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CHAP. XVI. The Courts of the Temple.

THE dimensions and platform of the Temple itself being thus laid out, we may now the better observe the form and situation of the Courts that were before it or about it: Where, in the first place it will be needful to remember that again which was spoken before, which was, that the Temple and all the Courts about it, were not pitched so just in the middle of the Mount of the House, as that they lay in an equal distance from the four sides of the incompassing Wall, but they were situate more towards the North-side and West, in such manner, as that they left less space betwixt them and the West, than betwixt them and the North; and less betwixt them and the North, than between them and the East; and less betwixt them and the East, than betwixt them and the South.

There were three which we may call Courts, belonging to the Temple, besides that space in the Mountain of the House without them, which was very large, and which is ordinarily called by Christian Writers, Atrium Gentium, or the Court of the Gentiles. And these three were, The Court of Israel and the Priests, the Court of the Women, and the Chel, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 but properly and ordinarily the two former are only called Courts: That word in Hebrew is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 used in the Text, 2 Chron. IV. 9. and in the Chaldee Paraphrast, Esa. I. 12. 1 Sam. III. 3. Ezek. XLIII. 8. and by the Rabbins most constantly when they speak of these places, David Kimchi gives the Etymology of it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 that it was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (which signifies help,) because that everyone 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, they prayed there to the Lord to help them, &c. there being their last recourse for help in all exigence, as 1 King. VIII. 31, &c. the word is used in Ezek. XLIII. 14. in another sense, namely, for a border or half pace at the foot of the Altar, on which the Priests that sacrificed stood, as Kimchi expounds it upon that place, and which we 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 Chron. IV. 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 ) was one hundred eighty and seven cubits long; that is, from East to West, and one hundred thirty and five 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 one hundred cubits broad, this Court breadth lay seventeen cubits and an half on either side of it; and the Body of the Temple itself being but seventy cubits broad, this Court lay thirty three cubits and an half broad on either side it: Now behind the West-end of the Temple it extended but eleven cubits; so measure from the utmost West-side of it there, and you have eleven cubits behind the Temple, one hundred cubits the length of the Temple, and then it extended Eastward before the Temple seventy six cubits.

The Court of the Women lay just before this Court, joining to it, being of equal breadth with it, namely, one hundred thirty five cubits from North to South, but not so long as it from East to West, for it was only one hundred thirty and five cubits that way also, and so it was a perfect square.

CHAP. XVII. The Inclosure. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel.

ABOUT both these Courts thus laid, there was another enclosed space incompassing them in, and this by the Jews is called the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel: The word is used by Jeremy, Lam. II. 8. in that sense (as some Jews do interpret,) that we are to understand and describe here. Both the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel and the Wall mourn: by the Wall, being meant the Wall of the Court, and by the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel the space that encompassed it round about; and so translated by the Chaldee 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the incompassing or inclosure. The Scripture frequently useth the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for a Wall, Trench, or Rampart, as 2 Sam. X. 15. 1 King. XXI. 23. Obad. ver. 20. Nah. III. 8. and its rendered variously by the Hebrew Expositors there, but of the sense of the word and nature of that place at the Temple that we are looking after, they give us this unanimous account, that it was a place or space of ten cubits broad, encompassed with a Wall, between the mountain of the house and the Courts. I cannot find a better name for it, than the inclosure or outer verge of the Courts.

The words of Rabbi Nathan in Aruch in two several places may move two several doubts about this place, for in one place he saith that the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a place encompassed with a Wall between the mountain of the House and the Court of the Women. And in another place he saith, that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel was a Wall higher than the Wall called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Soreg; Out of which words he seemeth to hold out these two opinions; the one, that the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel did not encompass all the Court, but only the Court of the Women; and the other, that the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel was not a space of ground, but a Wall; but these two doubts we shall clear as we go along.

And first to evidence that this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 was a space of ground, and not a Wall, we have not only the testimony of the Talmud and divers other Jews that measure out the breadth of it to be ten cubits, but we have mention abundantly in them of people's coming into it, and standing and sitting in it, as R. Nathan himself giveth one instance, when he speaketh of a great 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Divinity School in the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel: And Abraham Zaccuth, speaketh of R. Johanan ben Zaccai having a Sanhedrin there. And Rambam relates at large how those that brought their Passover Lambs into the Court when they were dispatched, went and stood in the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel, and divers of the like examples might be added, which prove evidently enough what kind of thing this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 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 than the Wall 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for so the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 at large when it is taken for other places than this in the Temple, and is joined with the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is defined by the Jews to mean 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 A Wall and a Son of 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 Author understands it, though he speak so short.

The Wall that enclosed the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Soreg in the Talmud and Rabbins Language, which Nathan rendereth plainly a Wall, but some other expound it for a Wall curiously latized, and 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: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉

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 work: wherein stood Pillars at an even distance; some in Greek and some in Latin letters, giving notice of the holiness 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, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . And above the fourteen steps it was ten cubits to the Wall (of the Court) and all even. Out of which 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 Mountain of the House ) was also commonly called the first Temple: And in this very sense doth the Gospel speak very oft, using the word Temple when it meaneth but this outmost space, as John II. 14. Jesus found in the Temple those that sold Oxen, &c. Joha VIII. 1, 3. Mat. XXI. 14, 15.
• 2. That within this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel no strangers might come but Jews only, and for this purpose there were Pillars in which there was so much written in Greek and Latin sentences. And so the Jews say that the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel was more holy than the Mountain of the House, because no stranger might come into it, 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 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel did incircle or encompass all the Courts and not the Court of the Women only: for if the ground along that Court for ten Cubits next to it were so holy that a stranger might not come upon it, certainly 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 alleged before, saith that the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel did inclose the Court of the Women, and speaketh of inclosing no more, he doth not exclude the other, but speaks according as the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel lay to one that came in at the East-Gate.
• 3. That into the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel there was the first rising, all being level from the East-Gate thither, and the rising into the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel was 14 steps or 7 cubits or as the Talmud more truly reckons, but 12 steps or 6 cubits (for every step was half a cubit rise) and the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel being ten cubits broad it was level to the Wall of the Womens Court.

The Wall that encompassed the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel was not high as were the other Walls about the Temple, but it was only as it were bars before the higher Wall of the Court, but of three cubits high; the fashion or work of it being very curious, wrought into paves or latices, or such open work, that one might look through it as well as over it.

The passages into the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 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 the coming upon the holy ground.

Now in the Syrogecian Kings times when the Jews and Jerusalem lay in subjection to those Kings 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 this Wall that was the bar against strangers going any further, was broken by those Kings in thirteen places they scornfully and disdainfully, and impiously breaking upon the holy ground 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 But the Jews made up the breaches again, and ordained thirteen adorations and oraisons to be made against the Heathen Kingdoms upon any ones coming to any of the places where 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 enclosed them both, that they were indeed not so very properly two Courts, as two several 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 truly 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 express 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. XX. 5. where it is said, that Jehoshaphat 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 Mountain of the House Eastward before the Court of the Women. Now David Kimchi upon the place, though he speak not out so much, yet he concludeth indeed that that new Court meaneth the Court of the Women, and he giveth two reasons why it is called New: either because it had gone to decay, and they had newly repaired it, or because they had made some new Laws concerning it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 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 in the the Talmud as concerning this Court of the Women: c 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 King. 36. 6. which inferreth an outer, but that outer meaneth the whole mountain 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. IV. 9. And in that there is mention only of Solomon's building the inner Court, it is an argument that he 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 be two Courts in the House of the Lord, 2 King. XXI. 5.

2. It is called The outer Court, Ezek. XLVI. 21. as that Text is generally and truly understood by the Jewish Writers, which we shall have occasion to examine anon: and the reason of the name doth easily appear, 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 VIII. 20. the reason of which name we shall observe before we have done with the survey of this Court.

But by the Jewish Writers it is generally and ordinarily called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Court of the Women; and the reason of that name was, because the Women might go no higher or further, than into this Court. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , This being the proper place for them to worship in, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , further than this towards the Temple was unaccessible to them: only when a Woman brought a Sacrifice, she might go 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 to worship here, could see nothing of the service in the other Court, and indeed hear but little unless they went up the steps of the Gate and looked in: for till you came to the middle of the entry of the Gate that went up into the upper Court, it was but of the same holiness with the Court of the Women, but beyond the middle, it was holier.

The floor of this Court was even and level throughout, 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 encompassed the holy ground: And they have this Tradition about the pavement of the Court, where the Altar stood, That all the Court was flag'd with fair stones, and if any flag were loosed, although it lay still in its place, yet was it not lawful to stand upon it to do any part of the service till it were fastened again.

The entering 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 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , gilt all over both posts and lintels, one only excepted, of which instantly.

