CHAP. I. Of the Situation of Mount MORIAH: [...]

MORIAH 2 Chron. 3.1. Is. 2.2. The Mountaine of the Lords House, from whence soever it had its denomination (about which there are various conjectures) it is certain, it had its designation for that use and honour to which it was imployed, 1 Chron. 21.26. & 22.1. by fire from Heaven, and of old time, Gen: 22.2, &c. by A­brahams offering up his son Isaac there in a figure. R: Sol: in Gen. 22. Some are of opinion that it was called Moriah [Page 2]from [...] Instruction, because from thence there went forth a law and doctrine for all Israel: Onkel ibid. others conceive the name to have been derived from the word [...] Mor which betoken­eth Myrrh and spicery, because it was to be the only place of offering incense: Fuller mis­sel. lib. 2. cap. 15. others from [...] Mor [...]eh jah, The Lord will be visible, because the Sonne of God was to ap­peare there in humane flesh. And so they all repute, that it carried a notation predictive, or referring to something that was to occurre there in time to come. But if we will apply the etymologie of it to that [...]i [...]e present, when it and the Country about it, did first take that name of the land of Moriah, we may construe it, The Land of a teacher of God, (as John 3.2.) or the Land of the Lord my teacher, as being the Territory of Sem, or Melchisedek, the great teacher of the waies of the Lord, (while the Canaanites round about did walke in blind­nesse, and were led by teachers onely of delusion) and the Land which the Lord his teacher had designed to him in the prediction of his father Noah.

Ioseph. An. 114. lib. 15. c. 14. This Mouut was so seated in the midst of Jerusalem, that the City lay [...], in form of a Theatre round a­bout it. Vid. Ezek. 40.2 & Kamch. ibid. & Tosaph. ad Kelim. On the South lay Jerusalem it selfe built upon Mount Acra, and Acra naturally higher then Moriah, Ioseph. de Bell. lib. 5. c. 13. but much levelled by the Asmonean family in the time of their reigne, and the valley betwixt, well raised and filled up with earth, that both the Temple might over-top the buildings on Acra, and that the coming up from the City to the Tem­ple, might be the more plaine and easie, compare Luke 3.5. Psal. 48.2. A [...]en Ezra ibid. [...] On the North side lay Mount Sion furnished with the gal­lant buildings of the Palace, Court, and City of David. These two Mountaines Acra and Sion, and the Cities built upon them (the London and Westminster, City, and Court of the Land of Canaan) did so decline and descend upon their South-east and North-east points, that on the East and West of the Temple they met and saluted each other in a valley, having also a deep valley betwixt them and the Temple on every side, but only on the South, where it was the lesse deep because of the levelling, mentioned immediately before.

Although this Mount Moriah were not so high of it selfe [Page 3]as the two hills on either side it, yet was it of a great pitch and steepnesse Id. de Bell. lib. 5. c. 14. [...] A strong heap, steep, and deep on every side. And it was a dis­cerning note of a young male child, Hagigab per. 1. That he was bound to appear before the Lord, at the three festivals, if [...]e were once come to be able, to go up the Mountaine of the Temple holding his father by the hand.

This Mount fell so in the division of the Land, that part of it was in the lot of one Tribe, and part of it in another; Aveth R. Na [...]han per. 34. Zevachin pe. 5. in Geinara. For most part of the Courts was in the portion of Judah, but the Altar, Porch, Temple, and most holy place were in the portion of Ben­jamin. And that part that lay in the portion of Judah was made hollow under [...] with arches built upon arches underneath, (saith Maimony) Beth [...]abbe­kirah per. 5. because of the Tent of defilement.

Now this that he calleth The Tent of defilement, might very well be supposed to be a Sinke, or common Shore, made un­der ground, and arched over for the conveyance of all the filth and wash of the Courts away, (and that there was such a thing we shall see hereafter) but he explaineth himselfe in another place, and saith that [...] Maym. Pa­rah per. 2. All the Mountaine of the house (that is, the outmost space) and all the other Courts were hollow under, because of an abysse or deep grave. Now the Talmudicks use to call a sinke, unseen, or unsuspected grave, [...] Talm Bab. Parah per. [...]. gloss. ibid. An abysse grave, [...], in the Gospell language, Luke 11.44. And so they call an unseen or unknowne uncleanenesse, [...] Nazir. per. [...] & Maym. in Biath Mikd [...] per. 4. an abysse of uncleanenesse, and they oppose to it [...] An uncleanenesse knowne of. Wherefore that they might be sure, that there should be no graves secretly made in any of the Courts of the Temple, by which they might be defiled, they arched all the Courts under ground, so as that there were [...] arches upon arches (as my Author expresseth it, which he explaineth in another Id. in Pa­rah per. 3. place, in another story of the like nature) [...] one arch set upon two arches, so that the feet of an arch stood upon two arches that were under it. And so it was either impossible to bury above the arch for want of soile, or if it were possible [Page 4]to bury below the arches, it was deep and farre enough from defiling.

CHAP. II. The measure of the floore of the Mountaine of the Temple.
[...].

THE Compasse of the floore of Moriah Ios. de Bell. lib 5. cap. 14. did increase by time and industry (somewhat though not much) above what it was when Solomon first began the Temple there: For 1 Chr. 21.8. & 22.1. whereas David by divine direction had built an Altar, and God by divine fire upon it, had fixed that very place for the place of the Altar of the Temple; the Mountaine possibly in some part of it, might want here and there somewhat upon the edge of it, by ben­dings and windings in, so that the square for all the Courts which was intended, and which was to be measured from the Altar as from the standing mark, could not runne even, but did meet with some small hiat us through the want and pinch­ing in of the hill in certaine places: whereupon Solomon and the succeeding generations, were still encreasing the spaci­ousnesse and capaciousnesse of it, by filling up the valley or precipice where the want was, insomuch that the compasse and space of it at the last, under the second Temple was Mid. per. 2. [...] five hundred cu­bits upon five hundred cubits, that is, a perfect square of 500 cu­bits upon every side, 2000 cubits in the whole compass about: Maym in Beth habbechir. per. 5. And this square piece of ground was inclosed with a Wal. Not but that there was some more space upon the floore of the Mount then barely this measure, for Pisk. Te­ [...] [...]ph. ad Midd. [...] the Mount was farre larger then 500 cubits square, but only so much was taken in for the holy ground.

This number of 500 cubits upon every side of the square, is so agreeable to the number of Ezek. 42.20. & 45 2. Ezekiel, that that help­eth to confirme and justifie this proportion and account: and although his large measure, do differ farre from this of ours, yet doth his cubit measure and state the cubit that we have in hand, so well, that it would be very hard, if not im­possible otherwise among the various sizes of cubits that we meet withall, to determine any thing of it: For wee finde mention of the Kimch. in Ezek. 45. & 43.13. & R. Sol. ibid. common cubit of five hand bredths, Kelim. per. 17. of the middle of six, of the cubit halfe a fingers breadth larger then the cubit of Moses, and the cubit halfe a finger bredth lar­ger then that: but Ezekiel hath flinted his Ezek. 4 5. cubit to be a cubit and a hand bredth (that is the common cubit of 5 hand bredths, and one hand bredth over;) And so the Jewes con­clude upon the same measure in this received maxime: [...] Kelim ubi supr. Kimch. in 2 Chron. 3.3. The cubit by which the Temple buildings were measured was 16 hand bredths, but the cu­bit by which the vessels were measured was but five.

The hand bredth therefore being Kimch. in M [...]ol in voce [...] the foure fingers bredth as they be laid close together, which make but three inches, the cubit of six hand bredths, (which is the cubit we imbrace here) ariseth to 18 inches or just halfe a yard, and so by this computation, the 500 cubits upon every side of the square was 250 yards, and the whole compasse of the wall was a 1000 yards about.

Antiq. lib. 15. c. 14. Josephus hath alotted a just furlong to every side of the square: [...], and so hath made the whole compasse to be exactly halfe a mile about, reckoning according to the common cubit, and according to the measure best known among the Greeks and Romans, for whom he wrote.

And now if any one will take up the full circuit of the wall that encompassed the holy ground, according to our English measure, it will amount to halfe a mile, and about 166 yards. And whosoever likewise will measure the square of Ezekiel, chap. 42.20. he will finde it 6 times as large as this chap. 40.5. the whole amounting to three miles and an halfe, and about 140 yards, a compasse incomparably larger [Page 6]then Mount Moriah divers times over; and by this very thing is shewed that that is spiritually and mystically to bee un­derstood.

The description of the Temple and City, that he hath gi­ven in the end of his book, as it was a prediction of some good to come, so was that prediction true, thus farre accor­ding to the very letter, namely that there should be a Temple and a City newly built: and so it was a promise and a com­fort to the people then in captivity, of their restoring againe to their owne land, and there injoying Jerusalem and the Temple againe, as they had done in former time, before their removing and captivating out of their owne country: But as for a literall respondency of that City and Temple, to all the particulars of his description, it is so farre from it, that his Temple is delineated larger then all the earthly Jerusalem, and his Jerusalem larger then all the land of Canaan. And thereby the scope of the Holy Ghost in that ichnography is cleerly held out to be, to signifie the great inlarging of the spiritual Jerusalem and Temple, the Church under the Gospel, and the spirituall beauty and glory of it, as well as to certi­fie captived Israel, of hopes of an earthly City and Temple to be rebuilt, which came to passe upon their returne under Cyrus.

Yet had this his space of the holy ground its bounds, though they were exceeding large; but when John in his Re­velation is upon the measure of his Temple, this outer Court or space is left boundlesse, and not measured nor inclosed at all, and the reason is given because that Court was given to the Gentiles, and they should tread the holy City (as men trod Gods Courts when they came to worship) two and forty months, Rev. 11.1, 2, 3, &c. still clearing the reason of the Propheticall in­larging of the holy ground, which was to denote the abun­dant and numerous worshippers of God which should be un­der the Gospell.

The Wall that encompassed and went about the square of the holy ground, was of very fair stone, Jos. de Bell. lib. 5. c. 14. and it was five and twenty cubits, or twelve yards and an halfe high, that is, as one stood within the compasse of it, in the holy ground; [Page 7]for without it stood over a very deep and sharp precipice, and so there was an exceeding great height from the bottome of the trench beneath, to the top of the wall, but within it was no higher then 25 cubits, and that height it carried about the whole square.

Now whereas it is a very common Tenet amongst the Tal­mudicks that [...] Mid. per. 2. & Kimch. ubi supr. The Easterne wall w [...] six cubits high and no more, It is not to be un­derstood of the whole East side Wall, for that was 25 cubits high as well as the rest, but it is to be understood only of the wall or battlement that was just over the East gate: and so it is explained by some of them thus, [...] Mid. per. 1. Sect. 1. For whereas the Priest that was sprinkling the bloud of the red Cow upon Mount Olivet, was to looke directly by this East gate, upon the gate of the Temple, and whereas Maym. in Beth habbechir. per. 6. the floore of the Porch of the Temple was two and twenty Cubits higher ground then the floore of this East gate, and so the Priest looking from Olivet through this gate R. Sh [...]m. [...] in Mid. could not see above the eight step before the Porch, Pisk. T [...] ­saph. ibid. therefore it was needfull that the wall that was just over the East gate should be low, that what he could not see through the gate he might see over it.

CHAP. III. The East gate of the Mountaine of the House [...] Shushan gate. The Prospect of Mount Olivet, and part of the City before it.

IN the surveying of the gates and buildings that were in this outmost wall, and virge of the holy ground, we will begin at the East quar­ter which faced Mount Olivet, and in which side of the square there was only one gate: this and all other the gates, both in this wall and in the other that incompassed the Courts Mid. per. 2. were twenty Cubits high and ten Cubits broad, as the Hebrew writers do constantly reckon.

In which account they and their Countryman Josephus, who wrote in another language, do not differ (although that Jos [...]de Bell. lib. 5 c. 14. his constant measure that he gives of all the gates, be 30 Cubits high and 15 Cubits broad) but they do in this diver­sity explaine the thing the better. The height of the whole gatehouse of every gate, or of the pile where the gate was set, was 30 Cubits, and so it rose 5 Cubits above the wall, but the very entrance of the gate, or the doore of it, was but 20 Cubits high. And so the very bredth of the entrance of the doors of every gate was but 10 Cubits, but the che [...]ks of the gate on either side was 2 Cubits and an halfe, and so the bredth of the whole pile, was 15 Cubits in all: The height of this East gate only came short of the rest, 4 Cubits, for Maym. in Beth habbekirah per. 6. Gl [...]ss. in Mid. it rose but but 6 cubits above the entry or light that was pas­sed through, whereas the rest did rise ten, and so it rose but one cubit above the height of the wall, whereas the rest did five; and the reason was given immediately before, because the Priest that burned the red Cow on Mount Olivet might looke over it upon the Temple; for so they conceive that command bound him when he sprinkled her bloud. He shall sprinkle of her bloud directly before the Tabernacle of the Congregation [Page 9]seven times, Numb. 19.4. Observe Christ and his Disciples, ha­ving gone out of this gate from the Temple, now sitting up­on Mount Olivet before this gate, and looking back on the sumptuous building of the Temple, and Christ discoursing concerning their ruine, Mat. 24.1, 2, 3, &c.

This gate stood not just in the very middest of this Eastern wall, as if it had 245 cubits of the wall on either side it, but it stood more toward the North, because it was to stand di­rectly in the front, or over against the porch of the Temple. Now the Altar being pitched and fixed so by a divine ap­pointment, that the Mountain did not allow an equal space of ground on either side it, they were forced to build the Tem­ple so, as to stand in its proper parallel with the Altar, and to cast the Courts so, as that [...] Mid. ubi supr. The greatest space of the Mount was on the South, the second on the East, the third on the North, and the least Westward.

Id.per. 1 Upon this East gate was pourtraied and pictured the resemblance of the City Shushan, the royall Seat of the Persian Monarchy, and the gate it selfe, at least some part of it was called by this name, [...] The Talmud saith Kelim. per. 17. There were two sorts of Cubits in Shushan, the Palace, one which exceeded the cubit of Moses half a finger, and this was upon the North-east corner, and the other which exceeded that, halfe a finger more, and that was on the South-east corner. Now the Glosse explains it thus, that Shushan the Palace was a room in the East gate where Shushan was pourtraied. And the reason of that picture is given by some to be Aruch. in Shushan. That Israel might see it and remember their captivity in Shushan: by others, R [...]mbam in Mid. per. 1. Gloss. in Mish­naioth in 8. ibid. Because when they came out of captivity, the King of Persia commanded to picture Shushan upon the gates of the house, that the fear of that Kingdome might be upon them, But here Abraham Zaccuth doth move a just quere. The King­dome of Persia Iuckasin fol. 65. col. 2. (saith he) and Shushan lasted but a little while after the second Temple was built, namely about some 34 years, and then how came it to passe that that picture continued there all the time of the second Temple? But there are some that resolve it thus, That the chil­dren of the captivity made this pourtraiture, that they might remember the wonder of Purim, which was done in Sushan, Esth. 9.26. and this is a good resolution: so he.

This gate is called The Kings Gate, 1 Chron: 9.18. not for any speciall or ordinary entrance of the King through it (for his common coming in, was at the cleane opposite quar­ter, namely on the West side) but it is so called, because King Solomon built it and the rest of the wall that way, at an ex­traordinary paines and charge, fetching up the foundation with huge stones, from the bottome of the deep valley that lay under: of which anon.

But before we part from this gate, let us stand a little in it and take the prospect that is there before us Eastward, for the better understanding of some places of Scripture, that speake of the places thereabout.

Mount Olivet faced Jerusalem, and the Temple, and Sion upon the East, winding likewise Northward, so as that it faced Sion also something upon the North. Betwixt Jerusa­lem and it, was the valley of Hinnom or Tophet, where was the horrid and hideous practice of their irreligious religion, of butchering their children, in causing them to passe through the fire, or burning them to Molech. For Solomon had built an high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab in this hill that was before Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon, 1 King. 11.7. namely on the right hand of the Hill, as you looked upon it from Jerusalem, 2 King. 23.13. In this text of the Kings it is called [...] Har hammashchith, instead of [...] Har hammishchah, The Mount of cor­ruption, instead of The Mount of Ʋnction, or of Olives, the Holy Ghost branding the fact, and the place for the fact, with so visible and notable a marke of distaste and displeasure at it. To so great a contrariety to what he once was, when he was himselfe, had Solomons idolatrous wives bewitched him, that as he had built a sumptuous Temple on Mount Moriah to the true God, so they perswade him to build an Idolatrous Temple to their abominations on Mount Olivet, in the face of the Temple, and affronting it. The valley beneath this accursed Idoleum, was called The valley of Tophet, and the valley of the son or the sons of Hinnom, Jer: 7.31, 32. & 19.6. &c. The valley of Topbet, that is, Vid. Buxt. Heb. Lex. in [...] The valley of Drummes or Tabers: from the noise that was made with such kind of instruments [Page 11]to drown the cries and shrieking of the burning children: And the valley of the sonnes of Hinnom, that is, the valley of chil­dren of shrieking and roaring; from the wofull cries of those poore children frying in the fire. This was probably that which is called the valley of the carkasses or the dead bodies, Jer. 31.40. of which name the Chaldee Paraphrast in that place hath given this reason, Because the dead bodies of the Camp of th [...] Assy­rians fell there: and to which Josephus also giveth testimony when he relateth that a place was called Jos. de Bell. lib. 6. c. 26. & 31. The Assyrian Camp. And here may we give a check a little to the peremptorinesse of Rabbi Solomon upon the Text of Jeremy, lest he grow too proud, who glosseth the fortieth verse thus, R. Sol. in Ier. 31.40. The valley of dead bodies is the valley where the carkasses of the Camp of Senache­rib fell: and the valley of the Ashes, is the place whither they carried the ashes forth, which was without Jerusalem: These places they shall bring within the City even within the walls: And this Prophesie is to be accomplished in the last redemption in despight of the Hereticks, for it was not accomplished under the second Temple. By Hereticks hee virulently meaneth Christians, who deny any other Messias yet to come, and that there shall be any more an earthly Je­rusalem. For he would construe those words of the Prophet strictly according to the letter, as if there should be a time when these valleys should be walled within Hierusalem, really and indeed; whereas the Prophet in mentioning of those most defiled and polluted places to be taken into the City, meaneth only the bringing in of the Heathens, who had been polluted with all manner defilement of Idolatry and other abominations, into the spirituall Ierusalem which is above, or the Church. And yet if we would follow him even in his literall construction, we might shew, out of his owne Au­thors the Talmudists, how Bethphage, the Towne that stood even in these places mentioned by the Prophet, though it stood out of the walls of Jerusalem, yet by their owne confes­sion is it reckoned as a member or part of Jerusalem: and so was that prophecy literally fulfilled by their owne choro­graphy at the coming of our Messias; But here is not a place for such disputes.

This was the prospect that you had before you on the [Page 12]right hand as you stood in the East gate of the Mountaine of the Temple; namely a part of Mount Olivet divided from the City Jerusalem by the valley of Tophet, & by the valley of Ashes; on the side of the valley, neere Ierusalem stood the Towne Bethphage, and on the hil on the further side of the valley over against it, stood Bethany, renowned for the raising of Lazarus from the dead there, and for our Saviours frequent resort thither, and ascension thence.

Directly before you, was the place upon Mount Olivet where they used to burne the red Cow into purifying ashes, when they had occasion to do such a work: and Maym. in Parah per. 3. & in Shekalim [...] 4. thither went a double arched Causey, of the same manner of arching that we have mentioned under the Temple Courts: and for the same caution, namely for security against graves, by which the Priest that went about that imployment might have been defiled, and so the work [...]ard.

Upon your left hand as you stood, ran Mount Olivet stil, and the valley betwixt you and it and all along on the East point and on the North side of Sion, was called the valley of Ki­dren, of famous memory and mention in Scripture, 2 Sam: 15.23. 2 Kings 23.6. Iohn 18.1. &c. At the foot of the hill, be­yond this valley you might see Gethsemany or the place of the oile Presses, whither they brought the Olives they had gather­ed upon Mount Olivet to be pressed, and the oil got out. And there it was whither our Saviour went after his last Supper, and where he was apprehended having supped that night as it is most likely in Sion or the City of David.

CHAP. IV. Of the two South Gates [...] The Gates of Huldah.

AS the East quarter of the enclosing wall, did face Mount Olivet, so did the South quarter face Ierusalem the City it selfe; For take we the whole City, either built upon seven Hils Ielammed. f [...]l. 52. as Tan [...]huma asserts it, or upon three, Acra, Moriah, and Sion, as it is commonly de­scribed, or adde Bezetha and Ophila if you will, the situation of it will be found thus, that [...] Tosaph. ad Kelim. That the Mountaine of the Temple will be found lying Northward of Ierusalem, and Sion Northward of the Mountaine of the Temple. And thus do the Jewes in their antiquities general­ly seat it, and that not without sufficient warrant of the Scripture. For how can those words of the Psalmist, Beauti­full for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Sion on the sides of the North, Psal: 48.2. be more properly and plainly inter­preted then as Aben Ezra doth interpret them; Aben. Ezr. in Psal. 46. Sion on the North side of Ierusalem? And those words of Ezekiel, He set me upon a Mountaine, by which was the frame of a City towards the South, Ezek: 40.2. who can give them a sense more genuine and proper then Kimchi hath done, when he saith Kimch. in Ezek 4.2. The Mountaine is the Mountaine of the Temple, and this City is Ierusalem on the South?

On this side therefore that faced Ierusalem, or that looked South, there were two Gates that were called Talm. in Mid. per. 1. The Gates of Huldah, and they were so placed, as that they were in an equall distance from the two Angles of the Wall, East and West, and of the same distance one from another. And so is Iosephus to be understood when he saith [...] Ioseph. An­tiq. lib. 15. c. 14. [Page 14] The fourth part of the Wall was towards the South, and it had gates in the middle; that is, the gates were so set, as that there was an equall space betwixt gate and gate, and betwixt either gate and the corners of the wall.

From whence these gates did take their name to be called The gates of Huldah, is hard to determine, whether from [...] Huldah, which signifieth a Weesell, of which creature Vid. Aruch. in [...] the Hebrewes write many Stories; or Const. Lem­per. in Mid. pag. 12. from the Syrian word [...] which translateth the Greeke word [...], To creep into, 2 Tim. 3.6. or from [...] This, or hither is com­mon ground, or Vid. R. Sol. in 2 Kings 22. from the Prophetesse Huldah, who was of so great esteeme in her time among the Jewes, as that they say Avoth R. Na. han per. 34. there was never any buried within Jerusalem, either man or woman (unlesse of the house of David) but onely shee: or from whence else they were denominated, it will not coun­tervaile the labour to search, nor is it very hopefull to finde.

We shall not need to spend time in describing the forme, fabrick and dimensions of these gates, since these and the rest of the Gates were all sutable to that in the East quarter which we have described before, saving that their Gate house was higher, and that they were not charactered with the picture of Shushan as that Gate was. Let us therefore onely take the prospect as we stand in either of these Gates before us, to­wards the South upon which they opened, as we did in the other toward the East.

What Streets, Houses, Turrets, Gardens, and beauteous buildings were to be seen in Jerusalem as it lay before you, may better be supposed in so goodly a City then described: only if you will observe the situation of it, or how it lay, you may view it situate thus. It lay upon the Hill Acra, which rising in the middle, descended with an easie declining towards the East and West, and with a descent also toward the North or toward the Temple. Upon the very highest pitch of the Hill, and from whence it had a fall either way there sprang the sweet and gentle fountaine Siloam, without the City, and ran to either end of the City, both East and West in a contrary channell; as it made toward the East it [Page 15]left the Fullers field upon the right hand and saluted the Sheep gate on the left, and so turned Eastward and fell into the Poole called Solomons Poole, which may well be supposed to be Bethesda. As it ranne Westward, it coasted along the broad wall, the Tower of the Furnaces, the valley gate, and dung gate, and after a while fell into the Poole of Siloam.

CHAP. V. Of the West gates Shallecheth or Coponius, Parbar, Asuppim.

IN the Talmuds Survey of the Temple, there is but one Gate mentioned or spoken of upon the West quarter, but Josephus doth mention foure, and that agreeably to the Scripture. Not but that the Talmudists did very well know there were so many Gates upon this quarter, but they reckon on­ly those by name, Mid. per. 1. & Tamid. per. 1. that had Guards kept at them, whereas Josephus reckons all that were in being: His words are these; [...]. Ioseph. An­tiq. lib. 15. c. 14. On the West quarter of this outmost bound, there were foure gates: The first leading to the Kings Palace, the valley betweene being filled up for the passage: Two others went into the Suburbs, and the other into the other City, having many steps downe into the valley, and many up againe to the pitch or coming up. We will survey these Gates particularly, and take them in the order that he had laid down, beginning first with that Gate that led to the Kings Palace.

CHAP. VI. The North gate [...] Tedi, or Tadde.

ON the Northside, to which we are now come, there was but one gate (as there was but one on the East quarter) which was situate just in the middle of the wall between the East and West end of it, but how to give it its right name there is some dispute. Misnajoth in Octave in Midd: C. Lemper. ibid. pag: 13. Some write it [...] Teri with r, which signifieth moistnesse or purulency because that they of the Priests, whose seed went from them by night, went through this gate to bath themselves from that uncleannesse. But the reading of old, hath bin so resolvedly [...] with d Talm. Bab. & Aruch. Tedi, or as some vowel it Buxt: Talm: Lex. Tadde, that Pisk Tosaphoth ad Middoth goeth about to give its Etymology. He mentioneth a double notation: namely that either it betokens [...] obscurity and shamefac'd­nesse, because of its rare use and passage, and because the Priests that had suffered Gonorrhoea by night, went out through it to the Bath with some shame and dejectednesse: Or that the word refers to actors or poets, and he produceth a sentence in which by its conjunction with another word, it seems so to signifie, for other sense I know not to put upon it. The sentence is this [...] Tragedians and Poets used it before the chiefe of the captivity. But what sense he would make of this Etymology, I do not un­derstand. But be the notation of the word what it will, the Talmud setteth two distinguishing markes upon the gate it self, for which it was singular from all the rest of the gates that we have mentioned, Talm. in Mid. per. 2. The first is that it had not so faire a rising Gate house and chambers above it as the rest had, but onely stones laid flat over it, and the battlement of the wall running upon it and no more. And the other is [...] Ibid. per. 1. That it was not a common and ordinary pas­sage [Page 25]in and out, as the other gates were, but onely a passage upon occasion; the uselessness whereof we shall have occasion to look at againe ere it be long.

The Mount Moriah did afford some space of ground upon this side, without the wall and compasse of the holy ground, which it did upon none of the sides beside; for here was built the large and goodly Tower of Antonia, which we shall survey by and by, whereas on every one of the other sides the incompassing wall that closed in the holy ground did stand neare upon the very pitch and precipice of the hill. So that looking about you as you stood out at this gate, this Tower Antonia stood on your left hand and spoiled your prospect on that side, and you could see nothing that way but it. Before you was Mount Sion, and the goodly buildings of the Kings Palace and other houses; upon the bending toward the East angle, was the place called Ophel or Ophla, the habita­tion of the Nethenims, Neh: 3.26. and when Ophla was turn­ed East, then was there the horse-gate and water-gate before the Temple.

Thus lay The Mountaine of the Lords house, incompassed with the City round about, and enclosed with a faire and high wall which separated it from the common ground: On the one side of it lay Sion the seat of the King, on the other side Jerusalem, the habitation of the people and the Temple, and its service in the middle between, even as the ministery is in mediation betwixt God and his people. The wall that en­compassed it, had eight gates of goodly structure and beaute­ous fabrick, all of one fashion, save only that the North and East gates were not topped the one in height, and the other in fashion as the other were. At all of these gates were Porters by day, and at five of them were guards by night, as we shall observe hereafter: the accesse to them on the East and West was by a great ascent, but facilitated by steps or causeys for the peoples ease, and for the comming up of the beasts that were to be sacrificed, of which there were some that came up dayly. On the South side the ascent was not so very great, yet it had its rising in the like manner of accesse as had the other. On the North what coming up there was, it was [Page 26]more for the accommodation of the residents in the Tower Antonia, then for the entrance into the Temple, the North gate Tedi being of so little use as hath been spoken.

At any of the gates as you passed through, the entrance it self, through which you went, was ten cubits wide, twenty cubits high, and twelve cubits over, sixe of which cubits were without the holy ground, and six within: and as you entered in at the East gate, had you seen the ground before any buildings were set in it, or any thing done to it, but only the building of this wall, you might have seen the hill rising from the East to the West, in such an ascent, that the Westerne part of it was very many cubits higher then where you stood, as we shall have occasion to observe as wee passe along.

This banke was once well stored with bushes and bram­bles, Gen: 22.13. and afterward with worse briers and thorns, the Jebusites, who had it in possession till David purchased it for that divine use and structure, that we are looking after: Here was then a poore threshing floore of Ornan the Jebusite, but afterward the habitation of the God of Jacob: A place and fabrick as sumptuous and eminent, as it was possible for man, and art, and cost to make it; the glory of the Nation where it was, and the wonder of all the Nations round about it; but in fine, as great a wonder and monument of deso­lation and ruine, as ever it had been of beauty and glorious­nesse. Before we step further toward the survey of it as it stood in glory, we must keep yet a while along this wal about which we have been so long, and observe some buildings and beauties that joined and belonged to it, besides the gates that we have surveyed in it already.

CHAP. VII. The Tower ANTONIA. [...]

VPon the North side Ioseph. An­tiq. lib. 15. c. 14. & de Bell. lib. 5. cap. 25. and joining up to the Westerne angle (but on the outside of the wall that we have surveyed) stood the Tower of An­tonia, once the place where the High-priests u­sed to lay up their holy garments, but in after­times a Garrison of Roman Souldiers for the awing of the Temple. When it served for the former use, it was called Baris, (it may be from [...] ad extra because it was an outer building) but when for the latter, it bare the name of Antonia: Herod the great having sumptuously repaired it, as he did the Temple, and called it after the name of the Ro­man Prince Antony. It stood upon the North-west point of Moriah, and was a very strong and a very large pile: so spa­cious a building with all its appurtenances, that it took up two furlongs compasse. The rock it stood upon, was fifty cubits high and steep, and the building it selfe was forty cu­bits above it, it was 4 square, incompassed with a wall of 3 cubits high, which enclosed its courts, and had a Turret at every corner, like the white Tower at London, but that it was more spacious, and that the Turrets were not all of a height, for those at the North-east and North-west corners were 50 cubits high, but those on the South-east and South-west were 70 cubits high, that they might fully over-looke the Temple. It had cloisters or walkes about it, and baths and lodgings and large roomes in it, so that it was at once like a Castle and like a Palace. There was a passage out of it in­to the North and West cloisters of the Mountain of the House (of which we shall speak next) and by that the Roman Gar­rison Souldiers went downe at every festivall of the Jewes, to take care against tumults and seditions in those great con­courses [Page 28]of the people: And the Governour of this Tower is called the Captaine of the Temple, Acts 4.1. Luke 22.52.

Id. Ant. lib. 18. c. 6. Hyrcanus the High-priest the first of that name, tooke up this place for his Mansion, and for the laying up of his holy garments, and so did his successors after him: And He­rod when he repaired it and called it Antonia, he suffered the High-priests to lay up and to have the keeping of the robes here still, and so did Archelaus his sonne after him. But when the Romans put Archelaus from his Kingdome, they tooke the custody of these garments into their owne power, but yet they let them lye in the same place, till Vitellius the Pro-consul of Syria (in the time of Tiberius) coming to Jerusalem, and well pleased with his entertainment there, upon the Jewes Petition restored the keeping of those robes to them againe. Howbeit they injoyed not that priviledge very long, but in the time of succeeding Emperours and Governours the custo­dy of them was taken from them againe.

And now that we have seen Antonia on the outside of the North wall, let us come in againe at the North gate Tedi, and look a little more upon that, as we come through it. We ob­served before, the name of this gate to signifie Hiding or obscu­rity, and as for the nature of it, we saw that it was in a man­ner altogether unfrequented: Now two things may be con­jectured toward the reason and cause of both these; as 1. The insolency of the Roman Garrison might make the people have but little minde to come that way, and it might bee to them, Porta Taedii, a gate of grievance; for let us cast out a La­tine Etymology, so neare a Latine Garrison. And 2. a reason why it carrieth hiddennesse in its name, Josephus seemeth to give in this passage [...]. Id. de Bell. lib. 5. cap. 15. because the hill Bezetha did shadow the Temple on that North side, and spoile its prospect, whereas no other side of the square had any such cloudings.

CHAP. VIII. Cloisters along this outmost wall within. [...]

THUS hath the outmost virge and bounds of the Mountaine of the House beene laid before us; Now there is a thing that deserves our paines and observation againe in another survey, and that is, the walkes or cloisters that were along the wall within betweene gate and gate round about.

Shabbath fol 16. The Talmud in one place expresseth it, [...] Porticus duplicata, and so Jos. de Bell: lib. 5. c. 14. Josephus [...]; which both the Talmud Shab: fol: 13. Maym. in Beth habbechir. per. 5. in another place and also May­mony do utter more largely [...] It was all floored or roofed over, and one porch was before another.

The word [...] is so plainly the Greek word [...], that I make no scruple to render it by that word in Greeke and by Porticus in Latine, but how to translate any of them into our English tongue, is of some doubtfulnesse, because our word Porch by which they are constantly rendred, doth not reach to their sense in our English use, but is commonly taken in another. For what Kimch. in 1 Kings 6.4. Kimchi saith concerning the word [...] that it meaneth the same thing that by the language of the Talmud is called [...] The house of the gate, is also most true concerning the proper signification of the English word Porch, for that most ordinarily and commonly is taken among us for the building over or before the house door. But these words that we are about, do signifie Cloister-walks or rows, where men used to walk or sit free from rains and wea­ther, the one side open, supported with pillars, and all floored, or covered over head.

So was this large compasse along the wall, it was double Cloistered round about (for give me leave to use that word, till I find a better) having a roofe or floore over head, which [Page 30]lay almost as high as the top of the Wall, save what was left for the walls battlements: and it was supported with a tre­ble row of Marble pillars (the inmost row joining to the wall) and it was distinguished by the middle row of Pillars into a double walke. Wee need not goe farre for a copy, the stately new building ( Piazza, walke, cloister, call it what you will) at the West end of Pauls, may very well bee our patterne. For it was much about that height, twelve yards and an halfe; it joined on one side to the wall, as that to the Church, and was borne up with gallant white Marble Pillars: It was 30 cubits, or 15 yards broad; either walk, half that breadth pillars and all, and had battlements above the leads, both at the wall, and on the other side, as that at Pauls is crested on the outside. Where buildings stood out into the Mountaine of the House (as we have observed they did) there these Cloisters were carried accordingly: being either cut off at the building, if it stood 30 cubits out, or the one halfe or more of the Cloister cut off if the buil­ding were narrower, and the rest of the Cloister carried on before it.

Onely upon the South side of the Square there was some difference of the Walkes or Cloister from what was in the other parts.

For here was the [...] the Cloister royall as Ant. lib. 15. c. 4. Josephus calls it, and of which he makes a very large and eminent de­scription to this purpose:

• 1. That it was treble walked or rowed all along from East to West, whereas the Cloisters of any of the other sides were but double.
• 2. That this whole frame was borne up by foure rowes of Pillars that stood even one against another, the inmost row joining to the wall as it was on the other sides.
• 3. The inmost and the outmost walke of these three (that is, that that was next to the wall, and that that was outmost towards the open space of the Mountain of the House) were equall in height and breadth with the walks or Cloisters on any of the other sides, namely 15 cubits high and 15 cubits broad apeece: but the middlemost walke was 42 cubits and [Page 31]an halfe broad and 50 cubits high, and so the two rowes of Pillars that stood on either side of this middle walke were 50 cubits high, so that the roofe of this walke was as high againe as the roofe of the Walkes on either side, and these al­together were as the upper and lower leads of a Church, and every one of them had a crest or battlement round about: Finally the whole fabrick was so gallant and sumptuous, [...], that it is incredible, saith my Author, to those that never saw it, and an amazement to those that did.
• 4. Had one stood at the top of the highest Leads at either end and looked downe, there was so steep a trench or valley under [...]; that to looke downe it would make one giddy, and he could hardly see to the bottome; and Josephus proclaimeth this fabricke to be [...], one of the godliest workes under the Sunne.

Now though this gallant Southside Cloister, did, and that very deservedly, beare the name of The Cloister Royall [...], yet is not this the same with that, which in the Scrip­ture is called Solomons Porch, of which there is mention, John 10.23. Acts 3.11. for that (as the same Josephus giveth us in­timation) was upon the East side of this square (that we have in hand) and not upon the South, his words are these Id. ib. lib. 20. cap. 8. [...]: The People perswaded the King Agrippa (the second) to repaire the East Porch or Cloister: Now this Cloister was in the outmost space of the Temple: standing over an exceeding deep valley: raised upon a Wall of 400 cubits which was made of square white stones of 20 cubits long, and 6 cubits high apeece, the worke of King Solomon who first built the Temple.

His meaning about the foundation of this East wall and cloister he tels elsewhere to this purpose, De Bell. lib. 5. c. 14. that Solomon to finde roome enough this way, was put to fill and bring up [Page 32]a part of the deep trench with such great stones, and [...], and upon this strong foundation, so brought up from the bottome of the valley, he built this porch, or Cloister that we have in mention.

Now when the Temple was destroyed by the Babylonian, and all the buildings ruined, yet this great and wonderfull foundation that Solomon had brought up so high as to equall the floore of the Mount, was not ruined or pulled downe but continued still, and in after-times, the Porch or Cloister of that Easterne quarter, was built upon the same foundation of Solomons: and from that it tooke and bare the name still of Solomons Porch, and the East gate here, upon the same occasion was called the Kings gate, as was said before.

And now to take a Prospect of this space, and wall, and buildings, and Cloisters that we have spoken of at one view: By many steps, or at the least by a great rising, you were to come up to any of the gates that have been mentioned, let the East gate (or the gate of Shushan) be conceived for our en­trance. Ezek. 40.6. The Gate-house or threshold was 12 cubits over, 6 without the doores and 6 within; being got within you saw the great square within, most stately double cloistered round about on every side but onely on the South, where the cloister was trebble: on the West side were 4 gates, on the South two, on the North one, and one on the East where you came in: and at all these gates more or lesse buildings. Mid. per. 1.1. In five of these gates (namely in the East gate Shushan, the two South gates Huldah, the North gate Tedi, and the West Shallecheth) was a guard kept of the Levites by night for the safety and honour of the Temple, and so there was in every corner of this great square within.

These gallant and sumptuous walkes thus round about the whole compasse, were for the people to stand, walke or sit under, in heat or raine, or according as they had a mind or occasion: And so it is said that our Saviour walked here, John 10.23. the Apostles James and John stood here and the people about them, Acts 3.11. And there were benches set by the walls round about for people to sit downe when they thought good: And therefore D. Kimchi Kimch. in 2 Kings 11.14. interprets [Page 33] [...] a bench on which men sit: And R. Nathan Aruch in [...] makes it to be the same with [...] which he saith, is benches on which men set downe their wares, and on which they sit themselves.

CHAP. IX. Tabernae Shops: The great Sanhedrin sitting thereabout.

THere is very frequent mention in the Talmuds and Talmudicall writers, of a place in the Mountaine of the House which was called [...] Hhanoth or Hhanijoth: which the learned in these Antiquities, doe commonly render by the Latine word Tabernae: which though in that language it be a proper expression of the He­brew word, yet cannot we so properly in English render it Tavernes: because, that, in our usuall acceptation, that word is taken for houses where wine only is sold; whereas these were shops where wine, oile, salt, meal, and such like things were sold, which were in constant use for Sacrifices and of­ferings in the Temple. And Rabbi Nathan relateth that Aruch in [...] there were Clerks of that Market appointed to looke to the weights and measures of these Shops, and to see the Shop­keepers did not sell too deare.

But the most famous thing concerning these Tabernae that the Jewes speak of, is, that the great Sanhedrin sate here, ha­ving removed hither from the roome Gazith the place of their common sitting. The story hereof is dispersedly men­tioned in the Talmud in severall places, particularly it is thus at large in the Gemara of the Treatise Rosh hashanah per. 4.

Tal. in Rosh hashan. fol: 31. Rabbi Iohanan saith, The divine glory had ten flittings: 1 From the Mercy seat to one of the Cherubs. 2 From that Cherub to the other. 3 From the Cherub to the threshold. 4 From the thre­shold [Page 34]to the Court. 5 From the Court to the Altar side. 6 From the [...] to the Alt [...]r top. 7 From thence to the outmost wall. 8 From that wall to the City. 9 From the City to Mount Olivet. 10 From Mount Olivet to the wildernesse, and from the Wildernesse it went up. So also the great Sanhedrin had ten flittings: From the Chamber Gazith, to Hhanoth (the Tabernae or place of the Shops) From Hhanoth to Jerusalem. From Jerusalem to Jabueh. From Jabueh to Osha [...]. From Osha to Shepharaam [...] From Shepharaam to Beth Shaaraim. From Beth Shaaraim to Tsipperis in Galilee. From Tsipperis to Tiberias.

Now whereas there are but eight removes here mentioned, yet they speake of ten, it is to be understood, as the Glosse gives us notice, that from two of these places they removed forward and backward and forward againe, as from Jabueh to Oshah, from Osha back to Jabueh, and from Jabueh to Osha a second time.

Gloss. ibid. Rab. Simeon. Their first comming to Jabueh was in the dayes of Rab­ban Johanan ben Zaccai; from Jabueh to Osha, in the daies of Rabban Gamaliel the last; and to Jabueh back againe in the daies of Rabban Simeon. To Shaaraim and to Tsipperis in the daies of Rabbi Judah: And to Tiberias in the daies of An­tonius.

