Revelation 21
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And for a clearer representation of that flourishing estate of the Christian church for a thousand years, ch. xx, (to which was annexed, as in a parenthesis, in a few verses, the rise and success and destruction of Mahomedism, at the end of the third verse, and from ver. 7. to ver. 11, and to that again, the day of the last doom, from ver. 11. to the end of the chapter,) there was further represented to me a most eminent, illustrious change, a kind of new world, all the idolatry, &c. that was before, being done away.
[a] new heaven and a new earth] That heaven and earth signify no more than the world, hath been shewed in note [b] on 2 Pet. iii; and consequently a new heaven and a new earth, instead of the old, which is put away, must signify no more than a new world. And this in the prophetic style is most proper to denote a flourishing state and condition of the church, as there in St. Peter, the new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, is a pure Christian church planted by Christ, instead of the old Judaical mode; but this here with some difference, noting the flourishing condition of it, in opposition to the former persecutions it was under, the change consisting in that. And this from Isaiah lxv. 17, where creating new heavens and new earth is sending the Jews a joyful deliverance, and that a very permanent one, ch. lxvi. 22. To which is appliable that of the Jews, who say that
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And I saw visibly, methought, another Jerusalem coming down to be here upon the earth, set out in a very beautiful, glorious manner, such as brides appear in, (see ch. xix. 17,) that is, the Christian church in as much solemnity of serving and worshipping God, as in the Jewish temple at Jerusalem had been; and that was upon Constantine’s receiving the faith, and setting out his edict for Christian religion: (see ch. xx. 4.)
[b] new Jerusalem] The true meaning of the new Jerusalem, mentioned here, ver. 2, and again with the addition of holy, and the glory of God upon it, ver. 11, will be a key to the interpreting this chapter. That it signifies not the state of glorified saints in heaven, appears by its descending from heaven in both places, (and that, according to the use of that phrase, ch. x. 1, and xviii. 1, as an expression of some eminent benefit and blessing in the church,) and so it must needs be here on earth; and being here set down with the glory of God upon it, it will signify the pure Christian church, joining Christian practice with the profession thereof, and that in a flourishing condition, expressed by the new heaven and new earth, (see note [a].) In this sense we have the supernal Jerusalem, Gal. iv. 26, the new Jerusalem, Rev. iii. 12, where to the constant professor is promised that God will write upon him the name of God, and the name of the city of God, the new Jerusalem, which there signifies the pure catholic Christian church. To which purpose it is observable, that Eusebius in the setting forth the flourishing of the Christian church in Constantine’s time, particularly the building of a magnificent temple to Christ at the place of his sepulture in Jerusalem, saith of it, that it was καινὴ καὶ νέα Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἦε περὶ μακροὶ (I should think it should be ἱεροὶ) λόγοι μυρία δι’ ἐνθίοι πνεύματος θεσπίζοντες ἀνυμνοῦσι, “the new Jerusalem, concerning which the holy scriptures prophesying by divine Spirit do sing many things,” l. 3. De Vit. Const. c. 32. Where there is little doubt but this book and place of this prophetic revelation is referred to by him, wherein this new Jerusalem is so magnificently set out: and though his application of it to the building of that temple at Jerusalem (both there and before, ἡ νέα κατεσκευάζετο Ἱερουσαλὴμ ἀντιπρόσωπος τῇ πάλαι βοωμίῃ) be somewhat too much restrained, yet the time of Constantine is perfectly agreeable to the notion which we have given of it; and the flourishing condition of Christianity, not only at Jerusalem (of which the building that temple was an instance) but over the whole habitable world, (the full importance of it,) is not any way excluded by this stricter accommodation of his, but is rather evidenced by these passages to have been the interpretation affixed to this prophecy in those times wherein he wrote. The only difficulty remaining will be, whether this vision being here placed after that other of chap. xx, concerning the thousand years, and the Turks’ invasions of the church, it be here set to signify any new change after that, founded in the destruction of the Mahometans, chap. xx. 9, 10, or whether it may not more probably be a repetition of the same thing more largely which is there set down, ch. xx. 4, 6. And this latter may safely be pitched upon, notwithstanding the placing of it after. For that which hath been observed of Joseph concerning the king’s dreams, Gen. xli. 32, that the two dreams being to one purpose, ver. 25, it was doubled, to shew it was established by God, so it hath been ordinary with the prophets in the Old Testament, and oft exemplified here, that two visions should belong to the same matter. And this here very pertinent to the one design of all these visions, to
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And I heard an acclamation out of heaven given to this appearance, signifying it to be the Christian church now solemnly espoused to Christ, which he will consequently protect and defend (see Ezek. xxxvii. 27.) as long as they faithfully adhere to him.
