FOURTH LETTER.

ARE THE CHRISTIAN REMNANT PART OF THE CHURCH OF THE FIRST-BORN ?"

MY DEAR FRIEND,

It

In my former letters, I have treated very fully of the Christian remnant, who will "keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus" during the last crisis of evil in Jerusalem and the Roman world. has been questioned by some, whether this remnant is properly part of the "Church of the first-born." My present object is to show that it is, and that its history belongs to the present dispensation.

Indeed, the very circumstance of their history being given in the Book of Revelation is a sufficient proof; for the great characteristic of our dispensation is this, that the Lord Jesus having been rejected, hath sat down, not on His own, but on His Father's throne, as it is written: "Jehovah said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I shall have set thy foes a footstool for thy feet." (Ps. cx. 1.) This relation of the rejected Christ to the things an essential oneness to the dispensation to which it attaches

below, gives

All such parts of Scripture as belong to this period are dispensationally ours. The central part of the Revelation belongs to this period, (for it describes God as acting for Christ, and not Christ in the exercise of His own power;) consequently, those who are described in this part of the Revelation, as "having the faith of Jesus," fall under the dispensation which is characteristically ours.

Another, and perhaps, more simple proof may be found in this; that they believe in Jesus during the period of Israel's blindness and unbelief. This entitles them to be called, "Sons of GOD:" for, in the same passage which describes the rejection of the LORD by Israel, "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not;" it is added, "but as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the Sons of GOD, even to them who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." The Christian remnant fall under the description of this passage, and therefore have the full characteristics of the heavenly family, as given in the Gospel of John.

Moreover, they exist before the end of Christendom, because they hold fast "the faith of Jesus" during the period of its last abominations. This brings them within the scope of Matthew's Gospel, for Matthew speaks of the end of Christendom, and calls it "the end of the age"; (Matt. xiii.) and, therefore, this remnant (as being in Christendom) exist before the

end of the age of which Matthew writes. Hence they are entitled as believers in Jesus to that gracious promise, than which nothing is more characteristic of the Church of GoD, "Lo! I am with you always even unto the end of the age." Nothing can be more characteristic of the Church than this, because it is the promise of the abiding presence of Christ through the Comforter. From John, we learn that they are "born of GoD;" from Matthew, that they have the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, which is promised until the end of the age.

Moreover (as being in Christendom) they fall within the two periods by which the New Testament history of the Church is limited, viz.: the sower going forth to sow, and the harvest. They are not after the harvest, for then Christendom ceases to be, every tare being destroyed; nor can they be before the sower; therefore, as visibly belonging to Jesus, and converted during the season of testimony, and that before the tares are rooted up, they fall under the dispensational name of "wheat," as used in Matt. xiii., a name that plainly indicates a dispensational similarity paramount to all circumstantial differences which may attach to those to whom it is applied. The early Church in Jerusalem, the Gentile churches, the Christian Jews in Jerusalem's last abominations, are all "wheat," in the sense of Matthew xiii. The Jewish remnant are not; for they are not planted by the word of testimony sown in humiliation; they do not know, nor confess

Jesus during the period of this testimony. When, after His appearing, they do confess Him, they never find tares sown by their side; and they are not like the "wheat" in Matthew, gathered into the garner at the "end of this age."

I might enlarge the evidence on this subject, by showing that the same characteristics as to nature of service or suffering, attach to the Christian remnant and to the Church; for example, they that suffer shall also reign with Him. (2 Tim. ii. 12.) These, and other principles of like character, attach to ourselves and to them. All, likewise, who bear the name of "wheat" before "the end of the age," are gathered into the same garner at last. This is expressly told us in Matt. xiii.; and we have already seen that the remnant of which I am speaking are described as having full heavenly glory; for they "stand upon the sea of glass mingled with fire, having the harps of GOD." Evidence of this kind might almost indefinitely be multiplied, but I have said enough to show that this remnant have, in all respects, the characteristics of the Church of God.

But it has been asked by some who admit that a portion of the Church of God will continue on the earth, and about Jerusalem until the very end, whether the present Gentile dispensation may not first be brought to its conclusion by the fulness of the Gentiles being gathered in, and the resurrection of all saints taking place, before this closing division of the Church of

GOD are manifested during the season of Anti-christian blasphemy.

To this I reply, that such a supposition is forbidden by the parable of the tares; for it is expressly said, not only that the wheat and the tares are to grow together until the harvest, but also that the tares are gathered (that is, rooted out of the field) first. How could this be if all the wheat was taken away many years before the dispensation closed? The very object of the parable appears to be to show the unbroken continuity of the dispensation until the very end.

This parable I consider to be entirely decisive of the question before us; but there is another passage to which I am about to refer, which, if patiently considered, will, I believe, be found unanswerably conclusive. It is found in Romans xi., a dispensational chapter, expressly treating of the present period of Jewish blindness, and Gentile light; and, therefore, one in which we may peculiarly expect to find distinctness of statement and accuracy on the subject in question.

Without entering on the many interesting subjects to which this chapter refers, I would briefly notice these things:

I. That it speaks of Israel as blinded for a season by the judicial infliction of the hand of God. It is important to notice the judicial character which attaches to their being broken out of their olive-tree.

II. The blindness thus judicially inflicted has never