then, the time had come to accept the challenge, and to proclaim the Empire of Jesus Christ. This is done. by the Seer of the Apocalypse without reserve. The Ascended Christ is Ruler of the kings of the earth; He is King of kings, and Lord of lords; His elect shall reign with Christ a thousand years.1 A great voice in heaven is heard to say, Now is come the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ; another voice cries, The Kingdom of the world is become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.2 With Domitian at Rome claiming to be called our Lord and God,' there could no longer be any hesitation on the part of the Church as to the duty of proclaiming the Ascended Christ as the Overlord of the Emperor, the true Ruler of the world and Viceroy of God.

3

Were these magnificent titles mere echoes of the Jewish Messianic Hope, or empty claims flung in the face of the Roman persecutor by men who had been driven to desperation by his cruelty? Or, do they correspond to actual functions which the Seer knew to have been committed to the Ascended Christ? And if so, what are these functions, and how are they discharged? The New Testament supplies the

answer.

We begin with the words of the risen Christ, spoken, it seems, as the forty days were approaching

1 Арос. i. 5, xix. 16, xx. 4.

2 Apoc. xi. 15, xii. 10.

3 Sueton. Domitian, 13: 'dominus et deus noster hoc fieri iubet.'

an end. All authority was given (édón) unto me in heaven and on earth.1 The past tense carries our thoughts back to the pre-incarnate life of the Son and the eternal purpose of the Father. The grant was made before time began. But it was conditioned by the acts in time of the Incarnate Son -the long obedience which culminated in the Sacrifice of the Cross the change which began with the Resurrection and was completed by the Ascension. Then at length the Father's gift was realized in full; the authority of the Christ over all created persons and things, visible and invisible, became an accomplished fact.

It was 'authority' (¿Covσía) which the Father granted and the Son received: the right to act accompanied by the requisite power. Authority was no new claim on the part of our Lord. He had asserted it at the outset of His ministry: the Son of Man hath authority on earth to forgive sins. The same note was heard in all His teaching, and seen in all His works. Moreover, He claimed the right to delegate His authority, and did so both before and after the

1 Mt. xxviii. 18. Dan. vii. 14 was perhaps in the Lord's mind: there was given him dominion (LXX éžovoía) and glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion (LXX and Th. ǹ éžovola avtoû) is an everlasting dominion.

2Cf. Mt. xi. 27 πάντα μοι παρεδόθη παρὰ τοῦ πατρός μου, and see W. C. Allen ad loc.

3 Mc. ii. 10.

4 Mt. vii. 29, Mc. i. 27.

Resurrection.1 Even before the Passion He was conscious that, for the purposes of His mission, His authority extended over all flesh.2 What was new

in the final assertion of this claim which He made on the eve of the Ascension was the inclusion of the whole creation within the scope of His power. All previous claims of authority to speak in the Father's Name, to remit sins, to expel the forces of evil, to give eternal life to all whom the Father had given Him, fall vastly short of one which covers both earth and heaven.

1. All authority in heaven. dous phrase to be interpreted?

How is this tremen

We may begin with

a great text from S. Paul where this side of the Lord's present exaltation comes under review. God, we read, made Christ to sit at his right hand in the heavenlies (ev Tois èπovρaviois), far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.3 Here, as elsewhere, the Apostle assumes the existence of a graded hierarchy in the heavenly world, corresponding to. the successive grades of official life at an earthly court. But far above all these he sees Jesus Christ, invested with a dignity which has no parallel even in the court of heaven. S. Peter has the same conception: Jesus Christ is on the right hand of God...angels and 1 Mc. vi. 7, Jo. xx. 21 f. 2 Jo. xvii. 2. 3 Eph. i. 20 f.

authorities and powers being made subject unto him.1 So also the author of Hebrews: He has become by so much superior to the angels, as he hath inherited a more excellent name than they. They are ministering spirits, He is the Incarnate Son; the name of Son belongs to Him by inheritance, and by the Ascension He has come into His own.2 The other heavenly authorities recognize this and do Him homage: it was the purpose of the Father that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven (èπovρavíwv)......., and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Fathers We see the King's Son, invested with the King's authority, passing through the ranks of the great nobles of the heavenly order; and, as He passes, every one of these spiritual powers does obeisance, while from the whole assembly there rises the creed of the primitive Church, Jesus is Lord. S. John's ears are opened to hear the hymn of praise that follows: I heard a voice of many angels round about the throne... and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand... saying with a great voice, Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to receive the power and riches and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing.*

66

11 Pet. iii. 22.

2 Heb. i. 4. Cf. Westcott ad loc.: Probably not the name of 'Son," simply... but the Name in which was gathered up all that Christ was found to be by believers.'

3 Phil. ii. 9 ff.

4 Apoc. v. II f.

In the two moments of the Lord's deepest humiliation angels ministered to Him, and they would, had He so willed, have hastened in their legions to save Him from the Cross.1 So, since His exaltation, they 'alway do Him service in heaven,' even as they serve the Father whose authority He wields. Made a little lower than the angels, seen of angels in His agony,2 He now receives their worship; they are His, and they do His will. Nothing is done in that great unknown world, which we commonly call 'heaven,' without His initiating, guiding, determining authority. Processes

inconceivable by our minds are being carried forward beyond the veil by agencies equally inconceivable. It is enough for the Church to know that all which is being done there is done by the authority of her Lord.

Yet, if 'heaven' be used in the wider sense of 'the spiritual world,' S. Paul does not hide from us that there are intelligences in it which not only refuse to submit to the rule of the Christ, but actively resist it. He saw them at work in the great struggle which had already begun between the Church and the World. Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. The darkness of the heathen world was under the control of

1 Mc. i. 13, Lc. xxii. 43, Mt. xxvi. 53. Mt. xiii. 41.

2 Heb. ii. 7, 1 Tim. iii. 16. 4 Eph. vi. 12.