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"Clooth that cometh fro the wevying is noght comely to were til it be fulled under
foot" (Piers Plowman).
Nitre, soap, and the teasle, scouring and bleaching at length make the shrunken cloth
"as white as snow" (Mark 9: 3). We can say therefore concerning the fulfillment of the
purpose of the ages "No FULNESS without FULLING".
We do most earnestly desire that consummation when the Son of God shall deliver up
to the Father a perfected kingdom, with every vestige of the "rent" of Gen. 1: 2 gone.
We do most ardently desire to be found, in that day, as part of that blessed pleroma or
fullness, but we remind ourselves that every thread that goes to make that "filling" will
have passed through the Fuller's hands; "fulled under foot" must precede being "far
above all".
Accompanying this introduction the reader will find a chart which endeavours to set
forth in diagram the way in which the Divine purpose in the Fullness is accomplished. At
either end of the chart stand between the "Beginning" and the "End" the two creations,
the black division that immediately follows the one representing the condition of Gen. 1: 2
"Without form and void", and the black division that immediately precedes the
consummation, represents the corresponding state of dissolution foreshadowed in
Isa. 34: 4 and II Pet. 3: but associated with "the last enemy". Running along the
bottom of the chart is "the deep"; that was the vehicle of judgment in Gen. 1: 2 and
which is to pass away at the end, for John says "and there was no more sea" (Rev. 21: 1).
By comparing Eph. 1: 4 "Before the foundation of the world" with II Tim. 1: 8, 9
"before the world began (literally, before age times)", we have the start and the finish of
the ages indicated. What follows is a series of "fillings", "stop-gap" types and shadows
pointing on. The fullness of time (Gal. 4: 4) did not come until 4,000 years after Adam,
and the fullness of the times (seasons) will not arrive until the day which is about to dawn
ushers in the glory that will be, when all things in heaven and on earth are gathered
together under the Headship of Christ.
As we have seen, it is not until we reach the dispensation of the Mystery, that we
come to a company of the redeemed which constitute a "fullness", and there we read of
the Church which is His Body, "the FULNESS of Him, that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1: 23).
The Fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in Christ, and the heavenly places, far above
all, with which both the seated Christ and His church are associated, constitute a sphere
untouched by the catastrophe of Gen. 1: 2. This does not pass away. The heavenly
places where Christ sits, are far above all heavens (Eph. 4: 10) that is, far above the
temporary heaven called "the firmament" which is likened to a spread out curtain and
which can be folded up and put aside. This "tabernacle" character of the Adamic earth is
of extreme importance; it places the whole purpose of the ages under a redeeming aegis,
and the reader is advised to give the article which deals with this aspect careful attention.
The chart which accompanies this article should be at hand throughout the series.
To the reader of The Berean Expositor, the principle of Right Division needs neither
introduction nor commendation. Its recognition underlies every article that has been