We will go up at the East Gate out of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel, out of which there were five steps that rose up to the Gate to land you in it. The Gate itself was exceeding sumptuous and exceeding beautiful: and this was that which was called the beautiful Gate of the Temple, Acts III. 2. at which the Creeple lay begging of alms, both of men and women that went into the Temple; At this Gate began 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , The inner Temple, as Josephus doth often call it, distinguishing between that space that was enclosed within the boundary Wall that encompassed the whole holy ground, and that space that was enclosed within the Wall that encompassed the Courts: the former of them was called the outer Temple, and the later was called the inner, and both of them bare the name of the Temple: and so in the Scripture, whosoever went but within the compass 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 sumptuousness and singular gallantry, as was fitting for the Frontispiece of so brave a place: And hence it came to bear the name of beautiful, and that the rather also, in comparison of the Gate Shushan, or the outmost East Gate that entered into the mountain 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 calleth the Corinthian Gate, because it was of Corinthian brass, whereas the rest of the Gares were gilt with gold. And here occurreth a difference betwixt him and the Talmudical Writers; for they do unanimously hold the brazen Gate to be the Gate of Nicanor (which we 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 affirm on the other hand, that it was that that went out of the Chel into the Court of the Women. His words are these, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 There was one gate without the Temple of Corinthian brass, 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 material to determine whether of these Eastern Gates were of brass, it is only needful 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 shown 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 real, but only apparent: Josephus calls the Gate that came into the Court of the Women, the brazen Gate, because it was all so, posts and lintel and all overlaid with brass, which shone above gold: but the Talmudists say, the doors of the Gate of Nicanor were only of brass, but the whole front of the Gate beside, all of gold: and so that was not the brazen Gate, but only brazen doors, but the other was properly the brazen Gate.

When Peter and John 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 back again with them through this Gate into Solomon's Porch or the Eastern cloister of the Mountain 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 itself.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 In the four corners of the Court of the women there were four rooms of forty cubits, and they were not floored over, and thus they shall be in time to come, say the Talmudicks from Ezek. XLVI. 21, 22. Now these four rooms were everyone forty cubits long from East to West, and thirty cubits broad from North to South, for so may we best interpret it according to the place alleged in the Prophesy of Ezekiel, his words are these, Then he brought me forth to the utter Court, and caused me to pass by the four corners of the Court, and behold in every corner of the Court there was a Court. In the four corners of the Court were Courts 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of forty cubits long, and thirty broad. The word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is of doubtful signification, and diversely interpreted: The Seventy read it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 little, for so they render it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 A little Court, and it is easy to see how they mistook 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : some understand it according to the Chaldee transmutation of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 changed into 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and think it meaneth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 joined, and so our English hath it, and so Rabbi Nathan produceth some instances of the word in this sense, but concludeth that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 meaneth nothing but that these buildings were not floored over, and in the very same opinion doth the Talmud, Rabbi Solomon and David Kimchi join with him, and in the very same words; But how to understand this is somewhat difficult: If we should conceive that they were clearly open on the top without any covering at all, the constant works 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 general testimony of the Hebrew Doctors which holdeth otherwise. We will therefore look first to what use these several rooms were constantly put, and then we shall be the better enabled to judge of this matter.

1. That in the South East corner was a room for Nazarites 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 For there they boiled their peace-offerings, polled their hair and put it under the pot, according to the Law, Numb. VI. 18. Nazarism was most ordinarily for thirty days: though sometime it was for years and sometime for term 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: If he polled his head in the Country, as Paul did at Cenchrea, he was to bring his hair and burn 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 Jews in the Treatise alleged in the Margine above, speak of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 A Samson Nazarite and an everlasting Nazarite, not but that Samson was a Nazarite always: but they use this distinction in reference to the manner of the Vow making. He that took 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 Philistines put out: such an one might never cut his hair, 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 hair once every year, it was so heavy: But he that was a Nazarite everlasting (that is, that took upon him Nazarism upon other terms, as he that said I will be a Nazarite according to the number of the hairs of my head, or the dust of the Earth, or sand of the Sea shore ) he might poll his head once in thirty days: but his hair 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 boil his Peace-offeting and to burn his hair, and the Priest took 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 blood of any of the Lambs was sprinkled on him, he was at this liberty: The same Tract also speaketh of women Nazarites as Queen Helena who was a Nazarite first by her own engagement seven years, and by coming into the Land of Israel seven years more, and by a defilement, seven years more, one and twenty in all: And Mary of Tarmud, who whilst the blood of her offerings was sprinkling on her, word was brought her that her daughter was in danger of death, and she went away, the sprinkling half done, and half undone, and found her daughter dead: and came again and was sprinkled out: Now to inquire whether these women cut their hair at the expiring of their vow, is not much to this place and purpose, and therefore we shall not trouble ourselves at present to hearken after it. But me thinks that passage of Simeon the Just, was to purpose, who in all his life time would take a Sinoffering but of one Nazarite only, and his reason was, because he thought they made their vows in some passion, and repented of it when they had done.

2. The North-East rooms 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 was the place of the wood, where the Priests that had blemishes did search the wood for worms; for any wood that had worms in it was unclean for to burn upon the Altar. The great Sanhedrin sat in the building Gazith, and a main work of theirs continually, was that they judged of the Priesthood, and tried 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) everyone that was found failing of the right pedigree, was clothed with black, and veiled with black, and got him out of the Court. But whosoever was found right and perfect was clothed with white (compare Rev. III. 4. & VII. 9.) and went in and served with the Priests his brethren: Whosoever was found of the right blood of the Priests, but some blemish was found in him, he went and sat him down in the Wood-room, 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 holy day and great rejoicing, and blessed God for it, with a Solemn prayer.

3. The North-West room 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 was the room of the Lepers: After the many rites for the cleansing of the Leper abroad in the Country, at his own house, as killing a Sparrow and besprinkling him with the blood mingled with water, sending another sparrow flying in the open air, shaving himself with a razor every hair off, &c. On the seventh day he 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 eighth day he brought three Lambs, for a Sin-offering, Trespass-offering, and Burnt-offering 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 He bathed himself in the Lepers room, and went and stood in the gate of Nicanor, and there the Priests besprinkled him, &c. The manner of which we have observed elsewhere.

4. The South-West room was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The house of the oil. 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. XV.

And now that we have seen the use and employment to which these rooms were put, it is the more seasonable to consider of that which we mentioned before, namely whether these four rooms in the four corners of the Court of the women, were quite open to the skies, or roofed over, and in what sense to take the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉

Two things do here meet us which are considerable. 1. That these places in Ezekiel are called Courts. 2. That he saith in everyone of them there were boiling ranges, to boil the Sacrifices of the people, Ezek. XLVI. 21, 22. And yet doth the Talmud alot them to these particular uses. All which, and what is said moreover, that they were not roofed over, may very well consist together. For grant everyone of these spaces to be built within with chambers round about: there might be very fair chambers and yet a good handsome open Court in the middle: At either end chambers of ten cubits broad, and yet an open space of twenty cubits between: And on either side chambers of seven or eight cubits broad: and yet an open space of fourteen or sixteen cubits between: Thus therefore doth the building in these places seem to be; 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 boiling ranges, whose chimneys went up in the inner walls of the chambers or the walls to the open place: And so the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to be rendered 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 boiling 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 everyone 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 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Court of the Women was not cloistered about: but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 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 tells us was this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 That Men and Women being promiscuously mingled together, it was occasion of lightness and irreverence. Therefore they made a Balcone ( 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in Nathan & Maymony, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the Talmud) round about the Court, which came out from the Wall and was roofed over head. And so the 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 pouring 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 behold 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 and 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. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : 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. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . From thence (out of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel) 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 be 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 on 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 go beyond the inclosure of their own Court. And that place was permitted for the Jews that dwelt in the Land, and that dwelt in foreign Countries 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 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 &c. 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 greatness of those that were below.

Now in that he saith these Cloisters were 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 along by the Wall turning inward, his meaning is, that they were joining to the Wall, 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 greatness of the Pillars and Cloisters that were below along the Wall of the mountain 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 mountain 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 than the hours of prayer, or that at the hours 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 people's repute, who thought he had brought Gentiles in hither, Act. XXI. 26, 27, &c. who might not go 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 years, 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 rejoicing, for the drawing and pouring 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 this Court of the Women, those words of Josephus, which were cited even now, which say the Cloisters of the Court, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 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, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , two main things are observable, and to be looked after towards that search that we are now about; the one is, the number, importing more Treasuries than 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 capacity, namely Treasure-Chests and Treasure-Chambers, the former were called Shopheroth, the later Lesacoth, and both bare the general name or Corban.

