904. [verse 15] 'And the one speaking with me had a golden reed that he might measure the city and the gates thereof and the wall thereof' signifies that by the Lord there is given to those who are in the good of love the capability of understanding and knowing the quality of the Lord's New Church as to the doctrine and its introductory truths, and as to the Word from which it is derived. 'And the one speaking with me' signifies the Lord out of heaven, because the angel was one of 'the seven angels having the seven phials', treated of at verse 9 above, by whom is understood the Lord speaking out of heaven (n. 895). By 'the reed' is signified power or capability derived from the good of love, by 'a reed' power or capability (n. 485), and by 'gold' the good of love (n. 211, 726). By 'to measure' is signified to get to know the quality of a thing, thus to understand and know (n. 486). By 'the city', which was the holy Jerusalem, is signified the Church as to the doctrine (n. 879, 880). By 'the gates' are signified the cognitions of truth and good derived from the sense of the letter of the Word, which by virtue of the spiritual life in them are truths and goods (n. 899); and by 'the wall' is signified the Word in the sense of the letter, from which they are derived (n. 898). It is plain from these things that by 'the one speaking with me had a golden reed that he might measure the city and the gates thereof and the wall thereof' is signified that by the Lord there is given to those who are in the good of love the capability of understanding and knowing the quality of the Lord's New Church as to the doctrine and its introductory truths, and as to the Word from which it is derived. [2] That these things are signified cannot at all be seen in the sense of the letter for it is seen only that one angel speaking with John had a golden reed that he might measure a city, gates and a wall. Nevertheless, that another sense, which is spiritual, is within these things is quite plain from the fact that by 'the city Jerusalem' is not understood any city, but the Church; and therefore all the things that are said of Jerusalem as a city signify such things as are of the Church, and all the things of the Church in themselves are spiritual. Such a spiritual sense is also within the things that are said above at chap. xi, where are these words:-
There was given me a reed like a staff, and the angel stood by, saying, Arise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those adoring therein (verse 1).
A like spiritual sense is also within all the things that 'the angel measured with a reed' in Ezekiel (chap. xl-xlviii). Also within these in Zechariah:-
I lifted up mine eyes and saw, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand, and I said, Where art thou going? And he said to me, To measure Jerusalem that I may see what is the breadth thereof and what is the length thereof Zech. ii 1, 2 [H.B. 5, 6].
Indeed such a spiritual sense is within all the things of the tabernacle, and all those of the temple in Jerusalem, of which we read the measurements, and also in the measures themselves; and yet nothing thereof can be seen in the sense of the letter.
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