Now after these arise another people, not another with respect to Christianity, but with respect to further light.[14] These men, though they keep the continual offerings upon the altar, as the other did, yet they are men also that are for temple-work; wherefore these begin to search out the foundations of the temple of God, that they may rear up the house, as well as build up the altar. These be they that are for having the church a select company of visible believers, walking in the faith and holiness of the gospel, which believers are for separating from the unconverted and open profane, and for building up one another an holy temple in the Lord, through the Spirit (1 Cor 12:13). I say, a temple, or house, or church, separate and distinct from that confused heap of rubbish and carnal gospellers that everywhere, like locusts and maggots, crawl up and down the nations (Rom 1:7; 2 Cor 6:14-16; Acts 2:40; Eph 2:21,22; 1 Cor 5:11-13). These were figured forth by Zerubbabel, Joshua, and all the people of the land that are for working and labouring in this service of temple-work (Haggai 1:12; 2:1-5).
Again, As there is thus altar-work and temple-work to be done by the saints when they are coming out of spiritual Sodom and Egypt; so, at the end of these, there will be city-work on foot also. Which city-work will chiefly consist in setting up the wall and gates for defence, and of building themselves houses or mansions of rest and refreshment after all their hard usage under the tyranny of the man of sin, that son of perdition (Isa 65:19-21). Which city-work will be then completed, when the church of Christ hath obtained a complete conquest and victory over the world, and hath got her enemies and them that hate her, to lie at her feet, and to lick the dust of the soles thereof (Isa 60:14). For, as I have told you already, temple-work, yea, when that is complete in the work, yet there may be great havoc made of the church of Christ (Rev 11:1-3). At which time also, city-work may be trampled under the feet of the wicked and uncircumcised Gentiles; but when the city is built, then Zion is become a stronghold, and about all her glory shall be a defence (Isa 4:5). Then she either draweth and allureth her adversaries to entreat her kindly, and to count it their honour to be under her protection, as did the Gibeonites; or else she breaks, and bruises, and subjects them to her by her power and authority (Josh 9). 'The daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift, even the rich among the people shall entreat thy favour' (Psa 45:12). 'In the last days,' saith the prophet, 'it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come and say,—Let us go up unto the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks'; that force and power that they used formerly to destroy the church of God, now they shall use it to do her service, even to break up the clods of the hearts of sinners, and to prune and dress the house of God, and vineyard of Jesus Christ; 'nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more'; for the word of the kingdom of peace shall bear sway. 'And thou, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem' (Micah 4:1-3,8). This is city-work, and as to the glory, peace, and deliverance of the church, it is the chiefest of all other, because it is not only most excellent for concourse and multitude, but, I say, for preservation and safety; and that not only to keep the worshippers, if they keep their order, but to keep the order and worshippers both in order and continual safety, that they may be for ever in the purest order. But now, though at the completing of this wall, and the building its towers, when they are finished there will be great peace; yet all the time that these things are doing, before they be done, let the workmen look for opposition, taunts, underminers, and a thousand tricks for the hindrance of it (Neh 4:1-11; 6:1-14). For the streets of the city shall be built, and the wall, 'even in troublous times' (Dan 9:25).
'And the building of the wall of it was of jasper.' Of jasper only; for as by building is showed unto us the manner of the work, so by jasper is showed unto us the matter itself; the matter therefore must be, JASPER, Christ only, his Word, offices, and glorious brightness only; for indeed, whatever the special grace, protection, and providence of God will at this day be over this city, yet it shall be every whit of it according to Christ; that is, both of him, for him, and by him, as the fruits and effects of his suffering, bloodshed, and merits. 'Therefore,' saith God, 'will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and was numbered with the transgressors' (Isa 53:12). O holiness, how will it shine both in kings and nations, when God doth this!
[The glory of the city.]
'And the city was pure gold.' Having thus given us a discovery of the glory of the wall, he now comes to show us the glory of the city that is within the wall. The city, saith he, is gold, it is pure gold. This was figured out by the golden candlesticks belonging to the tabernacle and temple among the Jews, which candlesticks did then present unto us the worth and use of the church of Christ (Exo 25:31-36). 'The seven candlesticks are the seven churches,' saith the Lord Christ himself (Rev 1:20). Now the city here spoken of is the church in her highest and greatest glory. Its state was also figured out by the temple itself, whose beams, posts, walls, doors, and the like, were most famously covered over with gold (2 Chron 3:5-7). It was also, though but leanly, represented to us by the golden state of old Jerusalem in the days of Solomon the king, in which state gold was so plentiful in the midst thereof, that silver was nothing counted of among the citizens there in those days, but was as common as the stones in the street of the city (2 Chron 9:13-22,27).
