Revelation 21
DODDRevelation 21:1-8
The solemn introduction to the glorious vision of the new heaven and the new earth : with a declaration of the blessing to attend the faithful and courageous conqueror, and the misery to be inflicted on impious and wicked offenders. Rev. XXI. 1—8.
REVEI ATION XXI. 1.
AND when this scene of things was passed xxiv. away, another most glorious and delightful Rev one opened upon me ; for I saw a new heaven, xxi. 1 and a new earth, wherein I knew righteousness was ever to dwell, for the former heaven, and the former earth was passed away, as I said before ; and the sea was no more ;ᵃ the whole ter-
REV. XXI. 1.
AND I saw a new heaven, and a new earth : for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away ; and there was no more sea.
ᵃ The sea was no more ] The consequence which Dr. Thomas Barnet hath drawn from hence, in his theory, to prove there was no sea, in the paradisaical state, is so manifestly absurd, that I need urge nothing against it. For it is certain, were God to cover the whole sea with dry land, the earth must quickly perish, as well as much of its commerce be destroyed. But a world more populous, than this can be, while the sea takes up so large a part of its surface, might well be expressed by such a figurative vision. As for this account of the new heaven and the earth in general, commentators have been divided Some have thought it represents the happy state of the church upon earth, during the millennium. A very ingenious writer, I mean, Mr. Worthington, in his Treatise of the Extent and Progress of Redemption, endeavours to prove that it is attended to represent a yet more perfect
and durable period of prosperity, which shall be enjoyed upon this earth, after the millennium ; and when the paradisaical state shall be yet more fully restored, by the more abundant progressive influence of the gospel. But, on weighing the whole matter, I must declare myself of the opinion of those divines, who understand it as an emblematical description of the happiness which the saints are to enjoy in heaven after the resurrection, and to enjoy for ever ; when, according to the preceding descriptions, the dead shall be judged according to their works, when this heaven and earth shall have passed away with a great noise, and the elements shall have meared with fervent heat, as St. John and St. Peter concur to describe it ; and when death and hell shall be cast into the lake of fire, with all that are not written in the book of life : phrases, which, I think, cannot be explained properly of any event,
an o the New Jerusalem, coming down from God.
raqueous globe was changed for another kind of world, wherein every thing was incomparably more beautiful and excellent than the face of nature had ever been, and roam was
made for a vastly greater number of inhabiants: And as an emblem of the eminent holiness and felicity which should there reign, I John saw the holy city, that is, the New Jerusalem, descending from God out of heaven; and it was prepared with all imaginable ornaments and decorations, like a bride adorned for her husband, and preparing to meet him with all her charms set out to the greatest advantage. And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying: aloud, Behold the tabernacle of the living God [is] now with men: and he shall pitch his tent among them, in token of his favour and friendship, and they shall be owned by him as his people, and God himself shall be with and among them as their God, their Protector and Friend, their Guardian and Father, their supreme Good and final Portion. And God shall, with parental tenderness, wipe away their tears from their eyes; though here their tears have plentifully flowed, not one shall now be left on any of their faces. And death shall be no more; he shall be for ever banished those blissful regions, and with him all his melancholy train, nor shall there be grief, nor crying, nor shall there be any more pain, or labour; for all the former things are passed away, all the mournful scenes which were on earth so familiar to their eyes. And he that sate upon the throne
but those of the day of universal judgment. And it is certain, that if we do not go into this interpretation of them, there is no view given us of the final catastrophe of things on this earth of ours, in this comprehensive prophecy, though intended to represent the triumph of Christianity; which seems in theory a very improbable supposition.
b Descending from God out of heaven. I apprehend he saw in the vision an appearance of a city, which seemed, like the sheet which Peter saw, to be let down from heaven, and appeared pendent, as it were, in the air, in such a view, that the foundations were visibly distinguishable from the superstructure; and this he considered, not
as actually the abode of the blessed, but as a figurative representation of the holiness and felicity in which they were to dwell; so that it was a type of what the church itself should be. To interpret it therefore, as if there were now such a city made in heaven, and by angelic power to be brought down to earth, and settled upon some spot of it, is so void, and romantic a thought, that one would wonder any one person of learning and understanding should ever have embraced it. Compare H. Scott’s Notes and Discourses, Vol. I, p. 200. See Isa. liv. 11, 12.
c He that sate upon the throne. As it Lamb, and He that sate upon the throne, have been mentioned, as distinct, through
. 6.
