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New Heavens and New Earth
743. New Heavens and New
Earth. Consummation of All Things. Heaven. The place of God’s eternal
residence and the place of the everlasting residence and reign of
Christ, and his church, will be heaven, and not this lower world,
purified and refined. Heaven is everywhere in Scripture represented as
the throne of God and that part of the universe that is God’s fixed
abode and dwelling-place, and that is everlastingly appropriated to that
use. Other places are mentioned in Scripture as being places of God’s
residence for a time, as Mount Sinai, and the land of Canaan, the
temple, the holy of holies, but yet God it represented as having dwelt
in heaven before he dwelt in those places. Gen. 19:24; Exo. 3:8; Job
22:12-14; Gen. 28:12. And when God is spoken of as dwelling in those
places, he is represented as coming down out of heaven. So he is
represented as coming on Mount Sinai. Gen. 19:11, 18, 20; Exo. 20:22;
Deu. 4:36; Neh. 9:13. So he is represented as coming to the temple. 2
Chr. 7:3. So when the cloud of glory first came on the tabernacle, Exo.
34 ult., it doubtless was the same cloud that till then abode on Mount
Sinai. But God had first descended from heaven on Mount Sinai, and while
God did dwell in the tabernacle and temple, he was represented as still
dwelling in heaven, as being still his original, proper, and everlasting
dwelling-place, and dwelling in the temple and tabernacle in a far
inferior manner. 1 Kin. 8:30, “When they shall pray towards this place,
then hear thou in heaven, thy dwelling-place.” So 1 Kin. 8:32, 34, 36,
39, 43, 45, 49. Psa. 11:4, “The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s
throne is in heaven.” Deu. 33:26, “There is none like the God of
Jeshurun, who rideth on the heavens in thine help, and in his excellency
on the sky.” Psa. 20:6, “Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed:
he will hear him from his holy heaven.” Deu. 26:15; Isa. 63:15; Lam.
3:50; 1 Chr. 21:26; 2 Chr. 6:21, 23, 27, 30, and 2 Chr. 7:14; Neh.
9:27-28; Psa. 14:2, and Psa. 53:2; Psa. 33:13-14, “The Lord looketh from
heaven, he beholdeth all the sons of men from the place of his
habitation, he looketh on all the inhabitants of the earth.” Psa. 57:3;
Psa. 76:8; Psa. 80:14; Psa. 102:19, “For he hath looked from the height
of his sanctuary, from heaven did the Lord behold the earth.” Ecc. 5:2,
“God is in heaven, and thou on the earth.” 2 Kin. 2:1. “would take up
Elijah into heaven,” and so we have an account how he was taken up, 2
Kin. 2:11; 2 Chr. 30:27; Psa. 68:4, 33; Psa. 123:1. “Unto thee lift I up
mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.” Psa. 115:2-3,
“Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? Our God is in
the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he pleased.” Lam. 3:41; 2 Chr.
20:19; Job 31:2; Psa. 113:5; Isa. 33:5; Jer. 25:30; Isa. 57:15.
The manner in which God
dwells in heaven is so much superior to that wherein he dwells on earth,
that heaven is said to be God’s throne, and the earth his footstool;
Isa. 66:1, “Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth
is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? And where is
the place of my rest?”
The holy places on earth,
where God is represented as dwelling, are called his footstool. Lam.
2:1, “And remembered his footstool in the day of his anger;” 1 Chr.
28:2, “As for me, I had in mine heart to build an house of rest for the
ark of the covenant of the Lord, and for the footstool of our God, and
had made ready for the building;” Psa. 132:7, “We shall go into his
tabernacle, we will worship at his footstool.” God’s sanctuary is called
the place of his feet. Isa. 60:13, “To beautify the place of my
sanctuary, and to make the place of my feet glorious.” The inferior
manner in which God dwelt in the Jewish sanctuary, was expressed by
this, that God placed his name there. Earthly holy places, which were
called God’s house, or the place of his habitation, were so in such a
manner, and a manner so inferior to that in which heaven is God’s house,
that they are represented as only outworks or gates of heaven. Gen.
