The Works of John Bunyan, vol 3, John Bunyan [ebook reader color screen TXT] 📗

1. To descend out of heaven, that is, out of the church in captivity, ‘from God,’ is this: The church is the place in which God doth beget all those that are the children of him; wherefore in that they are said to descend out of heaven ‘from God,’ it is as if he had said, the children of the church are heaven-born, begotten of God, and brought forth in the church of Christ. For ‘Jerusalem which is above is the mother of us all’ (Gal 4:26). ‘The Lord shall count when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there’

(Psa 87:5,6).

2. When he saith he saw this Jerusalem come out of heaven from God, he means that those of the church in captivity that shall build this city, they shall be a people peculiarly fitted and qualified for this work of God. It was not all the children of Israel that had their hand in building Jerusalem after the captivity of old; ‘their nobles put not their necks to the work of the Lord’ (Neh 3:5). Also there were many of Judah that were sworn to Tobiah, the arch-opposer of the building of the city, because of some kindred and relation that then was between them and him (Neh 6:17-19). And as it was then, so we do expect it will be now; some will be even at the beginning of this work, in Babylon, at that time also some will be cowardly and fearful, yea, and even men hired to hinder the work (Neh 6:10-12). Wherefore I say, those of the church that at that day builded the city, they were men of a particular and peculiar spirit, which also will so be at the building of New Jerusalem. They whose light breaks forth as the morning, they that are mighty for a spirit of prayer, they that take away the yoke, and speaking vanity, and that draw out their soul to the hungry; they that the Lord shall guide continually, that shall have fat bones, and that shall be as a watered garden, whose waters fail not, &c. (Isa 58:8-14). Of them shall they be that build the old wastes, and that raise up the foundations of many generations, &c.

It was thus in all ages, in every work of God, some of his people, some of his saints in special in all ages, have been used to promote, and advance, and perfect the work of their generations.

3. This city descends or comes out of heaven from God, that is, by his special working and bringing to pass; it was God that gave them the pattern even when they were in Babylon; it was God that put it into their hearts while there, to pray for deliverance; it was God that put it into the hearts of the kings of the Medes and Persians to give them liberty to return and build; and it was God that quailed the hearts of those that by opposing did endeavour to hinder the bringing the work to perfection; yea, it was God that did indeed bring the work to perfection; wherefore she may well be said to descend ‘out of heaven from God’: as he also saith himself by the prophet, I will cause the captivity of Judah, and the captivity of Israel to return, and I will build them as at the first (Ezra 4:1-4; 7:27; Neh 2:8-18; 4:15; 6:15,16; Jer 33:7; 32:44; Eze 36:33-37; 37:11-15; Amos 9:11).

Lastly, When he saith he saw her descend from God out of heaven, he may refer to her glory, which at her declining departed from her, and ascended to God, as the sap returns into the root at the fall of the leaf; which glory doth again at her return descend, or come into the church, and branches of the same, as the sap doth arise at the spring of the year, for indeed the church’s beauty is from heaven, and it either goeth up thither from her, or else comes from thence to her, according to the natures of both fall and spring (Cant 2).Thus you see what this heaven is, and what it is for this city to descend out of it; also what it is for this city to descend out of it from God.

[This city has the glory of God.]

Ver. 11. ‘Having the glory of God.’ These last words do put the whole matter out of doubt, and do most clearly show unto us that the descending of this city is the perfect return of the church out of captivity; the church, when she began at first to go into captivity, her glory began to depart from her; and now she is returning again, she receiveth therewith her former glory, ‘having the glory of God.’ Thus it was in the type, when Jerusalem went into captivity under the King of Babylon, which was a figure of the captivity of our New Testament church under Antichrist, it is said that then the glory of God departed from them, and went, by degrees, first out of the temple to the threshold of the house, and from thence with the cherubims of glory, for that time, quite away from the city (Eze 10:4-18; 11:22,23 &c.).

