John Trapp on Ezekiel 40:1

CHAP. XL.

Ver. 1. IN the five and twentieth year, &c.] After the defeat of Gog and Magog cometh in theſe laſt nine Chapters a new Prophecy, aptly depending upon the former, concerning the Chriſtian Church, and the ſpiritual ſtate and conſtitution thereof: which is here prefigured by types of rebuilding the Temple, reſtoring the Levitical rites, and repoſſeſſing the promiſed land. To thoſe Jews who herehence expect a moſt glorious Temple and State at the coming of their imaginary Meſſiah (and for whoſe ſakes theſe high things are thus expreſſed) Chriſt may well ſay as afterwards he did to Nicodemus, Joh. 3.12. If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not:R. Abba. R. Solomon. Gal. l. 5. c. 12. how ſhall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly? The wiſer of their Rabbines (as Galatinus teſtifieth) convinced by good reaſons, underſtand theſe chapters not of an earthly building according to the letter, but of an heavenly, and in a myſtical ſenſe. And John the Divine ſo interpreteth this Scripture, Rev. 21. & 22. viz. of the heavenly Jeruſalem, that mother of us all. It is ordinary with the Prophets to ſpeak figuratively of the amplitude, ſplendour, and magnificence of the Chriſtian Church: as Iſa. 54.11, 12. I will lay thy ſtones with fair colours, and lay thy foundation with Sapphires, &c. that is, I will erect and raiſe my Church and Temple among the Gentiles, and adorn and deck it with luſtre and variety of precious graces. Divines obſerve, that God here ſheweth Ezekiel a new Temple bigger then the old Jeruſalem, and a new Jeruſalem bigger then all the land of Canaan: (yea according to the account of ſome learned Rabbines) bigger then all the world; for chap. 48.35. it was round about eighten thouſand meaſures, i. e. leucas ſay they. Now in opening of this Prophecy, it muſt not be expected that ſomething ſhould be ſaid to every verſe, as elſewhere hath been done: and yet we muſt know that there is nothing in holy Scripture that is not uſeful and profitable, 2 Tim. 3.16. though at firſt ſight it may ſeem otherwiſe. Metals lye hid in hardeſt quarries: wholeſome herbes are found oft in rougheſt places, and precious ſtones in barren ſands. Hippocrates ſaith that in the faculty of Phyſick there is nothing ſmall, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. De part. anim. lib. 1. cap. 5. nothing contemptible. Ariſtotle ſaith in all nature nothing is ſo mean, vile, and abject, that deſerveth not to be admired. The Rabbines have a ſaying that there is a mountain of ſenſe hangeth upon every Apex of the Word of God, &c.

And brought me thither] ſc. To Jeruſalem (in viſion) that valley of Viſion. In the beginning of this book, the ſpirit carried him into the plain of Shinar, there to ſee a viſion, purporting the deſtruction of the material Temple. Here, toward the cloſe of it, he is by the ſame hand carryed to Jeruſalem to ſee a myſtical Temple ſet up in the ſtead thereof, far more ſtately. The ſufferings of this life are in no compariſon worthy of the glory that ſhall be revealed, Rom. 8.18.