These their flittings, by their owne confession, began forty yeares before the destruction of the. Temple. [...] Shabbath fol: 51. Forty years say they, before the destruction of the Temple, the Sanhedrin flitted and betooke it selfe to sit in Hanoth, or the Taber­nae. And the reason is given Ib. & Aruch in [...] Because there were then many Theeves and Murderers, and they judged not of capitall matters: which meaneth to this purpose: They held that while they sate in the roome Gazith, they were bound to judge and determine of all matters that came before them, and that all their deter­minations were obliging, but now, when beside the curbe of the Roman power that was upon them, by which their power was abridged, villany and insolency was also grown too strong for them, they thought as the Gemara in Avodah Zarah, speakes their mind, Avodah Zarah fol: 8. It is good for us to rise and flit from this place, of which it is written, And thou shalt do according as the men of that place shall shew thee.

Now in what part of the Mountaine of the House Hhanoth or the Tabernae were placed, may be best conceived, by obser­ving the place of the great Sanhedrins sitting, before they came to sit in the roome Gazith; And for this purpose a Text of Jeremy doth give us light, which is in chap. 35.4. where it is said thus, I brought the Rechabites into the House of the Lord, into the Chamber of the sonnes of Hanan the sonne of Igdaliah a man of God, which was by the chamber of the Princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the sonne of Shallum the keeper of the doore. Now by the Princes we cannot understand the Princes of the bloud, for what had Jehojakims sonnes to doe here? their residence was in the palaces of Sion, and their way into the Temple, was at the gate on the West quarter, which was called Shalle­cheth and Coponius, whereas this gate whereof the son of Shal­lum was keeper or porter, was the East gate, as is apparent from 1 Chron: 9.17, 18.

By the Princes therefore are to be understood, the great men of the Sanhedrin, [...], Acts 4.8. who sate in Coun­sell and Judicature in a Chamber neere the East gate or the gate Shushan, namely, over the Porters lodge. Here they sate in the time of the first Temple, but under the second Temple, namely, from the times of Simeon Ben Shetah, they removed further inward and sate even by the side of the Court of Israel, in the roome called Gazith, which we shall survey in its due place.

Now when they were put to remove and flit out of Gazith, and to sit there no more, whither should they betake them­selves, but to some roome neare to the East gate again, where the place of the Sanhedrins fitting had been of old? It is ob­servable in Jeremy, that in his time, they sate in two East gates of the Temple, some times in the one and sometimes in the other, namely, in this East gate of the Mountaine of the House, as appeareth by the Text produced: and in the East gate of the Court, which was also called The New gate, Jer. 36.10. of which hereafter.

Now in after times when they sate in the roome Gazith, there was a Sanhedrin of three and twenty Judges sate in ei­ther of these gates, as is copiously testified by the Jewish re­cords [Page 36]and antiquities. By the East gate therefore of the Mountaine of the house may we best conclude, the Hhanoth or Tabernae, to have been seated, namely, that they were as Shops in the lower roomes of the buildings that stood on either side of the gate Shushan, and the rooms over head were imployed for some other use, and among the rest, one for the sitting of the great Sanhedrin, when they were removed from Gazith; and when they sate in Gazith, for a Sanhedrin of twenty three.

And whereas Maimony speaketh of [...] Maym. in Sanhedr. per. 3. A Divinity Schoole in the Mountaine of the House, where the Sanhedrin sate upon holy dayes, wee know not where better to place it then hereabout, where their sitting was in the first and last times of the Temple. All the gates that we have viewed were beautified with gallant buildings on either side them, but the East most eminent, because the greatest and common­est entrance into the Temple. And whereas there is mention in Scripture of Women lodging in the Temple, as 2 Chron: 22.11, 12. Jehoshebeath and Joash and his Nurse lodged ma­ny yeares there: and Luke 2.37. Hannah is said not to have departed from the Temple for many yeares more: their lodg­ings were in the buildings neere some of the gates of this outmost wall (but which undeterminable) for that all within this inclosing was called The Temple in the Scripture, and the common language, is so apparent, that it needeth no demonstration.

CHAP. X. The dimension; and forme of Solomons Temple, And of that built by the returned out of Captivity.

HAving thus gone through and observed the compasse of the Mountaine of the Temple, and the wall that did inclose it in so large a square, with the Cloisters, gates and build­ings that were in that wall and affixed to it: before we can come to cast out the Courts, Partitions, and buildings that were within, and speake of their places and uses particularly, it will be necessary in the first place, to take a survey of the measure and situation of the Temple it selfe, that from it, and from this outer wall as from standing markes, we may measure all the proportions, fabricks and distances, that we are to go through.

The floore of the Mountaine of the House was not even, but rising from East to West, so much in the whole, Maym. in Beth habbechir. per. 6. that the floore of the porch of the Temple was two and twenty cubits higher then the floore of the Gate Shushan, or the East gate in the outmost wall: which in equality was cast into severall levels one above another; and the outmost wall accordingly did sometime runne levell, and sometime rise from levell to levell, even as the evennesse or risings of the floore it self did call for it.

The measures of the Temple built by Solomon, are said to have been, by the first measure, 2 Chron: 3.3. that is, by the same cubit, that measured the first Tabernacle, which is the same that we fix upon; and by this measure to have beene seventy cubits long, 1 Kings 6.2, 2 Chron. 3.3. in these severall spaces. The most holy place twenty cubits, the holy place forty [Page 38]cubits and the Porch ten. And the breadth of all these was 20 cubits.

About the height there is some obscurity, for the booke of Kings saith it was 30 cubits, but the booke of Chronicles nameth no summe at all; onely it saith that the Porch was 120 cubits high. Now Kunch. in les. allegat. David Kimchi doth dispute it, whether this was the height of the Porch onely, or of the whole house throughout: and he shews how it maybe constru­ed of the whole house, namely, that the height of it to the first floore was thirty cubits (according to the reckoning of the booke of Kings) and then the chambers over in severall stories did rise to 90 cubits more. Yet both he and Ralbag in 1 Kings 6. Aben. Ez [...]. in Ezr. 6. R. Levi Gershom could well be perswaded to thinke that the Temple it selfe was but 30 cubits high, but are somewhat swayed by the opinion of some of their Rabbins which runneth another way. For from their words it appeareth (say they) that there were chambers over the Temple and over the Porch: and this they hold from 1 Chron: 28.11.

The words of that Text are these, David gave to Solomon his sonne the Patterne of the Porch and the houses thereof, and the Treasu­ries thereof, and the upper chambers thereof, and the Parlours thereof and the place of the mercy seat: where all these particulars are so couched together (except the last) as if they were all within the Porch: But the holy Ghost speaketh of the Porch, as the first part in sight, as you came up, it being the front of all, and the rest of the parcels mentioned, are to be conceived of not as all crowded in it, but as distributed and disposed in other parts of the fabrick, as the Holy Ghost relateth and layeth downe elsewhere. And as for the upper chambers here spoken of, we need not to confine them so, as to set them all either over the porch (though there were some,) nor over the body of the Temple, but to place them also as the Text doth elsewhere, round about the house without, in severall stories.

The carefull considering the measures of the Temple built by the Children of the Captivity, will reasonably help to put us out of doubt about the matter that we have in dispute. The measures they brought along with them out of Persia [Page 39]in Cyrus his Commission, Ezr. 6.3, 4. The foundations to be strongly laid, the height sixty cubits, and the breadth sixty cubits, with three rowes of great stones and a row of new timber and the expences to be given out of the Kings house.

Where wee may observe, Aben Ezr. in loc. 1 That the length is not mentioned, because that was to be of the former measure. 2 That the breadth, doubled the breadth of Solomons build­ing, the side chambers and all taken in. And 3 That the height was double to the height of Solomons as it is expressed in the booke of Kings, and as indeed the height of the Temple was, though the porch were higher. For it seemeth utterly against reason, that Cyrus should offer to build the house as broad again as it was before, and yet not so high as it was before by halfe. It is no doubt but Cyrus had consultation with some of the Jews about the building, and that either they counselling him, should advise the abatement of so much of the height, or he inlarging the breadth and the house one way, should cut it short of the height and lessen it the other way, is ex­ceeding improbable; the length could not be doubled, be­cause that would have lessened the measure of the Courts be­fore it, which might not be indured, but the two other waies of dimension which could be allowed, he allowed double to what they were before.

Therefore the two Texts in Kings and Chronicles, are to be taken properly as they there lie before us, namely, that the Porch was 120 cubits high, and that the rest of the Temple was but 30; and the form of the whole house was thus. It stood East and West, the most Holy place Westward, and the Porch or entrie Eastward, and the length of all from East to West was 70 cubits, the breadth 20 cubits, besides the breadth of the side chambers; The height of the holy and most holy place 30 cubits, and the porch stood at the East end like one of our high steeples 120 cubits high: And indeed Solomons Temple did very truely resemble one of our Churches, but onely that it differed in this, that the Steeple of it (which was the porch) stood at the East end.

Now round about the sides thereof, North and South, and the West end, Solomon built chambers of three stories high [Page 40]and five cubits was the height of every story, the whole being 15 cubits high in all, and they joined to the wall of the house without. The highest story was a cubit wider then the mid­dle, and the middle a cubit wider then the lowest, and yet the outmost wall of them was even and straight, and jutted not over at one story or other, any whit at all. But the reason of this different breadth of the Stories was this, the wall of the Temple for five cubits from the ground upward, was thicker by a cubit then it was from thence above. At the height therefore of those five cubits there was a bench of the wall of a cubit breadth left outerly round about the house, on which they laid one end of the beams and timber, which was the roofe of the lowest roomes, or the floore of the second Story. And then againe for five cubits above that, the wall was thicker by a cubit, then it was above; and at the height of those five cubits there was such another bench left again, and on that they laid the beams for the roofe of the second story, which was the floore of the third. And so likewise for five cubits above that, the wall was yet thicker by a cubit, then it was above, and there the like bench was left againe, and there were laid the beams of the roofe of the third story and of the whole building.

And this is the meaning of that verse 1 Kings 6.6. The nea­ther most chamber was five cubits broad, the middlemost sixe cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad, for he made abatings to the house on the outside round about: that the beames should not have hold of the very walls of the house.

And thus did these chambers take up halfe the height of the house, being as the lower leads of our Churches to the higher: the use of the chambers we shall observe here­after.

Now above these chambers in the wall of the Temple, and in the outer wall of these chambers themselves there were windowes to let in light, which the Text saith were [...] open and shut, or broad and narrow, which Chald par. in 1 Kings 6.4. the Chaldee Paraphrast and Vid. Nobil. in LXX in loc. Theodoret have well interpreted, wide within and narrow without: namely, narrow without to receive the light, and wide within to disperse and dilate it. [Page 41]Though there Vid. R. Sol. & Kimch. in loc. be some Jewes, that construe it the cleane contrary way, viz. broad without and narrow within, different from all other windowes [...] for God, say they, had no need of such light.

The people that returned out of captivity, were Joh. 2.20. forty and six years in building their Temple before they could com­pleat it, and bring it to perfection, and yet when all was done, it proved so far inferiour in beauty and statelinesse to that of Solomons, as that to those that had seen both, Hag. 2.3. it was as nothing: the dimensions made not the difference, for it was two wayes, as large again as his, (even as his was every way as large again as Moses Tabernacle) but this wanted that sumptuousnesse and bravery of building that his had. And it wanted those five things which were the glory and excellency of the former, namely, R: Sol: in Hag. 1.18. The Arke, Ʋrim and Thummim, Fire from Heaven, The Cloud of glory upon the Mercy seat, and The spirit of Prophesie; The Ezr. 3.10. weeping therefore of those persons that had seen the former house, at the laying of the foundation of this was not as if they saw any lessening of the house in com­parison of the former, in compasse and measure, (for the foundations promised a larger) but it was upon remembring the glory of the former, both in its magnificence, and in these five excellencies, and to thinke of the burning of that, and it was also in comparing their present servile and poore condition, with the liberty, state, and gallantry of the Nati­on when the other stood.

Their measures were prescribed by Cyrus, not because he would curb the building, but inlarge it, for whereas Solo­mons Temple was but 30 cubits broad, chambers and all, hee gave liberty of 60 cubits bredth; and whereas Solomons was but 30 cubits high all the body of the house, he doubled the measure to 60.

And therefore those words of Josephus are cautelously to be understood when he saith that Ioseph. An­tiq. lib. 8. c. 2. they brought up the roof of Solomons fabrick, of white stone, the height 60 cubits, the length as much, and the breadth twenty. In which account of the height of it, he differs both from Scripture and from all other of his owne Nation, and by what measure or counters he reckons [Page 42]it is hard to understand: And so is it also to construe that which followes: [...]: which I english thus, And by this there was another peece raised of equall measures.: so that the whole height of the Temple was an hundred and twenty cubits: By which peece I conceive he meanes the Porch, and his owne words cleare it; but how to apprehend that it was of equall measure with what he had spoken of before, I acknowledge I do not understand. And whereas he saith that the whole height of the Temple was 120 cubits, his owne con­text shews that he cannot mean, that it was so high through­out, but it is to be construed of the porch of which he is speaking, namely, that the Temple in some part of it rose to an hundred and twenty cubits high.

And so are those words of Herod to be understood in the Oration that he made to the people, when he tels them of his resolution to build the Temple. Id. ib. lib. 15. cap. 14. Our fathers (saith he) built this Temple to the great God after their coming up again from Babylon, [...], But it wanted as to the greatnesse of it, sixty cubits in height: for so much did the former Temple which Solomon had built exceed it. Which is not to be understood of the whole house, but of the Porch only: for the children of the captivity either built no porch at all, (and then their Temple was a perfect Cube, length and height and breadth exactly equall) or if they did, yet did not the height of it exceed the rest of the house, as Solomons did, but onely equall it, the whole being sixty cubits high, all alike according to the dimensions that Cyrus had prescribed.

Now in his patent for the building of the Temple, there are these words, which are of no small difficulty to be under­stood [...] Ezr. 6.4. Josephus renders this passage thus, [...] Ioseph. An­tiq. lib. 11. c. 1. & 4. Three houses of hewen stone, and one house of wood within: By the three houses, seeming to meane the three parts of the Temple, Porch, holy, and most holy Place; and by the one woodden house, the seiling of the house [Page 43]within. And in this sense Rabbi Solomon seemeth also to un­derstand it, who renders the words to this sense, R: Sol: in Ezr. 6. The walls were of Marble, and there was a wall of wood within, like the building of the house which Solomon built. The Septuagint have translated [...] houses, and Josephus followed them in so rendering it: But the Chaldee Paraphrast doth use the word, to signisie Rankes or Rowes of stone or timber, as Hag. 2.15. Before a stone was laid upon a stone; he utters it [...] and so he renders [...] by the word [...] Ezek. 46.23. &c. And in this sense doth Aben Ezra understand the word, and so hath our English translated it, Three rowes of great stones, and a row of new timber.

But we are yet to seek for the meaning of the clause, though wee be satisfied with this sense of the word: Three rowes of stone, and one of timber? Is this to be understood of three rowes of stone pillars and one of wood, all standing up, or of three rows of stones laid in the walls, and one row of timber lying upon them? And is this meant in the body of the Temple it selfe, or in some other wals that were about it? If we looke into 1 Kings 6.36. I suppose some resolution of these doubts may arise thence, for there it is said parallel to what is spoken Ezr. 6.4. That Solomon built the inner Court with tree rowes of hewen stone; and one row of Cedar beames: And it is almost past peradventure, that Cyrus gave his Commission after that pattern, having learned it from some Iewes that were about him. Having therefore prescribed the dimensi­ons of the Temple it selfe, in ver. 3. hee giveth also warrant and platform for walling in the Court, even after the fashion that Solomon had used, namely, three rowes of great stones to bring up the wall, and a row of Cedar beames, either to crest it, or to lie between as the wall rose. And so do Levi Ger­shom, and D. Kimchi expound these words, in 1 King. 6. The walls were three rowes of hewen stones, and one of timber of Cedar upon them.

The Iews upon their return out of Captivity, did first build the Altar, before they set upon the building of the house, Ezr. 3.3. for their necessity and occasions did call upon them to sa­crifice, and the very place did warrant their sacrificing, though the Temple were not yet built. In the second yeer [Page 44]after their return, in the second month of the year, which was the second year of Cyrus, they lay the foundation of the house, but in the next verse the work is bindred, and so continues for­lorn till the second year of Darius, Ezra 4.24. On the 24 day of the 6. moneth of that year they begin to prepare for the buil­ding again, and on the 24 day of the ninth month they set to worke; Compare Hog. 1.15. and 2.18.

The fashion and pattern which they followed in the parti­cular structures and fabricks about the house, was Mid. per. 2. & 3. & Kimch. in Ezek. 40. as the Authors of their own nation assert, the Temple which Ezekiel hath described, chap. 40. & 41. &c. The children of the captivity (say they) made the building according to the forme that they saw in the building of Ezekiel in divers things; which although they could not imitate to the full, especially in the spaciousnesse of his measures and sumptuousnesse of his fabrick, (that pattern of his being as well a figure of a Temple not earthly, and not built with hands, as it was an earnest and promise of an earth­ly Temple, to be built by them upon their return) yet did they lay that copy before them, and did in very many things imi­tate that fashion and forme, and platform their buildings, and Courts thereafter: And so did Herod by the counsell of the wise men that were in his favour (as Hillel, Shammai, and Me­nahem, &c.) when he repaired, or rather rebuilt the Temple, though he did in divers things exceed the dimensions of the childrens of the Captivity, yet did he observe their platforme and fashion as they had done Ezekiels. And so (as to the form and composure of the things and places themselves) there is so little difference betwixt the buildings of the returned Captives, and the buildings of Herod, that the Talmudicks do still account both but one Temple, and account that that stood to the de­struction of Jerusalem, to be but [...] The second Temple, to Solomons first; and so indifferently shall we take it up.

CHAP. XI. The measures and platforme of the Temple, as it stood in the time of our Saviour.

HEROD (sirnamed the great) Jos. ant. lib. 14. cap. 17. when he was a young gallant, before hee came to be King had slain one Ezekias, and some others with him, for which he was called before the Sanbedrin to be judged for killing a man: where some of the Councell fearing him, and some favouring him, and not executing justice as he had deserved, Shammai the Vice-president of the Councell, did boldly and plainly tell them, be­fore his face, That whereas they were so favourable and partiall to him now, the time would come when he would not shew them such fa­vour, but should kill them. And so Herod did, when he was King afterward, destroying the whole Sanhedrin, unlesse it were two men, Hillel the President, and Shammai the Vice-president who had been so plain with him. And afterwards, as it were in way of expiation of this horrid fact, Iuckasin fol. 19. hee was perswaded by Baba ben Bota to repair the Temple, which hee did so tho­roughly, that Ios. Ant. lib. 15. cap. 14. hee made it [...], Larger in compasse, and most glorious in height, ta­king doan the old foundations, and laying new. This worke he be­gan in the eighteenth yeer of his reigne, and in 8 yeares he fi­nished it (some nine yeers before our Saviours birth:) in all which time, if you will beleeve the Jews, they will tell you, Iuchasin ubi sup. that it never rained in the day time left the work should bee hindred. The sumptuousnesse of this building the same Authours in the Treatise Succah per. [...] in Gemara. Succah in the Gemara do magnifie in these expressions. He that never saw Jerusalem in her glory, never saw lovely City. And hee that never saw the Sanctu­ary with its buildings, never saw goodly buildings. Rab. Hasda saith, It was Herods building, And of what did he build it? Rabba saith Of goodly stone and marble. And some say, [...] of [Page 46]marble painted or full of curious veins and divers colours. [...], one border or edge went in and another out; which the glosse expresseth thus, [...]; It seemed like the wavings of the sea, one rowe of stones did so curiously goe in, and another come out.

The measures of this Temple, as it stood in our Saviours time, and till the destruction of Jerusalem was [...] Mid. per. 4 An hundred cubits long, an hundred cubits broad, and an hundred cubits high: And yet not an exact cube, but very far from it, as we shall shew ere long, for it narrowed so behind, saith Mid. ibid. Maym. in Beth habbech. per. 4. & 5. the Talmud and Maymony, that it did carry the pro­portion of a Lion.

The form and fashion of this pile on the outside (for of that only we will take a survey as yet) was thus. It was built of white marble (as Jos. ubi sup. Josephus saith) in which were such veins and colours as are spoken of before; the stones of a cize and bignesse unto admiration, and the walls rose to that great height of an hundred cubits by these distinctive measures.

1. Mid. ibid. [...] the foundation six cubits high: not in the ground (though there was also a foundation laid deep enough) but from the ground 6 cubits upwards. As it is commonly seen in stone buildings of a great pile, that neer the ground, the fa­brick is made thicker then the wall above, to support the whole weight the better, even so was it here for six cubits height.

2. [...]. The height of the wall forty cubits. That is, from this foundation the wall rose 40 cubits plain, without any juttings, borderings or standings out as there was else­where. And then was

3. [...] A carved and curiously wrought border, of a cubit broad. I translate [...] a curious wrought border, upon the war­rant of R. Nathan Aruch. in [...]. who partly out of the Talmud, and partly out of the Chal. par. in 2 Sam. 7.2. Chaldee Paraphrast render it [...] Picturing or Pourtraying (with which there is the concurrency of R. Obad de Bartin. in. Mid. in loc. Bar­tenora, who saith, it was called [...] because it was gilt with gold and graven with curious ingravery: It may be along the length of the building the stones were so laid in and out as to resemble the waving of the sea, as the [...] almud speaks, but there was no [Page 47]crossing border (as it may be called) till the wall came to this height: Above this imbroidered border was

4. [...] A ledge or gutter to take off the raine, and to carry it cleer from dropping upon the wall be­low [...] Maym. ubi sup. The height of two cubits was prepared for the droppings to come in there, for so doth sense and necessity cause the word to be interpreted, though Baal Aruch tell us, that there be some that give it another con­struction; when we have observed the two next particulars above this, wee shall understand what this was the bet­ter.

5. [...] The timber or place for the laying on of the roofe, a cubit.

6. [...] The roofe it selfe a cubit. The word [...] is of some difficult construction: It seemeth to be derived, Aruch in voce. as R. Nathan giveth intimation, from that word, Neh. 3.8. [...] which our English hath rendred; They fortified R. Sol. & Ah. Ezr. in Neh. 3.8. and R. Solomon, They raised with earth. And there Aben Ezra speaks of this very word that we have in hand, and saith that [...] there and the word we have before us, are both of the same sense: and so the same, word [...] is used againe, Neb. 4.2. And he telleth us withall that there are some that do render that clause [...], Exod. 23.5. according to this construction: If thou see the Asse of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, Thou shalt surely raise him with him.

But as for our word [...] which is not to be found in scripture, but used by the Talmudick writers, we must have re­course to the Talmud for the meaning of it: And there as Aruch pointeth us to the places we find it spoken of and handled in the Treatise Baba Mezia, and Baba Bathra. In the former Tract are these words, Baba Me­zia per. 10. Is a house and a chamber over it in two mens pussession? and the chamber over goes to decay: if the Owner of the house (below) will not help to repair it: let him that owes the chamber, goe and dwell below till he do repaire: R. Jose saith, the Owner of the lower roome is to lay on the roofe-timber, and the Owner of the upper roome the [...]. And in the other Tract are these words Baba bathra per. 2. A man shall not set up a furnace (or oven) within a house [Page 48]unlesse there be the space of sour cubits over it (namely, for feare the flame should catch in the roofe or floore above) And if he do [...] up a surnace in an upper roome, it is necessary that there be a [...] of three fingers thick under it. And the reason is also given for fear of danger of fire.

Now the Gemara upon the former place in explanation of the word, and Aruch in explanation of the Gemara say, that it was a crustednesse made of divers materialls, as reeds, chall [...] stones and such like plaistering; which it seemeth by the former place cited was laid on the top of the house in stead of leads to keep out wet, and by the latter, to be made under their furnaces in upper roomes to prevent fire, burning downward. And the de­termination of R. Iose ( that the dweller below should lay on the rooofe, and the dweller above the [...], seems to result to nothing else but this, that the one should lay on the timber of the roofe, and the other a cover of plaister to be laid on the roof upon reeds, of such materialls tempered together as should keep out the rain from dropping through: And so do I understand the word in our worke that we are viewing; that this was a thick well wrought plaister of materialls to compact, that being once grown hard was as a stone, and this was as leads on the roof to keep out wet; the use of sheets of lead being either unknowne to them, or lead being scarce and not to be had: And thus are we come up to the lower leads; for so let me call them, as being an expression best knowne among us.

And here let us take in a passage of Josephus. Hee speaking of the measures of the Temple, and of the stones of which it was built, saith, that they were 25 cubits long, 8 cubits high, and 12 broad An. lib. 15. cap. 14. [...] saith he, [...] &c. It was made after the fashion of the royall cloister, lower on either side, and highest in the middle, so that it was to be seen many furlongs off, &c. Now the Cloister royall was so built (as was observed before) that three walkes run­ning along together, roofed over and born upon pillars, the roofe of the middle was raised far higher then the two of ei­thensi dit.

And so wee are by Josephus to understand accordingly [Page 49]of the Temple. It was indeed of a 100 cubits high, but not so as rising in an equall square, from the bottome to the top, but rising square fifty one cubits, as hath been proportioned out: The main foundation 6 cubits high: the wall plaine about it 40 cubits, a carved border above that one cubit; the place for casting of the raines two cubits; above that the floore laying on one cubit thick, and the plaister cover one cubit thick; but then the rise of the building grew narrower; for from thence it was carryed up so towards the middle, as that there were left leads, as one may call them, on the North and South sides all along, from the East unto the West: A familiar example of this for the better understanding of it we have in the building of exceeding many of our Churches: the pile riseth of a like breadth to the lower leads, and then it riseth only in the mid­dle, to the height or roofe of the Church: And so was it with the Temple: Goe either to East or West end, and stand in the middle and looke up, and it was 100 cubits, but goe any whit like toward the right or left hand, and it was but half so high, for there were the lower leads. Leads I cannot but call them, for that language is best understood amongst us, though they were not covered with lead (a covering not so well known in those times as now) but with a plai­ster or parget of a cubit thick, and so strongly wrought, and tempered, as that it differed not from the hardnesse of stone.

We must not forget [...] that we passed over even now, but must looke back upon it a little, before we leave these leads, or this first rising that we are now upon. For the passing away of the rains that dropped off this roof, that they should not run down along the wall, and so both moulder & deface the stones, there was immediately above the imbroidered border that was spoken of, a row of stones that jutted out of the building more then their fellows, which were neatly and artificially guttered or riggeted, and as artificially jointed together in the guttering (that no rain should drop through) the rigget laid just under the edge of the leads, (or spouts from the leads) that cast off the raines, that the droppings falling therein were conveyed away to either end of that side on which they were, and so sent [Page 50]to the ground either in pipes, or in a great fal from these gutters.

And now to follow the building up stil to its perfect heights conceive it to be narrowed now to half the breadth, and so to rise in the middle of the pile, as that the leads on either side were 25 cubits broad.

1. [...]: The height of the roome above, or the rising above the leads in a straight wall was 40 cubits: this is called [...], or an upper roome, because it was directly over the holy and most holy places.

2. [...] Another carved or ingraven border: such a one as was mentioned before, the breadth of one cubit.

3. [...], The gutter 2 cubits as before, for putting off rains, not that this gutter was two cubits deep, but that it was two cubits from those gutters to the laying on of the roof.

4. [...]. The floore or roofe, a cubit.

5. [...], The plaister cover, a cubit.

6. [...], The battlements three aubits; This word is used, Deut. 22.8. and Aben Ezr. in Deut. 22. not elsewhere in Scripture, and yet saith Aben Ezra, is the sense of it plain enough from the Text. And so indeed it is, for the Lord there enjoineth, that when a man buildeth a new house he should make [...] battlements, lest any one should fall off, and so bring bloud upon his house; The roofes of their houses were flat in those Countreys. Jos. 2.6. 2 Sam. 16.22. Act. 10. [...]9, &c. and there they used to walke, 1 Sam. 9.25. and therefore lest any should fall off, they were to make battlements round about, D. Kime. in Mid. 10 handbreadths, or 2 common cubits high at the least, lest any one should fall off, and be shine or maimed: so howsoever it may be well supposed, that they walked not upon the Temple roofe so ordinarily as they did upon their own houses (nor was the Temple roofe altoge­ther so flat as their roofes) yet were battlements also made to it, partly, because it should not come short of the beauty of other buildings, and partly because there was occasion some­times to goe upon the roofe of it.

7. [...], The scarcrow, one cubit; what this was, let us first take R. Nathans Aruc. in [...] information for it. Because, saith he, of the holynesse of the first Temple, and the divine glory dwelling there birds slew not on it at all: But as for the second Temple, they feared, that [Page 51]the holynesse of it should not be as the holynesse of the first; and lest birds should fly over it, and leave some defilement upon it, therefore they set up a picture, to cause birds to keep off the roofe of the Temple, and they called it, [...] the scarscrow, as meaning, that it keeps the Ra­vens from flying upon the Temple roofe, and this image or picture was such a one as they use to set upon corn: But by other of the Jews it is defined to be Maym. in Beth babbechir. per. 4. [...], A pike of iron like a rapier of a cubit high, upon the top of the battlements round about, made that birds might not light upon it. And by some again concluded, that there were no such thing as either the one or other R. Iudah in Mid. perk. 4. but only that the battlement was 4 cubits high: But how­soever it may be a fancy not to be fancyed, that there was or could be any such course taken as to keep birds off the roof of the Temple, (see Psal. 84.34.) yet upon the so concurrent testimony of the Hebrew writers as is to be found, joined with the thought of what an ornament it would add to the building it selfe, it may very well be concluded, that there were pinna­cles upon the battlements round about: as Kings Colledge Chap­pel in Cambridge is decked in the like manner to its great beau­ty. [...] is construed according to this sense by divers Expositors, Mat. 4 5. The roofe was not a perfect flat, as was the roofe of other houses, but rising in the middle [...] Semajah in Mid. till the very crest of the middle came up as high as the height of the battlement; as Kings Colledge Chappell may be herein a parallel also; And the like bat­tlements and pinacles are likewise to be allotted to the lower leads.

CHAP. XII. The Breadth, Chambers, and Staires of the Temple.

THus were the risings of the Temple to its height, in the parcels named: it is now equally requisite to take notice also of the length and breadth of it, and to observe into what lesser measures those dimensi­ons were divided.

Mid. per. 4. The length of it was from East to West, and it was an hundred cubits, and so was the breadth from North to South, in some part of it, but not in all. That part of it that bare this bredth, was only the porch, for the building behind it was only seventy cubits broad. And the porch stood before it as a crosse building, reaching fifteen cubits South, and fifteen cubits North further out then the breadth of the Temple; which spaces on either side were thus taken up, Maym. in Beth babbechir. per. 4. The thicknesse of the wall of the porch at either end was five cubits, and from that wall to the wall of the Temple on either side were ten cubits.

So fair a front there was at the entring: an hundred cubits broad, and an hundred and twenty cubits high; for so is Jo­sephus to be understood, when speaking of the Temple built by Herod, he saith, it was [...] Ioseph. Ant. lib. 15. cap. 4. An hundred long, and twenty cubits above an hundred high; Not all the house throughout so high, for that the Talmud denies, giving so particular and exact account of an hundred only, as we have observed, but the porch of this height rising twenty cubits above the height of the rest of the house.

Just in the middle of this faire front Mid. per. 3. was the gate of the porch, 40 cubits high, and 20 cubits broad: Maym. ubi supr. It had no dootes to it at all, but Ioseph. de Bell. lib. 5. c. 14. it was an open gate, into which whosoever stood in the Court might looke and see the space of the porch within. [...], &c. All this front was gilt with gold and through it, all the first house (that is, the [Page 53]porch within) might be seen, and that glittered with gold also: Now by all this front, Josephus, (for they are his words) meaneth not the whole face of the porch, or all the hundred cubits long, and hundred and twenty high, but the very front of the gate, or entrance only, which he sheweth to have been 70 cubits high, and 25 broad: And herein the Talmud and hee doe not clash, though the Talmud say, that the height was only forty cubits, and the breadth but twenty, for it speaks only of the very hollow entrance, but he speaks also of the Posts and head or front of the whole gate-house, as we observed about the other gates before.

Mid. ubi sup The Talmud likewise speaks of five [...] beams of some choice wood (the learned Buxtorfius translates it quercinoe) that were laid over this gate, curiously wrought with knots and flowers, and a row of stone still laid between beame and beame: The lowest beam that lay on the head of the gate was a cubit on either side longer then the gate was broad: then was laid on that a row of stone: After that another carved beame a cubit on either end longer then the other; and then a row of stone. Then another beam, and so of the rest, every beam being a cubit at either end longer then that that lay below it. These were thus laid over the gate to bear the weight that was above; they rose to a great height were curiously ingraven, and gilt, and from the highest there was a neat descending border gathered at either end of the beams, stil inward and inward as the beams shortned, and at last it ran down by the cheeks of the entry two cubits and an halfe broad, on either side the gate: And this was the front that Josephus meaneth.

And now turn behind this porch at whether end you will, and look Wellward: There ran the body of the Temple it self, pointing exactly upon the middle of the porch, or just upon this entrance that we have been speaking of, the breadth of it between wall and wall, just equall with the breadth of this entrance; but the walls and chambers built on either side, of such a breadth, as that the whole came to seventy cubits broad: and thus doth Ariel or the Lion of God, as the Jewes in­terpret it, represent the proportion of a lion, broad before in the large front the porch, which was of an hundred cubits [Page 54]breadth, and narrow behind, in the buildings of the house re­duced in breadth to seventy cubits; which breadth to take up in its severall parcells, we will begin at the North side, and thus we find these particular measures.

Ibid. per. 4. 1. [...], The wall of the Gallery five cubits thick, this was the outmost wall of all, and it rose to the battlements or first leads mentioned before; where the foun­dation for six cubits high, was said to be six cubits thick: but that odde cubit is not here reckoned, because the count it not from the very foundation, but from the wall above, as any one would count in such a building.

2. [...], The gallery three cubits broad.

3. [...], The wall of the chambers five cubits thicke.

4. [...], The chambers themselves six cubits broad.

5. [...], The wall of the Temple, six cubits thick.

6. [...], The breadth of the Temple within, from wall to wall twenty cubits.

7. [...], The other wall of it six cubits thicke.

8. [...], The breadth of the chambers six cubits.

9. [...], The wall of the chambers five cubits thicke.

10. [...], The place of the coming down of the water, three cubits broad.

11. [...], The outmost wall five cubits. Seventy in all.

Ibid. Sect. 3. Now the chambers were in number eight and thirty, fif­teen upon the Northside, fifteen upon the South, and eight at the West end. They were in three stories, five in the lowest stories, and five over them, and five over those, thus on the North and South sides; but at the West end there were three on the ground, and three over them, and two over those. Every chamber was six cubits broad, and twice as long (only the two highest chambers at the West end were of a greater length) See Ezek: 40.21. And there was a space between the chambers on the same floore, in manner of an entry of some 7 cubits and an halfe [Page 55]broad, that you might passe in it betwixt chamber and cham­ber, to every chamber doore which was upon the side.

Before these chambers there ran a gallery from the East end of the building to the West (but at the West end there was none such) of three cubits broad, by which you were carryed along to any of these Entries between the chambers, and so to any chamber doore: In the outmost wall of the fabrick, to­ward the North and the South, there were foure doores on either side, into foure entries (for so many there were between five chambers) but as soon as you were come within the doors, there ran a gallery along on your right hand and left, over which you stepped into the entry that was before you: or if you went not in at the doore that was just opposite to the en­try that you would goe to, you might goe in at any dore you thought good, and this gallery would lead you to that en­try.

Thus was it with the lowest chambers, and the like gallerie and entries were also in the middle story, and in the highest: Now the way to goe up into them, was by a large pair of turn­ing staires, in a turret at the North-East corner of the North side; by which staires you went up to the first floore, and there if you would, you might land in the gallery, and go there to what entry or chamber you would, or if you would go higher, you might doe so likewise into the gallery in the third story; and if you had a mind, you might yet go higher up these staire, up to the leads, to walk over the chambers, on the roof, round about their whole pyle.

But besides this stair case-turret, which thus conveyed to the roofe of the buildings, there was such another, at the furthest end of every one of the entries that have been spoken of, which carryed up to the first and second floore, or to the upper cham­bers, but went not so high, as to convey to the roofe: And so had you gone in at any of the fo [...]m dores to the ground chambers, either on the north side of the house, or on the south, stepping over the gallery, you come into the entry between two chambers, one on your right hand, and another on your left, and their dores opening into the entry, and facing one ano­ther, but before you, towards the Temple wall, there was a [Page 56]round large turret-like staire case, into which you might goe out of either chamber, and so go up staires into the cham­bers over head: and from thence up stairs againe, into the chambers over them. And thus are wee to understand that Talmudick passage, of no small difficulty at the first fight. Mid. ubi su. There were three dores to every one of the Chambers, [...] One to the Chamber on the right hand, and another to the Chamber on the left (that is, one dore to the entry on the one side, and a­nother to the entry on the other,) and one to the Chamber over head) that is, into this stair case that carryed up to the Cham­bers above. And thus Eze: 41.7. one went up from the lowest story to the highest by the middle: for 1 Kin. 6.8. they went up with winding staires into the middle story, and out of the middle into the third.

The West end Chambers had no gallery at all before them, but you stepped immediately through the dores that were in the outmost wall into the entries, and at the end of the en­tries there was such a stair-ease as this, which conveyed and carryed you up from story to story. On the South there were such galleries in the three heights, as there were on the North, and such stair cases at the end of the entries, joining to the Temple-wal, but that space where the galleries were, was called by another name. Not [...] Mesibbah, as it was called on the Northside, but [...], the place of the coming down of the water: Not as if here were the gutters to carry off the raines from the whole house, but because in this space were laid the pipes that brought water down from the fountane Etam, to the Cistern or Well, in the Well-roome that was made to receive them: They were so laid, as that they hindred not the accesse or passage in the galleries, to any of the Cham­bers, and it may be they were not to be seen at all, but lay under ground in the ground-gallery; but they were glad thus to distinguish between the North and South sides, by these different names, as that they might the easier and quicker bee understood, when they spake of a chamber in the Mesibbah, or of a chamber in the conveyance of the water.

These chambers, which where of this number, measure, posture and composure that hath been spoken, and whose floor and [Page 57]roofe beams rested upon benches in the Temple wall, as was observed before, were for the laying up some choice treasures and utensils, as also for corne, wine, and oile, and whatsoever was brought in of [...], and first fruites for the sustenance and subsistence of the Pri [...] that attended upon the Altar, and they were as measuries or storehouses for that purpose, Neh. 12.44. Mal. 3.10.

And now let us go up the staires of the great turret, in the North-east corner on the North side (for there was none such on the South) that will carry us to the roofe of this building, or on the leads. At the top of the staines he went out at a wicket, and his face was then towards the West. Mid. ubi su. Hee walked upon the leads along upon the Northside [...] came to the West corner: when he came thither be turned his face toward the South corner: when he came to the South, be turned his face, Eastward, and went all along on the Southside, till he came up a good way, and there was a dore through the Temple wall into the roomes over the holy and most holy place. In this roome over them (which was [...]y cubits from the ground, and so were the leads wh [...] were these threathings worth taking notice of.

1. That as soon as a man was stept within the d [...]e. [...] were two Codar beams or trees said close together; sloping still upward, and lying along the wall, by which (they were said so handsomely slope, and steps were either [...] in them, [...] upon them) one might go to the very top of the Temple, and this was the way to the higher leads.

2. Ju [...] over the parting between the holy and most holy pl [...] them [...] some little pi [...]asters [...] the par­tition.

3. In the floore, over the most holy places, there were divers holes like trapdores, through which, when [...] required, they let down workmen by [...], to [...] of the [...] as there was [...]. And they let them down in [...] some such thing where they could [...] before the [...], and the reason of this is given by the Je [...]s, [...] [...] holy [...] Ma. in Beth habbech. per. 4. [...] and [...], they [Page 58]whited the Temple walls within: and for this and other ne­cessary work about the house within, it was desiced and endea­voured that Priests or Levites, should do the work; but if such were not found to do it, then other Israelites were admitted, and they were admitted to go through the dores into the most holy place, if Chests or Trunks, were not to bee found in which to let them downe.

CHAP. XIII. The Porch.

CHAP. XIV. The Holy place.

CHAP. XV. The most Holy place.

CHAP. XVI. The Courts of the Temple.

THe dimensions and platform of the Temple it selfe being thus laid out, we may now the better observe the forme and situation of the Courts that were before it or about it: Where, in the first place it will bee needfull to remember that againe which was spoken before, which was, that the Temple and the Courts about it; were not pitched so just in the middle of the Mount of the house, as that they lay in an equall distance from the four sides of the incompassing wall, Mid. per. 2. but they were situate more towards the North side and West, in such manner, as that they left lesse space betwixt them and the West, then betwixt them and the North; and lesse betwixt them and the North, then between them and the East; and lesse betwixt them and the East, then betwixt them and the South.

There were three which we may call Courts, belonging to the Temple, besides that space in the mountaine of the house without them, which was very large, and which is ordinarily called by Christian writers, Atrium Gentium, or the Court of the Gemiles. And these three were, The Court of Israel and the Priests, the Court of the women, and The Chel, [...]; but properly and ordinarily the two former are only called Courts: That word in Hebrew is [...] used in the text, 2 Chro. 4.9. and in the Chaldee Paraphrast, Esay 1.12. 1 Sam. 3.3. Ezek. 43.8. and by the Rabbins most constantly when they speak of these pla­ces, David Kimchi gives the Etymology of it [...] that Kimch. in 2 Chron. 4. & in Michol. it was called [...] (which signi­fies helpe) because that every one that came to pray there with a good heart was helped by the Lord his God: And much to the same pur­pose Rabbi Nathan, when he saith, Ar. in [...]. they prayed there to the Lord to help them, &c. there being their last recourse for helpe in all exigents, as, 1 King. 8.31, &c. the word is used in Ezek. 43.14. [Page 94]in another sense, namely, for a border or halfe pace at the foot of the Altar, on which the Priests that sacrificed stood, Kimch. in Ezek. 43. as Kimchi expounds it upon that place, and which wee shall meet with afterward.

These two Courts are sometimes so spoken of in scripture, as if they were three, for there is mention of the Court of the Priests, and the great Court, 2 Chr. 4.9. and the Court of the women, as we shall observe by and by, and yet they were in­deed but two, for though the Court of the Priests, and the Court of Israel were distinguished, yet were they not divided, but the Court of the women was divided from them both.