There were thirteen Treasure-Chests at the Temple, which by the Jews are commonly called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Shopheroth which signifieth properly Trumpets 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.

Two of these Chests, were for the half shekel that every Israelite was to pay for the redemption of his soul or life (for which the Law is given, Exod. XXX. 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 half shekel for the year present. On the first day of Adar which answereth in part to our February, there was general notice given throughout the Country, that they should provide to pay their half shekel: and on the fifteenth day of that month the Collectors sat in every City 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 twentieth day of the month, the Collectors began to sit in the Temple, and then they forced men to pay, and if any one had not wherewith to pay, they took his pawn, and sometime would take his very raiment perforce: They had a Table before them to count and change the money upon (from whence they were called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Trapizitae or Mensarii, and two Chests before them to put into.

A man that brought a shekel to change, and must have half a shekel again, the Mensaarius or Collector was to have some profit upon the change: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 And that addition or profit is called Kolbon ( 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ) and how much profit did he require for change? The twelfth part of a Denarius, and never less: 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 do discourse exceedingly large about this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 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 general conclusion is still for some profit, which exaction was that that caused our Savior to overthrow 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the tables of these Colbonists, Joh. II. 15. at the first Passover he came up to Jerusalem after his Baptism; and Math. XXI. 12. at his last: for these Receivers began to sit in the Temple for that purpose, but eighteen or twenty days before the Passover, 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 were merchandizing of other things there, all the year long in the Tabernae or Shops that we have spoken of before: The place where the marketing of the Sheep and Oxen was, was the great space of the mountain of the House, that lay upon the South side of the Courts, for on the West and North sides the room was too strait for such a matter, and on the East side was the most common entrance of the people, and so these Cattle would have stopped 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 Merchandize.

Amongst those Authors that spake 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 sit in the Temple to receive it: nor indeed is it of any great import to iquire after it, since their sitting there was but for a short space, as a month or such a matter, and so they had done: It is most probable they sat about the East gate Sushan 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 continual use, and that stood in their places all the year long, and upon everyone of them was written what use and employment they were put unto.

• 1. 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 Trespas-offering.
• 8. An eighth, for the residue or surplus of an offering of Birds, of men and women that had Issues, and of women after childbirth.
• 9. A ninth, for the surplus of a Nazarites offering.
• 10. A tenth, for a surplus of a Lepers Trespas-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 everyone its title written upon it, that told its use, that whosoever would offer any one of these things mentioned, he could readily go by those directions, where to put the money of his offering: And these are those Gazophylacia or Treasuries that Josephus saith, the Cloisters 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 bear up the Cloister-Walks in the Royal 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 do evince, that they were placed in the Court of the Women: 1. Because thither was the access freer than it was into the Court of Israel; and it is no doubt, these Chests would be set in a place most commodious for everyone 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, unless 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. XII. 41. That Jesus sat over against the Treasury and saw the people cast in money, and he 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 sit, for they had a Tradition, that none might sit in that Court, but only the Kings of the house of David: But the meaning of the place is, that Jesus sitting 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 poor widow and threw in two mites which make a farthing. It is the ordinary expression that the Hebrew Authors use to signify the people's giving to the Treasury by, to say 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 They cast in their money: which phrase the Evangelists also follow in this story: And since we are upon this poor widows offering, let it be without offense, to digress so much, as to give in this ratable of the Jews, for the understanding of the value of her two mites, and how they made a furthing, and it may be it will be useful on other occasions: The shekel, or piece of silver mentioned in the Law, the weight of it was 320 barely corns: but the Wisemen added to its weight, and made it of the same weight with the coin called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Selaa: and what is the weight of the Selaa 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ? Three hundred eighty and four middling barley corns: The Selaa is four Denarii. The Denarius is six 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Meahs, now the Meah is that which in Moses his time was called a Gerah: The Meah was two Pondions: The Pondion was two 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Issarin 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : And 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a mite, was the eighth part of an Issar (so two mites make a fourth part) and the weight of a Meah which was the Gerah, was sixteen barley corns: and the weight of an 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Issar (Assarius) was four barley corns: the weight of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a mite was half a barley corn, &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 several sides of the Court, (and therefore this place is also called the Treasury, Joh. VIII. 20. where it is said, These things spake Jesus in Treasury as • e taught in the Temple, &c. ) and so the people both men and women had access to them, and offered as their hearts or their occasions moved them, and the inscriptions 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 Mountain of the House, and besides those that joined to the body of the Temple: Besides the Chambers, where Tiths, First-fruits, Vessels, and Vestments were treasured up, as 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 half-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 year, they took the money out of this Chamber again: The Talmud and Maymony in the Treatise Shekalim do give the story and the manner of that action thus: At three times of the year they emptied this Chamber: namely, fifteen days before the Passover, fifteen days before Pentecost, and fifteen days before the Feast of Tabernacles: or as Rabba Akiba the Son of Azai saith on the nine 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 go in in any garment, in which it was possible to hide money, nor in his shoes 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 door without, and all the while he was within they talked to him, and he again 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 Seahs, or three bushels apiece: and if there were more brought in than would go into these three chests, it was laid by somewhere in the Chamber: He that went in took three chests of three Seahs a piece, or everyone containing a bushel, and he filled them out of the great Chests within. His three that he brought in, had these three letters 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 written severally on them, 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 Towns and Countries nearer hand, 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 additional Sacrifices, and Shewbread, and salt for the Sacrifices, and wood for the Altar, and other things that were necessary for the service: 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 again, and did the like.

2. There were two other Treasure-chambers, in one of which was laid up what was offered towards the repair and service of the Temple, and another in which was laid up what was offered for charitable uses. The Talmudicks speak of them thus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 There were two Treasure Chambers in the Temple, one the chamber of the Silent, and the other the chamber of the Vessels: The chamber of the Silent, was where religious men did silently or secretly put in their Offerings, and poor children of honest parents, were brought up by them secretly. The chamber of the Vessels was where any that willingly offered any vessel, cast it in there: and once in thirty days the Treasurers opened the Chamber, and fetched out what they found fit for the supply of the Temple, and what was not of itself fit, they sold and turned into something that was fit, &c.

Now whereabout these Chambers stood, it is something difficult to discover: we shall guess 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 far aside as to speak of these chambers also, though they were not in this Court but in the upper: we shall have so much the less to say of them, when we come to their own place.

And now let us look 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 between these buildings: and from the buildings on either side, there ran a Cloister supported with goodly marble Pillars unto the Gates: and the like Cloister there was at the East quarter, at which you entered: These Cloisters had Benches within them for the people to sit down when they thought good, as there were in the Cloisters that ran along the outmost Wall that encompassed the Mountain of the House: Before these Cloisters on the East, North, and South sides, stood the Treasure chests, and then you 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 platform 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 only twenty five cubits high from the floor of the Court of Israel itself; for so much higher was the ground in that Court, than in the other.

Just in the middle of this Wall, was the Gate that conveyed out of the one Court into the other: to which Gate there was a rising of fifteen steps, every step half a cubit high, the whole rising seven cubits and an half in all; so high was the Court of Israel above the Court of the Women.

These fifteen steps, (saith the Treatise Succah) were answerable to the fifteen Psalms of degrees in the book of Psalms 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 because upon these the Levites stood and sang: Not in the daily service, or in the ordinary course of the Temple music, for their place of standing in that, was in the Court (as shall be shown) but only on that solemn festivity at the feast of Tabernacles, which was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The rejoicing at the drawing and pouring out of water: of which we give account in its due place.

These steps that rose up to the Gate, were 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 gaining of room on either side them: For on either side of the Gate and of the Steps, there were under-ground Chambers in the Wall, whose roof was even with the floor of the Court of Israel, the Doors opening into the Court of the Women; in which rooms the Levites used to lay up their musical instruments when they had done singing in the daily service in the Court of Israel: They came down the fifteen steps out of the Court; and at the bottom, stepping off either on the right hand or the left, there were Doors in the Wall into chambers where they laid their instruments up.

This Gate that we are now entering, or the Gate between the Court of the Women, and the Court of Israel is held by some of the Jews to have been called by seven several names (besides the Gate of Nicanor, which in Herod's Temple was the most common and known name of it) of some of which the matter indeed is clear, but of other there is doubting.

1. It was called The upper Gate of the Lord's House, 2 King. XV. 35. 2 Chron. XXVII. 3. and so the Treatise Succah in the place cited before, doth expressly call it. The upper Gate that goeth down 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 C • el, was called the lower. Now whereas it is said that Jothan 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. XXVI. 10. & XXXVI. 10. in both which places the Chaldee Paraphrast expressly calleth it the East Gate of the Sanctuary of the Lord: It is apparent by that later place in Jeremy, that it was the Gate that went into the upper Court, or the Court of Israel, and so it both appears 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. Some give this reason of the title 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 namely, That it was called new, because the Scribes did there deliver new traditions; for there sat the Sanhedrin: but this derivation is far fetched.

