the whole.

Nor ought it to be objected to this explanation of the origin of the phrase, that the Gospel dispensation began long since, but the kingdom of heaven, the state of retribution contemplated by it, is not yet come. The Gospel dispensation began long since, but it is not yet complete; and if it be only the first period in the duration of a certain œconomy, conducting, as the preliminary part of the process, to the last, whereby the whole in due time will regularly be brought to pass; we must wait the transaction of this first part, before we can see what is to

be the last. It is no objection, then, that the Gospel dispensation has apparently only begun to work, if it has not also ceased to work; that is, if it has not yet performed its work. It must continue to work, until its appointed part is discharged; and then, the kingdom of heaven may be literally at hand, and may without a figure be said to be the same with the Gospel dispensation itself.

Besides, though the interval between the first commencement and the final consummation of the Christian scheme may be vast in itself, and almost incalculable by our limited apprehensions of time and space, it must be as nothing in comparison of eternity, and no adequate measure of the boundless immensity of the divine omniscience. In the infinite prospect of the Author and Disposer of this scheme, the endless future is as the endless past, and all things are present at once. His own counsels were forecast from all eternity; his own purposes are accomplished through all futurity. There never was a time when he had not willed, what he has once accomplished; and there never can be a time when he will not have accomplished, what he shall once have willed. The end with him is as the beginning of his dispensations, and the issue of things as the process which conducts unto it.

Nor in communicating his purposes to mankind, is it a necessary consequence, that he must always accommodate himself to their apprehensions, and not use language strictly in conformity to his own. For we have the testimony of the inspired writers, that a thousand years are with God as one day; and that he calleth the things that are not, even as though they were already. Nor, if we consider not