WHEREIN ITS GOODLY LIGHT, WALLS, GATES, ANGELS, AND THE MANNER OF THEIR STANDING, ARE EXPOUNDED: ALSO HER LENGTH AND BREADTH, TOGETHER WITH THE GOLDEN MEASURING-REED EXPLAINED: AND THE GLORY OF ALL UNFOLDED.
. This city descends or comes out of heaven from God, that is, by his special working and bringing to pass; it was God that gave them the pattern even when they were in Babylon; it was God that put it into their hearts while there, to pray for deliverance; it was God that put it into the hearts of the kings of the Medes and Persians to give them liberty to return and build; and it was God that quailed the hearts of those that by opposing did endeavour to hinder the bringing the work to perfection; yea, it was God that did indeed bring the work to perfection; wherefore she may well be said to descend 'out of heaven from God': as he also saith himself by the prophet, I will cause the captivity of Judah, and the captivity of Israel to return, and I will build them as at the first (Ezra 4:1-4; 7:27; Neh 2:8-18; 4:15; 6:15,16; Jer 33:7; 32:44; Eze 36:33-37; 37:11-15; Amos 9:11).
Lastly, When he saith he saw her descend from God out of heaven, he may refer to her glory, which at her declining departed from her, and ascended to God, as the sap returns into the root at the fall of the leaf; which glory doth again at her return descend, or come into the church, and branches of the same, as the sap doth arise at the spring of the year, for indeed the church's beauty is from heaven, and it either goeth up thither from her, or else comes from thence to her, according to the natures of both fall and spring (Cant 2). Thus you see what this heaven is, and what it is for this city to descend out of it; also what it is for this city to descend out of it from God.
[This city has the glory of God.]
Ver. 11. 'Having the glory of God.' These last words do put the whole matter out of doubt, and do most clearly show unto us that the descending of this city is the perfect return of the church out of captivity; the church, when she began at first to go into captivity, her glory began to depart from her; and now she is returning again, she receiveth therewith her former glory, 'having the glory of God.' Thus it was in the type, when Jerusalem went into captivity under the King of Babylon, which was a figure of the captivity of our New Testament church under Antichrist, it is said that then the glory of God departed from them, and went, by degrees, first out of the temple to the threshold of the house, and from thence with the cherubims of glory, for that time, quite away from the city (Eze 10:4-18; 11:22,23 &c.).
Again, As the glory of God departed from this city at her going into captivity, so when she returned again, she had also then returned to her the glory of God; whereupon this very prophet that saw the glory of God go from her at her going into captivity, did see it, the very same; and that according as it departed, so return at her deliverance. 'He brought me to the gate,' saith he-that is, when by a vision he saw all the frame and patterns of the city and temple, in the state in which it was to be after the captivity. 'He brought me to the gate—that looketh toward the east, and behold the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east'-the very same way that it went when it was departed from the city (Eze 11:23). 'His voice was like a noise of many waters, and the earth shined with his glory. It was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision which I saw when I came to destroy the city, and the visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell upon my face, and the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east; so the Spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner court, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house' (Eze 43:1-5).
Thus you see it was in the destruction and restoration of the Jews' Jerusalem, by which God doth plainly show us how things will be in our gospel church; she was to decline and lose her glory, she was to be trampled-as she was a city-for a long time under the feet of the unconverted and wicked world. Again, she was after this to be builded, and to be put into her former glory; at which time she was to have her glory, her former glory, even the glory of God, returned to her again. 'He showed me,' saith John, 'that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.' As he saith by the prophet, 'I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies, my house shall be built in it' (Zech 1:16). And again, 'I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem' (Zech 8:3).
'Having the glory of God.' There is the grace of God, and the glory of that grace; there is the power of God, and the glory of that power; and there is the majesty of God, and the glory of that majesty (Eph 1:6; 2 Thess 1:9; Isa 2:19).
It is true God doth not leave his people in some sense, even in the worst of times, and in their most forlorn condition (John 14:18), as he showeth by his being with them in their sad state in Egypt and Babylon, and other of their states of calamity (Dan 3:25). As he saith, 'Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come' (Eze 2:16). God is with his church, even in her greatest adversity, both to limit, bound, measure, and to point out to her quantity and quality, her beginning and duration of distress and temptation (Isa 27:7-9; Rev 2:10). But yet I say the glory of God, in the notion of Ezekiel and John, when they speak of the restoration of this city, that is not always upon his people, though always they are beloved and counted for his peculiar treasure. She may then have his grace, but not at the same time the glory of his grace; his power, but not the glory of his power; she may also have his majesty, but not the glory thereof; God may be with his church, even then when the glory is departed from Israel.