He that overcomes, sha in erit a things.
then spake himself, and said with his own awful and gracious voice, which through the whole vision I had not before heard, Behold, I make all things new. I exert my power in producing a new creation, whence every trace of seeming imperfection and irregularity shall be banished. And he then condescended to take notice of me; and singling me out by his eye, and directing his voice to me, he said unto me, while all my soul was awed into reverence and attention, Write what thou hearest, for these are true and faithful words; and as their contents are important, so they are beyond all controversy certain. And he said unto me, Wonderful as the prediction is, doubt not of its accomplishment; It is done, it is, as it were, already present with me; I am the Alpha, and the Omega, the Beginning, and the End; too great and excellent to need to use any artifice with my creatures; and far above the temptation of raising in them any false hopes and expectations, I will give to him that is atkirst, of the fountain of the water of life freely; I open the springs, and they shall flow in abundance; and let every humble soul that desires it, freely come and quench his thirst. I have already made many gracious promises to him who overcometh; and I will now comprise them all in one; the conqueror shall inherit all things; the whole new creation shall be his, he shall possess its blessings to the utmost of his most enlarged desires. And I will be to him a God, a source of complete and everlasting blessedness; and he shall be my son, and as my son, inherit my kingdom, and dwell with me in it through eternal ages. But as for the fearful and unbelieving, who dare not face the difficulties which a courageous profession of my religion requires; and the abominable, who have devoted themselves to sensual affections and pursuits; and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers,
whole book, and, as the Lamb is who is represented fenced here as the Spouse of the church, throne; since we know ready to understand the Father as appear as universal, reason here spoken of. But I will character the Perso solutely insist upon this, because in throne is there spoken xx. 11, 12, it seems to be Christ
Reflections on the new heaven and the new earth.
and idolaters, and all liars,ᵈ all who allow themselves in their words, or in their actions, to violate the eternal and invariable law of truth by which I have governed myself, and by which I have required all my rational creatures to be governed; their part [shall be] in the lake which burns for ever with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Let this therefore be recorded by thy pen, that every future generation of men may carefully peruse and seriously consider it; that every sincere believer, however weak, may be encouraged, and that every obstinate sinner may be terrified, and, if possible, awakened; and that none, in the day of my final judgment, may complain, that they have not been warned and cautioned with the greatest plainness, and with the greatest solemnity.
IMPROVEMENT.
LET us pause a little, before we proceed to the more particular description of this glorious scene; and let our hearts rejoice in this general view of the new heaven, and the new earth, and of the holy city, descending out of heaven from God. Will God in every deed dwell with men? Will he dwell with them for ever? Will he fix his tabernacle with them, and condescend to avow them for his people, and to make himself known unto them as their God?
Let our souls then be awakened, to pay a due attention to such glorious and important promises. Let us hearken to the voice of him who sitteth upon the throne, whose words are undoubtedly true and faithful. Lord, dost thou make all things new? Verify the word first, we implore thee, in our hearts, that it may be verified at length in our state and condition. O thou Alpha and Omega, who art the Beginning and the End, thou who hast done so much to introduce this Divine scheme of salvation, perfect it, we entreat thee, with respect to us; exciting our thirst after the water of life; and may we come and take it as freely as it is offered in the gospel.
In what part of the holy scripture is life and death, the blessing and the curse, set before us, if not in these awful passages? Let
ᵈ All liars.] Some think this refers to the general notion, which is so largely inculcated by the well known author of the religion of nature delineated, that there is a language in actions, as well as words; and that the malignity of every vicious and immoral action, consists in its contradiction to the great rule of truth. But in this view, it must comprehend the case of express lying; against which, in the most obvious sense, the terrors of this clause most directly levelled.
The vision of the heavenly Jerusalem;
those who are too timorous resolutely to adhere to their duty, xxiv. be recovered, and, as it were, driven back to it, by the fear of verse Divine vengeance. And let all habitual and obstinate sinners, 8 and especially all liars, who bring up the rear of a catalogue, in which murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, make a part, be awakened by this awful threatening. O, desperate and inexcusable folly, to be afraid of the displeasure of men, and the inconveniences which may possibly attend an adherence to the truth, and not to fear the lake which burns for ever with fire and brimstone!
But let us courageously encounter, and then we shall conquer all our enemies, animated by these glorious promises, in which all the encouragements contained in this sacred volume, are 7 comprised, that he who overcomes, shall inherit all things, while God owns himself his God, and acknowledges him as his son; and if a son, then an heir, an heir of God, and joint heir with Christ; and if so, all things are indeed ours. Let those tears, that will now sometimes silently steal down our cheeks, be shed as tears, which we expect quickly to have wiped away, even by 4 the soft and compassionate hand of our heavenly Father. Let us bear our sorrows, and our pains, as those that know we shall, through Divine grace, soon be out of the reach of them; and let us meet death itself, if we are sincere believers in Christ, as those that know its reign will soon come to a period; and that when once we are recovered from it, by the almighty power of our great General, we shall never more be subject to its invasion, or any of its terrors; even then, when all former things shall have passed away.
