{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>But while the devil is bound, the saints reign with Christ\r\nduring the same thousand years, understood in the same way,\r\nthat is, of the time of His first coming.<a id=\"FNanchor_713_713\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_713_713\">[713]</a> For, leaving out of\r\naccount that kingdom concerning which He shall say in the\r\nend, \"Come, ye blessed of my Father, take possession of the<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_364\">[Pg 364]</a></span>\r\nkingdom prepared for you,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_714_714\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_714_714\">[714]</a> the Church could not now be\r\ncalled His kingdom or the kingdom of heaven unless His\r\nsaints were even now reigning with Him, though in another\r\nand far different way; for to His saints He says, \"Lo, I am\r\nwith you always, even to the end of the world.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_715_715\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_715_715\">[715]</a> Certainly\r\nit is in this present time that the scribe well instructed in the\r\nkingdom of God, and of whom we have already spoken, brings\r\nforth from his treasure things new and old. And from the\r\nChurch those reapers shall gather out the tares which He\r\nsuffered to grow with the wheat till the harvest, as He explains\r\nin the words, \"The harvest is the end of the world; and\r\nthe reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered\r\ntogether and burned with fire, so shall it be in the end of the\r\nworld. The Son of man shall send His angels, and they shall\r\ngather out of His kingdom all offences.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_716_716\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_716_716\">[716]</a> Can He mean out\r\nof that kingdom in which are no offences? Then it must be\r\nout of His present kingdom, the Church, that they are gathered.\r\nSo He says, \"He that breaketh one of the least of these commandments,\r\nand teacheth men so, shall be called least in the\r\nkingdom of heaven: but he that doeth and teacheth thus\r\nshall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_717_717\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_717_717\">[717]</a> He speaks\r\nof both as being in the kingdom of heaven, both the man who\r\ndoes not perform the commandments which He teaches,—for\r\n\"to break\" means not to keep, not to perform,—and the man\r\nwho does and teaches as He did; but the one He calls least,\r\nthe other great. And He immediately adds, \"For I say unto\r\nyou, that except your righteousness exceed that of the scribes\r\nand Pharisees,\"—that is, the righteousness of those who break\r\nwhat they teach; for of the scribes and Pharisees He elsewhere\r\nsays, \"For they say and do not;\"<a id=\"FNanchor_718_718\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_718_718\">[718]</a>—unless, therefore,\r\nyour righteousness exceed theirs, that is, so that you do not\r\nbreak but rather do what you teach, \"ye shall not enter the\r\nkingdom of heaven.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_719_719\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_719_719\">[719]</a> We must understand in one sense the\r\nkingdom of heaven in which exist together both he who breaks\r\nwhat he teaches and he who does it, the one being least, the\r\nother great, and in another sense the kingdom of heaven into\r\nwhich only he who does what he teaches shall enter. Consequently,<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_365\">[Pg 365]</a></span>\r\nwhere both classes exist, it is the Church as it now\r\nis, but where only the one shall exist, it is the Church as it\r\nis destined to be when no wicked person shall be in her.\r\nTherefore the Church even now is the kingdom of Christ, and\r\nthe kingdom of heaven. Accordingly, even now His saints\r\nreign with Him, though otherwise than as they shall reign\r\nhereafter; and yet, though the tares grow in the Church\r\nalong with the wheat, they do not reign with Him. For they\r\nreign with Him who do what the apostle says, \"If ye be risen\r\nwith Christ, mind the things which are above, where Christ\r\nsitteth at the right hand of God. Seek those things which\r\nare above, not the things which are on the earth.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_720_720\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_720_720\">[720]</a> Of such\r\npersons he also says that their conversation is in heaven.<a id=\"FNanchor_721_721\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_721_721\">[721]</a>\r\nIn fine, they reign with Him who are so in His kingdom that\r\nthey themselves are His kingdom. But in what sense are\r\nthose the kingdom of Christ who, to say no more, though\r\nthey are in it until all offences are gathered out of it at the\r\nend of the world, yet seek their own things in it, and not the\r\nthings that are Christ's?<a id=\"FNanchor_722_722\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_722_722\">[722]</a></p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK TWENTIETH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-585"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"6531ecb3051e9e1f96e896e1018a6165b22971e221a31e64ee49e63b813b941a","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"MAT","chapter":28,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Matt. xxviii. 20","verse":20,"verse_end":20}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_715_715","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_715_715","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_715_715\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_715_715\"><span class=\"label\">[715]</span></a> Matt. xxviii. 20.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_715_715","text_sha256":"781bd169141b50fdaefd4cdba87375c11582ee9ef0eebe40e7887c5081d19b98","verified":false,"work_id":null}