The measure of the Court of Israel and the Priests (which is sometime called Emphatically, The Court, and sometime, The Court of Israel) Mid. per. 5. Sect. 1. was 187 cubits long; that is, from East to West, and 135 broad from North to South. The Temple stood just in the middle of the breadth of it, so that the front of the Temple or the porch being 100 cubits broad, this Court breadth lay 17 cubits and an halfe on either side of it; and the body of the temple it self being but 70 cubits broad, this Court lay 33 cubits and an halfe broad on either side it: Now be­hind the West end of the Temple it extended but 11 cubits; so measure from the utmost West side of it there, and you have 11 cubits behind the Temple, 100 cubits the length of the Temple, and then it extended Eastward before the Temple 76 cubits.

Ibid. per. 2. Sect. 5. The Court of the women lay just before this Court, joi­ning to it, being of equall breadth with it, namely, 135 cu­bits from North to South, but not so long as it from East to West, for it was only 135 cubits that way also, and so it was a perfect square.

CHAP. XVII. The Inclosure. [...] Chel.

ABout both these Courts thus laid, there was ano­ther inclosed space incompassing them in, and this by the Jews is called The [...] Chel: The word is used by Jeremy, Lam. 2.8. in that sense (as Maym. in beth habbech. per. 5. some Jews do interpret) that wee are to under­stand and describe here. Both the [...] chel, and the wall mourn: by the wall, being meant the wall of the Court, and by the [...] chel the space that incompassed it round about; and so translated by the Chaldee [...] the incompassing or inclosure. The Scrip­ture frequently useth the word [...] for a wall, trench, or rampart, as 2 Sam. 10.15. 1 King. 21.23. Obad. ver. 20. Nab. 3.8. and it is rendred variously by the Hebrew Expositors there, but of the sense of the word & nature of that place at the Temple that we are looking after, they give us this unanimous account Mid. per. 2. Sect. 3. Maym. ubi sup. that it was a place or space of 10 cubits broad, incompassed with a wall, be­tween the mountain of the house and the Courts. I cannot find a better name for it, then the inclosure or outer virge of the Courts.

The words of Rabbi Nathan in Aruch in two severall pla­may move two severall doubts about this place, for in one ces place bee saith that the [...] chel was [...], Ar. in [...]. A place incompassed with a wall between the mountain of the House and the Court of the women. And in another place he saith, that [...]. The [...] Id. in [...] chel was a wall higher then the wall called [...] Sor [...]g; Out of which words he seemeth to hold out these two opinions; the one, that the [...] chel did not incompasse all the Courts, but only the Court of the women; and the o­ther, that the [...] chel was not a space of ground, but a wall; but these two doubts we shall cleer as we goe along.

And first to evidence that this [...] was a space of ground, and not a wall, we have not only the testimony of the Talmud [Page 96]and divers other Jews that measure out the breadth of it to be 10 cubits, but we have mention abundantly in them of peo­ples coming into it, and standing and sitting in it; as R. Na­than himselfe giveth one instance, Id. ubi ante. when he speaketh of a great [...] Divinity schoole in the [...] chel: And Iuchas so. 21. Abra­ham Zaccuth speaketh of Rabban Johanan ben Zaccai having a Sanbedrin there. Pesa. per. 2. And Rambam relates at large how those that brought their Passoever lambs into the Court when they were dispatched, went and stood in the [...] chel, and diverse of the like examples might be added, which prove evidently enough what kind of thing this [...] chel was, namely, not a wall but a space of ground. And so R. Nathan meaneth even when he saith, it was a wall higher then the wall [...]: for so the word [...] at large when it is taken for other places then this in the Tem­ple, and is joined with the word [...] is defined by the Jews to mean [...] R. Sol. in Lam. 2.8. A wall, and a Son of a wall, or an inner and outer wall; that is, a lower wall before a higher, as Rabbi Solomon construes it not close joined together, but some space of ground between, and so our Authour understands it, though he speak so short.

The wal that inclosed the [...] is called [...] soreg in the Tal­mud and Rabbins language, which Nathan rendreth plainly a wal, but R. Semajab in Mid. some other expound it for a wal curiously lattized, & made of wood, but Josephus comes and speaks further, somewhat like to both their senses, and tells us that it was of stone, but curiously wrought: Let us a little examine what he saith upon this place: Ioseph. de bell. lib. 5. c. 14. [...]

As you went through this (that is, the mountain of the House) into the second Temple, there was a stone wall that went about of three cubits high of very curious worke: wherein stood pillars at an even distance; some in Greck and some in Latin letters giving notice of the [Page 97]holinesse of the place; That no stranger must enter within the holy place: for the second Temple was called holy; and they went up 14 steps into it out of the first. And a little after [...] And above the 14 steps it was 10 cubits to the wall (of the Court) and all even. Out of wh ^ch relation we may observe these things remarkable

1. That the outmost space of all, that lay within the great incompassing wall (that which the Jews distinctively call the Mountaine of the house) was also commonly call the first Temple: And in this very sense doth the Gospell speak very oft, using the word Temple when it meaneth but this outmost space, as John 2.14. Jesus found in the Temple those that sold Oxen &c. John 8.1, 3. Mat. 21.14, 15.

2. That within this [...] Chel no strangers might come but Jewes only, and for this purpose there were pillars in which there was so much written in Greek and Latine sentences. And so the Iewes say that the [...] Chel was more holy then the Moun­taine of the house, because no stranger might come into it, Talm. in Kelim. per. 1. nor none pol­luted by the dead. And upon this very thing we may conclude if we had no other ground to conclude it by, that the [...] Chel did incircle or incompasse all the Courts and not the Court of the women onely: for if the ground along that Court for 10 Cubits next to it were so holy that a stranger might not come upon it, certainely we must hold the ground along by the upper Court as holy and as unaccessible for strangers every whit. And therefore whereas R. Nathan in what was alledged before, saith that the [...] Chel did inclose the Court of the women, and speaketh of inclosing no more, he doth not exclude the other, but speakes according as the [...] Chel lay to one that came in at the East gate.

3 That into the [...] Chel there was the first rising, all be­ing levell from the East gate thither, and the rising into the [...] Chel was 14 steps or 7 cubits Mid. per. 2. or as the Talmud more truly reckons but 12 steps or 6 cubits (for every step was half a cubit rise) and the [...] Chel being 10 cubits broad it was levell to the wall of the womens Court.

The wall that incompassed the [...] Chel was not high as were the other walls about the Temple, but it was onely as [Page 98]it were barnes before the higher wall of the Court, but of 3 cubits high; the fashion or worke of it being very curious, wrought into paves or lattices, or such open worke that one might looke through it as well as over it.

The passages into the [...] Chel through this wall were ma­ny, namely, one before every gate that went into either of the Courts, and there on either side the passage, was a pillar set up, with the inscription mentioned, advising strangers to beware of coming upon the holy ground.

Now in the Syrogrecian Kings times when the Iewes and Ierusalem lay in subjection to those Kings [...] this wall that was the barre against strangers going any further, Id. ibid. was broken by those Kings in thirteen places, they scornfully and disdainfully, and impi­ously breaking in upon the holy ground [...] But the Iewes made up the breaches againe, and ordained thirteen adorations and oraisons to be made against the Heathen Kingdomes upon any ones coming to any of the places where the breach had been.

CHAP. XVIII. The Court of the Women.

THe Courts of the Temple (to the surveying of which we are now come) were properly two, The Court of Israel and The Court of the Women: For though there was indeed a distinction be­tween the Court of Israel and the Court of the Priests, as that the one was not the other, and they that came into the one, might not come into the other, yet was the one so within the other, and the partition be­tween the one and the other so small, and but one boundary that inclosed them both, that they were indeed not so very properly two Courts, as two severall places for the Priests and for the Israelites to stand in, in one Court: But the Court of Israel and the Court of the women were so truely and apparently two different Courts, that they lay one be­fore another, and they were parted and divided one from ano­ther, with a very high wall.

The Court of the women is not mentioned in Scripture by that expresse name and title in any place, but yet it is spoken of there under two or three other Epithets, or denominations. 1 It is called the New Court, 2 Chron. 20.5. where it is said that Jchoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before the new Court: that is, he and all the con­gregation stood in the mountaine of the house Eastward be­fore the Court of the women. Now David Kimchi upon the place though he speake not out so much, yet he concludeth indeed that that new Court meaneth the Court of the Women, and hee giveth two reasons why it is called New: Kimch. in 2 Chron. 20. either because it had gone to decay, and they had newly repaired it, or be­cause they had made some new Lawes concerning it, [...] and had appointed that none that were defiled, so as they needed to wash themselves the same day, should come within the Camp of Levi: which is a peculiar prohi­bition [Page 100]in Kelim per. 1. the Talmud as concerning this court of the women: C. Lemper. in Mid. fol. 62. But rather it was called new, because it was not made when the other Court was by Solomon, but added in aftertime.

There is mention indeed of the Inner Court built by Solomon 1 Kings 6.36. which inferreth an outer, but that outer meaneth the whole mountaine of the house which lay without the Court of Israel, as is well observed by some of the Hebrew Doctors, and that is it which is also called the great Court, in contradistinction to the Court of the Priests, 2 Chron. 4.9. And in that there is mention onely of Solomons building the inner Court, it is an argument that hee built but that Court, and that this that we are speaking of, was not extant in his time, but taken in and built afterward, either by Asa or by Jehoshaphat, before that time and occasion that the text mentioned in the book of Chronicles speaketh of: and so there came to bee two Courts in the House of the Lord, 2 Kings 21.5.

2 It is called The outer Court, Ezek. 46.21. Mid. per. 2. & Kimch. in loc. as that text is generally and truely understood by the Iewish writers, which we shall have occasion to examine anon; and the rea­son of the name doth easily appeare, namely because it lay on the outside of the Court of Israel, and further off from the Temple.

3. It is also called The Treasury, John 8.20. the reason of which name we shall observe before wee have done with the survey of this Court.

But by the Jewish writers it is generally and ordinarily called [...] The Court of the Women; and the reason of that name was, because the women might goe no higher or further, then into this Court. Joseph. de Bell. l. 5. c. 14. & Antiq. l. 15. c. 14. [...], This being the proper place for them to worship in, and [...], further then this towards the Temple was unaccessible to them: onely when a wo­man brought a sacrifice, she might goe into the Court of Israel, as we have observed in another place.

This Court lay at the East end of the Court of Israel, and was parted from it by a high wall, so that whosoever came [Page 101]to worship here, could see nothing of the service in the other Court, and indeed heare but little unlesse they went up the steps of the gate and looked in: for til you came to the middle of the entry of the gate that went up into the upper Court, it was but of the same holinesse with the Court of the women, but beyond the middle, it was holier.

The floore of this Court was even and levell throughout, Mid. ubi ant. and it was a perfect square of 135 cubits long, and 135. cubits broad; and it was curiously flag'd with marble, as in­deed was all the space, both Courts, Chel, and the other space that was within the wall that incompassed the holy ground: And they have this tradition about the pavement of the Court, where the Altar stood, Maym. in beth habbech. per. 1. That all the Court was flag'd with faire stones, and if any flag were loosed, although it lay still in its place, yet was it not lawfull to stand upon it to do any part of the service till it were fastned againe.

The entring into the Court of the women was by three gates, one on the East, one on the North, and one on the South, and there was a fourth on the West, which went up out of this Court into the upper Court or that of Israel. All these gates as also all the other that went into the upper Court (of which hereafter) were Joseph. de Bell. ubi supr. [...], gilt all over both posts and lintels, one onely excepted, of which instantly.

We will goe up at the East gate out of the [...] Chel, out of which there were five steps that rose up to the gate to land you in it. The gate it selfe was exceeding sumptuous and ex­ceeding beautifull: and this was that which was called the beautifull gate of the Temple, Act. 3.2. at which the Creeple lay begging of almes, both of men and women that went into the Temple; At this gate began [...], The inner Tem­ple, as Josephus doth often call it, distinguishing between that space that was inclosed within the boundary wall that in­compassed the whole holy ground, and that space that was inclosed within the wall that incompassed the Courts: the former of them was called the outer Temple, and the latter was called the inner, and both of them bare the name of the Tem­ple: and so in the Scripture, whosoever went but within the [Page 102]compasse of the holy ground, is said to have gone into the Temple.

Now this gate being the very front and entrance into the Inner Temple, or into that space within which the choicest sanctity and bravery of the Temple was, it was built and decked with such sumptuousnesse and singular gallantry, as was fitting for the frontispice of so brave a place: And hence it came to beare the name of beautifull, and that the ra­ther also, in comparison of the gate Shushan, or the outmost East gate that entered into the mountaine of the house, for that was but a low and homely gate-house, for a reason that hath been observed heretofore: but this was goodly and lofty, and stood bravely mounted upon the far higher ground.

This gate Josephus Joseph. ubi supr. calleth the Corinthian gate, because it was of Corinthian brass, whereas the rest of the gates were gilt with gold. And here occurreth a difference betwixt him and the Talmudicall writers; for they do unanimously hold the brazen gate to be the gate of Nicanor (which wee shall survey anon) which was the gate that went out of the Court of the Women into the Court of Israel: but he doth as confidently affirme on the other hand, that it was that that went out of the Chel into the Court of the women. His words are these Mia [...]. There was one gate without the Temple of Corinthian brasse, which exceeded in glory those of gold or silver: Now where this gate stood, namely, in that place that we are upon, appeareth by this passage of his a little after. The gate above the Corinthian gate which opened East, over against the gate of the Temple, &c.

It is not much materiall to determine whether of these Ea­sterne gates were of brasse, it is onely needfull to be resolved which of them was that that was called the gate of Nicanor, (because upon the knowledge of that there are divers things depending, and in the next chapter but one, shall be shewed that it was that gate that went out of the Court of the Wo­men into the Court of Israel.) But if I were to moderate be­tween the differing parties, I should say their difference in this matter is not reall, but onely apparent: Josephus calls the gate that came into the Court of the Women, the brazen [Page 103]gate, because it was all so, posts and lintell and all overlaid with brasse, which shone above gold: but the Talmudists say, the doores of the gate of Nicanor were only of brasse, but the whole front of the gate beside, all of gold: and so that was not the brazen gate, but onely brazen doores, but the other was properly the brazen gate.

When Peter and Iohn had healed the Creeple at this gate, the text saith, that he went with them into the Temple, that is, in­to the Court of the Women, which was the common and ordinary place of worship for those that brought not a Sa­crifice, and from thence he went backe againe with them through this gate into Solomons porch or the Easterne cloister of the Mountaine of the house, and there they preach and convert five thousand. And now let us go up through this gate into the Court, and survey it it selfe.

[...] Mid. ubi supr. In the four corners of the Court of the women there were four roomes of forty cubits, and they were not floored over, and thus they shall be in time to come, say the Talmudicks from Ezek. 46.21,22. Now these four rooms were every one 40 cubits long from East to West, and 30 cubits broad from North to South, for so may we best interpret it according to the place alledged in the Pro­phesie of Ezekiel, His words are these, Then he brought me forth to the utter Court, and caused me to passe by the 4 corners of the Court, and behold in every corner of the Court there was a court. In the 4 cor­ners of the Court were Courts [...] of 40 cubits long and 30 broad. The word [...] is of doubtfull signification, and diversly interpreted: The Lxx read it [...] little, for so they render it [...] A little Court, and it is easie to see how they mistooke [...] for [...]: some understand it according to the Chaldee transmutation of [...] changed into [...] and thinke it meaneth [...] joined, and so our English hath it, and so Aruch in [...] Rabbi Nathan, produceth some instances of the word in this sense, but concludeth that [...] the word [...] meaneth nothing but that these buil­dings were not floored over, and in the very same opinion doth the Mid. ubi supr. Talmud, R. Sol. & Kimch. in Ezek. 46. Rabbi Solomon and David Kimchi joyne with [Page 104]him, and in the very same words; But how to understand this is somewhat difficult: If wee should conceive that they were clearly open on the top without any covering at all, the constant workes that were done in them, and the things that were laid up in them will deny that; and if we shall say they were roofed over, how shall we answer to the generall testimo­ny of the Hebrew Doctors which holdeth otherwise. We will therefore looke first to what use these severall roomes were constantly put, and then we shall be the better in abled to judge of this matter.

Mid. ubi supr. 1 That in the South-east corner was a roome for Na­zarites [...]: For there they boiled their peace-offerings, polled their haire and pnt it under the pot, according to the Law, Numb. 6.18. Nazir. per. 1. Nazarism was most ordi­narily for thirty dayes: though sometime it was for yeares and sometime for terme of life. He whose vow was expired, was to bring three beasts, one for a burnt-offering, another for a sin-offering, and a third for a peace-offering: Ibid. per. 6. If he polled his head in the Country, as Paul did at Cenchrea, he was to bring his haire and burne it under the Caldron where his peace-offering was boiling, which was in this place that we are speaking of: And if he polled it here, it was the rea­dier.

The Jewes in the Treatise alledged in the Margine above, speake of [...] A Samson Nazarite and an everlasting Nazarite, not but that Samson was a Nazarite al­wayes: but they use this distinction in reference to the man­ner of the Vow making. He that tooke on him to be a Na­zarite like Samson, as saying. Behold I will be a Nazarite like Sam­son, or like the Son of Manoah, or like the husband of Delilah, or like him that carried away the gates of Azzah, or like him whose eyes the Philistims put out: such a one might never cut his haire, but it must ever grow upon him: and such a Nazarite did Absalom take upon him to be, but he was forced to cut his haire once every yeare, it was so heavy: But he that was a Nazarite ever­lasting (that is, that tooke upon him Nazarisme upon other termes, as he that said I will be a Nazarite according to the number [Page 105]of the haires of my head, or the dust of the Earth, or sand of the Sea shore) he might poll his head once in thirty dayes: but his haire was not to be thus burnt, because his vow was not out. But he whose vow was expired, wheresoever he polled his head was to come to this place, and here to boyl his Peace-offering and to burn his haire, and the Priest tooke the shoulder as it boiled, and a Cake and a wafer of unleavened bread, and put all upon the hands of the Nazarite, and waved them, and then was the Nazarite at liberty to drink wine, and to be defiled by the dead. But R. Simeon saith that as soon as any of the bloud of any of the Lambes was sprinkled on him, hee was at this li­berty: The same tract also speaketh of women Nazarites as Ibid. per. 3 Queen Helena who was a Nazarite first by her own ingagement seven years, and by coming into the land of Israel seven years more, and by a difilement, seven years more, one and twenty in all: Ibid. per. 6 And Mary of Tarmud, who whilest the bloud of her offerings was sprinkling on her, word was brought her that her daughter was in danger of death, and shee went away, the sprinkling halfe done, and half undone, and found her daughter dead: and came againe and was sprinkled out: Now to inquire whether these women cut their haire at the expiring of their vow, is not much to this place and purpose, and there­fore wee shall not trouble our selves at present to hearken af­ter it. But me thinkes that Iuchasin. fol. 15 trac. 1. passage of Simeon the just, was to purpose, who in all his life time would take a sin-offer­ing but of one Nazarite only, and his reason was, because hee thought they made their vowes in some paffion, and repented of it when they bad done.

2. Mid. ubi. su­pra. The North-east rooms [...] was the place of the wood, where the priests that had blemishes did search the wood for wormes; for any wood that had wormes in it was unclean for to burne upon the Alter. Maym. in biath hamik­dash per. 6. Mid. per. 5. The great Sanhedrin sate in the building Gazith, and a main worke of theirs continually. was, that they judged of the Priesthood, and tryed the Priests as concerning their genealogy (whether they were truly of the Priestly line or no,) and concerning blemishes (whether they were fit to serve or no) every one that was found sailing of the right pedegree, was cloa­thed with black, and vailed with black, and got him out of the Court. [Page 106]But whosoever was found right and perfect was cloathed with white (compare Rev. 3.4. & 7.9. and went in and served with the Priests his brethren: VVhosoever war found of the right blo [...]d of the Priests, but some blemish was found in him, he went and sate him down in the woodroom, and wormed the wood for the altar, and had his portion in the holy things, with the men of the house of his father, and eat with them. And when a Priest was found without blemish, they made holyday and great rejoicing, and blessed God for it with a Solemn prayer.

Mid. ubi supr. 3. The Northwest roome [...], was the roome of the lepers: After the ma­ny rites for the cleansing of the leper abroad in the Countrey, at his own house, Maym. in Tumeach tsoreah per. 11. as killing a Sparrow and be sprinkling him with the bloud mingled with water, sending another sparrow flying in the open aire, shaving himselfe with a razour every haire off, &c. On the seventh day hee was to shave him­self again, and to wash himself in water, and then he was clean from defiling and might come within Jerusalem. On the eight day he brought three lambes, for a sin-offering, trespasse-offer­ing, and burnt-offering Talm. in Negain, per. 11. [...] Hee bathed himself in the Lepers roome, and went and stood in the gate of Nicanor, and there the Priests besprinkled him, &c. the manner of which we have observed elsewhere.

Mid. ubi supr. 4. The South west room was called [...] The house of the oil. Ibich et Mayin. in Beth. habbech per. 5. For there they laid up the wine and the oil, whereof there was so frequent and constant use by the ap­pointment of the Law in their meat and drink offerings, see Numb. 15.

And now that wee have seene the use and imployment to which these roomes were put, it is the more seasonable to con­sider of that which we mentioned before, namely whether these four roomes in the four corners of the Court of the women, were quite open to the skyes, or roofed over, and in what sense to takethe word [...]

Two things doe here meet us which are considerable. 1. That these places in Ezekiel are called Courts: 2. That he saith in every one of them there were boyling ranges, to boyl the Sacrifices of the people. Ezek. 46.21, 21. And yet doth the Talmud allot them to these particular uses. All which, and [Page 107]what is said moreover, that they were not roefed over, may very well consist together. For grant every one of these spaces to bee built within with chambers round about: there might bee very fair chambers and yet a good handsome open Court in the middle: At either end chambers of 10 cubits broad, & yet an open space of 20 cubits between: And on either side chambers of seven or eight cubbits broad: and yet an open space of four­teen or sixteen cubits between: Thus therefore doth the build­ing in these places seeme to bee; that there were fair chambers round about which were roofed over as other buildings, and in the middle was an open court, round about which were boyling ranges, whose chimneys went up in the inner walls of the chambers or the walls to the open place: And so the word [...] to be rendred caminata, as it is by some, and as by our English Bibles margin made with chimneys. And thus were these places roofed, but not as the rest of the buildings about the Temple, with a continued roof, for here was a void place or even quadrangle in the middle, and thus did the inner Court serve for boyling places, and the rooms round about for other uses.

Such was the Platform of the Court of the women. It was a perfect square: in the midst of every one of the walls of it was a gate: in every corner of it, was one of these buildings: and now what was between these buildings along the wall till it came to the gate? was it cloistered all along, as were the o­ther walls about the Temple? The Talmud answers that at first it was not [...] Piske To­sapb. ad Mid. The Court of the women was not cloistered about: but [...] Mid. ubi supr. It was all plain at first, and nothing but pavement and bare walls: but upon some experience of inconveniences that they found they made cloisters, and balcones or galleries within the cloi­sters upon three sides of it, East, North and South, all about: The inconvenience R. Nathan tels us was this [...] Aruch in [...] Talm. in Succah. per. 5. That men and women being promiscuously mingled together, it was occasion of lightnesse and irreverence. Therefore they made a balcone ( [...] in Nathan & Maymony, but [...] in the Talmud) round about the Court, which came out from the wall and was roofed over bead. And so the [Page 108]women stood in those galleries, and men stood in the Court below: And it is a Tradition, that at the first when they looked on the festivity of powring out of water, the men were within, and the women without, which caused some irreverence: whereupon they made three galleries in the Court, upon three sides of it, that they might bebold from a­bove.

So that at first there were neither cloisters nor balcones in this Court, till this inconvenience put them upon making of such: and then they were but galleries or balcones, without any cloistering with the support of pillars, as there was in the o­ther Court: But in the sumptuous buildings that Herod made of and about the Temple, this Court was cloistered with as much state & bravery as was the other, or as was the mountain of the House which we have surveyed, only whereas that was a double cloister all about, but on the South, where it was tre­ble, the cloisters of both the Courts were only single: Take the Testimony of Josephus about this matter. Ios. de bel. lib. 5. cap. 14. [...]: He had been speak­ing immediately before concerning the gates and passages in­to both the Courts, and it may not be amiss for the better un­derstanding of the passage before us, to take up his words a lit­tle at large. [...] From thence (out of the [...] cbel) five steps brought you up unto the gates, which on the North and South were eight in number, namely four on either side: and two necessarily on the East, for the Court appropriated to the women to worship in being walled on that quarter, there must needs bee a second gate, which opened just opposite to this first. And as for the other sides (of the Court of the wo­men) there was one gate on the South and another the North by which they entered into the womens Court: For through the other gates (of the Court of Israel) women might not enter, nor goe beyond the in­closure of their own Court. And that place was permitted for the Iews that dwelt in the land, and that dwelt in forreign countryes to worship in: Now the West quarter had no gate at all, but the wall there was built continued (without any opening of a gate in it) And then he comes on with this saying [...], &c. [Page 109]Now the cloisters which ran between the gates along by the wall, turn­ing inward before the treasuries, were born up with exceeding fair and great pillars: But they were single and they wanted nothing in their exceeding greatnesse of those that were below.

Now in that hee saith these cloisters were [...], along by the wall turning inward, his meaning is, that they were joyning to the wal, and stood within the Courts and not without, and so they ran along the Courts within from gate to gate: And they wanted nothing of the greatnesse of the pillars and cloisters that were below along the wall of the mountaine of the house, but only that those were double and these single: And as for the cloister in the Court of the wo­men, it had this difference, both from those in the mountaine of the house, and those in the Court of Israel, that this had a gallery made in it for women to stand in and to look down in­to the Court, whereas the others had no interposition but were uninterrupted to the roof.

This Court of the women was the place, where both men and women, did ordinarily worship, that either came to pray at other times then the houres of prayer, or that at the houres of prayer came and brought no Sacrifice with them. In this Court it was, where Paul was laid hold upon, as a violater of the Sanctity of the place in the peoples repute, who thought hee had brought Gentiles in hither, Act. 21.26, 27, &c. who might not goe so much as into the chel. In this Court did the High Priest once a year, namely at the Feast of Expiation read a portion of the Law, and the King once in seven yeares, namely at the Feast of Tabernacles in the year of Release: and here every year at the Feast of Tabernacles was the great dancing, singing and rejoycing, for the drawing and powring out of water, of which and of the other particulars named, I have given the full account, in the treatise of The Temple Service.

CHAP. XIX. Of the Gazophylacia or Treasuries.

BEfore we part out of this Court of the women, those words of Josephus, which were cited even now, which say the cloisters of the court, were [...] turned inward before the Treasuries, may justly challenge us to stay here a little and look about us, whether we can find any Treasuries hereabout, or what may be said to the Gazophylacium of the Temple, the name and mention of which is very well known and ordinary both in Scripture and other Writers, but the situation thereof about the Temple some­thing difficult to find out: Now in these two words of Josephus. [...], two maine things are observable, and to be looked after towards that search that wee are now about; the one is, the number, importing more treasuries then one, and the other is, the situation of these treasuries in reference to the cloisters mentioned, The cloisters were before them.

The Treasuries of the Temple were of a twofold nature and captivity, namely Treasure-chests and Treasure chambers, the for­mer were called Sbopheroth, the latter Lesacoth, and both bare the generall name of Corban.

Talm. in Shekalim per. 6 There were thirteen treasure-chests at the Temple, which by the Jews are commonly called [...] Sbopheroth which signifieth properly Trumpets Maym. in Shekal. per. 2. because trumpet-like they were wide in the bottom and narrow in the top: that money that was put in, might not easily be got out.

Id. ibid. Two of these chests, were for the halfel shekel that every Israelite was to pay for the redemption of his soul or life (for which the Law is given, Exod. 30.13.) the one chest for the pay­ment of the last year (if he had missed to pay at the due time) and the other for the halfe shekel for the yeare present. Talm. ubi ant. per. 1. On the first day of Adar which answereth in part to our February, there was generall notice given throughout the Countrey, that they should provide to pay their halfe shekel: and on the fif­teenth day of that moneth the Collectors sate in every City [Page 111]to gather it; and they had two chests before them, (as were at the Temple) and they demanded the payment calmly and u­sed no roughness or compulsion. On the five and twentyeth day of the month, the Collectors began to fit in the Temple, and then they forced men to pay, and if any one had not where­with to pay, they tooke his pawn, and sometime would take his very rayment perforce: They had a Table before them to count and change the money upon (from whence they were called [...] Trapezita or Mensarii, and two chests before them to put into.

A man that brought a shekel to change, and must have halfe a shekel again, the Mensarius or Collector was to have some profit upon the change: [...] Maym. ubi sup. per. 3. et Aruch in [...]. And that addition or profit is called Kolbon ( [...]) And how much profit did bee require for change? The twelth part of a Denari­us, and never lesse: Nay if two came together and paid a shekel for them both, so that there needed no change, yet the receiver was to have some profit from them both: The Talmud and the Authors cited in the margin doe discourse exceeding­ly large about this [...] Kolbon, and who was to pay it, and who to be quit from it, and how much to be paid, and to the like purpose, but the generall conclusion is stil for some pro­fit, which exaction was that that caused our Saviour to over­throw [...] The tables of these Colbonists Iob. 2.15. at the first Passeover hee came up to Jerusalem after his baptism, and Matth. 21.12. at his last: for these Receivers began to sit in the Temple for that purpose, but eighteen or twenty dayes before the Passeover, and continued for that time when the concourse of the people was greatest, and after it was over they had done.

And so the market that was in the Temple of sheep and oxen it is like it was not constantly there, but for such times of con­course, when the multitude of people and Sacrifices was so exceeding great, though indeed there was merchandizing of o­ther things there, all the year long in the Tabernz. or shpps. that we have spoken of before. The place where the marketing of the sheep and oxen was, was the great space of the mountaine of the house, that lay upon the South fide of the Courts, for [Page 112]on the West and North sides the roome was too strait for such a matter, and on the East side was the most common entrance of the people, and so these cattel would have stopt up the way: but on the South there was a place exceeding roomy and spaci­ous, and it they had taken up for a market at such times, making the house of God an house of Merchandise.

Amongst those Authors that speake of these two half-shekel chests, I find not any that doth inform us, where they stood, or where these Collectors of the poll-money did fit in the Temple to receive it: nor indeed is it of any great import to in­quire after it, since their sitting there was but for a short space, as a moneth or such a matter, and so they had done: It is most probable they sate about the East gate Shushan as being the chiefest and commonest entrance.

Besides these two treasure-chests that were in use but for a certain time every year, there were eleven more that were of con­stant and continuall use, and that stood in their places all the year long, and upon every one of them was written what use and imployment they were put unto.

1. Maym. ibid. One was for them that were to offer two turtle doves or two young pigeons, the one for a burnt offering, and the other for a sin-offering: they cast in their price hither.

2. A second was, for them that were to offer a burnt offer­ing of birds only.

3. A third, for whosoever offered money to buy wood for the Altar, he put his money into that chest.

4. A fourth, for whosoever would offer money to buy Fran­kincense.

5. A fifth, for whosoever would offer Gold for the Mercy Seat.

6. A sixth, for the residue of a Sin-offering, that is, if a man had set apart a sum of money for a Sin-offering, and it bought a Sin-offering and there was to spare, that which was to spare was put into this chest.

7. A seventh, for the residue of a Trespasse-offering.

8. An eight, for the residue or surplus of an offering of birds, of men and women that had issues, and of women after childbirth.

[Page 113]9. A ninth for the surplus of a Nazarites offering.

10. A tenth for a surplus of a lepers trespasse-offering.

11. The eleventh for whosoever would willingly offer a sa­crifice of the herd, the money wherewith to buy it, he cast in­to this chest.

These many chests stood continually in the Temple, with every one its title written upon it, that told its use, that who­soever would offer any one of these things mentioned, he could readily goe by those directions, where to put the money of his offering: And these are those Gazophylacia or Treasuries that Iosephus saith the eloisters were before; that is, whereas the Courts were cloistered round about, and those cloisters were, on the side toward the Court, supported with pillars, these chests were set in the Court before those pillars: as if such chests should be set in the quadrangle before the pillars that beare up the cloister walkes in the Royall Exchange London.

But in whether of the Courts were these chests disposed of, in the Court of Israel, or the Court of the women, or in both, some in the one and some in the other?

Ans. These considerations doe evince, that they were pla­ced in the Court of the women: 1. Because thither was the accesse freer then it was into the Court of Israel, and it is no doubt, these chests would be set in a place most commodious for every one to come unto them: women might not come in­to the other Court at all, nor men neither, so ordinarily as they might into this, and these treasuries in all reason were to be set, where men and women did both resort. 2. In the upper Court, if these chests stood before or on the outside of the Cloister, they stood in the Court of the Priests, and thither might not an Israelite that was come into the upper Court, en­ter, unlesse it were upon three singular occasions when he had a sacrifice, which we have mentioned elsewhere, and putting money into the treasuries was none of them. 3. It is said in Mark. 12.41. That Jesus sate over against the Treasury and saw the people cast in money, and be saw a widow throw in two mites: Now into the Court of Israel, this widow might not come, and in that Court Christ might not fit, for they had a tradition, that none might sit in that Court, but onely the Kings of the house of David: [Page 114]But the meaning of the place is, that Iesus fitting in the Cloi­ster of the Court of the women, saw the people cast money in­to these chests, according as they were minded to offer for this or that occasion: and there came a poore widow and threw in two mites which make a farthing. It is the ordinary expression that the Hebrew authors use to signifie the peoples giving to the treasury by, to say [...] They cast in their mo­ney: which phrase the Evangelists also follow in this story: And since we are upon this poore widows offering, let it be without offence, to digresse so much, as to give in this rate­table of the Jews, for the understanding of the value of her two mites, and how they made a farthing, and it may be it will be usefull on other occasions: Id. ibi. per. 1. The shekel, or peece of silver men­tioned in the Law, the weight of it was 320 barley cornes: but the wisemen added to its weight, and made it of the same weight with the coine called [...] Selaa: and what is the weight of the Selaa [...] Three hundred eighty and foure midling barley cornes: The Selaa is foure Denarii. The Denarius is six [...] Meabs; now the Meab is that which in Moses his time was called a Gerab: The Meab was two Pondions: The Pondion was two [...] Issarin [...]: And [...] A mite, was the eight part of an Issar (so two mites make a fourth part) and the weight of a Meab which was the Gerab, was sixteen barly cornes: and the weight of an [...] Issar (Assarius) was foure barly cornes: the weight of [...] a mite was balse a barley corne, &c.

The place then of these treasure chests was in the Court of the women, before the Cloisters, some here and some there on the severall sides of the Court, (and therefore this place is also called the Treasury, Joh. 8.20. where it is said, These things spake Jesus in the treasurie as be taught in the Temple, &c.) and so the people both men and women had accesse to them, and of­fered as their hearts or their occasions moved them, and the­inscriptions of the chests did give them direction.

As there were these treasure-chests, so also were there trea­sure chambers, besides those that have been mentioned before, at the gates of the mountaine of the House, and besides those that joyned to the body of the Temple: Besides the chambers, where sithes, first-fruits, vessels, and vestments were treasured up, as [Page 115]they were in the chambers by the gates, and by the sides of the Temple, there were three chamber treasuries of remarkable note, but the place where they stood is something difficult to disco­ver.

1. There was the chamber, or treasury, of the halfe-shekel poll money, into which the two chests that have been spoken of, were emptied when they were full, and the chamber locked and sealed up. Now at three set times of the yeare, they took the money out of this chamber againe: The Talmud and Mai­mony in the treatise Shekalim doe give the story, and the man­ner of that action thus: Shekalim per. 3. At three times of the yeare they emptied this chamber: Namely, fifteene daies before the Passeover, fifteene daies before Pentecost, and fifteene daies before the feast of Tabernacles: or as Rabba Akibathe sonne of Azai saith, on the uine and twentieth of Adar, the first of Sivan, and the nine and twentieth of Ab: He that went in to fetch out the money, must not goe in in any garment, in which it was possible to hide money, nor in his shooes or sandals, no nor with his Phylacteries on, because it was possible to hide money under them: when he went in, a watch stood at the doore without, and all the while be was within they talked to him, and be againe to them, that so he might be prevented for putting any money into his mouth: He began not to empty out any money till he gave them without, notice, by say­ing, I empty, and they answered him, Empty, Empty, Empty, three times over: The money that was in the chamber was put up when it was first brought in, into three great chests, containing nine Seabs, or three bushels a piece: and if there were more brought in then would goe into these three chests, it was laid by somewhere in the chamber: He that went in tooke three chests of three Seabs a piece, or every one containing a bushel, and be filled them out of the great chests within. His three that be brought in, had these three letters [...] written severally on thim, for distinction sake: for one be filled in the name of the Jews of the Land of Israel, and another in the name of those that were in townes and countries nearer band, and the third, in the name of those in Babel and Media, and further off. And thus having filled these three at one time, they were brought out, and the money bestowed to buy the daily sacrifices, and additionall sacrifices, and shewbread, and salt for the sacrifices, and wood for the altar, and other things that were necessary for the ser­vice: [Page 116]and thus they laid out the money as long as those three bushels would run, and at the next appointed time, he went in­to the chamber againe, and did the like.

2. There were two other treasure chambers, in one of which was laid up what was offered towards the repaire and service of the Temple, and another in which was laid up what was offered for charitable uses. The Talmudicks speake of them thus [...] Ibid. per. 5. & Aruch in [...] There were two Treasure chambers in the Tem­ple, one the chamber of the Silent, and the other the chamber of the Ves­sells: The chamber of the Silent, was where religious men did silently or secretly put in their offerings, and poore children of honest parents, were brought up by them secretly. The chamber of the Vessells was, where any that willingly offered any vessell, cast it in there: and once in thirty dayes the treasurers opened the chamber, and fetched out what they found fit for the supply of the Temple, and what was not of it selfe fit, they sold and turned into some thing that was fit, &c.

Now whereabout these chambers stood, it is something dif­ficult to discover: we shall guesse at their place when we come to survey the upper Court: the mention of the Gazophylacia which we have found in this Court of the women that we are about, hath led us thus farre aside as to speake of these cham­bers also, though they were not in this Court but in the up­per: we shall have so much the lesse to say of them, when we come to their owne place.

And now let us looke over this Court that we have been so long about, at one view: As you were entered into it at the East gate, you saw in every corner of it, a piece of building that had a quadrangle in the midst of it: on the North and the South sides there was a gate just in the middle betweene these buildings: and from the buildings on either side, there ran a cloister supported with goodly marble pillars unto the gates: & the like cloister there was at the East quatter at which you en­tered: These cloisters had beaches within them for the people to sit downe when they thought good, as there were in the cloisters that ran along the outmost wall that encompassed the mountaine of the house: Before these cloisters on the East, North, and South sides, stood the treasure chests, and then you [Page 117]were come into the open Court. Before you as you went up toward the Court of Israel, was a goodly rising of steps up to the gate of that Court, called the gate of Nicanor which we are now to survey the next: and upon this quarter there was no cloister at all.

CHAP. XX. Of the gate of Nicanor, or the East gate of the Court.

THe Court of the Women which was of the platforme that hath been described, was parted from the Court of Israel by a high wall: namely of thirty two cubits and an half high from the floor of the Court of the women, yet but onely twenty two cubits high from the floore of the Court of Israel it selfe; for so much higher was the ground in that Court, then in the other.

Just in the middle of this wall, was the gate that conveyed out of the one Court into the other: Mid. per. 2. Iosephus de bel. lib. 8. cap. 14. to which gate there was a rising of fifteen steps, every step halfe a cubit high, the whole rising seven cubits and a halfe in all (so high was the Court of Israel above the Court of the women.

Succah per. 5. These fifteen steps, (saith the Treatise Suceah) were answera­ble to the fifteene Psalmes of degrees in the booke of Psalmes [...] because upon these the Levites steed and sought Not in the daily service, or in the ordinary course of the Temple musicke, for their place of standing in that, was in the Court (as shall be shewed) but onely on that solemne festivity at the fidst of Tabernacles, which was called [...] The rejoy [...] at the [...] and pouring out of water: of which we give account in its due place.

Mid. ubi supr. These steps that rose up to the gate, went not laid in a square, or straight, as steps are ordinarily laid, but they were laid in a semicircle. And one reason of that may be for the [Page 118]gaining of roome on either side them: Ibid. For on either side of the gate and of the steps, there were under-ground chambers in the wall, whose roofe was even with the floore of the Court of Israel, the doores opening into the Court of the women; in which roomes the Levites used to lay up their musicall instru­ments when they had done singing in the daily service in the Court of Israel: They came downe the fifteene steps out of the Court, and at the bottome, stepping off either on the right hand or the left, there were doores in the wall, into chambers where they laid their instruments up.

This gate that we are now entering, or the gate betweene the Court of the women, and the Court of Israel vid. Kim­chi in Jer. 19.2. & in 2 King. 11. & R. Sol. in 2 Chron. 23. is held by some of the Jewes to have been called by seven severall names (besides the gate of Nicanor, which in Herods temple was the most common and knowne name of it) of some of which the matter indeed is cleere, but of other there is doubting.

1. It was called The upper gate of the Lords house. 2. King. 15.35. 2 Chron. 27.3. and so the treatise Succab in the place cited before, doth expressely call it. Succah ubi supr. The upper gate that goeth downe out of the Court of Israel, into the Court of the women: and the east gate that went out of the Court of the women into the Chel, was called Mains. in kel. Mikdash per. 7. the lower. Now whereas it is said that Jotham built the upper gate, it inferreth not, that there was no gate before, but it meaneth that he repaired it, or that he added some buildings to it.

