Revelation 21:2

And he says: And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. By Jerusalem he associates the blessed end and dwelling of the saints, which having called Jerusalem figuratively both now …

When these things have been attained, our spirit becomes hierarchical for ascending upward according to its conformity to that supernal Jerusalem, into which no one enters unless it first descends into the heart through grace, as John saw in his Apocalypse. It descends into the …

There alone is the most perfect order, where there is perfect reduction to the supreme, which is the supreme absolutely, of which kind is God; and this is in the heavenly Jerusalem, where there is full justice. But where there is reduction to the supreme …

Plainly, her whom he foreknew from eternity, whom he chose, whom he loved, whom he created, it was not reasonable for her to be declared found by the same one. Yet that she was prepared by him so that she might be found, I will …

This passage shows the renewal and transformation to a more brilliant appearance that the Jerusalem above will acquire when it comes down from the incorporeal powers above to humankind, since Christ, our God, has become the common Head of both. This city is constructed of …

And the holy city, new Jerusalem, etc. This city is said to descend from heaven because it is made by the grace of God, which is heavenly. It is prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; for there is another Jerusalem that is not …

This Holy Spirit, acting in the minds of the chosen, brings about Scriptures and gives firmness to the Christian faith. And because it acts more specially in the apostles, they are said to be the twelve foundation stones. The Apocalypse reads: And I saw the …

And I saw the holy city - The new heaven, the new earth, and the new Jerusalem, are closely connected. This city is wholly new, belonging not to this world, not to the millennium, but to eternity.

In this new world the apostle saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven, not locally, but as to its original: this new Jerusalem is the church of God in its new and perfect state, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, beautified with all perfection of wisdom and holiness, meet for the full fruition of the Lord Jesus Christ in glory.

And I John saw the holy city,....

And I John - The writer of this book; whether the evangelist and apostle, or John the Ephesian presbyter, has been long doubted in the Church. New Jerusalem - See the notes on Gal 4:24-27 (note). This doubtless means the Christian Church in a state of great prosperity and purity; but some think eternal blessedness is intended. Coming down from God - It is a maxim of the ancient Jews that both the tabernacle, and the temple, and Jerusalem itself, came down from heaven. And in Midrash Hanaalem, Sohar Gen. fol. 69, col. 271, Rab.

John in his Gospel always writes [Greek] Hierosoluma of the old city; in the Apocalypse always Hierousaleem of the heavenly city (Re 3:12). Hierousaleem is a Hebrew name, the original and holy appellation. Hierosoluma is the common Greek term, used in a political sense.

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven - See the Analysis of the chapter. On the phrase “new Jerusalem,” see the Gal 4:26 note, and Heb 12:22 note. Here it refers to the residence of the redeemed, the heavenly world, of which Jerusalem was the type and symbol. It is here represented as “coming down from God out of heaven.” This, of course, does not mean that this great city was “literally” to descend upon the earth, and to occupy any one part of the renovated world; but it is a symbolical or figurative representation, designed to show that the abode of the righteous will be splendid and glorious. The idea of a city literally descending from heaven, and being set upon the earth with such proportions - three hundred and seventy miles high Rev 21:16, made of gold, and with single pearls for gates, and single gems for the foundations - is absurd. No man can suppose that this is literally true, and hence this must be regarded as a figurative or emblematic description. It is a representation of the heavenly state under the image of a beautiful city, of which Jerusalem was, in many respects, a natural and striking emblem. Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband - See the notes on Isa 49:18; Isa 61:10. The purpose here is, to represent it as exceedingly beautiful. The comparison of the church with a bride, or a wife, is common in the Scriptures. See the Rev 19:7-8 notes, and Isa 1:21 note. It is also common in the Scriptures to compare a city with a beautiful woman, and these images here seem to be combined. It is a beautiful city that seems to descend, and this city is itself compared with a richly-attired bride prepared for her husband,

Yet there is a difference, and it is just what I suggested. The Eastern mysticism is an ecstasy of unity; the Christian mysticism is an ecstasy of creation, that is of separation and mutual surprise. The latter says, like St. Francis, "My brother fire and …