Quest. CLXI. Is not a third rule of the Holy Ghost, or perfecter kingdom of love, to be expected, as different from the reign of the Creator and Redeemer?
Answ. 1. The works ad extra and the reign of the Father, Word, and Spirit are undivided. But yet some things are more eminently attributed to one person in the Trinity, and some to another.
2. By the law and covenant of innocency, the Creator eminently ruled omnipotently. And the Son ruled eminently sapientially, initially under the covenant of promise or grace from Adam till his incarnation and the descent of the Holy Ghost, and more fully and perfectly afterward by the Holy Ghost. And the Holy Ghost ever since doth rule in the saints as the Paraclete, Advocate, or Agent of Christ, and Christ by him, eminently by holy love; which is yet but initially: but the same Holy Ghost by perfect love shall perfectly rule in glory for ever; even as the Spirit of the Father and the Son. We have already the initial kingdom of love by the Spirit, and shall have the perfect kingdom in heaven; and besides the initial and the perfect there is no other. Nor is the perfect kingdom to be expected before the day of judgment, or our removal unto heaven; for our kingdom is not of this world. And they that sell all and follow Christ, do make the exchange for a reward in heaven; and they that suffer persecution for his sake, must rejoice because their reward in heaven is great: and they that relieve a prophet or righteous man for the sake of Christ, and that lose any thing for him, shall have indeed a hundredfold (in value) in this life, but in the world to come eternal life. We shall be taken up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord: and those are the words with which we must comfort one another, and not Jewishly with the hopes of an earthly kingdom. And yet “we look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, according to his promise.” But who shall be the inhabitants, and how that heaven and earth shall differ, and what we shall then have to do with earth, whether to be overseers of that righteous earth (and so to judge or rule the world) as the angels are now over us in this world, are things which yet I understand not.
John v. 21, 25; Prov. i. 20, 21.
Matt. v. 11, 12; Luke xviii. 22, 23; Matt. x. 41, 42; Luke vi. 23; xvi. 20; 1 Cor. xii. 2, 3; v. 1, 3, 8; Matt. xviii. 10; 1 Thess. iv. 17, 18; Mark xii. 25; 2 Pet. iii. 11-13; 1 Pet. i. 4; Heb. x. 34; xii. 13; Col. i. 5; Phil. iii. 20, 21.