2. It is called the new gate, Jer. 26.10. & 36.10. in both which places the Chaldee paraphrast expressely calleth it the East gate of the Sanctuary of the Lord: It is apparent by that latter place in Jeremy, that it was the gate that went into the upper Court, or the Court of Israel, and so it both appeares that it was the gate that we are about, and also the reason of the title of the new gate, may be collected from what was spoken a little before, namely because it had been repaired by Jotham. Kimch. in [...] Some give this reason of the title [...], namely, That it was called new, because the Scribes did there deliver new traditions [...] for there sate the Sanbedrin: but this derivation is far fetcht.

3. The gate Harsith, Jer. 19.2. is understood by some to [Page 119]mean this East gate of the Court of Israel that we are upon, though both the very text of Ieremy himselfe, and also the Chaldee parapbrast and other Jewes with him, doe not clearly allow of such a construction, but place the gate Harsith in ano­ther place.

1. The text of Ieremy doth place Tophet at the entry of that gate Harsith, which how improper it is to apply to the East gate of the Court of Israel is easie enough for any one to judge, that doth but know that there were two gates betwixt this Court gate, and the valley that lay before the Temple, if that valley had been Tophet. But 2. Tophet or the valley of the Sons of Hin­nom, lay a good way upon the right hand as you stood in the East gate of the Temple, as was observed before, and faced the city Ierusalem, and not the Temple, and so the gate Harsith must be one of the gates that went out of Ierusalem into that valley, and not out of the Temple. 3. The Chaldee paraphrast doth call it [...] which David Kimchi expoundeth, the Dung­port, and beleeveth it to be the same Dung-gate that is mentioned in Neb. 2.13. though I beleeve Nehemiabs dung-port was in another quarter. The word Harsith is of a twofold constru­ction: namely, either as derived from Heres [...] which signi­fieth the Sunne, and so out English in the margin hath rendred it the Sun-gate, having translated it the East-gate, in the text: or from Heres [...] which signifieth a Potsheard; for there (saith Rabbi Solomon) they cast out their broken Potsheards. We shall not need to be inquisitive from whence this gate did beare its name (whether from the Sunne rising upon it, or from some. Idola­try committed to the Sunne neare to it, or from the pots house hereabout, or from casting out of broken pitchers at it) since it is not that gate that we are about in the Temple, but a gate of the city Ierusalem, which wee have not now to doe withall.

4. Some of the Kimch. in Ier. 19. R. Sol. in Bzek. 40. Hebrew writers do understand [...] The gate of entrance spoken of Ezek. 40.15. to meane the gate that we are about, namely the East gate of the Court of Israel: for which reason it may be the Chaldee parapbrast hath transla­ted it [...] The middle gate, as being betweene the gate that cometh into the Court of the women, and the gate of [Page 120]the porch of the Temple it selfe.

5. Among the seven names that are given by the Rabbins to this gate, that name of the middle gate was one, as appeareth by the authors in the places alledged, & this was the reason of the name, and we need to seek no further for it.

6. They also conceive that it was called the gate Sur, 2 King. 11.6. Id. in 2 Chron. 23. ex. Jeruselami. or the gate of departure, because there those that had been uncleane, were separated and put aside, and might goe no fur­ther, till their atonement was made.

7. And likewise the gate of the Foundation, 2 Chron. 23.5. but of these two we shall have occasion to speak afterward, and shall there examine whether this gate have those names or no.

8. But the name by which it was most famously knowne in the last daies of the temple (and which it carried to its grave, or till the Temple and it were buried in ruine) was the gate of Ni­canor. Maim. in kele Mikdash per. 7. The upper gate (saith Maymony) is the gate of Nicanor: And why is it called the upper gate? Because it is above the Court of the women: And to the same purpose, and in as plaine tearms speaketh the glosse upon the treatise Sotah, Sotah per. 1 glosse. Ibid. The gate of Nica­nor was the upper gate which was betweene the Court of Israel, and the Court of the woman, Mid. per. 1. & per. 6. And so the treatise Middoth, when­soever it reckoneth the gates of the Court of Israel, it still ma­keth the gate of Nicanor to be the East gate: And that Maxime in the Jerusalem Talmud [...] Talm. Je­rus. in Sotah per. 1. Every place where it is said, Before the Lord, it meaneth the gate of Nicanor, confirmeth the same things, as appeareth by the cleansing of the leper, and the triall of the suspected wife, both which were set in this gate, and are said to be set before the Lord Lev. 14.11. Num. 5.18.

And to take up, what is copiously said by the Talmudists concerning this gate, and concerning the reason why it was so called, from the mouth of one man to save more labour let us heare the author of Juchasin concerning this matter, speak­ing thus at large.

Juchasin fol. 65. vid. eti­am Talm. Jerus. in Joma. per. 3. Tosaphta ibid. per. 2. & Mid. per. 2. Aruch in voce Nicanor. Nicanor was in the time of the second Temple: and I wonder at Rabb, that he did not mention him in the Catalogue of those men that are upon record for religiousnesse: As he mentioneth Hananiah the [Page 121]Son of Ezekiah, the Son of Garon, in the beginning of the treatise Shab­bath, into whose chamber the Schollers of Shammai and Hillel came: And so Aba Saul ben Batuith, in the end of the treatise Shabbath. Now this Nicanor that is often mentioned in the Mishueb was one of the Chasidim (or religious) but the common people are not so. He is mentioned in the first and second chapters of Middeth, as that there is a gate in the Court on the East, which is the gate of Nicanor, and that it had two wickets, one on the right hand, and another on the left. And so it is said in the 6. Chapter of Shekalim, and that is set over against the most holy place which was westward where the divine Glory dwelt: And therefore in the end of the treatise Beraceth, it saith, Let not a man use irreverence before this gate of Nicanor, or the East gate: And so in the first chapter of Sotah. In the gate of Nicanor, they make the suspected wife drinke the bitter water, and they purifie women af­ter Childbirth, and lepers. And in the end of the chapter [...] (or the seventh chapter of the treatise Pesachin) It is said, that the gate of Nicanor were not holy (as the Court) because lepers stood there, and put in their thumbs and great toes into the Court: And so in the third chapter of Joma, and the second chapter of Tosaphta there it is said, there were wonders wrought with the doores of Nicanor, and they mention it renownedly: And if so, then had it been fit to have re­corded him. The story is thus. This Nicanor was one of the Chasi­dim, and be went to Alexandria in Aegypt, and made there two bra­zen doores with much curiosity: intending to set them up in the Court of the Temple, and be brought them away by sea: Now a great storme happening, the mariners cast one of the doores over board to lighten the ship: and intended also to throw over the other also. Which when Nicanor perceived, he bound himselfe to the doore with cords, and told them, that if they threw that in, they should threw him in too: And so the sea ceased from her rage: And when he was landed at Ptolemais, and bemoaned the losse of his other doore, and prayed to God about it, the sea cast up the doore, in that place where the holy man had landed. But some say a great fish cast it up: And this was the miracle that was done about his doors, and they set them up on the East side of the Court, before the Temple. But in the booke of Ioseph ben Gorion, be saith, That the gate of Nicanor was so called, because a wonder was done there, for there they flew Nicanor a prince of the Grecians in the time of the Asmoneans, and so it seemeth in the latter end of the second chapter of the treatise Taanith. Thus Iuchasin.

I shall not insist upon it, to dispute it out, whether of these things alledged were the cause of the name of this gate, or whe­ther something else: Some other conjectures might be added, as whether Nicanor that sent the doores from Alexandria were not he that was the kings chief Master of the Ceremonies there, of whom Josephus maketh mention Jos. Ant. lib. 12. cap. 2. and relateth how he provided chambers & diet for the Septitagin [...] translaters: or whe­ther this gate were not so called in honour of Seleucus N [...]canor the first king of Syria, who was a great favourer of the Jewish Nation Ibid. cap. 3. as the same Josephus also relateth: But I shall leave the searching after the Etymology and originall of the name to those that have minde and leasure thereunto: it sufficeth to know the gate by its name which was so renowned and fa­mous in all Jewish writers: onely as to the story about Nica­nor a Grecian prince being slaine here, compare 1 Maccab. 7.33, 34. &c. Joseph. Antiq. lib. 12. cap. 17.

Before we part from this gate, we must remember to say something about the gate Sur, and the gate of the foundation of which there is mention 2 King. 11.6. & 2 Chron. 23.5. because that these are held by some, as was shewed before, to have but names of this East gate of the Court that we are about.

The texts where these names are mentioned do speak to this purpose in our English translation.

• 2 King. 11.
  • Ver. 5. A third part of you that enter in on the Sabbath, shall even be keepers of the watch of the kings house.
  • 6. And a third part shall be at the gate Sur: and a third part at the gate behinde the guard, &c.
  • 7. And two parts of you that goe forth on the Sabbath, even they shall keepe the watch of the house of the Lord, about the King, &c.
• 2 Chron. 23.
  • Ver. 4. A third part of you entering in on the Sabbath, of the Priests and of the Levites shall be porters of the doors.
  • 5. And a third part shall be at the Kings house, and a third part at the gate of the foundation, &c.

The two courses of the Priests and Levites now present, [Page 123]namely that course that came in on the Sabbath, and the other that had served their weeke and were now going out, Jeboiada divides either of them into three parts, into six in all. They that came in on the Sabbath were to be: 1. A third part of them for the Altar and service, the Priests for the sacrifices, and the Levites for singers and porters as in the constant duty and at­tendance. For it was now the Sabbath day, and had it beene any other day, it is not to be imagined, that Jebo [...]ada would neglect the affaires of God though he went about the affaires of the King: But he provides for both, so that the Temple ser­vice may have its due attendance, as well as the Kings corona­tion. And therefore ver. 5. of 2 King. 11. is necessari­ly to be rendred thus, A third part of you shall be those that come in on the Sabbath: that is, a third part of you shall be as those that come in on the Sabbath to attend the service as at other times. And so is 2 Chron. 23.4. to be translated, A third part of you shall be those that come in on the Sabbath, for Priests, and Levites, and Porters: that is, to attend the Altar, song and gates as in the constant service.

2. Another third part, for keepers of the watch at the Kings house.

3. And another third part at the gate Sur which is also called the gate of the foundation.

Thus the tents in the two bookes laid together doe plainly distribute the course that was to come in on the Sabbath, as he will see that will carefully compare them together in the ori­ginall.

The course that was going out on the Sabbath was dispo­sed, 1. One third part of them to the gate behinde the guard, 2. Two third parts to keepe the watch of the house of the Lord for the safety of the Kings.

Now the very disposall of these guards will help us to judge concerning the gates that we have in mention, and will re­solve us that they were not any gates of the Temple at all, but that they stood in some place else. For the gates of the Tem­ple were guarded by the Porters of the course that came in as in the ordinary manner: and there was an extraordinary guard added besides throughout all the mountaine of the house, and [Page 124]in the Court, of that course that was going out, 2 King. 11.7, 8.11. Therefore the gate Sur or the gate of the foundation, which was guarded by a third part of those that come in on the Sab­bath, cannot be supposed for any gate of the Temple, since the Temple was guarded by two parts of those that went out. So that were I to describe the city as I am now about describing the Temple, I should place the gate Sur somewhere in Sion, and there also should I place the gate behinde the guard: and it would not be very hard to gather up faire probability of their situati­on there. Now though so strong guards were set both in the Temple and in Zion, yet Athaliah for whom all this adoe is made, comes up into the Temple, so far as to see the young King at his pillar in the Court before the East gate, and no man in­terrupts her, partly because she was Queene, partly because she came alone, and chiefly because they knew not Jehoiadas minde concerning her. But when he bids have her out of the ranges, they laid hold upon her, and spared her till she was downe the cau­sey Shalletheth, and then they slew her.

If by the ranges, the rankes of men that stood round about the mountaine of the house, be not to be understood, I should then thinke they meane either the ranks of trees that grew on either side that causey, or the railes that were set on either side it for the stay and safety of those that passed upon it. And to this sense Levi Gershom doth not unproperly expound those words in 1 King. 10.12. Of the Al [...]g trees the King made [...] for the house of the Lord and for the Kings house. The word [...] doth properly signifie a Prop or Support: yet is expressed in 2 Chron. 9.11. The King made of the Algum trees [...] high waies to the house of the Lord: And Ralbag in 1 King. 10. I think (saith the Rabbin) that in the ascent that he made to gee up to the house of the Lord from the Kings house, he made as it were battlements (that is railes on either side) of the Almug trees, that a man might stay himselfe by them, as he went along the highway of that ascent. And so in other ascents of the house of the Lord or of the Kings house, where there were not steps, at the rise of the Altar, &c.

CHAP. XXI. Of the Gates and Buildings in the Court wall on the East and South sides.

AND now are we come within the Court, where having very many things to survey and take notice of, let us first begin with viewing the gates and buildings that were in the wall which did inclose it, and first of all let us observe the East quarter of the wall, in which the gate of Nicanor was, which wee have newly surveyed and at which wee entred: There was never a gate but this in all this East quarter, nor were there any buil­dings in the wall in this quarter, but only two, which stood on either side of the gate one, and neer to the gate, on your right hand and on your left as you entred in.

Mid. per. 1. That on your right hand was called [...] The chamber of Phineh as the wardrobe man: of whom there is mention in the Treatise Shekalim, among the chiefe Officers in the Temple, These are the chief Officers in the Sanctu­ary, ( Talm. in Shekali, per. 5. saith the Talmud there) Jochanan the sonne of Phinehas over the Seales: Ahijah over the Drinke-offerings: Mathia the sonne of Samuel over the Lots: Pethahiah over the Birds (for Sacrifice) this Pethahiah was Mordecai, &c. Phinehas over the Wardrobe, &c. Now the glosse upon that place saith that these men named, were the eminentest and worthiest men that ever were in these seve­rall Offices, and that they were not all in one but in severall generations: Bartenora conceiveth that the Office of this Phi­nebas was, Barteniu. Mid. to array the Priests, when they were to goe into serve, and to disarray them again when they had done, and to keep their cloathes. Which wee are not to understand of his helping them on and off with their vestments every day, when they went to and came from the service, for they put them on and off themselves, but he provided vestments for them at their first entring into the service, and when they were old he tooke them into his custo­dy againe and provided new. Maym. in Kele Mikd. per. 7. Now this provision was at [Page 132]the publick charge, hee only took care for it, and the garments being overworn, they were returned again, for the Publick use, for we have observed elsewhere, that they were ravell'd into wick-yerne for the Lampes and for the great lights at the feast of Tabernacles, at the Rejoycing for the powring out of water.

On the left hand of the gate was [...] The chamber of the Pastry man, for so let us call him, a man that took care for the providing and preparing of the High-Priests dayly Meat-offering which in the Talmud language is commonly cal­led [...] Menochoth. fol. 96. The two cakes of the High-Priest, of which wee have spoken in due place, and this his dayly of­fering was one thing, Maym. in Biath Mikd. per. 4. whereby he was differenced from an ordinary Priest.

There is much diversity of opinion among the Jews, yea e­ven in the Talmud it self about the number of the gates into this Court: In some places it reckons Mid. per. 1. & Ioma fol. 19. seven, which indeed was the right number, but in some other places there is men­tion of Mid. per. 2. & Shekalim per. 6. thirteen: Nay ( Gloss. in Tamid. per. 1. saith the glosse upon one place) some there are that reckon seven, some five, some three, some thirteen, but the generality hold for seven. Now the reason of this difference is in regard that some of them reckon only the gates of most con­stant and frequent passage which were, especially three, namely the Gate of Nicanor on the East, and one on the North and one on the South, of which wee shall speak ere it be long: others reckon onely the gates which were guarded; which were only five: some it seems count what doores went out of the Court, into buildings by it, as well as gates to passe through, and so they raise the number thirteen: But the number that wee fix upon is seven, as most generally and most properly intertained, both by the Talmudicks and by Josephus, in the second Tem­ple And how many were in the first Temple, wee shall say something to before wee have done with the Court. Mid. per. 5. & Maym. in beth habbech. per. 5. On the South sides were these three gates. 1. [...] The water­gate, which was most East of all the three. 2. [...] The gate of the Firstlings, called also sometimes [...] The gate of offering, this was in the middle. And 3. [...] The gate of kindling which was most West.

Now besides these three gates on the Southside, there were [Page 133]also three other buildings in the wall which bare these names. 1. [...] The room-Ga [...]ith. 2. [...] The room of the draw-well. And 3. [...] The room of the wood. And so we have the materialls or subject of our Survey on this South side before us: let us now fall to work, and observe the situation and use of these severall places.

And first Antiq. lib. 15. cap. 14. Josephus as he giveth testimony to this number that we fix upon, when hee saith that [...] this inward bound had three gates, North, and South, so doth hee also give us good light for the situation of them when he saith, they were [...] equidistant one from another. He had said much the like concerning the gates that were in the outmost wall or bound, (namely that that inclosed the mountain of the house), that the gates in it on the South side Idibid. were [...] that is so set, as that there was an equall space betwixt gate and gate, and betwixt ei­ther gate and the corners of the wall: And so doth Symmetrie and the rules of the best proportion ingage us to understand his expression about these gates in the like sense; namely, that they both stood at an equall dista [...]e one from another, and that the two on [...]most stood at the same distance from those corners towards which they stood.

Now the length of the Court (and so of this wall) being an hundred eighty seven cubits, the situation of the gates accor­ding to the Symmetrie will fall into these proportions [...] from the East corner of the wall, 46 courts and three quarters up­wards towards the west, was the very middle of the water gate. As much forward stil, was the middle of the gate of the firstlings: the same measure still forward, was the middle of the gate of kindling, and as much yet forward, taught to the West Angle of the wal: And so may we best and most uniformly conceive of the situa­tion of the gates. And therefore whereas the Hebrew writers doe most ordinarily when they speak of these gates, say that they were [...] Vid. Maym. ub [...] & supr. & ibid. Mid. Neer the West, it is not to bee so taken as if they were all crowded toward the West corner, but it is spoken in comprehension of both Courts together, the womens and this.

As for the three severall buildings that were also on this side [Page 134]intermixed with the gates, these things may be observed to­wards their posture and situation. 1. That the water gate and the draw-well-roome doe seem by their very names to refer one to a­nother, as that it is not proper to part them, and howsoever there was something else in the reason of the name of the water-gates, besides its standing so neer the draw-well, yet shall wee observe hereafter that this might bee also one reason of the name of it, and that those two did indeed stand joyning to­gether. 2. The Talmud saith the roofes of these three peeces of building were even ( Mid. per. 5.) by which it seemeth that they stood not at distance one from another but conjoyning, but on­ly that a gate interposed between them 3. We shall see anon out of the Jerusalem Talmud, that the water-gate of the wood-room stood joyning together, 4. The Talmud, Maymony, and o­ther of the Jewish writers speaking of, and naming these three roomes, doe ever set Gazith first or last, and thereby they shew that it stood on the outside one way or other, East or West, and stood not in the middle. 5. If wee set it further West, it will then stand in the Lot of Benjamin, whereas the great Sanhedrin which sate in it, Talm. in Ze­ [...]achin: fol. 54. are held by the Jews, and that upon good ground, to have sitten in that part of the Court that was in the Tribe of Judah, Gen. 49.10. Therefore in most propriety (these things considered) must it bee concluded that Gazith did stand below the draw-well, the draw-well below the water-gate, or more toward the East corner of the Court; the water-gate be­low the room of the wood, and all these joyning together, as their situation will be confirmed in our further progresse: wee will first begin at the East corner where was the roome or building Gazith.

CHAP. XXII. The chamber or room Gazith, the seat of the great Sanhedrin.

THE building Gazith ( Aruch. in. [...] so called because it was made of stone neatly wrought, as the word is used 1 King. 5.16) appeareth Iucha. f. 16. by the Au­thor of Juchasin to have been built by Simeon ben Shetah Avoth. pe [...]. 1. Sect. 8. who was the Vice-president of the Sanhedrin, when Iudah ben Tabbai was Nasi in the sixth Generation from Ezra, Iucha. ubi supra. even in the time of Hyrcanus Januaeus the Asmonaean. It was [...] Ioma per. 2. in Gemara fol. 25. half of it holy, and half of it common, that is, halfe of it stood within the Court, and half of it within the [...] chel, and it had a door into either place. Maym. in beth. habbech. per. 5. And in that half of it that stood in the [...] chel, did the great councell or Sanhedrin sit, of seventy one Judges: Now a speciall reason why they sate on that side of the house, which was in the [...] chel was, because it was not lawfull for any man whosoever to sit within the verge of the Court unlesse it were the King, [...] Vid. R. Sol. & Kimch. in 1 Kings 12 & Midr. Tillin. in Psal. 1. ab ini­tio. there is no man may sit in the Court un­lesse it be out of the Kings of the house of David. In the other part of this building which stood within the Court, the Priests used to cast lots dayly for the distribution of the Service amongst them, of which we have spoken largely elsewhere.

Wee cannot come so neer the great Sanhedrin, as to survey the room in which they sate, but that we must take some notice of them before wee goe, and looke a little into their constitu­tion, sitting, power and story: They will not take it well if we passe by them and take no notice of them at all.

Talm. in Sanhedr. per. 1. The number of the Judges in this high Court was seven­ty and one, answering to Moses and the seventy Elders chosen by him, when God in the Wildernesse did first ordaine this great Iudicatory, Numb. 11. They were to bee indifferently [Page 136]chosen of Priests, Levites, and Israelites, (the New Testament often expresseth the distinction, by chief Priests, Scribes and Elders) [...] but if Priests and Levites fitly qualified were not to be found, Maym. in Sanbed. per. 1. if all the Councell were men of other Tribes it was good and lawfull.

Id. ibid. [...]er. 2. Their qualifications must be, that they must bee Reli­gious and learned both in Arts and Languages: must have some skill in Physick, Arithmetick, Astronomy, Astrology, yea to know what belonged to Magick, Sorcery, and Idolatry, that so they might know to judge of them: They were to be with­out maim or blemish of body, men of years but not extreame old, because commonly such are of too much severity, and they must be Fathers of children, that they might be acquainted with tendernesse and compassion.

Their manner of sitting was thus; The eminentest among them for worth and wisdome, they appointed to be the chief in the Councell, and him they called the Nasi or President, and him they took to represent Moses. Then the next eminent, they chose to be his second, and him they called Abh beth Din. The Father of the Councell or Vice-President. Hee sate upon the right hand of the Nasi, (compare the Phrase of sitting on the right hand of power, Matth. 26.64.) and then the whole Sanhedrin sate on the one hand and on the other in a semicircle. On the right hand before them, and on the left there were two clarks of the Councell, one registred the acquitting votes and Te­stimonies, and the other the casting compare, Matth. 25.33.

Id. ibid. per. 3. The proper and constant time of their sitting, was from the end of the morning Service, to the beginning of the Even­ing Service, and so their sitting and the Divine Service did not clash one with another: yet sometime did occasions that came before them, prolong their session even untill night, and then they might determine the matter that they had been de­bating on by day: but they might not begin a new businesse by night: They violated their own custom and tradition in judging of Christ by night.

It was in their power and cognisance to judge all persons, and all matters (yet inferior matters they medled not withall, but referred them to inferiour Courts) in somuch that they [Page 137]Judged a whole tribe, a prophet, the High-priest: nay the King himself if there were occasion: Id. in. If the High-priest did any thing that deserved whipping they whipped him (saith Maimony) and restored him to his dignity againe: Id in San­hedr. per. 2 And although they admitted not the King of the house of David to be a member of the Sanhedrin (saith the same author) yet did the Kings judge the people, and the Sanhedrin judged them if there were occasion: They had these two traditions cleane contrary one to another, and yet both of force and took place in their severall seasons, [...] The King judgeth and they judge him: And [...] The King judgeth not and they judge not him: Sanh. per. 2. in Gemar. The former was in vigour, till King Jannai was convented before them, and then because partiality could not be prevented they enacted the latter.

Ibid. per. 7. Of capitall penalties, in which kind of matters they espe­cially judged, they had foure sorts: stoning, burning, slaying with the sword, and strangling. In reference to which the Targum on Ruth hath this glosse in the first chapter, ver. 16. Targ. in Ruth. 1.16. Naomi said unto her, we are commanded to keepe Sabbaths and Holy dayes, so that we may not walke above 2000. cubits: Ruth saith, whithersoever thou goest, I will goe: Naomi saith, we are com­manded not to lodge together with the heathen; Ruth saith, where thou lodgest I will lodge: Naomi saith, we are commanded to keep the six hundred and thirteene commandements; Ruth saith, what thy people observe I will observe as if they were my people: Naomi saith, we are commanded not to worship strange gods; Ruth saith, Thy God shall be my God: Naomi saith, we have foure judiciall deaths for offenders, stoning with stones, burning with fire, killing with the sword, and hanging on the tree, Ruth saith, as thou diest I will die.

Sanhed. ubi supr. 1. Those whom they burned they used thus: They set them up to the knees in a dunghill, and two with a towell about his neck pulled and strained him till he opened his mouth wide, and then they powred in scalding lead which ran downe into his bowels.

2. These that were strangled, they also set up to the knees in a dunghill, and two with a to well stifled and strangled him, the one pulling at the one end, and the other at the other, till he died.

[Page 138]3. Those whom they slew with the sword, they did it by be­heading them.

4. Ibid. per. 6. Whom they stoned they stoned naked: first one of the witnesses threw him or pusht him that he might dash his loines against a stone, if that killed him, there was no more adoe, if it did not, the other witnesse tooke a great stone and dashed it on his brest as he lay on his backe, if that killed him there was an end, if not, all the people flang stones at him: This helpes us to understand what is meant by the witnesses laying downe their garments at Sauls feet, at the stoning of Steven, Act. 7.58. namely because they were to be imployed first in his sto­ning, and they laid by their upper garments that they might not trouble them. And this illustrates that passage of our Sa­viour, which indeed alludes to this manner of stoning. Who­soever shall fall upon this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder, Mat. 21.44. for he that was stoned, was first flung upon a stone, and then a stone was dasht upon him. These that were stoned were also hanged: there is some dispute among the Talmudists whether all were hanged that were stoned: but howsoever, they conclude that blasphe­mers and Idolaters were: and this helps us still to understand the usage of Steven whom they condemned and stoned for blas­phemy, for so they made it: He was first dasht upon a stone by one of the witnesses, and then a huge stone dasht upon him by the other, yet died he not by either of these, but recovered his knees againe, and died kneeling and praying, all the people flinging stones at him; and afterward he was hanged upon a Gibbet: and that night taken downe and buried: for so was the law that he should not hang upon the tree all night: Now his buriall was different from the common buriall of those that were executed: as Christs was also being begged by Joseph of Arimathea: for whereas the Sanhedrin had two burying places for executed malefactors, one for those that were stoned and that were burnt, and the other for those that were slaine with the sword and that were strangled, it appeareth that some de­vout christians tooke downe the body of Steven and made a so­lemne buriall for him in some other place.

Although the Sanhedrin did sit in the Temple, yet were the [Page 139]executions without the city 2 as Levit. 24.14. Deut. 17.5. Heb. 13.12. Act. 7.58. whipping and stocking was executed often in the Temple, as Deut. 25.2. Jer. 20.2. and for this purpose they had their [...] Sarjeants for officers ready attending them continually for the execution of such a penalty. [...] Maym. ubi. supr. per. 1. The Shoterim (saith Maymony) were such as carriedreds and whips: and they stood before the Judges: they went about the streets and innes to looke to measures and weights, and to beat every offender: and all their doings were by the appointment of the Judges: and whomsoever they saw offending, they brought him to the Judges, and they judged him according to his offence.

Id. in Mamrim per. 1. This great Sanhedrin in Gazith [...] was the foundation of the traditionall law and pillar of instruction (compare the phrase 1 Tim. 3.15.) and from them decrees and judgements went out for all Israel. And whosoever beleeved Moses and his law, was bound to rest upon them for matters of the law. Thus Maymony in the place cited in the margin. There­fore in all doubts, about Judiciall matters, the ultimate recourse was hither as to a determiner not to be doubted of or varied from. The manner was thus Talm. in Sanhed. per. 11. Had a man occasion to inquire about any such matter, he went first to the Judicatory that was in his owne city: if they could resolve it, well and good: if they could not, one of them went to the next Sanhedrin: if that could not resolve it, he went to the Sanhedrin of the three and twenty in the gate of the mountaine of the house: if that could not, he went to the other Sanhedrin of three and twenty in the gate of Nicanor: and if that could not, he went to this in the roome Gazith, and there he received a positive determination: which for him being a judge to transgresse against, it brought him under the notion of [...] A rebellious elder, and in danger of trying for his life.

CHAP. XXIII. The Draw-well roome. [...]

AT the west end of this famous roome Gazith, there was the House which was called [...] the House or roome of the Draw-well: and the reason of the name was, [...] Mid. per. 5. Because there was a well sunke there, with a wheele over it, and from thence they fetched up wa­ter to serve all the Court.

It was not a little water that was used and spent at the Tem­ple for the filling of the lavers boyling the offerings, washing the sacrifices, nay for washing of the Court, and filling cisterns for the Priests to bath in: It was not a small quantity of water that did serve these turnes, and yet the Temple never wanted but had it alwaies in great abundance: The place it self was dry rocky and without water, Maym. in Biath. Mikdash per. 5. but they conveyed their water in pipes thither from a place at some distance where there was a spring-head that lay convenient for such a purpose, which was called [...] The fountaine Etam: Of this the Babylon Talmud discourseth in the place alledged in the margin and to this purpose Zevachin per. 5. fol. 54. fac. 2. The house of the Sanctuary was higher then the [Page 145]land of Israel, and the land of Israel was higher then other lands: They knew not the like; as they produce in the booke of Ioshua; It is writ­ten throughout. The border went down, and the border went up, and the border wrought &c. But of the tribe of Benjamin it is written the border went up, but it is not written the border went downe. Learne from hence, that this was a place thought fit to build the Sanctuary in, by the fountaine Etam, because it was high: But they said, let us bring it a little lower, because it is written, And he shall dwell between his shoulders, Deut. 33.12. Their meaning is this; that whereas the Sanctuary was to be higher then the rest of the land, and whereas the tenor and scope of the Scripture holdeth out the tribe of Benjamin to be highest, because all ascending and no going downe is mentioned in the chorography of his tribe, there­fore they thought of building the Temple by the fountaine E­tam which was the highest ground of Benjamin: but when they considered upon Moses his prophecy that God should dwell between the shoulders of Benjamin and not upon his head; they thereupon chose Moriah a lower ground, and brought their water from Etam thither: Talm. Ierus. in Joma per. 3. fol. 41. An Aquaeduct came from Etam, saith the Ierusalem Talmud in the place quoted in the margin: It is scarse within the bounds of the subject that we have in hand, to goe about to search where this Etam was. There is a place in the tribe of Simeon that is called by this name, 1 Chron. 4.32. now though it is true that Simeon and Iudah lay intermix­ed in their habitations, yet I beleeve this intermixture was not so neere Ierusalem as our Etam was. There is mention of the rock Etam, Iudg. 15.8. and of the city Etam, 1 Chron. 11.6. let the reader be his owne chooser whether of these he will take for the place that we are upon, or whether he will refuse both: I onely mention them; It belongeth rather to a survey of the land, then of the Temple, to debate the matter to a determina­tion: The glosse upon the place of the Talmud cited above, saith Gloss. in Zenechin [...] supr. It seemeth that the fountaine Etam was the well of the wa­ters of Nephtoah, of which there is mention Iosh. 18.15. And to the like purpose speaketh Kimchi in his comment upon that place of Ioshua Kimch. on Josh. 18. They say (faith he) that the well of the waters of Neph­toah was the well Etam which is mentioned by our Rabbines: This place appeareth to have laine westward of the Temple, and the [Page 146]pipes from it to have come downe upon that quarter, and to have passed along on the South side of the house it selfe, in the place called the coming downe of the waters, of which we have spoken before, and so to have been disposed of into the seve­rall offices about the Court: and that in such abundance, as, that it ran continually, and yeelded water and to spare, upon all occasions: we shall have occasion to looke after it againe when we come to speak of the molten sea.

Of this conveyance of water, Aristeas an eye-witnesse and spectator of it, giveth testimony, in these words Aristeas Mist. Lux. in­terp. in Bibli­oth. patr. tom. 2. Gracolat. pag. 866. [...] &c. There was a continunll supply of water: as if there had sprung an abundant fountaine underneath. And there were wonder­full and unexpressible receptacles under ground, as appeared five fur­longs space about the Temple: each one of which had divers pipes, by which waters came in on every side, all these were of lead, under ground, and much earth laid upon them: And there were many vents on the pavement, not to be seen at all, but to those that served: so that in a trice and easily, all the blood of the sacrifices could be washed away, though it were never so much. And I will tell you how I came to know of these underground receptacles: they brought me out more then foure furlongs space out of the city, and one bade me stoope downe at a certaine place and listen what a noise the meeting of the waters made.

Now whereas it seemeth by this testimony, that water came to the Temple from severall other places about Jerusalem, as well as from Etam, we shall not be much scrupulous about it, though among the Talmudicks I meet with no such intimati­on, but since they name Etam as the most eminent, and from whence the chiefest vessels in the Temple were continually sup­plied, it may suffice to looke after that onely, and this may be enough to have spoken of it.

The Draw-well, which and whose roome we are now survey­ing Gloss. in Mish [...]ioth in Svo in Midd. per. 5. is said to have been sunke or digged by the children of the captivity upon their returne and building of the Temple. But whether to a spring that was in that place, or whether as a cisterne to receive the water from Etam, if it shall be questio­ned, there might be severall reasons given to prove that it was for the latter purpose: As 1. Because it not easie to conceive [Page 147]a spring in that rocky place as mount Moriah was, especially there having been none there looked after under the first Tem­ple. 2. Because both the Talmudists and Aristeas cited before, doe bring all the supply of water from other places. 3. Because the Laver is said in the testimony alledged out of the Jerusalem Talmud, to be supplied from the well Etam, which that it was supplied from this Draw-well we shall see hereafter. And 4. be­cause there is mention of [...] The place of the comming downe of the water on the South side of the Temple, which hath been shewed in its due place not capable of any construction so proper as this, that the pipes from Etam came downe along there.

The waters then from that fountaine Etam being gathered into this well or great cisterne, were from hence dispersed into the severall offices and places where water was necessary (as the new river from the water house into London) a wheele be­ing used to raise it and force it up into the pipes or conveyances that were to carry it into the severall receptacles and uses: For in some places there were bathes on the very top of the gates and buildings, as we shall observe as we goe along, and to keepe them full and in a continuall supply of water, was required, some inforcing of the water up, which was done by the use and activity of this wheele.

Now over this well there was a faire building, sutable to the rest of the buildings about the Court, and it had a doore into the Court, that the priests might readily and without go­ing about, step out of the Court into it, when they had occasi­on to fetch up water for any use. And so are we to understand of that passage in the treatise Tamid, where speaking of him to whose lot it had fallen to cleanse the burnt-offering altar in a morning, it saith thus: Talm. in Tamid per. 1. He that had it allotted to him to cleause the altar must cleanse it: And they say to him, Take heed that thou touch not the vessell, untill thou hast washed thy hands and thy feete: (now the dish into which he was first to take up the ashes, was set between the rise of the Altar and the Altar in a corner on the west side of the rise:) No man went into the Court with him (for all the rest of the priests staid still in the lottery roome) nor bad be any candle in his hand, but he went by the light of the fire on the Altar: and they saw him not [Page 148]neither heard they his voyce, untill they heard the noise of the engine that Ben Kattim made, namely the engine of the lover: and then they said he is about washing his hands and feete at the laver. Now what­soever this engine of Bin Kattims making was, which we shall inquire into afterward, it is undoubted that the water in which he washed at the laver, was drawne out of the Draw-well and conveyed into it after what manner we shall see anon, for the water might not stand in the laver all night: And so it is apparent that this priest that thus washed his hands and feet, was got into the well-roome out of the Court, when the gates of the Court were not yet opened, but went into it through a doore that went into that roome out of the Court.

This helpeth to understand that passage of Ezekiel of the li­ving waters Ezek. 47. which are said there to come down on the right side of the house on the South side of the Altar ver. 1. al­luding to the comming of the water into the Temple from E­tam a spring shut up and a fountaine sealed for that purpose: for the pipes that brought the water from it, came downe on the South side of the Temple, in the place that was called [...] The comming drums of the water, of which we have spoken already, and so into this cisterne in the well-roome, just over against the Altar, on the South side of it, and so was carried into the severall offices of the Temple, &c.

CHAP. XXIIII. The water gate [...] and the roome of Abhtines. [...].

AT the west end of the Draw-well roome, was a gate that opened directly upon the Altar, which was called Mid. per. 5. & Maym. in beth habbechir. per. 5. & Shekalim per. 5. the water gate. The reader will rea­dily conceive the reason of the name to have been, because it joyned so close to the water-house, and this Etymologie might be very current and allowable, but the Talmudists give other reasons of the name besides. The Mish­neh in the treatise Shckolim, hath this speech upon it. Shekalim ibid. Why is the name of is called the Water-ga [...] [...] through is they brought the tankard of water, which was for the powring out of water at the feast of Tabernacles. Robbi [...] the son of Jacob saith, because the wa­ters ran out thereby, which came from under the threshold Ezek. 47. Of these two reasons the former is more generally intertained for current, and it is indeed the more reasonable in it selfe. I have shewed in the treatise of the Temple service, chap. 16. Sect. 4. how high and how strange a solemnitie the Jewes had at the feast of Tabernacles, of powring out of water upon the Altar, and rejoycing after it: For whereas all the yeare besides their liba­tion [...] or powring out the drink-offering was of wine a­lone, they now added and mingled water with it, and tooke such joy and rejoycing upon that action, as the like was not used at any other occasion: the manner and reason of which is fully discoursed in that place: Succah. per. 4. Now how was this libation of water? (saith the [...] in Succ [...].) There was a golden tankard that contained three logs: One filled it at Siloam, and brought it in at the water gate: and the trumpets sounded &c. Siloam fountaine lay South of Jerusalem (although the poole of Siloam lay on the west) and from thence the next way possibly to the altar was through this gate, it facing the Altar and the rise to it, and it was no marvaile, if, seeing the powring out of water in liba­tion was reputed so high a matter, the gate through which it [Page 150]was brought did take its name from the bringing of that water through it. And it is not to be passed without observation, that they fetched their water for this solemne libation from Siloam a great way off, when the Draw-well was so near at hand to have supplied it.

There is mention of a Water gate in Nehem. 8.3. where it is said that Ezra read in the booke of the Law before the street that was before the Water gate: but this was a gate of the city, and not of the Temple, as is apparent in the same booke of Nehem. chap. 3. ver. 26. and whether it tooke that name from the waters issuing out of Solomons poole and running that way, or from the waters running that way from the Temple, as Ezek. 47.2. it is not a place here to discusse.

Telmud. Jerus. in Joma per. 1. Over this gate of the Temple that we are about, which was called the water gate, there was a roome or chamber which was called [...] The chamber of the family of Abhtines. This Abhtines was one of the chiefe men that gave de­nomination to the office of which they were, to succeeding gene­rations (as we observed ere while also about Phinehas the man of the wardrobe or vestry) and he is mentioned in the treatise She­kalim, where all those chiese officers are reckoned up, which re­cord let us take out here at large Shekalim. per. 5. These were chiefe officers which were in the Temple: Jochanan the son of Phinebas over the seales: (what these seales were, I have shewed in the Temple Ser­vice pag. 16.) Abijah over the drinke offerings. Mathia the son of Samuel over the lots: (see there pag. 102, 103.) Pethahiah over the birds (ibid. 87, 88. This Pethabiah is Mordecai: And why is his name called Pethabiah? because he opened and expounded matters, and he understood the 70. languages. Ben Abijah over the diseased in their bowels. Nechonia the digger of cisternes. (ibid. pag. 17.) Gevini Ke­roz the son of Gebber over the shutting of the gates. Ben Bechi over the correction (to cudgell the Priests or Levites that were found asleep upon the guards, ibid. pag. 50. 51.) Ben Arza over the cymball (ibid. pag. 58.) Hagros ben Levi over the song: Beth Garmu over the making of the shewbread: Beth Abhtines over the making of the incense: Eliezer over the vailes; And Phinehas over the wardrobe.

So that this Abhtines was one that had the oversight of the making of the incense: and all that succeeded in this office were [Page 151]called Beth Abhtines or the family of Abhtines, and this roome or chamber over the water-gate, was the place where they did their worke in this imployment.

Their traditionary receipt for the compounding and ma­king of the incense wasth is: Maym. in kele Mikdash per. 2. They had eleven Aromatick simples of which they tooke these quantities: Of Stacte onycha, Galbanum & frankincense of every one 70. pound weight: of Myrrhe, Cassia, Calamus, Crocus, ana sixteene pounds. Of Costus twelve pound, of Cinnamon nine pound, of Cloves three, in all 368 pound. All these they pounded very small in a morta [...] (which was called Erach. per. 2. Aruch. en [...] the mortar of the Sanctuary, and which mortar Avoth. R. Nathan ad fin. was carried to Rome at the sacking of Jerusalem) & they added to it some Sodom salt, Amber of Jordan (rarities not rarely spoken of in Jewish writers) and an herbe of an odoriferous smoke, which very few were acquainted with: Every yeare they made this quantity of incense, and every day in the yeare there was a pound of it offered, and so of the 368 pound there was 365 pound gone: Of the three pounds that remaine, the High­priest tooke his handfull on the day of expiation: and the rest was called [...] The residue of the incense: Not that the yearly stock was spent at the day of expiation, for it was not spent till the beginning of the month Nisan, but that this was the account of the expence of it: On the first day of the month Nisan or on their new years day, they began upon a new stock: Maym. in Shekalim per. And the two pounds and odde that remained of the old, was given to workmen that repaired the Temple towards their pay: and then was bought of them againe, and used as of a new stock. Every single spicery was pounded by it selfe, and all the while that he that pounded it, was about it, he still said [...] To be pounded well, to be pounded well, &c. and then they mingled alltogether.

It was a caution that [...] Id. ubi ante. All the making & compounding of the incense should be in the San­ctuary in the midst of the Court: By which whether the very open place of the Court, be meant, or that part of this roome of Abh­tines that stood in the Court it is not much important to dispute; this was the roome in which the incense when it was made was reserved, and likely it is that this also was the place where [Page 152]it was made: And here it was pounded againe twice a yeare, and aired and looked to that it might take no hurt.

