§ 504. And the city hath no need of the sun,' &c.—Whatever construction we put upon this passage, its purport is evidently very nearly equivalent to an annunciation of the fulfilment of the prediction Is. Ix. 1–3, 19, 20, “Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee; and the Gentiles (nations) shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." "The sun shall

be no more thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended."

As we have before intimated, there is a material or natural light, an intellectual or metaphorical light, and a spiritual or analogous light. The last we presume to be the light here alluded to. The material sun, when risen, clothes all objects of nature with its light-all their beauty of appearance depends upon this light; so the imputed righteousness of Christ (the Sun of righteousness) clothes the disciple with a garment or covering of divine perfection, which constitutes all his perfection. The disciple possesses no beauty or glory of his own; without that which is imputed to him, he is, like any object of nature, in a state of perfect darkness—it is colourless, and entirely without beauty. To say that the Sun of righteousness has risen with healing in his wings, is equivalent to saying that Christ is manifested as thus shedding the rays of his own moral perfection upon the pardoned sinner.

Corresponding with this view, the vision of peace (the holy city) exhibits no other righteousness than that of Jehovah; neither has it need to exhibit any other; it has no need to exhibit the light of the sun, or of the moon, for it is resplendent with the righteousness of God himself. The figure of the light of the Sun of righteousness, and that of the reflected light of the moon, may be said to be here dispensed with, because the true light or glory represented by these figures is now fully revealed.

'The glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.'Here the Lamb of God and the glory of God are represented as equivalents. If we ask, What is the glory of God? the answer is, the Lamb; and if we ask what the Lamb is, the answer is, the glory of God. The city (the vision of peace) exhibits no righteousness of any created being. The righteousness of God in Christ is its light or glory; as when God promised to show his glory to Moses, "He made his goodness to pass before him ;" the goodness of God as manifested in Christ constituting the glory of God. This light of divine glory is to the city what the array of fine linen, clean and white, is to the bride, and what the shield or breastplate is to the war

rior; for, according to the Psalmist, "The Lord God is [both] a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory," (Ps. lxxxiv. 2.)

Here we have another feature of identity developed. As the city has no need of a temple, because God and the Lamb is the temple of it, so it has no need of light, because the Lamb (the glory of God) is the light thereof.* The bride or wife (the New Jerusalem) partakes of the glory of her husband, because she is identified with him. The Jerusalem above is the mother of the whole community of disciples, (Gal. iv. 26 ;) the children, therefore, may be contemplated as partaking of the same glory. So. (2 Cor. iii. 18,) "We all, with unveiled face, beholding, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are changed (as by reflected rays of light) into the same image from glory to glory." As it is said, also, of the perfection of Christ, (John i. 16,) " And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace," χάριν ἀντὶ χάριτος, for every grace of Christ corresponding grace being imputed to the disciple.

$505. And the nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it.'-The words of them that are saved are not found in all editions of the Greek, neither are they in that of Wiclif, where the passage reads, "and folkis shulen walke in the light of it." The word translated nations is the same as that sometimes rendered Gentiles, and we could hardly say the Gentiles of them that are saved. There is, besides, a corresponding passage in the prophets, in which there is no such qualification. "At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it," (Jer. iii. 17.) The words appear to have been interpolated by transcribers, who, governed by a literal construction, supposed the exception to be understood. We might as reasonably qualify the passage quoted in the last section: "The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising."

We suppose the description in the Apocalypse, as well as the language of these prophecies to express the ultimate ascendency of the light of revealed truth over every doctrine and principle of doctrine without exception; this ascendency resulting from the manifestation of Christ as Jehovah our righteousness, and as such the only author of salvation; in conformity with the declaration, Phil. ii. 9-11, "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." The exhibition of the

*The Lamb may be considered the instrument or medium (λúgros) through which the light or glory is exhibited, as it is expressed in the Wiclif version, "the clerete of God schal ligtne it: and the Lamb is the lanterne of it;" or, according to the Rheims ed., "the glorie of God hath illuminated it, and the Lambe is the lampe thereof."

economy of grace, when completed, will be like that of a city set upon a hill its light or glory cannot be hid-it will manifest that glory to all, whether all rejoice in the light or not.

At the period now in contemplation, the overcoming principle (ó vizor) is to be supposed in full power, ruling the nations with a rod of iron. All things (principles) are manifested to succumb and to be subordinate to this rule, from the power of which there is no escape. The law goes forth out of Zion, and the word of God from Jerusalem, (Micah iv. 2.) Through this instrumentality the sovereign will and purpose of the Most High is made known; for which reason we may presume it to be predicted (Jer. iii. 17) that Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord. To the same instrumentality allusion seems to be made, Is. lxii. 1, 2: "For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth; and the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory." Here the righteousness of Jerusalem or of Zion, is put for the light of the apocalyptic city, and the lamp for the instrument of light, the medium of righteousness-the lantern of Wiclif's version. Whether righteousness, or light, or glory, however, they are in fact all and each of them of the Lord, (Is. liv. 17.)

'And the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.'— Not political or military glory. Louis XIV., Frederick of Prussia, Charlemagne, Alexander the Great, or Nebuchadnezzar, could bring no glory or honour into the holy city, the new Jerusalem, the vision of peace. We have before noticed that the term rendered kings was sometimes applied, amongst the Greeks, to those who presided in religious matters; but we do not suppose this to be ecclesiastical glory any more than political. We suppose these kings or chiefs to represent leading principles of religious systems or doctrines: the glory and honour of which are to be manifested to be subordinate, and perhaps in some sense auxiliary to the glory and honour of the new Jerusalem. As it is said of the elements or principles of the legal dispensation, all of which may be contemplated as bringing their glory and honour to augment the triumph of the economy of grace, "If the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious." (2 Cor. iii. 9–11.)