28:17, “This is none other but the house of God, this is the gate of
heaven.” Yea, though God is represented as dwelling in those earthly
holy places, yet he was so far from dwelling in them as he does in
heaven, that when he appeared in them from time to time, he is
represented as then coming from heaven to them, as though heaven were
his fixed abode, and not Mount Sinai, and the tabernacle and the temple,
places into which he would occasionally turn aside and appear. Thus God
is said to have descended in a cloud, and appeared to Moses when he
passed by him and proclaimed his name, though he had before that from
time to time appeared there as in the mount of God, and though Moses had
at that time been long conversing with God in the mount. Exo. 34:5. And
so God descended from time to time on the tabernacle. Num. 11:25, and
Num. 12:5. Heaven is always represented as the proper and fixed abode of
God, and other dwelling places but as occasional abodes. When the wise
man speaks of worshipping God in his house, he at the same time would
have those that worship him there be sensible that he is in heaven, and
not on the earth: Ecc. 5:1-2, “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the
house of God. — Let not thy heart be hasty to utter anything before God;
for God is in heaven, and thou upon the earth.”
So God, when he withdrew
from the land of Israel, is spoken of as returning to heaven, which is
called his place, as though the land of Israel were not his place, Hos.
5:15, “I will go and return to my place.” And God is spoken of as being
in heaven in the time of the captivity, as he is in the prophecy of
Daniel, Dan. 4:37; Dan. 5:23, and in Daniel’s vision, Dan. 4:13, 23, 31.
And heaven is also in the
New Testament everywhere represented as the place of God’s abode. Christ
tells us that it is God’s throne, Mat. 5:34. This we are taught in the
New Testament to look on as God’s temple, after all that was legal and
ceremonial concerning holy times and holy places ceased. Acts 7:48-49,
“Howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, as saith
the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool, what
house will ye build me saith the Lord, and where is the place of my
rest?” This is the true temple and the true holy of holies, as it is
represented in the epistle to the Hebrews. Heaven is the place whence
Christ descended, and it is the place whither he ascended. It was the
place whence the Holy Ghost descended on Christ, and whence the voice
came, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: and is
the place whence the Holy Ghost was poured out at Pentecost. And
whatever is from God is said to be from heaven, Mat. 16:1; Mark 8:11;
Luke 11:16; Mat. 21:25; Luke 9:54; Luke 21:11; John 3:27; John 6:31;
Acts 9:3; and Acts 11:5, 9; Rom. 1:18; 1 Cor. 15:47; 1 Pet. 1:12; Heb.
12:25; Rev. 3:12, and other places. The angels are spoken of as coming
from heaven from time to time, in the New Testament; and visions of God
are represented by heaven’s being opened, and prayer and divine worship
are enjoined under the New Testament to be directed to heaven. We are to
pray to our Father which is in heaven, which appellation is very often
given to God in the New Testament. So we are to lift up our eyes and
hands to heaven in our prayers. And heaven is everywhere in the New
Testament spoken of as the place of God and Christ, and the angels, and
the place of blessedness. And all good whatever of a divine nature is
called heavenly, and heaven is always spoken of as the proper country of
the saints, the appointed place of all that is holy and happy.
Whenever God comes out of
heaven into this world, he is represented as bowing the heavens.
Intimating that heaven is so much the proper place of God’s abode, that
it is something very great and extraordinary for him to manifest himself
as he is pleased to do in this world among his people, and that heaven,
the proper place of his abode is, as it were, rent or bowed, and brought
down in part to the earth to make way for it, 2 Sam. 22:10; Psa. 18:9;
Psa. 144:5; Isa. 64:1. God is called the God of heaven, the Lord of
heaven, the King of heaven, Dan. 5:23; Dan. 4:37; Dan. 2:44.
Heaven is a part of the universe which God in the first creation, and
the disposition of things that was made in the beginning, appropriated
to himself, to be that part of the universe that should be his
residence, while other parts were destined to other uses. Psa.
115:15-16, “You are blessed of the Lord, who hath made heaven and earth.
The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s, but the earth hath he
given to the children of men.” God having taken this part of the
universe for his dwelling-place in the beginning of the creation, he
will retain it as long as the creation lasts.