Talm. in Joma per. 1. Into this roome the High-priest was brought for a cer­taine time against the day of expiation, that he might learne to take his handfulls of ineense against that day, as was required, Levis. 16.12. Aruch in [...] For this was the place (saith Aruch) where the in­cense was prepared: And they brought him hither that they might teach him to take his handfulls of it.

In this roome also the priests kept a guard every night, as it is related in the Talmud in the treatise Tamid and Middoth in these words Tamid per. 1. & Mid. per. 1. In three places, the priests kept guards in the San­ctuary, nam [...] in Beth Abhtines, and in Beth Nitsots, and in Beth Mohadh: Beth Abhtines and Beth Nitsots were upper roomes, and there the younger priests kept, &c. which nightly guarding was in­tentlonally as much for the honour of the sanctuary as for its security, and these two guard chambers Abhtines and Nitsots, were both over against the Altar, the one on the one side of the Court and the other on the other: and here the younger sort of priests watched, but the grandees in Beth Makadh. in the furthest end of the Court west-ward, as we shall see when we come thither.

On the roofe of this water-gate, and of the roome Abhtines, there was a bath, in which the High-priest did wash himselfe the first time of his washing on the day of explation: for although the Bathing place, on the top of the roome of Hap­pervah (which we shall survey in its place) was the place where he washed oftest on that day, yet here he washed first: for here had he spent some time in the chamber of abhtines before the day came, and here was the sittestand readiest place for him to bath when the day was come: Here he had been all the night before, and when the morning was come, and he is to goe a­bout the service, he first goeth to the top of this gate and there batheth himselfe in water. And this the treatise Joma inten­deth when he saith thus: Joma per. 3. Five bathings of his body and ten washings of his bands and feete did the High-priest use on that day, and all in the holy ground, on the top of the roome of Happar­bah, but onely the first, &c. This was a place most conve­nient for a bath, it being so neare the Draw-well roome, [Page 153]as joining to it, and this it may be helped forward the na­ming of it the watergate.

CHAP. XXV. The Wood roome [...] and the roome Parhedrin. [...]

THe Pile of building that we are now about, joi­ned to the water-gate on the west side of it, and it carried a double name: for it was called either [...] The chamber or roome of the wood, or [...] The roome of Parhedrin. It was cal­led the roome of the wood, because that after the blemished priests had wormed the wood, in a roome of the same name in a cor­ner of the Court of the women, as we have observed, they brought that that they found fit for the Altar, into this roome that it might be neare, and ready to be carried to the Altar when there was occasion.

As for the other name that this building carried, it is writ­ten two wayes Joma per. 1. The Babylon Talmud Beth habbe­chir. per. 5. Maymony and some others read it with r and call it [...] The chamber of Parhedrin. But the Jerusalem Talmud, In Ioma ubi supr. Mishnaioth in octave, &c. read it with l and call it [...] The chamber of Palhedrin: about which difference we shall not controvert: Now though the two Talmuds doe thus varie one letter in this matter of the name, yet they both agree upon another matter and say that in old time, it had been called [...] Talm: uter (que) in Gemae. The chamber of the Coun­sellers. I observe also from Maymony, that it was called the High­priests chamber, by a sigular Propriety: for speaking of putting of the High-priest apart for seven dayes before the day of ex­piation into this roome (for so the Talmuds in the place cited in the margin informe us) he expresseth it thus [...] Maym. in Iom. haccipp. per. 1. They put him apart from his owne [Page 154]house into this chamber in the Sanctuary. And so the Jerusalem Tal­mud doth also call it, though it doe not expresse it by the pro­per name when it saith [...] that Tal. Jerus. ubi supr. The High-priest was put for a certaine time into the chamber of Abhtines which was over the Water-gate, and which joyned to his owne chamber: And here by the way you may observe, that this wood-roome, and roome of Par­bedrin did joyne to the Water-gate as we have seated it: the one roome being over the other, the wood roome below and Parbe­drin above.

Now it was called the High-priests chamber, not so much for that he was put apart hither for a few daies in the yeare, as for that it was ordinarily imployed by the High-priest to call his brethren of the Priesthood together in it, to consult about the affaires of the Temple and the service: so that it was as the Vestry, or as I may so expresse it, the Deane and Chapter-roome, where they met together in consultation about such matters: We have observed Temple-Ser­vice, chap. 5. elsewhere, that besides the High-priest, there was the Sagan, two Katholikin, seven Immarcalin, and three Gizbarin, which were principall officers in the Temple for the receiving, disbursing, and taking care of the stock of it, and providing for the repaires of the buildings and the due admi­nistration of the service: These were the [...] Counsellors of the Temple, that advised and tooke care for the welfare of it, and this was the roome where they sate constant­ly in counsell for that purpose: and hereupon it was called the chamber of the Counsellors. The reason of the change of its name into the chamber of Palhedrin, or Parhedrin (read it whether way you will) the Gemara of the Talmud in the place cited above giveth in these words. It was called the chamber of the Counsellor still the High-priesthood began to be bought and sold for money, and came to be changed often: these counsellors were then also changed often and then it was called the chamber of Parhedrin. The meaning seemeth to be this, that whilst the High-priesthood stood and remained in its beauty and integrity, the High-priest and his brethren, kept a solemne and grave counsell table here for the benefit and ad­vancement of the Temple, but when money and prowling did make and change High-priests, money and silver did also [Page 155]make members of this councell, and they sought themselves ra­ther then the publicke, the people therefore could not finde in their hearts to call them Counsellors, but called them Parhedrin or Sitters onely. Yet were they also called Counsellors even while they were called Parhedrin, to distinguish them from the great Councell: Joseph of Arimathea was on: of these Mark. 15.43.

The word Parhedrin is as like the Greeke word [...], as Sanhedrin is like [...], and it may very well be conjectured, that since the great Sanhedrin and Society, were both Coun­sellors, that this company was called Parhedrin, to distinguish it from the Sanhedrin: especially considering how neere they sate together, there being but the Water-gate and the Well-roome, be­tweene this roome and Gazith: There sate the great Councell of the nation, and it was called Sanhedrin, and here sate the Councell of the Temple and it was called Parhedrin: that is Assessores, or the Councell that sate neare the Sanhedrin: And thus were there foure Councells in the Temple: three of them not onely Councells but Judicatories, namely the great Sanhe­drin of 71. and the two lesser Sanbedrins of 23. And this of Priests which was not so properly a Judicatory as meerely a Councell.

The Jerusalem Talmud expoundeth the word Palhedrin [...] (for so it readeth it) by the word [...], a word of as much obscurity as the other: It is like it is some Greeke or Latine word of Priority, but not easily pitched upon particu­larly: Baal Aruch renders Palbedrin by a word as hard as it selfe too, namely by [...] Agardemin: but he facilitates it it by this interpretation, namely that it signifies Aruch in [...] The over­seers of the weights and measures, that were to looke to the Ephah and the Hin, that they were right, and sealed them, and they smote those that kept shop in the mountaine of the house, if they sold too deare, and they bade them sell cheaper.

CHAP. XXVI. The Gate of the Firstlings.

THis Gate which was next beyond the buildings last mentioned, west-ward, was called by two names. Sometimes [...] vid. C. Lemp. pag. 17. in Mid. The gate of offering: so some read it: but most commonly [...] Mid per. 1. & 2. & She­kalim per. 6. The Gate of the Firstlings: both which names redound but to one and the same sense, for the gate tooke its denomination, Barten. in Mid. from the bring­ing of the Firstlings through it to be offered up.

The law concerning consecrating to the Lord whatsoever first opened the wombe and matrix, Exod. 13. was intricated by the Jewish tradition with a world of difficulties, but for an ultimate resolution, of what Firstlings were fit to be offered and what not, there was one appointed whom they called [...] Mum [...]hth, who did determine it: of this title the Glos­saries give this interpretation and account. Gloss. in Becoroth. per. 4. Mumcheh is de­rived from the word Machah as it signifieth in that clause [...] And it reacheth to the Sea of Cinnereth, Num. 34.11. which betokeneth going straight: And this word Mumcheh meanes that he was skilfull: and be received authority from the president of the Sanhedrin or from a Sanhedrin in the land of Israel, of men ordai­ned. Maym. in Becor. per. 3. The head of the Sanhedrin gave him power for this of­fice saying to him [...]: Loose Firstlings concerning blemishes: that is, take thou power to binde and to loose as con­cerning bleishes of Firstlings, to determine what blemishes do hinder them from being offered and what not: The Talmudists doe use the phrases of binding and loosing in reference to things prohibited or permitted: as [...] Tanch. fcl. 1 Col. 3. Ʋpon necessity the Lord loosed salvation on the Sabbath, that is, they permitted it. Talm. in lesachin. per. 4. The Schoole of Shammai [...] bound working on the Eve of the Passeover, that is, prohibited it; but the Schoole of Hillel [...] loosed it: that is, permitted it, or held and taught [Page 157]that it was lawfull. Maym. in Mamets &c. per. 1. The Scribes have bound leaven: And Tanch. fol. 74. Col. 3. The wise men have loosed all fat things, &c. It were not a very hard taske to produce hundreds of examples out of Jewish writers to this purpose, wherein their use of the expression of binding and loosing doth most ordinarily refer to things and to things lawfull or unlawfull as they were so held out by the law and by their doctors: And particularly the binding and loosing of Firslings, and the binding and loosing of vowes, were of singu­lar note and notice among them, Iuchasin fol 50. And the loosing of First­lings (saith Abraham Zaccuth) was a matter of more difficultie then loosing of vowes: where, by loosing of vowes, he meaneth not that any one had power to absolve and acquit from lawfull vowes once made, but that there were some appointed to judge of vowes, and to determine concerning them whether they were lawfull or not lawfull, and whether they bound or bound not.

No Firstling must be kild or offered till it had been first viewed by the Mumcheh: Talm. in Becoroth per. 4. And he that was not a Mumcheb (ap­pointed by the Sanhedrin) and yet would take on him to view a Firstling, and so it was killed upon his approvall, he was to make it good: and he that received a reward or was hired to view a Firstling, it was not currant, unlesse he were authorised by the Sanhedrin so to doe, as Ailah a wise man of Jabneh, to whom the wise men per mitted to take 4 [...] Assarii for viewing a leane Firstling, and 6 for viewing a fat, &c.

A Firstling lambe or calle, approved by the Mumcheh as fit for sacrifice and brought to the Temple for that purpose, was slaine on the south side of the Altar, or at the least on the south side of the Court. The Talmudick tract Zevachin in the fifth chapter doth purposely discusse what sacrifices were to be slain on the North side of the Altar, and what other where: And having nominated particularly what on the North side; it saith Id. in Ze­vachin per. 5. That a sacrifice of thanksgiving, the Nazarites ram, the ordinary peace-offerings, the Firstlings, tithe, and Passeover were slaine in any part of the Court: where by any part of the Court, it mea­neth the South side, in opposition to the North of which it had spoken before, and it meaneth the South side in such a la­titude, as not onely just over against the Altar, but in a larger extent, as we shall shew more fully when we come [Page 158]to survey the sides of the Court it selfe.

The Firstlings then being to be slaine on this South side of the Court, on which we are surveying the gates and buildings, they were brought in at this gate which we are upon, and from thence it tooke the name of the gate of the Firstlings. The water­gate indeed was nearer the Altar, and a more direct way to it, but to have killed the beasts thereabout would have hindred the passage to the Altar, from the Draw-well, Water-gate and wood-roome, unto which places there was very frequent re­course from the Altar, and therefore the Firstlings and other Sacrifices that were to be slaine on the South side of the Court, were brought in at the gate above, as more out of the way, and slaine thereabout as in a place of lesse interruption. Now where­as the tradition mentioned, doth allot the South side of the Court for the proper place of slaying those particular sacrifices that it nameth, yet doth it speak it in this latitude [...] That their killing might be in any part of the Court: because that though ordinarily and regularly they were to be slaine on the South side of the Court, yet if they were nume­rous and could not conveniently be slaughtered in that place, they might be slaine on the other side, as the Passeover were killed on both the sides, because of their number: whereas the sacrifices that were to be slaine on the North side must be slaine there, and there was no dispensation to remove them thence.

The presenting of the Firstlings at the gate that we are about, may put us in remembrance of presenting the first borne; All the males of Israel were to appeare before the Lord thrice every yeare, Exod. 23.17. now this command did not take in chil­dren (as their tradition did interpret it) Id. in Ha­giga per. 1. till they were a­ble to walke up out of Jerusalem to the Temple in their fathers hand: and the presenting of the first borne to the Lord, was not inforced by that command, but by that, Exod. 13.12. & 22.29. where both the Targums of Jonathan and Onkelos, doe ex­pound the setting apart of the first borne to be before the Lord, or at the Temple: and so doth the text of Scripture it selfe in Num. 18.15. Luk. 2.23. The place where they were presented, was in the gate of Nicanor, for that was both the most peculi­ar place of appearing before the Lord, and there women that [Page 159]had borne children did stand to have their atonement made for them: And there it was where the virgin Mary presented our Saviour Luk. 2. and there she payed five shekels for his re­demption, Num. 18. And Hanah did the like at Shilob: 1 Sam. 1.34. onely she had kept her sonne longer then ordinary be­cause when she did present him at the Sanctuary she meant to leave him there for ever, and for that reason, she relieved him not neither, but gave him to the Lord.

CHAP. XXVII. The gate [...] Hadlak, or of Kindling, or of the burning fire.

IT is easie to justifie and assert the translation of [...] by kindling, but is not so easie to give a reason why this gate which stood most west on the South side did beare this name. The com­mon opinion of glossaries upon it is plausible e­nough, but onely for one objection that may be made against it Bartenor. & C. Lemp. in Mid. & gloss. in Shekalim per. 6. They hold that it was called the gate of kindling or Bur­ning, because through it wood was brought to the Altar to keepe the fire continually burning according to the law Lev. 6.12. But why this way? since they might have gone a nearer way to the Altar by far, either through the water-gate or the gate of the Firstlings, seeing the Wood-roome was betweene them two, as hatg been shewed: and it is probable enough that the wood out of the wood-roome was not brought through any of the Court gates at all to the Altar, but out at a doore which went out of the roome it selfe in to the Court.

To find out therefore a reason of the name, I cannot but look over to the other side of the Court, from this gate that we are about, to that gate there, that was over against it, and there I observe the gate to be called Beth Mokadh, or the Gate of the bur­ning fire, as well as this is called the Gate of kindling. And the [Page 160]reason of that name was, because a fire was kept there conti­nually for the senior priests, as shall be shewed anon, and so it may be well conjectured, a fire was kept here for the Levites: And though I finde not mention either in the Talmud or Jose­phus of any building that joined to this gate, yet since there is mention in the treatise Middoth of the Levites keeping a guard, [...] Mid. per. 1. In the chamber of the vaile, I finde not where to allot that place better then to this gate we are about: For when it speaketh of the chamber of the vaile, it meaneth not either any chamber joyning to the body of the Temple it selfe, nor any chamber in the Court (for the Levites kept not their guards within the Court but without) but some chamber with­out the Court, which was over against the place of the vaile, which divided betwixt the holy and most holy place. And as there was a long building that ran along from that opposite north gate up toward the west to the very corner of the wall of the Court that way: so from this gate westward there ran a long building to the corner of the Court on this side, in which large peece of building having partitions within, there were two guards of Levites almost joyning together: So there were three of those guards very neare together: one joyning to the gate on the East side, Ibid. (for at five of the gates of the Court the Levites guarded, and this was one of the five) another joy­ning to the gate on the West side, which was called the guard o­ver against the vaile, and the third at the corner of the Court: Now as there was a common fire kept for the Priests on the o­ther side of the Court, in a large building opposite to this, from whence the gate joyning to it tooke the name: so is it very likely, there was a common fire kept for the Levites which gave this gate the denomination of the gate of kindling.

Thus have we surveyed the gates and buildings on the south side of the Court, their orderthus, comming up from the East to­wards the West: First the room Gazith at the Southwest corner: then the roome of the Draw-well: joyning to that the Water­gate, and over that the roome Abhtines: Joyning to that gate on the other side, the Wood-roome, and over that the Councell chamber: then the Gate of the Firstlings, with a Levites ward joy­ning to it on one side: then the Gate of kindling and a Levites [Page 161]ward on either side it, and that building on the West side of it running up to the West corner of the Court. Now Aha Jose a spokes man in the Talmud, nameth yet one gate more, and more West then these that we have named, on this same side which he calleth the upper gate, and over against it on the North side he nameth a gate more then the common account and cal­leth it the gate of Jechoniah: But he goeth alone in his opinion as to the number of the Gates of the Court: yet thus farre doe other of his nation goe with him, that they say there were three gates on the North side of the Court, and that there was be­sides them, a passage through Beth Mokadh large building out of the chel into the Court, which I suppose is that which he calleth the gate of Jechoniah: and the reason of the name is gi­ven, because Jechoniah went out at that gate into his captivity: And so it may be that in this large building on this side which ran betweene the Gate of kindling and the West corner, there was a passage thorough, which he stiles with the title of the upper gate.

But howsoever it was in his account in the second Temple, the very title of the upper gate may not undeservedly call upon us, to looke after that which is called the upper gate of Benjamits in the house of the Lord, in the times of the first Temple Jer. 20. 2. It is said there that Pashur smote Jeremy and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate or upper gate of Benjamin, which was in the house of the Lord. Our English hath made it shie to render is in the house of the Lord, it may be because they thought it impro­per to have a paire of stocks in the Temple: and therefore they have translated it which was by the house of the Lord, as reputing it not a gate of the Temple but some other: but the words in the originallare so plaine, and the consent of translaters so unani­mous that it meaneth in the house of the Lord, that to swarve from it were but to straine a plaine and a facile text, and to obscure a place which is not obscure of it selfe. The mountaine of the Temple lay in the lot of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin as hath been observed before, & the line that divided between the lots came along at the Southeast corner of the Altar as we shall observe anon, so that the Temple and Altar were in the tribe of Benjamin according to Moses prophecy that God should dwell [Page 162]between Benjamins shoulders, and so was the South wall of the Court till you came downe over against that point of the Al­tar, and then came in the lot of Judah. It appeareth therefore that there were but two gates on this side of the Court in the times of the first Temple, and they were called the upper and the lower gate of Benjamin, because they stood in his lot: And there were two gates on the North side of the Court, and they were called, The gate of the Altar, which was Northward, and the gate of the Lords house which was Northward, as we shall shew by and by.

And for this place or engine of correction (were it a dun­geon as the [...]xx. seemes to hold it, or a pillory as David Kim­chies father, or a paire of stocks as our English) it is no soloecisme to hold that it was in the house of the Lord (namely in that part of this gate that stood out of the Court in the Chel) since there was judging, scourging, mawling, and stoning, even in the Temple it selfe, as hath been toucht before.

And now to be going over from the South side to the North, along the wall of the Court at the West end, there was no gate upon that quarter at all, but the wall was plaine without any gates or openings in it. And so Josephus makes it cleare when he saith [...] Jo [...]. de bell. [...]. 5. cap. 14. That part that was on the West had no gate at all, but the wall that way was an intire continued building: which relation is also agreeable to the generall consent of the Hebrew au­hors, Aba Jose onely excepted whom we mentioned even now, who speaketh of two gates here, but neither nameth them, nor telleth for what use they served: and indeed what needed any gate here at all, so farre from the service, and behind the Tem­ple? There was indeed at the backe of the Court wall in the middle betwixt the North and South corners of it, a building standing in the [...] Chel, where the Levites kept a guard, which was called [...] The guard behind the mercy seat: but there is no evidence that there was any doore out of it into the Court, and if there had been it was but a doore and not a gate. Of the guards of the Priests and Levites about the Temple the record is thus Mid. per. 1. In three places the Priests kept guards in the Temple, in the chamber of Abhtines, in Beth Nitsots and [Page 163]in Beth Mokadh. And the Levites in one and twenty places: five at five gates of the mountaine of the house: Foure at the foure corners of it within: Five at five gates of the Court, and foure at the foure cor­ners of it without: One in the chamber of Corban: One in the cham­ber over against the Vaile, and one behind the place of the Mercy seat.

CHAP. XXVIII. The Gates and buildings in the Court wall on the North side.

WE are now come to the North side of the Court, where before we fall to surveying of the gates and buildings, that were there, in the times of the second Temple, it will not be amisse to looke what we finde there in the times of the first in that passage of Ezekiel chap. 8. ver. 3.5.14. He brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem to the doore of the inner Court gate that looketh toward the North, where was the seat of the image of jealonsie which provoketh to jealousie. And he said un­to me, Sonne of man lift up now thine eyes the way towards the North: so I lift up mine eyes the way towards the North, and behold North­ward of the gate of the Altar this image of jealousie in the entry. And he brought me to the doore of the gate of the Lords house which was to­wards the North, and behold, there sate women weeping for Tammuz: Here are two gates specified on the North side of the Court and they are called the gate of the Altar and the gate of the Lords house towards the North: because the one was over against the Altar, and the other over against the body of the Temple. To that over against the Altar is the prophet first brought in his vision, and there he seeth the image of jealousie: not in this gate of the Altar, but in the mountaine of the house Northward of this gate, and of the prophet as he stood in it. For the prophet is not brought within the Court at this gate, but is set without it, and there he is bidden to looke Northward, and there he [Page 164]seeth that image. This was not any picture or image to repre­sent jealousie by, but it is called the image of jealousie, because it provoked the jealous God to jealousie, it being set even in his Sanctuary and before his Altar: what Idol this was is but lost labour to goe about to determine: I should assoone conjecture Molech as any other, because that was the highest idolatry and most provoking, namely their burning of their children in the fire, and because they were exceeding taxable and taxed for this Idolatry. Whether there were this Idol in the Temple at this very instant when Ezekiel had the vision, which was in the sixth yeare of Zedekiah, or whether the vision represent to him the Idolatry that had been in the Temple at any time, is not much easier to determine neither, but be the Idol what it would, and meane he the time when he will, it was no small abomi­nation when an Idolatrous chappel or mansion is erected in the mountaine of the Lords house, even facing the very gate that opened upon the Altar. This gate was the lower North­gate which in the times of the second Temple was called the Gate Nitsots or of the Song.

Before the prophet is brought to the upper North gate, the text saith he was brought to the doore of the Court, ver. 7. that is, to the East gate which was the commonest way of entrance, and in that gate the Sanhedrin used to sit in those times, and there he seeth their Councell-chamber painted all about with ima­gery, and the 70 members of the Sanhedrin themselves offering Idolatrous incense: Then is he brought to the upper North gate, which opened upon the body of the Temple, and there he seeth women weeping for Tammuz: what Tammuz was, or what their weeping meant, it is not to our subject to insist up­on here: I will onely leave the glosse of David Kimchi upon this matter with the reader, and trouble him with no more discourse about it. Some interpret it (saith he) that they kept a feast to the Idol in the beginning of the moneth Tammuz: others inter­pret the word Tammuz to signifie burnt from [...] Dan. 3.19. meaning that they wept for him that was burnt, because they burnt their sons and daughters in the fire. Others, that they had a trick to convey water into the Idols eyes which was called Tammuz, so that he seemed to weep and to beseech them that they would serve him. [Page 165]But our great wise man Rabbi Moses bar Maiemon writes that it is found in the bookes of the ancient, that there was a man of the Idola­trous prophets whose name was Tammuz, and he called to a certaine King and commanded him to worship the seven planets and the twelve signes, and the King slew him: And on the night of his death, all the Idols from all parts of the earth were gathered into the Temple at Ba­bel, to the golden image which was the image of the Sun, which image hung betweene heaven and earth, and it fell into the midst of the Tem­ple and all the images about it: It told them what hath happened to Tammuz the prophet, and all the Idols wept and lamented all that night, and when it was morning they flew to their owne homes: So this became a custome to them on the first day of the month Tammuz every yeare, to bewaile and lament Tammuz. But some interpret Tammuz to be the name of a beast which they worshipped.

Thus may we suppose upon this text of Ezekiel, that in the Temple before the captivity there were but two gates on the Northside of the Court, or at least there is not mention of a­ny more: but in the second Temple there were three: The names of them going from West to East were these. 1. [...] Mid. per. 2. The gate of Corban. 2. [...] The gate of the wo­men. And 3. [...] The gate of the Song. Now every one of these gates is owned by a double name: for the gate of Corban is also called [...] Beth Mokadh: The gate of the women is al­so called [...] The gate Corban: And the gate of the Song is also called [...] The gate Nitsots: And thus are those Talmudick passages to be understood which carry difficulty with them, because they seeme to carry contradiction: whilest one reckons the North gates thus Ibid. & Shekalim per. 1. On the North was the gate of Corban, the gate of the Women and the gate of the Song: And ano­ther thus Mid. per. 1. On the North was the gate Nitsots, the gate Corban and Beth-Mokadh: The former, reckoning their order from West to East, and the latter from East to west: the reason of these dou­bled and differing names we shall look after as we goe along.

There were also other buildings on this side the Court be­sides the gates as well as there were on the South side which we have surveyed already. And those were [...] Ib. per. 6. The roome for Salt, the room for Par­vah, and the washing roome, besides other roomes, which weshall finde out in our progresse.

CHAP. XXIX. Beth Mokadh. [...]

OUr Survey is to begin at the Northwest corner of the Court wall, and there we meet with the building called Beth Mokadh, a place of remar­kablenesse for severall particulars.

1. It was a building so large that Tamid per. 3. it raught from the Northwest angle of the wall to the gate below, of the same name, and so it tooke up a fourth part of the length of that side of the Court: Mod. per. 1. Maym. in beth habbechir. per. 5. and it contai­ned foure severall roomes in the foure corners of it; that room which was properly called the roome Mokadh being in the middest of them as the Center: And this the treatise Middoth utterreth in these expressions Mid. per. 1. There were foure roomes in Beth Mokadh [...] Like bed chambers opening into a dining-roome: Two of which chambers stood within the Court and two without, and markes were set within to shew where the two grounds parted.

2. The foure roomes in the foure corners of it, were these.

Mid. ibid. The Southwest roome was called [...] The lambe roome, R. Sol. in. 1 Chron. 23.25. because there they lodged the lambes that were appointed for the daily sacrifice Maym. in Tamid. per. 1. And the roome was never without six lambes in it a day together. For no lambe was of­fered but which had been taken up foure dayes before: and so this necessitated, that if two of the six were taken out to day for the morning and evening sacrifice, other two must be brought in before night: And by this means it was never with­out six in it a whole day together.

2. Mid. ubi supra. & Ta­mid. ubi supr. The Southwest room was the roome of those that prepared the Shewbread, which God had appointed to be set before him on the golden table every Sabbath. [...] The Family of Garmu was for this worke. Shekalim. per. 6. These two roomes mentioned stood either wholly or some part of them within the Court.

3. Mid. ubi supr. The Northwest roome [...] [Page 167] was the place where the Maccabean family laid up the stones of the Altar, which the Grecian Kings had defiled Jos. Ant. lib. 12 cap. 7. 1 Mac. 1 &c. For when Antiochus Epiphanes had made such miserable havock at Jerusa­lem, as that he had laid Religion, Laws, Liberties, Altar, Sa­crifice, and all wast, and had defiled the Altar with abominable sacrifices, Judas Maccabeus and his brethren getting a little ground of their enemies and of their miseries, began to purifie and restore the Temple: and consulting what to doe with the Altar stones which were prophaned, and which Mattathias their father had therefore pulled down, 1 Mac. 2.25. they laid them up in this roome till a prophet should come that might resolve what to doe with them. 1 Mac. 4.44. &c.

4. Mid. ubi supr. The Northwest roome was a roome through which they went to a bathing place out of the middle room which was properly called Beth Mokadh, whosoever had received any no­cturnall pollution in their sleep. Now where this bathing place was it is controverted, whether under ground, or whether on the out side of the outmost wall: The treatise Tamid gives account of it in these words: Tamid. per. 1. Doth a nocturnall pollution by Gonorrhaea happen to any of them? he gets out and goes along in the gallery that goeth under the Temple, and candles burne on either side, till he came to the bathing place: there was a closet and a stool: and if he found the doore lockt he knew there was some one there, but if open he knew there was no body there: so he goes downe and bathes himself, wipes himselfe, warmes himself in the closet, and comes again and sits among his brethren.

3. The roome Mokadh which was in the midst of these foure, they being as it were parlors in the foure corners of it, is said to be [...] Maym. in beth habbech. per. 5. built archwise: not that the surface or up­most part of it was like an arch of stone without any other roofe, but that being raised and roofed like the other buil­dings about the Court, it was onely in this lower roome made arch wise, because there was a passage through it out of the chel into the Court. And there were two gates to this roome of passage, one towards the Chel, and the other towards the Court, and that into the Court had a wicket in it, through which they commonly went in and out, the great gate standing shut: and so it is like had that also into the Chel. And this pas­sage I suppose is that which Aba Jose calleth the gate of [Page 168]Jechoniah, of which we made mention before.

4. This roome was called Beth Mokadh, or the place of the bur­ning fire, because a fire was kept here continually, all the cold time of the yeare for the Priests, both by day and by night: By day to warme themselves at when they came from the service, for upon that they attended barefooted and very thin clad: and in the night to keepe them warme as they kept their guard: for in this roome was a guard of the Priests as was observed be­fore, and this was the chiefest guard of all: Tamid. ubi supra. Beth Mokadh, (saith the Talmud) was a great arched roome, and it was set about with stone benches: on which the Elders of the house of their fathers slept, and the keyes of the Court were in their keeping: But the young men of the Priest-hood slept in their garments on the ground: they slept not in the holy garments, but put those off, folded them up and laid them under their heads, and lay in their owne wearing clothes: So that this roome was both a thorough passe, and a great hall where was kept a common and a constant fire: and the gates on either side of the arch being shut, it was as a close roome, and as if it had not beene a thorough passage at all.

5 In this roome there was a box or cabinet as we may call it, in which were laid up the keyes of the Court, and taken out and in, as the doores were locked or to be unlocked. The Tal­mud describes it thus: Mid. ubi supra. There was a flag of Marble and a ring was fastned in it, and a chaine, at which the keyes of the Court were hung: when the time of locking the gates came he tooke up the flag by the ring, and tooke the keyes off the ring and locked the gates within, and when he had done he put the keyes on the chaine, and the flag in its place againe: Now this marble flag, which in Hebrew is called [...] A table, on the upper or outside of it had a ring by which to take it up, and on the inner side, a chaine so wrought as that the keyes might fitly and readily be hanged on or ta­ken off as there was occasion: And this box appeareth to have been in the ground, partly because we have mention of such another flag with a ring in it and that lay upon the ground, and dust was taken from under it for the triall of the suspected wife, and partly because the tradition saith [...] That after the Priest had laid up the keyes and laid downe the flag, he laid his pillow upon it and there slept.

[Page 169]6. If any in their sleep suffered Gonorrhaea, they were to bath as was said before, and the way to the bathing place is expressed in these words [...] He goeth downe a turning staire case that went under the Temple. The word [...] doth generally signifie all the body and buildings of the Temple, as the whole stood like a sumptuous and goodly Palace (for so the word doth properly signifie) and so it is used 1 Chron. 29.1.19. Therefore it is hard to tell which way this pas­sage to the bathing place lay, since the word will inlarge it to any part of the Temple. It appeareth that it was some vault under ground through which they passed; into which vault they went downe by a turning paire of staires, out of the Northwest roome of Beth Mokadh. And from thence whither they went, whether under the Chel as Rabbi Eliezer conceiveth, or under some part of the Court, or mountaine of the house, it is but in vaine to search: It seemeth the Bath was under ground, and a roome by it with a fire in it to warme themselves at when they had done bathing.

CHAP. XXX. Of the Gate Beth Mokadh called the Gate of Corban: And of the other Gate of Corban, called also the Gate of the Women.

WE need not inquire why the upper of these two gates was called Beth Mokadh; the considering that it joined to the East end of that piece of building that was so called, which we have new­ly surveyed, will resolve that question: but why the lower was called The gate of the Women, and why both of them the Gates of Corban, will cost more labour to finde it out.

I shall tender about the former these two conjectures: 1. Because at this Gate the women in the former Temple, did weep for Tammuz, as was observed out of Ezekiel even now: And 2. Because at this gate the women that brought sacrifices went into the Court to see them offered. For although it was not lawfull for women to goe ordinarily into the Court as it was for men, but they were confined to their owne Court, yet as I have observed elsewhere out of Tosaphta, women when they brought sacrifices might and did goe into the Court of Israel as well as men. It is true indeed that [...] women after childbirth appeared in the gate of Nicanor for the making of their atonement, and came but up into the gate and not into the Court at all, because they came thither for their full purification: but those women that were clean, and came not upon any occasion of purification, but brought burnt-offerings or sin or trespasse-offerings, they presented them and themselves with them at this gate. There was a gate was nearer to the Altar then this, namely the Gate Nitsots, which we are to survey by and by, but the place of the rings or slaughter place being between it and the Altar, it was not a place of that clea [...] and uninterrupted accesse that this was of, [Page 171]and therefore the sacrifices both of men and women were pre­sented here. Yet did the gate beare the name of the women rather then of the men, as from the rarer matter of the wo­mens going into the Court, which was more commonly done by men.

And this helpes us to one reason why this gate was called the Gate of Corban, or of the offering, namely because the sacrifices to be offered up were brought up in this way. And this very reason Bartenora giveth saying [...] Bart. in Mid. Here they brought in the most holy Sacrifices, which were to be slaine on the North side of the Altar. Over against this Gate on the other side of the Court there was a gate that bare two names as well as this. It was called [...] The gate of offering, because the sacrifices that were to be slaine on the South side of the Altar were brought in at that gate and it was called also the gate of Firstlings, because those were the chiefest of those offerings. So also this gate where we are: it was called the gate of Corban or of offering, because the Sacrifices to be slaine on the North side of the Altar were brought in by it: and it was called also the gate of the women, because their passage through it with their sacrifices was more rare and re­markable then mens. Zevachin per. 5. Now these were the sacrifices that were slaine on this North side of the Altar: The most holy sacri­fices, the hullock and goat of the day of Expiation, the hullocks and goats that were burnt, all sin-offerings, whole-burnt-offerings and trespasse-offerings.

Onely the lambes of the daily sacrifice, though they were slaine on the North side of the Altar, yet is it like they were not brought into the Court at this gate, but at that that joi­ned to Beth Mokadh, for in that piece of building the Lamb-room was where they were kept as hath been shewed. And so we have one reason why these two gates bare the name of Corban. The upper was so called because the daily sacrifice or Corban was brought through it, and the lower, because other sacrifices were brought through that.

But there was something more in the name besides: As there were severall treasure chests in the Temple, which have been named, and severall treasuries in the gate-houses of the moun­taine [Page 172]of the Temple, and in the chambers that joyned to the Temple it selfe: of vessells, vestments, tithes, firstfruits, &c. So on this side of the Court was the treasurie of the poll money, & for the poore, and for the repaire of the Temple; which more especially was called Corban: The word as at the first and most properly it signified an offering (and so is it frequently used in Deviticus, and that is the sense that we have newly parted with) so in the Jewes common language it came also to signi­fie the Treasurie of the Temple, as Mat. 27.6. The Priests tooke the money and said it is not lawfull to cast it [...] Into the Corban. And so Josephus saith that Pilate occasioned a tu­mult among the Jewes [...] Jos. de bell. lib. 2. cap. 14. By consuming the sacred treasurie which was called Corban upon making an Aquaeduct. And so the treatise Middoth reckoning the guards that were in the Tem­ple, nameth Mid. per. 1. one at the chamber of Corban: one at the chamber of the Vaile, and one behind the Mercy seat: From which last pas­sage, laid to this consideration that we are about, namely that there were two gates on the North side of the Court which were called Corban, there is some ground and probability to place the Corban or chiefest treasury of cash or money there where we doe. It appeareth by the distribution of the guards in the tradition cited that the guard at the chamber over a­gainst the Vaile, and at the chamber of Corban were on the seve­rall sides of the Court, or else there were no proportion or con­formity in their stations. All the seven gates of the Court were guarded, two with Priests, and five with Levites: all the foure Corners of the Court were also guarded, and there was besides (saith the tradition) a guard at the chamber of the Vaile, and ano­ther at the chamber of Corban, and another behinde the Mercy seat, that is, one on the one side of the Court over against the body of the Temple, and another on the other side, and another just behind, which was called the guard behinde the Mercy seate. Now where can we so properly looke for the chamber Corban, as between those two gates that both bare that name? And the matter here seemeth somewhat nearly parallel to the case that we observed about the gates and house of Asuppim upon the West quarter of the mountaine of the house, for as there was a piece of buil­ding [Page 173]that ran between two gates which it selfe was called the house of Asuppim, and gave occasion to the gates on either end of it, to be called the gates of Asuppim; so here was a piece of building that ran between two gates, which it selfe was called Corban, and gave occasion to the gates on either end it, to be called the gates of Corban likewise.

To come downe therefore from the gate of Beth Mokadh, to­wards the East, there was first a piece of building joyned to that gate, which was a treasurie and was called Corban, and then was there a roome where the Levites kept their guard, and joy­ning to that there was another treasurie or Corban, and joyning to the East end of that, a gate called by the same name Cor­ban but called also the gate of the women.

Now to distinguish these treasuries, whether the one of them was the treasury for the halfe Shekel poll-money, and the other for money and vessels offered for the use and repaire of the house, or whether one of them was the treasurie for the Temple and the other for the poore, which distinction we ob­served before, it is but in vaine to inquire after, since it is not possible to resolve when we have done all we can: onely this I suppose may not unpertinently be observed, that the treasu­ries wherein they put money, (whether chambers or chests) were those that most properly were called Corban, rather then the treasuries where they laid up other things: And according to the severall places where these chambers and these chests stood, the place was called the Treasurie, and the House of the Treasurie.

And here let us looke after a place of Scripture, which speak­eth something in relation to the treasurie, and may not unpro­perly be taken into consideration before we part with this sub­ject.

The place is in 2 King. 12.9. & 2 Chron. 24.8. about the treasure or collection chest that was made by Jehoiada, for the gathering of money for the repaire of the Temple, which had been decaied and defaced in the daies of Athaliah. And because there appeareth a visible contrariety betweene the two texts that handle that matter, it may not be amisse to lay them toge­ther, and then to see how they may be reconciled.

To heale the contrariety that seemeth to be in these texts, the one saying the chest was set beside Altar, and the other, that it was set without the gate: the one that there were no vessels made of the money that was offered, and the other that there were vessels made: it is to be observed that though the chest might be the same, yet the stories concerning it and concerning the money coming to it are to be understood not of the same time. The zeale of Joash the King and the dulnesse of the priests towards the repaire of the house of the Lord are here compared and laid together (though good Jehoiada did alwaies the utmost in him towards it) Joash had urged the repaire of the Temple, and that the Priests should get up all the money accrewing to it for the use of it and bestow it to that purpose: namely the halfe shekel poll-money of every one that passeth the account: the money that any one was set at to redeeme him from any singular vow Lev. 27. and all the money that any offered of his owne free will: every one of the Priests to take it of his acquaintance: yet in the three and twentieth of the Kings reigne, there was nothing done towards repairing: Thereupon the King seeing either the slacknesse, or falshood, or both, of the Priests, requires them to meddle no more with receiving money, nor with repairing, since the businesse under their hands went on no better: which they irreligiously & surlily are content to doe, not caring whe­ther the Temple be repaired or no. But good Jehoiada slacketh [Page 175]not, but sets a chest with a hole in it besides the Altar, that what money might be had, might be put in there for the use appointed: But when that did not availe to doe the work, nor to buy any vessells for the house and service of the Lord, for the money went still through the Priests fingers the chest being in their Court, Joash the King either removes that chest, or makes another and sets it without the Court at the com­ming in, whither every one might have accesse to it, and pro­claimes through all the Country that they should bring in the money appointed by Moses; the Princes and people come rea­dily and joyfully and bring it in, so that there was enough to perfect repaires, and withall to make those vessells for the Tem­ple that were wanting.

CHAP. XXXI. The Roome of Salt: of Parvah, and of the washing.

AS there were three roomes betweene the middle gate Corban, which was also called the gate of the women, and the more westward gate Corban, which was also called the gate Beth Mokadh, namely two treasuries and a Levites ward betweene the two: So were there three roomes also betweene the fame middle gate Corban, and the gate more Eastward which was called the gate Nitsots, and those were Mid. per. 5. The roome of the Salt: the roome of Parvah, and the roome of the Washers: The roome of the Salt was the most Westward of the three, and joyned to the gate of the women, and it was so called, because they there laid up the Salt for the use of the Temple. For howsoever Salt and Wine and Oile and such things were sold in the Tabernae, for the use of particular persons offerings, yet for the publick offerings and service, these things were stocked up at the [Page 176]publick charge in severall roomes appointed for them.

The use of Salt at the Temple was exceeding much, Maym. in Issure mizbeah per. 5. for nothing was laid on the Altar unsalted, but onely the wood, the blood and the Wine of the drink-offering: and how much Salt might be spent upon all their sacrifices, let any one ima­gine, for this was the Law, with all thine offerings thou shalt offer Salt, Lev. 2.13. And they had not this way onely for the spending of Salt, but they also salted the skins of all the sacri­fices when they had flayed them off. For the skins belonged to the Priests as their Fee: the course therefore of the Priests that was in serving, did still salt the skins of what sacrifices they offered, that they might not be offensive, and kept them till the end of the weeke of their service: and on the Eve of the Sab­bath, towards night they divided them to every one his share.

