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 in _Zion_ and he that remaineth
in _Jerusalem_ shall be called holy, even every one that is written
among the living in _Jerusalem_." "Then the Moon shall be confounded and
the Sun ashamed when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount _Zion_ and
in _Jerusalem_--(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 upon _Zion_ the _City_ of
our solemnities; thine eye shall see _Jerusalem_ a quiet habitation, a
_Tabernacle_ that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof
shall ever be removed." "Break forth into joy, sing together ye waste
places of _Jerusalem_ for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath
redeemed _Jerusalem_." "Give no rest till he establish and till he make
_Jerusalem_ a praise in the earth." Do they mean old Jerusalem? The
Saviour's prediction is against it, "left desolate," its inhabitants
"carried away captive 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 create _Jerusalem_ a
rejoicing and her people a joy, and I will rejoice in _Jerusalem_ and
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 call _Jerusalem_ the _throne_ of 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 and _Jerusalem_ shall dwell _safely_ and 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 of _Zion_ and utter his voice from _Jerusalem_, then shall
_Jerusalem 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 "_Zion_ of God," "_City_ of God," "_Jerusalem_ which
is to be in the last days." The Psalmist says, "Glorious things are
spoken of thee, O _City_ of 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 new _Jerusalem_ which cometh down _out_ of 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, the _new 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 the _City_
go into the _City_? If so, then we acknowledge the _City_ is 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!