Revelation 21:9
A sublime and particular description of the splendour, glory, purity, and happiness, of the heavenly Jerusalem. Rev. XXI. 9, to the end.
REVELATION XXI. 9.
AND after he, who sat on the throne, had xxv. condescended to speak to me, in the words Rev. I have just now mentioned, there came to me xxi. 9 one of the seven angels, who had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues which had lately been poured out; and he spake with me, saying, Come, and I will shew thee the bride, the wife of the Lamb, and thou shalt observe how 10 beautiful and glorious she is. And he brought me, in a vision of the spirit, to a great and
Rev. XXI. 9.
AND there came unto me one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride the Lamb’s wife 15 And he carried me away in the spirit
which was enlightened by the glory of God, &c.
high mountain, and he shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God; which I understood to be an emblem of the church of Christ, in its most happy and glorious state. And it was indeed a most delightful object to behold, having the glory of God shining round about it; and its lustre [was] like to that of a most precious gem, bright as a jasper stone, and clear as crystal; for the whole city, as it was represented to me pendent in the air, shone with an elegant and amazing lustre. And it appeared having a great and high wall, for ever to secure it from all the attacks of its enemies; having also twelve gates, and over the gates there appeared twelve angels, as a celestial guard posted there; and there were names written upon them, which were [the names] of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel; to signify that it was the dwelling of the Israel of God. And the city made a complete square, having on the east side, which I first viewed, three gates; on the north, three gates; on the south, three gates; and on the west, three gates. And as I saw the city suspended, as it were, in the air, I had an opportunity of observing, that the wall of the city had twelve foundations; and in them, the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb were engraven; to signify, how great a dependence the church had on their testimony, and what an influence the gospel, which they preached, had upon raising this noble and Divine structure. And he that spake with me had, as the angel who appeared in vision to Ezekiel (chap. xl. 3,) a measuring rod, but with this circumstance of illustrious distinction, that it was a golden reed; and it was given him, that he might measure the city, and its gates, and its wall. And the city was a complete square; and its length was exactly equal to its breadth; and he measured the city with the reed, and each side was twelve thousand stadia, or furlongs. And,
- The twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.] may also afford some hints for the interpretations of many passages of the Old Testament, in which expressions, take from the Jewish church, are used in describing that of the Messiah.
And was like to pure gold, &c.
which was most extraordinary of all, it appeared to me, in this vision, as a perfect cube, so that its length, and its breadth, and its heighth, were equal; which was an intimation how impossible it was for any of its enemies to scale the bulwarks that defended it. And he measured the thickness of its wall, and found it one hundred forty four cubits, the square of twelve; and this was according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel who had the measuring rod in his hand, and accurately took the dimensions of it. And the building of its wall was like a complete rock of jasper, and the city [was] pure gold, and it was bright and clear, like refined glass. And to signify how firm the foundations of the walls of the city, which were the emblems of the apostles and their doctrine, [were] they appeared, adorned with every precious stone, like so many vast and solid rocks of gems, lying under the gates, and appearing radiant and glorious, while the city hung, as I said before, suspended in my sight. The first foundation [was] jasper; the second sapphire; the third chalcedony; these were on the east side; the fourth emerald; the fifth sardonyx; the sixth sardius; these were on the north; the seventh chrysolite, or a stone of the colour of pure gold; the eighth beryl; the ninth topaz; these were on the south; and, to complete the square, the tenth was chrysoprasus, or a beautiful mixture of gold and green; the eleventh hyacinth; and the twelfth amethyst; which appeared on the west side; thus were they agreeably variegated and decorated, with all the elegance and magnificence that can be imagined. And the twelve gates [were] twelve pearls; each of the gates was of one entire undivided pearl, with all the beautiful pillars and arches, mould-
Its length, its breadth, and its heighth were equal.] As this is quite inconceivable, with regard to any cubical structure, which can be supposed of this bigness, I look upon it as a wise and well judged intimation, that all these descriptions are figurative. The like intimation is given in the vision of Ezekiel; according to which if it were able to be taken liter-
ally, the building described must be a mile high.
On the east side.] As the temple of Jerusalem was beheld in its greatest glory, when viewed from the east, towards which the beautiful gate looked, I think it is probable, that the like was observable in this visionary city, which was all as one temple in which God dwells.
ings o the earth ring their glory into it.
