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CHAP. XXIX. Beth Mokadh. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉

OUR Survey is to begin at the North-west corner of the Court-wall, and there we meet with the building called Beth Mokadh, a place of remarkableness for several particulars.

1. It was a building so large that it raught from the North-west Angle of the Wall to the Gate below, of the same name, and so it took up a fourth part of the length of that side of the Court: and it contained four several rooms in the four corners of it; that room which was properly called the room Mokadh being in the midst of them as the Center: And this the Treatise Middoth uttereth in these expressions, There were four rooms in Beth Mokadh 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Like bed Chambers opening into a dining-room: Two of which Chambers stood within the Court and two without, and marks were set within to show where the two grounds parted.

2. The four rooms in the four corners of it, were these.

The South-west room was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Lamb room, because there they lodged the Lambs that were appointed for the daily Sacrifice. And the room was never without six Lambs in it a day together. For no Lamb was offered but which had been taken up four days before: and so this necessitated, that if two of the six were taken out today for the Morning and Evening Sacrifice, other two must be brought in before night: And by this means it was never without six in it a whole day together.

2. The South-west room was the room of those that prepared the Shewbread, which God had appointed to be set before him on the golden Table every Sabbath. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Family of Garmu was for this work. These two rooms mentioned stood either wholly or some part of them within the Court.

3. The North-west room 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 was the place where the Maccabean family laid up the stones of the Altar, which the Grecian Kings had defiled. For when Antiochus Epiphanus had made such miserable havoc at Jerusalem, as that he had laid Religion, Laws, Liberties, Altar, Sacrifice, and all wast, and had defiled the Altar with abominable Sacrifices, Judas Maccabeus and his Brethren getting a little ground of their enemies and of their miseries, began to purify and restore the Temple: and consulting what to do with the Altar stones which were profaned, and which Mattathias their Father had therefore pulled down, 1 Mac. II. 25. they laid them up in this room till a Prophet should come that might resolve what to do with them, 1 Mac. IV. 44. &c.

4. The North-west room was a room through which they went to a bathing place, out of the middle room which was properly called Beth Mokadh, whosoever had received any nocturnal pollution in their sleep. Now where this bathing place was it is controverted, whether under ground, or whether on the outside of the outmost wall; The Treatise Tamid gives account of it in these words: Doth a nocturnal pollution by Gonorrhea happen to any of them? He gets out and goes along in the Gallery that goeth under the Temple, and candles burn on either side, till he came to the bathing place: there was a closet and a stool: and if he found the door locked he knew there was someone there, but if open he knew there was nobody there: so he goes down and bathes himself, wipes himself, warms himself in the closet, and comes again and sits among his Brethren.

3. The room Mokadh which was in the midst of these four, they being as it were Parlors in the four corners of it, is said to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 built archwise: not that the surface or upmost part of it was like an arch of stone without any other roof, but that being raised and roofed like the other buildings about the Court, it was only in this lower room made archwise, because there was a passage through it out of the Chel into the Court. And there were two Gates to this room of passage, one towards the Chel, and the other towards the Court, and that into the Court had a Wicket in it, through which they commonly went in and out, the great Gate standing shut: and so it is like had that also into the Chel. And this passage I suppose is that which Aba Jose calleth the Gate of Jeconiah, of which we made mention before.

4. This room was called Beth Mokadh, or the place of the burning fire, because a fire was kept here continually, all the cold time of the year for the Priests, both by day and by night: By day to warm themselves at when they came from the service, for upon that they attended barefooted and very thin clad, and in the night to keep them warm as they kept their Guard: for in this room was a Guard of the Priests as was observed before, and this was the chiefest Guard of all: Beth Mokadh (saith the Talmud) was a great arched room, and it was set about with stone benches: on which the Elders of the House of their Fathers slept, and the keys of the Court were in their keeping: But the young Men of the Priest-hood slept in their garments on the ground: they slept not in the holy garments, but put those off, folded them up and laid them under their Heads, and lay in their own wearing clothes: So that this room was both a thorough pass, and a great Hall, where was kept a common and a constant fire: and the Gates on either side of the arch being shut, it was as a close room, and as if it had not been a thorough passage at all.

5. In this room there was a box or cabinet as we may call it, in which were laid up the keys of the Court, and taken out and in, as the Doors were locked or to be unlocked. The Talmud describes it thus, There was a flag of Marble and a ring was fastened in it, and a chain, at which the keys of the Court were hung: when the time of locking the Gates came, he took up the flag by the ring, and took the keys off the ring, and locked the Gates within, and when he had done he put the keys on the chain, and the flag in its place again: Now this marble flag, which in Hebrew is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 A table, on the upper or outside of it had a ring by which to take it up, and on the innerside, a chain so wrought as that the keys might fitly and readily be hanged on or taken off as there was occasion: And this box appeareth to have been in the ground, partly because we have mention of such another flag with a ring in it, and that lay upon the ground, and dust was taken from under it for the trial of the suspected Wife, and partly because the Tradition saith 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 That after the Priest had laid up the keys and laid down the flag, he laid his pillow upon it and there slept.

6. If any in their sleep suffered Gonorrhea, they were to bath, as was said before, and the way to the bathing place is expressed in these words 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 He goeth down a turning stair case that went under the Temple. The word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 doth generally signify all the body and buildings of the Temple, as the whole stood like a sumptuous and goodly Palace (for so the word doth properly signify) and so it is used, 1 Chron. XXIX. 1, 19. Therefore it is hard to tell which way this passage to the bathing place lay, since the word will enlarge it to any part of the Temple. It appeareth that it was some vault under ground through which they passed; into which vault they went down by a turning pair of stairs, out of the North-west room of Beth Mokadh. And from thence whither they went, whether under the Chel, as Rabbi Eliezer conceiveth, or under some part of the Court, or Mountain of the House, it is but in vain to search: It seemeth the Bath was under ground, and a room by it with a fire in it to warm themselves at when they had done bathing.

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

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

I shall tender about the former these two conjectures: 1. Because at this Gate the Women in the former Temple, did weep for Tammuz; as was observed out of Ezekiel even now: And 2. Because at this Gate the Women that brought Sacrifices went into the Court to see them offered. For although it was not lawful for Women to go ordinarily into the Court as it was for Men, but they were confined to their own Court, yet as I have observed elsewhere out of Tosaphia, Women when they brought Sacrifices might and did go into the Court of Israel as well as Men. It is true indeed that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Women after childbirth appeared in the Gate of Nicanor for the making of their atonement, and came but up into the Gate, and not into the Court at all, because they came thither for their full Purification: but those Women that were clean, and came not upon any occasion of Purification, but brought Burnt-offerings, or Sin, or Trespass-offerings, they presented them and themselves with them at this Gate. There was a Gate was nearer to the Altar than this, namely the Gate Nitsots, which we are to survey by and by, but the place of the rings or slaughter place being between it and the Altar, it was not a place of that clear and uninterrupted access that this was of, and therefore the Sacrifices both of Men and Women were presented here. Yet did the Gate bear the name of the Women rather than of the Men, as from the rarer matter of the Womens going into the Court, which was more commonly done by Men.

And this helps us to one reason why this Gate was called the Gate of Corban, or of the offering, namely because the Sacrifices to be offered up were brought up in this way. And this very reason Bartenora giveth, saying, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Here they brought in the most holy Sacrifices, which were to be slain on the North-side of the Altar. Over against this Gate on the other side of the Court there was a Gate that bare two names as well as this. It was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Gate of offering, because the Sacrifices that were to be slain on the South-side of the Altar were brought in at that Gate, and it was also called the Gate of Firstlings, because those were the chiefest of those offerings. So also this Gate where we are, it was called the Gate of Corban or of offering, because the Sacrifices to be slain on the North-side of the Altar were brought in by it: and it was called also the Gate of the Women, because their passage through it with their Sacrifices was more rare and remarkable than Men's. Now these were the Sacrifices that were slain on this North-side of the Altar: The most holy Sacrifices, the Bullock and Goat of the day of Expiation, the Bullocks and Goats that were burnt, all Sin-offerings, whole Burnt-offerings and Trespass-offerings.

Only the Lambs of the daily Sacrifice, though they were slain on the North-side of the Altar, yet is it like they were not brought into the Court at this Gate, but at that that joined to Beth Mokadh, for in that piece of building the Lamb-room was, where they were kept, as hath been shown. And so we have one reason why these two Gates bare the name of Corban. The upper was so called because the daily Sacrifice or Corban was brought through it, and the lower, because other Sacrifices were brought through that.

