and altar is signified the church; as will be seen presently. A rod signifies power, because wood, of which walkingstaves were made among those of the ancient church, signifies good; and because a staff is instead of the right hand, and supports it, and by the right hand is signified power; hence it is, that a sceptre is a short staff, and by a sceptre is signified regal power; and a sceptre and staff are expressed by one and the same word in the Hebrew language. That a staff signifies power is evident from these places: "Say, How is the strong staff broken, and the beautiful rod-come down from thy glory and sit in thirst," Jerem. xlviii. 17, 18. "Jehovah shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion," Psalm ex. 2. "Thou didst strike through with his staves the head of his villages,' Habak. iii. 14. Israel is the rod of Jehovah's inheritance," Jerem. x. 16, li. 19. "Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me," Psalm xxiii. 4. Jehovah bath "broken the staff of his shoulder," Isaiah ix. 4, xiv. 5, Psalm CXXV. 3. 66 My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them," Hosea iv. 12. "Jehovah doth take away from Jerusalem-the staff of bread, and all the staff of water," Isaiah iii. 1, 2, Ezek. iv. 16, v. 16, xiv. 13, Psalm cv. 16, Levit. xxvi. 26. By the staff of bread and water, is signified the power of goodness and truth; and by Jerusalem, the church. By the rod of Levi, upon which was the name of Aaron, which blossomed in the tabernacle and yielded almonds, Numb. xvii. 2, 3, 7, 8, in a spiritual sense, nothing else is signified but the power of truth and good, because by Levi and Aaron was signified the truth and good of the church. That power is signified by a staff, is evident from the power of the staff or rod of Moses, in that by stretching forth his rod the waters were turned into blood, Exod. vii. 20. That frogs were made to come up over the land of Egypt, Exod. viii. 1, and following verses. That lice were caused to be produced, Exod. viii. 12, and following verses. : That by the rod were caused thunderings and hail, Exod. ix. 23, and following verses. That locusts were made to come forth, Exod. x. 12, and following verses. That waters were made to gush out of the rock

in Horeb, Exod. xvii. 5, and following verses, Numb. xx. 7-13. That the Red Sea was divided and turned back, Exod. xiv. 16, 21, 26. That by the rod, when lifted up in the band of Moses, Joshua overcame the Amalekites, Exod. xvii. 9-12. That fire was made to issue from the rock by the staff of the angel, Judges vi. 21. From all these passages it appears, that by a rod, or staff, is signified power: likewise from other passages; as in Isaiah x. 5, 24, 26, xi. 4, xiv. 5, xxx. 31, 32, Ezek. xix. 10-14, Lament. iii. 1, 2, Micah vii. 14, Zech. x. 11, Numb. xxi. 18.

486. "And the angel stood by, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein," signifies, the Lord's presence and his command, that he should see and know the state of the church in the new heaven. By angel, is meant the Lord, here as n. 5, 415, and in other places, because an angel never does any thing from himself, but only from the Lord; therefore he says, I will give my two witnesses, verse 3, and these were the Lord's witnesses. By standing by, is signified the Lord's presence; and by saying, is signified his command; by rise and measure, are signified to see and know that to measure signifies to know and scrutinize the quality of a state, will be seen below. By the temple, the altar, and them that worship therein, is signified the state of the church in the new heaven ;by the temple, the church as to truth of doctrine, n. 191; by the altar, the church as to the good of love, n. 392; and by them that worship, is signified the church as to worship proceeding from these two sources. By them that worship, is here signified adoration, which has relation to worship, because the spiritual sense is abstracted from persons, n. 78, 79, 96: that this is the case in the present passage, is evident from this circumstance also, that he was told to measure them that worship; for these three things constitute the church, viz., truth of doctrine, good of love, and worship proceeding from both. That it is the church in the new heaven which is meant, is plain from the last verse of this chapter, where it is said, that the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there