3. The Gate Harsith, Jer. XIX. 2. is understood by some to mean this East-Gate of the Court of Israel that we are upon, though both the very Text of Jeremy himself, and also the Chaldee Paraphrast and other Jews with him, do not clearly allow of such a construction, but place the Gate Harsith in another place.

1. The Text of Jeremy 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, easy 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 Jerusalem, and not the Temple; and so the Gate Harsith must be one of the Gates that went out of Jerusalem into that valley, and not out of the Temple. 3. The Chaldee Paraphrast doth call it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which David Kimchi expoundeth, the Dung-port, and believeth it to be the same Dung-gate that is mentioned in Neh. II. 13. though I believe Nehemiah • s Dung-Port was in another quarter. The word Harsith is of a twofold construction: namely, either as derived from Heres 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which signifieth the Sun, and so our English in the margin hath rendered it the Sun Gate, having translated it the East Gate, in the Text: or from Heres 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 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 bear its name (whether from the Sun rising upon it, or from some Idolatry committed to the Sun near to it, or from the Potters 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 Jerusalem, which we have not now to do withal.

4. Some of the Hebrew Writers do understand 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Gate of entrance spoken of Ezek. XL. 15. to mean the Gate that we are about, namely the East Gate of the Court of Israel: for which reason it may be the Chaldee Paraphrast hath translated it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The middle Gate, as being between the Gate that cometh into the Court of the Women, and the Gate of the Porch of the Temple itself.

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 alleged, and 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. XI. 6. or the Gate of departure, because there those those that had been unclean, were separated and put aside, and might go no further, till their atonement was made.

7. And likewise the Gate of the Foundation, 2 Chron. XXIII. 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 known in the last days of the Temple (and which it carried to its grave, or till the Temple and it were buried in ruin) was the Gate of Nicanor. 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 plain terms speaketh the Gloss upon the treatise Sotah, The Gate of Nicanor was the upper Gate, which was between the Court of Israel, and the Court of the Women. 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 Maxim in the Jerusalem Talmud 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 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 trial of the suspected Wife, both which were set in this Gate, and are said to be set before the Lord, Lev. XIV. 11. Numb. V. 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 labor let us hear the Author of Juchasin concerning this matter, speaking thus at large.

Nicanor was in the time of the second Temple: and I wonder at Rabh, that he did not mention him in the Catalogue of those men that are upon record for Religiousness: As he mentioneth Hananiah the Son of Hezekiah, the Son of Garon, in the beginning of the Treatise Shabbath, into whose chamber the Scholars 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 Mishneh was one of the Chasidim (or religious) but the common people are not so. He is mentioned in the first and second Chapters of Middoth, 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 sixth 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 Beracoth, 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 drink the bitter water, and they purify women after Childbirth, and Lepers. And in the end of the Chapter 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (or the seventh Chapter of the Treatise Pesachin) It is said, that the Gate of Nicanor was 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 doors 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 Chasiddim, and he went to Alexandria in Egypt, and made there two brazen doors with much curiosity: intending to set them up in the Court of the Temple, and he brought them away by sea: Now a great storm happening, the mariners cast one of the doors over board to lighten the ship: and intended also to throw over the other also. Which when Nicanor perceived, he bound himself to the door with cords, and told them, that if they threw that in, they should throw him in too: And so the Sea ceased from her rage: And when he was landed at Ptolemais, and bemoaned the loss of his other door, and prayed to God about it, the Sea cast up the door, 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 books of Joseph ben Gorion, he saith, That the Gate of Nicanor was so called, because a wonder was done there, for there they slew Nicanor a Prince of the Grecians in the time of the Asmoneans, and so it seemeth in the later end of the second Chapter of the Treatise Taanith. Thus Jucasin.

I shall not insist upon it, to dispute it out, whether of these things alleged 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 doors from Alexandria were not he that was the Kings Chief Master of the Ceremonies there, of whom Josephus maketh mention and relateth how he provided Chambers and Diet for the Septuagint Translators: or whether this Gate were not so called in honor of Seleucus Nicanor the first King of Syria, who was a great favourer of the Jewish Nation as the same Josephus also relateth: But I shall leave the searching after the Etymology and original of the name to those that have mind and leisure thereunto: it sufficeth to know the Gate by its name which was so renowned and famous in all Jewish Writers: only as to the story about Nicanor a Grecian Prince being slain here, compare 1 Maccab. VII. 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. XI. 6. & 2 Chron. XXIII. 5. because that these are held by some, as was shown before, to have been 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.

The two Courses of the Priests and Levites now present, namely that course that came in on the Sabbath, and the other that had served their week and were now going out, Johoiada 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 been any other day, it is not to be imagined, that Jehoiada would neglect the affairs of God though he went about the affairs 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 verse. 5. of 2 King. XI. is necessarily to be rendered 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 is so 2 Chron. XXIII. 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 Text in the two Books laid together do plainly distribute the course that was to come in on the Sabbath, as he will see that will carefully compare them together in the original.

The course that was going out on the Sabbath was disposed, 1. One third part of them to the Gate behind the Guard. 2. Two third parts to keep the watch of the House of the Lord for the safety of the King.

Now the very disposal 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 Mountain of the House, and in the Court, of that course that was going out, 2 King. XI. 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 Zion, and there also should I place the Gate behind the Guard: and it would not be very hard to gather up fair 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 ado 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 Queen, partly because she came alone, and chiefly because they knew not Jehoiadas mind concerning her. But when he bids have her out of the ranges, they laid hold upon her, and spared her till she was down the Causey Shallecheth, and then they slew her.

If by the ranges, the ranks of men that stood round about the Mountain of the House, be not to be understood, I should then think they mean either the ranks of Trees that grew on either side that Causey, or the Rails 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 improperly expound those words in 1 King. X. 12. Of the Almug Trees the King made 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for the house of the Lord and for the Kings house. The word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 doth properly signify a Prop or Support: yet is expressed in 2 Chron. IX. 11. The King made of the Almug Trees 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 high ways to the house of the Lord: And I think (saith the Rabbin) that in the ascent that he made to go up to the house of the Lord from the Kings house, he made as it were battlements (that is Rails on either side) of the Almug Trees, that a man might stay himself 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, as 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 Nieanor was, which we have newly surveyed and at which we entered: 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 near to the Gate, on your right hand and on your left as you entered in.

That on your right hand was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Chamber of Phineas the Wardrobe man: of whom there is mention in the Treatise Shekalim, among the chief Officers in the Temple, These are the chief Officers in the Sanctuary, ( saith the Talmud there) Jochanan the Son of Phinehas over the Seals: Ahijah over the Drink-Offerings: Mathia the Son of Samuel over the Lots: Pethahiah over the Birds (for Sacrifice) this Pethahiah was Mordecai, &c. Phinehas over the Wardrobe, &c. Now the Gloss upon that place saith that these men named, were the eminentest and worthiest men that ever were in these several Offices, and that they were not all in one, but in several generations: Bartenora conceiveth that the Office of this Phinehas was, to array the Priests, when they were to go into serve, and to disarray them again when they had done, and to keep their clothes. Which we 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 entering into the service, and when they were old he took them into his custody again and provided new. Now this provision was at the public charge, he only took care for it, and the garments being overworn, they were returned again, for the public use, for we have observed elsewhere, that they were ravell'd into wick-yarn for the Lamps and for the great Lights at the Feast of Tabernacles, at the Rejoicing for the pouring out of water.

On the left hand of the Gate was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 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 daily Meat-offering which in the Talmud Language is commonly called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The two cakes of the High Priest, of which we have spoken in due place, and this his daily Offering was one thing, whereby he was differenced from an dinary Priest.

There is much diversity of opinion among the Jews, yea even in the Talmud itself about the number of the Gates into this Court: In some places it reckons seven, which indeed was the right number, but in some other places there is mention of thirteen: Nay ( saith the Gloss upon one place) some there are that reckon seven, some five, some three, some thirteen, but the generalty 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 we shall speak ere it be long: others reckon only the Gates which were guarded, which were only five: some it seems count what Doors went out of the Court, into buildings by it, as well as Gates to pass through, and so they raise the number thirteen: But the number that we fix upon is seven, as most generally and most properly entertained, both by the Talmmdicks and by Josephus, in the second Temple: And how many were in the first Temple, we shall say something to before we have done with the Court. On the South sides were these three Gates. 1. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Water-Gate, which was most East of all the three, 2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Gate of the Firstlings, called also sometimes 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Gate of Offering, this was in the middle. And 3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Gate of kindling which was most West.

