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A30152 The holy citie, or, The new-Jerusalem wherein its goodly light walls, gates, angels, and the manner of their standing, are expounded : also, her length and breadth, together with the golden measuring-reed, explained, and the glory of all unfolded : as also, the numerousness of its inhabitants, and what the tree and water of life are, by which they are sustained / by John Bunyan ... Bunyan, John, 1628-1688. 1669 (1669) Wing B5536; ESTC R36063 132,664 312

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shall be so effectually joyned together that now they shall be no more two that is at a distance with a ditch between but one sound and inclosing-Wall to shew us That now the state of this Jerusalem even touching her outward Glory Peace and Tranquillity will be so stable invincible and lasting that unless that part of the Wall which is Eternal Salvation can be brokendown the Glory of this City shall never be vailed more Wherefore the Prophet when he speaks with reference to the happy state and condition of this City he saith Violence shall be heard no more within thy Land nor wasting and destruction within thy Borders but thou shalt call thy Walls Salvation and thy Gates Praise as he saith also in another place Thine Eye shall see Jerusalem a quiet Habitation a Tabernacle that shall not be taken down nor one of the Stakes thereof shall ever be removed neither shall any of the Cords thereof be broken Isa. 60. 18. 33. 20. The Walls are now conjoyned both joyned into one the Father hath delivered up the great Red Dragon into the hand of Christ who hath shut him up and sealed him down even down for a thousand years Wherefore from the Lord shall there be upon every dwelling Place of Mount Zion and upon all her Assemblies a Cloud and Smoak by Day and the shining of a flaming Fire by Night for upon all her Glory shall be a Defence And in that day shall this Song be sung We have a strong City Salvation will God appoint for Walls and Bulwarks Isa. 4. 5. 26. 1 2. The same in effect hath our Prophet John saying I saw the Holy City the New Jerusalem descending out of Heaven from God prepared as a Bride adorned for her Husband and I heard a great Voice out of Heaven saying The Tabernaele of God is with men and he shall dwell with them and God himself shall be with them and be their God and God shall wipe away all tears from their Eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away Rev. 21. 2 3 4. And had a Wall great and high These words Great and High are added for illustration to set out the matter to the height and indeed the glory of a Wall lyeth in this that it is great and high the Walls of the Canaanites were terrible upon this account and did even sink the Hearts of those that beheld them wherefore this City shall be most certainly in safety she hath a Wall about her a great Wall a Wall about her an high Wall It is great for compass it incloseth every Saint it is great for thickness it is compacted of all the Grace and Goodness of God both ●●ritual and temporal and for height if you count from the utmost side to the utmost then it is higher then Heaven who can storm it and for depth it is lower then Hell who can undermine it Great Mercies high Mercies great Preservation and a high Arm to defend shall continually at this day incamp this City God himself will be a continual Life-Guard to this City I will incamp saith he about mine House because of the Army because of him that passeth by an● because of him that returneth and no Oppressor shall pass thorow them any more for now have I seen with mine Eyes Zech. 9. 8. And had twelve Gates Having thus shewed us her Wall he now comes to her Gates it had Gates it had twelve Gates By Gates in this place we are to understand the way of Entrance Gates you know are for coming in and for going out and do in this place signifie two things First An Entrance into communion with the God and Saviour of this City Secondly Entrance into communion with the Inhabitants and Priviledges of this City in both which the Gates do signifie Christ for as no man can come to the knowledge and enjoyment of the God and glorious Saviour but by and thorow the Lord Christ so no man can come into true and spiritual communion with these Inhabitants but by him also I AM THE WAY saith he the Truth and the Life and no man comes to the Father but BY ME and again I am the DOOR BY ME if any man ENTER he shall be saved and shall go in and out and finde pasture Joh. 10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. 14. 