But there was something more in the name besides: As there were several Treasure chests in the Temple, which have been named, and several Treasuries in the Gatehouses of the Mountain of the Temple, and in the Chambers that joined to the Temple itself: of Vessels, Vestments, Tithes, First-fruits, &c. So on this side of the Court was the Treasury of the Poll-money, and for the Poor, and for the repair of the Temple; which more especially was called Corban: The word as at the first and most properly it signified an offering (and so is it frequently used in Leviticus, and that is the sense that we have newly parted with) so in the Jews common Language it came also to signify the Treasury of the Temple, as Matth. XXVII. 6. The Priests took the money and said it is not lawful to cast it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Into the Corban. And so Josephus saith, that Pilate occasioned a tumult among the Jews, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . By consuming the sacred Treasury which was called Corban upon making an Aquaeduct. And so the Treatise Middoth reckoning the Guards that were in the Temple, nameth one at the Chamber of Corban: one at the Chamber of the Vail, and one behind the Mercy seat: From which last passage, laid to this consideration that we are about, namely, that there were two Gates on the North-side of the Court which were called Corban, there is some ground and probability to place the Corban or chiefest Treasury of cash or money there where we do. It appeareth by the distribution of the Guards in the Tradition cited, that the Guard at the Chamber over against the Vail, and at the Chamber of Corban were on the several sides of the Court, or else there were no proportion or conformity in their stations. All the seven Gates of the Court were Guarded, two with Priests, and five with Levites: all the four Corners of the Court were also Guarded, and there was besides (saith the Tradition) a Guard at the Chamber of the Vail, and another at the Chamber of Corban, and another behind the Mercy seat, that is, one on the one side of the Court over against the Body of the Temple, and another on the other side, and another just behind, which was called the Guard behind the Mercy seat. Now where can we so properly look for the Chamber Corban, as between those two Gates that both bare that name? And the matter here seemeth somewhat nearly parallel to the case that we observed about the Gates and House of Asuppim upon the West-quarter of the Mountain of the House; for as there was a piece of building that ran between two Gates, which itself was called the House of Asuppim, and gave occasion to the Gates on either end of it, to be called the Gates of Asuppim; so here was a piece of building that ran between two Gates, which itself was called Corban, and gave occasion to the Gates on either end it, to be called the Gates of Corban likewise.

To come down therefore from the Gate of Beth Mokadh, towards the East, there was first a piece of building joined to that Gate, which was a Treasury and was called Corban, and then was there a room where the Levites kept their Guard, and joining to that there was another Treasury or Corban, and joining to the East end of that, a Gate called by the same name Corban, but called also the Gate of the Women.

Now to distinguish these Treasuries, whether the one of them was the Treasury for the half Shekel poll-money, and the other for money and vessels offered for the use and repair of the House, or whether one of them was the Treasury for the Temple and the other for the Poor, which distinction we observed before, it is but in vain to inquire after, since it is not possible to resolve when we have done all we can: only this I suppose may not unpertinently be observed, that the Treasuries wherein they put money, (whether Chambers or Chests) were those that most properly were called Corban, rather than the Treasuries where they laid up other things: And according to the several places where these Chambers and these Chests stood, the place was called the Treasury, and the House of the Treasury.

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

The place is in 2 King. XII. 9. & 2 Chron. XXIV. 8. about the Treasure or Collection chest that was made by Jehoiada, for the gathering of money for the repair of the Temple, which had been decayed and defaced in the days of Athaliah. And because there appeareth a visible contrariety between the two Texts that handle that matter, it may not be amiss to lay them together, and then to see how they may be reconciled.

To heal the contrariety that seemeth to be in these Texts, the one saying the Chest was set beside the Altar, and the other, that it was set without the Gate: the one that there were no Vessels made of the money that was offered, and the other that there were Vessels made: it is to be observed that though the Chest might be the same, yet the stories concerning it and concerning the money coming to it are to be understood not of the same time. The zeal of Joash the King and the dullness of the Priests towards the repair of the House of the Lord are here compared and laid together (though good Jehoiada did always the utmost in him towards it) Joash had urged the repair of the Temple, and that the Priests should get up all the money accruing to it for the use of it and bestow it to that purpose: namely the half Shekel poll-money of everyone that passeth the account: the money that any one was set at to redeem him from any singular vow, Lev. XXVII. and all the money that any offered of his own free-will: everyone of the Priests to take it of his acquaintance: yet in the three and twentieth of the Kings reign, there was nothing done towards repairing: Thereupon the King seeing either the slackness, or falsehood, or both, of the Priests, requires them to meddle no more with receiving money, nor with repairing, since the business under their Hands went on no better: which they irreligiously and surlily are content to do, not caring whether the Temple be repaired or no. But good Jehoiada slacketh not, but sets a Chest with a hole in it besides the Altar, that what money might be had, might be put in there for the use appointed: But when that did not avail to do the work, nor to buy any Vessels for the House and Service of the Lord, for the money went still through the Priests fingers, the Chest being in their Court, Joash the King either removes that Chest, or makes another and sets it without the Court at the coming in, whither everyone might have access to it; and proclaims through all the Country that they should bring in the money appointed by Moses; the Princes and People come readily and joyfully and bring it in, so that there was enough to perfect repairs, and withal to make those vessels for the Temple that were wanting.

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

AS there were three rooms between the middle Gate Corban, which was also called the Gate of the Women, and the more Westward Gate Corban, which was also called the Gate Beth Mokadh, namely two Treasuries and a Levites ward between the two: So were there three rooms also between the same middle Gate Corban, and the Gate more Eastward which was called the Gate Nitsots, and those were The room of the Salt: the room of Parvah, and the room of the Washers: The room of the Salt was the most Westward of the three, and joined to the Gate of the Women, and it was so called, because they there laid up the Salt for the use of the Temple. For howsoever Salt and Wine and Oil and such things were sold in the Tabernae, for the use of particular persons offerings, yet for the public offerings and service, these things were stocked up at the public charge in several rooms appointed for them.

The use of Salt at the Temple was exceeding much, for nothing was laid on the Altar unsalted, but only the Wood, the Blood and the Wine of the drink-offering: and how much Salt might be spent upon all their Sacrifices, let any one imagine, for this was the Law, with all thine offerings thou shalt offer Salt, Lev. II. 13. And they had not this way only for the spending of Salt, but they also salted the skins of all the Sacrifices when they had flayed them off. For the skins belonged to the Priests as their Fee: the course therefore of the Priests that was in serving, did still Salt the skins of what Sacrifices they offered, that they might not be offensive, and kept them till the end of the week of their Service: and on the Eve of the Sabbath, towards night they divided them to everyone his share.

The place where they salted and laid up the skins till that time, was in the room of Parvah, which joined to this room of the Salt, on the East; and which is the next piece of building that we are to survey: The reason of the name is somewhat doubtful: the Gemarites in the Treatise Joma debating it, conclude in this Tradition: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 what is meant by Parvah? Rab Joseph saith, Parvah was a Magician; the meaning of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (saith Rabbi Nathan) is to this purpose: Parvah is the name of a man who was a Magician: And there are some of the wise Men that say that he digged a vault under ground, till he could come to see what the High Priest did on the day of Expiation. And the wise Men were aware of this vault that he had made, and they found him in it, and they called this Chamber by his name. The short Gloss upon the Mishnaioth in octavo goes yet further. A Conjurer (saith he) whose name was Parvah built this room by Magic: And some say that he digged through the Wall to see the service of the High Priest, and there he was slain. Magic was a matter more in use at the Temple among some of the Grandees there, than one could have possibly thought that it could have been: for the Jerusalem Talmud relates that some of the High Priests used to destroy one another with it. But others deduce the reason of the name Parvah from Parim which signifieth Bullocks, because of the many Hides or Skins of Bullocks that were laid up there: About which matter we shall not be curious to sway the balance one way or other: but shall leave the reason of the name to be disputed by them that have a mind to such a business, it is enough to our survey to take notice of the place, and name and use of it without more circumstances.

At the East end of this building of Parvah, there was another piece of building which was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The room of the Washers: And the reason of the name was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Because in this room they washed the inwards of the Sacrifices according to the Law, Lev. 1. 9. It hath been a very general conceit, of washing the beasts that were to be offered in the pool of Bethesda, of which there is mention, Joh. V. If that opinion mean, the washing of the Beast whilst he was alive, I know not where the least footstep of any such custom is to be found, either in Scripture or in Jewish monuments of antiquity. And if it mean the washing of the Inwards after the Beast was slain, the room that we are about was the place where that was done, and they went no further: and when they had first washed them here, they did it again upon the Marble Tables, of which we shall speak ere it be long.

Out of this room of washing, there was a pair of winding Stairs, to the top of the room Parvah, and on the top of that room there was a Bath, where the High Priest did bathe himself on the day of expiation, the several bathings that he was to bathe on that day, but only the first which was in the Bath on the top of the room Abhtines, as hath been observed before. It appeareth that here was a great issue or running cock of Water, in this washing room, which served for the washing of so many Intrails as there was occasion to wash continually: and that there was a conveyance of Water to the roof of the adjoining room, where also a Cock ran to supply the Bath.

CHAP. XXXII. The Gate, and House Nitsots 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The House of Stone Vessels.

WE are now come to the Gate that was most East of all the three on this Northside, and it bare the double name of the Gate Nitsots and the Gate of the Song. The word Nitsots 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 betokeneth properly sparkling, as Esa. I. 31. Ezek. I. 7, &c. and so it signifies the beams of the Sun, which as it were sparkle at his rising or going forth. But sometimes it is used by the Rabbins to signify Drops, which are as it were the sparks of Water: and sometime as Baal Aruch observes, Froth or Foam: Now to what sense of all these to apply the name of this Gate, and to give the reason of its denomination in that sense, will prove more labor than profit, though the pains be put to the best improvement. I shall leave it upon these two conjectures in the sense of Sparkling: That it was called the sparkling Gate, either because the fire or flaming of the Altar shone upon it, it standing in most opposition to the Altar of all the Gates on this North side: or because the South Sun did give a great dazzling light upon the gilding of this Gate, which it did by neither of the other on this North-side, the height of the Temple interposing betwixt the Sun and them: But this Gate lay clearly open to the South Sun, and so the leaves of the Gate being gilt, they gave a sparkling and dazzling reflection into the Court.