The place where they salted and laid up the skins till that time, was in the roome of Parvah which joyned to this roome of the Salt, on the East; and which is the next piece of buil­ding that we are to survey: The reason of the name is some­what doubtfull: the Gemarites in the treatise Joma debating it, conclude in this tradition: [...] Joma per. 3. halacah. 6. what is meant by Parvah? Rab Joseph saith, Parvah was a Magician; Aruch in [...] the meaning of [...] (saith Rabbi Nathan) is to this purpose: Parvah is the name of a man who was a Magician: And there are some of the wise men that say that he digged a vault under ground, till he could come to see what the High-priest did on the day of Expiation. And the wise men were aware of this vault that he had made, and they found him in it, and they called this chamber by his name. The short glosse upon the Mishnaioth in octavo goes yet further. A Conjurer (saith he) whose name was Parvah built this roome by Magick: And some say that he digged through the wall to see the service of the High-priest, and there he was slaine Magick was a matter more in use at the Temple among some of the Grandees there, then one could have possibly thought that it could have beene: for the Talm. Je­rus. in Joma per. 3. Jerusa­lem Talmud relates that some of the High-priests used to de­stroy one another with it. R. She­maiah in Mid. But others deduce the reason of the name Parvah from Parim which signifieth Bullocks, because of the many hides or skins of bullocks that were laid up there: About which matter we shall not be curious to sway the bal­lance [Page 177]one way or other: but shall leave the reason of the name to be disputed by them that have a mind to such a busi­nesse, it is enough to our survey to take notice of the place, and name and use of it without more circumstances.

At the East end of this building of Parvah, there was ano­ther piece of building which was called [...] The roome of the Washers: And the reason of the name was [...] Mid. ubi supra. Because in this roome they washed the inwards of the sacrifices according to the law, Lev. 1.9. It hath been a very generall conceit, of washing the beasts that were to be offered in the poole of Bethesda, of which there is mention, Joh. 5. If that opinion meane, the washing of the beast whilest he was alive, I know not where the least footstep of any such custome is to be found, either in Scripture or in Jewish monu­ments of antiquity. And if it meane the washing of the inwards after the beast was slaine, the roome that we are about was the place where that was done, and they went no further: and when they had first washed them here, they did it againe upon the marble tables, of which we shall speak ere it belong.

Ibid. Out of this roome of washing, there was a paire of win­ding staires, to the top of the roome Parvah, Joma per. 3. and on the top of that roome there was a bath, where the High-priest did bath himselfe on the day of expiation, the severall bathings that he was to bath on that day, but only the first which was in the bath on the top of the room Abhtines, as hath been ob­served before. It appeareth that here was a great issue or run­ning cock of water, in this washing roome, which served for the washing of so many intrailes as there was occasion to wash continually: and that there was a conveyance of water to the roofe of the adjoining roome, where also a cock ran to supply the bath.

CHAP. XXIX. The Gate, and House Nitsots [...]. The house of Stone vessels.

WE are now come to the gate that was most East of all the three on this North side, and it bare the double name of Mid. per. 1. the Gate Nitsots and Ibid. per. 2. the Gate of the Song. The word Nitsots [...] betokeneth properly sparkling, as Esai. 1.31. Ezek. 1.7, &c. and so it signifies the beames of the Sun, which as it were sparkle at his rising or go­ing forth. But sometimes it is used by the Rabbins to signifie Drops, which are as it were the sparks of water: And sometime as Baal Aruch observes, Froth or Foame: Now to what sense of all these to apply the name of this gate, and to give the reason of its denomination in that sense, will prove more la­bour then profit, though the pains be put to the best improve­ment. I shall leave it upon these two conjectures in the sense of Sparkling: That it was called the Sparkling gate, either be­cause the fire or flaming of the Altar shone upon it, it standing in most opposition to the Altar of all the gates on this North side: or because the South sun did give a great dazling light up­on the gilding of this gate, which it did by neither of the other on this North side, the height of the Temple interposing betwixt the Sun and them: But this gate lay clearly open to the South Sun and so the leaves of the gate being gilt, they gave a sparkling and dazling reflexion into the Court.

But why it is called the gate of the Song, for ought I can finde, is left also onely to conjecture: And I shall onely offer this; Because they that came in at this gate came in the very face of the Levites as they stood in their deskes singing, or playing on their instruments and making the Temple musicke.

Joyning to the East side of this gate there was a building was called from the gate, Mid. per. 1. The house Nitsots, in which the Priest a kept a guard in the upper roome, and the Levites in the [Page 179]lower: and betweene this building and the gate there was as it were a cloister passage, by which passage there was a way out of the very gate into the roome below where the Levites kept, & there was also a passage out of the cloyster into the chel [...]: And so is that clause in the Talmuds survey of the Temple to be under stood when it saith [...]: Ibid. That this gate was like a cloister, and a chamber was built over it, where [...]he Priests kept ward above, and the Levites below, and it had a doore into the [...] Chel. The meaning of which passage may be con­ceived to be this: That as you went through this gate Nitsots out of the Court into the [...] Chel upon your right hand there was not a plaine wall for the side of the gate, as the other gates had, but that side was open with pillars (as the cloister sides were of which we have spoken) and within those pillars there was a little cloister or walke which was almost as long as the passage through the gate was broad: So that when you were in the hollow of the gate you might step in between the pillars into this cloister, and so into the roome where the Le­vites kept their guard, and over this cloister and that roome and over the gate, was there a place where the Priests kept their ward, and this was one of the three places where they warded: Out of the Levites roome there was a doore into the Chel.

These buildings ran thus from this gate of Nitsots Eastward a pretty way, and then there joined to them another building which raught to the very corner of the Court wall. And it was called [...] The house of stone: Not as if it were built of stone and the other buildings of wood, for the rest were of stone also; nor as if this differed in manner of building from the rest; but because all the vessels that were used in it were of earth or stone; And so the Gemara upon the treatise Joma explaineth it [...] Joma per. 1. in Gemara. Before the Temple, at the North-east corner was the chamber of the house of stone, and thither they put the Priest apart, that was to burne the red cow se­ven dayes before. And it is called the house of stone, because the worke of it was in vessels of dung, earth, or stone. In which passage they doe not only give the reason of the name, but they also give an evidence of the situation of this place, when they say it was [...] Before the Temple at the North-west corner. And as [Page 180]for the putting of the priest apart into this roome that we are about, who was to burne the red cow, there is the like record in the treatise Parah, in these words Parah per. 3. in Mishn. Seven dayes before the burning of the cow, they put apart the priest that was to burne her out of his house, into the chamber which was before the Temple in the Northeast, which was called the house of stone, and they besprinkled him all the Seven dayes, &c.

CHAP. XXXIII. The Court of Israel, and of the Priests: And the Levites desks where they sung.

THus having passed round about the wall that in­closed the Court, and observed every particular gate and building in it, we are now to enter into the Court it selfe and to survey that, and there we shall finde much variety.

Mid. per. 1. The whole length of the Court from East to West was 187 cubits, and the breadth from North to South 135. Ibid. per. 8. The parcells of the totall summe of the length were these, from East to West.

Of all these particulars we shall give account as we goe a­long: And first it will be needfull to cleare the tearmes, of the Court of Israel and the Court of the Priests: Now these are to be understood in a stricter acception or in a larger: In the strictest sense they were taken for the first ground you passed over as you went up from the East wall of the Court, or where the gate of Nicanor was, unto the Altar, and they are said to be eleven cubits broad a piece. But in the larger acceptation, the Court of Israel, was a space of ground upon which the lay men of Israel, for so let me call them, might stand, along within the wall that inclosed the Court, on the North, South, and West quarters of the Court as well as on the East.

The Court was cloistered along the inclosing wall of it within, even as we have observed of the mountaine of the house, and the Court of the women already: And so not on­ly reason it selfe doth evince unto us, which will tell that if the inferiour places, and of lesse veneration, were so beautified, much more was this which was of the chiefest honour and highest worship, but both Josephus and the Talmudists, doe also give testimony to such a purpose: For Josephus in those words that we had occasion to cite a good while ago, [...] &c. Joseph, de bell. lib. 5 c. 14. Cloisters [...]an along the wall within from gate to gate, born up with faire and great pillars &c. doth intimate no lesse: for though he doth particularly in that sentence speake of the cloisters before the Gazophylacia, or treasure-chosts which we placed in the Court of the women, yet doth the scope of this discourse in that place, referre to both the Courts. The Talmudick treatise Tamid likewise speak­ing of the Priests first coming every morning into the Court, it saith Tamid. per. 1. They came out through a wicket out of Beth Mo­kadh, and being come into the Court they parted into two companies, and one went one way and another another, [...] Perexedram, along the cloister, round about the Court to see whether all was well and safe there. And you had mention [Page 182]even now of pillars 8 cubits distant from the North wall of the Court, which though indeed in their very name they speak that they were low pillars and not such as bare up the roofe of the cloisters, as we shall observe when we come to speak of them, yet were there higher pillars by them that were such Sup­porters.

On the North and South side therefore, and at the West end of the Court, there was a cloister like unto those that we have spoken of already borne up with pillars and roofed over head, that people might stand under unannoied of raine and wea­ther, and this was the Court of Israel, that went round about the Court: for in this might lay-men stand, and so they did, when there were great multitudes at the Temple, as there was at the three festivalls when they were injoyned to appeare be­fore the Lord. In the rubrick of the Passeover which is given by the Talmud in the treatise Pesachin: It is said, Pesachin per. 5. The Passeo­ver was killed in three companies: And the first company went in, and the Court was filled, &c. Now by the filling of the Court with people is not meant all the parts of the Court within the wall that did inclose it, but this Court of Israel or cloister where the laity might stand, round about: And all inward, or what was inclosed by this cloister, was in the large acceptation the Court of the Priests: This cloister did not retaine the same space of liberty of standing or walking, in every part of it, for here and there there were buildings that stood out something into it, as part of Beth Mokadh did at the North-west corner, and part of the building Gazith at the Southeast, &c. yet was there such pas­sage by them made more or lesse, that the buildings did not thrust him that would passe, into the Court of the Priests, but that there was a space to passe, sometimes larger, and some­times narrower even all the Court round about.

Now at the East part or quarter of it as you came up out of the gate of Nicanor, you entred upon that which was called in the stricter sense, the Court of Israel, which was eleven cubits over as you went up towards the Altar, and then was that which also in the stricter sense was called the Court of the Priests, and that was eleven cubits over likewise: These two spaces were double cloistered, being roofed over, and the roofe supported with a [Page 183]double row of pillars: the one row standing out to the open­ing of the open Court, and the other row standing where the two spaces parted the one from the other. These were more peculiarly called the Court of Israel and the Court of the Priests up­on these two or three reasons. 1. Because hither was the most ordinary accesse of Israelites and Priests in their most solemne worship, it being just in the face both of Temple and Altar. 2. Because in that which was called the Court of Israel, the Sta­tionary men did constantly stand, in their attendance on the service in representation of all the people, as we have shewed them such representatives, Temple-Ser­vice chap. 7. Sect. 3. in another place: And in that which was called the Court of Priests, did those Priests stand that had not imployment in the present service (as all of them had not alwaies) and waited upon the worship and service, which their brethren now in imployment were about. 3. That part of the roome Gazith which stood within the Court, opened into both these Courts; and as that was the roome, where the Priests cast lots for the dividing of the service amongst them, so it was the chappell (as it were) where they said a good part of their daily liturgie, and so the people and Priests in these Courts were ready to heare it. The one Court was distingui­shed from the other by some grates or barres or such like things which the Jewes call [...]: which stood between pillar and pillar in that middle row of pillars that bare up the roofe of the cloister. Into the Court of the Priests, whether largely or strictly taken, the Israelites or lay people might not come but upon speciall occasion, and that occasion was three­fold; namely, either to lay his hand upon the beast that he of­fered, or to kill him, or to wave some part of him, and then his coming into the Court either of Israel or of the Priests or both, was ordinarily at the North or South side of the Court, according as his offering was to be slaine on the North or South side of the Altar, as we have observed before.

Maim. in Beth habbechi­rah per. 6. The Court of the people was levell with the floore of the East gate or the gate Nicanor, but the floore of the Court of the Priests was two cubits and an halfe higher, and the ri­fing thus. Imagine you came up from the gate of Nicanor: or rather imagine the Levites coming up from it with their musi­call [Page 184]instruments in their hands (which we observed before they laid up in roomes just under the Court of Israel, but the doores of those roomes opening into the Court of the wo­men) when they were risen the many steps into the gate of Ni­canor and were come thorough it, they had on either hand a faire passage into the cloister or Court of the people, (such a­nother as he hath that cometh upon the Royall Exchange ei­ther out of Cornhill or Bartlemew-lane, he may step into the cloister walk on whether hand he will) they walked upon even ground till they came over the breadth of the Court of the people or to the pillars which were on the further side of that Court which bare up the cloister, and distinguished the Court of the people and the Court of the Priests one from another: Then was there a rising of two cubits and an halfe, but stepped up thus. Id. ibid. & Mid. per. 2. Sect. 6. First there was a step of a cubit high, and then three steps of halfe a cubit high a piece, thus it was as you went directly up from the gate of Nicanor forwards. But if you would turne on either hand, there were the desks or standings of the Levites, where they stood to sing and to make their musick, made with steps, as even as that middle rising just now mentioned; first a rising of a oubit height, and that ran along at that height all along before the railes and pillars that parted twixt the Court of the Priests and Court of people: and then were there three steps up of halfe a cubit high a piece, and on the highest step stood the Levites with their instruments and their song: their feet even with the floore of the Court of the Priests: and a desk before them.

Elias Levita it seemes observed not this rising both into the Court & in the Levites station, when he saith Elias in Tishbi. in [...] that their [...] Dukan (which was the name of their desks, and which the lear­ned render, Suggestus or Pulpitum) was nothing else but a bench or fourme whereon they stood; for their feet stood even with the floore of the Court, and were not raised above it at all. His words are these, I wonder at this Targum (on Psalme 134.) Lift up your hands O ye Priests upon the holy [...] For behold [...] was [...] the bench on which the Levites stood when they sung, and it is called [...] Ducan in the Arabick: but in the Dutch and vul­gar Banea: In this construction of it by [...] a bench, and [Page 185]owning it for an Arabick word he followeth Aruch in [...] Aruch, ver­batim, but I confesse I doe not very well understand the cause of his wonder, especially considering what he saith before the words cited, namely this: We call the place where the Priests lif­ted up their hands when they blessed the people [...] Dukan, and so is the Targum, Lift up your hands O ye Priests on the holy [...] and at this I wonder. Now if he wonder, that the Targum hath brought in the Priest blessing the people from the [...] Desk or Pulpit, in that Psalme: he might have found the like in other places. For the Chaldee of Jonathan upon the law doth thus render the 23 verse of the sixth of Numbers Targ. Jo­nath. in legem. in Num. 6. Speak to Aaron and his sonnes saying, Thus shall ye blesse the children of Israel spreading their hands upon the [...] Dukana, and they shall speake to them in this manner; where the Hebrew glosse in the margin interprets it Glossa marg. ibid. by spreading their hands in the place called [...] Dukana; and a little after, [...] The benched place called [...] Dukan. And so the large Chaldee Para­phrase upon the Canticles, glosseth the seventh verse of the third chapter (Behold his bed which is Solomons: threescore valiant men are about it) thus Targ. in Cant. 3. when Solomon the King of Israel built the house of the Sanctuary of the Lord in Jerusalem, the Lord said by his word, How beautifull is this house of the Sanctuary which is built to me by King Solomon the sonne of David, and how beautifull are the Priests when they spread forth their hands, and stand upon their [...] Dukan and blesse the People the House of Israel by the threescore won­ders that were delivered to Moses their master!

But it seemes his wonder is at this, that the Jewes so gene­rally, and the Chaldee Paraphrase particularly should hold that the Priests when they blessed the people stood upon the [...] Dukan, whereas the Dukan or these Deskes were for the Levites and not for the Priests: And if I did conceive that they meant these very deskes of the Levites, when they say the Priests stood in the [...] Ducan and blessed the people, I should wonder with him also, but I suppose they meant some other deskes appro­priate to the Priests for this purpose or the place of the priests standing when they blessed the people, and as by a name best knowne they call it Dukan.

The words of the Talmud in description of these deskes [Page 186]where the Levites stood to sing and to make their musicke are these. Mid. per. 2. Fahbi Eliezer the sonne of Jacob saith, there was a rising ( viz. out of the Court of the people into the Court of the Priests) and it was a cubit high, and the [...] Ducan was set above it, and in that there were three steps of halfe a cubit high a piece: So that the Court of the Priests is found to be higher then the Court of Israel by two cubits and an halfe. So that it appeares indeed that the Le­vites stood upon raised steps in their deskes, but it is plain with­all, that the highest step was no higher then the floore of the Court before them and that that step whereon they stood, was not called the Dukan, but the whole place of the three steps rising.

And thus were the eleven cubits of the Court of the Priests at this East quarter of the Court taken up and divided: Name­ly two cubits and an halfe taken up by the deskes of the singers (for as was the height of the steps, so was their breadth) and eight cubits and an halfe for the Priests standing. The Court of Israel parted from the Levites desks, by pillars and railes: The Levites standing parted from the Priests by a wainscot deske or some such thing. The Court of the Priests open to the Altar, but onely that the pillars that supported the cloister, stood in a row before it.

And so we have the dimensions and platforme of the Court, & of the buildings and the cloisters that stood about it: But be­fore we proceed to observe the particulars that were within it, I cannot but thinke of a piece of structure, that in its story looks something like to some of the cloisters that we have described either in the mountaine of the house, or in one of the Courts, though I beleeve it was none of them, and that is. The Covert of the Sabbath, of which there is speech and mention, 2 King. 16.18. where it is said of Abaz, The Covert of the Sabbath, that they had built in the House, and the Kings entry without, &c. How to frame the verbe to this sentence is somewhat doubtfull: whe­ther to say he turned it from the house of the Lord, and so doth our English, or he turned is to the house of the Lord, and so doth the Chaldee Paraphrast & some others with him for the word in the originall doth not determine it: were that the question be­fore us, I should adhere to the sense of our English (for the Kings [Page 187]entry without was turned to the house of the Lord from its first making) but our question is what this Covert of the Sab­bath was: The Lxx. have rendred it [...] The founda­tion of the chaire or seat, upon what mistake in their unprickt bible, a mean Hebrician will easily discover, namely that they read Musadh for Musach ( Daleph and Caph finall being like) and for Shabbath they read Shebeth. Vid. Kime. & Leu Gersom in loc. & Ne­hil. in Lxx. Ibid. The most received opinion about this matter is, that this was some speciall piece of buil­ding, that was purposely made for the course of Priests that went out every Sabbath to repose themselves in, till the Sab­bath was out, or till they might goe home. And the reason of this conception is because of the word Sabbath, which they sup­pose to referre rather to the change of the Priests courses, who came in and went out on the Sabbath, then to the service, or the peoples attending, whose concourse was greater at the festivalls then on the Sabbath; I should rather take it to meane some Court of guard that was made on the Top of the causey Shallecheth up towards the gate Coponius, where the Kings guard stood on the Sabbaths having attended the King into the Temple, till he came out againe, there to receive him againe and to guard him home: and I should understand and construe the word The Kings in conjunction with both particulars na­med, namely that it meaneth the Kings covert of the Sabbath as well as the Kings entry without: and my reason for this opinion I should fetch partly from the mention of these gates that we had in speech before, namely, The gate of the foundation, and the gate behinde the guard, 2. King. 11.6. And partly from the passage in Jerem. 38.14. where it is said that King Zede­kiab sent and tooke Jeremy the Prophet unto him into the third entry that was in the house of the Lord, where Solomon Jarchi doth inge­nuously confesse that he knowes not what this third entry in the house of the Lord was: but perhaps saith he it meaneth the Court of Israel; the Court of the women and the Chel being the two other. Kim­chi doth well conceive that this entry was as they came from the Kings house into the Temple, but more of it he hath not determined. I should say it meaneth the gate Coponius: and conceive the King coming to the Temple, through these en­trances or passages. First at the bottome of the staires or de­scent [Page 188]of Sion, much about his turning to come upon the causey there was the gate of the foundation, then being come up the cau­sey towards the Temple, he passed through the gate behinde the guard and walked through the Court of Guard which I sup­pose was called the Kings covert for the Sabbath, and so through the gate Coponius which was his third entrance or gate he passed through. These gates we said before, were gates of Sion, mea­ning that they were in the way from the Temple thither, and not gates of the Temple it selfe.

According therefore to this supposall, I apprehend that A­haz becoming a Renegado to religion, did deface and defile the Temple within, and did cleane cut off the way of the Kings accesse thither without, as if he and his should never have more to doe there: And according to this supposall also I appre­hend, that Zedekiah having garisoned himselfe in the Temple, while the Chaldeans were now lying in siege about the city, he sends for Jeremy from his prison in Zion, and he comes up to the gate Coponius or Shallecheth, and there the King and He con­ferre together. And now let us turne our eyes and observation upon what is to be found in the Court from which we have thus farre digressed: and first we will begin with the Altar: which is not onely the most remarkable thing to be observed there, but which must also serve us as a standing marke, from whence to measure the place and sight of other things.

CHAP. XXXIIII. Of the Altar of Burnt-offering.

THe Altar that Moses made in the wildernesse, be­cause it was to be carried up and downe, was of light materialls and of small dimensions: for Exod. 27.1. it was of Shittim-wood, and but five cubits square, and three cubits high, with a grate of brasse hanging within it for the fire and Sacri­fice to lye upon. And therefore when it is called the brazen Al­tar, 2 Chron. 1.5. it is because it was plated over with brasse, Exod. 38.1. But when Solomon came to build the Temple, and there was to be no more removing of the Tabernacle of the Congregation as there had been before, 2 Chron. 4.1. he made the Altar farre larger and weightier then that of Moses: namely of brasse and of twenty cubite square and ten cubits high.

I shall not be curious to inquire whether Solomons Altar were of brasse indeed or no, or whether it is said to be of brasse, though it were of stone, because it succeeded in stead of Moses his brazen one as Vid. Kimc. in 1 King. 8.64. some Jewes conceive, Vid. Lev. Gers. ibid. or as others, because though it were of stone, yet it was overlaid with brasse: I see no reason why it should not be properly and literally understood that it was of massie brasse indeed: for why may we not well conclude by the plating of Moses his Altar over with brasse, that it was made of wood onely for lightnesse, and had it not been for that, it had been all of brasse as well as the outside: And that that outside plating, might be a warrant to Solomon to make his Altar of Massie brasse: It is true indeed that there is a command of making an Altar of Earth or stone, Exod. 20. but it may very well be questioned, whether these altars meant not such as were made upon speciall and emergent occasions, namely upon the Lords singular appearing to particular per­sons, as to Gedeon, Manoah and others, who upon such appea­rances built Altars and sacrificed. Judg. 6.26. & 13.19. 1 Kin. 18.30, 31.

There is but little to be discovered about the exact fashion and fabrick, of Solomons Altar, because the Scripture speaketh very concisely of it: For it saith onely thus, He made an Altar of Brasse, twenty cubits the length thereof, and twenty cubits the breadth thereof, and ten cubits the height thereof. 2 Chron. 4.1. So that it was foure times as big in it square, as was the Altar made by Moses, and three times as high, and a cubit over: but whe­ther it were exactly of the fashion of that of Moses, as whether the middle space within its square were hollow like his, or made up with stone, and whether it had a grated hearth like his or a solid, and what was the manner of the ascending and going up to it, may be rather apprehended by supposall, then certainely knowne by any scripturall description or demonstration.

The sacrifices that are recorded to have been offered some­times at once, both upon the Altar of Moses and that of Solo­mom, are exceeding wonderfull, and may cause a man to mar­vaile, how so vast numbers should be laid and burnt in so little a space as even the larger of them was of, though a very large time should be allowed for it: as Solomons 1000. sacrifices up­on Moses his Altar, 1 King. 3.4. and the peoples 700. oxen and 7000. sheep upon Solomons, 2 Chron. 15.11, &c. Moses his Altar was but five cubits square, and how long a time might be re­quired for 1000. beasts whole-burnt-offerings, for so they are called, to be burnt in so small a compasse? David Kimchi upon that place and story glosseth thus. He offered not all these sacrifices in one day, but before he returned againe from Gibeon to Jerusalem: yet it seemeth by our Rabbines that they tooke it to be done at one time. The greatest solemnities that ever were at Jerusalem lasted ordi­narily but seven daies; or at the utmost but fourteene, when they would double their festivity, as at the dedication of the Temple, 1 King. 8.65. now grant Solomon fourteene, nay twice fourteene dayes stay at Gibeon, yet will it seeme difficult that he should dispatch so many sacrifices even in that time. And at his owne Altar at Jerusalem, how vast is the number of sacri­fices that is mentioned, 1 King. 8.63. And Solomon offered a sacri­fice of peace-offerings, which he offered to the Lord, two and twenty thousand oxen and an hundred and twenty thousand sheepe: so the King and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord. [Page 191]The same day did the King hallow the middle of the Court, &c.

Allow the whole fourteene daies that are spoken of in ver. 65. unto this businesse, and yet the text seemes to limit it to a shorter time, and for all that, a man may rather stand amazed at such a thing as this doing, then find out any satisfactory ap­prehension how it should be done. Sure the divine fire upon the Altar, was of a more singular quicknesse of dispatch then ordi­nary fires: or else I know not what can be said to these things. The Jewes do reckon severall wonders that were continually acted at the Temple, as that no flies infested that place, though there were so much slaughtering of beasts there, and that the smoke of the Altar alwayes went straight up and was never blowne aside by the winde, &c. which though it may be they are the lesse beleeved for the relators sakes, yet certainly well weighed in themselves they carry very good sense and reason in them. For who would have been able in the summer to have stood in the Court neare the Altar where there was so much blood shed, and flesh stirring, if the slaughter place there had been troubled with stink, flies and waspes, as our common slaughter houses are? And how reeky and smokie a place would the Temple and all the places about it have been, and how would those that attended the service, have been choa­ked and stifled, and no man able to have indured in the Court, if the smoak from off the Altar had been blowne up and down with every puffe of winde, as we ordinarily see smoak to be? So that for the prevention of such unconveniences as these which would have made the service intolerable and unaccessible, we cannot but acknowledge a continuall miraculous providence and dispensation. And so in this particular that we have in hand: that multitudes of sacrifices, such as were especially at the three festivalls, should be dispatched by the fire within the time allotted for the offering of such sacrifices, is rather to be ascribed to miracle then to any thing else. The Altar is called Ariel, the Lords lion, as we shall observe by and by, and it was a lion of a very quick devouring.

Now whereas it is said that Solomon did hallow the middle of the Court that was before the house of the Lord, for there he offered burnt-offerings and meat-offerings and the fat of the peace-offerings [Page 192]because the brazen Altar that was before the Lord was too little to re­ceive them: lay this also in too, and yet it will be difficult enough to apprehend the dispatch of so many thousand sacri­fices in so short a time, if this consideration be not also laid in therewithall. But the question that is most ordinarily raised out of these words is, in what sense to understand this hallowing of the middle of the Court: whether he burnt the sacrifices upon the very pavement, as is the opinion of Rabbi Judah, or whether he set up Moses Altar by his owne Altar and offered on it, or whether he built an Altar of stone by his brazen one, for these opinions are also held, but me thinkes the greater question is about the place, and what is meant by the middle of the Court? Upon which quaere, these two things, may first be ta­ken into observation. 1. That fire from heaven in the time of David, had apponted out the exact place of offering sacrifice or of the Altar, 1 Chron. 21.1. and to go about that piece of service in any other place of the Court, required either a propheticall warrant, or a dispensation through meere necessity, both which dispensers were concurred here. 2. That this place which Solomon hallowed in the Court, was hallowed by the very service performed upon it; The Altar of Moses was hal­lowed at its first setting up, by being anointed, and so doe the Jewes, not without good ground, assert that Solomons Altar was hallowed likewise: but this necessitated place, for so let me call it, which Solomon was constrained to set apart for that service, was not so served, but his very sacrificing there did hallow the place: namely for such a present imployment, but not for future. And so the current of the text may be interpre­ted, he hallowed the middle of the Court, for there he offered burnt-offerings: so that whereas the other altar, being a­nointed sanctified the gift, this extraordinary Altar did not so much sanctifie the offering at the first, as was sanctified by it: And so the Temple after the returne out of the Babylonian cap­tivity and all the utensills belonging to it, were sanctified by the very service, for there was neither divine fire, nor any cloud of glory, nor any anointing oile to sanctifie them.

The middle of the Court which Solomon hallowed, I suppose is to be expounded in the largest acceptation of either of the [Page 193]words, both the middle, and the Court: for the word the middle of a thing in the Scripture language, is not alwaies taken for the very Center of the thing mentioned, but for any part with­in that thing, be it in it whatsoever it will, as in the middle of the land and in the middle of the Congregation, meaneth but within the land, and in the Congregation: So is the phrase to be under­stood here, that Solomon hallowed the Court in any part of it for the burning of the Sacrifices, though the precise compasse of the Altar, was fixedly pointed out as the onely place for such a purpose, by fire from heaven: And as for the word the Court, the present occasion doth seeme to extend the sense of it to the whole compasse of the holy ground: for if we looke upon the vast and infinite number of sacrifices that were to be slaine and offered, we can doe no lesse, and all little enough too, then allow the whole compasse of the holy ground for it: And the word the Court, standeth not in opposition to the moun­taine of the house, but both the mountaine of the house, and the Court it selfe, are both called by that generall name the Court in contradiction to the very body of the Temple.

Ezekiels Altar is said to be twelve cubits long, and twelve cubits broad, square in the foure squares thereof. Ezek. 43.16. which Zevathin per. 5. R. Sol. in Ezek. 43. & [...]id. per. 3. the Talmudicks doe reckon up to foure and twenty cubits up­on every side of the square: for they suppose that the account is not as measuring from corner to corner on every side, but measuring from the very midst or center of the Altar to any of the sides, and thither was twelve cubits: And the reason of this their construction is, because it is said [...] To­wards the foure squares of it. It might seeme (say they) that the whole Altar was but twelve cubits square in all: but when it is said [...] Towards the foure squares thereof, it sheweth, that he measureth from the middle, twelve cubits every way: And of this square, namely of foure and twenty cubits on every side, they hold the Altar to have been after the captivity, and so they describe it. R. Jose saith, At the first the Altar was but 28. cubits on every side: And according to this measure it narrowed in its rising till the fire place was but twenty cubits square: But when the children of the captivity came up, they added thereunto foure cubits on the North, and foure cubits on the West like the fashion of the let­ter [...] Gamma.

As Solomons Altar was ten cubits high, 2 Chron. 4.1. so also was the Altar at the second Temple, and so the Jerusalem Talmud doth witnesse saying [...] Talm. Je­rus. in Erubin. per. 7. The height of the Altan was ten cubits: And of that height is Ezekiels Altar, whose coppy the children of the captivity did very much follow: Now as it was impossible for the Priests when the Al­tar was so high, to stand on the ground and to serve upon it, so had they an expesse prohibition against going up to the Altar by steps, lest their nakednesse under their loose coates should be discovered, Exod. 20.26. Therefore as a temper be­tweene these two exigents, there was a gentle rising made from the ground to the top of the Altar whereon the Priests might go up to the Altar to serve upon it, and this rising was called [...] Kebesh which may well be englished the rise of the Al­tar.

The glosse upon the Mishneb in the treatise Zabim, and R. Na­than from thence hath taught us to understand the manner of this rising, by that instance and description that they give of the word [...]. Zabi. per. 3. Aruch in [...] That it is a great planke that mariners have, that when they will come downe out of the Ship, they descend, or come downe upon it, to save their feet from touching of the water: and this planke is called [...] Kebesh; And so in the treatise of the Sab­bath they have a case, about a [...] Keb [...]sh or such a planke Shabbath. [...]er. 16. Sect. 8. Doth an Idolater make a [...] Descent for himselfe, to goe downe by? an Israelite may goe downe after him. But doth he make it for the Israelite? it is not lawfull for him to goe upon it: There is an ex­ample of Rubban Gamaliel and the Elders, they were to come out of a ship: and an Idolater had made [...] a descent for himselfe, Rabban Gamaliel and the Elders came downe by it. So that by this parallel we may observe the manner and nature of this [...] Kebesh or rise to the Altar that it was a sloping gentle rising, but made of stone whereby the Priests might goe up to the Altar, without danger of discovering their nakednesse: we might call it a ri­sing causey to the top of the Altar; for so doth Maymon. in Shekalim. per. Maimony call the Arched causey over the valley of Kidron to mount Olivet by which the red cow was brought to her burning [...] by this very name Kebesh.

Now as for the manner and forme of the Altar and of this [Page 195]rising up to it, and for the right understanding of all, which is not very facil, divers things are to be observed. As,

1. There are reckoned these severall parts of the Altar. First, the foundation, [...] which also in Ezekiel is call [...] The bo­some or bottome upon the ground. Ezek. 43.13, 14. This was one cubit high from the ground, and one cubit broad: and the length of this foundation upon every side of the square was 32 cubits. And therefore whereas it was said before, that the breadth of the Altar and its rise was 62 cubits from North to South, it is to be so taken, as that the rise is to be accounted a thing different from the Altar it selfe, and lying a great space further out then the compasse of the Altar did, as we shall see anon: Now this foundation which is said to be 32 cubits square every way, did not hold the compleate measure of a cubit broad in every part of it, but in the Southeast corner of it, it wanted somewhat to make the corner a perfect angle an­swerable to the other corners. And this is that which the Tal­mud meaneth when it saith [...] Mid. ubi supr. The foundation was a perfect walke, all along on the North side, and all along on the South: but on the South it wanted one cubit, and on the East one cubit. That is, were a man upon the foundation, he might walke upon all the length of the North side, and might turne at the North west corner, and so walke on the West quarter: but would he doe so, to goe off from the South quarter to the East he could not, for when he was to turne at the Southeast Angle, there was no such Angle there, as there was at the other corners, for it was broken off, and wanted a cubit on the South side, and a cubit on the East, which two cubits should have met to have brought the cor­ner into a sharpe point like the others. Now the reason of the defect is given by them else where, to be because, that very cor­ner onely of all the Altar was not in the tribe of Benjamin, but in the tribe of Judah. For they held it necessary that all the Altars should be in the lot of Benjamin, because of those words of Jacob Gen. 49.27. Benjamin shall raven as a wolfe, in the morning he shall devoure the pray, and in the Evening he shall divide the spoile: which how they understood of the Sanctuary and Altar being built [Page 196]within Benjamins lot, appeares by the glosses that the Jerusa­lem Targum and Jonathan put upon it. Benjamin, say they, is likened to a devouring wolfe, because be was a strong tribe: In his Country the divine Majesty of the Lord of all the world was to dwell, and in his possession was the house of the Sanctuary to be built; In the morning the Priests shall offer the daily lambe, till it be the fourth houre of the day, and between the Evenings they shal offer the other lambe and at Even they shall divide what remaineth of the rest of the sacrifices, and every one shall eate his portion. But more copiously in the trea­tise Zevachin or concerning sacrifices, where this very point about the want of this corner of the Altar is copiously discussed. The fifth chapter of that book, setteth it selfe purposely to describe the severall places where the severall sacrifices were flaine be­sides the Altar: and after other things it falls upon the question that is before us about this deficient angle of the Altar, and it handles and determins it thus Talm. Bak. in Z [...]vachin per. [...]. in Gemara. The Southeast corner had no foundation: what was the reason? Rabbi Eliezer saith because it was not in the portion of the Ravener: As Rah: Samuel the sonne of Rabbi Isaac saith [...] The Altar took up one cubit in the portion of Judah: Rab. Levi bar Chama saith, R. Chama bar Chaninah saith there went a line out of the portion of Ju­dah, and entred upon the portion of Benjamin. And righteous Benja­min was troubled at it as it is said [...] (The glossary renders it, he was carefull for it every day) Yet righteous Benjamin obtained to become [...] Host to the holy blessed God as it is said; And he shall dwell betweene his shoulders: The mean­ing of which passage is to this purpose: that the line that par­ted the lots or portions of the two tribes Judah and Benjamin, came just over at this point of the Altar, that if this angle of the foundation had beene made like the other, a cubit of the Altar would have been in the lot of Judah, which they had no scripture warrant for, for the Altar was to be in the lot of the Ravenor, that is of Benjamin that should raven as a wolfe, therefore they chose rather to make no angle at all at this point of the foundation, then to make it, since it would fall in the portion of Judah.

As this Southeast point of the foundation was remarkable for this, that it had no corner, so was the Southwest corner of [Page 197]it remarkable for another thing, and that was, for two holes that were in it near to the Angles point, one upon the West foundation, & the other upon the South, into which the blood that was poured upon the foundation did run, and so into a sinke or common-shore under ground, which emptied it selfe into the vally of Kidron.

2 The base or foundation having thus risen one cubit from the ground and carried a cubit breadth round about, but one­ly in the Angle that hath been mentioned, the square of the bo­dy of the Altar, was growen then, a cubit narrower on every side, and so it was but 30 cubits upon every side of the square; and thus it held for five cubits high, and then it narrowed one cubit more, and this narrowing was called [...] the Circuit of the Altar: And there the square was but eight and twenty cu­bits on every side: But here the Talmuds measure differeth from the measure of Ezekiel, which though Rabbi Solomon observeth, yet he concludeth that the measure in the Talmud was the true measure in the second Temple. Ezekiel saith that from the bot­toms upon the ground, to the lower settle were two cubits, whereas the Talmud saith but one, and from the lower settle to the higher, Ezekiel reckoneth foure cubits, but the Talmud five: In which difference in the particulars yet there is agreement in the main summe, and both of them doe raise the Circuit of the Altar 6 cubits high, and therefore we shall not spend time to recon­cile them here, but leave them to be taken up by and by; one­ly we cannot passe over the word that Ezekiel useth, for both the Foundation and the Circuit, and that is [...] Azarah which is the common word that is used for the Court: Because that as the people did tread in the Court at the time of the service, so did the Priests upon these ledges or sides of the Altar: especi­ally upon the higher, which was called the circuit of the Altar, when they went about it to besprinkle the hornes of it with the blood of the sacrifices: The manner of which action the Tal­mudick chapter lately cited, giveth us the relation of, in the Mishneh, in these words Zebachin ubi supr. Sect. 3. The sin-offering of the congregation, or of a private person, and the goats, offered at the beginnings of the months, or at the solemne times, their slaughter was on the North side of the Altar, and the taking of their blood in some of the vessells of the ser­vice [Page 198]was on the Northside and it required a fourefold putting on the foure hornes. How was this done? He went up the [...] Rise of the Altar, and turned off to the [...] circuit of it: He went to the South­east horne, and then to the Northeast, so to the Northwest, and lastly to the Southwest, and the blood that was left be powred upon the foundati­on on the South side: Either of these ledges the Rabbines some­times call [...] Vid. R. Sol. in Ezek. 43 Malhen, either because they were as floores whereon the Priests trod, for so the word is sometimes taken, or because they were often rubd to keep them white, vid. Aruch. in voce. since there was so much blood sprinkled on them: Mid. per. 3. For the whole Altar was whited over twice a yeare, namely at the passeover and at the feast of Tabernacles. Rabbisaith, that it was rubbed with a map on the eve of every Sabbath.

3. A cubit height above this upper ledge which was called the Circuit, there was a narrowing againe, a cubit breadth, and there began the hornes of the Altar, and now the square was but six and twenty cubits upon every side. The hornes were at every corner a cubit square being hollow, and rising a cubit up­ward; for it is a usuall saying among the Jewes that [...] Maym. in Beth habbechir. per. [...]. The height of every horne was five hands breadth, or a common cubit, which is to be taken so as that the hornes rose but one cubit straight up from their foundation or first beginning, abating by degrees from a cu­bit square in the bottome, into a pyramidicall sharp, but so as that for one cubit height it rose straight, & then pointed out­ward like the tip of a horne: The lowest part of these hornes, was seven cubits from the ground, and therefore these words, binde the sacrifice with coards to the hornes of the Altar, Psal. 118. can hardly be taken in propriety, as if the sacrifice stood tied to the Altar till it was offered; but as the Chaldee paraphraseth it, it meaneth, Tie the lambe that is to be offered, with coards till ye come to offer him, and sprinkle his blood upon the hornes of the Altar Joab in feare of his life is said to have fled to the Altar and to lay hold upon the hornes of it. 1 King. 2.29. in which pas­sage the Hebrew doctors say he was doubly deceived, first in that he thought to have refuge and escaping, for wilfull mur­der, and secondly in that he looked for safety by taking hold of it, whereas the refuge of the Altar, was on the top of it [Page 199] [...] Kimch. in 1 King. 2. Our Rabbines say, saith David Kimchi, the Altar was no refuge but for manslaughter committed unawares and but on the top of it. But whe­ther Joab or they were the likelier to be deceived in this thing, I leave to them to discusse between them: But this certainly cannot goe unobserved, that God in giving of the patterne of the Altar, was so punctuall for the making of hornes to it in the corners of it, as that that is a speciall charge, both about the Altar of burnt-offering Exod. 27.2. Thou shalt make the hornes of it upon the foure corners thereof. And also about the Altar of in­cense Exod. 30.2. The hornes thereof shall be of the same. Now what the Lord intended to signifie by this so exact a prescription, it is not good to be too bold to go about to determine, yet we not unprofitably look upon them as a lesson for instruction: rea­ding to us that as the Altar signifieth Christ, who offered him­selfe upon himselfe, the manhood upon the Altar of the God­head, and as the double Altar, of sacrifice and incense typified the offering up of Christ at his death, and the continuall incense of his mediation, so the hornes of both Altars may well be con­ceived to signifie, the dignity vigor and merit of his death and mediation: upon which whosoever slayeth hold by assured faith shall escape condemnation: and unto which (as the Priests to these hornes at every sacrifice mentioned) a sinner in every service is to make his addresse and application.