Again, As the glory of God departed from this city at her going into captivity, so when she returned again, she had also then returned to her the glory of God; whereupon this very prophet that saw the glory of God go from her at her going into captivity, did see it, the very same; and that according as it departed, so return at her deliverance. ‘He brought me to the gate,’ saith he-that is, when by a vision he saw all the frame and patterns of the city and temple, in the state in which it was to be after the captivity.

‘He brought me to the gate—that looketh toward the east, and behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east’-the very same way that it went when it was departed from the city (Eze 11:23). ‘His voice was like a noise of many waters, and the earth shined with is glory. It was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision which I saw when I came to destroy the city, and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my face, and the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east; so the Spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house’ (Eze 43:1-5).

Thus you see it was in the destruction and restoration of the Jews’

Jerusalem, by which God doth plainly show us how things will be in our gospel church; she was to decline and lose her glory, she was to be trampled-as she was a city-for a long time under the feet of the unconverted and wicked world. Again, she was after this to be builded, and to be put into her former glory; at which time she was to have her glory, her former glory, even the glory of God, returned to her again. ‘He showed me,’ saith John, ‘that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.’ As he saith by the prophet, ‘I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies, my house shall be built in it’

(Zech 1:16). And again, ‘I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem’ (Zech 8:3).

‘Having the glory of God.’ There is the grace of God, and the glory of that grace; there is the power of God, and the glory of that power; and there is the majesty of God, and the glory of that majesty (Eph 1:6; 2 Thess 1:9; Isa 2:19).

It is true God doth not leave his people in some sense, even in the worst of times, and in their most forlorn condition (John 14:18), as he showeth by his being with them in their sad state in Egypt and Babylon, and other of their states of calamity (Dan 3:25). As he saith, ‘Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come’ (Eze 2:16). God is with his church, even in her greatest adversity, both to limit, bound, measure, and to point out to her quantity and quality, her beginning and duration of distress and temptation (Isa 27:7-9; Rev 2:10). But yet I say the glory of God, in the notion of Ezekiel and John, when they speak of the restoration of this city, that is not always upon his people, though always they are beloved and counted for his peculiar treasure. She may then have his grace, but not at the same time the glory of his grace; his power, but not the glory of his power; she may also have his majesty, but not the glory thereof; God may be with his church, even then when the glory is departed from Israel.

The difference that is between her having his grace, power, and majesty, and the glory of each, is manifest in these following particulars;-grace, power, and majesty, when they are in the church in their own proper acts, only as we are considered saints before God, so they’re invisible, and that not only altogether to the world, but often to the very children of God themselves; but now when the glory of these do rest upon the church, according to Ezekiel and John; why then it will be visible and apparent to all beholders. ‘When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall APPEAR in his glory’ (Psa 102:16), as he saith also in another place, ‘The Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee’

(Isa 60:1-2).

Now, then, to speak a word or two, in particular to the glory of God, that at this day will be found to settle upon this city.

First. Therefore, at her returning, she shall not only have his grace upon her, but the very glory of his grace shall be seen upon her; the glory of pardoning grace shall now shine in her own soul, and grace in the glory of it shall appear in all her doings.

Now shall both our inward and outward man be most famously adorned and beautified with salvation; the golden pipes that are on the head of the golden candlestick, shall at this day convey, with all freeness, the golden oil thereout, into our golden hearts and lamps (Zech 4:2). Our wine shall be mixed with gall no longer, we shall now drink the pure blood of the grape; the glory of pardoning and forgiving mercy shall so show itself at this day in this city, and shall so visibly abide there in the eyes of all spectators, that all shall be enflamed with it. ‘For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory; and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name’ (Isa 62:1,2).

And again, ‘The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God’ (Isa 52:10; Psa 98:2). At that day, the prophet tells us, there shall be holiness upon the very horses’

bridles, and that the pots in the Lord’s house shall