6. And had twelve Gates In that he saith Twelve Gates he alludeth to the City Jerusalem that was of old which had just so many and are on purpose put into the number of Twelve ●o answer to the whole number of the Elect of God which are comprehended within the number of the Twelve Tribes whether they are natural Jews or Gentiles for as all the Godly Jews are the Seed of Abraham after the Flesh though ●ot Godly because they are the Children of the Flesh of Abraham so all the Godly Gentiles are the Children of Abraham after the Spirit though not by that means made the Children of the Flesh of Abraham they both meet then in the Spirit and Faith of the Gospel as God saith to the Jews When the Stranger shall sojourn with thee and will keep the Passover that is become godly and receive the Faith of Christ let all his Males be circumcised and then let them come near and keep it c. For they that are of Faith are the Children of faithful Abraham who is called The very Father of us all Thus you see all the godly come under the Title of the Children of Abraham and of the Jews and so under the denomination also of being Persons belonging to the Tribes the twelve Tribes who answer to those twelve Gates Wherefore the Psalmist minding this speaketh indifinitely of all the Godly under the name of The Tribes of Israel saying Our Feet shall stand within the Gates O Jerusalem Jerusalem is builded a City that is compact together whith● the Tribes go up the Tribes of the Lord unto the Testimony of Israel to give tha●● to the Name of the Lord Psal. 122. 2 3 ● But again Though I am certain that all the Gentiles that are at any time converted are reckoned within the compass of some of the Tribes of Israel to which the Gates of this City may truly be said to answer Yet the Gates are here in a special manner called by the name of twelve to answer to the happy Return and Restoration of those poor distressed Creatures the twelve Tribes of the Jews that are scattered abroad that are and for a long time have been to our astonishment and their shame as Vagabonds and Straglers among the Nations there to continue many days without a King without a Prince and without a Sacrifice and without an Ephod that is without the true God the true Saviour and the true Word and Ordinances after which saith the same
the twelve Apostles in their Doctrine or the primitive Doctrine of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. Now the great business in this place will be to shew you the garnishing of these Foundations and also the mystery and order of the lying of the Foundations for their glory lyeth in both As for the garnishing of these Foundations it is and will be at the day of New Jerusalem twofold and the first is with beautiful Gifts and Grace Thus was the Apostles of old adorned and thus shall their Doctrine again be garnished I know that the Doctrine of the twelve hath been alwayes accompanied with goodly Gifts and Grace from the first Churches quite down that is according to the measure of light they appeared in and according to the dispensations of God in the times of Antichrist But yet the glory that this Doctrine had in these latter dayes I mean since the Apostacy it was nothing in comparison of the glory and splendor that will be in them in the day when this City is builded and compleat Wherefore you find that though all-along in Antichrist's reign the Gospel of Grace hath shone and given light to the Saints and People of God in all their travels and afflictions yet the shining of it at that day was much opposed and eclipsed by the smoak of the bottomless-pit as he saith There arose a smoak out of the pit as the smoak of a great furnace and the Sun and the Air was darkened by reason of the smoak of the pit Rev. 9. 2. In which dayes I say abundance of the light heat and operation of the Gospel was diminished and taken off so that but little of the power or glory of it hath been either felt or seen from that time to this very day This is that God spake of by the Prophet Amos saying I will cause the Sun to go down at noon and will darken the Earth in the clear day and I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins and baldness upon every head and I will make it as the mourning of an only son and the end thereof as a bitter day All which he explaineth in the next words for Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will send a Famine in the Land not a Famine of Bread or of thirst for Water but of hearing the Words of the Lord and they shall wander from Sea to Sea and from the North even to the East they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord and shall not find it In those dayes Eli's sons were become Varlots Indeed there was here and there a little child like Samuel in his minority that now and then would speak most goodly things But the Word of the Lord was precious in those dayes there was no open Vision This is that which David in the Spirit of Prophecy complaineth of saying They know not neither will they understand they walk on in darkness all the Foundations of the Earth are out of course Thus in the days of the eclipsing of the glory of these Foundations But now behold they recover their light and put on as of old their former glory are again garnished