ings and cornices. And the street of the city, instead of being paved with common stones, [was] pure gold, the substance being transparent as glass, and reflecting the light that shone upon it, with a lustre equal to that of polished gold. And whereas the temple made so considerable a part of the view of Jerusalem, the holy city, which I had been used to visit; as for this heavenly Jerusalem, I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple of it: God was present in Christ his Son, by a more intimate presence than had ever been known upon earth, and by that presence, he made even the whole of the city most holy. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine therein; for the glory of the Lord enlightened itᵈ on all sides, and the Lamb [was] the light thereof, and the illustrious manifestation of this presence rendered, not only artificial, but all natural light, unnecessary. And the nations of the saved shall walk continually in its light; happy nations, consisting of myriads and millions, shall expatiate in, and enjoy the delightful scene; and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and their honour into it.ᵉ If you were to conceive all the monarchs upon earth, uniting all their treasures to adorn one single place, they could produce nothing comparable to what I then saw. And the gates of it shall not be shut by day; and that is equivalent to saying, they shall never be shut at all; for there shall be no night there.ᶠ
ᵈ Glory of the Lord, &c.] Some have thought, this was an extraordinary lustre, which seemed always to hover over it, like a sun never going down. I rather think, that the whole city appeared to him like a luminous object, sending out rays on every side, which he apprehended to be in consequence of God’s dwelling there; and that these rays might have much of the lustre of the Shechinah. Mr Fleming argues from this text, that the Lamb is the Shechinah in the heavenly world.
ᵉ The kings of the earth.] This is the clause upon which Mr. Worthington insists very much, to prove, that we are to understand this description, not of the heavenly world, but of some glorious state of the Christian church, which is to pass
upon earth; and it must be acknowledged a plausible argument. The reader must consider, whether it is sufficient to outweigh those on the other side; and if it be not, I suppose he will find no solution preferable to that which I have here given; for I cannot suppose, that the kings of the earth are those who are to reign in this new earth, whose glory shall be reflected from, and so adorn the blissful city which they shall then inhabit. (Compare Isa. 3, 11, 20; lxvi 12.)
ᶠ There shall be no night there] Mr. Whiston supposes, that a comet, meeting the earth at the conflagration, (for to such a concurrence he ascribes that awful phenomenon,) shall give it such a blow, as to destroy its diurnal motion, leaving only
Reflections on the heavenly Gerusa em
And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it; whatever is most desirable among all nations, seemed to meet together, to adorn that place, where good men of all nations shall dwell and reign with God forever. And nothing unclean shall enter into it, nor [any thing which] practises abomination and falsehood of any kind, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life, in which none of such a detestable character can possibly have any place.
IMPROVEMENT.*
GLORIOUS things are indeed spoken of the God. (Psal. lxxxvii. 3.) Thus does the Divine spend to aid our feeble faith, by such sensible But none of these things which are spoken, can grand and magnificent enough. The pearls are gold and the crystal, the honour of kings, and are govern, all fall inconceivably short of that glove not seen, nor ear heard, nor, active and boundless imagination may seem, has it entered into the conceive, what God has prepared for them that regions of perpetual day, of everlasting security temple, the whole of which shall be replenished sensible tokens of his presence. (1 Cor. ii. 9.)
And who shall abide in this thy tabernacle? in this thy holy hill? They who are written in life, they whom God has, from the beginning, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of predestinated to the adoption of children, thro’ unto himself. And who are these? None that
such a degree of it, that, like the moon with respect to us, it shall move round its axis, while it performs its periodical revolution round the central body; and so as to turn always the same face towards it; so that one hemisphere shall be always enlightened by the sun, and the want of it in the other, shall be supplied by a supernatural light. But the four dark corners, (which where they are it is difficult to say,) shall be the habitation of Gog and Magog. It is hard to determine whether this agrees less with the description here given, or the principles of good philosophy. See Whist. Theory, p. 447. But this is not a place to canvass such an hypothesis, nor is it necessary, after what his antagonist Keil has said concerning it. This gentleman also,
thinks a comet shall remove the moon from its orbit, so that it shall be converted into a primary planet, as he thinks it would have been at the flood, had it not been prevented by a peculiar providence.
But only those, &c.] As it is certain, that nothing profane, abominable, and false, can here be considered as written in the book of life, this is another text to be added to the large catalogue I have given of John xviii. 12, where signs is to be considered, not as an exception, but adversities particle. See Vol. II sect. 179, note 1.
- There are many beautiful ideas in the description, which I have not collected together in this improvement, as some of them have been taken notice of before, and some occur in the next chapter.
The vision of the tree of life.
profane; none that work abomination and a lie; but the pure and pious, the humble and the holy. Form us, O Lord, to this character by thy grace: and never let the gaudy giare of sensual enjoyments, and worldly possessions, turn our eyes from contemplating this glorious sight, or alienate our hearts from the pursuit of this blessedness; till, having heard of it by the hearing of the ear, and believing the faithful report, our eyes shall behold those Divine substantial glories, which these emblems, resplendent as they are, can but imperfectly represent. In the mean time, O Lord, lead us onwards through what dark and gloomy path thou pleasest, to these abodes of light and glory; determine for us in what cottages we shall lodge, though ever so mean and obscure, while we are pursuing our journey to this royal, this imperial palace.