It is not an improper conception of Rabbi Solomon, about the law concerning the cities of refuge Exod. 21.13. R. Solain, Exod. 21. that as God enjoyned them when they should come into the (and of Canaan to appoint a place for the manslayer that had killed a man at unawares to flee unto, so that while they were in the wildernesse God appointed them a place for refuge, upon such occasion, and that was the campe of the Levites: Now the ad­dition that followes in the next verse that they should take a wilfull murderer from his Altar, to put to death, doth not one­ly confirme that his supposall, but it doth give some intimation, that even in the Land of Canaan, and when their refuge cities were ser out, yet the Altar was then a Sanctuary for those that fled to it in such or such cases: A very eminent figure of delive­rance from condemnation by laying hold upon Christs merits,

Vid. Kim­chi. Ibid. The Jewes dispute why Joab, whom they hold to have been president of the Sanbedrin, and knew the law well enough that a wilfull murderer should not escape by the Altar, why he should flee thither: And they answer, that it was either to fave his estate, which had he been slaine elsewhere had been forfeit: or to obtaine his buriall, which had he been Judged and condem­ned judicially, he had lost and been cast away unburied: But it seemeth rather that the occurrence which is mentioned imme­diately before, and which occurred immediately before, namely about Abiathar, did give him occasion to doe what he did: For though Abiathar were in the same fault with Joab, in the matter of Adonijah, yet had he escaped death (being onely put from his office) upon these two reasons, because he had borne the Arke and was High-priest, and because he had been afflicted and partner with David in his afflictions; Under this latter predicament Joab fell as well as he, and might hope for fa­vour in that respect equally with him: And as for the former, Ioab indeed was not, nor could not be a Priest, yet, thought he, I will doe as much towards that as I can, that is, lay hold on the hornes of the Altar, and there devote my selfe to God and his service by that solemne Ceremony, and it may be for these two considerations, Solomon will spare me, as he did Abiathar (For that the laying hold of the Altar in this kinde had a vow in it for the future, as well as a present safety, might be ar­gued from the nature of the Altar, which made holy what touched it, and from the very circumstance of laying hold up­on it.) But Ioab to the wilfull murder of Ab [...]er and Amasa, had added contempt and opposall of the King upon Davids throne, which figured him that was to reigne over the house of Israel for ever, and therefore unfit to escape, and uncapable to be any such vo [...]ary.

4. Mid. ubi sup. Maym. ubi supr. A cubit above the first rising of the hornes of the Altar, the square narrowed a cubit againe and so was now but 24 cubits every way, and so held on to that flat of it on the top where the fire lay: The cubits-ledge, that the abate­ment made to be as a bench round about, was [...] the place whereupon the Priests went, and stood about the Altar to lay on the pieces of the sacrifice, or to stirre them as [Page 201]they lay in the fire: And this helpeth us to judge concerning the manner and fashion of the hornes spoken of last: namely, that they did not rise directly upright higher then the Altar it selfe, for then it had been impossible for the Priest to goe about the Altar upon this ledge, for the hornes would have hindered if they had risen a full cubit square up hither: but their forme is to be conceived as was said before, namely, that they rose in­deed up even with this ledge, but they so sharpened and bended outward when they came levell with it, that the Priests had pas­sage betwixt them and the Altar.

From the [...] Circuit of the Altar upward, which was four cubits, was that part which more peculiarly was called Harel, and Ariel, Ezek. 43.15. And Harel was four cubits, and from Ariel upwards were the foure hornes. He had described the graduall risings of the Altar hitherto in the verses before, in these cha­racters and descriptions.

Verse 13. The bottome shall be a cubit, and the breadth a cubit, This was the Foundation of which we have spoken, a cubit high and a cubit broad.

And the border thereof by the edge thereof round about a span: The edge of this foundation was not sharpe as are the edges of stone steps, but it was wrought as are the stone borders of our chim­ney hearths, with a border of a span over: and so the bloud that was poured upon this foundation could not runne off to the pavement, but was kept up that it might run downe at the holes forementioned, into the common-shore.

[...] And thus was the top of the Altar: The top of the Altar was also finished with such another border­ing.

Vers. 14. And from the bottome upon the ground even to the lower settle, two cubits. Not that the foundation called here the lower settle, was 2 cubits thick in the flatnesse of it, as it lay upon the ground, for the verse before saith that the bottome was but a cubit, but that from this foundation, there arose a slope rising a cu­bit height, which was somewhat thicker then the body of the Altar presently above it, and so from the ground to the top of this rising, where the square narrowed were two cubits: and from the top of this sloping where the square narrowed, to [Page 202] the circuit, was properly but four cubits, but from the founda­tion five. And so though the Talmud speaketh differently from the Prophet (when it saith the foundation or lower settle was but one cubit high, and he, two: and when it saith the height from the lower to the higher settle, or from the foundation to the circuit was five cubits, and the Prophet saith but foure,) yet do they both meane but one and the same thing, but understood as hath been spoken: namely, the one taketh the foundation or lower settle, barely as it lay flat upon the ground, and the other takes it with this cubitall slope rising from it, made lean­ing a cubit height to the body of the Altar: and this interpre­tation helpeth to understand that which David Kimchi profes­seth he cannot tell what to make of; and that is, why the up­per settle which was narrower by two cubits in the square, is called the greater, and the lower, which was larger in the square, is called the lesser: The reason whereof is this, because the up­per, though it were lesse in compasse, yet was larger in breadth, because this leaning slope rising that we speak of, tooke up a good part of the breadth of the lower, and so the walke upon it was not so cleere and large as it was upon the other.

And then the Prophet tels us, that when the body of the Altar was thus risen six cubits high to the upper settle, which the Talmudicks call the circuit, That thence Harel was to be four cubits, and from Ariel and upward, the four hornes.

Kimch. in Ioc. Const. Lemp. in Mid. P. 97. There are some that conceive that Harel and Ariel are indeed but one and the same word, though so diversly written, from whom I cannot much differ, as to point of Grammar, because the Letters [...] do admit of such alternancy in the lan­guage, yet me thinks the difference of the words should hold out some difference of the sense: and Harel to signifie the Lords Mountaine, and Ariel the Lords Lion upon that Mountaine; the lower part at the hornes more properly Harel, and the upper more properly Ariel. But since the text gives the Vid. R. Sol. ibid. name Ariel to all that part that was from the Roote of the hornes upward, we shall not much stick upon it. The word Harel, if you will construe it the Mountaine of the Lord, David Kimchi tels you that it is as much as to say The house of the Lord, and because [Page 203]they served other Gods in every place upon high hils, this which was the Hill of the Lord was but four cubits high: And if you will take the word Ariel, our Rabbins of happy memory, saith he, say the Altar was called Ariel (or the Lords Lion) because the holy fire that came downe from heaven couched on it like a Lion.

The word Ariel doth also signifie one exceeding strong, 2 Sam. 23.20. and so doth Arel, Esay 337. But take it whether way you will here, either for a strong thing or for the Lords Lion, the Altar was very properly so called, either because of the devou­ring of many sacrifices Lion-like, or because of the great strength and prevalency the people had by sacrifice, the Lord owning them wonderfully in that service, whilest gone about according to his will: or because of the strong Lion Christ, whom the Altar and Sacrifices did represent. Jerusalem, and especially Zion the City where David dwelt, is also called Ariel, the strong one, or the Lion of the Lord, because of its prevalency against all enemi [...]s whatsoever, whilest it continued to be the Lords, through the strength of those promises that were made unto it: but when it forsooke the Lord, and became prophane, it is threatned that it shall become as the other Ariel, or the Al­tar, where was continually aboundance of shedding of blood and slaughter, Esay 29.1, 2.

The very top of the Altar was four and twenty cubits square, and this was called [...] Maaracab, or the Hearth, where, as we observe elsewhere, there were three fires continually burning, but especially one very great one for the sacrifices. And thus was the bulke and platforme of the Altar; It was a large pile of 10 cubits high rising by degrees, so as that at the foot it was 32 cubits on every side of the square, but at the top came to be but four and twenty.

The rising thus, 1 The base one cubit rising, and then the square lessened a cubit. 2 The body of the Altar rising plaine 5 cubits, and then lessening one cubit in the square. 3 A cubit rising againe, and the square lessening a cubit, and at the bench where it narrowed there stood the four hornes out at the four corners. 4 A rising againe one cubit, and a narrowing one cubit, and there was the bench where the Priests stood to serve. 5 And then a rising two cubits, and there was the Hearth.

Thus stood the Altar, and thus stood the Priests upon the highest bench to serve, but how came they up thither? If they could have gone up the steps that we have mentioned, namely, where the square still descended, yet was it unlawfull, because of that command Exod. 20.26. But they could not goe up that way neither, for we have seene that between the first bench and the second there was five cubits rising, which is a measure farre beyond any mans stepping up: the way therefore for them to goe both to the top of the Altar, to their bench two cubits be­low the top, and to the other benches, as there was occasion, was thus provided.

Mid. per. 3. There was a gentle rising causey (for so let us call it, they called it [...] Chebbesh) on the South side of the Altar 16 cubits broad, that beganne 32 cubits from the Altar foot and rose easily to the head of it in a gentle ascent, made of the same materials that the Altar was, of which hereafter, so that this causey lay out from the Altar two and thirty cubits on the South side, leaving on either side it four cubits breadth, which it wanted of the breadth of the Altar.

Gloss. in Tamid. per. ult. Maym. in beth habbech. per. 2. On the West side of it there stood two tables, one of silver, on which they set and laid the vessels of the service: the other of marble which was called the Table of the fat, on which they laid the pieces of the Sacrifice when they were to bee brought up to the Altar. And there was also on Middoth ubi supra. the same side of it, and (as C. Lemp. in Mid. pag. 112. it is probably conjectured) made in the very side of the causey or rise it selfe, a place into which those birds that being presented to be offered, did prove unfit, were cast, till some convenient time to convey them away, this was called [...] Rebubah, for so we may conclude upon Aruch in [...] R. Nathans credit who so readeth, though others differ: [...] Maym. in beth habbech. per. 2. And there (saith the generall consent) they laid up the birds unmeet for offering. Tamid. per. 1. On the East side of it, was the place where they laid the guts and garbidge of the birds that were offered, and where he that cleansed the incense Altar poured downe the ashes he brought forth, and he that brought the first ashes from off the burnt offering Altar, did the like: But these things continued not long there after they were laid downe, but were speedily by some or other conveyed away: [Page 205] Tamid per. 7. By the marble Table, which was called the Table of the fat, the Priests stood when they sounded their trumpets at the time of divine service.

Talm. in Zevach. per. 6. The ordinary way of going up this rise or causey, or bridge, or call it what yee will, was on the right side of it, that is, on the East, and to come downe on the West, (onely upon three occasions mentioned in the place cited in the margine, he came downe the same way he went up, but backward,) and this helps us somewhat to understand a story (which we shall have occasion to looke after elsewhere,) related in Joma, Joma. per. 2. of two Priests going a strife who should first get up to cleanse the Altar of its ashes, (which was the first worke done in the morning) the one of them thrust the other off the bridge and broke his leg, because they went so neere the sides though they had roome enough to have gone up in the middle without danger, but the manner was not to goe up that way.

Maym. ubi supr. As a man went up, first there was a little causey on the East side, that brought him from the first beginning of this great causey to the foundation of the Altar if he had occasion to goe thither: And as he went up higher, when he was come as high as the circuit, there was another to carry him off thi­ther, if he had occasion to sprinkle bloud upon the hornes of the Altar: But above that I read not of any such come off, not that the Priests had not constant occasion to step off to the up­permost ledge or bench, for there they used to stand continu­ally when they were turning the pieces in the fire, or the like; but because by the time that the rise was come up thither, the step off was so easie, that a lesse matter then what deserved the name of [...] a bridge would serve the turne.

Thus was the forme of the Altar and the ascent to it: but I must mention here before I have done with the forme of it, somewhat that was visible upon it, that had some reference al­so to the forme of it, and that was, Middoth, per. 3. A red line that went round about it in the just middle betweene the bottome and the top, to be a direction to the Priests that they might sprinkle the blood above or be­neath (for sometime they did the one and sometime the other, as we shall shew when we treat concerning Sacrifice) as the occasi­on called upon them to doe, and not mistake. For whereas some [Page 206]blood was to be poured or sprinkled at the bottome of the Altar, and some upon the hornes of it, some below, some above, to make sure that either of these should keep its right place and not transgresse, they set this line to be a bound between them.

The materials and manner of working up this renowned pile, let the Reader take in the Talmuds and in Maymonide his owne words and expressions Maym. ubi supr. Talm. in Zevach. fol. 54. When they built the Altar (say they) they built it solid like a pillar and they made no hollow in it: but one brought whole great stones and little (for an iron tool might not be used upon them) and he brought morter and pitch and lead, and mixt all and poured all into the great base that he had laid accor­ding to his measure, and so he built on upwards: and he put in the middest of the building a piece of wood or of stone at the South east horne according to the measure of the foundation, and so he put in the midst of every one of the hornes till he had finished the building; then he tooke away those pieces that were in the midst of the building, and so the South east horne was left without a foundation and the rest of the hornes were left hollow.

Midd. per. 3. These stones that made the Altar and the rise to it are recorded to have been gotten in the valley of B [...]bbaccerem, a place mentioned in Neh. 3.14. & Jer. 6.1. and the same record tels us, That twice a year the Altar was whited, namely at the Passe­over and at the Feast of Tabernaeles: and the Temple whited once a yeare, namely, at the Passeover: Rabbi saith, on the Eve of every Sabbath they rubbed the Altar with a map because of the bloud; they might not plaster it with an iron Trowell, lest that touching should de­file it; for iron was made to shorten mans dayes, and the Altar was made for the prolonging mans life, and it is not fit that that which would shorten should bee lifted up upon that that would leng­then.

Thus was the fashion and proportion of the Altar the Lords Table, Mal. 1.7. the holinesse of it was such that it sanctified the gift. Mat. 23.19. that is, whatsoever came upon it, being fit to be offered [...] The Altar sanctified whatsoever was fit for it. It is a Talmudicke maxime in the Trea­tise Zevachin, the very beginning of the ninth chapter: And at the seventh Hala [...]h of the same chapter, they say, That as [Page 207]the Altar sanctified what was fit for it, so also did the rise of the Al­tar: and there they discourse at large what things if they were once brought to the top of the Altar might come downe and what might not, which we shall not insist upon.

Before we part from the Altar, we have yet one thing more to take into observation about it, and that is the base and wret­ched affront that ungodly Ahaz put upon it, in not only set­ting up another Altar by it, but also in removing the Lords Altar out of its place, and out of its honourable imployment to give place to his. The story is 2 King. 16. He sends the pat­terne of an Idolatrous Altar from Damascus, and Ʋriah the Priest maketh one according to that patterne: and when the King came home and saw the Altar, he offered upon it his burnt-offering, meat-offering, drinke-offering, &c. And hee brought also the brazen Altar which was before the Lord from the forefront of the house, from between the Altar and the house of the Lord, and put it on the North side of the Altar, vers. 14. Rabbi Solomon expounding this place, conceiveth that by the Altar of the Lord is not meant the Altar properly and indeed, but some appurtenances that related and belonged to the service of the Altar, and this conclusion he produceth from two or three tra­ditionall Premises: his words are these, This Altar that he re­moved cannot be the brazen Altar that Moses made, for that was laid up; and it cannot be the Altar of stone which Solomon made, which indeed is called the brazen Altar in the Booke of Chronicles, for that could not be removed from place to place, but by pulling downe: and behold we have a Tradition, that the fire that came downe from heaven in the dayes of Solomon, went not off the Altar till Manass [...]h came and caused it to goe off, for he pulled the Altar downe: So that I cannot interpret the Altar here but of the lavers and bases of brasse which served for the Altar, and stood beside it, them Ahaz removed, &c.

You need not marvaile if he goe alone in his opinion when you looke upon it, and how it is strained, and especially from this pinch, because though the Altar of Solomon is called brazen, yet he holds it to have been of stone, and overlaid: were it of brasse or were it of stone, Ahaz his modesty was not so much but that he would pull it downe to serve his turne as well as remove it. It appeareth by the Text alledged that Ʋriahs [Page 208]modesty was a little more then Ahaz had; for he had set his Altar behinde the Altar of the Lord, betwixt it and the East gate, so that the Lords Altar was betwixt that new-found one and the Temple (it seemeth the space at the entring in from the East gate, was more open in the times of the first Temple then it was in the second.) But when Ahaz comes, he removes Solomons Altar towards the North, and brings up his own and sets it in the place of it, and so does as it were supplant the Lord of his possession and usurpe upon it, putting the Lords Altar out of use as well as out of its place, and giving his owne the greatnesse because it was the greater, in the imployment for all the Sacrifices that were to be offered, both ordinary and extraordinary, both of the King and People: while the Altar of the Lord must stand by as a cypher, onely with this dignity, which was lesse then none at all, The brazen Altar shall be for me to seeke to when I thinke good. As for the departure of the divine fire from off the Altar, which had come downe in the daies of Solomon, of which our Rabbin speaketh, it is not unworthy some of the Readers thoughts: For the Temple was so oft prophaned, yea and sometimes shut up, before the captivity in­to Babel, as 2 Chron. 24.7. & 28.24. &c. that it is hardly to be imagined, but that the fire which had been continued from the descent of that divine fire, was at some of these times or other extinguished. And then quaere how Hezekiah and Josiah in their reformation did for fire againe upon the Altar.

CHAP. XXXV. The Contents of the Court betwixt the Altar and the North side of it; and betwixt the Altar and the South side.

THe most ordinary and universall slaughter of the Sacrifices was on the North side of the Altar, and so is it declared at large in the Treatise Talm. in Zevach. per. 5. Zeva­chin through the fifth chapter, of which we have had occasion to speak before; The most holy offerings (say they) are slaine on the North side, the bullocke and the goat of the day of Exptation, their slaughter was on the North, and the takeing of their bloud in a vessell of the service, was an thy North: The bullockes that were to be burnt, and the goats that were to be burnt, were slaine on the North, and their bloud to be taken on the North: The goats of the beginning of the months and of the so­lemne Feasts were slaine on the North, and their bloud taken on the North: The whole-burnt-offering most holy was slaine on the North, the peace-offerings of the Congregation and trespasse-offerings, were slaine on the North, &c. and generally the greatest number of Sacrifices were slaine on that side the Altar: On that side of the Altar therefore were necessaries and accommodations for that purpose and convenience, and those were especially these three, the place of the rings, the tables, and the bookes in the pillars.

[...] Mid. per. 5. Eight cubits from the Altar Northward was the place of the rings, and that place was four and twenty cubits over towards the North still. [...] Ibid. per. 3. Now th [...]ings were in six rowes, four in a row: but some say they were four rowes, and six in a row, and there they slew the Sacrifices. These rings or staples rather, were fixed downe in the stones of the pavement, and either a bending hooke was fastned to these staples, that they might bring the necke of the beast under and hold him fast, or they drew down the necks of the beasts to be slaine with cords to these staples and there fastned them, and so they had them at command to [Page 201]slay them with facility, It is not much to be controverted whether there were six rowes of these rings, foure in a row, or foure rowes with six rings in a row; this doth not much break the square, since the same number of rings and the same compasse of ground remaineth still.

Here was the place where they tyed the sacrifices till they were killed and where they killed them: and this place is com­monly called [...] The place of the slaughter: and to these rings they lyed the sacrifice with cordes, till they were to offer him, and to sprinkle his blood on the bornes of the Altar as the Chal­dee Paraphrast renders the 27. verse of the hundred and eigh­teenth Psalme.

Now although the command was strict and expresse that such and such sacrifices should be slaine on the North side of the Altar, Lev. 1.10, 11, &c. that is in propriety, just betweene the Altar and North wall of the Court: yet where there were many such sacrifices to be slaine at once, so that this place of the rings was not able to containe them, then they killed them higher up in the Court, namely in that space that was between the Altar and the porch, but on the North side of it, as neere as might be in the place parallel to this place of the rings. This matter is handled and decided in Tosaphta on the treatise Corbo­noth in these words Tosaphta. in Corbanoth per. 6. Which is the North side of the Altar, where it was fit to kill the most boly sacrifices? It was from the North side of the Altar, to the North side of the Court even just over against the Altar which was 30 cubits breadth. The words of Rabbi Meir: Rabbi Eliezer from Rabbi Simeon addeth the space from the Altar to the porch, even to over against the closets of the Butchering knives, which was 22 cubits. But Ribbi addeth the place where the feet of the Israe­lites trod, which was eleven cubits broad, and 187 cubits long: and the place where the feet of the Priests trod which was eleven cubits broad, and 187 cubits long: [...] From the side of the North wall, to the East wall of the Court: That is, along the North wall, from the West end of the Court to the East, for so both the measure of 187 cubits which was the just length of the Court confirmeth, and the same au­thor in the next following chapter doth also illustrate in these words Ibie. per. 7. Rabbi Josi saith, all the Altar may be understood for [Page 211]Northward: As it is said, and he shall kill it on the side of the Altar, Northward before the Lord. Rabbi Josi from Rabbi Judah saith, From the midst of the Altar Northward was as the North, and from the midst of the Altar the other way was as the South: And so Rabbi lost from Rabbi Ludah saith also: There were two wickets in the house of the but chering knives opening toward the West, and eight cubits from the ground, so that the Court might be sit for eating of the most ho­ly things, and for the killing of the lesser holy sacrifices, even behind the oracle. From both which allegations taken up together, we may observe, 1. That the Israelites had a standing on the North side of the Court as well as on the East, which though it was not nor indeed could be exactly eleven cubits broad as was their station at the East end, yet was it a station for them as well as that: And our author when he speaketh of the place where the feate of the Israelites trod, of eleven cubits broad, and of the place where the feete of the Priests trod of eleven cubits broad: he meaneth not that there was such a space for the Israelites and the Priests to stand in all along the North side of the Court as there was in the East, but his meaning is this, that when the sacrifices to be slaine on the North side of the Altar were ex­ceeding many indeed, that rather then want roome to kill them, they should not onely slay them in the place of the rings, but even in the standing of the Priests and Israelites at the East end, namely so farre on that ground, as lay even with that space that was on the North side of the Altar: and so might they use the like space all along the North side of the Court for the same purpose even to beyond the West end of the Temple. 2. That the house of the butchering knives, called [...] was in that end of the porch that pointed North­ward, and that the doores thereof were behind the porch West­ward, even where the wing of the porch stood out more Nor­therly then the breadth of the Temple and extended: and there the going up to these doores was by steps even eight cubits high: and the reason why the doores were there, rather then in the front or the end of the Porch, was because the passage to them there, tooke up the least roome, and was the least hin­drance in the Court.

[...] Midd. per. 5. Foure [Page 212]cubits from the North side of this place of the rings there stood marble tables upon which they washed the inwards of the sacrifice, and cut it up into pieces: and foure cubits further North, there were the pillars on which they hung up the sacri­fice upon hookes that so they might flea it: These pillars the Jewes call [...] which Aruch in [...] Aruch interprets [...] pillars low or shorty (it may seeme the word is taken from the latine Nanus, Parah. per. 2. and so the treatise Parah, speaketh of a red cow [...] low and small, Nana & minuta:) Now these pillars were not those that supported the cloister on this North side of the Court, but low pillars set by these or joyning to them, Mid. per. 3. Tamid. per. 3. Pesachin per. 5. eight in number, over the heads of which were said tran­some beames of cedar, and hookes of iron fastned both in these beames and in the pillars, on which hookes they hanged up the beast slaine for sacrifice, that they might the better come at him to flea him; The pillars had every one of them three hookes in them, one above another, that they might be fit for beasts of severall hignesses and cizes. And before these pillars, or rather, before the space that was between the pillars (so that one might easily passe betweene) stood the marble tables, on which, after that they had given the entrailes of the beasts their first washing in the washing roome mentioned before, they washt and drest them a second time and made them fit and faire for the Altar, and on which after they had fleaed the beast as he hanged upon the hookes, they cut him in pieces according as he was to be cut and divided for his laying on the Altar to be offered up.

From these low pillars to the North wall of the Court were eight cubits, and this was the place and space for Israels standing on this side the Court: for though these pillars spoken of did not beare up the cloister under which the people stood, yet did they stand so even or close to those pillars that did, that from these pillars we may, and the Jewes doe count and measure the space of the Israelits station on this side, and it was three cubits narrower then, their standing at the East end. Thus was the space taken up that was between the Altar and the North side of the Court, now let us come to view the space on the other side of the Altar toward the South: Where first the [...] Causey [Page 213]or Rise that went up to the Altar took up two and thirty cu­bits: even just as much space on this side, as there was betwixt the Altar and the further side of the place of the rings on the other. But here a question may not improperly be moved out of the Arithmetick of the Talmudicks about the measure of the Altar, and the rise of it, which they hold out: for they say expressely that Mid. per. 3. the Altar was two and thirty cubits square, and that Ibid. the rise on the South side was two and thir­ty cubits long, and yet summing up both together, they say that Ibid. per. 5. the Altar and the rise were but sixty two cubits: whereas according to the two particulars named they should be sixty foure: But the reason of the account is from this, either because they reckon the length of the causey or rise, not from the outside of the foundation of the Altar, but from the narrowing of the Altar above the Circuit; for thither did the Causey bring them and land them there, as the ordinary place of their service, when they went to besprinkle the hornes of the Altar with the blood of the sacrifices: or else because they reckon not the two first cubits of the rise or the very entrance upon it, it being so flat and neare to the ground, as that there was so much of the rise gone, before there was any stepping off to the bridge that went to the foundation of the Altar: And yet though they doe sometime account thus of the Altar and the rise that they tooke up but 62 cubits, yet in distributing the 137 cubits of the Courts breadth into particular spaces they then allow, as they cannot doe otherwise, 32 cubits to the Altar, and as many to the rise: for the particulars are thus: (that we may sum them againe.)

Now these five and twenty cubits which were betweene the [Page 214]foot of the rise and the South-wall, is given account of by the treatise Middoth in these words: [...] And the residue of space which was between the rise and the wall, was also a place of low pillars.

These were some sacrifices slaine on the South side of the Altar as well as these that have been mentioned were on the North: There were sacrifices which were called [...] The holy of holies or the most holy sacrifices, and those were the burnt-offering, sin-offering and trespasse-offering and others reckoned before, and these were undispensably tied to be slaine on the North side of the Altar, or at least on the North side of the Court as hath been spoken: And there were offe­rings which were called [...] The lesser holy things, and these might be slaine in any part of the Court and were not bound to that side: as [...] Zevachin. per. 5. Thanksgiving-offerings and the Nazarites ramme which were les­ser holy offerings, were slaine in any place of the Court: Peace-offerings which were of the lesser holy things, were also slaine in any part of the Court, and so were the firstlings, the tenthes and the Passeover, which were also reckoned as lesser holy things. Now although they speak of any part of the Court, as permitted to slay the sacrifices in, yet most especially have they reference to the South side of the Altar in opposition to the North, and the South side un­derstood in that latitude, as the North side was when extremi­ty and multitude of sacrifices put them to it: For when the sacrifices were no more then what could be killed within the very compasse between the North side of the Altar and the North wall of the Court, they were slaine there, but when nu­merousnesse of sacrifices urged Ibid. per. 6. all the North side of the Court from East to West ends, and as far South as to the mid­dle of the Altar, was used to slay the beasts in, and all that, was accounted as the North: So on the South side of the Altar, there were marble tables and low pillars for the very same use that there were on the other side of the Altar, namely for the fleaing and cutting up and washing the intrulls of the sacrifices, but when greater store came then that very space just between the Altar and the South wall would containe, then all the South side of the Court [Page 215]was permitted for that use, even as farre as the middle of the Altar betwixt North and South.

The five and twenty cubits space therefore that wee are to give account of betweene the South wall of the Court, and the foot of the rise of the Altar, were thus parcel­led. 1. There were eight cubits from the Court wall to the pillars, as there were on the North side, and this was the breadth of the Cloister, and the standing of Is­rael on that side the Court. 2. The disposall of the Ta­bles as on the other side before the pillars tooke up foure cubits. 3. And then the thirteene cubits betweene these and the foot of the Altar rise, was partly (as is probable) taken up with some rings as on the North side though not so many (for they needed not) and partly with some plaine pavement next to the rise, that the Priests might have accesse to it the better.

CHAP. XXXVI. The space betwixt the Altar and the Porch.

THe Altar stood before the gate or entrance of the Porch, that gave accesse into the Temple, and the space between the foundation of the Altar and the foundation of the Porch Mid. per. 3. was two and twenty cubits: But there was not so much cleare ground or plaine pavement and passage betweene them, for the staires of the Porch being in number twelve and every step a cubit broad besides the halfe pace or inlarging at every third step, caused that these steps lay downe a great way in the Court towards the Altar: and took up a good space of these two and twenty cubits. Every one of these steps was halfe a cubit high, and thereupon the whole rise ariseth to be six cubits from the ground to the landing in [Page 216]the porch, so that he that stood in the Porch gate, his feet stood even and levell, with his feet that stood upon the Circuit of the Altar: Tamid. per. 7. Upon these steps of the Porch the Priests stood when they came out from burning incense and blessed the peo­ple.

As concerning the space betwixt the Porch and Altar, these things are remarkable about it.

1. Kelim. per. 1. That no man might come upon this space that had any ble­mish upon him, nor any man might come here bare headed. the rea­son of the former restraint is easie to be apprehended, because of the holinesse of the place, being so near both to the Altar and the Temple: and the reason of the latter is, because in their greatest devotions they used to cover their head, and therefore none might come bare headed into so dovout a place.

2. That no man might stand upon this space, or stay within it, while the Priest was burning incense in the holy place. Maym. in Tamid. in per. 3. For whilest they burned incense in the Temple every day, all the people departed from the Temple, so that betweene the Temple and the Altar there was not a man till he that burned incense came forth. And so at the time that the High-priest went in with the blood of the sin-offering, which was to be sprinkled within, all the people withdrew from between the Altar and the Temple, till he came forth againe: And because they might know the time when to withdraw from this space at the daily incense, the Sagan or President of the ser­vice called to the Priest that was within the holy place with a loud voice and gave him notice when he should begin with the incense, saying to him, Offer the intense, and as he spake thus, the people withdrew: The reason of this custome I shall not be curious to looke after, but whether the Cerimony did not fitly resemble, how far distant all men are from having any share with Christ in his intercession, which the offering of the incense resembled, be it left to the reader to consider.

3. In this space between the Temple and the Altar, was the murder committed upon Zacharias the son of Barachias, as our Saviour mentioneth, Mat. 23, [...]5.

Now there are various conjectures who this Zachary should be: some thinke of Zachary the prophet whose booke of pro­phecy we have in the old Testament. Some suppose it might [Page 217]be John Baptists father, and some conceive that Christ speaketh there predictively, foretelling that they should slay Zachary the son of Baru [...]h in the Temple, the story of which Josephus giveth in lib. 4. de bel. cap. 19. But the Talmudists doe help us to under­stand it of Zacharie the son of Jehoiada, who was stoned by the people in this place in the daies of King Joash, 2 Chron. 24. Why he is called the son of Barachias and not the son of Jehoiada is not a place here to dispute: the Jerusalem Talmud hath this story concerning his slaughter, which may give us cause to thinke, that our Saviour spake according to the common re­ceived opinion: and was understood to meane Zachary the son of Jehoiada, though for speciall reason he calleth him the son of Barachias Talm. Je­rus. in Taanith. fol. 69. Rab. Jorhanan saith, eighty thousand young Priests were slaine for Zacharies blood. R. Jodan asked R. Aha, where slew they Zacharias? In the Court of the women, or in the Court of Israel? He saith to him, not in the Court of Israel, nor in the Court of the women, but in the Court of the Priests, &c. And seven transgressions did Is­rael transgresse that day: They slew a Priest, a Prophet, a Judge, shed innocent blood and defiled the Court, and the Sabbath, which was also the day of expiation. And when Nebuzaradan came thither he saw the blood bubling. He saith to them, what meaneth this? They said to him, it is the blood of bullocks and rams and lambs which we have offe­red upon the Altar. Presently he brought bullocks and rams and lambs and killed them, and as yet the blood bubled or reeked above theirs. And when they confessed not, he hanged them up. They said, the Lord is plea­sed to require his blood at our hands. They say to him, it is the blood of a Priest and Prophet and Judge, who prophecied to us concerning all that thou hast done to us, and we stood up against him and slew him. Pre­sently he brought eighty thousand young Priests and slew them: And still the blood bubled: Then he was angry at it: and said to it, what wouldest thou have? that all the people should perish for thee? Presently the holy blessed God was filled with compassion and said: what? is this m [...]n that is but flesh and blood, filled with pity towards my chil­dren, and shall not I be much more? of whom it is written For the Lord thy God is a mercifull God, he will not forsake thee nor destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers: Presently he gave a signe to the blood and it was swallowed up in the place. R. Jochanan saith the 80000. young Priests fled to the midst of the chambers of the Sanctuary, and [Page 218]they were at burnt, and of all them, none was left but Joshua the son of Jozedeck, as it is written, It not this a brand pluckt out of the fire? Zech. 3.2.

In this space between the Altar and the Porch, there stood the Laver, but not directly before the Altar, but removed to­wards the South, so that it stood betwixt the rise of the Altar and the porch, as we shall observe in the viewing of it by and by. But the Talmud speaketh of a Vessel, which by its relation appeareth to have layn directly betwixt Porch and Altar, which it calleth Migrephah, but what to english it, is not very ready.

The Treatise Tamid speaketh thus of it, Tamid. per. 5. They (that were to goe into the Temple to burne incense, and to dresse the lamps) came between the Porch and the Altar, one of them taketh the Migrephah and rings it between the Porch and the Altar; one man could not heare another speake in Jerusalem, because of the sound of the Migrephah. It served for three things: The Priest that heard the sound of it knew that his brethren the Priests were gone in to wor­ship, and he ran and came. A Levite that heard the sound of it, knew that his brethren the Levites were gone in to sing, and he ranne and came. And the chiefe of the stationary men brought them that had been uncleane and set them in the gate of Nicanor. Now what kinde of thing this Migrephah was, I finde but little light towards an exact resolution. Gloss. in Mishnaioth ibi. Some say it was a great vessell which they rung to make a sound, but of what fashion, and whether for any other use also, they leave uncertain.

The Chaldee renders [...] by [...] in Exod. 38.3. &c. which seemeth to be the same word with this that wee are about, and so he understands it to meane some of the fire-shovels that belonged to the Altar, which being either rung up­on, or shoved upon the pavement, would make a loud noise being of brasse, and very big.

The Jewes upon the sound of this and divers other things at the Temple do hyperbolize thus, Tamid. per. 3. Even from Jericho they heard the noise of the great gate of the Temple when it opened. From Jericho they heard the ringing of the Migrephab. From Jericho they heard the noise of the Engine that Ben K [...]ttin made for the Laver. From Jericho they heard the voice of the cryer that called them to their services. From Jericho they heard the sound of the pipe. From Jericho they [Page 219]heard the sound of the Cymbal. From Jericho they heard the sound of the song. From Jericho they heard the sound of the Trumpets. And some say also, the voice of the High priest when he uttered the name Jehovah on the day of expiation, &c. The truth of which things is not to be pleaded, seeing it is apparent that they are uttered by way of hyperbole, onely it may not be improper to observe how com­mon the phrase was, From Jerusalem to Jericho, which is also used in Luke 10.30.

CHAP. XXXVII. Concerning the Vessells and Utensills of the Temple.

CHAP. XXXVIII. The Embleme of the Divine Glory at Temple. Ezek. 1. Esay 6. Rev. 4. &c. Explained.

THe Prophet Ezekiel saw the visionary Glory that he hath described, chap. 1. and chap. 10. foure times over. 1 At the River Chebar among the captives of his owne captivity, chap. 1.1. that is, that cap­tivity which was carryed away with Jechoniah, for then was he himselfe captived. 2 In a plaine among the cap­tives of the other captivity, that is, Jehoiakims, Dan. 1. who dwelt indeed upon the coasts of the same River, but at some distance from the other, chap. 3.15, 20, 23. 3 In the Temple, chap. 8.4. And 4 at the renewed Temple againe, chap. 43.2, 3.

The vision and glory that he saw, was thus;

Ezek. 1. vers. 4. Behold a whirle-winde out of the North, &c.) Out of the North appeared a stormy cloud, with fire wrapped in it, which flamed into a brightnesse all about, and in the middle of all was as a glowing fire. For out of the North, namely, from Babel, was a storme to rise and fire to come, that was to destroy both City and Temple, and that should cause the glory of the Lord which dwelt there, to come out thence as out of burning, as this glory that he saw which represented that, came out of this fire.

Verse 5. Foure living creatures, and this was their appearance, they had the likenesse of a man.) That is, in stature and proporti­on of body, thighs, and legs, they had the likenesse and erect shape of a man; only their head and feet and some particulars els were different, of which he giveth account in the following verses.

Verse 6. But every one had four faces, &c.) I render the con­junction [...] But; because (the Particle bearing it) it being so translated, giveth the clearer and the readier sense. They had [Page 243]the likenesse of a man, But every one had four faces.

And in verse 7. The same particle [...] in [...] being translated exegetically, For, doth also cleare the sense, Their feet were straight feet, for the sole of their feet was as the sole of a calfes feet.

And they sparkled, &c.) that is, their feet sparkled like bur­nished brasse, for the brightnesse of their bodies is described at verse 13.

Verse 8. And the hands of a man were under their wings on their four sides; so had they four their faces and their wings.) That is, they had their faces and their wings on their four sides: namely, a wing on their breast and a face that way, a wing on the backe and a face that way, and a wing on either shoulder and faces likewise, and under their wings every way was a mans hand and arme.

Verse 9. Their wings were joining one to another.) This is ex­plained at vers. 11.

They turned not about when they went, they went every one straight before his face) Which way soever they were to goe, they needed not to turne their bodies, to set their face that way as men and other creatures do; who when they are to goe this way or that way, they turne their bodies till their faces stand the way they are to goe: but these did not, nor needed they to doe so; for goe which way they would, they had a face that led them that way.

Verse 10. As for the likenesse of their faces &c.) Every one had the face of a Man before, and the face of an Eagle behinde, the face of a Lion towards the right hand, and the face of a Bullock towards the left.

It is not much important to dispute, whether they had foure heads as well as faces, or only one head faced on every side; I should rather hold for the former, and could give some rea­sons that sway me to that opinion, but I shall not insist upon them here.

Some there have been that have conceived that the quarters of their faces are named in reference to their standing towards Ezekiel, as that the face towards Ezekiel was a mans, the face which was upon Ezekiels right hand (which was the left hand [Page 244]of the Cherub) was a Lions; the face on Ezekiels left hand (which was the Cherubs right) the face of a Bullock; and the face of an Eagle behinde: but they that have been of that opi­nion have not observed, that the foure living creatures stood not in a straight line all facing Ezekiel, but in a square posture, as shall be shewed by and by.

These living Creatures are called Cherubins by this Pro­phet very often, chap. 10. and by that name, laid to this de­scription, he teacheth us how to conceive of the forme of the Cherubins that we read of so oft in Scripture, as the Cherubins upon the Mercy seat, and the Cherubins that overshadowed the Arke in Solomons Temple, and the Cherubins wrought in the Tabernacle Curtaines, and carved upon the Temple wals, &c. namely, of this four-fold feature or having so many faces; saving that in the imbroidery of the Curtaines and sculpture upon the wals, only two of the four faces could be made to ap­peare. And so it is evident in Ezek. 41.19. where he saith there were Cherubins and Palm trees carved upon the walls, so that a Palm tree was between a Cherub and a Cherub, and every Che­rub bad two faces: so that the face of a man was towards the Palme tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion was towards the Palme tree on the other side. Their other two faces were to be conceived obscured in the wall as if they were looking into it. But it may not passe unobserved that these two faces of a man and a lion, were not the cherubs opposite faces, that is, that before and that behinde, but they were his face before and his face on the right side: and hence I have one reason to conjecture that they had foure heads as well as foure faces, because it will otherwise be very harsh to imagine how his fore-face and right side-face should be set to looke before and behinde. Now these two faces of a Man and a Lion were the faces that the Cherub that stood upon the right hand of the Arke as it stood facing the people, looked upon the Arke and the people with­all, his humane face toward the Arke, his Lions towards the people: And we shall observe afterward how those whom the Cherubins represented, had in office to looke mutually towards God and his people, and were Mediators between them.

The Prophet in chap. 10. vers. 14. reckoning the four faces of [Page 245]these Cherubins againe, begins with the face of a bullock first, which was a left hand face, and instead of the face of a bullocke, he cals it the face of a Cherub: was not the face of a Lion or Ea­gle the face of a Cherub, as well as the face of a Bullocke? It seemeth strange therefore that he should call the Bullocks face, the face of a Cherub rather then any other: But the reason seem­eth to be taken from this consideration: The High-priest when he went into the most holy place up to the Arke, the Cherub that stood by the Arke upon his right hand, whither he was more ready to looke then on his left, stood facing him with the face of a Bullocke. Now the Prophet in this place is speaking of Gods glory flitting from the Temple, where it dwelt especially on the Arke between the Cherubins, and as if he looked at that right hand Cherub, which was now flitting from his station and removing, so he nameth that face that looked upon him: and he calleth the face of a bullocke, the face of a Cherub, because that was the face of the Cherub that was most looked on and observed by him that went into the most holy place.

Verse 11. Thus were their faces [...] and their wings were parted up­ward,) Though their wings joined one to another at the set­ting on, yet they opened and parted upward, as also do the wings of other flying fowls: who though they grow neere together at the rootes, yet they spread and part wider and wi­der toward the points: And the like in some parity may be conceived concerning the parting of their faces, that they grew upon one root as if were but parted upward, into so many heads: and so the construction of the verse seemeth to carry it [...], where the Particle in the beginning of the verse is not ordinary, and requireth observation: It may very well be rendred, Bvth their faces and their wings were par­ted upward.

Two wings of every one were joyned one to another, and two covered their bodies, &c.) The description of the living creatures in Esay 6. and the parallel to them and these in Rev. 4. must help us to interpret this eleventh verse, about their wings. The Apo­calyptick cals them living Creatures, and numbreth them foure, and nameth their four faces punctually as this Prophet doth, [Page 246]but reckoneth their wings to be six ape [...]ce, Rev. 4.8. Esay na­meth indeed the living Creatures that he saw by another name then either John or Ezekiel do, yet he meaneth the very same, both for number and forme, for he saw the very same glory of God that these describe, that is, Gods glory at the Temple, as the very first verse of that chapter doth explaine it: And in this sense is the word His glory to be understood, Job. 12.41. Hee saw foure living Creatures, with four faces, and in all things like to these described here, as to their forme and proportion, and he saith every one of them had six wings, Esay 6.2.

