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| The Promises Addressed to Jerusalem in the Prophets Refer to the Church, and are Still to Be Fulfilled.
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26. The Promises Addressed to Jerusalem in the Prophets
Refer to the Church, and are Still to Be Fulfilled.
After all this it is proper to ask whether what is
narrated as having taken place about the temple has ever taken place or
ever will take place about the spiritual house. The argument may
seem to pinch in whichever way we take it. If we say that it is
possible that something like what is told about the temple may take
place with regard to the spiritual house, or has already taken place in
it, then those who hear us will, with difficulty, be brought to admit
that a change can take place in such good things as these, firstly,
because they do not wish it, and secondly, because of the incongruity
of thinking that such things admit of change. If, on the other
hand, We seek to maintain the unchangeableness of the good things once
given to the saints, then we cannot
apply to them what we find in the history, and we shall seem to be
doing what those of the heresies do, who fail to maintain the unity of
the narrative of Scripture from beginning to end. If we are not
to take the view proper to old wives or Jews, of the promises recorded
in the prophets, and especially in Isaiah, if, that is to say, we are
to look for their fulfilment in connection with the Jerusalem on earth,
then, as certain remarkable things connected with the building of the
temple and the restoration of the people from the captivity are spoken
of as happening after the captivity and the destruction of the temple,
we must say that we are now the temple and the people which was carried
captive, but is to come up again to Judæa and Jerusalem, and to be
built with the precious stones of Jerusalem. But I cannot tell if
it be possible that, at the revolution of long periods of time, things
of the same nature should take place again, but in a worse way.
The prophecies of Isaiah which we mentioned are the following:5131
“Behold I prepare for thy stone
carbuncle and for thy foundation sapphire; and I will make thy
battlements jasper, and thy gates stones of crystal, and thy outer wall
choice stones; and all thy sons shall be taught of the Lord, and in
great peace shall thy children be, and in righteousness shalt thou be
built.” And a little further on, to the same
Jerusalem:5132
“And
the glory of Lebanon shall come to thee with cypress, and pine, and
cedar, along with those who will glorify My holy place. And the
sons of them that humbled thee and insulted thee shall come to thee in
fear; and thou shalt be called the city of the Lord, Sion of holy
Israel, because thou wert desolate and hated, and there was none to
help thee. And I will make thee an eternal delight, a joy of
generations of generations. And thou shalt suck the milk of the
Gentiles and shall eat the riches of kings, and thou shalt know that I
am the Lord that saveth thee and the God of Israel that chooseth
thee. And instead of brass I will bring thee gold, and instead of
iron I will bring thee silver, and for wood I will bring thee brass,
and for stones iron. And I will establish thy rulers in peace and
thy overseers in righteousness. And wickedness shall no more be
heard in thy land, nor affliction and distress in thy borders, but thy
walls shall be called salvation and thy gates sculpture. And the
sun shall no longer be to thee for light by day, nor shall the rising
of the moon give light to thee by night, but Christ shall be to thee an
everlasting light and thy God thy glory. For thy sun shall no
more go down, and thy moon shall not fail, for thy Lord shall be to
thee an everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be
fulfilled.” These prophecies clearly refer to the age still
to come, and they are addressed to the children of Israel in their
captivity, to whom He was sent and came, who said, “I am not sent
but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”5133
Such things, though they are captives,
they are to receive in their own land; and proselytes also are to come
to them at that time through Christ, and are to fly to them, according
to the saying,5134
“Behold,
proselytes shall come to thee through Me, and shall flee to thee for
refuge.” And if all this is to take place with the
captives, then it is plain that they must be about their temple, and
that they must go up there again to be built up, having become the most
precious of stones. For we find with John in his
Apocalyse,5135
the promise made to
him that overcomes, that he will be a pillar in the temple of God, and
will go no more out. All this I have said with a view to our
obtaining a cursory view at least of the matters pertaining to the
temple, and the house of God, and the Church and Jerusalem, which we
cannot now take up systematically. Those, however, who, in their
reading of the prophets, do not shrink from the labour of seeking after
their spiritual meaning, must enquire into these matters with the
greatest particularity, and must take account of every
possibility. So far of “the temple of His
body.”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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