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

are doing, before they be done, let the workmen look for opposition, taunts, underminers, and a thousand tricks for the hindrance of it (Neh 4:1-11; 6:1-14). For the streets of the city shall be built, and the wall, ‘even in troublous times’ (Dan 9:25).

‘And the building of the wall of it was of jasper.’ Of jasper only; for as by building is showed unto us the manner of the work, so by jasper is showed unto us the matter itself; the matter therefore must be, JASPER, Christ only, his Word, offices, and glorious brightness only; for indeed, whatever the special grace, protection, and providence of God will at this day be over this city, yet it shall be every whit of it according to Christ; that is, both of him, for him, and by him, as the fruits and effects of his suffering, bloodshed, and merits. ‘Therefore,’ saith God, ‘will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and was numbered with the transgressors’ (Isa 53:12). O holiness, how will it shine both in kings and nations, when God doth this!

[The glory of the city.]

‘And the city was pure gold.’ Having thus given us a discovery of the glory of the wall, he now comes to show us the glory of the city that is within the wall. The city, saith he, is gold, it is pure gold. This was figured out by the golden candlesticks belonging to the tabernacle and temple among the Jews, which candlesticks did then present unto us the worth and use of the church of Christ (Exo 25:31-36). ‘The seven candlesticks are the seven churches,’

saith the Lord Christ himself (Rev 1:20). Now the city here spoken of is the church in her highest and greatest glory. Its state was also figured out by the temple itself, whose beams, posts, walls, doors, and the like, were most famously covered over with gold (2

Chron 3:5-7). It was also, though but leanly, represented to us by the golden state of old Jerusalem in the days of Solomon the king, in which state gold was so plentiful in the midst thereof, that silver was nothing counted of among the citizens there in those days, but was as common as the stones in the street of the city (2 Chron 9:13-22,27).

‘And the city was pure gold.’ I find by the search of the Scriptures, that there are divers sorts of gold in the world; there is the gold of the land of Havilah (Gen 2:11); the gold of Parvaim (2

Chron 3:6); the gold of Ophir (Job 22:24); the gold of Sheba (Psa 72:15); and the gold of Uphaz (Jer 10:9). Now seeing he saith the city is gold, yet not distinguishing what gold, or which, we may suppose in this place he means gold of all these sorts; and indeed it is most agreeable to this text thus to judges. For the church at this day shall be made up of the twelve tribes that are scattered abroad, and of the Gentile nations both far and near; who, as they now lie, are, for ought I can learn, at as great a distance, and as remote from one another, not only in knowledge and affections, but touching the places of their abode, as are the golden mines out of which the gold that I spake of before is digged and fetched.

Thus shall gold, the golden saints of God, at this day be gathered out of the several golden mines of the world, and be brought to King Solomon, the Son of David, our Lord Jesus, to Jerusalem, with which he will build him a golden shining city, the joy of all the world.

‘And the city was pure gold.’ Gold is the choice and chief of all metals, both for worth, colour, and virtue; wherefore, when he saith, ‘The city is gold,’ you may conceive how rich and shining, and virtuous15 this city will be; the riches of the whole world will be here, the beauty of the whole world will be here, and the virtue of the whole world will be here; I mean spiritual riches, beauty, and health. Wherefore the rest of the world at this day will be but as a crushed bunch of herbs in which is no virtue; or like a furnace full of dross, out of which the gold is taken; or like an old, crazy, and ruinous house, from which is departed all health and happiness; and indeed much like to this is that saying of the prophet, to wit, that at this day the whole circumference of the world that is without the walls and privileges of this city, it shall be but like an old ruinous house, in which dwells nothing but cormorants, bitterns, owls, ravens, dragons, satyrs, the screech-owl, the great owl, the vulture, and the like most doleful birds. All their princes shall be nothing, saith the prophet, and when they call their nobles to the kingdom, none shall be there.

In their very palaces shall be thorns, and nettles, and brambles; for all among them that are princes and nobles indeed, will have packed up, and be gone for Jerusalem (Isa 34:10-17). So that the world, I say, will be left empty, void, and stripped both of treasure, beauty, and health, at the day of Jerusalem’s building again. But O how melancholy a forlorn, beautiless world will this be at this day! It will be only the place of ‘dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie’ (Rev 22:15). It will now be the very emblem of hell, as the church at this day will be the emblem of heaven. Wherefore, as the church, as I showed you before, will be most fit for her putting on of immortality and incorruption, so the world will at this day be most fit to be swallowed up of the lake and bottomless gulf. All things that are good and worth anything shall at this day be found only in the city of God. The gold will be in Jerusalem (Zech 14:14; Rev 18).

