12. Amethyst-(purple)—The living blood-the atoning provision—the antidote to the cup of the harlot, and the means of eternal life

to the disciple, as it is also the means of exhibiting the sovereignty of God in Christ.

These gems may be considered one precious stone different lights, each throwing forth its peculiar lustre.

appearing only in Christ throughout

is the basis of every gem, as he is the only stone of the corner, and as he is also the foundation of the whole edifice, the stone cut out of the mountain, which itself became a great mountain and filled the whole world. These remarks, however, are to be taken only as suggestions, showing the probability that certain definite doctrinal ideas are to be attached to these several foundations and their garniture.*

Besides this garnishing, the foundations of the wall are said (verse 14) to bear the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. As we have remarked, (§ 486,) we do not suppose each of the apostles to have advocated respectively a particular doctrine, but we take these twelve foundations to represent twelve fundamental doctrines, to be found in the New Testament revelation, of which the twelve apostles (collectively and in the aggregate) constitute a type or figure. In fact, the expression in the fourteenth verse does not appropriate a particular name to each foundation. The twelve names may be upon every stratum of stone, or upon every bastion, or the same names may be upon the twelve strata as a whole. So Paul speaks of the disciples at Ephesus as built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets; that is, upon the foundation set forth in the Old and New Testament,-the foundation of the disciples' faith and hope, of which Christ is the chief corner-stone, and so represented in both of these sacred volumes.

Vs. 21, 22. And the twelve gates (were) twelve pearls ; every several gate was of one pearl ; and the street of the city (was) pure gold, as it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.

Καὶ οἱ δώδεκα πυλῶνες δώδεκα μαργα οῖται· ἀνὰ εἷς ἕκαστος τῶν πυλώνων ἐν ἐξ ἑνὸς μαργαρίτου. καὶ ἡ πλατεῖα τῆς πόλεως χρυσίον καθαρὸν ὡς θαλος διαυγής. Καὶ ναὸν οὐκ εἶδον ἐν αὐτῇ· ὁ γὰρ κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ παντοκράτωρ ναὸς αὐτῆς ἐστι, καὶ τὸ ἀρνίον.

§ 498. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls,' &c.—The word were is not expressed, but it is implied. After having said, however, that these twelve gates were twelve pearls, it would appear superfluous to add, that they were each formed of a different pearl; but if all of them were made out of one and the same pearl, then it would be necessary to state it, and such we suppose to be the meaning of the expression here. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, and every one of them was fabricated out of or from one and the same pearl, (ἐξ ἑνὸς μαργαρίτου.)

*The same construction affords us an idea of the kind of ornament alluded to, (Ezek. xvi. 12,) the original decoration of the vision of peace, as first intended to be revealed, before its perversion by misconstruction.

Pearls, as of a pure white colour, may be symbolical of perfect purityfreedom from mixture with any other substance; but their peculiar characteristic is their value, and this value is estimated by their magnitude. A pearl of sufficient size to form a gate, must be a hyperbolical figure of something of immense value; a pearl sufficient for the formation of twelve gates, must represent therefore something of infinite value, wholly incalculable. Such, we may say, is the value of an entrance into the kingdom of heaven, the value of eternal life; for what will a man give in exchange for his soul? The main idea to be illustrated here, we think, is that, whatever be the number of entrances into the holy city, the way, the door, the gate, is the same. The way of access is the same, although represented perhaps by twelve different figures; the material of the gates is the same, and the preciousness of the access by these gates is alike infinite.

