At present I answer, there is no holy land or city of the Lord, no king of Sion, &c., but the church of Jesus Christ, and the King thereof, according to 1 Pet. ii. 9, Ye are a holy nation; and Jerusalem is the holy people of God in the true profession of Christianity, Heb. xii., Gal. iv., and Rev. xxi., out of which the Lord Jesus by his holy ordinances, in such a government, and by such governors as he hath appointed, he cuts off every wicked person and evil doer.
No difference of lands and cities since the coming, as was before the coming, of the Lord Jesus.
If Christ Jesus had intended any difference of place, cities, or countries, doubtless Jerusalem and Samaria had been thought of, or the cities of Asia, wherein the Christian religion was so gloriously planted.
But the Lord Jesus disclaims Jerusalem and Samaria from having any respect of holiness more than other cities, John iv. 21.
And the Spirit of God evidently testifieth that the churches were in the cities and countries, not that the whole cities or countries were God’s holy land and cities, out of which all false worshippers and wicked persons were to be cut, Rev. ii. and iii.
The devil’s throne was in the city of Pergamos in respect of the state and persecution of it, and yet there was also the throne of the Lord Jesus set up in his church or worshippers in Pergamos, out of which the Balaamites, and Nicolaitanes, and every false worshipper, were to be cast, though not out of the city of Pergamos: for then Pergamos must have been thrown out of Pergamos, and the world out of the world.
CHAP. CI.
Peace. Oh! that my head were a fountain, and mine eyes rivers of tears, to lament my children, the children of peace and light, thus darkening that and other lightsome scriptures with such dark and direful clouds of blood.
The bloody interpretation of Ps. ci.