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CHAP. XVI. Objections against the City of Jerusalem answered.
VVHat is charged unjustly on Saint Paul and his compa∣nions, that they hada 1.1 turned the world upside down, may truly be laid to your charge, you have in your description of Ierusalem tumbled all things topsie turvy, in the position of the gates thereof; yea the foundations of the City, as presented by you, are out of course, and con∣trary to the rules of other writers.
Let God be true, and every man a liar. In this particular I profess my self a pure Leveller, desiring that all humane conceits (though built on most specious bottomes) may be laid flat and prostrated, if opposing the written Word. In conformity whereunto, we are bound to dissent from such Authors (otherwise honouring them for their severall deserts) to ac∣commodate the Description of the Gates and Towers of Ierusalem, accor∣ding to a threefold eminent Directory, which we finde in Nehemiah.
Give us I pray you an account of them in order.
The first main Scripture direction we are to observe is, the night survey which Nehemiah took of the walls, (or rather ruines) of Ieru∣salem, described in this manner:
NEHEM. 2. 13, 14, 15.And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the Dragon Well, to the Dung port, and viewed the walls of Ierusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire. Then went I out to the gate of the fountain and to the Kings pool, but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass. Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back and entred by the gate of the valley, and so returned.
The second is the severall reparations (where the same were required) done on the Gates and walls of the City by severall persons, in a circular form, from the Sheep-gateb 1.2 surrounding the whole City till they returned to the same place where they began▪ Whose names we have carefully inscribed on those portions of buildings, upon which their cost and pains were expended.
The third, but most materiall, (because most declaratory of the me∣thod of the Gates) is the solemn Processions, which the people divided into two Quires, made round about the walls: each of them measuring a Semi-circle; both of them incompassing the whole circumference of Ierusalem, and at last joining together in the (best meeting place) the Temple of God.