The measurement of the wall of the Holy City was said, in verse 17, to be according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. The stadia of the angel was “ after the manner of a man” --no different from that of a man and within human understanding, though it was of the angel. The angel had used man’ s standard of measurement, but it was symbolically, not literally, applied. It meant that the stadia employed by the angel was on a scale of measurement that was not unknown to man. The literal view of these measurements as being descriptive of the exact plan and size of the New Jerusalem as a city would destroy the sublimity of the apocalyptic picture and pervert the symbolism of the vision. In the comparison of the dimensions of the city and the wall surrounding it, the vision represented that the eminences within the wall of the New Jerusalem were so lofty that its highest summits and pinnacles were as many furlongs above the base of the wall as the length of the wall itself. The vision was symbolical of great and grand magnificence. To the eye of John from the summit ranges, floating down from God, was a view of splendor the magnitude of which was indescribable. But the figurative description, “ according to the measure of a man,” was not grotesque or disproportioned. God was the architect and builder of the Holy City (Psalms 12:1-8’ 7:1); which was the manifestation of his divine wisdom, as a building exhibits the skill of its designer (Ephesians 3:10-11; Ephesians 3:21); and in it his own glory will be exhibited through time and in eternity “ world without end.” In the symbolism of the New Jerusalem’ s dimensions was signified that it is the will of God that the church should include the whole multitude of the saved--its entire aggregation.