The kingdom of heaven is said to be (Matt. xiii. 45, 46) "Like unto a merchant seeking goodly pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it." Not merely like the pearl, or like a merchant alone, but like a merchant going through this whole process of seeking, finding, selling, and buying. The kingdom of heaven represents the introduction of a new order of things, or of a principle upon which all things become new; as if the disciple, going about to find a way of salvation by works of his own, wrought from mercenary motives, finds the way of salvation by grace. This way once found, he relinquishes all dependence upon his own works, all claims upon any merits of his own, counting these as nothing that he may win Christ, and be found in him. Christ is the pearl; the kingdom is the order of things, or the principle by which, or upon which, eternal life is obtained through Christ, instead of the old way through the works of the law. So the kingdom of heaven is said to be like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened. It is a principle entirely changing the state of the elements affected by it. We do not suppose the holy city to be a figure precisely of the kingdom: but the kingdom may be a state of things incident to a position in the city. The admittance to the new position, and the admittance into the city affording this position, must be by the same gate or avenue, and that is Christ;-the apocalyptic holy city being, as we apprehend, a vision or representation of what Paul terms the new covenant, or new economy. No principle or doctrinal element is admissible into it, except through the appointed way of entrance, that is, through Christ, as he is variously represented in the Scriptures. All the principles of the economy of grace thus result from the character and work of Christ. Whether we regard him, therefore, as the way of salvation for the disciple, or as the way by which alone the principles of the economy of grace can be established and exhibited, he is equally the pearl of great price, the pearl of inestimable value.

To those that believe, he is precious. To such, Christ is indeed the pearl of infinite value. It is the being found in him which makes him the pearl. In effect, it is substitution in Christ in the sight of the Most High, which constitutes him the gate, or way of eternal life.

Here we have also another feature of the change resulting from making all things new. Under the legal dispensation the gates were of brass; under that of grace they are of pearl. The gates of brass are broken, (Ps. cvii. 16; Is. xlv. 1, 2;) the bars of iron are cut asunder, and the gates of righteousness (justification) are opened, (Ps. cxviii. 20, 21.) At the gates once desolate, (Lam. i. 4,) are now all manner of precious fruits, (Cant. vii. 13.) For the same reason, we apprehend, it is said, The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob, (Ps. lxxxvii. 2.)

$499. These gates of pearl are those at which, or over which, twelve angels, or messengers were said to be stationed, and which bore all the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. We may suppose these angels to represent modes of revelation, that is, of conveying divine truth to the mind, as we have considered the tribes types of a similar character. Corresponding with this, we suppose the gates or portals to represent doctrines peculiar 10 the economy of grace, illustrated or alluded to in the history of the children of Israel, or handed down to us in the dispensation of the legal economy as a whole. As among the Hebrews a proselyte could become a member of the Israelitish nation only by adoption into one of the tribes, a tribe was to a proselyte what a gate is to a city-an avenue or means of admission to the privileges of that favoured people. Hence these tribes may be put for so many different illustrations of the mode by which the disciple becomes a child of God; and of the criterion by which, as by a judge at the gate, (§ 485,) every element or principle belonging to the economy of grace is to be tried, as it were, before it can be admitted to that economy, or be manifested to belong to it.

That our meaning may be better understood, we enumerate twelve modes or figures by which the one way of participation in the benefits of redemption is illustrated, or set forth, both in the Old and New Testament: in the former, by types and symbols and prophetical allusions; in the latter, by a doctrinal form of instruction.

As we have remarked in respect to the foundations, and names thereon of the apostles, we are not obliged to suppose each gate to be designated by the name of a single tribe. The names of all of the twelve tribes may be upon every gate; or the expression may be intended only to represent the names of the tribes in the aggregate, upon the gates, as a whole. That is, whatever the gates signify, it is to be found in some measure illustrated or symbolized in the Old Testament revelation.

The calling of Abraham out from his native land, and from amidst his kindred, to a land which he was to receive especially as a gift of God,

appears to have been a type or symbol of the calling of the disciple from his position by nature, under the law, to his position by grace-called, as the apostle says, (1 Peter ii. 9,) out of [a position of] darkness into God's marvellous light.

The removal of the children of Israel from their state of Egyptian bond age to the free enjoyment of the promised land, was in like manner a type of the removal of the disciple from his position of bondage under the law, to his position of liberty under the gospel dispensation of grace, (Rom. vi. 14.)

The liberation of the people of Judah from their state of captivity in Babylon, and their restoration to their own land, may represent the deliverance of the disciple from the position of captivity peculiar to the mixed or adulterated system of faith, and his enjoyment of the position resulting from an entire dependence upon the merits of his Redeemer—a change alluded to 2 Cor. vi. 17.

Here are three illustrations of the disciple's admission to a participation of the privileges of the economy of grace, represented by the holy city; they may be supposed to constitute the three gates of one of the sides, more especially as they are all three of nearly the same character.