Now besides these three Gates on the Southside, there were also three other Buildings in the Wall, which bare these names. 1. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Room-Gazith. 2. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Room of the Draw well. And 3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Room of the Wood. And so we have the materials 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 several places.

And first Josephus as he giveth testimony to this number that we fix upon, when he saith that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , this inward bound had three Gates, North, and South, so doth he also give us good light for the situation of them when he saith, they were 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , equidistant one from another. He had said much the like concerning the Gates that were in the outmost Wall or bound, (namely that that enclosed the Mountain of the House) that the Gates in it on the South side were 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 that is, so set, as that there was an equal 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 engage us to understand his expression about these Gates in the like sense; namely, that they both stood at an equal distance one from another, and that the two outmost 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 Symmetry will fall into these proportions: From the East corner of the Wall, forty six cubits and three quarters upwards towards the West, was the very middle of the Water-Gate: As much forward still, 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 Wall: And so may we best and most uniformly conceive of the situation of the Gates. And therefore whereas the Hebrew Writers do most ordinarily when they speak of these Gates, say that they were 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Near the West, it is not to be 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 several buildings that were also on this side intermixed with the Gates, these things may be observed towards their posture and situation. 1. That the Water-Gate and the Draw-Well Room do 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-Gate, besides its standing so near the Draw-Well, yet shall we observe hereafter that this might be also one reason of the name of it, and that those two did indeed stand joining together. 2. The Talmud saith the roofs of these three pieces of building were even ( Mid. per. 5.) by which it seemeth that they stood not at distance one from another but conjoining, but only that a Gate interposed between them. 3. We shall see anon out of the Jerusalem Talmud, that the Water-Gate and the Wood-room stood joining together. 4. The Talmud, Maymony, and other of the Jewish Writers speaking of, and naming these three rooms, do ever set Gazith first or last, and thereby they show that it stood on the outside one way or other, East or West, and stood not in the middle. 5. If we set it further West, it will then stand in the Lot of Benjamin, whereas the great Sanhedrin which sat in it, 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. XLIX. 10. Therefore in most propriety (these things considered) must it be 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 joining together, as their situation will be confirmed in our further progress: we will first begin at the East corner where was the room or building Gazith.

CHAP. XXII. The Chamber or Room Gazith, the seat of the Great Sanhedrin.

THE building Gazith ( so called because it was made of stone neatly wrought, as the word is used 1 King. V. 16.) appeareth by the Author of Juchasin to have been built by Simeon ben Shetah who was the Vice-President of the Sanhedrin, when Judah ben Tabbai was Nasi in the sixth Generation from Ezra, even in the time of Hyrcanus Jannaeus the Asmonaean. It was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 half of it holy, and half of it common; that is, half of it stood within the Court, and half of it within the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel, and it had a Door into either place. And in that half of it that stood in the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel, did the Great Council or Sanhedrin sit, of seventy one Judges: Now a special reason why they sat on that side of the House, which was in the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel was, because it was not lawful for any Man whosoever to sit within the verge of the Court unless it were the King, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 there is no Man may sit in the Court unless it be one of the Kings of the House of David. In the other part of this building which stood within the Court, the Priests used to • ast lots daily for the distribution of the Service amongst them; of which we have spoken largely elsewhere.

We cannot come so near the Great Sanhedrin, as to survey the Room in which they sat, but that we must take some notice of them before we go, and look a little into their constitution, sitting, power and story: They will not take it well if we pass by them and take no notice of them at all.

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 Wilderness did first ordain this great Judicatory, Numb. XI. They were to be indifferently chosen of Priests, Levites, and Israelites, (the New Testament often expresseth the distinction, by Chief Priests, Scribes and Elders) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 but if Priests and Levites fitly qualified were not to be found, if all the Council were Men of other Tribes, it was good and lawful.

Their qualifications must be, that they must be Religious and Learned both in Arts and Languages: must have some skill in Physic, Arithmetic, Astronomy, Astrology, yea to know what belonged to Magic, 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 extreme old, because commonly such are of too much severity, and they must be Fathers of Children, that they might be acquainted with tenderness and compassion.

Their manner of sitting was thus; The eminentest among them for worth and wisdom, they appointed to be the chief in the Council, 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 Council, or Vice-President. He sat upon the right hand of the Nasi, (compare the Phrase of sitting on the right hand of power, Matth. XXVI. 64.) and then the whole Sanhedrin sat on the one hand and on the other in a semicircle. On the right hand before them, and on the left there were two Clerks of the Council, one Registred the acquitting Votes and Testimonies, and the other the casting: compare, Matth. XXV. 33.

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 until night, and then they might determine the matter that they had been debating on by day: but they might not begin a new business by night: They violated their own custom and tradition in judging of Christ by night.

It was in their power and cognizance to judge all persons, and all matters (yet inferior matters they meddled not withal, but referred them to inferior Courts) insomuch that they judged a whole Tribe, a Prophet, the High Priest: nay the King himself if there were occasion: If the High Priest did anything that deserved whipping they whipped him (saith Maymony) and restored him to his dignity again: 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 th • se two Traditions clean contrary one to another, and yet both of force and took place in their several seasons, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The King judgeth and they judge him: And 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The King judgeth not and they judge not him: The former was in vigor, till King Jannai was convented before them, and then because partiality could not be prevented they enacted the latter.

Of capital penalties, in which kind of matters they especially judged, they had four sorts: stoning, burning, slaying with the sword, and strangling. In reference to which the Targum on Ruth hath this Gloss in the first Chapter, Vers. 16. Naomi said unto her, we are commanded to keep Sabbaths and Holy days, so that we may not walk above two thousand cubits: Ruth saith, whithersoever thou goest, I will go: 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 thirteen Commandments; Ruth saith, what thy people observe I will observe as if they were my people: Naomi saith, w • are commanded not to worship strange God's; Ruth saith, thy God shall be my God: Naomi saith, we have four judicial 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.

1. Those whom they burned they used thus: They set them up to the knees in a Dunghil, and two with a Towel about his neck pulled and strained him till he opened his mouth wide, and then they poured in scalding Lead which ran down into his bowels.

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

3. Those whom they slew with the Sword, they did it by beheading them.

4. Whom they stoned they stoned naked: first one of the witnesses threw him or pushed him that he might dash his loins against a stone, if that killed him, there was no more ado, if it did not, the other witness took a great stone and dashed it on his breast as he lay on his back, if that killed him there was an end, if not, all the people flang stones at him: This helps us to understand what is meant by the Witnesses laying down their Garments at Saul 's feet, at the stoning of Stephen, Act. VII. 58. namely because they were to be employed first in his stoning, and they laid by their upper Garments that they might not trouble them. And this illustrates that passage of our Savior, 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, Matth. XXI. 44. for he that was stoned, was first flung upon a stone, and then a stone was dashed 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 Stephen whom they condemned and stoned for blasphemy, for so they made it: He was first dashed upon a stone by one of the Witnesses, and then a huge stone dashed upon him by the other, yet died he not by either of these, but recovered his knees again, and died kneeling and praying, all the people flinging stones at him; and afterward he was hanged upon a Gibbet, and that night taken down and buried: for so was the Law that he should not hang upon the Tree all night: Now his burial was different from the common burial of those that were Executed: as Christ 's 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 slain with the sword and that were strangled, it appeareth that some devout Christians took down the body of Stephen and made a solemn burial for him in some other place.

Although the Sanhedrin did sit in the Temple, yet were the Executions without the City: as Levite. XXIV. 14. Deut. XVII. 5. Heb. XIII. 12. Act. VII. 58. whipping and stocking was executed often in the Temple, as Deut. XXV. 2. Jer. XX. 2. and for this purpose they had their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Sarjeants for Officers ready attending them continually for the execution of such a penalty. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Shoterim (saith Maymony) were such as carried Rods and Whips: and they stood before the Judges: they went about the streets and Inns to look 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 offense.

This great Sanhedrin in Gazith 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 was the foundation of the traditional Law and pillar of instruction (compare the phrase 1 Tim. III. 15.) and from them decrees and judgments went out for all Israel. And whosoever believed 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 Judicial matters, the ultimate recourse was hither as to a determiner not to be doubted of or varied from. The manner was thus: Had a Man occasion to inquire about any such matter, he went first to the Judicatory that was in his own 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 Mountain 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 Room Gazith, and there he received a positive determination: which for him being a Judge to transgress against, it brought him under the notion of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 A rebellious Elder, and in danger of trying for his life.

