tion of an entirely new dispensation of which Abraham was the leader.
The third or Jewish church extended from Abraham to Christ, when, like the others, it was consummated and judged and its abused talents taken from it and given to another.
That Christ executed a great judgment in the world of spirits at his first advent, is a fact of stupendous value—a fact, strange to say, not fully known or understood in the Christian church. All the prophecies of the Old Testament culminated in Christ. They were all fulfilled in Him. The most of them allude to the judgments, executed by him.
The judgment described by the prophets was executed by Him in the world of spirits, on the residue of the Jewish church, who still lingered in the intermediate state—the good being detained there by the wicked, and the wicked assaulting both heaven and earth from that favorable standpoint. It was there that David was detained until Christ came; for the Apostle Peter declares that in his own day, David, a thousand years deceased, had not yet ascended into heaven. It was there that Christ preached to the souls in prison, and released them from their bondage to infesting evils and falsities, and took them with Him into heaven.