But why it is called the Gate of the Song, for ought I can find, is left also only to conjecture: And I shall only offer this; Because they that came in at this Gate came in the very face of the Levites as they stood in their desks singing, or playing on their Instruments and making the Temple music.

Joyning to the East-side of this Gate there was a building was called from the Gate, The House Nitsots, in which the Priests kept a Guard in the upper room▪ and the Levites in the lower: and between this building and the Gate there was as it were a Cloister passage▪ by which passage there was a way out of the very Gate into the room below where the Levites kept, and there was also a passage out of the Cloister into the Chel 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 And so is that clause in the Talmuds survey of the Temple to be understood when it saith 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 That this Gate was like a Cloister, and a Chamber was built over it, where the Priests kept Ward above, and the Levites below, and it had a Door into the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel. The meaning of which passage may be conceived to be this: That as you went through this Gate Nitsots out of the Court into the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel upon your right hand there was not a plain Wall for the side of the Gate, as the other Gates had, but that side was open with Pillars (as the Cloister sides were of which we have spoken) and within those Pillars there was a little Cloister or Walk which was almost as long as the passage through the Gate was broad: So that when you were in the hollow of the Gate you might step in between the Pillars into this Cloister, and so into the room where the Levites kept their Guard, and over this Cloister and that room, and over the Gate, was there a place where the Priests kept their ward, and this was one of the three places where they warded: Out of the Levites room there was a door into the Chel.

These buildings ran thus from this Gate of Nitsots Eastward a pretty way, and then there joined to them another building which raught to the very corner of the Court Wall. And it was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The House of Stone: Not as if it were built of Stone and the other buildings of Wood, for the rest were of Stone also; nor as if this differed in manner of building from the rest; but because all the Vessels that were used in it were of Earth or Stone: And so the Gemara upon the Treatise Joma explaineth it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Before the Temple, at the North-east corner was the Chamber of the House of Stone, and thither they put the Priest apart, that was to burn the red Cow seven days before. And it is called the House of Stone, because the work of it was in Vessels of Dung, Earth, or Stone. In which passage they do not only give the reason of the name, but they also give an evidence of the situation of this place, when they say it was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Before the Temple at the North-East corner. And as for the putting of the Priest apart into this room that we are about, who was to burn the red Cow, there is the like Record in the Treatise Parah, in these words, Seven days before the burning of the Cow, they put apart the Priest that was to burn her out of his House, into the Chamber which was before the Temple in the North-east, which was called the House of Stone, and they be sprinkled him all the Seven days, &c.

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

THUS having passed round about the Wall that enclosed the Court, and observed every particular Gate and Building in it, we are now to enter into the Court itself, and to survey that, and there we shall find much variety.

The whole length of the Court from East to West was one hundred eighty and seven cubits, and the breadth from North to South one hundred thirty and five. The parcels of the total sum of the length were these, from East to West.

• The breadth of the Court of Israel eleven cubits.
• The breadth of the Court of the Priests eleven cubits.
• The breadth of the Altar two and thirty cubits.
• Between the Altar and the Temple, two and twenty cubits.
• The length of the Temple itself, an hundred cubits.
• Behind the West end of the Temple to the Court-wall, eleven cubits.
• The parcels of the breadth were these, going from North to South.
• From the Wall of the Court to the Pillars, eight cubits.
• From the Pillars to the Marble Tables, four cubits.
• From the Tables to the place of the Rings, four cubits.
• The space of the Rings itself, four and twenty cubits.
• From the Rings to the Altar, eight cubits.
• The Altar and the rise to it, sixty two cubits.
• From the foot of the rise to the South-wall of the Court, five and twenty cubits.

Of all these particulars we shall give account as we go along: And first it will be needful to clear the terms, of the Court of Israel, and the Court of the Priests: Now these are to be understood in a stricter acceptation or in a larger: In the strictest sense they were taken for the first ground you passed over as you went up from the East Wall of the Court, or where the Gate of Nicanor was, unto the Altar, and they are said to be eleven cubits broad apiece. But in the larger acceptation, the Court of Israel, was a space of ground upon which the Lay-men of Israel, for so let me call them, might stand, along within the Wall that enclosed the Court, on the North, South, and West quarters of the Court as well as on the East.

The Court was Cloistered along the inclosing Wall of it within, even as we have observed of the Mountain of the House, and the Court of the Women already: And so not only reason itself doth evince unto us, which will tell that if the inferior places, and of less veneration, were so beautified, much more was this which was of the chiefest honor and highest Worship, but both Josephus and the Talmudists, do also give testimony to such a purpose: For Josephus in those words that we had occasion to cite a good while ago, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 &c. Cloisters ran along the Wall within from Gate to Gate, born up with fair and great Pillars, &c. doth intimate no less: for though he doth particularly in that sentence speak of the Cloisters before the Gazophylacia, or Treasure-chests, which we placed in the Court of the Women, yet doth the scope of this▪ Discourse in that place, refer to both the Courts. The Talmudic Treatise Tamid likewise speaking of the Priests first coming every Morning into the Court, it saith, They came out through a Wicket out of Beth Mokadh, and being come into the Court they parted into two companies, and one went one way and another another, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Per exedram, along the Cloister, round about the Court to see whether all was well and safe there. And you had mention even now of Pillars eight cubits distant from the North Wall of the Court, which though indeed in their very name they speak that they were low Pillars and not such as bare up the Roof of the Cloisters, as we shall observe when we come to speak of them, yet were there higher Pillars by them that were such Supporters.

On the North and South side therefore, and at the West end of the Court, there was a Cloister like unto those that we have spoken of already, born up with Pillars and roofed over head, that people might stand under unannoied of Rain and Weather, and this was the Court of Israel, that went round about the Court: for in this might Lay-men stand, and so they did, when there were great multitudes at the Temple, as there was at the three Festivals, when they were enjoined to appear before the Lord. In the Rubric of the Passover which is given by the Talmud in the Treatise Pesachin: It is said, The Passover was killed in three companies: And the first company went in, and the Court was filled, &c. Now by the filling of the Court with people is not meant all the parts of the Court within the Wall that did inclose it, but this Court of Israel or Cloister where the laity might stand, round about: And all inward, or what was enclosed by this Cloister, was in the large acceptation the Court of the Priests: This Cloister did not retain the same space of liberty of standing or walking, in every part of it, for here and there were buildings that stood out something into it, as part of Beth Mokadh did at the North-west corner, and part of the building Gazith at the South-east, &c. yet was there such passage by them made more or less, that the buildings did not thrust him that would pass, into the Court of the Priests, but that there was a space to pass, sometimes larger, and sometimes narrower even all the Court round about.

Now at the East part or quarter of it as you came up out of the Gate of Nicanor, you entered upon that which was called in the strictest sense, the Court of Israel, which was eleven cubits over as you went up towards the Altar, and then was that which also in the stricter sense was called the Court of the Priests, and that was eleven cubits over likewise: These two spaces were double Cloistered, being roofed over, and the roof supported with a double row of Pillars: the one row standing out to the opening of the open Court, and the other row standing where the two spaces parted the one from the other. These were more peculiarly called the Court of Israel, and the Court of the Priests, upon these two or three reasons.

1. Because hither was the most ordinary access of Israelites and Priests in their most solemn Worship, it being just in the face both of Temple and Altar.

2. Because in that which was called the Court of Israel, the Stationary-men did constantly stand, in their attendance on the service in representation of all the people, as we have shown them such representatives, in another place: And in that which was called the Court of Priests, did those Priests stand that had not employment in the present service (as all of them had not always) and waited upon the Worship and Service, which their Brethren now in employment were about.

3. That part of the room Gazith which stood within the Court, opened into both these Courts; and as that was the room, where the Priests cast lots for the dividing of the Service amongst them, so it was the Chapel (as it were) where they said a good part of their daily Liturgy, and so the People and Priests in these Courts were ready to hear it. The one Court was distinguished from the other by some grates or bars or such like things which the Jews call 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which stood between Pillar and Pillar in that middle row of Pillars that bare up the roof of the Cloister. Into the Court of the Priests, whether largely or strictly taken, the Israelites or lay People might not come but upon special occasion, and that occasion was threefold; namely, either to lay his Hand upon the Beast that he offered, or to kill him, or to wave some part of him, and then his coming into the Court either of Israel, or of the Priests, or both, was ordinarily at the North or South-side of the Court, according as his offering was to be slain on the North or South-side of the Altar, as we have observed before.

The Court of the People was level with the floor of the East-gate or the Gate Nicanor, but the floor of the Court of the Priests was two cubits and an half higher, and the rising thus. Imagine you came up from the Gate of Nicanor: or rather imagine the Levites coming up from it with their Musical Instruments in their Hands (which we observed before they laid up in rooms just under the Court of Israel, but the Doors of those rooms opening into the Court of the Women) when they were risen the many steps into the Gate of Nicanor and were come thorough it, they had on either Hand a fair passage into the Cloister or Court of the People, (such another as he hath that cometh upon the Royal Exchange either out of Cornhill or Bartlemew-lane, he may step into the Cloister walk on whether Hand he will) they walked upon even ground till they came over the breadth of the Court of the People, or to the Pillars which were on the further side of that Court which bare up the Cloister, and distinguished the Court of the People and the Court of the Priests one from another: Then was there a rising of two cubits and an half, but stepped up thus. First there was a step of a cubit high, and then three steps of half a cubit high a piece, thus it was as you went directly up from the Gate of Nicanor forwards. But if you would turn on either Hand, there were the Desks or standings of the Levites, where they stood to Sing and to make their Music, made with steps, as even as that middle rising just now mentioned: first a rising of a cubit height, and that ran along at that height all along before the Rails and Pillars that parted twixt the Court of the Priests and Court of People: and then were there three steps up of half a cubit high a piece, and on the highest step stood the Levites with their Instruments and their Song: their Feet even with the Floor of the Court of the Priests, and a Desk before them.

