Doctrine of Holy Scripture - Swedenborg Foundation

DOCTRINE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE 15410. In Revelation, chapter 21, the holy Jerusalem is thusdescribed:That there was a light in her like unto a stone most precious, as it were ajasper stone, clear as crystal; that she had a wall great and high, having twelvegates, and over the gates twelve angels, and the name written thereon of thetwelve tribes of the sons of Israel; that the wall was a hundred and forty-fourcubits, which is the measure of a man, that is, of an angel; and that thestructure of the wall was of jasper, and its foundations of every precious stone,of jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sardonyx, sardius, chrysolite, beryl,topaz, chrysoprase, jacinth, and amethyst; that the twelve gates were twelvepearls; that the city itself was pure gold, like unto pure glass; and that it wasfoursquare; and that the length, the breadth, and the height thereof wereequal, twelve thousand furlongs; with many other particulars (Rev. 21).That all these things are to be understood spiritually is evidentfrom the fact that by the holy Jerusalem is meant a new churchwhich is to be set up by the Lord, as has been shown in Doctrine ofthe Lord (n. 62–65). And as the church is here signified byJerusalem, it follows that all the things said of it as acity—concerning its gates, its wall, the foundations of its wall, andtheir measures—contain a spiritual sense; for the things that are ofthe church are spiritual. But what the several things signify hasbeen explained in New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine,published in London in the year 1758 (n. 1). I therefore refrainfrom a further explanation of them here. It is sufficient that it beknown from that source that there is a spiritual sense in eachseveral particular of the description, like a soul in its body; and thatwithout this sense nothing of the church would be understood inthe things there written; such as that the city was of pure gold; thatits gates were of pearls; its wall of jasper; the foundations of its wallof precious stones; that its wall was of a hundred and forty-fourcubits, which is the measure of a man, that is, of an angel; and thatthe city itself was twelve thousand furlongs in length, breadth, andheight; and so on. But whoever, from a knowledge ofcorrespondences, has come to know the spiritual sense willunderstand these particulars; as that the wall and its foundationssignify doctrine from the literal sense of the Word; and that thenumbers twelve, one hundred and forty-four, and twelve thousand,