(_a_) The church of Christ, in its largest signification, is the whole company of regenerate persons in all times and ages, in heaven and on earth (Mat. 16:18; Eph. 1:22, 23; 3:10; 5:24, 25; Col. 1:18; Heb. 12:23). In this sense, the church is identical with the spiritual kingdom of God; both signify that redeemed humanity in which God in Christ exercises actual spiritual dominion (John 3:3, 5). _Mat. 16:18_—“_thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it_”; _Eph. 1:22, 23_—“_and he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all_”; _3:10_—“_to the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God_”; _5:24, 25_—“_But as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it_”; _Col. 1:18_—“_And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence_”; _Heb. 12:23_—“_the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven_”; _John 3:3, 5_—“_Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God. ... Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God._” Cicero’s words apply here: “Una navis est jam bonorum omnium”—all good men are in one boat. Cicero speaks of the state, but it is still more true of the church invisible. Andrews, in Bib. Sac., Jan. 1883:14, mentions the following differences between the church and kingdom, or, as we prefer to say, between the visible church and the invisible church: (1) the church began with Christ,—the kingdom began earlier; (2) the church is confined to believers in the historic Christ,—the kingdom includes all God’s children; (3) the church belongs wholly to this world—not so the kingdom; (4) the church is visible,—not so the kingdom; (5) the church has _quasi_ organic character, and leads out into local churches,—this is not so with the kingdom. On the universal or invisible church, see Cremer, Lexicon N. T., transl., 113, 114, 331; Jacob, Eccl. Polity of N. T., 12.