as in the former dayes Now will all the Doctrines of the Gospel spangle and sparkle out of every Text will the Ministers of God make to issue exceedingly most precious and heavenly Fire for these Stones are indeed the Stones of Fire and in them is contained that which would set the whole World on a flame with love and delight in the things of God and another World had but men the Spirit of Wisdom and the Authority of God in their Ministry as the Apostles and the primitive Christians had Well this Doctrine of the Twelve shall be again adorned with Gifts and Grace as in the days of old by which it shall also be made to shine and to cast forth its Golden Rayes before the Nations to their Salvation Behold saith God I will lay thy Stones with fair Colours that is thy Apostolical Doctrines shall again be garnished as at the first Truth shall appear in its old and mature colours and as such shall be imbraced and lived and delighted in both by Jews and Gentiles as I have shewed But secondly The Twelve Foundations that here you read of they are the same with those twelve Stones that long before were set in the Brestplate of Judgment in which were engraven the Names of the twelve Tribes of the children of Israel the names of which Tribes did comprehend the whole body of the house of their fathers Exod. 28. 16 17 18 20 21 29. Exod. 39. 14. Now then seeing these Twelve are the same with those on the Breastplate of Judgement and seeing also that those on the Breast-plate did comprehend the whole of the twelve Tribes I conclude that for these Foundations to be garnished with all manner of precious Stones it is as much as to say they shall be garnished with abundance of Converts Multitudes and that of all sorts both of Jews and Gentiles Moors Tartars Turks and those in the utmost parts of the World shall now be entangled with the Light and Truth with the Glory and Goodness of the Doctrine of the Twelve And I the rather take it thus 1. Because as the Foundations themselves are said to be precious Stones so also the Saints in general they go under the same names too As Jeremiah saith The precious Stones of the Sanctuary are the precious Sons of Zion As Peter also saith in alluding to the precious Stones of the Temple The Saints are lively or living precious stones built up a spiritual house c. and the foundations of the Wall were garnished with all manner of precious stones That is the Doctrine of the Twelve was garnished with all manner of precious souls that is converted by it by which they become a glory and a garnishing to it 2dly I take it to be the conversion of the Precious Ones of God because that thus to understand it is most like the phrase of the Apostle Paul himself saying What is our Hope or Joy or Crown of rejoycing Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming Ye are our Glory and Joy Mark in the text he saith The Foundations were garnished with all manner of precious Stones and here those precious Stones Paul accounts to be those that are converted by the Word for what is our hope or joy or crown are not even ye that have been converted by us Ye are our Joy ye are our Crown ye are our Glory It is with you that we shall be crowned adorned and garnished in the presence of our Lord Jesus Mark John saith They are garnished Paul saith they are crowned John saith they are garnished w th precious stones and Paul saith they are
and whose sins ye retain they are retained And hence it is that the true Ministers in their right administration are called Porters because as Porters stand at the Gate and there open to or shut upon those that make an attempt to enter in so the Ministers of Christ by the Doctrine of the Twelve do both open to and shut the Gates against the Persons that will be attempting to enter in at the Gates of this City Secondly But again They are said to stand at the Gates for the incouraging and perswading of the tempted and doubting Jews who at the beginning of their return will be much afflicted under the sight and sence of their own wretchedness Alas were it not for some to stand at the Gates of this City for instruction and the incouragement of those that will at that day in earnest be looking after life they might labour as in other things for very very Vanity and might also be so grievously beat out of Heart and Spirit that they might die in despair But now to prevent this for those that are in the way to Zion with watry Eyes and wetted Cheeks here stands the Angels continually sounding with their Golden-Gospel-Trumpets Enter ye into his Gates with ●hanksgiving and into his Courts with praise be thankful unto him and bless his Name for the Lord is good and his Mercy 〈◊〉 everlasting and his Truth indureth for ever even to all Generations as he saith again And it shall come to pass in that day that the great Trumpet shall be blown and they shall come which were ready to perish in the Land of Assyria and the