When man was in a state of
innocence, before the world was polluted and brought into the perfect
state of confusion, God was in heaven. Heaven was God’s dwelling place,
for the angels fell from thence. We read that when they fell God cast
them down from heaven. And therefore, when this polluted, confused state
of the world is at an end, and elect men shall be perfectly restored
from the fall to another state of innocence, and perfect happiness after
the resurrection, heaven will also then be the place of God’ s abode.
This lower world in its
beginning came from God in heaven. He dwelt in heaven when he made it,
and brought it out of its chaos into its present form, as is evident
because we are told that when God did this, the morning stars sang
together, and all the sons of God, i.e. the angels, shouted for joy.
Without doubt the habitation of the angels was from the beginning that
high and holy place where God dwells, and their habitation was heaven in
the time of the creation, because those that fell were cast down from
thence. But if the lower world in its beginning was from God in heaven,
without doubt in its end it will return thither. As he dwelt in heaven
before, and when he made it and brought it out of its chaos into its
present form, so he will dwell in heaven when and after it is destroyed
and reduced to a chaos again.
Heaven is that throne
where God sits in his dominion, not only over some particular parts of
the universe, as the mercy-seat in the temple, but it is the throne of
his universal kingdom. Psa. 103:19, “The Lord hath prepared his throne
in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all,” i.e. over all his
works or all that he has made, which appears by Psa. 103:22, “Bless the
Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion.” Because it is the
throne in which God rules over the whole universe, therefore it is the
uppermost part of the universe as above all. And it is evident that the
heaven where God dwells is far above those lower heavens: it is said to
be far above all heavens. And as it is the throne of his universal
kingdom, so it is the throne of his everlasting kingdom, as he here
reigns by a dominion that is universal with respect to the extent of it.
The psalmist in this same place is speaking of things that are the
fruits of God’s everlasting dominion, especially his everlasting mercy
to his people (which mercy will be especially manifested after the day
of judgment), as in the words immediately preceding in the two foregoing
verses, “But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
upon them that fear him,” etc. The word here translated “prepared” also
signifies established, having respect to its firmness and durableness.
It is fit, as God’s kingdom is everlasting, so the throne of that
kingdom should be everlasting, and never should be changed, for that
which moves is ready to vanish away. The everlastingness of God’s
kingdom is signified by the same word in the original that in the place
now mentioned is translated prepared. Psa. 93:2, “Thy throne is
established of old, thou art from everlasting,” together with the
context.
If God should change the
place of his abode and his throne from heaven to some other part of the
universe, then that which has hitherto been God’s chief throne, and his
metropolis, his royal city, must either be destroyed, or put to a so
much meaner use, and be deprived of so much of its glory, as would be
equivalent to a destruction; which is not a seemly thing for the chief
city, palace, and throne of the eternal King, whose royal throne never
shall be destroyed. Psa. 45:6, “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and
ever.”
This heaven, that is so
often of as the place of God’s proper and settled abode, is a local
heaven, a particular place or part of the universe, and highest or
outermost part of it, because it is said to be the heaven of heavens. It
is the place where the body of Christ is ascended, which is said to be
far above all heavens, and is called the third heaven.
Is it likely that God
should change the place of his eternal abode, and remove, and come and
dwell in another part of the universe, or that he should gather men and
bring them home to himself, as to their great end and center, whither
all things should tend, and in which all should rest?
It is fit that an
immutable being, and he who has an everlasting and unchangeable
dominion, should not move the place of his throne.
The apostle John, even
when he is giving a description of the state of the church after the
resurrection, represents the place of God’s abode as being then in
heaven, for he says he saw the new Jerusalem descending from God out of
heaven.
The dwelling place of the
saints is said to be eternal in the heavens; 2 Cor. 5:1, “For we know
that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a
building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
If any say that this earth
will be heaven after the day of judgment, is it not as easy to say that
after the resurrection, heaven will be the new earth? Is there any more
force upon words one way than the other?
The natural images and
representations of things seem to represent heaven to be the place of
light, happiness, and glory, such as the serenity and brightness of the
visible heavens, of which I have spoken elsewhere.
