It is to this reunion, and to the honours that shall then be given to the whole church at once, that the apostle refers, when he says, that " they (the Old Testament saints, to whom the promises came) without us should not be made perfect." (Heb. xi. 39, 40.) Thus he intimates that the actual possession of the thing promised has not yet been given. It is deferred until the Lord come, in order that no age, nor sec- tion, nor individuals of the church should be perfectly blest and glorified before the
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rest; for all must be raised up together, all caught up together, all crowned toge- ther, seeing they are one body, — one bride.* He points to the day of the Lord as the day of our common introduction into the inheritance, — the day of our common re- entrance into Eden, — the day when, as one vast multitude of all kindreds, we shall enter in through the gates into the city ; — the day of our common crowning, our com- mon triumph. For it is to be one crowning, one enthroning, one festival, one triumph, one entrance for the whole church, from the beginning. The members are not crowned alone, nor in fragments, nor in sections ; but in one glorious hour they re- ceive their everlasting crowns, and take their seats, side by side, with their Lord,
* The words, " God having provided the better thing for us," form a parenthesis, and are thrown in for the purpose of showing that the " good things to come," that is, the inheritance, belong to us, as much as to thf ancient saints, who got the promise.
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and with each other, in simultaneous glad* ness, upon the long-expected throne.
The preparations for this union have long been making. They began with us individually, when first the scattered frag- ments of our souls were brought, together by the Holy Ghost at our conversion. Be- fore that, our " hearts were divided ; " and this was our special sin. (Hos. x. 2.) But then they were " united," — at least in some measure, though still callins: for the un-
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ceasing prayer, " Unite my heart to fear thy name." (Psa. lxxxvi. 11.)* It was first the inner man that came under the power of sin and was broken into parts ; then the outer man followed. Both were
* The reader will call to mind Augustine's remark- able statement to this effect, concerning himself, though he does not refer to either of the above passages. Speak- ing of God as his delight, " dulcedo non fallax, dulcedo felix et secura," he adds, u coliigens me a dispersione in qua frustratim discissus sum ; dum ab uno te aver- sus, in multa evanui." — Confessions, Book II. chap. i.
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created whole in every sense of that word* and both have ceased to be ichole in any sense of it. When restoration begins, it begins with the reunion of the inner man, and in the resurrection passes on to the outer, bringing together the two re- stored parts. It was the individual that first was subjected to sin, and then the mass. So it is the individual that is first restored. And this is the process that is now going on under the almighty, vivify- ing, uniting energy of the Holy Spirit. But the reunion is not complete till one- ness is brought back to the mass, to the body, — till all those members that have been singly restored, be brought together, and so the body made whole.
It is for this we wait until the Lord come. For as it was the first Adam that broke creation into fragments, so it is the second Adam that is to restore creation in all its parts and regions, and make it one again. The good and the evil then are
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parted for ever, but the good and the good are brought into perfect oneness, — a oneness so complete, so abiding, as more than to compensate for brokenness and separation here.
The soul and the body come together and form one glorified man. The ten thousand members of the church come together and form one glorified church. ' The scattered stones come together and form one living temple. The bride and the Bridegroom meet. Here it has been one Lord, one faith, one baptism; there it shall be one body, one bride, one vine, one temple, one family, one city, one kingdom.
The broken fruitfulness, the fitful in- constancy, of the cursed earth shall pass into the unbroken beauty of the new crea- tion. The discord of the troubled ele- ments shall be laid, and harmony return. The warring animals shall lie down in peace.
Then shall heaven and earth come to*
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