XIX.
Touching His Kingdom,(1) Christ being risen from the dead, ascended into Heaven, sat on the right hand of God the Father, having all power in Heaven and earth, given unto Him, He does spiritually govern His Church, exercising His power(2) over all angels and men, good and bad, to the preservation and salvation of the elect, to the over-ruling and destruction of His enemies, which are reprobates,(3) communicating and applying the benefits, virtue, and fruit of His Prophecy and Priesthood to His elect, namely, to the subduing and taking away of their sins, to their justification and adoption of Sons, regeneration, sanctification, preservation and strengthening in all their conflicts against Satan, the World, the Flesh, and the temptations of them, continually dwelling in, governing and keeping their hearts in faith and filial fear by His Spirit, which having(4) given it, He never takes it away from them, but by it still begets and nourishes in them faith, repentance, love, joy, hope, and all heavenly light in the soul unto immortality, notwithstanding through our own unbelief, and the temptations of Satan, the sensible sight of this light and love be clouded and overwhelmed for the time.(5) And on the contrary, ruling in the world over His enemies, Satan, and all the vessels of wrath, limiting, using, restraining them by His mighty power, as seems good in His divine wisdom and justice to the execution of His determinate counsel, delivering them up to a reprobate mind, to be kept through their own deserts, in darkness and sensuality unto judgment.
1) 1 Cor. 15:4; 1 Peter 3:21-22; Mat. 28:18-20; Luke 24:51; Acts 1:11; 5:30-31; John 19:36; Rom. 14:17
2) Mark 1:27; Heb. 1:14; John 16:7,15
3) John 5:26-27; Rom. 5:5-7; 14:17; Gal. 5:22,23; John 1:4,13
4) John 13:1; 10:28-29; 14:16-17; Rom. 11:29; Psal. 51:10-11; Job 33:29-30; 2 Cor. 12:7, 9
5) Job 1, 2; Rom. 1:21; 2:4-6; 9:17-18; 2 Peter 2
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