Page:Heaven Revealed.djvu/90

 capacity to receive; comparatively as a wise teacher comes down to the states of little children with instruction adapted to their feeble capacity. And when the Lord says, "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world and go to the father," no one understands Him as meaning that He came from or passed through any particular region of space. He came by assuming a material body, whereby He was enabled to descend to the very ultimates of humanity with regenerating and saving power. And from this lowest state He (as to his assumed human) passed, by a process of glorification of which our regeneration is an image, through all superior states, even to a full and perfect union with the Divine. This is the way in which He again left the world, as He says, and went to the Father. And in this way, too, He prepared a place in the Father's house for all his faithful followers; that is, He made possible, henceforward, the salvation and happiness of all who should, by his divine aid, be brought into states of genuine good and truth however humble.

But the Scripture furnishes testimony on this subject still more explicit and conclusive. We read that the Pharisees, on one occasion, asked our Lord "when the kingdom of God should come." And this was his answer: "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo, here! or lo, there! For behold the kingdom of God is within you." (Luke xvii. 20, 21.) Now the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven mean one and the same thing; for heaven is his kingdom. (Compare Matt. v. 3 with Luke vi. 20: also Matt. iv. 17 with Mark i. 15; and Matt. xix. 14 with