[c] Behold, the tabernacle of God] The meaning of this phrase, ἰδοὺ ἡ σκηνὴ Θεοῦ μετὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, behold the tabernacle of God with men, will easily appear by remembering the affinity of the σκηνὴ, tabernacle, and the schechinah, appearance or presence of God, called here, ver. 11, δόξα, glory, and oft elsewhere. God is wont to be said in scripture to be present where his angels appear: accordingly the pictures of the cherubims in the tabernacle, and after in the temple, were notes of his peculiar presence there. And so both the Jewish temple and Christian church having the promise of God’s peculiar presence, is fitly styled his tabernacle here and ch. xiii. 6, and elsewhere his house, both in the same sense, a tabernacle being but a moveable house. And then behold the tabernacle of God with men, is no more but an interpretation of that which was represented in this vision, viz. that hereby was noted the church of Christ, whose title is Emmanuel, God with us, or God with men, God incarnate; and the ἰδοὺ, behold, is a determination of it to what went immediately before, thus, the bride adorned for the husband, is the Christian church, (see ver. 9.) And then the promise that follows, he will dwell with them, &c., is his marrying, and endowing, and living, and dwelling with this spouse, that is, continuing his favour and love and protection to the church as long as that continues faithful to him, performs the duties of a wife, obedience and fidelity to the husband. And then consequent to that mercy and protection is the cessation of persecutions that follows, καὶ ἐξαλείψει πᾶν δάκρνον, and he shall wipe every tear from their eyes, &c., remove all cause of sorrow from the Christians.
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And all persecutions, and pressures, and putting to death, and banishing, and punishing for religion, which was before so ordinary, and all inconvenience or incommodation by being Christians, were done away.
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And God owned this great change [all become new] (as the return from captivity is called a new thing, Isa. xliii. 19.) as an act of his special providence, and bid me take notice of it as a thing of prime eminent importance and concernment, and as a decree of his that it should certainly come to pass.
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And he further said unto me, Here is an end of the former state of idol-worship, persecution, &c. (see ch. xvi. 17;) or, This I have done by my eternal power; and now every one that will, shall have a free exercise of Christianity, without any thing done by him to purchase or contribute toward it, without any thing of inconvenience suffered by it.
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He that continueth constant unto the Christian rule shall have all felicity in this world in doing so, (shall not now pay so dear for it as before they were wont, in times of the prevailing of idolatry,) and live in the church, my family, as the son with the father, in all freedom and safety.
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But for the false, apostatizing, cowardly Gnostics, notable for so many ill qualities, abominable villainies of lust, bloodiness, persecuting of the orthodox, pure Christians, adultery, sorcery, idol-worship, deep dissimulation, and lying and falsifying, yea, perjuries, and all such as they were, they shall utterly be turned out of the church, (see note [d] ch. xx,) not to appear any more among the Christians.
[f] Gog and Magog] What is meant by Gog and Magog must first be fetched from the prophecy of Ezekiel, ch. xxxviii. 39, where by both these together Antiochus, the great enemy and destroyer of the Jews, is signified, as having the dominion of Syria and Asia both: see the learned H. Grotius on Ezekiel. Answerable to this is it that Gog should here signify the Lydian Asia, or Lydia, and the neighbouring regions, the princes whereof are called Gygæ, which is lightly deduced from hence. And so in the collection of the Sibylline oracles, Lydia and Pamphylia are expressed to be the interpretation of Gog. And by this the Ottoman family is fitly described, not only in respect of their malice and mischief wrought on the people of God, which makes the resemblance betwixt them and Antiochus complete, (see note [c] on ch. xiv,) but because they first shewed themselves in Lydia, and so peculiarly may be called Gog. By Magog Syria is meant, or indeed, in a greater latitude, Scythia, as St. Jerome affirms from the Jews, on Ezek. And so saith Josephus, Μαγώγας Σκύθας ὑπ’ αὐτῶν προσαγορενομίνοις, “The people of Magog are called by them Scythians.” By these two together the Ottoman family seems to be signally meant, of which was Mahomet the Second, who besieged, and after fifty, or, as Crantzius saith, sixty-six days’ siege, took Constantinople, the seat of the Eastern empire, called from thence new Rome, and of the principal patriarchate there, and converted their chief church, Templum Sophiae, the Temple of Wisdom, into a temple for Mahomedan worship, and this, as Leunclavius’s Annals, as Crantzius, and other the most diligent chronologers set it down, A. D. 1453, a thousand one hundred twenty-two years after the building of it (and changing the name from Byzantium) by Constantine. Of this see Æneas Sylvius Europ. c. 3. and 7. and Ep. 131, 155, 162, who, by what he saith of it out of ancient writers, viz. that when it was in its flourishing condition, they that saw it looked upon it ut deorum potius in terris habitaculum, quam imperatorum, “as an habitation of the gods on earth, rather than of the emperors,” affords us one further reason why it is here called ἠγαπημίνη πόλις, the beloved city, (and so also in respect of the ancient learning preserved there, which made all men prize it,) as its being an eminent Christian city, gives it the title of παρεμβολή τῶν ἁγίων, the camp of saints.
