Works of John Bunyan — Complete

by John Bunyan

Jerusalem, in the language of the Scripture, is to be acknowledged for the church and spouse of the Lord Jesus; and is to be considered either generally or more particularly. Now as she is to be taken generally, so she is to be understood as being 'the whole family in heaven and earth,' (Eph 3:15); and as she is thus looked upon, so she is not considered with respect to this or that state and condition of the church here in the world, but simply as she is the church: therefore it is said, when at any time any are converted from Satan to God, that they 'are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; and to an innumerable company of angels; to the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven; to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect; and to Jesus,—and to the blood of sprinkling' (Heb 12:22,24).

But again, as Jerusalem is thus generally to be understood, so also she is to be considered more particularly: 1. Either as she relates to her first and purest state; or, 2. As she relates to her declined and captivated state; or, 3. With reference to her being recovered again from her apostatized and captivated condition. Thus it was with Jerusalem in the letter; which threefold state of this city shall be most exactly answered by our gospel Jerusalem, by our New Testament church. Her first state was in the days of Christ and his apostles, and answereth to Jerusalem in the days of Solomon; her second state is in the days of antichrist, and answereth to the carrying away of the Jews from their city into Babylon; and her third state is this in the text, and answereth to their return from captivity, and rebuilding their city and walls again: all which will be fully manifest in this discourse following.

[This city is the gospel church returning out of antichristian captivity.]

Besides, that this holy city that here you read of is the church, the gospel church, returning out of her long and antichristian captivity; consider,

First, She is here called a city, the very name that our primitive church went under (Eph 2:19); which name she loseth all the while of her apostatizing and captivity under antichrist; for observe, I say, all the while she is under the scourge of the dragon, beast, and the woman in scarlet, &c. (Rev 13), she goeth under the name of a woman, a woman in travail, a woman flying before the dragon, a woman flying into the wilderness, there to continue in an afflicted and tempted condition, and to be glad of wilderness nourishment, until the time of her enemies were come to an end (Rev 12).

Now the reason why she lost the title of city at her going into captivity is, because then she lost her situation and strength; she followed others than Christ, wherefore he suffered her enemies to scale her walls, to break down her battlements; he suffered, as you see here, the great red dragon, and beast with seven heads and ten horns, to get into her vineyard, who made most fearful work both with her and all her friends; her gates also were now either broken down or shut up, so that none could, according to her laws and statutes, enter into her; her charter also, even the Bible itself, was most grossly abused and corrupted, yea, sometimes burned and destroyed almost utterly; wherefore the Spirit of God doth take away from her the title of city, and leaveth her to be termed a wandering woman, as aforesaid. 'The court which is without the temple [saith the angel] leave out, and measure it not, for it is given unto the Gentiles; and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months' (Rev 11:2). 'The holy city shall they tread under foot'; that is, all the city constitutions, her forts and strength, her laws and privileges for a long time, shall be laid aside and slighted, shall become a hissing, a taunt, and a byword among the nations. And truly thus it was in the letter, in the destruction of Jerusalem by the king of Babylon and his wicked instruments, by whose hands the city was broken up, the walls pulled down, the gates burned, the houses rifled, the virgins ravished, and the children laid dead in the top of every street (2 Chron 36:17-21; Jer 52; Lam 1; 2; 3; 4). Now was Zion become a ploughed field, and Jerusalem turned to heaps; a place of briars and thorns, and of wasteness and desolation (Micah 3:12; Isa 7:23,24).

Second, The phrase also that is joined with this of city doth much concern the point; she is here called 'the new and holy city,' which words are explained by these, 'prepared as a bride and adorned for her husband.' The meaning is, that she is now got into her form, fashion, order, and privileges again; she is now ready, adorned, prepared, and put into her primitive state; mark, though she was in her state of affliction called a woman, yet she was not then either called a city or a woman adorned; but rather a woman robbed and spoiled, rent and torn among the briars and thorns of the wilderness (Isa 5:6; 42:22; 32:13,14). Wherefore this city is nothing else but the church returned out of captivity from under the reign of antichrist, as is yet farther manifest, because,

Third. We find no city to answer that which was built after the Jews' return from captivity but this; for this, and only this, is the city that you find in this prophecy that is nominated as the antitype of that second of the Jews; wherefore John hath no relation of her while towards the doom of antichrist, and no description of her in particular until antichrist is utterly overthrown; as all may see that wisely read (Rev 17-20).

[Why the church is called a city.]

'And showed me that great city.' The Holy Ghost is pleased at this time to give the church the name of a city, rather than any other name, rather than the name of spouse, woman, temple, and the like-though he giveth us her under the name of a woman also, to help us to understand what he means; but, I say, the name of a city is now the name in special, under which the church must go, and that for special reasons.