8. Those who argue thus, seem never to have considered that declaration of our Lord (_Matth._ xi. 11.) _Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. Notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he._ I fear indeed there are some who have imagined _the kingdom of heaven_ here, to mean the kingdom of glory: As if the Son of God had just discovered to us, that the least glorified saint in heaven is greater than any man upon earth! To mention this is sufficiently to refute it. There can therefore no doubt be made but _the kingdom of heaven_ here, (as in the following verse, where it is said to be _taken by force_) or, _the kingdom of God, as_ St. _Luke_ expresses it, is that kingdom of God on earth, whereunto all true believers in Christ, all real Christians belong. In these words then our Lord declares two things. _First_, That before his coming in the flesh, among all the children of men, there had not been one greater than _John the Baptist_: whence it evidently follows, that neither _Abraham_, _David_, nor any _Jew_ was greater than _John_. Our Lord, _secondly_, declares, that he which is least in the kingdom of God (in that kingdom which he came to set up on earth, and which _the violent_ now began _to take by force_) is greater than he. Not _a greater prophet_ (as some have interpreted the word) for this is palpably false in fact. But greater in the grace of God, and the knowledge of our Lord _Jesus Christ_. Therefore we cannot measure the privileges of real Christians, by those formerly given to the _Jews. Their ministration_ (or dispensation) we allow _was glorious_; but ours _exceeds in glory_. So that whosoever would bring down the _Christian_ dispensation to the _Jewish_ standard, whosoever gleans up the examples of weakness, recorded in the law and the prophets, and thence infers, that they who have _put on Christ_, are indued with no greater strength, doth _greatly err, neither knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God_.