The gates are named after the twelve tribes of Ifrael, to fignify that the Mofaic difpenfation is introductory to, and as it were the gate unto the Christian difpenfation. Then the Jews rightly understanding and believing Mofes, fhall believe in Jefus of whom Mofes wrote, When the Jews shall enter the Chriftian church in a body, the Gentiles fhall be led by their converfion to flock unto it from all quarters; fo that in this refpect the twelve tribes of Ifrael fhall be the gates into the church of Chrift to thofe who fhall come from the east, from the north, from the fouth, and from the west. The preservation of the Jews diftinct from every o ther people, though fcattered fo widely and for fo long a time, and their univerfal converfion to the Christian faith, and restoration to their own land, all in the most exact correfpondence with the antient prophecies concerning them, will appear fo miraculous, that infidelity itself shall be obliged to yield to fuch overpowering evidence of the truth of Chriftianity, and the fulluefs of the Gentiles fhall then come into the Chriftian church, Rom. xi. 1 1,-27.

That the Jews fhall be converted to the Chriftian faith in a body, fhall be collected from all parts of the world whither they are fcattered, and fhall be put in poffeffion of the land of Canaan, are clearly and frequently predicted by the prophets of God. And the whole train of divine pro3 F 2 vidence

vidence to that people, evidently appears preparatory to their converfion and to their return to their own land at the predicted time. Many paffages of fcripture contain general and dark hints, relative to the return of the Jews to their own land, and to their converfion in a body to the Christian faith but in the following these two great events are predicted in a full, clear, particular, and striking manner. Nothing but prejudice or inattention can put another meaning upon Deut. xxxii. 43. Ezekiel xi. 4,-20, 36, 37. and xxxix. 23,-29. If any thing were necessary to render it more probable that such is the meaning of these predictions, and that these events shall take place in due time, the following facts might be stated. The original promise and grant of that land to Abraham and his feed for an everlasting poffeffion by God himfelf:-The long difperfion of the Jews through all the countries of the world, in terms of the predictions of those very passages in which also their return is foretold;-the most uncommon care and accuracy with which they ftill preserve the genealogies of their tribes;—that they have no civil establishment in any country; and that notwithstanding the very great riches of many of them in money, they do not purchase land; by which uncommon peculiarities of their fituation, they have no attachments in any country to make them unwilling to return to the land of Canaan : -Their

3

Their ftrong attachment to that land, and their ardent hope of being restored to it, which length of time neither weakens nor cools;-and that the Turks, the present inhabitants of that country, who obtained poffeffion of it by violence, shall be mostly destroyed in that great war in the end of the year 1999, in which they and Papal Rome fhall mutually deftroy each other, so that the land of Canaan shall be left almoft without inhabitants in the beginning of the year 2000, ready for the return of the Jews to the land which God gave unto Jacob his fervant, wherein their fathers dwelt.

In this converfion of the Jews in a body, and in their return to their own land to a state of much greater profperity than their fathers ever enjoyed, the two great external proofs of Christianity, prophecy and miracle, fhall unite in fo wonderful and powerful a manner that their evidence fhall be irrefiftable. Their return to their own land, and their converfion to Christianity, will fully explain and confirm prophecy; and the whole of these events fhall appear fo miraculous, that no man will be able to deny that it is a work of God. In these events the finger of God will be evident. thus the Ifraelites in entering into the church of Chrift, fhall fet open its gates on every fide for the fullness of the Gentiles to flock unto it from every quarter.

And

At

At thefe twelve gates there are twelve angels as porters, to admit every proper perfon, and to refufe admiffion to every improper one. By this fymbol it is predicted, that the dispensations of divine providence and grace fhall fo be ordered, ason the one hand to conduct an innumerable multitude into the Chriftian church, and on the other hand to prevent the admiffion of any who are not true Chrif tians, Ifraelites indeed in whom there is no guile.

The names of the twelve apoftles of the Lamb are infcribed upon the foundations of the wall of the city. Therefore it is not the old Jerufalem which was founded before the days of the apostles of Chrift. It is not the Jewish church. But it is the Dew Jerufalem, the Chriftian church in its triumphant ftate, modelled in every respect upon the writings of the apoftles of Christ.

The measure of the city is twelve thousand furlongs. That this meafurement cannot apply to any real city, and does not fignify any extent of fpace, is evident from the great length of it, even 150 English miles; and from this circumftance, that "the length, the breadth, and the height of "the city are, equal." Though vastly exceeding any city in the world, one may be supposed to be 150 miles long and broad; but to fuppofe a city 150 miles high is to exceed all proportion and all probability. But the 12000 is a number made up of Ioco the number of the years of the millennium multiplied

multiplied by 12 the number of the apoftles; by the multiplication of which numbers a fymbol is formed, which reprefents the church of Chrift in its apoftolical purity and fimplicity, and at the fame time in its millennian glory for the fpace of a thousand years.

The wall is 144 cubits. By the multiplication of 12, the number of the patriarchs, the reprefentatives of the Jewish church, into 12, the number of the apostles of Chrift, the reprefentatives of the Christian church; the number 144 is produced, as a symbol both of the union and of the great increafe or multiplication of the Jewish and Christian church. When this fymbolical number of 144 is applied to the measurement of the wall of the city, the plain meaning of it is, that as the wall furrounds the city, both Jews and Gentiles fhall be included within the new Jerufalem, both fhall be greatly increafed, and they fhall all be faithful fervants of God like the 144000, fealed ones, chap.

vii. 4.

All the materials of which this city is built are of the moit valuable kinds :-all manner of precious. ftones, pure gold, and pearls. Thefe three are the material fubftances on which men put the highest value. These have all received their chief value from the creating hand of God. In many other fubftances on which the artift exerts his skill and industry, the workmanship exceeds the value

of