[d] fearful] The δειλοί, cowardly, here, which are set in the front of all these sins, denote the renouncers of Christ in time of persecution, set opposite to persevering Christians, ver. 7, and here clearly signify the Gnostics, or such as they were, whose position it was, that it was an indifferent, and so a lawful thing to forswear Christ in time of persecution, and to sacrifice to idols, (here also noted by idolatry.) They are farther expressed by ἀπιστοί, unfaithful, that fall off from Christ;
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And one of the seven angels that had the seven vials of the last plagues, ch. xvii. 1, that is, the executioners of judgment on Gentile Rome, came to me, and said, Come, and I will shew thee that Christian church, which, by those former destructions wrought upon heathen Rome, is come out of the persecutions into a flourishing condition.
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And methought I was carried unto the top of a great mountain, and there was shewed this Christian church, (called a city upon an hill, Matt. v. 14,) mentioned before under the title of the new, as here of the holy Jerusalem, (holy in respect of order and discipline for holiness of living,) and that glorious, beautiful, flourishing state bestowed on it by God, ver. 1.
[e] city] That the city is the church is most evident in this vision, being before called the holy city, the new Jerusalem, ver. 2. Now the wall is that which encompasseth the city, keeps all out which are not thought fit to be admitted, and guards and secures the city. And to this the Christian doctrine is perfectly answerable: none are to be admitted or continued there which do not acknowledge that; and so this likewise defends and fortifies the church from the invasion of heretics. And he that teacheth any other doctrine, let him be anathema. As for the μέγα καὶ ὑψηλὸν, greatness and highness of this wall, that signifies the excellence and even divinity of this doctrine, admirable precepts, divine and heavenly promises. And as this is a defensive to the city, so the foundations thereof are the several preachings of the apostles in all their travels, which being the same in all places, this one wall is said to have twelve foundations, ver. 14, and on them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, to signify, those doctrines that are not thus founded on their preaching, either by word of mouth, or by writing deduced from them, not to be fit for reception in the church.
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Having God’s presence most particularly and remarkably with it, ver. 3, note [c], (see note [c] John i,) and all the beauty and lustre and bright shining of Christian doctrine consequent thereunto;
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Having a great high wall, noting the faith of Christ, or doctrine of the gospel, by which it is encompassed, and all enemies, heretics, &c. excluded, and twelve passages of entrance thereinto, that is, universal admission afforded to all that would forsake idolatry and come in, and the bishops of the church with power to admit and shut out, and the names of the twelve tribes written on them, noting them to be as the governors of the tribes, Matt. xix. 28, that is, rulers of his church, this new Jerusalem.
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And these entrances, three toward every quarter, noting the coming in of men from all quarters of
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And the wall which encompassed the city, (as that Ezek. xl. 5. round about the house,) that is, the Christian faith or doctrine, was built or founded upon the preaching of the twelve apostles of Christ.
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And that angel with me had a reed in his hand, ch. xi. 1, to measure all these, and give the dimensions of each, as things that were like to continue for long use, (whereas that which was likely to be soon taken away was not to be measured, ch. xi. 2.)
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And the city or church being in the figure of a cube, (an equable, stable figure,) having every way the same dimensions, was both in length and breadth twelve thousand furlongs, (by the length noting the duration of it, by the breadth the extent of its circuit;) and the height was equal to the length and breadth of it, noting the flourishing condition of it equal to the extent and duration.