Elias Levita it seems observed not this rising both into the Court and in the Levites station, when he saith, that their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Dukan (which was the name of their Desks, and which the Learned render, Suggestus or Pulpitum ) was nothing else but a bench or form whereon they stood: for their Feet stood even with the floor of the Court, and were not raised above it at all. His words are these, I wonder at this Targum (on Psalm CXXXIV.) Lift up your Hands, O ye Priests, upon the holy 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 For behold 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the bench on which the Levites stood when they Sung, and it is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Dukan in the Arabic: but in the Dutch and Vulgar, Bauca: In this construction of it by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a bench, and owning it for an Arabic word he followeth, Aruch, verbatim, but I confess I do not very well understand the cause of his wonder, especially considering what he saith before the words cited, namely this: We call the place where the Priests lifted up their Hands when they blessed the people 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Dukan, and so is the Targum, Lift up your Hands, O ye Priests, on the holy 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and at this I wonder. Now if he wonder, that the Targum hath brought in the Priest blessing the People from the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Desk or Pulpit, in that Psalm: he might have found the like in other places. For the Chaldee of Jonathan upon the Law doth thus render the 23 verse of the sixth of Numbers, Speak to Aaron and his Sons, saying, Thus shall ye bless the Children of Israel, spreading their hands upon the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Dukana, and they shall speak to them in this manner: where the Hebrew Gloss in the Margin interprets it, by spreading their Hands in the place called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Dukana; and a little after, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The benched place called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Dukan. And so the large Chaldee Paraphrase upon the Canticles, Glosseth the seventh verse of the third Chapter, ( Behold his bed which is Solomon's: threescore Valiant Men are about it) thus when Solomon the King of Israel built the House of the Sanctuary of the Lord in Jerusalem, the Lord said by his Word, How beautiful is this House of the Sanctuary which is built to me by King Solomon the Son of David, and how beautiful are the Priests when they spread forth their Hands, and stand upon their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Dukan and bless the People, the House of Israel, by the threescore wonders that were delivered to Moses their Master!

But it seems his wonder is at this, that the Jews so generally, and the Chaldee Paraphrase particularly should hold that the Priests when they blessed the People stood upon the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Dukan, whereas the Dukan or these Desks were for the Levites and not for the Priests: And if I did conceive that they meant these very Desks of the Levites, when they say, the Priests stood in the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Dukan and blessed the People, I should wonder with him also, but I suppose they meant some other Desks appropriate to the Priests for this purpose, or the place of the Priests standing when they blessed the People, and as by a name best known they call it Dukan.

The words of the Talmud in description of these Desks where the Levites stood to Sing and to make their Music are these. Rabbi Eliezer the Son of Jacob saith, There was a rising (viz. out of the Court of the People into the Court of the Priests) and it was a cubit high, and the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Dukan was set above it, and in that there were three steps of half a cubit high a piece: So that the Court of the Priests is found to be higher than the Court of Israel by two cubits and an half. So that it appears indeed that the Levites stood upon raised steps in their Desks, but it is plain withal, that the highest step was no higher than the floor of the Court before them, and that that step whereon they stood, was not called the Dukan, but the whole place of the three steps rising.

And thus were the eleven cubits of the Court of the Priests at this East quarter of the Court taken up and divided: Namely two cubits and an half taken up by the Desks of the Singers (for as was the height of the steps, so was their breadth) and eight cubits and an half for the Priests standing. The Court of Israel parted from the Levites Desks, by Pillars and Rails: The Levites standing parted from the Priests by a Wainscot Desk or some such thing. The Court of the Priests open to the Altar, but only that the Pillars that supported the Cloister, stood in a row before it.

And so we have the dimensions and platform of the Court, and of the Buildings and the Cloisters that stood about it: But before we proceed to observe the particulars that were within it, I cannot but think of a piece of structure, that in its story looks something like to some of the Cloisters that we have described either in the Mountain of the House, or in one of the Courts, though I believe it was none of them, and that is The Covert of the Sabbath, of which there is speech and mention, 2 King. XVI. 18. where it is said of Ahaz. The Covert of the Sabbath, that they had built in the House, and the Kings entry without, &c. How to frame the Verb to this sentence is somewhat doubtful: whether to say he turned it from the House of the Lord, and so doth our English, or he turned it to the House of the Lord, and so doth the Chaldee Paraphrast and some others with him: for the word in the Original doth not determine it. Were that the question before us, I should adhere to the sense of our English (for the Kings entry without was turned to the House of the Lord from its first making) but our question is, what this Covert of the Sabbath was. The Seventy have rendered it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The foundation of the chair or seat, upon what mistake in their unprickt Bible, a mean Hebrician will easily discover, namely that they read Musadh for Musach (Daleph and Caph • inal being like) and for Shabbath they read Shebeth. The most received opinion about this matter is, that this was some special piece of building, that was purposely made for the course of Priests that went out every Sabbath to repose themselves in, till the Sabbath was out, or till they might go home. And the reason of this conception is because of the word Sabbath, which they suppose to refer rather to the change of the Priests courses, who came in and went out on the Sabbath, than to the Service, or the Peoples attending, whose concourse was greater at the Festivals than on the Sabbath; I should rather take it to mean some Court of Guard that was made on the top of the Causey Shallecheth up towards the Gate Coponius, where the Kings Guard stood on the Sabbaths, having attended the King into the Temple, till he came out again, there to receive him again and to Guard him home: and I should understand and construe the word The Kings in conjunction with both particulars named, namely that it meaneth the Kings covert of the Sabbath as well as the Kings Entry without: and my reason for this opinion I should fetch partly from the mention of these Gates that we had in speech before, namely, The Gate of the Foundation, and the Gate behind the Guard, 2 King. XI. 6. And partly from the passage in Jerem. XXXVIII. 14. where it is said, that King Zedekiah sent and took Jeremy the Prophet unto him into the third entry that was in the House of the Lord, where Solomon Jarchi doth ingenuously confess that he knows not what this third Entry in the House of the Lord was: but perhaps, saith he, it meaneth the Court of Israel; the Court of the Women and the Chel being the two other. Kimchi doth well conceive that this Entry was as they came from the Kings House into the Temple, but more of it he hath not determined. I should say it meaneth the Gate Coponius: and conceive the King coming to the Temple, through these entrances or passages. First, At the bottom of the Stairs or descent of Z • on, much about his turning to come upon the Causey, there was the Gate of the Foundation; then being come up the Causey towards the Temple, he passed through the Gate behind the Guard, and walked through the Court of Guard, which I suppose was called the Kings covert for the Sabbath, and so through the Gate Coponius, which was his third entrance or Gate he passed through. These Gates, we said before, were Gates of Zion, meaning that they were in the way from the Temple thither, and not Gates of the Temple itself.

According therefore to this supposal, I apprehend that Ahaz becoming a Renegado to Religion, did deface and defile the Temple within, and did clean cut off the way of the Kings access thither without, as if he and his should never have more to do there: And according to this supposal also I apprehend, that Zedekiah having garisoned himself in the Temple, while the Chaldeans were now lying in Siege about the City, he sends for Jeremy from his prison in Zion, and he comes up to the Gate Coponius or Shallecheth, and there the King and he confer together. And now let us turn our Eyes and Observation upon what is to be found in the Court from which we have thus far digressed: and first we will begin with the Altar, which is not only the most remarkable thing to be observed there, but which must also serve us as a standing mark, from whence to measure the place and sight of other things.

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

THE Altar that Moses made▪ in the Wilderness, because it was to be carried up and down, was of light materials and of small dimensions: for it was of Shittim wood, and but five cubits square, and three cubits high, with a Grate of Brass hanging within it for the Fire and Sacrifice to lie upon. And therefore when it is called the brazen Altar, 2 Chon. I. 5. it is because it was plated over with brass, Exod. XXXVIII. 1. But when Solomon came to build the Temple, and there was to be no more removing of the Tabernacle of the Congregation as there had been before, he made the Altar far larger and weightier than that of Moses: namely of Brass and of twenty cubits square and ten cubits high.

I shall not be curious to inquire whether Solomon's Altar were of brass indeed or no; or whether it is said to be of brass, though it were of stone, because it succeeded instead of Moses his brazen one, as some Jews conceive, or as others, because though it were of stone, yet it was over-laid with brass: I see no reason why it should not be properly and literally understood that it was of massy brass indeed: for why may we not well conclude by the plating of Moses his Altar over with brass, that it was made of wood only for lightness, and had it not been for that, it had been all of brass as well as the outside: And that that outside plating, might be a warrant to Solomon to make his Altar of massy brass. It is true indeed that there is a command of making an Altar of Earth or Stone, Exod. XX. but it may very well be questioned, whether these Altars meant not such as were made upon special and emergent occasions, namely upon the Lord's singular appearing to particular persons, as to Gideon, Mano • b and others, who upon such appearances built Altars and sacrificed, Judge. VI. 26. & XIII. 19. 1 King. XVIII. 30, 31.

