Revelation 21:16

And the city lies four-square. Therefore, the city is said to lie four-square and to be placed with equal dimensions on every side, because it is not allowed to be marked by any inequality. To be perfect according to the apostle, that is, to be …

And he measured the city with twelve thousand stadia. That is, he saw the Church to be perfect in faith and deeds, or he endowed it to be so. The perfection of the four principal virtues, elevated by the faith of the Holy Trinity, composes …

Its length and breadth and height are equal. This is the solidity of invincible truth, by which the Church, supported by the length of faith, the breadth of charity, and the height of hope, is not allowed to be carried about by every wind of …

For if they are led twelve by twelve, they will be a hundred and forty-four, that is, the number of the City of Jerusalem. And so, a soul hierarchized in this way is a city in which God lives and is seen. John says of …

And the city lieth four square,.... To the four corners of the world, from whence its inhabitants come, and denotes the regularity, uniformity, perfection, and immovableness of it. And the length is as large as the breadth; this church state will be all of a piece, perfect, entire, and wanting nothing.

This city has a wall that is impregnable as well as precious. [3.] The form of it was very regular and uniform: It was four-square, the length as large as the breadth.

): Twelve thousand furlongs each way, each side, which is forty-eight thousand furlongs in the whole compass, or fifteen hundred German miles. Here is room sufficient for all the people of God-- many mansions in their Father's house. [5.] The foundation of the wall, for heaven is a city that hath her foundations (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation

The city lieth foursquare - Each side was equal, consequently the length and breadth were equal; and its height is here said to be equal to its length. It is hard to say how this should be understood. It cannot mean the height of the buildings, nor of the walls, for neither houses nor walls could be twelve thousand furlongs in height; some think this means the distance from the plain country to the place where the city stood. But what need is there of attempting to determine such measures in such a visionary representation?

twelve thousand furlongs--literally, "to twelve thousand stadii": one thousand furlongs being the space between the several twelve gates. BENGEL makes the length of each side of the city to be twelve thousand stadii. The stupendous height, length, and breadth being exactly alike, imply its faultless symmetry, transcending in glory all our most glowing conceptions.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

And the city lieth four-square - It was an exact square. That is, there was nothing irregular about it; there were no crooked walls; there was no jutting out, and no indentation in the walls, as if the city had been built at different times without a plan, and had been accommodated to circumstances. Most cities have been determined in their outline by the character of the ground - by hills, streams, or ravines; or have grown up by accretions, where one part has been joined to another, so that there is no regularity, and so that the original plan, if there was any, has been lost sight of. The New Jerusalem, on the contrary, had been built according to a plan of the utmost regularity, which had not been modified by the circumstances, or varied as the city grew. The idea here may be, that the church, as it will appear in its state of glory, will be in accordance with an eternal plan, and that the great original design will have been fully carried out. And the length is as large as the breadth - The height also of the city was the same - so that it was an exact square. And he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs - As eight furlongs make a mile, the extent of the walls, therefore, must have been three hundred and seventy-five miles. Of course, this must preclude all idea of there being such a city literally in Palestine. This is clearly a figurative or symbolical representation; and the idea is, that the city was on the most magnificent scale, and with the largest proportions, and the description here is adopted merely to indicate this vastness, without any idea that it would be understood “literally.” The length, and the breadth, and the height of it are equal - According to this representation, the height of the city, not of the walls (compare Rev 21:17), would be three hundred and seventy-five miles. […]