CHAP. XXIII. The Draw-Well Room. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉

AT the West end of this famous Room Gazith, there was the House which was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the House or Room of the Draw-Well: and the reason of the name was, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Because there was a Well sunk there, with a wheel 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, boiling 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 turns, and yet the Temple never wanted, but had it always in great abundance: The place itself was dry, rocky, and without water, 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 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The fountain Etam: Of this the Babylon Talmud discourseth in the place alleged in the Margin and to this purpose, The House of the Sanctuary was higher than the Land of Israel, and the Land of Israel was higher than other Lands: They knew not the like: as they produce in the Book of Joshua; It is written throughout. The border went down, and the border went up, and the border reached, &c. But of the Tribe of Benjamin it is written the border went up, but it is not written the border went down. Learn from hence, that this was a place thought • it to build the Sanctuary in, by the Fountain Etam, because it was high: But they said, let us bring it a little l • wer, because 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 it is written, And he shall dwell between his shoulders, Deut. XXXIII. 12. Their meaning is this; that whereas the Sanctuary was to be higher than 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 down is mentioned in the Chorography of his Tribe, therefore they thought of building the Temple by the Fountain 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: An Aquaeduct came from Etam, saith the Jerusalem Talmud in the place quoted in the Margin: It is scarce within the bounds of the subject that we have in hand, to go about to search where this Etam was. There is a place in the Tribe of Simeon that is called by this name, 1 Chron. IV. 32. now though it is true that Simeon and Judah lay intermixed in their habitations, yet I believe this intermixture was not so near Jerusalem as our Etam was. There is mention of the Rock Etam, Judge. XV. 8. and of the City Etam, 1 Chron. XI. 6. let the Reader be his own chooser whether of these he will take for the place that we are upon, or whether he will refuse both: I only mention them; It belongeth rather to a survey of the Land, than of the Temple, to debate the matter to a determination. The Gloss upon the place of the Talmud cited above, saith It seemeth that the Fountain Etam was the Well of the waters of Nephtoah, of which there is mention, Jos. XVIII. 15. And to the like purpose speaketh Kimchi in this Comment upon that place of Joshua, They say (saith he) that the Well of the waters of Nephtoah was the Well Etam which is mentioned by our Rabbins: This place appeareth to have lain Westward of the Temple, and the Pipes from it to have come down upon that quarter, and to have passed along on the South-side of the House itself, in the place called the coming down of the waters, of which we have spoken before, and so to have been disposed of into the several Offices about the Court: and that in such abundance, as that it ran continually, and yielded water and to spare, upon all occasions: we shall have occasion to look after it again when we come to speak of the Molten Sea.

Of this conveyance of water, Aristeas, an eye-witness and spectator of it, giveth testimony, in these words, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. There was a continual supply of water: as if there had sprung an abundant Fountain underneath. And there were wonderful and inexpressible 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, underground, 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 tri • e 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 than four furlongs space out of the City, and one bad me stoop down at a certain 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 several 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 look after that only, and this may be enough to have spoken of it.

The Draw-Well, which and whose room we are now surveying is said to have been sunk or digged by the Children of the captivity upon their return and building of the Temple. But whether to a Spring that was in that place, or whether as a Cistern to receive the water from Etam, if it shall be questioned, there might be several reasons given • o prove that it was for the later purpose: As, 1. Because it is not easy to conceive 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, do bring all the supply of water from other places. 3. Because the Laver is said in the testimony alleged 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 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The place of the coming down of the water on the South side of the Temple, which hath been shown in its due place, not capable of any construction so proper as this, that the Pipes from Etam came down along there.

The waters then from that Fountain Etam being gathered into this Well or great Cistern, were from hence dispersed into the several Offices and places where water was necessary (as the new River from the Water house into London ) a Wheel being used to raise it and force it up into the Pipes or conveyances that were to carry it into the several receptacles and uses: For in some places there were Baths on the very top of the Gates, and buildings, as we shall observe as we go along, and to keep them full and in a continual supply of water, was required, some enforcing of the water up, which was done by the use and activity of this Wheel.

Now over this Well there was a fair building, suitable to the rest of the buildings about the Court, and it had a Door 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: He that had it allotted to him to cleanse the Altar must cleanse it: And they say to him, Take heed that thou touch not the Vessel, until thou hast washed thy hands and thy feet: (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 room) nor had he any Candle in his hand, but he went by the light of the fire on the Altar: and they saw him not, neither heard they his voice, until they heard the noise of the Engine that Ben Kattim made, namely the Engine of the Laver: and then they said he is about washing his hands and feet at the Laver. Now whatsoever this Engine of Ben Kattim 's making was, which we shall inquire into afterward, it is undoubted that the water in which he washed at the Laver, was drawn 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 Wellroom out of the Court, when the Gates of the Court were not yet opened, but went into it through a Door that went into that Room out of the Court.

This helpeth to understand that passage of Ezekiel of the living waters, Ezek. XLVII. which are said there to come down on the right side of the House on the South side of the Altar, verse. 1. alluding to the coming of the water into the Temple from Etam a Spring shut up and a Fountain sealed for that purpose: for the Pipes that brought the water from it, came down on the South side of the Temple, in the place that was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The coming down of the water, of which we have spoken already, and so into this Cistern in the Well-room, just over against the Altar, on the South side of it, and so was carried into the several Offices of the Temple, &c.

CHAP. XXIV. The Water-Gate 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and the Room of Abbtines. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉

AT the West end of the Draw-Well Room, was a Gate that opened directly upon the Altar, which was called the Water-Gate. The Reader will readily conceive the reason of the name to have been, because it joined so close to the Water-House, and this Etymology might be very current and allowable, but the Talmudists give other reasons of the name besides. The M • shneh in the Treatise Shekalim, hath this speech upon it. Why is the name of it called the Water-Gate? Because through it the brought the Tankard of water, which was for the pouring out of water at the Feast of Tabernacles. Rabbi Eliezer the Son of Jacob saith, because the waters ran out thereby, which came from under the threshold, Ezek. XLVII. Of these two reasons the former is more generally entertained for current, and it is indeed the more reasonable in itself. I have shown in the Treatise of the Temple Service, Chap. XVI. Sect. 4. how high and how strange a solemnity the Jews had at the Feast of Tabernacles, of pouring out of water upon the Altar, and rejoicing after it: For whereas all the year besides their libation 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or pouring out the Drink-offering was of Wine alone, they now added and mingled water with it, and took such joy and rejoicing 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: Now how was this libation of water? (saith the Talmud in Succah) There was a golden Tankard that contained three logs: One • illed it at Siloam, and brought it in at the Water-Gate: and the Trumpets sounded, &c. Siloam Fountain lay South of Jerusalem (although the Pool 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 marvel, if, seeing the pouring out of water in libation was reputed so high a matter, the Gate through which it 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 solemn 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. VIII. 3. where it is said that Ezra read in the Book of the Law before the street that was before the Water-Grte: but this was a Gate of the City, and not of the Temple, as is apparent in the same Book of Nehem. Chap. III. verse. 26. and whether it took that name from the waters issuing out of Solomon 's Pool and running that way, or from the waters running that way from the Temple, as Ezek. XLVII. 2. it is not a place here to discuss.

Over this Gate of the Temple that we are about, which was called the Water-Gate; there was a Room or Chamber which was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Chamber of the Family of Abhtines. This Abhtines was one of the chief Men that gave denomination to the Office of which they were, to succeeding generations (as we observed e're while also about Phineas the Man of the Wardrobe, or Vestry) and he is mentioned in the Treatise Shekalim, where all those chief Officers are reckoned up, which Record let us here take out at large, These were chief Officers which were in the Temple: Jochanan the Son of Phinehas over the Seals: (what these Seals were, I have shown in the Temple Service, pag. 16.) Ahijah over the Drink-offerings. Mathia the Son of Samuel over the Lots: (see there pag. 102, 103.) Pethahiah over the Birds: (ibid. 87, 88.) This Pethahiah is Mordecai: And why is his name called Pethahiah? because he opened and expounded matters, and he understood the Seventy Languages. Ben Ahijah over the Diseased in their bowels. Nechonia the digger of Cisterns: (ibid. pag. 17.) Gevini Keroz the Son of Gebber over the shutting of the Gates. Ben Bechi over the Correction (to cudgel the Priests or Levites that were found asleep upon the Guards, ibid. pag. 50, 51.) Ben Arza over the Cymbal: (ibid. pag. 58.) Hagros ben Levi over the Song: Beth Garmu over the making of the Shew-bread: Beth Abhtines over the making of the Incense: Eliezer over the Vails: 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 called Beth Abhtines or the Family of Abhtines, and this Room or Chamber over the Water-Gate, was the place where they did their work in this employment.