There is but little to be discovered about the exact fashion and Fabric of Solomon's Altar, because the Scripture speaketh very concisely of it: For it saith only thus, He made an Altar of brass, twenty cubits the length thereof, and twenty cubits the breadth thereof, and ten cubits the height thereof, 2 Chron. IV. I. So that it was four times as big in its square, as was the Altar made by Moses, and three times as high, and a cubit over: but whether it were exactly of the fashion of that of Moses, as whether the middle space within its square were hollow like his, or made up with stone, and whether it had a grated Hearth like his or a solid, and what was the manner of the ascending and going up to it, may be rather apprehended by supposal, than certainly known by any scriptural description or demonstration.

The Sacrifices that are recorded to have been offered sometimes at once, both upon the Altar of Moses and that of Solomon, are exceeding wonderful, and may cause a Man to marvel, how so vast numbers should be laid and burnt in so little a space, as even the larger of them was of, though a very large time should be allowed for it: as Solomon's thousand Sacrifices upon Moses his Altar, 1 King. III. 4. and the people's seven hundred Oxen and seven thousand Sheep upon Solomon's, 2 Chron. XV. 11, &c. Moses his Altar was but five cubits square, and how long a time might be required for a thousand Beasts whole Burnt-offerings, for so they are called, to be burnt in so small a compass? David Kimchi upon that place and story Glosseth thus, He offered not all these Sacrifices in one day, but before he returned again from Gibeon to Jerusalem: yet it seemeth by our Rabbins that they took it to be done at one time. The greatest solemnities that ever were at Jerusalem lasted ordinarily but seven days; or at the utmost but fourteen, when they would double their Festivity, as at the Dedication of the Temple, 1 King. VIII. 65. now grant Solomon fourteen, nay twice fourteen days stay at Gibeon, yet will it seem difficult that he should dispatch so many Sacrifices even in that time. And at his own Altar at Jerusalem how vast is the number of Sacrifices, that is mentioned, 1 King. VIII. 63. And Solomon offered a Sacrifice of Peace-offerings, which he offered to the Lord, two and twenty thousand Oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand Sheep: so the King and all the Children of Israel dedicated the House of the Lord, The same day did the King hallow the middle of the Court, &c.

Allow the whole fourteen days that are spoken of in verse. 65. unto this business, and yet the Text seems to limit it to a shorter time; and for all that, a Man may rather stand amazed at such a thing as this doing, than find out any satisfactory apprehension how it should be done. Sure the divine fire upon the Altar, was of a more singular quickness of dispatch than ordinary fires: or else I know not what can be said to these things. The Jews do reckon several wonders that were continually acted at the Temple, as that no Flies infested that place, though there were so much slaughtering of Beasts there, and that the smoke of the Altar always went straight up and was never blown aside by the wind, &c. which though it may be they are the less believed for the relaters sakes, yet certainly well weighed in themselves they carry very good sense and reason in them. For who would have been able in the Summer to have stood in the Court near the Altar where there was so much blood shed, and flesh stirring, if the slaughter place there had been troubled with stink, Flies and Wasps, as our common Slaughter-houses are? And how reekey and smokey a place would the Temple and all the places about it have been, and how would those that attended the service, have been choked and stifled, and no Man able to have endured in the Court, if the smoke from off the Altar had been blown up and down with every puff of wind, as we ordinarily see smoke to be? So that for the prevention of such unconveniences as these which would have made the service intolerable and unaccessible, we cannot but acknowledge a continual miraculous providence and dispensation. And so in this particular that we have in hand: that multitudes of Sacrifices, such as were especially at the three Festivals, should be dispatched by the fire within the time allotted for the offering of such Sacrifices, is rather to be ascribed to miracle than to anything else. The Altar is called Ariel, the Lord's Lion, as we shall observe by and by, and it was a Lion of a very quick devouring.

Now whereas it is said, That Solomon did hallow the middle of the Court that was before the House of the Lord, for there he offered Burnt-offerings and Meat-offerings and the fat of the Peace-offerings because the brazen Altar that was before the Lord was too little to receive them: lay this also in too, and yet it will be difficult enough to apprehend the dispatch of so many thousand Sacrifices in so short a time, if this consideration be not also laid in therewithal. But the question that is most ordinarily raised out of these words is, in what sense to understand this hallowing of the middle of the Court: whether he burnt the Sacrifices upon the very Pavement, as is the opinion of Rabbi Judah, or whether he set up Moses's Altar by his own Altar and offered on it, or whether he built an Altar of stone by his brazen one: for these opinions are also held; but methinks the greater question is about the place, and what is meant by the middle of the Court? Upon which quaere, these two things, may first be taken into observation. 1. That fire from Heaven in the time of David, had appointed out the exact place of offering Sacrifice or of the Altar, 1 Chron. XXI. 1. and to go about that piece of service in any other place of the Court, required either a prophetical warrant, or a dispensation through mere necessity, both which dispensers concurred here. 2. That this place which Solomon hallowed in the Court, was hallowed by the very service performed upon it; The Altar of Moses was hallowed at its first setting up, by being anointed, and so do the Jews, not without good ground, assert that Solomon's Altar was hallowed likewise: but this necessitated place, for so let me call it, which Solomon was constrained to set apart for that service, was not so served, but his very sacrificing there did hallow the place: namely for such a present employment, but not for future. And so the current of the Text may be interpreted, he hallowed the middle of the Court, for there he offered Burnt-offerings: so that whereas the other Altar being anointed, sanctified the gift, this extraordinary Altar did not so much sanctify the offering at the first, as was sanctified by it: And so the Temple after the return out of the Babylonian Captivity and all the Utensils belonging to it, were sanctified by the very service, for there was neither divine fire, nor any cloud of glory, nor any anointing Oil to sanctify them.

The middle of the Court which Solomon hallowed, I suppose is to be expounded in the largest acceptation of either of the words, both the middle, and the Court: for the word the middle of a thing in the Scripture language, is not always taken for the very Center of the thing mentioned, but for any part within that thing, be it in whatsoever it will, as in the middle of the Land, and in the middle of the Congregation, meaneth but within the Land, and in the Congregation: So is the phrase to be understood here, that Solomon hallowed the Court in any part of it for the burning of the Sacrifices, though the precise compass of the Altar, was fixedly pointed out as the only place for such a purpose, by fire from Heaven: And as for the word the Court, the present occasion doth seem to extend the sense of it to the whole compass of the holy ground: for it we look upon the vast and infinite number of Sacrifices that were to be slain and offered, we can do no less, and all little enough too, than allow the whole compass of the holy ground for it: And the word the Court, standeth not in opposition to the Mountain of the House, but both the Mountain of the House, and the Court itself, are both called by that general name the Court in contradiction to the very body of the Temple.

Ezekiel's Altar is said to be twelve cubits long, and twelve cubits broad, square in the four squares thereof, Ezek. XLIII. 16. which the Talmudicks do reckon up to four and twenty cubits upon every side of the square: for they suppose that the account is not as measuring from corner to corner on every side, but measuring from the very midst or center of the Altar to any of the sides, and thither was twelve cubits: And the reason of this their construction is, because it is said 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Towards the four squares of it. It might seem (say they) that the whole Altar was but twelve cubits square in all: but when it is said 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Towards the four squares thereof, it showeth, that he measureth from the middle, twelve cubits every way: And of this square, namely of four and twenty cubits on every side, they hold the Altar to have been after the Captivity, and so they describe it. R. Jose saith, At the first the Altar was but twenty eight cubits on every side: And according to this measure it narrowed in its rising till the fire place was but twenty cubits square: But when the Children of the Captivity came up, they added thereunto four cubits on the North, and four cubits on the West, like the fashion of the letter γ Gamma.

As Solomon's Altar was ten cubits high, 2 Chr. IV. 1. so also was the Altar at the second Temple, and so the Jerusalem Talmud doth witness, saying 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The height of the Altar was ten cubits: And of that height is Ezekiel's Altar, whose copy the Children of the Captivity did very much follow: Now as it was impossible for the Priests when the Altar was so high, to stand on the ground and to serve upon it, so had they an express prohibition against going up to the Altar by steps, lest their nakedness under their loose Coats should be discovered, Exod. XX. 26. Therefore as a temper between these two exigence, there was a gentle rising made from the ground to the top of the Altar, whereon the Priests might go up to the Altar to serve upon it; and this rising was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Kebesh which may well be Englished The rise of the Altar.

The Gloss upon the Mishneh in the Treatise Zabim, and R. Nathan from thence hath taught us to understand the manner of this rising, by that instance and description that they give of the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 That it is a great Plank that Mariners have, that when they will come down out of the Ship, they descend, or come down upon it, to save their feet from touching of the water: and this Plank is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Kebesh: And so in the Treatise of the Sabbath they have a case, about a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Kebesh, or such a Plank: Doth an Idolater make a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Descent for himself, to go down by? an Israelite may go down after him. But doth he make it for the Israelite? it is not lawful for him to go upon it: There is an example of Rabban Gamaliel and the Elders, they were to come out of a Ship, and an Idolater had made 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a descent for himself, Rabban Gamaliel and the Elders came down upon it. So that by this parallel we may observe the manner and nature of this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Kebesh or rise to the Altar, that it was a sloping gentle rising, but made of stone, whereby the Priests might go up to the Altar, without danger of discovering their nakedness: we might call it a rising Cawsey to the top of the Altar; for so doth Maymony call the Arched Cawsey over the Valley of Kidron to Mount Olivet by which the Red Cow was brought to her burning by this very name 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Kebesh.

