Chapter 4. On the Situation and Form of the City of God.

BUT let us now turn toward the Celestial city, and attentively consider its situation, form, foundation, gates, walls, and streets. It is situated on the holy mountains : thus \ve read in the Psalmist, tf The foundations thereof are in the holy mountains ;" with

ETERNAL HAPPINESS OF THE SAINTS. C3 this St. John agrees in the Apocalypse, where he says : " And he took me up in spirit to a great and high mountain : and he showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God." (chap. xxi. 10.) The situation of a city on a mountain is very convenient and useful, both for the purity of the airland as a forti fication. But what mountains are higher than heaven ? and what mountain is exalted above all mountains, except the heaven of heavens, of which David speaks, " The heaven of heavens is the Lord's 1" This is that mountain for which the same Prophet sighed when he said, " Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place?" ^And from this he implored and expected assistance, saying, " I have lifted up my eyes to the moun tains, from whence help shall come to me." Wherefore, the situation of the city of God is so high as to shut out everything that could in any way disturb its peace and har mony. It is higher than dust, thorns, and briars, or the poisonous bite of animals can reach: it is so high that neither vapours nor clouds, neither hail, nor thunder, ^ fire, nor lightning can terrify it : in fine, it is so high that those impure birds, which St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, calls 'f The spirits of wickedness in the high places," can never reach it.

The form of the City of God is square, for thus St. John tells us: " And the city lieth in a four square, and the length thereof is as great as the breadth." This expression signifies nothing more, than that admirable and perfect justice which is to be found in the city, where nothing unjust, nothing contradictory, nothing deformed can gain admittance. ^ Thus St. Austin explains the Psalm, " Mirabile in eequitate," that is, in justice. And truly wonderful will it be, to behold the innumerable inhabitants of this city, all endowed with perfect free-will; and yet throughout all eternity nothing wrong or imperfect will be found in any one of them, either in thought, word, or deed. Justly, therefore, does this city lie in a square, so that the breadth should not, in the least point, exceed the length, noi the length the breadth. This figure of a square may also signify, that the breadth of its heavenly treasures is equal to their length ; because as the abundance of goods will be infinite, so also will their duration. In the Scripture, breadth is applied to mul tiplicity, length to the duration of a thing. Thus, in the third Book of Kings, the great wisdom of Solomon is said to be — • " largeness of heart* as the sand that is on the sea- shore:" and in the 90th Psalm, duration of time is called— " length of days." There will, therefore, be in the city of our God, as much breadth as length, because there will be an immensity of good

things, together with an eternal duration of them. St. John also adds, that the height of the city is as great as its breadth, (so that it is square in every part) because the goods of the heavenly Jerusalem will not only be great and eternal, but also most noble and sublime. It is of little consequence, that Vitruvius and Yegetius do not approve of a square for the situation of a city : they speak of a city that feareth an enemy. But the Scripture speaketh of that holy city, which hath placed peace in its borders, and to which no evil can come on account of its height.