Again, in that he doth add to glass the word transparent, he would have us to understand thereby these two things.
1. That the walking and ways of holiness of saints shall be more in the power and spirit of the Word, than all along in the reign of Antichrist they have been. For transparent glass, it is the most clear and excellent glass, and goeth as far beyond other sorts of glass, as he that walks in the spirit and power of the commandment goes beyond him that only walks in the letter and outward word thereof. Alas, the churches of Christ, at their firs assembling, will be like the coming together of Ezekiel's bones, clothed much with flesh and sinews, but greatly void of spirit and life (Eze 37:7,8). Wherefore the spirit, power, holiness, and majesty that now will appear in the church, it will greatly transcend and go beyond the spirit, power, and holiness that hath accompanied her in former days. Then shall the sun be ashamed, and the moon confounded, when the Lord shall reign in Mount Zion, &c. (Isa 24:23). Then shall the sun be ashamed, that is, then shall that little light and understanding of the Word, that hath been in the church in the days when a third part of the glory of the gospel was hid by the smoke of the pit, be, as it were, laid aside and be useless (Rev 8:12; 9:2). Every saint shall be under the light of a sun that shines seven-fold brighter, even as the light of seven days. We see it is so in some measure at this day; what light, and with what clearness do the saints in this day see the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, beyond what the holy and goodly martyrs and saints did in the days that were before us; Huss, Bilney, Ridley, Hooper, Cranmer, with their brethren, if they were now in the world, would cry out and say, Our light and knowledge of the word of the Testament of Christ was much inferior to the light that at this day is broken forth, and that will yet daily, in despite of men and devils, display its rays and beams amongst the sons of men![18] When the children of Israel were to depart the land of Egypt, the Lord made known himself to them otherwise than ever he made known himself either to Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, their fathers (Exo 6:3). The book also, at the recovering the church from under Antichrist, is to be unlocked and unsealed gradually, first one seal and afterwards another, and last of all the seventh, before which time the book will never quite be opened (Rev 5; 6). According to that of the angel, 'Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are closed up, and sealed till the time of the end' (Dan 12:9). In which time (which is the time of New Jerusalem) they shall be opened, and men shall consider it perfectly (Jer 30:24; 23:20). Wherefore,
2. It must needs be that the church return to her old and primitive love. For what is the cause of the want of love to Christ and one another now, but our want of light in the things, mysteries, and privileges of the glorious gospel of the Son of God? Wherefore this being come, then love will reign, and have her perfect work among the godly. Love is the very quintessence of all the graces of the gospel, and is as transparent to them; 'the greatest of these is charity' (1 Cor 13:13). It is the 'fulfilling of the law,' 'the bond of perfectness,' and the most 'excellent way' (1 Cor 12:31; Rom 13:10; 1 Cor 16:14; Col 3:14). Wherefore the Holy Ghost doth mean, by this word transparent glass, that the height of light, and the height of love, will be found in this city; all their things shall be done without confused smoke and darkness, and also without spiritual pride and desire of vain-glory: then shall they indeed do all their things in charity, and in the feeling bowels and fellowship of the gospel. 'Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years' (Mal 3:4).
Alas! though now through grace the saints of God have attained to more light and knowledge in the mysteries of the kingdom of God than heretofore they had, yet their light is far inferior to that which will be when this city is built. Our spiritual union and fellowship in the very bowels of the grace and gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ also is yet greatly defective. It is said that 'no man was able to enter into the temple' of God, 'till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled' (Rev 15:8). But when the seven last plagues are spent, and when all the adversaries of the church, which caused terror in the land of the living, shall be laid with the uncircumcised in the pit, then look for golden days, and not till then (Eze 32:18). Then shall this golden street be finished; that is, then shall the light, faith, love, and holiness of the gospel be walked in and embraced in a transparent and transcending way. 'He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root; Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit' (Isa 27:6).
[The city has no temple.]
Ver. 22. 'And I saw no temple therein; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.' These words do, in my present light, point at the end of the days of this Jerusalem here in this world: and in so doing they signify to us, that when she is built, she shall stand and continue in this her glorious state afore-mentioned even until that glory be swallowed up of that which doth excel. That they do point at the end of her day in this world, I do gather from these particulars:-
First. Because they are the last words of the description of her glory,-that is, these and the words ensuing, which is but one and the same continued speech; and it is easy to conclude that John, in this description of this city, doth, from first to last, even from the first appearing of her as she cometh out of Babylon till she be perfect in glory, give us the relation of it. First, I say, showing us her descending, then her building, and afterward the glory of that building; at the end of which also he showeth to us with what glory he will crown this glory, even by swallowing of her up with a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Second. Because in these words he doth absolutely cut off all and every whit of her outward and external glory; that is, as to outward ordinances and temple-worship, which yet was to be most famous for a long time in this new and goodly city; which he verifies in the eleventh chapter of this prophecy, which chapter is a summary collecting of the church in her fall and rise under Antichrist, which church there in her rise is this city here in her glory in this world. He tells us there, I say, that when the kingdoms of this world were become the kingdoms of the Lord, and of his Christ, that 'then the temple of God was opened in heaven'; that is, temple-worship under the gospel recovered into its former and primitive state and purity, in which it was before the coming in of the man of sin (Rev 11:15-19, compared with 15:8). Which temple he here utterly shutteth out, saying, 'I saw no temple therein'; in the room of which he setteth the presence of the Lord Jesus, and God his Father, making them to stand and be in the room of temple and gospel-worship, in that manner as it is used while we here live in the flesh. 'For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.' It is true, the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of this church in her lowest condition, therefore much more when she is brought into the condition that she is in at her rebuilding; but yet, neither in her low estate, nor yet in her highest, is it proper to say, that so long as she is in this world, God will be a temple to her, in opposition to her temple and gospel-worship, in outward and New Testament administrations. Wherefore when he saith He 'saw no temple therein,' and that from this reason, because 'the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it'; he must needs aim at a state to which the church cannot attain until her Lord comes. For then will that which is perfect be come, and that which is in part be done away (1 Cor 13:10).
Now that the temple in this place excluded, can signify nothing else but the outward orderly way of God's worship, which the saints ought with conscience, in faith, to be found in till their Lord comes, consider that our New Testament doth use the word 'temple' three several ways: 1. For the outward order and worship or discipline of the Gospel (Rev 11:1-3). 2. For the body of Christ, which is his church, &c. 3. And lastly, For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb, which here are said to be the temple of this city.
Now then, when he saith he saw 'No temple therein,' he cannot exclude the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb, for they are here said to be 'the temple of it.' Neither can he shut out the church, which is the body of Christ, for that is the city itself; yea, and the church shall be God's temple, and God and Christ the temple of the church for ever and ever He must therefore by this word 'no temple,' exclude only the outward way of gospel-worship, in which the saints in the times of the New Testament both meet and edify each other, and also meet their God, and are blessed and refreshed by him. Again, that this outward gospel-worship should be laid aside while the church is in this world, before her Lord doth come to be enjoyed by her, as touching his personal presence; it looks too like ranting opinions, and contradiction to Scripture, for me to believe (1 Cor 11:26). For when he comes, but not till then, shall these things be laid aside.