It is an argument that
this globe we now dwell upon is not be to refined to be the place of
God’s everlasting abode, because it is a movable globe, and must
continue moving always, if the laws of nature are upheld. It being so
small, it cannot remain and subsist distinct among the neighboring parts
of the universe without motion, but it is not seemly that God’s eternal
glorious abode, and fixed and everlasting throne, should be a movable
part of the universe.
As heaven will be
everlastingly the place of God’s chief, highest, and most glorious
abode, so without doubt it will be the place of Christ’s everlasting
residence, and therefore the place whither he will return after the day
of judgment. He who has had the honor and glory of dwelling in this
glorious abode of God hitherto, will not have his honor diminished after
he has completed all his work as God’s officer, by then dwelling in a
place far separated from God’s dwelling place. If he returned in triumph
to heaven, entering into the royal city after his first victory in his
terrible conflict under sufferings, much more shall he return thither
after his more perfect and complete victory, when all his enemies shall
be put under his feet after the day of judgment. And if Christ, after
the day of judgment, returns to heaven to dwell, doubtless all his
saints shall go there with him. He will invite them to come with him and
inherit the kingdom prepared for them before the foundation of the
world.
The place of both Christ and his church, their everlasting residence,
will be heaven. When Christ comes forth at the day of judgment with the
armies of heaven, the saints and angels attending him, it will be as it
were on a white horse going forth to a glorious victory. And as the
Roman generals after their victories returned in triumph to Rome, the
metropolis of the empire, delivering up their power to them that sent
them forth, so will Christ return in triumph to heaven, all his armies
following him, and shall there deliver up his delegated authority to the
Father. As Christ returned to heaven after his first victory, after the
resurrection of his natural body, so he will return thither again after
his second victory, after the resurrection of his mystical body.
745. New Heavens and New Earth. It is manifest that the world of the
blessed that is the new world, or the new heavens and earth, or the next
world that is to succeed this as the habitation of the church, is heaven
and is the same world that is now the habitation of the angels. For
heaven, or the world of the angels, is called the world that is to come.
Eph. 1:20-22, “Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the
dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far
above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every
name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to
come; and has put all things under his feet.” Heaven, the habitation of
principalities and powers, is that which is here called the world to
come, as being the world that was to succeed this, as the habitation of
the church. It cannot be understood in any other sense, or merely that
Christ was to be at the head of things in the new world when it did
exist. But it speaks of what is already done and was done at Christ’s
ascension, a past effect of God’s mighty power, according to the working
of the exceeding greatness of his power which he wrought in Christ Jesus
when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in
the heavenly places.
952. New Heavens and New
Earth. Consummation of All Things. Progress of the Work of Redemption.
Heaven shall be changed and exalted to higher glory at the end of the
world. The creation consists of two parts, upper and lower. Thus we read
of the worlds, in the plural number, that were made in the creation,
Heb. 1:2, which the apostle in the next chapter distinguishes into two,
viz. this world and the world to come, Heb. 1:5, as also Eph. 1:21. The
upper world is said to be the world to come, both because it is future
to us in this world, and also because the whole elect church it is to
succeed this world when this is destroyed, and also on another account,
that we will observe by and by. The one of these worlds God has made for
his own Son, and for his attendants, and ministers, the angels; and the
other for man. Psa. 115:16, “The heaven, even the heavens, are the
Lord’s, but the earth hath he given to the children of men.” According
to the two different kinds of intelligent creatures that God has made,
angels and men, there are two worlds. The one is corruptible, but the
other incorruptible. The one is that which can be shaken, and the other
that which cannot be shaken, but shall remain to all eternity. But yet
both in their own nature are mutable, and that heaven is incorruptible,
is by the divine will and grace, and not necessarily from the nature of
heaven. If the angelic nature, the highest and most excellent part of
heaven, is corruptible, or liable to be shaken and destroyed, as appears
by the event, then doubtless the place, what is inanimate in heaven, is
in its own nature capable of destruction. Heaven is not unalterable in
its own nature, so but that it may be exalted. That part of the universe
that is capable of ruin is not so unalterable in its own nature, but
that it may be brought to a higher excellency. But the highest heavens
in their own nature are capable of ruin in the highest and most
excellent part of it, in the head of all that part of the creation, and
so of the whole creation, viz. Lucifer.