Now as for the manner and form of the Altar and of this rising up to it, and for the right understanding of all, which is not very facile, divers things are to be observed. As,

1. There are reckoned these several parts of the Altar. First, The Foundation, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which also in Ezekiel is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The bosom or bottom upon the ground, Ezek. XLIII. 13, 14. This was one cubit high from the ground, and one cubit broad: and the length of this Foundation upon every side of the square was two and thirty cubits. And therefore whereas it was said before, that the breadth of the Altar and its rise was sixty two cubits from North to South, it is to be taken, as that the rise is to be accounted a thing different from the Altar itself, and lying a great space further out than the compass of the Altar did, as we shall see anon: Now this Foundation which is said to be two and thirty cubits square every way, did not hold the complete measure of a cubit broad in every part of it, but in the South-East corner of it, it wanted somewhat to make the corner a perfect Angle answerable to the other corners. And this is that which the Talmud meaneth when it saith 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Foundation was a perfect walk, all along on the North side, and all along on the South: but on the South it wanted one cubit, and on the East one cubit. That is, were a Man upon the Foundation, he might walk upon all the length of the North side, and might turn at the North-West corner, and so walk on the West quarter: but would he do so, to go off from the South quarter to the East, he could not, for when he was to turn at the South-East Angle, there was no such Angle there, as there was at the other corners, for it was broken off, and wanted a cubit on the Southside, and a cubit on the East, which two cubits should have met to have brought the corner into a sharp point like the others. Now the reason of the defect is given by them else where, to be because, that very corner only of all the Altar was not in the Tribe of Benjamin, but in the Tribe of Judah. For they held it necessary that all the Altars should be in the lot of Benjamin, because of those words of Jacob, Benjamin shall raven as a Wolf, in the morning he shall devour the prey, and in the evening he shall divide the spoil: which how they understood of the Sanctuary and Altar being built within Benjamin's lot, appears by the Gloss that the Jerusalem Targum and Jonathan put upon it. Benjamin, say they, is likened to a devouring Wolf, because he was a strong Tribe: In his Country the divine Majesty of the Lord of all the world was to dwell, and in his possession was the House of the Sanctuary to be built; In the morning the Priests shall offer the daily Lamb, till it be the fourth hour of the day, and between the Evenings they shall offer the other Lamb, and at Even they shall divide what remaineth of the rest of the Sacrifices, and everyone shall eat his portion. But more copiously in the Treatise Zevachin or concerning Sacrifices, where this very point about the want of this corner of the Altar is copiously discussed. The fifth Chapter of that Book, setteth itself purposely to describe the several places where the several Sacrifices were slain beside the Altar: and after other things it falls upon the question that is before us about this desicient Angle of the Altar, and it handles and determines it thus, The South-East corner had no foundation: what was the reason? Rabbi Eliezer saith, because it was not in the portion of the Ravener: As Rab. Samuel the Son of Rabbi Isaac saith 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Altar took up one cubit in the portion of Judah: Rab. Levi bar Chama saith, R. Chama bar Chaninah saith there went a line out of the portion of Judah, and entered upon the portion of Benjamin. And Righteous Benjamin was troubled at it, as it is said 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (The Glossers render it, He was careful for it every day) Yet Righteous Benjamin obtained to become 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Host to the holy blessed God as it is said; And he shall dwell between his shoulders: The meaning of which passage is to this purpose: that the line that parted the lots or portions of the two Tribes Judah and Benjamin, came just over at this point of the Altar, that if this Angle of the Foundation had been made like the other, a cubit of the Altar would have been in the lot of Judah, which they had no Scripture warrant for, for the Altar was to be in the lot of the Ravenor, that is of Benjamin that should raven as a Wolf, therefore they chose rather to make no Angle at all at this point of the Foundation, than to make it, since it would fall in the portion of Judah.

As this South-East point of the Foundation was remarkable for this, that it had no corner, so was the South-West corner of it remarkable for another thing, and that was, for two holes that were in it near to the Angles point, one upon the West Foundation, and the other upon the South, into which the blood that was poured upon the Foundation did run, and so into a sink or common-shore under ground, which emptied itself into the Valley of Kidron.

2. The base or foundation having thus risen one cubit from the ground and carried a cubit breadth round about, but only in the Angle that hath been mentioned, the square of the body of the Altar, was grown then, a cubit narrower on every side, and so it was but thirty cubits upon every side of the square: and thus it held for five cubits high, and then it narrowed one cubit more, and this narrowing was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the Circuit of the Altar: And there the square was but eight and twenty cubits on every side: But here the Talmuds measure differeth from the measure of Ezekiel, which though Rabbi Solomon observeth, yet he concludeth that the measure in the Talmud was the true measure in the second Temple. Ezekiel saith, That from the bottom upon the ground, to the lower settle were two cubits, whereas the Talmud saith but one, and from the lower settle to the higher, Ezekiel reckoneth four cubits, but the Talmud five: In which difference in the particulars yet there is agreement in the main sum, and both of them do raise the Circuit of the Altar six cubits high, and therefore we shall not spend time to reconcile them here, but leave them to be taken up by and by; only we cannot pass over the word that Ezekiel useth, for both the Foundation and the Circuit, and that is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Azarah which is the common word that is used for the Court: Because that as the people did tread in the Court at the time of the service, so did the Priests upon these ledges or sides of the Altar: especially upon the higher, which was called the Circuit of the Altar, when they went about it to besprinkle the horns of it with the blood of the Sacrifices: The manner of which action the Talmudic Chapter lately cited, giveth us the relation of, in the Mishueh, in these words, The Sin-offering of the Congregation, or of a private person, and the Goats, offered at the beginnings of the months, or at the solemn times, their slaughter was on the North side, of the Altar, and the taking of their blood in some of the Vessels of the service was on the North side, and it required a fourfold putting on the four horns. How was this done? He went up the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 rise of the Altar, and turned off to the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 circuit of it: He went to the South-East horn, and then to the North-East, so to the North-West, and lastly to the South-West, and the blood that was left he poured upon the Foundation on the South side: Either of these ledges the Rabbins sometimes call 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Malben, either because they were as sloors whereon the Priests trod, for so the word is sometimes taken, or because they were often rubbed to keep them white, since there was so much blood sprinkled on them: For the whole Altar was whited over twice a year, namely at the Passover and at the Feast of Tabernacles. Rabbi saith, that it was rubbed with a Map on the eve of every Sabbath.

3. A cubit height above this upper ledge, which was called the Circuit, there was a narrowing again, a cubit breadth, and there began the horns of the Altar, and now the square was but six and twenty cubits upon every side. The horns were at every corner a cubit square being hollow, and rising a cubit upward: for it is a usual saying among the Jews that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The height of every horn was five hands breadth, or a common cubit, which is to be taken so as that the horns rose but one cubit straight up from their Foundation or first beginning, abating by degrees from a cubit square in the bottom, into a Pyramidical sharp, but so as that for one cubit height it rose straight, and then pointed outward like the tip of a horn: The lowest part of these horns, was seven cubits from the ground, and therefore these words, bind the Sacrifice with cords to the horns of the Altar, Psal. CXVIII. can hardly be taken in propriety, as if the Sacrifice stood tied to the Altar till it was offered; but as the Chaldee paraphraseth it, it meaneth, Tie the Lamb that is to be offered, with cords till ye come to offer him, and sprinkle his blood upon the horns of the Altar. Joah in fear of his life is said to have fled to the Altar, and to lay hold upon the horns of it. 1 King. II. 29. in which passage the Hebrew Doctors say he was doubly deceived, First, in that he thought to have refuge and escaping, for willful murder; and Secondly, in that he looked for safety by taking hold of it, whereas the refuge of the Altar, was on the top of it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Our Rabbins say, saith David Kimchi, the Altar was no refuge but for Manslaughter committed unawares and but on the top of it. But whether Joab or they were the likelier to be deceived in this thing, I leave to them to discuss between them: But this certainly cannot go unobserved, that God in giving of the pattern of the Altar, was so punctual for the making of horns to it in the corners of it, as that that is a special charge, both about the Altar of Burnt-Offering, Exod. XXVII. 2. Thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof: And also about the Altar of Incense, Exod. XXX. 2. The horns thereof shall be of the same. Now what the Lord intended to signify by this so exact a prescription, it is not good to be too bold to go about to determine, yet we may not unprofitably look upon them as a lesson for instruction: reading to us that as the Altar signifieth Christ, who offered himself upon himself, the manhood upon the Altar of the God-head, and as the double Altar, of Sacrifice and Incense typified the offering up of Christ at his death, and the continual Inscense of his mediation, so the horns of both Altars may well be conceived to signify, the dignity vigor and merit of his death and mediation: upon which whosoever layeth hold by assured Faith shall escape condemnation: and unto which (as the Priests to these horns atevery Sacrifice mentioned) a sinner in every service is to make his address and application.