was seen in his temple the ark of his covenant, verse 19. The reason why the measuring the temple is spoken of at the beginning of this chapter, is, in order that the state of the church in heaven, before it was brought into conjunction with the church in the world, might be seen and known: the church in the world is meant by the court without the temple, which was not to be measured, because it was given to the Gentiles, verse 2; and then it is described as the great city, which is called Sodom and Egypt, verses 7, 8; but after the fall of that great city, verse 13, it follows that the church was become the Lord's, verse 15, and subsequent verses. It must be observed, that there is a church in the heavens as well as on earth; and that they make one, like the internal and external with man; wherefore a church in the heavens is first provided by the Lord, and from it, or by it, a church on earth; thence, it is said, that the New Jerusalem came down from God out of the new heaven, chap. xxi. 1, 2. By the new heaven, is meant the new heaven composed of Christians, which is frequently treated of in the following pages. To measure, signifies to know and scrutinize the quality of any thing; because by a measure, is signified the quality of a thing, or state; this is signified by all the measures of the New Jerusalem, chap. xxi.; and also by these words, which occur there: The angel having a golden reed, measured the city and the gates thereof; and he measured the wall, one hundred and forty-four. cubits; the measure of a man, that is, of an angel, verses 15, 17; and as by the New Jerusalem is signified a New Church, it is plain that by measuring it, and the things relating to it, is signified to know its quality. To measure, has a similar signification in Ezekiel, where it is said, That the angel measured the house of God, the temple, the altar, the court, and the chambers, xl. 3-17, xli. 1-5, 13, 14, 22, xlii. and xliii. And that he measured the waters, xlvii. 3, 4, 5, 9. Therefore it is said, Show the house of Israel the pattern, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, that they may keep the whole pat

tern, Ezek. xliii. 10, 11. The like is signified by measuring, in these passages: I lifted up mine eyes, and behold, a man, in whose hand was a measuring line, and I said, Whither goest thou? and he said, To measure Jerusalem, Zech. ii. 1, 5, 6, 8. He stood and measured the earth, Habak. iii. 6. The Lord Jehovah "hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the bills in a balance," Isaiah xl. 12. "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? who laid the measures thereof, or who hath stretched the line upon it?" Job xxxviii. 4, 5, 6.

487. "But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not," signifies, that the state of the church on earth, such as it is at present, is to be removed, and not to be known. By the court without the temple, is signified the church on earth, this being without heaven or the temple, n. 486; by leaving it out, is signified to remove it, in this instance, from heaven, because such is its state; and by not measuring it, is signified not to scrutinize and know its quality, n. 486. The reason follows, namely, because it is given unto the Gentiles, and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. That by the court without the temple, is here signified the church on earth such as it still is, appears from what follows in this chapter, where it is described as the great city, which, spiritually, is called Sodom and Egypt, in which the Lord's two witnesses lay dead, and which afterwards fell in a great earthquake, wherein were slain names of men seven thousand; besides other circumstances. By a court, in the Word in other places, is signified the external of the church; for there were two courts, through which it was necessary to pass, in order go into the temple itself at Jerusalem; and because by the temple was signified the church as to its internal, therefore by the courts, was signified the church as to its external; wherefore the strangers, who were from among the Gentiles, were admitted into the courts, but not into the temple itself. And as the external of the church is signified by a court, therefore also the church on earth is

to

signified thereby, and also heaven in ultimates, because the church on earth is the entrance to heaven, and likewise heaven in ultimates. This is what is signified by a court, in the following passages: "Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, that he may dwell in thy courts; we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple," Psalm lxv. 5. "Praise ye the name of Jehovah, ye who stand in his house, in the courts of the house of our God," Psalm cxxxv. 1, 2. "How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Jehovah, my soul longeth, yea, even fainteth, for the courts of Jehovah," Psalm lxxxiv. 1, 2. "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise," Psalm c. 4. "The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree, those that be planted in the house of Jehovah, shall flourish in the courts of our God," Psalm xcii. 12, 13. "A day in thy courts is better than a thousand, I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness," Psalm lxxxiv. 10; besides others; as in Psalm xcvi. 7, Isaiah i. 12, lxii. 9, Zech. iii. 7, Ezek. x. 3, 4, 5. Of the courts of the temple of Jerusalem, 1 Kings vi. 3, 36. Of the courts of the new temple, Ezek. xl. 17-31-44, xlii. 1-4, xliii. 4-7. And of the court without the tabernacle, Exod. xxvii. 9-18.

488. "For it is given unto the Gentiles," signifies, because the state of that church is destroyed and laid waste by evils of life, as is evident from the signification of Gentiles, as denoting those who are in evils of life, and, abstractedly, evils of life, n. 147, 483.

489. "And the whole city shall they tread under foot forty and two months," signifies, that it would disperse every truth of the Word, even to nothing remaining. By the holy city, is meant the holy Jerusalem; and by the holy Jerusalem, is meant the New Church which is in truths of doctrine, for holy is predicated of divine truth, n. 173; and a city, signifies doctrine, n. 194; therefore by treading that city under foot, is signified to disperse the truths of its doctrine; by forty and two months, is signified until there is an end, when there is no truth left; by truths of doctrine are meant truths from the Word, be