God only is incorruptible in his own nature. The one of these worlds is
to fall and be ruined, and is to be the eternal seat of those creatures
that fall and are ruined. The other is to stand, and to be exalted and
brought to higher excellency, perfection, and glory, and is to be the
seat of those creatures that stand and are brought to higher excellency.
As all the intelligent creatures that God has made the inhabitants of
the universe, all the spiritual world (which is the chief part of the
universe, and instartotius), is mutable and is to be changed, either by
suffering ruin, or by being exalted to a vastly higher perfection, so is
the whole universe itself (the habitation, the inferior and inanimate
part of the universe) all of it mutable and all to be changed, either by
suffering ruin, or being gloriously exalted in excellency. This
universal change shall be at the end of the world, or immediately after
the day of judgment. Then shall be the change on the inhabitants: some
shall perish, and others shall be exalted to an immensely higher degree
of excellency and glory. And so shall it then be with the two worlds:
this lower world, that is to be the place of those that perish, shall be
destroyed by fire. The upper world, that is to be the seat of the elect,
shall be exalted exceedingly in its nature. And this is the new
creation, so far as that respects the external and inanimate universe.
This will be the external new heavens and new earth. As there are two
spiritual worlds, the elect and the reprobate, so there are two natural
worlds, that are to be the everlasting external seats or places of those
spiritual worlds. And as it is to be with those spiritual worlds
themselves, that one will be destroyed as in a spiritual furnace of
fire, and the other will be exalted to a state of excellency and glory,
vastly greater than their original excellency; as even the angels, the
original inhabitants of heaven, will be, so there is no reason to think
but that it will be likewise with the two external worlds, which they
have relation to.
When God created this
lower world, he made different orders or ranks of creatures, of which
the lower creation is constituted, of which man is the most noble and
excellent. And so when God made the upper world, he made different
parts, of which the angelical nature is the most noble and exalted, and
those parts which constitute the habitation are inferior. Surely,
therefore, the angels, the highest part of the upper creation, will be
changed and exceedingly exalted in the glory in which they shine (as
doubtless they will be in some proportion to the great and vast
alteration that will be made in the glory of the saints, seeing the day
of judgment is the proper time of the reward of the angels as well as
saints). There is no reason to think that the inferior parts will not
also be proportionally exalted.
God built heaven chiefly
for an habitation for Christ, his dear Son, and the angels themselves
are made for him, and are as it were only parts of his house or
habitation, as it said of the church in Heb. 3:6. All that is in heaven
is a habitation for God’s beloved Son. The angels are only the more
noble and excellent parts of the structure, the chief ornaments of the
building. The inanimate parts of heaven are to the angels a habitation,
but the intelligent parts of it are to Christ a habitation. As they are
called his chariots, the seat on which he rides, so they are his throne,
the seat on which he reigns. As the throne is the noblest part of the
palace, and as God built the whole of the upper world to be a habitation
for his dear Son, so when the time comes that God shall reward his Son
for his perfect and great obedience and finishing his great work
appointed him to do, when the work he was appointed to in his office is
all finished at the end of the world and the time comes for him to
receive his full reward, to be glorified with his complete and highest
glory in the head and all his members, and all enter into heaven
together at Christ’s last and greatest ascension thither: — then the
house shall be garnished and beautified exceedingly, to make it fit for
his reception in this his highest glory, as it shall be so with the
glorious angels who are his chariot, in which he shall ascend (they
shall ascend in far greater glory than they descended, because they
shall have received the glory that is their reward), and who will be his
throne when he is come thither, and the chief and most noble parts of
the building. I say, as they will be as it were made new, appearing in
new glory, so will it be with all the inferior parts of the habitation.
The house shall be garnished to prepare it for the glorious bridegroom,
who shall enter into it with his blessed bride in her complete and
perfect beauty, when they shall enter into heaven to celebrate the
solemnity, and to partake of the glorious entertainments and joys, of an
eternal wedding: as when king Ahasuerus made a great feast, wherein he
showed the riches of his glorious kingdom and the honor of his excellent
majesty, and to show the beauty of his queen, the palace was exceedingly
adorned on that occasion. Eph. 1:6.