out-casts of the Land of Egypt and shall worship the Lord in the holy Mount at Jerusalem And at the Gates twelve Angels and Names written thereon which are the Names of the twelve Tribes of the Children of Israel Thus it was in the Vision of the Prophet when he was taking a View of the Pattern of this City And the Gates of the City saith the Angel to him shall be after the Names of the Tribes of Israel which saying John doth here expound saying The Names of the twelve Tribes of the Children of Israel were writ or set upon them This being thus it cleareth to you what I said but now to wit That the Gates are called twelve to answer the twelve Tribes for their Names are written thereon This must therefore without all doubt be a very great incouragement to this despised People I say great incouragement that notwithstanding all their Rebellion Blasphemy and contempt of the glorious Gospel their Names should yet be found recorded and ingraved upon the very Gates of New Jerusalem Thus then shall the Jews be comforted in the latter days and truly they will have but need hereof for doubtless at their return when they are throughly sensible of the Murder they have committed not onely upon the Bodies of the Prophets and Apostles but of the Son of God himself I say this must needs tother with the remembrance of the rest of their villanous actions exceedingly afflict and distress their bleeding Souls for the Children of Israel shall come they and the Children of Judah together going and weeping they shall go and seek the Lord their God and shall ask the way to Zion with their Faces thitherward Jer. 50. 4 5. Mark going and weeping there will not be a step that these poor People will take in the day of their returning but will be watered with the Tears of Repentance and Contrition under the consideration of the wickedness that in the days of their Rebellion they have committed against the Lord of Glory as he saith also by another Prophet I will pour upon the House of David and upon the Inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of Grace and Supplication and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as a Man mourns for his onely Son and they shall be in bitterness for him as him that is in bitterness for his first-born at that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddon and the Land shall mourn Zech. 12. 10 11 12. Wherefore I say they both have and also will have need of twelve Gates and on them the Names of their twelve Tribes with an Angel at each to incourage them to enter this holy and goodly City and to tell them that yet he counts them his Friends in whose House he received the wounds in his Hands But again As by the Names of the twelve Tribes written on the Gates we may see what incouragement the Jews will have at their Return to enter in at them so we may also understand that by the Names of the twelve Tribes here written God would have us to perceive how all must be qualified that from among the Gentiles at this day do enter in at these Gates namely Those and those onely that be cut out of their own wild Olive-Tree and transplanted among the Children of Israel into their good Olive-Tree Such as are Jews inwardly the Israel of God according to the New Creature they shall enter for the holy Gentiles also by vertue of their conversion are stiled the Children of Abraham Jews the Chosen Generation the Peculiar People the Holy Nation and so are spiritually though not naturally by carnal generation of the twelve Tribes whose Names are written upon the Gates of this City And it shall come to pass saith the Prophet that in what Tribe the Stranger that is the Gentile sojourneth there shall ye give him his Inheritance saith the Lord God Ezek. 47. 22 23. Thus the Jews and Gentiles shall meet together in the Spirit of the Gospel and so both become a righteous Nation to both which the Gates of this City shall stand continually open at which also they may with boldness demand by the Faith of the Lord JESUS their entrance both for Communion with the God Grace and Priviledges of this City according to that which is written Open ye the Gates that the righteous Nation which keepeth the Truth may enter in Isa. 26. 2. Thus much of the Number of the Gates and now to proceed to the Order of them Vers. 13. On the East three Gates on the North three Gates on South three Gates and on the West three Gates I shall not speak any thing to the manner of his repeating of the Quarters towards which the Gates do look why he should begin at the East then to the North afterwards crossing to the South and last to the West though I do verily think that the holy Ghost hath something to shew us wherefore he doth thus set them forth and possibly he may set them thus and the West last not onely because the West part of the World is that which always closeth the day but to signifie that the West when Jerusalem is rebuilded will be the last part of