THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM.
The old Prophets looking down through the vista of time to the coming of this heavenly city, break forth in language like the following: "And it shall come to pass that he that is left inZionand he that remaineth inJerusalemshall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living inJerusalem." "Then the Moon shall be confounded and the Sun ashamed when the Lord of hosts shall reign in MountZionand inJerusalem—(why? because John says they will 'have no need of the sun nor the moon,') and before his ancients gloriously." Who are they? Noah, Abraham and the Prophets. Again: "Look uponZiontheCityof our solemnities; thine eye shall seeJerusalema quiet habitation, aTabernaclethat shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed." "Break forth into joy, sing together ye waste places ofJerusalemfor the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemedJerusalem." "Give no rest till he establish and till he makeJerusalema praise in the earth." Do they mean old Jerusalem? The Saviour's prediction is against it, "left desolate," its inhabitants "carried awaycaptive and trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Luke xxi. Further: "But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create, behold I createJerusalema rejoicing and her people a joy, and I will rejoice inJerusalemand joy in my people, and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying." Isa. iv: 3; xxiv: 23; xxxiii: 20; lii: 9; lxii: 7; lxv: 18, 19. Also read xl: 1; lii: 1; lx: 14, and xxxv: 10. "At that time they shall callJerusalemthethroneof the Lord, and all the nations shall be gathered into it—neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart." "In those days shall Juda be saved andJerusalemshall dwellsafelyand this is the name wherewith she shall be called,The Lord our Righteousness. For thus saith the Lord, David shall never want a man to set upon the throne of the house of Israel." Jer. iii: 17; xxxiii: 16, 17. "The Lord also shall roar out ofZionand utter his voice fromJerusalem, then shallJerusalem be holy, and there shall be no stranger pass through her any more." Joel iii: 16, 17.
Here then, in every instance save one or two, the people of God are connected with the "Zionof God," "Cityof God," "Jerusalemwhich is to be in the last days." The Psalmist says, "Glorious things are spoken of thee, OCityof God." lxxxvii: 3. John's record is, "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the Temple of my God, and he shall go no more out, and I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the City of my God, (what union, and yet, how distinct!) which is newJerusalemwhich cometh downoutof heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my new name." How could the Saviour have been more explicit and plain. "Him that overcometh." Who? Why, the Saint; not the City, thenew Jerusalem. Again: "Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." If the city is the Saints, what is this that enters into and have right to the tree of life? Can theCitygo into theCity? If so, then we acknowledge theCityis the Saints. But it reads, the Saints go in there.
In Rev. xxi: 16, the City is said to be four square, twelve thousand furlongs; the length, and the breadth, and the height of it are equal. Then, according to arithmetical computation, it is fifteen hundred miles square. Now, if the City spiritually means the Saints of God, then, to carry out the figure, the Saints must stand over, or upon each other (according to the common stature) one million and four hundred thousand deep; or will it be asserted that they are fifteen hundred miles tall!