There is nothing in the Scripture that in the least intimates the
external heaven or paradise to be unchangeable, and not capable of being
perfected and exalted to higher glory. There is nothing so but the
divine nature itself. And it is too much honor to any created thing to
suppose it to be so perfect that no occasion whatsoever, even the reward
of the infinite merits of the infinitely beloved Son of God himself, is
occasion great enough for allowing of it, or that shall render it fit
and proper, that it be yet further adorned. The only heaven that is
unalterable, is the state of God’s own infinite and unchangeable glory,
the heaven which God dwelt in from all eternity, which is absolutely of
infinite height and infinite glory, and which might metaphorically be
represented as the heaven that was the eternal abode of the blessed
Trinity, and of the happiness and glory they have one in another. This
is a heaven that is uncreated, and the heaven from whence God infinitely
stoops to behold the things done in the created paradise, and of which,
that which we conceive of as the infinite and unchangeable expanse of
space, that is above and beyond the whole universe and encompasses the
whole, is the shadow. This is what is meant, Isa. 57:15. (See Notes in
loc.)
It is true the things of the highest heavens are things that cannot be
shaken, but shall remain through divine grace. Heaven is God’s throne,
and his throne is established forever, and therefore shall be forever
and ever, and the saints shall receive a kingdom that cannot be moved.
Heb. 12:28. Heaven is a city that has foundations, whose builder and
maker is God. It is a house not made with hands, and so eternal. This is
an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away.
What is reserved in heaven is represented in Scripture as far above the
reach of all the changes of time that should injure it, and the doors of
the palace are everlasting doors. Psa. 24. But none of these things
argue heaven to be in any other respect unchangeable, than only as being
above all changes that might destroy it, or mar it, or in any respect
fade its glory, or bring it into any danger of those things. Heaven is
no otherwise out of the reach of change than the precious jewels and
treasures that are there kept are so, as the angels, and the spirits of
just men made perfect, and the man Christ Jesus, the most precious and
brightest jewel that God has made, the firstborn of every creature, the
crown and glory of heaven and men, the sun of that world of light. But
yet all these are susceptive of change in this respect, that they will
be exalted to vastly higher glory. Christ’s glory after the day of
judgment will be greater than before, as the devil that has managed the
war against him shall then be punished for all the mischief that he has
done. So Christ, God’s General, the Captain that he has sent forth in
this great war against his enemies, when he shall have fully conquered
and put down all authority and power, having come forth out of heaven to
that end with all his hosts, and has so gloriously finished all the work
that his Father gave him a commission for, shall be exceedingly rewarded
and glorified. When he shall return with the victory in every respect
perfect, he shall enter the city with great triumph to receive a great
reward from the Supreme Authority of the city. If Christ God-man, the
King of heaven, and its most bright and precious jewel, the firstborn of
every creature, the head and crown, ornament and glory of heaven, and
its bright and only luminary, the Sun of heaven, whose glory and
sweetness is the fullness, and glory, and happiness of all that world,
who is the Alpha and Omega of all that is there and the sum of all: — I
say, if he shall be exalted in glory, why not the place, the external
habitation that is the lowest part of that world? The habitation has not
the honor of being immutable and immovable in a higher sense than this
King and end and glory of heaven himself is. The man Christ Jesus
becomes immortal and eternal at his resurrection, but yet that was no
impediment in the way of his being, as it were, further glorified, as it
were, in infinitely higher degrees, as in his first and second
ascension. That the highest heavens pass under such a change at the end
of the world, is no argument that it is with that as it is with the
visible heavens that wax old as a garment, any more than the change on
the body of Christ at his ascension, or on the bodies of Enoch and
Elias, and on the bodies of those that arose with Christ, is an argument
of the like waxing old.
If the highest heaven
might be as it were bowed and rent (though it be the throne of God),
that the eternal Son of God might come down on the earth, to be the
subject of his humiliation, doubtless it is as capable of being adorned
and made higher and higher on occasion of his glorification.