$500. There are said to have been three rites peculiar to the admission of proselytes to the privileges of the Jewish nation,* circumcision, baptism, and sacrifice. The first indeed was essential even to those born of Hebrew parents; as every male child without it was declared to be cut off from his people. Of the second, it is also said, that the whole people were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. With regard to the last, the stranger upon his admission was required (Num. xv. 14-16) to offer the same sacrifices as the Hebrew born. There was to be one law and one manner for the one as for the other; with both the shedding of blood was required for the remission of sin. So, according to the New Testament, the spiritual circumcision, the spiritual baptism, and the spiritual sacrifice, are equally necessary to bring the disciple into the position of a member of the household of faith-circumcised in Christ, (Col. ii. 11,) baptized into his death, (Rom. vi. 3,) and brought nigh by his blood, (Eph. ii. 13.) These may

* "Quod si proselyti ex gentibus Legem hanc recipere, et in communionem populi admitti cuperent, præter circumcisionem sacrificio quoque et baptismo initiandi erant, quibus tribus mediantibus ipsi primum Israelitæ in fœdus transierunt. . .

Baptismus in totius corporis immersione consistebat, quæ præsentibus tribus testibus peragebatur tantæque necessitatis et quondam reputabatur et etiamnum habetur, ut sine illa circumcisio proselyti nil valeat. Imo fœminarum proselytarum quæ circumcidi non poterant initiatio quondam tantum sacrificio, et baptismo, nunc posteriori solo fieri consuevit.

Si Proselytus cum familia sua ad Judæorum sacra transiret, non ipse solum sed etiam liberi atque infantes baptizari solebant.”—(Antiq. Heb. C. Ikenii.)

be considered three other modes of illustrating the avenue to a participation of the privileges of the economy of grace, and, as such, are represented by the three gates of another side of the city.

There are three effects spoken of as resulting from adoption into the name of Christ, (at least, as we understand the passage,) 1 Cor. vi. 11: ablution, sanctification, and justification. These may constitute three other illustrations of the way of admission represented by the three gates of another side of the city.

The ablution, or washing, we suppose to be the washing of regeneration alluded to Titus iii. 5-the new birth, the adoption of sons, as it is termed in the New Testament, (Gal. iv. 5,) of which the adoption of the proselyte or stranger, in the Old Testament, was a type or figure. As it was said of such an individual, after his admission to the privilege of a participation of the paschal lamb, (Ex. xii. 48,) "And he shall be as one born in the land ;" and as it is said of such, by the writer upon Hebrew antiquities, just referred to, that they were considered as infants newly born, (§ 321;) accounted no longer connected with their former nation or kindred, but to be of the nation into the body of which they had been engrafted.* To this peculiarity allusion appears to be made by our Lord in his question to Nicodemus, (John iii. 5,) "Art thou a master (teacher) of Israel, and knowest not these things?" (John iii. 10.)

The sanctification, we take to be the setting apart in Christ according to the purpose of God, symbolized first by the setting apart of the whole Hebrew nation as a peculiar people; subsequently by the setting apart of the priestly office, and the things of the temple; and further by the sanctification of persons and things otherwise mentioned on several occasions in the Old Testament.

The justification, in the name of Christ and by the Spirit of God, must be the same as justification through the righteousness of Christ imputed to the individual justified, which we suppose to be shadowed forth by the vicarious offerings of the Levitical dispensation—the victim sacrificed suffering the penalty of death, in order that the guilty individual in whose behalf the blood is shed may be justified by the merit of the offering, or be so accounted. As it is said of Jesus, (1 Pet. ii. 24,) “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye are healed;" or, as it is expressed 2 Cor. v. 21, "He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

These three processes, it will be perceived, are not three different ways of salvation, but three different modes of representing the same way. As

*"Qui autem hac ratione initiati erant, ut recens nati infantes considerabantur, (Conf. Joh. iii. 5; Tit. iii. 5; and 2 Cor. v. 17,) nec pristinam amplius gentem aut consanguineos habere, sed ex illa gente, cui inserti erant, esse censebantur."-(Ib.)