written on the gates, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel_.[567] These gates are also harmoniously distributed, three on each side of the square which the city forms. The _foundations of the city_, a term under which we are not to think of foundations buried in the earth, but rather of courses of stones going round the city and rising one above another, are also _twelve_; and on them are _twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb_. The Seer, however, is not satisfied with this general picture of the greatness of the new Jerusalem. Like that in Ezekiel, the city must be measured.[568] When this is done, her proportions are found, in spite of the absence of all verisimilitude, to be those of a perfect cube. As in the Holy of holies of the Tabernacle, the thought of which lies at the bottom of the description, _the length and the breadth and the height thereof are equal_. _Twelve thousand furlongs_, or fifteen hundred miles, the city stretches along and across the plain, and rises into the sky,--twelve, the number of the people of God, multiplied by thousands, the heavenly number. The wall is also measured--it is difficult to say whether in height or in thickness, but most probably the latter--_a hundred and forty and four cubits_, or twelve multiplied by twelve. The measuring is completed, and next follows an account of the material of which the city was composed. This was gold, the most precious metal, in its purest state, _like unto pure glass_. _Precious stones_ formed, rather than ornamented, its twelve foundations. Its gates were of pearl: _each one of the several gates was of one pearl; and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass_. In all these respects it is evident that the city is thought of as ideally perfect, and not according to the realities or possibilities of things.