Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 3.pdf/326

 therefore, only refer to some special benefit which the church on earth will receive. Let us, then, now view the analogy subsisting between a natural city and a spiritual one. As a city is a community of persons living under the same government, and ruled by the same laws, so a spiritual city is a community of worshippers, paying adoration to the same Divine Being, guided by the same truths, and holding the same doctrines. In a word, it is a church: and we therefore find that Jerusalem, being the earthly capital of God's chosen people, always represents the church of the Lord Jesus Christ as the centre of His heavenly kingdom.

NEW Jerusalem must represent a New Church; and a New Jerusalem descending from a new heaven upon a new earth, must represent a New Church originating in new principles of life and action, and resting upon new doctrines of faith and practice. And here let it be noted, that the new heaven and the new earth are represented as being formed previous to the descent of the holy city. The principles of holiness will exist in the will, and the truths derived from them enlighten the understanding, before the church will assume any striking external appearance on earth.

The prophet Ezekiel beheld the same city, but not entirely. He saw it but as the frame of a city; he