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<p>We have here a further account of the city that should be built for the metropolis of this glorious land, and to be the receptacle of those who would come from all parts to worship in the sanctuary adjoining. It is nowhere called Jerusalem, nor is the land which we have had such a particular account of the dividing of any where called the land of Canaan; for the old names are forgotten, to intimate that the <i>old things are done away, behold all things have become new</i>. Now, concerning this city, observe here, 1. The measures of its out-lets, and the grounds belonging to it, for its several conveniences; each way its appurtenances extended 4500 <i>measures</i> 18,000 in all, <a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.48.35" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.48.35">Ezek. 48:35</a>. But what these measures were is uncertain. It is never said, in all this chapter, whether so many <i>reeds</i> (as our translation determines by inserting that word, <a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.48.8" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.48.8">Ezek. 48:8</a>; each reed containing six cubits and span, <a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.40.5" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.40.5">Ezek. 40:5</a>; and why should the measurer appear with the measuring reed in his hand of that length if he did not measure with <i>that</i>, except where it is expressly said he measured by cubits?) or whether, as others think, it is so many cubits, because those are mentioned <a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.45.2,Ezek.47.3" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.45.2,Ezek.47.3"><span class="bibleref" title="Ezek.45.2">Ezek. 45:2</span>; <span class="bibleref" title="Ezek.47.3">47:3</span></a>. Yet that makes me incline rather to think that where cubits are not mentioned must be intended so many lengths of the measuring reed. But those who understand it of so many cubits are not agreed whether it be meant of the common cubit, which was half a yard, or the geometrical cubit, which, for better expedition, is supposed to be mostly used in surveying lands, which, some say, contained six cubits, others about three cubits and a half, so making 1000 cubits the same with 1000 paces, that is, an English mile. But our being left at this uncertainty is an intimation that these things are to be understood spiritually, and that what is principally meant is that there is an exact and just proportion observed by Infinite Wisdom in modelling the gospel church, which though now we cannot discern we shall when we come to heaven. 2. The number of its gates. It had twelve gates in all, three on each side, which was very agreeable when it lay four square; and these twelve gates were inscribed to the twelve tribes. Because the city was to be served <i>out of all the tribes of Israel</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.48.19" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.48.19">Ezek. 48:19</a>) it was fit that each tribe should have its gate; and, Levi being here taken in, to keep to the number twelve Ephraim and Manasseh are made one in Joseph, <a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.48.32" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.48.32">Ezek. 48:32</a>. On the north side were the gates of Reuben, Judah, and Levi (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.48.31" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.48.31">Ezek. 48:31</a>), on the east the gates of Joseph, Benjamin, and Dan (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.48.32" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.48.32">Ezek. 48:32</a>), on the south the gates of Simeon, Issachar, and Zebulun (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.48.33" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.48.33">Ezek. 48:33</a>), and on the west the gates of Gad, Asher, and Naphtali, <a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.48.34" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.48.34">Ezek. 48:34</a>. Conformable to this, in St. John’s vision, the new Jerusalem (for so the holy city is called there, though not here) has <i>twelve gates</i>, three on a side, and on them are written <i>the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Rev.21.12,Rev.21.13" href="/passage/?search=Rev.21.12,Rev.21.13"><span class="bibleref" title="Rev.21.12">Rev. 21:12</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Rev
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