It is not an improper conception of Rabbi Solomon, about the Law concerning the Cities of refuge, Exod. XXI. 13. that as God enjoined them when they should come into the Land of Canaan to appoint a place for the Man-slayer that had killed a Man at unawares to flee unto, so that while they were in the Wilderness God appointed them a place for refuge, upon such occasion, and that was the Camp of the Levites. Now the addition that follows in the next Verse, that they should take a willful murderer from his Altar, to put to death, doth not only confirm that his supposal, but it doth give some intimation, that even in the Land of Canaan, and when their refuge Cities were set out, yet the Altar was then a Sanctuary for those that fled to it in such or such cases: A very eminent figure of deliverance from condemnation by laying hold upon Christ's merits.

The Jews dispute why Joab, whom they hold to have been President of the Sanhedrin, and knew the Law well enough, that a willful murderer should not escape by the Altar, why he should flee thither: And they Answer, That it was either to save his Estate, which had he been slain elsewhere, had been forfeit: or to obtain his burial, which had he been Judged and Condemned judicially, he had lost and been cast away unburied: But it seemeth rather that the occurrence which is mentioned immediately before, and which occurred immediately before, namely about Abiathar, did give him occasion to do what he did: For though Abiathar were in the same fault with Joab, in the matter of Adonijah, yet had he escaped death (being only put from his Office) upon these two reasons, because he had born the Ark and was High Priest, and because he had been afflicted and partner with David in his afflictions. under this later predicament Joab fell as well as he, and might hope for favor in that respect equally with him: And as for the former, Joab indeed was not, nor could not be a Priest, yet, thought he, I will do as much towards that as I can, that is, lay hold on the horns of the Altar, and there devote myself to God and his service by that solemn Ceremony, and it may be for these two considerations, Solomon will spare me, as he did Abiathar. (For that • he laying hold of the Altar in this kind had a Vow in it for the future, as well as a present safety, might be argued from the nature of the Altar, which made holy what touched it, and from the very circumstance of laying hold upon it.) But Joab to the willful murder of Abner and Amasa, had added contempt and opposal of the King upon David's Throne, which figured him that was to Reign over the House of Israel forever, and therefore unfit to escape, and uncapable to be any such votary.

4. A cubit above the first rising of the horns of the Altar, the square narrowed a cubit again and so was now but four and twenty cubits every way, and so held on to that flat of it on the top where the fire lay: The cubits-ledge, that the abatement made to be as a bench round about, was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the place whereupon the Priests went, and stood about the Altar to lay on the pieces of the Sacrifice, or to stir them as they lay in the fire: And this helpeth us to judge concerning the manner and fashion of the horns spoken of last; namely, that they did not rise directly upright higher than the Altar itself, for then it had been impossible for the Priest to go about the Altar upon this ledge, for the horns would have hindered if they had risen a full cubit square up hither: but their form is to be conceived as was said before, namely, that they rose indeed up even with this ledge, but they so sharpened and bended outward when they came level with it, that the Priests had passed between them and the Altar.

From the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Circuit of the Altar upward, which was four cubits, was that part which more peculiarly was called Harel, and Ariel, Ezek. XLIII. 15. And Harel was four cubits, and from Ariel upwards were the four horns. He had described the gradual risings of the Altar hitherto in the Verses before, in these characters and descriptions.

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

And the border thereof by the edge thereof round about a span: The edge of this Foundation was not sharp as are the edges of stone steps, but it was wrought as are the stone borders of our Chimney-hearths, with a border of a span over: and so the blood that was poured upon this Foundation could not run off to the Pavement, but was kept up that it might run down at the holes fore-mentioned, into the Common-shore.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 And thus was the top of the Altar: The top of the Altar was also finished with such another bordering.

Vers. 14. And from the bottom upon the ground even to the lower settle, two cubits: Not that the Foundation called here the lower settle, was two cubits thick in the flatness of it, as it lay upon the ground, for the Verse before saith, that the bottom was but a cubit, but that from this Foundation, there arose a slope rising a cubit height, which was somewhat thicker than the body of the Altar presently above it, and so from the ground to the top of this rising, where the square narrowed were two cubits: and from the top of this sloping where the square narrowed, to the Circuit, was properly but four cubits, but from the Foundation five. And so though the Talmud speaketh differently from the Prophet (when it saith the Foundation or lower settle was but one cubit high, and he, two: and when it saith the height from the lower to the higher settle, or from the Foundation to the circuit was five cubits, and the Prophet saith but four ) yet do they both mean but one and the same thing, but understood as hath been spoken: namely, the one taketh the Foundation or lower settle, barely as it lay flat upon the ground, and the other takes it with this cubital slope rising from it, made leaning a cubit height to the body of the Altar: and this interpretation helpeth to understand that which David Kimchi professeth he cannot tell what to make of; and that is, why the upper settle which was narrower by two cubits in the square, is called the greater, and the lower, which was larger in the square, is called the lesser: The reason whereof is this, because the upper, though it were less in compass, yet was larger in breadth, because this leaning slope rising that we speak of, took up a good part of the breadth of the lower, and so the walk upon it was not so clear and large as it was upon the other.

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

There are some that conceive that Harel and Ariel are indeed but one and the same word, though so diversely written, from whom I cannot much differ, as to point of Grammar, because the Letters 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 do admit of such alternancy in the language, yet me thinks the difference of the words should hold out some difference of the sense: and Harel to signify the Lord's Mountain, and Ariel the Lord's Lion upon the Mountain; the lower part at the horns more properly Harel, and the upper more properly Ariel. But since the Text gives the name Ariel to all that part that was from the Root of the horns upward, we shall not much stick upon it. The word Harel, if you will construe it the Mountain of the Lord, David Kimchi tells you that it is as much as to say, The House of the Lord, and because they served other God's in every place upon high Hills, this which was the Hill of the Lord was but four cubits high: And if you will take the word Ariel, our Rabbins of happy memory, saith he, say the Altar was called Ariel (or the Lord's Lion) because the holy fire that came down from Heaven couched on it like a Lion.

The word Ariel doth also signify one exceeding strong, 2 Sam. XXIII. 20. and so doth Arel, Isaiah. XXXIII. 7. But take it whether way you will here, either for a strong thing or for the Lord's Lion, the Altar was very properly so called, either because of the devouring of many Sacrifices, Lion like, or because of the great strength and prevalency the people had by Sacrifice, the Lord owning them wonderfully in that service, whilst gone about according to his Will: or because of the strong Lion Christ, whom the Altar and Sacrifices did represent. Jerusalem, and especially Zion the City where David Dwells, is also called Ariel, the strong one, or the Lion of the Lord, because of its prevalency against all enemies whatsoever, whilst it continued to be the Lord's, through the strength of those promises that were made unto it: but when it forsook the Lord, and became profane, it is threatened that it shall become as the other Ariel, or the Altar, where was continually abundance of shedding of blood and slaughter, Isaiah. XXIX. 1, 2.

The very top of the Altar was four and twenty cubits square, and this was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Maaracah, or the Hearth, where, as we observe elsewhere, there were fires continually burning, but especially one very great one for the Sacrifices. And thus was the bulk and platform of the Altar; It was a large pile of ten cubits high rising by degrees, so as that at the foot it was two and thirty cubits on every side of the square, but at the top came to be but four and twenty.

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

Thus stood the Altar, and thus stood the Priests upon the highest bench to serve, but how came they up thither? If they could have gone up the steps that we have mentioned, namely, where the square still descended, yet was it unlawful, because of that command, Exod. XX. 26. But they could not go up that way neither, for we have seen that between the first bench and the second there was five cubits rising, which is a measure far beyond any Mans stepping up: the way therefore for them to go both to the top of the Altar, to their bench two cubits below the top, and to the other benches, as there was occasion, was thus provided.

There was a gentle rising Cawsey (for so let us call it, they called it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chebbesh ) on the South side of the Altar sixteen cubits broad, that began two and thirty cubits from the Altar foot and rose easily to the head of it in a gentle descent, made of the same materials that the Altar was, of which hereafter, so that this Cawsey lay out from the Altar two and thirty cubits on the South side, leaving on either side it four cubits breadth, which it wanted of the breadth of the Altar.

On the West side of it there stood two Tables, one of Silver, on which they set and laid the Vessels of the Service: the other of Marble which was called the Table of the Fat, on which they laid the pieces of the Sacrifice when they were to be brought up to the Altar. And there was also on the same side of it, and (as it is probably conjectured) made in the very side of the Cawsey or rise itself, a place into which those birds that being present to be offered, did prove unfit, were cast, till some convenient time to convey them away, this was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Rebubah, for so we may conclude upon R. Nathan's credit who so readeth, though others differ: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 And there (saith the general consent) they laid up the Birds unmeet for Offering. On the East side of it, was the place where they laid the guts and garbidge of the Birds that were offered, and where he that cleansed the Incense Altar poured down the ashes he brought forth, and he that brought the first ashes from off the Burntoffering Altar, did the like: But these things continued long there after they were laid down, but were speedily by some or other conveyed away: By the Marble Table, which called the Table of the Fat, the Priests stood when they sounded their Trumpets at the time of Divine Service.

The ordinary way of going up this Cawsey, or Bridge, or call it what you will, was on the right side of it, that is, on the East, and to come down on the West, (only upon three occasions mentioned in the place cited in the Margine, he came down the same way he went up, but backward) and this helps us somewhat to understand a story (which we shall have occasion to look after elsewhere) related in Joma of two Priests going a strife who should first get up to cleanse the Altar of its ashes, (which was the first work done in the Morning) the one of them thrust the other off the bridge and broke his leg, because they went so near the sides, though they had room enough to have gone up in the middle without danger, but the manner was not to go up that way.