The same may be said of the glory of the elements of the literal construction, as compared with those of the spiritual interpretation: for, as the apostle intimates in connection with the passage just quoted, (v. 6,) the difference is not merely between the New Testament and the Old Testament, but also between the spirit of the New Testament and the letter, or

literal understanding of it; "For the letter," he adds, "killeth, but the spirit giveth life,"—thus classing the elements of the letter of the New Testament with those of the Mosaical dispensation, both having their glory, but a glory far exceeded by the spirit of the New Testament dispensation; which spirit he afterwards terms the ministration of justification, as opposed to the ministration of condemnation.

The leading elements of these two inferior "ministrations" we suppose to be represented by the kings of the earth. Whatever their honour or glory be, it goes to augment, but does not come into competition with, the glory of the economy of grace. This, also, is a result of the new state of things, or of the views presented by the new heaven and the new earth. Prior to the passing away of the former things, the nations (Gentiles) in the four quarters of the earth were led astray by the accuser, and under his conduct compassed the camp of the saints and the beloved city in battle array; as the kings of the earth had previously been marshalled by the beast and false prophet against the Word of God. Now, all things being made new, the same elements apparently walk in the light of the city, once the object of their hostile efforts, and bring their glory and honour into it. The difference is nearly parallel with that between the elements of the law rightly used in bringing the disciple to Christ, and the same elements perverted to the establishment of the kingdom of self, in opposition to the economy of a free salvation.

Vs. 25-27. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither (whatsoever) worketh abomination, or (maketh) a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Καὶ οἱ πυλῶνες αὐτῆς οὐ μὴ κλεισθῶσιν ἡμέρας (νὺξ γὰρ οὐκ ἔσται ἐκεῖ,) καὶ οἴ σουσι τὴν δόξαν καὶ τὴν τιμὴν τῶν ἐθνῶν εἰς αὐτήν. Καὶ οὐ μὴ εἰςἔλθῃ εἰς αὐτὴν πᾶν xowov xai поiοvν ßdékvyμa xai yɛvdos, ei μὴ οἱ γεγραμμένοι ἐν τῷ βιβλίο τῆς ζωῆς Tou agriov.

506. And the gates of it shall not be shut,' &c.; or, as the original implies, shall not be locked at all.-The apocalyptic city (vision of peace) being an exhibition of the plan of salvation, to open the gates of the city is to unfold the mysterious features of this plan,—to exhibit all the principles belonging to it. Hitherto the gates have been locked, or partially so; the mystery has been hidden from the foundation of the world, and it is not yet fully revealed. The prophet Daniel was told to shut up the words revealed to him, and to seal the book to the time of the end. In the interim, it was added, "Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Now, at the period of this new state of things, the time of the end is supposed to have arrived; the words revealed to Daniel are to be opened; the mystery of the gospel is to be fully unfolded, and the book containing this

mystery is to be contemplated as unsealed; not only so, the mystery henceforth is to remain open, and that continually and forever.

There is no night there, and the gates are not shut at all by day, consequently they are always open.* At the epoch contemplated in this passage, the running to and fro, spoken of in the vision of Daniel, may be supposed to be ended-the knowledge of the truth has increased. This knowledge exhibits the new Jerusalem as clothed or covered with the light, or glory, or righteousness of Jehovah. Such a vision of the divine plan of redemption, as is exhibited to the spiritual understanding in this vision of the new Jerusalem, may be supposed to comprehend all knowledge for which the running to and fro was designed. The book spoken of by Daniel is therefore no longer to be sealed; and, corresponding with this, the gates of the city are no longer to be locked.

Night is a season of darkness-of absence of light-and light we take to be, in typical language, an interchangeable term for righteousness. To be in the night, or in darkness, is to be divested of righteousness-equivalent to a position out of Christ; as to be in Christ is equivalent to being in the light. Night is also the season of danger-the thief and the robber availing themselves of the darkness to accomplish their purposes; so, to be out of Christ, deprived of his imputed righteousness, is to be in a position of peculiar peril-exposed to the attacks of the legal adversary. But the righteousness of God and the Lamb constitutes the light of the holy city, and this perpetually and without cessation. Here, therefore, there is no season of darkness or of danger; the adversary is at no moment to be feared, and consequently, under the protection of such light no further precaution is necessary. This applies both to the position of the disciple, and to the exhibition of the plan of salvation; as in the latter no accusing principle can introduce itself or find access, so long as the imputed righteousness of Jehovah is its element of protection.

nations into it.'— They are to bring

'And they shall bring the glory and honour of the That is, the kings spoken of in the twenty-fourth verse. their own honour and glory and also the honour and glory of the nations into the holy city. We give the same construction to this expression as to the preceding ones of a like character. It is not to be imagined that Great Britain or France in modern times, or Rome, or Babylon, or the kingdom of the Medes and Persians, could confer honour upon, or bring honour into, the new Jerusalem the heavenly city; still less could they bring honour or glory into the covenant of grace, All powers of the earth we suppose to repre

*The expression by day (ugas) probably applies to the whole twenty-four hours, and is equivalent to the declaration, that the gates are never shut or locked. The gates of fortified towns are opened of course during the day, but they are locked at night; here there is no night, and for that reason the gates are never locked.