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And the wall (that is, the Christian faith or doctrine) which surrounded and enclosed the city was an hundred forty-four cubits in compass, that is, twelve times twelve cubits, allowing an equal proportion to every of the twelve apostles (the foundations of this wall, ver. 14,) in the planting that faith, building that wall. And the rod, ver. 14, by which he meted all this, was a pole of six foot long, equal to the stature of the angel that appeared to me, that is, of a man, Ezek. xl. 3.
[f] measure of a man] That μέτρον ἀνθρώπου, the measure of a man, refers here to the stature of a man, appears most probable by the addition of ὁ ἴστιν ἀγγέλου, that is of an angel. For as here the person seen in the vision was an angel, ver. 9, so Ezek. xl. 3, where there is mention of this measuring reed, it was shewed him by a man whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, that is, a man in a glorious appearance, such as angels used to appear in. And then the μέτρον, or measure, must refer, not to the cubit, immediately precedent, but to the κάλαμος, or reed, ver. 15, noting that reed by which he had measured the city to be about six foot long, and so the measure or stature of a man, or angel in human shape, as now he appeared unto him. That the reed or pole was of this size, that is, six foot long, may be concluded from Ezek. xl. 5. There, as here, was a man with a measuring reed, ver. 3, and that reed was six cubits long, but that cubit not, as it is ordinarily counted, a foot and a half, but as it is taken by the measure of that bone which gives the denomination; πῆχυς διάστημα ἀπὸ τοῦ ὠλεκράνου πρὸς τὸν καρπὸν, a cubit is the distance from the elbow to the wrist, as Aristotle and the anatomists determine, which is in well-proportioned bodies the sixth part of a man’s stature. And that this was the acceptance of πῆχυς, as among the Grecians so among the Hebrews, appears by the account of Josephus, de Bell. Jud. l. ε’. c. ιγ’, where having made the wall to contain ninety turrets, each of them twenty cubits long, and the space betwixt each to be 200 cubits, (which must conclude the circuit of the wall to be 19,800 cubits,) he adds, τῆς πόλεως δι’ ὁ πᾶς κύκλος σταδίων ἦν τριάκοντα τριῶν, the whole compass of the city was thirty-three furlongs: which concludes the allotment of 600 cubits to every furlong; and that we know among the Greeks contained 600 foot. So that the cubit is no more than a foot, or the sixth part of a man’s stature. So when Solinus saith of the
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And the matter of which this wall was made was jasper, a very precious and durable stone, (see ch. iv. 3,) noting the several ingredients in the Christian faith to be such, precious precepts, (a gracious yoke,) promises of great fidelity, sure to be performed, and such as all eternity is concerned in; and the church itself a society of holy men, observable for sincere, conspicuous purity, such as God, who sees to the bottom of the heart, acknowledges and approves, and such as men may behold and glorify God for them, in both respects expressed here by gold and glass: gold in respect of the purity and value in the sight of God; and glass in respect of the transparency of it, discernible both to God and man: (see Tobit xiii. 16.)
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And the governors of the church, which had the power of admitting into the church, or casting out of it, ver. 12, were each of them represented as very estimable, precious persons; and the streets of the city, that is, the assemblies or congregations of Christians in the church, were like gold and glass, (as before, ver. 18,) for purity of life and conspicuousness of it, and even to God, that looked through the bottom of it, approvable.
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And there was liberty to serve God in every city and place, and not as it was wont among the Jews, only at Jerusalem, but wheresoever Christians met together, or in every man’s own recess, they offered up prayers to God, and God in Christ was in the midst of them, especially in the Christian churches set apart for God’s peculiar service in every city and town, and not only in some one place for all to resort to.
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And there was no need of sun and moon, new ways of revelations for the enlightening this church; for God, by coming down and pitching his tent (being in our human nature present here) upon the earth, hath planted the faith entirely, and so his doctrine is the full light of his church, the rule of all our faith, and so there is no need of any additions or new revelations.
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And all the people of the world that come to any sense of their idolatries and sins by all God’s judgments fallen upon them, shall be content to live strictly according to this rule, (Isa. lx. 3,) and the kings of the earth, (see Isa. xlix. 23,) the highest in all sorts of power and learning &c., will submit themselves to it, and be glad to be members of the church, and do their best to support it, and endow it with the riches of this world.