'And the city was pure gold.' I find by the search of the Scriptures, that there are divers sorts of gold in the world; there is the gold of the land of Havilah (Gen 2:11); the gold of Parvaim (2 Chron 3:6); the gold of Ophir (Job 22:24); the gold of Sheba (Psa 72:15); and the gold of Uphaz (Jer 10:9). Now seeing he saith the city is gold, yet not distinguishing what gold, or which, we may suppose in this place he means gold of all these sorts; and indeed it is most agreeable to this text thus to judges. For the church at this day shall be made up of the twelve tribes that are scattered abroad, and of the Gentile nations both far and near; who, as they now lie, are, for ought I can learn, at as great a distance, and as remote from one another, not only in knowledge and affections, but touching the places of their abode, as are the golden mines out of which the gold that I spake of before is digged and fetched. Thus shall gold, the golden saints of God, at this day be gathered out of the several golden mines of the world, and be brought to King Solomon, the Son of David, our Lord Jesus, to Jerusalem, with which he will build him a golden shining city, the joy of all the world.
'And the city was pure gold.' Gold is the choice and chief of all metals, both for worth, colour, and virtue; wherefore, when he saith, 'The city is gold,' you may conceive how rich and shining, and virtuous[15] this city will be; the riches of the whole world will be here, the beauty of the whole world will be here, and the virtue of the whole world will be here; I mean spiritual riches, beauty, and health. Wherefore the rest of the world at this day will be but as a crushed bunch of herbs in which is no virtue; or like a furnace full of dross, out of which the gold is taken; or like an old, crazy, and ruinous house, from which is departed all health and happiness; and indeed much like to this is that saying of the prophet, to wit, that at this day the whole circumference of the world that is without the walls and privileges of this city, it shall be but like an old ruinous house, in which dwells nothing but cormorants, bitterns, owls, ravens, dragons, satyrs, the screech-owl, the great owl, the vulture, and the like most doleful birds. All their princes shall be nothing, saith the prophet, and when they call their nobles to the kingdom, none shall be there. In their very palaces shall be thorns, and nettles, and brambles; for all among them that are princes and nobles indeed, will have packed up, and be gone for Jerusalem (Isa 34:10-17). So that the world, I say, will be left empty, void, and stripped both of treasure, beauty, and health, at the day of Jerusalem's building again. But O how melancholy a forlorn, beautiless world will this be at this day! It will be only the place of 'dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie' (Rev 22:15). It will now be the very emblem of hell, as the church at this day will be the emblem of heaven. Wherefore, as the church, as I showed you before, will be most fit for her putting on of immortality and incorruption, so the world will at this day be most fit to be swallowed up of the lake and bottomless gulf. All things that are good and worth anything shall at this day be found only in the city of God. The gold will be in Jerusalem (Zech 14:14; Rev 18).
Again, In that this city is here called by the name of gold it is to show us how great pains, and travel, and charge the Lord Christ hath been at to get so great a treasure together. Gold is fetched from a far country, and that with great pains, charge, and difficulty (2 Chron 9:10). The gold wherewith King Solomon made his drinking vessels, it cost a three years' journey to obtain it. So the saints also, those golden vessels wherewith is made this golden city, they cost Christ a three days' travel in the heart of the earth, even sweatingly under the wrath of God, to obtain them, and thus to build this city with them (Luke 22:44; Mark 12:40).
Further, In that he saith this city is gold, he would have us to consider what the state of the church was before she came into this happy condition, to wit, an afflicted, tempted, and tried condition. Gold, as it comes from the mine, it cometh commixed with its dust and ore; wherefore the goldsmith hath a burning furnace wherein he having put it, doth with the fire purge and take away the dross and dust from among the metal itself; into which furnace he puts it once, twice, thrice, and again to the end it may at length be thoroughly cleansed and purified from its dross. Now all this befalleth the people of God; they are thrown into the burning fiery furnace of affliction and temptation, and there they are tried, purged, and purified (Isa 31:9). As the Lord also saith by the prophet, 'I will try them as gold is tried, and will refine them as silver is refined' (Zech 13:9). Yea, 'I will melt them and try them, for how shall I do for the daughter of my people' (Jer 9:7).
Lastly, When he saith this city is gold, he also thereby insinuates how invincible and unconquerable a spirit the people of God are possessed with. Gold is a metal so invincible and unconquerable, that no fire can consume it; it may burn it indeed, and melt it; the dross indeed doth consume and give way to the power of the fire, but the gold remains, and holds its ground; yea, it gets ground even of the furnace and fire itself; for the more it is burned and melted, the more it recovers its colour, and the more it shakes off its dross and dishonour. Just thus it is with the people of God, and hath been so even from the beginning: the more they oppressed them, the more they grew (Exo 1:12). The truth of which will be proved with a witness, when God comes to set up this city Jerusalem: his church hath been now for many hundred years in the king of Babylon's furnace; all which time she hath most gloriously endured and withstood the heat; and at last when the fire hath done its worst against her, behold there comes out a city of gold. A type of which was the state of the three children, who though they were cast into the fire bound and in disgrace; yet came out in the liberty and grace of the Son of God (Dan 3:23-26). Wherefore let her be bold to say, even before she comes out of the fire, When I am tried, 'I shall come forth as gold' (Job 23:10).