The Prophet Ezekiel saith no lesse as to that matter, al­though he speak it not so very plainly out: for laying verse 11. and verse 23. together, we shall finde the account of their wings to be to this purpose, and the same number. They had wings that were parted above: these were the two wherewithall they flew: And they had other two which joined one to another, over their heads, these are parallel to those wherewithall Esay saith they covered their faces: and they had two wherewithall they covered their bodies: those are they that he saith covered their feet: Thus is the eleventh verse to be understood: which the 24 speaketh parallel to, and something explaineth. It is said there, that under the firmament (which was over their heads) their wings were straight one towards another: and they had two wings which covered on this side, and two wings which covered on that side: and the meaning thereof is this, that they alwayes carryed two of their wings straight upright, joining together over their heads, and when they stood still they covered their bodies with four wings, two on back and belly, and two on either side: Whereas it is said in verse 24. that when they stood they let downe their wings, it is to be understood onely of those two wings wherewithall they flew, for they had every one of them two wings that they never let downe, and they were those wherewithall they covered their faces; and they had two o­ther which they never lift up, and they were those wherewith­all they covered their back and belly, or secret parts before and behinde. For that expression of Esay, They covered their feet, meaneth, they covered their secret parts: for in that sense is feet sometime taken in Scripture, as The baire of the feet, Esay 7.20.

And thus are we to reconcile those two verses in this first chapter of Ezekiel, which seem to be dissonant, the one where­of, namely, verse 11. saith that with two of their wings they covered their bodies; and the other, which is verse 23. speakes of four that covered their bodies; which mean distinctly thus, that two of their wings continually covered their secret parts before and behinde, and they never lifted them up; and when they stood still, they let downe their wings wherewith they flew, and with them covered their sides. And so it appeareth that their two flying wings grew out at their shoulders, and the wings wherewith they covered their faces, grew out at their breast and backe, and those grew out below them that covered their secret parts.

Verse 12. And they went every one before his face whithersoever their minde was to goe, &c.) Went they backward, forward, side-way, any way, they had every one a face to goe that way, and needed no turning about to set their faces that way they would goe.

Verse 13. Their appearance was like burning coales of fire, &c.) Hence Esay calleth them Seraphim, or burning ones; and that the rather, because fire is there threatned to the Temple.

It went between the living Creatures, &c.) It, that is, fire: Every one of the living Creatures was of a glowing and flaming brightnesse, glowing like coals of burning fire, and flaming like Lamps, and yet besides this firinesse that they carryed every one with them, there was fire also in the midst of them, of a great brightnesse and flashing as lightning: So in Rev 4.5. Out of the Throne went lightnings and thunders and voices.

Thus was the appearance of these Cherubims, one thing more being added out of Ezek. 10.12. That their whole body and their backs and their hands and their wings were full of eyes: The like is said Rev. 4.6. Now their posture or manner of standing was such, that standing still or moving, they were in a square forme, as if four men should stand so, as to make a square space or a quadrangle in the middest between them: Their quadran­gular standing, was (as I may so expresse it) lozenge-wise, or after the Diamond square, one looking toward the South with his humane face, and another with his humane face towards [Page 248]the North, a third with the same face toward the East, and the fourth with the same towards the West. Thus they stood when they stood, and in this quadrature they moved when they moved: and to this sense is that passage to be understood in chap. 10.6, 7. where it is said that fire was between the Cheru­bims, and one of them raught fire from between them, that is, out of the square space that was in the middest of them as they stood. And so is Ezek. 1.15. which is the next verse that comes to be explained, to be understood.

Verse 15. And behold a wheele on the earth by the living Creatures [...] on his foure faces,) That is, on the four sides or faces of the square body as it stood; namely, a wheele before every one of the living creatures on the out-side of the square: A wheele before him that stood with his humane face looking East, and a wheele before him that stood with his humane face looking West, and so before them that stood looking North and South: Or if you will apprehend this whole body as it stood in its square, in the forme of any of the living Creatures as he was single, do but conceive that one stood looking East with his face of a Man, and another West with his face of an Eagle, another looking South with his face of a Lion, and the fourth looking North with his face of a Bullocke; and so you have the four severall faces on the out-side of the square, and the four severall faces on the inside of it, and the four wheeles standing before the out-side staves.

Verse 16. As it were a wheele within a wheele,) The fashion of every wheele was so, as it were one wheele put crosse within another, so that they could runne upon either of these crossing rings as there was occasion: were they to goe Eastward, they ran upon the one ring, but were they suddainly to turn South, then they ran upon the crosse ring: And so as the living Crea­tures had faces to lead them any way, so had these wheels rings or rims to go on any way: And this is meant in verse 17. when it said, they went upon their foure sides, and turned not when they went: Not but that they turned about as wheeles doe when they goe, but when they were to change their way, as to goe from East to South or North, or from West to either of these quarters, they needed not to fetch a compasse and wind about [Page 249]to set themselves to goe that way, but they readily turned upon the crossing ring and needed no more adoe.

And thus did the living Creatures stand in one square, and the wheeles in another square about them: And let us take a patterne of their motion, supposing the living Creatures to stand with their humane faces looking severally to the foure quarters of heaven. Were they to move East, he that stood East his humane face led him, and his wheele ran before him; He that stood West, his Eagles face led him, and his wheel follow­ed him; He that stood South, his face of a Bullocke led him; and he that stood North, his Lions face led him, and their wheels ran beside them: Were they to turne suddainly South? he that stood South, his humane face led him, he that stood North, his Eagles, he on the East his Lions, and he on the North his Bullocks, and now the wheels ran upon the other ring.

Verse 18. Thus were their rings,) That is, one crosse within another: And they were high, and they were reverent,) [...] It were an easie sense, if the clause were translated, And they were dreadfull, that is, wheeles had their dreadfulnesse as well as the living Creatures: But since the word [...] doth most properly and most generally signifie, the inward affection of feare or reverence, it seemeth in this place to meane the reve­rentiall and attendent posture in which the wheeles stood, rea­dy to move or stand according to the motion or standing of the living Creatures, and both they and the living Creatures observant of that presence and glory, upon which they waited: Had it been [...] it might very well have carryed it into that construction, but being [...] it may the bet­ter countenance this that is produced, and R. Solomon speaketh of some that did so interpret it.

Such was the fashion of this divine chariot, of living creatures and wheeles, the creatures drawing as it were and acting the wheels, whithersoever they moved, and the wheels moving or standing together with them in all voluntarinesse and com­pliance: Now the Lords riding upon this glorious carriage, is described in the verses following; An azure skie just over their heads, borne up as it were with the points of their wings [Page 250]which they held upright over their heads covering their faces with them: Above that skie a Throne, on which sate the re­semblance of a man all fiery; from his loines upward like fire glowing, and from his loines downward like fire flaming: and a brightness in the form of a rain-bow round about him Com­pare Rev. 4.2.3.

And now to take up the morall or signification of this Em­bleme, we will first begin with the consideration of the generall intention of it, and then descend to the application of par­ticulars.

That it intends in generall to signifie and character out unto us, the Lords glory and presence dwelling at his Temple, and among his people, these observations will make it past doubt­ing or peradventure.

1 The Temple is very commonly in Scripture styled by the name of Gods Throne, as Jer. 17.12. A glorious high Throne from the beginning is the place of our Sanctuary, Ezek. 43.7. The place of my Throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel, &c. Which the Lord proclaimeth when his glory was returned to the renewed Temple, as is apparent in the verses immediately preceding. And so the Prophet Esay saith, I saw the Lord sitting upon a Throne high, and lifted up, and his Traine filled the Temple, &c. And the house was filled with smoake, &c. Esay 6.1, 4. Where he chara­ctereth the Lords sitting parallel to his dwelling in the cloud of glory upon the Arke, and from thence filling the whole house with the traine of his glory. And so in the booke of the Re­velation, where the Lord is inthroned, with such living Crea­tures attending him as are described here, there are so plaine intimations, that it meaneth his glory at his Temple, that no­thing can be plainer: for when there is mention of a Sea of Glasse before the Throne, and of seven Lamps, Rev. 4. v. 5, 6. and of a golden Altar of incense, chap. 8.3. and of a voice from that Altar, chap. 9.13. &c. the allusion is so cleare to the molten Sea, seven Lamps of the golden Candlestick, the Altar of in­cense, and the Oracle given from beyond it, which all were be­fore the Arke where the Lords glory dwelt in the cloud, that the matter needeth no more proofe then only to observe this: [Page 251]And that the throne and glory of God throughout all that description meaneth in this sense, there is evidence enough in that one clause in chap. 16. v. 17. a voice came out of the Temple of heaven from the Throne.

2 Ezekiel himselfe sheweth that this glory referred to the Temple, because he hath shewed it pitched there, flitting thence and returning thither againe. 1 He saith, that the glory of the God of Israel was at the Temple, namely, that that he had seene and described in the first chapter, chap. 8.4. though he be there in numbring up the abominations that were committed in the Temple, which were great and many, yet doth he relate that this glory was there still, because the Lord had not yet withdrawne his presence thence. But 2 At the last the provo­cations in that place do cause it to depart; and that departure he describeth in the tenth chapter, and there he setteth forth the very same glory, and almost in the very same termes that he doth in the first chapter. He telleth that this glory of the Lord departed from off the Cherub, that is, from off the Mercy seat, where it had alwayes dwelt between the Cherubims, and went out, first to the threshold, vers. 4. then to the East gate, vers. 19. then to the City and to the Mount Olivet and so departs, chap. 11.23. But 3 When he speaketh of and describeth a new Temple, then he sheweth his glory returned thither againe, chap. 43.2, 3, 4. And upon these three particulars of its pitch­ing at the Temple, flitting thence and returning thither again, we may take up these observations for the further clearing of this signification.

1 That the Prophet maketh some distinction betwixt the glory of the Lord dwelling upon the Cherub, that is, on the Mercy seat, over the Arke, and the glory of the Lord upon these Cherubims: for he saith the glory of the Lord went up from the Cherub, and stood ever the threshold of the house, these Cherubims then standing on the right side of the house, chap. 10.3, 4. and then that the glory of the Lord departed from off the thre­shold of the house, and stood over the Cherubims, vers. 18. The glory of the Lord in the representation that the Prophet describeth in the first chapter was upon the Cherubims already, for he saith the glory of the God of Israel was there according [Page 252]to the vision that I saw in the plaine, chap. 8.4. and yet he men­tioneth another glory now added to it: namely, the cloud of glory that dwelt upon the Mercy seat, for he saith that upon the flitting of that glory from off the Cherub to the threshold, the house was filled with the cloud; the meaning of this we shall looke at afterward.

2 As to the flitting of this glory from the Temple, the Prophet saith he saw it when he came to destroy the City, chap. 43.3. that is, when he came to foretell that the City should be destroyed. And he dated the time of his first seeing of this glory, in the fifth yeare of the captivity of Jehoiakim, chap. 1.2. which was the fifth yeare of the reigne of Zedekiah, 2 Kings 24.8, 17, 18. in which very yeare Zedekiah did rebell against the King of Babel, which action was the very beginning of Jerusa­lems ruine.

3 As to the returning of this flitted glory againe to the new built Temple, chap. 43. it is observable that the cloud of glory which had descended and filled the Tabernacle, and had done the like at Solomons Temple, did never so at the second Temple, or that built after the Captivity, as the Jewes themselves con­fesse, and that not without, good reason: Yet doth the Pro­phet as clearly bring that glory into his new Temple, as ever it had come into them: but onely that this was in a vision, and so it shewed visionarily, the Lords dwelling in his Ordinances and presence among his people under the second Temple, unto which the People returned out of Babel, and in the spirituall Temple or Church under the Gospell (for Ezekiels new Tem­ple promised a bodily Temple to the returned, and promised, and typified a spirituall Temple under the Gospell) even as he had done visibly in his cloud of glory, in the Tabernacle and first Temple. And 2 he addeth further, that when that glory was entered, the East gate at which it came in, was shut and never opened after, chap. 44.2. to denote the Everlasting dwelling of the Lord in the Church of the Gospell among his people, and never departing as hee had done from Hierusalem Tem­ple.

This then being the signification of this appearance and glo­ry, in generall, we are next to look upon the particulars of it, [Page 253]which will more fully also confirme and cleare this matter, and first we will beginne with the living Creatures, or Cheru­bims.

For the better discovery of them what they were, and what they meant, these things do deservedly challenge speciall con­sidering and observation.

1 That they are plainly distinguished from Angels: For in Rev. 5.11. there is mention of many Angels round about the Throne and about the living Creatures, and the number of them was ten thou­sand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands: And in Rev. 7.11. All the Angels stood round about the Throne, and about the El­ders, and the foure living Creatures: So that here is apparent difference between Angels and living Creatures both in their names and in their placing: For the living Creatures were about the Throne, the 24 Elders about the living Creatures, and the innumerable multitude of Angels about all.

2 That they were such as Christ redeemed from the earth; For observe in Rev. 5.8, 9. The four living Creatures as well as the four and twenty Elders fall downe before the Lamb, &c. saying, Thou wast slaine and hast redeemed us to God by thy bloud, out of every kindred and tongue, and people and Nation, and hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests &c. So that the living Creatures were redeemed, and were of people and Nations, and were made Kings and Priests as well as the 24 Elders, which cannot be applied to Angels.

3 That these living Creatures or Cherubims are never menti­oned but in vision or Hicroglyphick; In vision, as in these pla­ces that have been cited of Esay, Ezekiel, and the Revelation, and in Hieroglyphicke, as the Cherubims covering the Arke, and wrought in the Tabernacle Curtaines, and on the Temple wais. It is true indeed that it is said in Gen. 3. God placed Che­rubims at the gate of Eden, which is onely for the fuller and more feeling apprehension of the thing, the Cherubims be­ing such formes as with which the people were best acquainted seeing them in the Tabernacle curtaines.

4 They therefore being thus constantly held out in a do­ctrinall and significative tenour, as visions and Hieroglyphicks are, they are to be expounded to such a doctrinall and figura­tive [Page 254]sense, and so is the whole body of glory, as I may so call it, the whole visionary theatre or spectacle that is before us to be taken.

And first to begin with the quadrature or four-square posture of the whole appearance, which was touched before, and now a little more to be considered on. There is intimation enough in Ezekiel, that the four living Creatures stood square, with a fire in the middest of them, and the wheeles in a square on the outside of the square of the living Creatures: but in the Reve­lation it is yet more plaine, for there it is said the foure living Creatures stood round about the Throne, which could not be but in a quadrature, one before, another behinde, and one of either side; for how else could foure stand round about it? The Throne then meaning the Temple as was shewed before, this double quadrature about it, doth call us to remember the double camp that pitched about the Tabernacle upon the four sides of it, East, West, North, and South: When the Lord did first platforme and order the incamping of Israel in the Wil­dernesse.

1 He pitched his owne Tabernacle in the middle, as that being the very Center, heart, and life of the Congregation, and they being all to attend upon it, and God thereby declaring himselfe to be in the middest of them, Lev. 26.11, 12.

2 He pitched the Tribe of Levi in foure squadrons on the four sides of the Tabernacle next unto it: for they being the Ministers that attended upon the publick service, and that drew neare unto the Lord, and were Mediators 'twixt God and his people, the Lord caused them to incampe next unto his San­ctuary, and betwixt the Camp of the people and himselfe.

3 The outmost of all, in four main bodies on the foure sides of the Tabernacle, and of the Levites Camp, did the whole Congregation pitch, and so there were two quadratures, the Le­vi [...]es about the Sanctuary and the Congregation about the Le­vites. See Numb. 2.

Answerable is the platforme here, and the quadrangular po­sture is in reference and allusion to that, and from thence must we explain it. In the midst was a quadrangle of fire: and upon every side of that quadrangle a Cherub, and on the outside of [Page 255]the Cherubims even before every one of them was a wheel. And in the Revelation, A Throne in the middle, foure living Crea­tures next about it, and the 24 Elders about them.

So that by this parallel to Israels Camp from whence the platforme both in the Prophet and the Apocalyptick is taken, the foure living Creatures did signifie the Priests and Mi­nisters of the Lord, and the wheels in the one, and the 24 El­ders in the other did represent the people or the Congregation: And this will arise clearer and clearer still to our observation, as wegoe along to consider their place, actions and descrip­tions.

1 I know it is conceived by some that the 24 Elders in the Re­vol [...]tion were neerer the throne then the Cherubims (and that opi­nion must needs conclude the like in Ezekiel) but the contrary is apparent by these observations. 1 That (besides what hath been said upon v. 15.) in Ezek. 10.6. a man clothed in linnen, being bidden to take fire from between the wheeles, from be­tween the Cherubims, he first goeth in within the compasse of the wheels, and then a Cherub taketh fire from the midst of the Cherubims and reacheth it to him. 2 It is said there againe at v. 9. that the four wheeles were by the Cherubims, whereas if the wheeles had been inmost it had been proper to have said, the Cherubims were by the wheeles. 3 And at v. 18. It is said the glory of the Lord stood over the Cherubims, and chap. 1.22, 26. &c. It is said the Throne of God was just over their heads, and there is no mention of being over the wheeles, which shews it very unlikely that the wheels were in the middle of the Cheru­bims. 4 In Rev. 5.6. the platform is named thus, In the midst of the Throne, and of the four living Creatures, and in the midst of the Elders; the Throne in the midst, the living Creatures next, and the El­ders outmost: and so againe in v. 11. &c. 5 In chap. 4.4. It is said that about the Throne were four and twenty seats, and on them four and twenty Elders sitting; and at verse 6. [...]: which is a hard piece of Greeke to construe, because there is an ellipsis of a particle, which not observed, hath produced but harsh interpretations of the place. The Syriack hath rendred it In the midst of the Throne, and about it and before it; the most translations, In the midst of the Throne, [Page 256]and about the Throne, which how to make a smooth exposition of, is hard to finde. The particle [...] seemeth to be understood, which expressed, the sentence would run thus, [...], that is, between the Throne and the incompassing that was about it (of 24 seats and Elders on them) there were four living Creatures.

Thus then was the place of the living Creatures, next the Throne; and that being the place of the Levites next the San­ctuary, it sheweth that these Cherubims or Creatures, did repre­sent the Ministers and the wheeles, and 24 Elders did represent the Congregation.

And this will yet appeare the clearer by observing that the living Creatures were the first agents and movers continually in any expedition or imploiment, as the Ministers were in the publick service. In Ezek. 1. & 10. the wheels moved or stood, according as the living Creatures did first. And in the Apoca­lypse the living Creatures first praise and worship, and then the Elders, chap. 5.14. The four living Creatures said Amen, and the 24 Elders fell downe and worshiped, &c. chap. 4.9, 10. When the living Creatures give glory and honour, &c. the 24 Elders fell down, &c.

2 And now to come to the consideration of their figure and resemblance, and first to begin with their four faces; the Jewes acknowledge that these four faces were severally pictured in the four Standards of the squadrons of Israels Camp, as they pitch­ed in the quadrangular forme that hath already been spoken of. There were figures (saith Aben Ezra in Num. 22. Aben Ezra) in every Standard and Standard: And our Ancients do say that in the Standard of Reuben, there was the picture of a man, and in the Standard of Judab the pi­cture of a Lion, in the Standard of Ephraim the picture of a Bullocke, and in the Standard of Dan the picture of an Eagle, so that they were like the Cherubims which Ezekiel saw: With which assertion Ramban also agreeth, and Targum Jonathan doth not much dissent, and this opinion was entertained as an ancient Tradi­tion of the Nation: upon what ground, and upon what refe­rences of these Pictures to the Tribe and Standard to which they belonged, it is not much materiall to insist upon, to debate here.

Upon the observation that these representations were seve­rally in the standards of Israels campe, some have concluded, that therefore the foure living creatures which bare these represen­tations did signifie the Congregation or people, and not the Levites or Ministers: which is unproper to conceive, because such a construction allotteth all the foure figures to every stan­dard, whereas all the foure standards did but make up and car­ry these foure figures amongst them all. But it is not impro­per to allot all these foure figures to every one of the squadrons of the Levites, for every one of them, nay every particular one of the Priests and Levites had interest in and relation to the whole Congregation, as being Ministers in their behalf: And as Aaron carried all the tribes upon his shoulders and breast, so are the Ministers in these emblemes of the living creatures, decyphe­red as carrying the faces of all the standards of the whole Congregation: because of their reference to the whole Congregation, they serving at the Temple for it. What allegoricall interpretations are made of these foure faces, I shall not trouble the reader to produce, every one may finde one such application of them or other as his conception upon them shall lead him to it.

As for the rest of the proportion of these living Creatures, they are especially remarkable for their wings and feet, for the rest of their bodies was like the body of a man: Two of their wings were alwaies erect over their heads covering their faces, from under which they spied as it were at their way they were to goe, and at the glory they attended on: which pertinently denoteth the reverentiall respect that the Ministers of the Lord have to his glory and to the mysteries of his counsell; compare 1 Pet. 1.12. With two other wings they covered their secrets, in signe of humble sensiblenesse of their owne deformity, and with two they flew, in signification of ready activity and at­tendance for and upon the Lords service; their feet were in fashion like to the feet of a bullocke, and in colour like to bur­nished brasse: according to which latter character the feet of our Saviour are described Rev. 1.15. His feet like unto fine brasse as if they burned in a furnace. Every one will be ready to frame an allegoricall application of these circumstances, according to [Page 258]his owne conception: It may be some (if they take those living creatures to represent the Ministers as I suppose they do) will when they read of their feet like to the feet of bullocks, appre­hend that it is, because they trod out the corne of the word for the people; and as that was also done with a wheele, so there are wheeles here in the like manner: It may be they will thinke they are described thus footed for the fitter setting them forth as the drawers of this divine charret. It may be they will sup­pose the beauty and shining brightnesse of their feet, may signi­fie the holinesse of their waies shining in sanctity and burning in zeale: It may be they may thinke of the Priests feet red for cold as they stood upon the bare stones in their service, and they seeming unsensible of it as are the feet of bullocks, and such variety of apprehensions will be ready to be taken up up­on these things, that a man may speake his owne thoughts and opinion in this matter, but not readily bring another to be of his minde,

The likenesse of these living creatures all over their bodies, was as burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lampes Ezek. 1. v. 13. for the faithful ministers of the Lord are as a flame of fire, as Psal. 104.4 shining in life and doctrine like lampes and lights, Iob. 5.35. Mat. 5.14, 15, 16. and by the word of the Lord even devouring the disobedient, as Ier. 5.14. I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood and it shall devoure them.

The fire that was in the midst of these Creatures, which went up and downe among them, and out of which proceeded thundrings and lightnings, Ezek [...] 1.14. Rev. 4.5. may draw our thoughts to the Altar and fire there, and to observe the Priests standing on the 4 sides of it in their attendance on it (and so Esay saith, one of the Seraphims took a fiery coal from the Altar and touched his lips with it, Esai. 6.6, 7.) as these living Creatures stood on the foure sides of a quadrangle of fire which was in the midst of them, or rather it so plainly de­noteth the word of God among his ministers, and the thun­drings and lightnings and voices doe so clearly relate to the giving of the word at Sina [...], that so to allegorize it, is without any straining at all, especially considering how commonly the word of God is compared to fire in the scripture, as Deut. 33.2. [Page 259] Ier. 3.14. &, 23.29. & 20.9. 1 Cor. 3.13.

Thos were these living creatures which did resemble and embleme the Lord Ministers: the embleme of the people or the Congregation was two fold; in Ezekiel, wheeles; in the Revela­tron, foure and twenty Elders, and these latter helpe to under­stand the meaning of the former. As the Arke and Cherubims upon it and by it are called th [...] charet of the Cherubims 1 Chron. 28.18. the Lord there riding as it were in his glory and presence, in the cloud that dwelt upon it, even such another composture doth Ezekiel describe here, the divine charet of the Lord, of his glorious and triumphant riding and sitting among his peo­ple in his word ordinances and his presence in them: And it is remarkable what is spoken by Ezekiel in chap. 10.4.18. of which mention was made before when he saith, That the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub and stood ovber the Cherubims: which meaneth but this, that that glory which had dwelt up­on the Arke in the most holy place, did now depart and came to dwell upon this other charet which he had described, of li­ving creatures and wheeles donoting this, that though the visi­ble presence of the Lord which had appeared in the cloud of glory upon the Arke were now departed, yet was his presence still among his people in that manner which he emblemed in that Scheme, namely his ministers & people attending him in his word and ordinances, and acting and moving according there­unto. And in the description of this divine charet, you may ob­serve, that the living creatures or ministers, are charactered out. as both the body of the charet and they also that acted the wheeles: for the Lord rideth upon their ministery (as it were) and his name is thereby carried where he pleaseth: and they are those whom he useth by that ministery to draw and move the people to obedience, and conforming to his word: and there the Lord doth ride triumphantly among a people, as Psal. 45.4. where ministers and people in joint and sweet harmony and consent, doe agree and concurre to carry up the word, name, and glory of the Lord, and both doe act in the power of the word and ordinances: the ministers ministring, and the peo­ple moving or standing according to the direction and influ­ence of that word.

What the Apocalyptick meaneth by the foure and twenty el­ders, he himselfe giveth some explanation of in chap 21.12.14. where he speaketh of the gates and foundations of the new Ie­rusalem, parallel to the twelve tribes of Israel, and the twelve A­postles of the Lambe. And as these twelve and twelve, were the beginnings as we may call them, the one number of the Church under the law, and the other number of the Church under the Gospell, so under the summe and number of both these united together, or under the notion of these foure and twenty elders he intendeth the whole Church or Congregati­on both of Jewes and Gentiles. Both wheeles and living Creatures are described full of eies, in Ezek. 1.18. Rev. 4.8. be­cause of the great measure of knowledge the Lord vouchsafed to his people, and to denote the heedfulnesse of the Saints in their walking before him. The Lord himselfe is described dwelling upon them and among them, in bright glorious and majestick representations, but withall, incircled with the likenesse of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of raine Ezek. 1.28. Rev. 4.3. which was the embleme of the Lords Covenant with his people: as Gen. 9.13, 14, 15.

CHAP. XXXIX.
The motions and stations of the Arke and Tabernacle.

THe Tabernacle (which in its time was as a mo­ving Temple) being brought into the Land of Canaan by Joshua, Maym. in Beth habbech. per. 1 & Ral. bag. in Josh 4. was first pitched and set up at Gilgal, the famous place of their first in­camping, Josh. 4.19. but the Arke and it were parted asunder, immediately after the pitching of it: For that was carryed into the field and marched with them in the warres of Canaan: Josh. 6.12. & 8.33, &c. while the Tabernacle stood without it at Gilgal, and there the Sanbe­drin sate neere unto it, with a strong campe as a guard for de­fence of both: Josh. 9.6.15. & 20.43.

The time of the Tabernacles standing there, was till the land was conquered, and Judah and the sons of Joseph were seated, Josh. 18.1. which was seven yeares: though Maym. ubi supr. & Seder Olam. some of the Jewes doe allot it fourteene: in which time, as they also as­sert, high places were lawfull, and it was permitted to offer sa­crifices elsewhere then at the Tabernacle: because in that time they were abroad in the warres, and their condition was un­setled. Before the Tabernacle was first set up Talm. in Zevachin. per. 14. (say they) high places were permitted, and the service was done by the first borne: But after the Tabernacle was erected, high places were prohibited, and the service was performed by the Priest-hood. The most holy things were eaten within the curtaines, and the lesse holy in any part of the campe of Israel. When they came to Gilgall, high places were permitted againe: and the most holy things were eaten within the curtaines, and the lesse holy in any place.

The memorable monuments that had been at Gilgal, did leave it as a place of honour and renown, and did prove occasi­on in after times of exceeding much superstition, will-worship and Idolatry there: for there they sacrificed bullocks, Hos. 12. [Page 262]11. and all their wickednesse was there, and there the Lord ha­ted them Hos. 9.15. Kimch. in Hos. 9. either because they renewed the Kingdome in Gilgal 1 Sam. 11.12. and refused the Lord to reigne over them, or because the Tabernacle had been first set up at Gilgal, and that was a choice place, thereupon the Prophet of Baul perswaded them there to worship Baal.

When the Land was conquered and now at peace, they re­moved the Tabernacle from Gilgol to a town of Ephraim, for his birth [...]ights sake, and set it up there and called the place Shiloh or Peaceable, because the Lord had given them rest from their warres and from their enemies round about. Here was built house of stone, for the Tabernacle Talm. & Maym. ubi supr. as the Jewes suppose, but onely it was not roofed over with any thing, save with the curtaines with which it had been covered from its first making: and this they ground from 1 Sam. 1.9. because it is called a Temple, and 1 Sam. 3.15. because it is said to have doores.

The time of the abode of the Tabernacle at Shiloh ( Ephrata or in the tribe of Ephraim, Psal. 132.6.) was from the seventh yeare of the rule of Ioshus to the death of Eli 349 yeares, in which time occurred all the story of the booke of Iudges, and the translation of the High-priest-hood from the line of Elea­zar to the line of Ithamar, which is not there mentioned, and the cause of which alteration is not recorded.

Zeva­chin ubi supr. In this time high places were prohibited: and at Shiloh, there was no roose but a house of stone below and curtaines above: and it was a place of rest: the most holy things were eaten within the curtaines, and the lesse holy and second tithe without &c. In these times there is mention of a Sanctuary at Shechem: Iosh. 24.1.25.26. which meaneth onely the house where the Arke was lodged for that present time: for all the tribes meeting at Sb. chim, and being to make a Covenant with the Lord, they fetch the Arke of the Covenant thither, that the presence and dread of the Lord might be more visible among them, and the place where the Arke was set for that time was called the Sanctuary: as Mo­ses tent was called the Tabernacle of the Congregation, because the glory of the Lord rested upon it before the Tabernacle of the Congregation it selfe was built. Exod. 33.7.

From Shiloh, upon that fatall blow that Israel received by the [Page 263] Philistines, 1 Sam. 4. the Arke was captived, into the land of these uncircumcised, and the Tabernacle removed into another tribe, and they so parted that they never met againe, till they met together at Solomons Temple.

The Tabernacle was removed to Nob, a city of Priests 1 Sam. 22.19, in the tribe of Benjamin, Neh. 11.31, 32. and by the Jewes Choregraphy, with in the sight or prospect of Ierusalem. The Chaldee Paraphrast glosseth Esay 10.32. where there is menti­on of this towne, thus: Chald par. in Esai. 10. He came and stood in Nob a city of Priests before the Wall of Ierusalem: He answered and said unto his army, Is not this the city of Jerusalem for which I have mustered all my Army, and for which levied all my province! behold it is lesse and weaker then any of the cities that I have subdued. He stood and nodded his head and waved his hand against the mountaine of the house of the Sanctuary. For (saith Kimchi) from Nob he might see Ierusalem, and when he saw it from thence he shooke his hand at it as one despising it.

I shall not be curious to inquire whether Nob were any of the foure cities that were allotted at the first division, to the Priests, out of the tribe of Benjamin, Josh. 21.17, 18. or whe­ther it were of a latter possession (as Ramah was to the Levites of the stock of Samuel, 1 Sam. 1.1.) or if Nob were one of those foure first cities (and the same with Almon, for the other three are clearly distinguished from it, Esai. 10.29, 30.2 Chron. 1.30) whether it were Baburim, which the Chaldee paraphrast con­stantly rendreth Alemeth, the same with Almon 1 Chron. 6.60. I shall onely observe this, that when the Tabernacle had left the tribe of Joseph one of the sons of Rahel, it be takes it to Benjamin another sonne of the same mother.

The warrant of its conveyance hither I doubt not was di­vine, by some propheticall direction, though it be not expres­sed: I dare averre that the removall of it from hence to Gibeon was so, though that be not expressed neither, and I judge of the one by the other: and my reason is this; because when Da­vid brings up the Arke to his owne city and there settles the Priests and Levites in their attendance upon it, he also settles Priests and Levites in their attendance on the Tabernacle at Gibeen [...] Chron. 16.39, 40, 41, &c. Now what reason can be gi­ven why David should not rather have fetched up the Taberna­cle [Page 264]to his owne city as he did the Arke, then thus divide the service of the Priests and Levites, but because he knew the Ta­bernacle was placed in Gibeon by divine warrant and direction and he would not alter it?

If the Tabernacle removed to Nob presently upon the capti­ving of the Arke from Shiloh, it resided there about 37 yeares, all which time Samuel is alive, and seeth both the fall of Shiloh and the fall of Nob, and it may very well be, he was the dire­ctour of the Tabernacle from Shiloh to Nob, and from Nob to Gibeon: In the time of its residence in both these places high places were permitted (as the Talmud conceiveth in the place cited even now) and the most holy things were eaten within the curtaines and the lesse ho­ly things in any city of Israel.

At Gibeon another place of the tribe of Benjamin, did the Ta­bernacle stay from its first pitching there, till Solomon brought it up to the Temple when it was built: and whilest it stood here, a memorable plece of Divine justice against Saul cannot but be observed (to omit all other particulars) for as he had slaine the Priests of the Lord, and had ruined the Tabernacle at Nob, so his sons are hanged up before the Tabernacle in Gi­beon, 2 Sam. 21.9. And now let us trace the Arke as we have done the Tabernacle till we bring them together.

The Arke being captived by the Philistines in the battell at Aphek, was detained in their Land seven monthes, rather be­cause they knew not what to doe with it, then for any comfort or happinesse they found in it, for it was a plague to their gods, people and Countrey: At last it was restored: and first to Bethshemesh, a city of Priests, Josh. 21.16. but there it proved al­so the destruction of the people: The Hebrew Commentators doe scruple both at the cause of the slaughter, and at the num­ber slaine: The cause is not so very abstruse, for the text saith it was because they looked into the Arke (though their vari­ous construction of the words hath bred their doubting) but it is something strange that Bethshemesh a towne of no great note should lose fifty thousand and seventy inhabitants at one time (besides what escaped) a number of people answerable to the greatest cities. The Commentators spoken of, having ob­served this improbability will heale the matter with as impro­bable [Page 265]a glosse: Seventy men (say they) which were valuable, every one to fifty thousand; and others retaining the scruple still, doe raise it higher by their interpretation, for the fifty thousand men (say they) were every one of them valuable to the seventy men in the Sanhedrin. The text doth plainly di­stinguish of the persons, for it saith, that he smote of the men of Bethshemesh because they looked into the Arke, and he smote of the people: For the returne of the Arke had occasioned no doubt the concourse of the people all about, besides the inhabitants of Bethshemesh (it was now upon the time of the feast of Taber­nacles when the Arke came up to them, and it may be that might cause the more conflux to the Arke when it was come) and the Lord for the boldnesse of Priests and people that would be looking into the Arke, breaketh out upon them with the plague, and destroyeth so many thousands of them.

The Priests of Bethshemesh that had escaped, sent to the men of Kiriathjearim to fetch up the Arke to them, and so they doe. It is equally questionable, why they that were Priests should send about such a matter as this to the men of Kiriathjearim which were not, and that the men of Kiriathjearim should ven­ture to fetch up the Arke, when they had seen the speeding of Bethshemesh by it: But the Lord had now forsaken the tribe of Ephraine, in which tribe Shiloh stood, and had made choice of the tribe of Judah Psal. 78.67, 68. of which Kiriathjearim was a chief city: and whether he used the counsell of Samuel to the the people for a means to accomplish his determination, or what other way, is not determinable, but it is brought to passe, and the Arke now seated in the tribe of Judah, out of which it never unsetled againe whilest it was in being.

A long time whilest it stayed in Kiriathjearim it was under the curbe of, Philistine garrison which was in that city 1 Sam. 10.5. which might much dampe the peoples seeking and re­sorting to it, especially in this loosenesse and lukewarmenesse, or rather utter coldnesse of religion that was amongst them. However, at the end of twenty yeares a generall reformation doth begin amongst them, and they begin to hearken af­ter God, the Arke and religion, and put away the strange gods that were among them, and God at that very instant [Page 266]doth grant them a miraculous victory against the Philistines. 1 Sam. 7.

We read once of the Arkes being within the compasse of the tribe of Benjamin before David fetched it up to Jerusalem, and that was with Saul at Gibeah 1 Sam. 14.18. but it was re­stored from thence to Kiriathjearim as the place appointed for it as yet, by divine direction, for otherwise it might as easily have been set up in Nob where the Tabernacle was now standing.

David about the second yeare of his reigne in Jerusalem, fetcheth it up from Kiriathjearim thither, and there pitched an habitation for it in Sion, where it resided till it was tran­slated into Solomons Temple, save onely that once it was taken out to have flitted with David in his flight from his son Absa­lom, but soone restored to its place againe. 2 Sam. 15. At this Tabernacle in which the Arke was lodged in Sion David sets up an Altar, 1 Chron. 16.2. for the offerings at that present time of the Arkes bringing up thither, but not for continuall sacrificing: And there he appoin­ted a constant musicke to attend, of the Levites, but the Priests waited at Gibeon, where the Tabernacle was and the daily sacrifice.

CHAP. XL. The state and fate of the first Temple.

AT Naioth in Ramah where Samuel and David spent some time together, they platfsormed the buil­dings of the Temple and the manner of the ser­vice: It was an unlikely time for David to thinke and contrive for such a thing at that time, when he knew not where to hide his own head from the fury of Saul, yet so sure was the promise to him, and so assured was his faith in it, that even from that time he laid the foundation of his thoughts towards the building of a Temple, setling of a service, and even all his time after was pre­paring towards it. In all his wars and victories he still remem­bred to dedicate something of his spoiles for that purpose, 2 Sam. 8.10, 11. 1 Chron. 18.8, &c. so that at his death he left the greatest sums of silver and gold, and stock of brasse and iron and such materials that is recorded in any story: And as he had his first instructions from Samuel, so did he ripen then by the propheticke directions of Gad and Nathan the Prophets, 2 Chron. 29.25. and so setled the Priests and Levites in their courses, and carpenters and masons to worke, and had descri­bed the platforme of all thingsso exactly, that he lest to Solomon in a manner but the care to see the worke done, for he had pre­pared all things before.

About eleven or twelve years space was the worke of the Temple in hand, before it was finished, namely foure yeares in hewing stone and framing timber, and seven years and an half in bringing up the building: For David in the last year of his reign hath gathered all the proselytes in the land to the num­ber of 153000 and had set them to worke, and so they conti­nued framing and preparing materialls till the fourth yeare of the reigne of Solomon, in the second moneth of which yeare the foundation of the house was laid, and in the eight moneth of his eleventh yeare the worke was finished, 1 King. 6.38. and so [Page 268]it was seven yeares and an halfe in building, which the text for roundnesse of number doth count but seven.

It was a yeare within a moneth after that it was finished be­fore the dedication of it, in which time it is likely, they were getting away the rubbish, and preparing for its consecration, it lying uselesse all the while, for the providence of the Lord disposed that it should be dedicated at such a time, as that the time should carry a mystery and type with it, as well as the Tem­ple it selfe. In the eleventh yeare of Solomons reigne in the moneth Bul which is the eight month it was finished. 1 King. 6.38. and in his twelfth yeare in the moneth Ethanim which is the seventh moneth it was consecrated: even at the time of the feast of Tabernacles, 1 King. 8.20, 2 Chron. 5.3. or the fifteenth day of that moneth: Concerning the title Ethanim, by which this moneth was named, the Jewes have these glosset: The Chaldes renders that verse in the booke of Kings thus, And all the men of Israel were gathered to the King in the old moneth, which they called the first month, but now the seventh. Aru. [...] in vece [...] Some of the Rabbines say it was called Ethanim (which signifieth strength, or strong ones) because the fathers were borne in it which were the mighty ones of the world: And others Levi Gersh. in 1 King. 8. because in it were the greatest seasts: or Kimch. ibi. as others, because in it the fruits were ga­thered, which are the strength of mans life, &c. But whatsoever was the notation of the name, certainely the remarkablenesse of that month was singular, in regard of many eminent occur­rences that befell in it, of which we have spoken elsewhere, the most renowned of all which was, that our Saviour in that month was borne into the world (and what if on that very day that the Temple was consecrated, namely the 15 day of the month) of whose incarnation and birth how lively a type, the Temple and its dedication were. I need not to illustrate: Thus was the Temple dedicate and the service of it began anno mundi 3001.

At the dedication of it, both the books of Kings and Chro­nicles informe us, that the Tabernacle of the Congregation and all the holy vessels that had been in the Tabernacle were brought up thither, 1 King. 8.4. 2 Chron. 5.5. But the question is, What became of them there, were they used on were they [Page 269]laid up? There are that assert either way: and the latter seem­eth the more probable, namely that these things of Moses, upon the rising of a greater and more eminent glory, did decay and were laid aside, as all his Ceremonies were to doe upon the ri­sing of the Gospell.

The Temple though it were of a heavenly resemblance, use and concernment, as figuring Christs body, Joh. 2.19. enjoying Gods presence, 2 Chron. 7.16. and Israels worship, Psal. 122.4. &c. yet being but an earthly building it was subject to the univer­sall condition of earthly things, casualty and changing: Nay there is hardly any state or place in any story, of which may be found more vicissitudes and alterations of condition then of this: and there is hardly any Kings time of all those that reigned in the time of the Temple, in which it received not some remarkable alteration of estate or other. In the time of Solo­mon that built it, it received that vile affront of an Idol Tem­ple built by him in the face of it, and what became of the ser­vice of the Temple in these times may be shrewdly suspected: In his sonne Rehoboams time, it was first forsaken by the ten tribes, and afterward by Judah it selfe, who fell to Idolatry, and then it was plundred by Shishak. How oft the Treasuries of it were plundred sometimes by forainers, sometimes by their owne Kings, how oft it selfe prophaned, as by Athaliah, Abaz, Manasseh, how the service of it either totally slighted, or slightly performed, how Idols set up in it, & Altars to strange gods: how the blood of the High-priest shed, and the manners of the Priests corrupt, and the house of prayer made a den of theeves, as also how sometimes againe it was repaired, the service re­stored, the Priests reformed, and matters amended with it, is so plainly and copiously described in the bookes of Scripture, that it were but transcription of the text to recite them in particu­lar. At last it had run out its date, and it selfe fired and all its precious vessells were captived by the Babylonian: what became of the Arke the Scripture doth not mention, the Jewes con­ceive that it was hid, in some vault that they say Solomon had purposely made against such a time, where it escaped the con­querors fury: but this we leave to their owne credit.

The time of the standing of this first Temple from its finish­ing [Page 270]in the eleventh yeare of Solomon, to its firing by Nebuzara­dan, was 420 years.