Although the spiritual import of these expressions appears self-evident; while the context may satisfy the Christian that these chapters foreshow the nature of the Messiah's kingdom, metaphorically styled by the prophets, the Zion of God, His holy mountain, the heavenly Jerusalem, &c., terms which alone bespeak its [pg 009] spirituality; yet have we moreover the direct sanction and authority of the Apostles Paul and John for thus understanding them.
St. Paul, when comparing the advantages of the two covenants, and contrasting the rigorous severity of the law, with the indulgent mildness of the gospel, borrows these very metaphors from the prophets, calling the former Mount Sinai, and the latter Mount Zion. (Heb. xii. 18.) For ye are not come, says he, to the mountain that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest, &c.
But ye 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, &c.
Here we see Mount Sinai, from which the law was delivered, figuratively used to signify the Old Covenant; and Mount Zion, and the Heavenly Jerusalem to signify the New Covenant,—called also the general assembly and church of the first-born; that is of the regenerate through Christ.
In like manner St. John, when foreshowing the final establishment of true Christianity, uses the same metaphor of a city and a bride, that had been previously used by Isaiah. (Rev. xxi. 2.) And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband, &c.
But let it not be erroneously supposed that the figurative character of prophetic language consists merely in the use of these terms to express the Messiah's kingdom; or that the proof of its spirituality is confined to the employment, however frequent, of such phrases as trees of righteousness, waters of life, wells of salvation, &c.; the fact is, that every allusion to that kingdom is couched in terms, which admit only of spiritual interpretation: and where any lengthened description occurs, the language assumes the form of continued allegory, in which the moral and religious state of mankind is foreshewn in terms appropriate only to the physical world. As in Ezekiel xxxiv. 26.
And I will make them, and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will [pg 011] cause the shower to come down is his season; there shall be showers of blessing.
And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the Lord.
When Jeremiah (xxxi. 12.) in similar language foretels the abundance of blessings promised in this kingdom, even the Rabbi admits that the figurative and not the literal sense is to be taken; and that spiritual, not temporal blessings are here intended by the prophet.