{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>\"And I saw,\" he says, \"a great city, new Jerusalem, coming\r\ndown from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_378\">[Pg 378]</a></span>\r\nfor her husband. And I heard a great voice from the throne,\r\nsaying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He\r\nwill dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God\r\nHimself shall be with them. And God shall wipe away all\r\ntears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death,\r\nneither sorrow, nor crying, but neither shall there be any\r\nmore pain: because the former things have passed away. And\r\nHe that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things\r\nnew.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_750_750\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_750_750\">[750]</a> This city is said to come down out of heaven, because\r\nthe grace with which God formed it is of heaven.\r\nWherefore He says to it by Isaiah, \"I am the Lord that\r\nformed thee.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_751_751\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_751_751\">[751]</a> It is indeed descended from heaven from its\r\ncommencement, since its citizens during the course of this\r\nworld grow by the grace of God, which cometh down from\r\nabove through the laver of regeneration in the Holy Ghost\r\nsent down from heaven. But by God's final judgment, which\r\nshall be administered by His Son Jesus Christ, there shall by\r\nGod's grace be manifested a glory so pervading and so new,\r\nthat no vestige of what is old shall remain; for even our\r\nbodies shall pass from their old corruption and mortality to\r\nnew incorruption and immortality. For to refer this promise\r\nto the present time, in which the saints are reigning with their\r\nKing a thousand years, seems to me excessively barefaced,\r\nwhen it is most distinctly said, \"God shall wipe away all\r\ntears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death,\r\nneither sorrow, nor crying, but there shall be no more pain.\"\r\nAnd who is so absurd, and blinded by contentious opinionativeness,\r\nas to be audacious enough to affirm that in the\r\nmidst of the calamities of this mortal state, God's people, or\r\neven one single saint, does live, or has ever lived, or shall ever\r\nlive, without tears or pain,—the fact being that the holier a\r\nman is, and the fuller of holy desire, so much the more abundant\r\nis the tearfulness of his supplication? Are not these\r\nthe utterances of a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem: \"My\r\ntears have been my meat day and night;\"<a id=\"FNanchor_752_752\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_752_752\">[752]</a> and \"Every night\r\nshall I make my bed to swim; with my tears shall I water\r\nmy couch;\"<a id=\"FNanchor_753_753\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_753_753\">[753]</a> and \"My groaning is not hid from Thee;\"<a id=\"FNanchor_754_754\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_754_754\">[754]</a> and<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_379\">[Pg 379]</a></span>\r\n\"My sorrow was renewed?\"<a id=\"FNanchor_755_755\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_755_755\">[755]</a> Or are not those God's children\r\nwho groan, being burdened, not that they wish to be unclothed,\r\nbut clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed\r\nup of life?<a id=\"FNanchor_756_756\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_756_756\">[756]</a> Do not they even who have the first-fruits of\r\nthe Spirit groan within themselves, waiting for the adoption,\r\nthe redemption of their body?<a id=\"FNanchor_757_757\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_757_757\">[757]</a> Was not the Apostle Paul\r\nhimself a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem, and was he not\r\nso all the more when he had heaviness and continual sorrow\r\nof heart for his Israelitish brethren?<a id=\"FNanchor_758_758\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_758_758\">[758]</a> But when shall there be\r\nno more death in that city, except when it shall be said, \"O\r\ndeath, where is thy contention?<a id=\"FNanchor_759_759\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_759_759\">[759]</a> O death, where is thy sting?\r\nThe sting of death is sin.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_760_760\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_760_760\">[760]</a> Obviously there shall be no sin\r\nwhen it can be said, \"Where is\"—But as for the present\r\nit is not some poor weak citizen of this city, but this same\r\nApostle John himself who says, \"If we say that we have no\r\nsin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_761_761\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_761_761\">[761]</a> No\r\ndoubt, though this book is called the Apocalypse, there are in\r\nit many obscure passages to exercise the mind of the reader,\r\nand there are few passages so plain as to assist us in the\r\ninterpretation of the others, even though we take pains; and\r\nthis difficulty is increased by the repetition of the same things,\r\nin forms so different, that the things referred to seem to be\r\ndifferent, although in fact they are only differently stated.\r\nBut in the words, \"God shall wipe away all tears from their\r\neyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor\r\ncrying, but there shall be no more pain,\" there is so manifest\r\na reference to the future world and the immortality and\r\neternity of the saints,—for only then and only there shall\r\nsuch a condition be realized,—that if we think this obscure,\r\nwe need not expect to find anything plain in any part of\r\nScripture.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK TWENTIETH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-604"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"3fbe66f48e08ab8cdc0d4ea4646b42578f17a834835685e43301269691144e88","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"ROM","chapter":9,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Rom. ix. 2","verse":2,"verse_end":2}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_758_758","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_758_758","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_758_758\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_758_758\"><span class=\"label\">[758]</span></a> Rom. ix. 2.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_758_758","text_sha256":"c399fe6434227aebf653253a352d5c76447c9cd07b6a36af79400c7e652fb482","verified":false,"work_id":null}