Section 5
Last-Novelties.
Nevertheless
we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein
dwelleth righteousness 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. And I
John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of
heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and will dwell with
them. (2 Pet iii. 13. Rev. xxi. 1-3).
Though
my text contains a new heaven to come, as well as a new earth, new inhabitants,
and a new city; and also old heavens, old earth and old sea to pass away, yet
am I not obliged, Sir, by your direction to discourse of all those subjects and
their predicates; nor of any of them beside the new heaven, new earth, New
inhabitants, and New Jerusalem. And these are tasks sufficient; for I never saw
either; nor, indeed, have I seen much of the old heavens and old earth, having
been born, and having hitherto lived in this northern corner of the earth,
within, almost, the smoke of my father' s chimney. My knowledge of the rest of
the creation is owing to your help, Sir, and the help
Of books of astronomy,
geography, history, &c. But I
have no such helps towards knowing the new heaven, new earth, and New
Jerusalem: some of them who shall be the inhabitants I may have seen. Nor do I
find that any man ever saw these surprising Novelties besides St. John the
divine. Tertullian, indeed (in his
third book against Marcion) informs us that the New Jerusalem had been seen for
forty nights successively; and further he saith not. It is from St. John,
Therefore that I must fetch my knowledge of the said novelties; and chiefly
from his last chapter of the apocalypse. I begin with the New Heaven.
By
which I understand the atmosphere, which will surround the new earth. The present atmosphere is often called
heaven and heavens, in the plural: the reason of the plural is obvious; for
heterogeneous matter floats in the air in different altitudes and so divide it
into regions: but the atmosphere of the new earth will be homogeneous, and
therefore pure and serene; because free from those noxious vapors which cause
thunder and storms, nay cause sickness and death; for we often draw in both
with our breath; therefore john speaks of it in the singular number, new
heaven: and so would Peter and Isaiah had they seen it as St. John had. What
fine air will the inhabitants of the new earth breathe in! And consequently,
how fine their weather! The fable
of the halcyon days will then be fact!
You see, Sir, that I have confined my notion of the new heaven and
The old heaven to the
atmospheres of their respective earths; because no other heaven belongs to this
earth either in its past, present, or future state. I come now to the new
earth.
Concerning
which St. John' s account affords us the following remarks (1) it will owe its
extraordinary quality to the mighty power of God, " I make all things new" (Rev.
xxi. 5.). Isaiah uses a stronger expression; " I create new heavens and a new
earth" (LXV. 17). One would think
by this that the old earth is to be annihilated in the fire which my text
mentions: but this is not credible; for fire annihilates nothing, and is itself
but matter into brisk motion, as we see by many accidents in common life: the
matter therefore of the old heaven and old earth will remain, to an atom, after
the fire has had its will of it; of which God will form the new. Nor does the word create forbid such a
notion; for though it properly signifies " making something out of nothing, yet
in the writings of prophets and apostles it often signifies no more than " to
give things that did previously exist some new form or quality: so God formed
dust and a rib into man and woman, and called it the creation of Adam and Eve:
so he makes a saint of a sinner and calls him a new creature: just so in case
of the new heaven and new earth: they will rise, like the Phoenix, from the
ashes of the old, and that refined like gold out of the furnace. O glorious
saints!
The first earth in its
pristine state was not equal to it!
That was to be broken with floods and dissolved with fire; but this is
to last forever, and therefore put off of hand with exquisite finishing! (2)
Another hint that St. John gives us in his geography of the new earth, is, that
it will have no sea, but be all terra firma and there was no more sea, faith my
text. Nevertheless it will not
want water; " for he showed " me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal
proceeding out of the throne of God, and the lamb in the New Jerusalem " (Rev.
xxii.1). This river, like that of
paradise (to which esurience is had) will divide, and compass the new earth, as
that did the lands of Havilah, Ethiopia, and the east: but the spot where the
lamb' s throne will stand (in the New Jerusalem) will not be the only source;
for we read of fountains of waters elsewhere (Rev. vii. 17. xxi. 6. xxii.
17). The new earth will abound
with such springs and rivers. But here it will be asked, what comes of all the
water of life if there be no sea? Go, ask Dr. Halley what comes of the waters
of the ocean: they evaporate: so will the rivers of the New earth; and the
blessed inhabitants will breath life, as well as drink life and eat life! And
now since we are come to the banks of our river, let us pause a while for the
purpose of admiration: Water clear as Christa! Who ever heard of such water
before! How still the courses of such rivers, and how firm the soil, if they
will be never muddy! Water of life! Well May they live forever who drink it!
What is wine in comparison of such nectar! So exhilarating and delicious is it,
that a draught therefore is made the
Reward of victory, and a
motive to Godliness (Rev. xxii. 17). I proceed to the inhabitants of the new
earth.
And
they are righteous persons, as appears by one clause in my text, wherein
dwelleth righteousness: the abstract for the concrete, to denote perfection in
righteousness. Some of the
dwellers on the old earth are righteous, but not perfectly so the raised and
changed personages in the millennium earth will be perfectly righteous: not so
the rest of the inhabitants of the New earth: so holy will it and its
inhabitants be, that the father in a symbol, and Christ and angels in persons
will dwell with them. We have
heard of a heaven on earth; but now we see earth itself become a heaven: holy
angels, the holy Jesus and the holy father (in a symbol) altogether upon
earth! We see earth made perfect
at last! Air made pure! And sustenance refined to the uttermost! Fruits of life
for food! And aqua vita for drink!