Their traditionary Receipt for the compounding and making of the Incense was this: They had eleven Aromatick simples of which they took these quantities: Of Stacte Onycha, Galbanum and Frankincense, of everyone seventy pound weight: of Myrrh, Cassia, Calamus, Crocus, Ana sixteen pounds. Of Costus twelve pound, of Cinnamon nine pound, of Cloves three, in all three hundred sixty eight pound. All these they pounded very small in a Mortar (wich was called the Mortar of the Sanctuary, and which Mortar was carried to Rome at the sacking of Jerusalem ) and they added to it some Sodo • t Salt, Amber of Jordan (rarities not rarely spoken of in Jewish Writers) and an Herb of an odoriferous smoke, which very few were acquainted with: Every year they made this quantity of Incense, and every day in the year there was a pound of it offered, and so of the three hundred sixty eight pound there was three hundred sixty five pound gone: Of the three pounds that remain, the High Priest took his handful on the day of Expiation: and the rest was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 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 expense of it: On the first day of the month Nisan, or on their New-years-day, they began upon a new stock: And the two pounds and odd that remained of the old, was given to work-men that repaired the Temple towards their pay: and then was bought of them again, and used as of a new stock. Every single spicery was pounded by itself, and all the while that he that pounded it, was about it, he still said 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 To be pounded well, to be pounded well, &c. and then they mingled all altogether.

It was a caution that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 All the making and 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 Room of Abhtines that stood in the Court, it is not much important to dispute; this was the Room in which the Incense when it was made was reserved, and likely it is that this also was the place where it was made: And here it was pounded again twice a year, and aired and looked to that it might take no hurt.

Into this Room the High Priest was brought for a certain time against the day of Expi • tion, that he might learn to take his handfuls of Incense against that day, as was required, Levite. XVI. 12. 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 handfuls of it.

In this Room also the Priests kept a Guard every night, as it is related in the Talmud in the Treatise Tamid and Middoth in these words In three places, the Priests kept Guards in the Sanctuary, namely in Beth Abhtines, and in Beth Nitsots, and in Beth Mohadh: Beth Abhtines and Beth Nitsots were upper Rooms, and there the younger Priests kept, &c. which nightly guarding was intentionally as much for the honor of the Sanctuary as for in security, and these two Guard-Chambers Abhtines and Nitsots, were both over against the Al • ar, 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 Mokadh, in the furthest end of the Court West-ward, as we shall see when we come thither.

On the roof of this Water-gate, and of the room Abhtines, there was a Bath, in which the High Priest did wash himself the first time of his washing on the day of expiation: for although the Bathing place, on the top of the room of Happarvah (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 fittest and 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 go about the service, he first goeth to the top of this Gate and there batheth himself in Water. And this the Treatise Joma intendeth when he saith thus, Five bathings of his Body and ten washings of his Hands and Feet did the High Priest use on that day, and all in the holy ground, on the top of the room of Happarbah, but only the first, &c. This was a place most convenient for a Bath, it being so near the Draw-well room, as joining to it, and this it may be helped forward the naming of it the Water-gate.

CHAP. XXV. The Wood-room 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and the room Parhedrin. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉

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 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Chamber or room of the wood, or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The room of Parhedrin. It was called the room of the wood, because that after the blemished Priests had wormed the wood, in a room 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 room that it might be near, 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 ways, The Babylon Talmud, Maymony and some others read it with r and call it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Chamber of Parhedrin. But the Jerusalem Talmud, Mishnaioth in Octavo, &c. read it with l and call it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Chamber of Palhedrin: about which difference we shall not controvert: Now though the two Talmuds do thus vary 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 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Chamber of the Counsellers. I observe also from Maymony, that it was called the High-Priests Chamber, by a singular propriety: for speaking of putting of the High Priest apart for seven days before the day of expiation into this room (for so the Talmuds in the place cited in the M • rgin inform us) he expresseth it thus 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 They put him apart from his own house into this Chamber in the Sanctuary. And so the Jerusalem Talmud doth also call it, though it do not express it by the proper name, when it saith, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 that the High Priest was put for a certain time into the Chamber of Abhtines which was over the Water-gate, and which joined to his own Chamber: And here by the way you may observe, that this Wood-room, and room of Parhedrin did join to the Water-gate as we have seated it: the one room being over the other, the Wood-room below and Parhedrin above.

Now it was called the High-Priests Chamber, not so much for that he was put apart hither for a few days in the year, as for that it was ordinarily employed by the High Priest to call his Brethren of the Priesthood together in it, to consult about the affairs of the Temple and the Service: so that it was as the Vestry, or as I may so express it, the Dean and Chapter-room, where they met together in consultation about such matters: We have observed elsewhere, that besides the High Priest, there was the Sagan, two Katholikin, seven Immar • alin, and three Gizbarin, which were principal Officers in the Temple for the receiving, disbursing, and taking care of the stock of it, and providing for the repairs of the buildings and the due administration of the Service: These were the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Counselors of the Temple, that advised and took care for the welfare of it, and this was the room where they sat constantly in Counsel for that purpose: and hereupon it was called the Chamber of the Counselors. 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 Counselors till the High-Priesthood began to be bought and sold for money, and came to be charged often: these Counselors 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 solemn and grave council 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 make members of this Council, and they sought themselves rather than the public; the people therefore could not find in their hearts to call them Counselors, but called them Parhedrin or Sitters only. Yet were they also called Counselors even while they were called Parhedrin, to distinguish them from the great Council: Joseph of Arimathea was one of these, Mark XV. 43.

The word Parhedrin is as like the Greek word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as Sanhedrin is like 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and it may very well be conjectured, that since the great Sanhedrin and Society, were both Counselors, that this company was called Parhedrin, to distinguish it from the Sanhedrin: especially considering how near they sat together, there being but the Water-gate and the Well-room, between this room and Gazith: There sat the great Council of the Nation, and it was called Sanhedrin, and here sat the Council of the Temple, and it was called Parhedrin: that is, Assessores, or the Council that sat near the Sanhedrin: And thus were there four Councils in the Temple: three of them not only Councils but Judicatories, namely the great Sanhedrin of seventy one, and the two lesser Sanhedrins of twenty three. And this of Priests which was not so properly a Judicatory as merely a Council.

The Jerusalem Talmud expoundeth the word Palhedrin 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (for so it readeth it) by the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a word of as much obscurity as the other: It is like it is some Greek or Latin word of Priority, but not easily pitched upon particularly: Baal Aruch renders Palhedrin by a word as hard as itself too, namely by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Agardemin: but he facllitates it by this interpretation, namely that it signifies The overseers of the weights, and measures, that were to look to the Ephah and the Hin, that they were right, and sealed them, and they smote those that kept shop in the mountain of the house, if they sold too dear, and they bad 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 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The gate of offering: so some read it: but most commonly 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Gate of the Firstlings: both which names redound but to one and the same sense, for the Gate took its denomination, from the bringing of the Firstlings through it to be offered up.

The Law concerning consecrating to the Lord whatsoever first opened the Womb and Matrix, Exod. XIII. 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 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Mumcheh, who did determine it: of this title the Glossaries give this interpretation and account. Mumcheh is derived from the word Machah as it signifieth in that clause 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 And it reacheth to the Sea of Cinnereth, Numb. 34. 11. which betokeneth going straight: And this word Mumcheh means that he was skillful: and he received authority from the President of the Sanhedrin, or from a Sanhedrin in the Land of Israel, of men ordained. The head of the Sanhedrin gave him power for this office, saying to him 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Loose Firstlings concerning blemishes: that is, take thou power to bind and to loose as concerning blemishes of Firstlings, to determine what blemishes do hinder them from being offered and what not: The Talmudists do use the phrases of binding and loosing in reference to things prohibited or permitted: as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Upon necessity they loosed salutation on the Sabbath, that is, they permitted it. The School of Shammai 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 bound working on the Eve of the Passover, that is, prohibited it; but the School of Hillel 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 loosed it: that is, permitted it, or held and taught that it was lawful. The Scribes have bound leaven: And The wise men have loosed all fat things, &c. It were not a very hard task to produce hundreds of examples out of Jewish Writers to this purpose, wherein their use of this expression of binding and loosing doth most ordinarily refer to things, and to things lawful or unlawful, as they were so held out by the Law and by their Doctors: And particularly the binding and loosing of Firstlings, and the binding and loosing of vows, were of singular note and notice among them, And the loosing of First-lings (saith Abraham Za •• uth) was a matter of more difficulty than loosing of vows: where, by loosing of vows, he meaneth not that any one had power to absolve and acquit from lawful vows once made, but that there were some appointed to judge of vows, and to determine concerning them whether they were lawful or not lawful, and whether they bound or bound not.