Again, In that this city is here called by the name of gold it is to show us how great pains, and travel, and charge the Lord Christ hath been at to get so great a treasure together. Gold is fetched from a far country, and that with great pains, charge, and difficulty (2 Chron 9:10). The gold wherewith King Solomon made his drinking vessels, it cost a three years’ journey to obtain it. So the saints also, those golden vessels wherewith is made this golden city, they cost Christ a three days’ travel in the heart of the earth, even sweatingly under the wrath of God, to obtain them, and thus to build this city with them (Luke 22:44; Mark 12:40).

Further, In that he saith this city is gold, he would have us to consider what the state of the church was before she came into this happy condition, to wit, an afflicted, tempted, and tried condition. Gold, as it comes from the mine, it cometh commixed with its dust and ore; wherefore the goldsmith hath a burning furnace wherein he having put it, doth with the fire purge and take away the dross and dust from among the metal itself; into which furnace he puts it once, twice, thrice, and again to the end it may at length be thoroughly cleansed and purified from its dross. Now all this befalleth the people of God; they are thrown into the burning fiery furnace of affliction and temptation, and there they are tried, purged, and purified (Isa 31:9). As the Lord also saith by the prophet, ‘I will try them as gold is tried, and will refine them as silver is refined’ (Zech 13:9). Yea, ‘I will melt them and try them, for how shall I do for the daughter of my people’ (Jer 9:7).

Lastly, When he saith this city is gold, he also thereby insinuates how invincible and unconquerable a spirit the people of God are possessed with. Gold is a metal so invincible and unconquerable, that no fire can consume it; it may burn it indeed, and melt it; the dross indeed doth consume and give way to the power of the fire, but the gold remains, and holds its ground; yea, it gets ground even of the furnace and fire itself; for the more it is burned and melted, the more it recovers its colour, and the more it shakes off its dross and dishonour. Just thus it is with the people of God, and hath been so even from the beginning: the more they oppressed them, the more they grew (Exo 1:12). The truth of which will be proved with a witness, when God comes to set up this city Jerusalem: his church hath been now for many hundred years in the king of Babylon’s furnace; all which time she hath most gloriously endured and withstood the heat; and at last when the fire hath done its worst against her, behold there comes out a city of gold. A type of which was the state of the three children, who though they were cast into the fire bound and in disgrace; yet came out in the liberty and grace of the Son of God (Dan 3:23-26).

Wherefore let her be bold to say, even before she comes out of the fire, When I am tried, ‘I shall come forth as gold’ (Job 23:10).

‘And the city was PURE gold.’ These words, PURE GOLD, clear up what I said already. Pure gold, or gold upon which the fire hath done its work. The church in the fire of persecution is like Esther in the perfuming chamber, but making fit for the presence of the king; which fire, when it hath done its work, then she comes into his presence in clothing all of gold (Esth 2:10). ‘The king’s daughter is all glorious within, her clothing is of wrought gold.’ And again, ‘At thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir’ (Psa 45:9,13). Wherefore he means by pure gold, gold out of the fire, gold on which the fire of persecution and temptation hath done its full and complete work.

‘And the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.’ By glass, in this place, we are to understand the Word of God, as both James and Paul do testify (James 1:22-25; 2 Cor 3:18; 1 Cor 13:12). By clear glass then, we are to understand the Word in its own nature and purity, without the corruptions and traditions of men. Wherefore, when he saith this golden city was like unto clear glass, it is as if he had said she is even with the Word and law of her goldsmith, in all her matters. The Word is a golden reed, this city a golden city; and that, a golden city, taken out of the furnace of affliction, and therefore like to the golden reed. ‘And the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.’

[The glory of the foundations.]

Ver. 19, 20. ‘And the foundations of the wall were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.’

Thus having showed us the glory of the wall, and of the city, he now comes to show us the glory of the foundations. The foundations you know, I told you before, they are the twelve apostles in their doctrine, or the primitive doctrine of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

Now the