O happiness beyond compare! Who would not be a saint in a prospect of
such profusion of happiness! One
thing more of these righteous dwellers on earth, viz. They will be divided into
nations, and governed by kings: what else can be the meaning of these words and
the nations that are saved and the kings of the earth shall bring their honor
and into the New Jerusalem. (Rev. xxi. 24. 25). In this New Jerusalem like the Millennium Jerusalem) will
Christ sit upon the throne of majesty and
Hither will his
vice-roys and the nations that are saved, and their kings repair to acknowledge
his supremacy, and to offer him their honor and glory. Let it not be thought strange that
there should be thrones, principalities, dominions, &c. on the new earth; for
are there no such things in heaven; among holy angles? (Col. i., 16). If there
be archangels in heaven, why not arch saints on earth? Governors and governed
there must be, else how can any of the saints reign with Christ for ever and
ever: their reigning with him for a thousand years is not reigning with him
forever and ever: and of his kingdom in the new world there shall be no end,
tho there will be in the old. (Luke i. 33) So much for the earth in its
everlasting state. Other parts of scripture give us a view of it in its early
condition; then it was void and without form. * (Gen. I). But God gave it a form;
" The
Hebrew word, used in this place, signifies became, rather than was, hence some
gather that the chaotic state of this earth, which Moses presents to our view,
was not its original state; but a state of concession into which sequent the
creation of the earth, which Moses speaks of can mean no more than reducing a
ruined globe into the beautiful form and furniture it bore when Adam and Eve
were put in possession of it; for it is not credible that the matter of the
earth did not exist till about six thousand years ago, or that God had been
unactive from all eternity till then. Its first inhabitants that sinned are
those spirits, which we call souls.
It may be so; for if souls now exist when they lose their bodies, why
might they not before they had them?
Could the ancient doctrine of the pre existence and delinquency of souls
be established, it would not only confirm the article of original sin, in our
creeds; but give it a form that would neither hurt our feelings, nor stagger
our faith, as is now the case. Nothing is plainer in the Bible than that we
come into this world under guilt; and that we no sooner have our beginning in
it than punishment begins, even before we do either good or evil: how can this
possibly be, except we deserved punishment in a prior state? To account for it,
some suppose that all mankind, souls and bodies, were seminally in Adam, who
sinned before he began to propagate the species and that as the root, so the
branches. But this hypothesis is
reprobated; and another assumed, which has good luck if it escape reprobation,
viz. That God creates a foul for every fact that is produced, which, by this
rule, God must create souls in constant succession: by this rule he must create
thousands every day, Sunday not excepted.
But the notion of pre-existence and delinquency solves all difficulties;
and affords us a clue that will lead us thro all the mazes of revelation and
providence, as far as the doctrine of original sin is concerned. I observed that the pre-existence of
souls is not a novelty: it was held by the Gym nosophists of Egypt, the
brachmans of Greece and Italy, and by the Christian fathers. The Jews believed the doctrine. Nay the
Apostles believed if as appears by their question in John. Ix. 2; for they
supposed the blind man had sinned before he was born; and Christ' s not
contradicting, was authorizing the doctrine."
Form; and the most
perfect of all forms, the form of a globe; and furnished it with all things
that live and vegetate, so that it became very good. Afterwards it is shown us under a curse, and torn to pieces
by a deluge. Time is coming when
it will be restored to
A better state,
viz. The time of millennium. Afterwards it will be seen all in a
blaze. Then comes it to be the new
earth we have been speaking of.
These changes are obvious to all that read the Bible: if any such were
ignorant of them they are willingly ignorant. Peter had to do with some such.
(2 Ep. Iii. 5.) We come now to the metropolis of the new earth, viz. New
Jerusalem.
I
say metropolis; for we cannot suppose that there will be no other city or town
in the new world: the division of the inhabitants into kingdoms and nations
intimates and contrary. But the New Jerusalem will be the chief of all cities
and towns, and the metropolis of the entire world. Concerning which the
following things are specified in the book of Revelation.
1.
Its name, with periphrases of its proprietor: the name is New Jerusalem. It is so called, partly, to distinguish
it from the old Jerusalem; partly to show the peaceableness of it, for
Jerusalem bears that signification; and the gates of the New Jerusalem are to
be open day and night (Rev. xxi. 25): but chiefly, because it is to be the residence
of deity, as the old Jerusalem was.
The periphrases of its proprietor is, the bride, the lamb' s wife: it is
called a bride to denote its brilliancy, as the sun is called a groom; and the
lamb' s wife, because its is the lamb' s property as a man' s wife is his own, and
what is here called the bride is in the next clause called the tabernacle of
God with men; nevertheless some are led by the above
Phrase to imagine, that
it is no city at all, but the church triumphant, altho' it has all the
characters of a real city; viz. Length, breadth, height, trees, river, walls,
gates, guards and kings, and nations bringing honor and glory into it: to
adjust all these to a number of persons* is not staring but stark madness; but
an accommodation of them to a city is neither uncouth nor uncommon. Is not the
city Jerusalem considered as God' s bride?
Else how comes he to charge her with adultery when the chose other
lovers? Is not the city of Rome
compared to a woman richly attired a little before my text? Not to a virgin but
to a harlot, married to antichrist.
The very word city is feminine in most languages, which makes the
comparison easy and natural. But if what hath been said will not save our fine
city from Vanishing in an allegory let it be observed, that Christ and his
saints are to descend from heaven to the new earth; and that the New Jerusalem
is to descend from the same place to the same earth; but not empty; no; Christ
and his saints will descend in it; if so, the contained will be the lamb' s
wife, if not the thing containing. Either way we save the finest city in the
world from annihilation. Precede
we.