No Firstling must be killed or offered till it had been first viewed by the Mumcheh: And he that was not a Mumcheh (appointed by the Sanhedrin) and yet would take on him to view a Firstling, and so it was killed upon his approval, he was to make it good: and he that received a reward or was hired to view a Firstling, it was not current, unless he were authorised by the Sanhedrin so to do, as Ailah a wise man of Jabneh, to whom the wise men permitted to take four 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Assarii for viewing a lean Firstling, and six for viewing a fat, &c.

A Firstling Lamb or Calf, approved by the Mumcheh as fit for sacrifice, and brought to the Temple for that purpose, was slain on the South side of the Altar, or at least on the South side of the Court. The Talmudic tract Zevachin in the fifth Chapter doth purposely discuss what Sacrifices were to be slain on the North side of the Altar, and what otherwhere: And having nominated particularly what on the North side; it saith, That a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving, the Nazarites Ram, the ordinary Peace-offerings, the Firstlings, Tithe, and Passover were slain 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 only just over against the Altar, but in a larger extent, as we shall show more fully when we come to survey the sides of the Court itself.

The Firstlings then being to be slain 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 took the name of the Gate of the Firstlings: The Water-gate indeed was nearer the Altar, and a more direct way to it, but to have killed the Beasts thereabout would have hindered the passage to the Altar, from the Draw-well, Water-gate and Wood-room, unto which places there was very frequent recourse from the Altar, and therefore the Firstlings and other Sacrifices that were to be slain on the South side of the Court, were brought in at the Gate above, as more out of the way, and slain thereabout as in a place of less 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 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 That their killing might be in any part of the Court: because that though ordinarily and regularly they were to be slain on the South side of the Court, yet if they were numerous and could not conveniently be slaughtered in that place, they might be slain on the other side, as the Passover were killed on both the sides, because of their number: whereas the Sacrifices that were to be slain on the North side must be slain 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 born; All the males of Israel were to appear before the Lord thrice every year, Exod. XXIII. 17. now this command did not take in Children (as their tradition did interpret it) till they were able to walk up out of Jerusalem to the Temple in their Fathers hand: and the presenting of the first born to the Lord, was not enforced by that command, but by that, Exod. XIII. 12. & XXII. 29. where both the Targums of Jonathan and Onkelos, do expound the setting apart of the first born to be before the Lord, or at the Temple: and so doth the Text of Scripture itself in Numb. XVIII. 15. Luke II. 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 had born Children did stand to have their atonement made for them: And there it was where the Virgin Mary presented our Savior, Luke II. and there she paid five shekels for his redemption, Numb. XVIII. And Hannah did the like at Shiloh: 1 Sam. I. 34. only she had kept her Son longer than ordinary, because when she did present him at the Sanctuary, she meant to leave him there forever, and for that reason, she redeemed him not neither, but gave him to the Lord.

CHAP. XXVII. The Gate 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Hadlak, or of Kindling, or of the burning sire.

IT is easy to justify and assert the translation of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 by kindling, but is not so easy to give a reason why this Gate which stood most West on the South side did bear this name. The common opinion of Glossaries upon it is plausible enough, but only for one objection that may be made against it. They hold that it was called the Gate of kindling or Burning, because through it wood was brought to the Altar to keep the fire continually burning according to the Law, Lev. VI. 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-room was between them two, as hath been shown: and it is probable enough that the Wood out of the Wood-room was not brought through any of the Court Gates at all to the Altar, but out at a Door which went out of the room itself into 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 reason of that name was, because a fire was kept there continually for the senior Priests, as shall be shown anon, and so it may be well conjectured, a fire was kept here for the Levites: And though I find 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, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 In the Chamber of the veil, I find not where to allot that place better than to this Gate we are about: For when it speaketh of the Chamber of the veil, it meaneth not either any Chamber joining to the body of the Temple itself, 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 veil, 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 piece of building having partitions within, there were two Guards of Levites almost joining together: So there were three of those Guards very near together: one joining to the Gate on the East side, (for at sive of the Gates of the Court the Levites Guarded, and this was one of the five) another joining to the Gate on the West side, which was called the Guard over against the veil, 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 joining to it took 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 order thus, coming up from the East towards the West: First, The room Gazith at the South-West corner: then the room of the Draw-well: joining to that the Water-gate, and over that the room Abhtines: joining to that Gate on the other side, the Wood-room, and over that the Council-Chamber: then the Gate of the Firstlings, with a Levites ward joining to it on one side: then the Gate of kindling, and a Levites ward on either side it, and that building on the West-side of it running up to the West corner of the Court. Now Aba Jose, a Spokes-man in the Talmud, nameth yet one Gate more, and more West than 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 than the common account and calleth it the Gate of Jeconiah: But he goeth alone in his opinion as to the number of the Gates of the Court: yet thus far do other of his Nation go 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 Jeconiah: and the reason of the name is given, because Jeconiah went out at that Gate into his captivity: And so it may be that in this large building on this side which ran between the Gate of kindling and the West corner, there was a passage through, 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 look after that which is called the upper Gate of Benjamin in the house of the Lord; In the times of the first Temple, Jer. XX. 2. it is said there that Pashur fmote 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 shy to render it in the House of the Lord, it may be because they thought it improper to have a pair 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 Original are so plain, and the consent of Translators so unanimous, that it meaneth in the House of the Lord, that to swerve from it were but to strain a plain and a facile Text, and to obscure a place which is not obscure of itself. The mountain of the Temple lay in the lot of the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin, as hath been observed before, and the line that divided between the lots came along at the South-East corner of the Altar, as we shall observe anon, so that the Temple and Altar were in the Tribe of Benjamin, according to Moses Prophesy, that God should dwell between Benjamins shoulders, and so was the South-wall of the Court till you came down 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 Lord's House which was Northward, as we shall show by and by.

And for this place or engine of correction (were it a Dungeon as the LXX seems to hold it, or a Pillory as David Kimchies Father, or a pair of Stocks as our English ) it is no Soloecism 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 itself, as hath been touched 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 plain without any Gates or openings in it. And so Josephus makes it clear when he saith, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . That part that was on the West had no Gate at all, but the Wall that way was an entire continued building: which relation is also agreeable to the general consent of the Hebrew Authors, Aba Jose only 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 far from the service, and behind the Temple? There was indeed at the back of the Court-wall in the middle betwixt the North and South corners of it, a building standing in the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel, where the Levites kept a Guard, which was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Guard behind the mercy seat: but there is no evidence that there was any door out of it into the Court, and if there had been it was but a door and not a Gate. Of the Guards of the Priests and Levites about the Temple, the Record is thus, In three places the Priests kept Guards in the Temple, in the Chamber of Abhtines, in Beth Nitsots and in Beth Mokadh. And the Levites in one and twenty places: five at five Gates of the mountain of the House: Four at the four corners of it within: Five at five Gates of the Court, and four at the four corners of it without: One in the Chamber of Corban: One in the Chamber over against the Vail, and one behind the place of the Mercy seat.

CHAP. XXVIII. The Gates and building 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 amiss to look what we find there in the times of the first, in that passage of Ezekiel, Chap. 8. verse. 3, 5, 14. He brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the Door of the inner Court-gate that looketh toward the North, where was the seat of the Image of jealousy which provoketh to jealousy. And he said unto me, Son 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 North-ward of the Gate of the Altar this Image of Jealousy in the entry. And he brought me to the Door of the Gate of the Lord's House which was towards the North, and behold, there sat 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 Lord's 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 Jealousy: not in this Gate of the Altar, but in the mountain 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 look Northward, and there he seeth that Image. This was not any Picture or Image to represent Jealousy by, but it is called the Image of Jealousy, because it provoked the jealous God to jealousy, it being set even in his Sanctuary and before his Altar: what Idol this was is but lost labor to go about to determine: I should as soon 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 year 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 mean he the time when he will, it was no small abomination when an Idolatrous Chapel or Mansion is erected in the mountain of the Lord's 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 door of the Court, verse. 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 Council-chamber painted all about with imagery, and the Seventy members of the Sanhedrin themselves offering Idolatrous incense: Then is he brought to the upper Northgate, 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 only leave the Gloss 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 month Tammuz: others interpret the the word Tammuz to signify burnt from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Dan. III. 19. meaning that they wept for him that was burnt, because they burnt their Sons and Daughters in 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. But our great wise Man Rabbi Moses bar Maiemon writes, that it is found in the Books of the ancient, that there was a Man of the Idolatrous Prophets whose name was Tammuz, and he called to a certain King and commanded him to worship the seven Planets and the twelve Signs, 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 between 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 own homes: So this became a custom to them on the first day of the month Tammuz every year, to bewail and lament Tammuz. But some interpret Tammuz to be the name of a Beast which they worshipped.