The external heavens and
the human nature of Christ are the external house and temple of God in
different senses, but the human nature or body of Christ, including both
the head and the members, — including his human nature with his church,
— is the house and temple of God in the highest sense. This is immensely
the most noble temple of God. But if this, which is the palace of God in
so much the highest sense, will pass under a glorious change, why should
not the external house, which is the temple of God in a much inferior
sense, and which indeed is to be but a house for this house, pass under
a glorious change? If the inner temple, the highest and most holy part
of the temple, shall be so much exalted, why may we not suppose that the
external temple, the outer courts, or the outermost curtains of the
tabernacle, be changed and made proportionally more beautiful?
Christ mystical, or Christ and his church, and the external heaven, are
the city of God or the new Jerusalem in different senses, but the former
in vastly the highest and noblest manner. But if the city of God, or the
new Jerusalem, that which is called so in the highest sense, shall be so
exalted and adorned with new glory at the head of the universe, why not
that external new Jerusalem, that is as much inferior to the other as
the body is to the soul? If the soul shall be glorified and made better,
why not the body? If the body, why not the garment? If the inhabitants,
why not the house?
The body of Christ is the
dwelling-place of his soul, and therefore when God the Father glorified
the soul of Christ, he also glorified his body, because he judged it
meet that the alteration in the house should be answerable to the
alteration in the inhabitant. And so, for the same reason, the bodies of
the saints shall be glorified as well as their souls. And there is just
the same reason why heaven, the house of Christ, and the house of his
saints, or in one word, the house of Christ mystical, should be exalted
to higher glory at the same time that Christ mystical himself, the
inhabitant, is exalted to higher glory.
The church is Christ’s
temple. Christ is spoken of as dwelling in the saints. This temple of
Christ, the new Jerusalem, shall at the end of the world, when Christ
comes to receive his full reward, be exceedingly adorned, to fit it for
Christ’s indwelling, as we see by Rev. 21:2. And why shall not the other
temple of Christ, that which is so in an inferior sense, be
proportionally adorned at the same time? Is it not rational to suppose
that the whole tabernacle shall be proportionally adorned and
beautified; the outer curtains proportionally with the inward curtains
of blue, purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen?
The infinitely glorious
and beloved Son of God’s shedding his blood, and enduring those extreme
sufferings in obedience to his Father’s will, was a thing great enough
to obtain this, even that the very heaven of heavens should be made new,
with new glory for him. It was great enough to lay the foundation for an
universal refreshing, renewing, or new creation, of all elect things,
that all things both spiritual and external should be immensely exalted
in perfection, beauty, and glory.
It seems impossible that
it should be otherwise than that all heaven should put on new glory at
the same time that Christ put on new glory. All must be allowed
proportion, for Christ is the glory of heaven, the beauty and ornament,
the life and soul, of all. And there is no glory there, but only the
reflection of his glory, and the emanation of his brightness and life,
and the diffusion of his sweetness. Every manner of beauty or excellency
there, is immediately dependent on him. There is no shining or luster,
no fineness or purity, no vivacity or pleasantness, in anything there,
but it is in such a manner dependent on him, as appear to be
immediately, every moment, from him, as a kind of diffusion of his glory
and sweetness on everything, and into and through everything, so that
the most inward nature of everything there receives all excellency, and
all purity, and preciousness, and sweetness from him immediately. In
heaven, Christ appears and acts most visibly and sensibly as the
Creator, and Life, and Soul, and Fountain of all being and perfection,
and he of whom and through whom all things are, and by whom all
immediately consist. Thus the glory of the latter house will in every
respect be greater than the glory of the former house, because Jehovah,
the angel of the covenant, shall come into his temple, and fill the
house with his glory. Christ’s appearing in glory will be that which
will glorify the bodies of his saints, as though it was an immediate
visible communication of his glory and life to them, as from the head to
the members. Nothing but his presence in so great glory effects the
thing, and so will it be with respect to everything else that is
external in heaven.
Thus as the face of the
earth rejoices at the return of the sun in the spring, and there is a
great alteration in it, it puts on new beautiful garments of joy, and
gladness, and welcomes the sun. And its renewed beauty is from the sun,
from his diffused glory, and sweet vivifying influence, in which all the
face of the earth rejoices. So it will be in heaven when Christ returns
thither in his highest glory after the day of judgment: all heaven will
rejoice, and put on new life, new beauty, and glory, to welcome him
thither.
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