As a Man went up, first there was a little Cawsey on the East side, that brought him from the first beginning of this great Cawsey to the Foundation of the Altar if he had occasion to go thither: And as he went up higher, when he was come as high as the Circuit, there was another to carry him off thither, if he had occasion to sprinkle blood upon the horns of the Altar: But above that I read not of any such come off; not that the Priests had not constant occasion to step off to the uppermost ledge or bench, (for there they used to stand continually when they were turning the pieces in the fire, or the like) but because by the time that the rise was come up thither, the step off was so easy, that a less matter than what deserved the name of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a bridge would serve the turn.

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

The materials and manner of working up this renowned pile, let the Reader take in the Talmuds and in Maimonides his own words and expressions When they built the Altar (say they) they built it solid like a Pillar, and they made no hollow in it: but one brought whole great stones and little (for an iron tool might not be used upon them) and he brought Mortar and Pitch and Lead, and mixed all and poured all into the great base that he had laid according to his measure, and so he built on upwards: and he put in the midst of the buliding a piece of Wood or of Stone at the South-East horn according to the measure of the Foundation, and so he put in the midst of everyone of the horns till he had finished the building; then he took away those pieces that were in the midst of the building, and so the South-East horn was left without a Foundation and the rest of the horns were left hollow.

These stones that made the Altar and the rise to it are recorded to have been gotten in the Valley of Bethbaccerem, a place mentioned in Neh. III. 14. and Jer. VI. 1. and the same Record tells us, That twice a year the Altar was whited, namely at the Passover and at the Feast of Tabernacles: and the Temple whited once a year, namely, at the Passover: Rabbi saith, on the Eve of every Sabbath they rubbed the Altar with a Map because of the blood; they might not Plaster it with an iron Trowel, lest that touching should defile it; for iron was made to shorten Mans days, and the Altar was made for the prolonging Mans life, and it is not fit that that which would shorten should be lifted up upon that that would lengthen.

Thus was the fashion and proportion of the Altar the Lord's Table, Mal. I. 7. the holiness of it was such that it sanctified the gift, Matth. XXIII. 19. that is, whatsoever came upon it, being fit to be offered 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Altar sanctified whatsoever was fit for it. It is a Talmudic Maxim in the Treatise Zevachin, the very beginning of the ninth Chapter: And at the seventh Halacah of the same Chapter, they say, That as the Altar sanctified what was fit for it, so also did the rise of the Altar: and there they discourse at large with what things, if they were once brought to the top of the Altar, might come down, and what might not, which we shall not insist upon.

Before we part from the Altar, we have yet one thing more to take into observation about it, and that is the base and wretched affront that ungodly Ahaz put upon it, in not only setting up another Altar by it, but also in removing the Lord's Altar out of its place, and out of its honorable employment to give place to his. The story is 2 King. XVI. He sends the pattern of an Idolatrous Altar from Damascus, and Uriah the Priest maketh one according to that pattern: and when the King came home and saw the Altar, he offered upon it his Burnt-offering, Meat-offering, Drink-offering, &c. And he brought also the brazen Altar which was before the Lord from the fore-front of the House, from between the Altar and the House of the Lord, and put it on the North side of the Altar, verse. 14. Rabbi Solomon expounding this place, conceiveth that by the Altar of the Lord is not meant the Altar properly and indeed, but some appurtenances that related and belonged to the Service of the Altar, and this conclusion he produceth from two or three traditional Premises: his words are these, This Altar that he removed cannot be the brazen Altar that Moses made, for that was laid up; and it cannot be the Altar of stone which Solomon made, which indeed is called the brazen Altar in the Book of Chronicles, for that could not be removed from place to place, but by pulling down: and behold we have a Tradition, that the fire that came down from Heaven in the days of Solomon, went not off the Altar till Manasseh came and caused it to go off, for he pulled the Altar down: So that I cannot interpret the Altar here but of the Lavers and Bases of brass which served for the Altar, and stood beside it, them Ahaz removed, &c.

You need not marvel if he go alone in his opinion when you look upon it, and how it is strained, and especially from this pinch, because though the Altar of Solomon is called brazen, yet he holds it to have been of Stone, and overlaid: were it of Brass or were it of Stone, Ahaz his modesty was not so much but that he would pull it down to serve his turn as well as remove it. It appeareth by the Text alleged, that Uriah’s modesty was a little more than Ahaz had; for he had set his Altar behind the Altar of the Lord, betwixt it and the East-gate, so that the Lord's Altar was betwixt that new-found one and the Temple (it seemeth the space at the entering in from the East-gate, was more open in the times of the first Temple than it was in the second.) But when Ahaz comes, he removes Solomon's Altar towards the North, and brings up his own and sets it in the place of it, and so does as it were supplant the Lord of his possession and usurp upon it, putting the Lord's Altar out of use as well as out of its place, and giving his own the greatness because it was the greater, in the employment for all the Sacrifices that were to be offered, both ordinary and extraordinary, both of the King and People: while the Altar of the Lord must stand by as a cypher, only with this dignity, which was less than none at all, The brazen Altar shall be for me to seek to when I think good. As for the departure of the Divine fire from off the Altar, which had come down in the days of Solomon, of which our Rabbin speaketh, it is not unworthy some of the Readers thoughts: For the Temple was so oft profaned, yea and sometimes shut up, before the Captivity into Babel, as 2 Chron. XXIV. 7. & XXVIII. 24. &c. that it is hardly to be imagined, but that the fire which had been continued from the descent of that Divine fire, was at some of these times or other extinguished. And then Quaere how Hezekiah and Josiah in their Reformation did for fire again upon the Altar.

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

THE most ordinary and universal slaughter of the Sacrifices was on the North-side of the Altar, and so is it declared at large in the Treatise Zevachin through the fifth Chapter, of which we have had occasion to speak before; The most Holy offerings (say they) are slain on the North-side, the Bullock and the Goat of the day of Expiation, their slaughter was on the North, and the taking of their Blood in a Vessel of the Service, was on the North: The Bullocks that were to be burnt, and the Goats that were to be burnt, were slain on the North, and their Blood to be taken on the North: The Goats of the beginning of the months and of the solemn Feasts were slain on the North, and their Blood taken on the North: The whole-burnt-offering most Holy was slain on the North, the Peace-offerings of the Congregation and Trespass-offerings, were slain on the North, &c. and generally the greatest number of Sacrifices were slain on that side the Altar: On that side of the Altar therefore were necessaries and accommodations for that purpose and convenience, and those were especially these three, the place of the Rings, the Tables, and the Hooks in the Pillars.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Eight cubits from the Altar Northward was the place of the Rings, and that place was four and twenty cubits over towards the North still. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Now the Rings were in six rows, four in a row: but some say they were four rows, and six in a row, and there they slew the Sacrifices. These Rings or Staples rather, were fixed down in the Stones of the Pavement, and either a bending Hook was fastened to these Staples, that they might bring the Neck of the Beast under and hold him fast, or they drew down the Necks of the Beasts to be slain with cords to these Staples and there fastened them, and so they had them at command to slay them with facility. It is not much to be controverted whether there were six rows of these Rings, four in a row, or four rows with six Rings in a row; this doth not much break the square, since the same number of Rings and the same compass of ground remaineth still.

Here was the place where they tied the Sacrifices till they were killed, and where they killed them: and this place is commonly called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The place of the slaughter: and to these Rings they tied the Sacrifice with cords, till they were to offer him, and to sprinkle his Blood on the Horns of the Altar, as the Chaldee Paraphrast renders the 27. verse. of the hundred and eighteenth Psalm.

Now although the command was strict and express that such and such Sacrifices should be slain on the North-side of the Altar, Lev. I. 10, 11, &c. that is in propriety, just between the Altar and North-wall of the Court: yet where there were many such Sacrifices to be slain at once, so that this place of the Rings was not able to contain them, then they killed them higher up in the Court, namely in that space that was between the Altar and the Porch, but on the North-side of it, as near as might be in the place parallel to this place of the Rings. This matter is handled and decided in Tosaphta on the Treatise Corbanoth in these words, Which is the North-side of the Altar, where it was fit to kill the most Holy Sacrifices? It was from the North-side of the Altar, to the North-side of the Court even just over against the Altar which was thirty cubits breadth. The words of Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Eliezer from Rabbi Simeon addeth the space from the Altar to the Porch, even to over against the closets of the Butchering knives, which was twenty two cubits. But Rabbi addeth the place where the Feet of the Israelites trod, which was eleven cubits broad, and one hundred eighty and seven cubits long: and the place where the Feet of the Priests trod, which was eleven cubits broad, and one hundred eighty and seven cubits long: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 From the side of the North-wall, to the East-wall of the Court: That is, along the North-wall, from the West-end of the Court to the East, for so both the measure of one hundred eighty and seven cubits, which was the just length of the Court confirmeth, and the same Author in the next following Chapter doth also illustrate in these words, Rabbi Josi saith, All the Altar may be understood for North-ward: As it is said, And he shall kill it on the side of the Altar, North-ward before the Lord. Rabbi Josi from Rabbi Judah saith, From the midst of the Altar North-ward was as the North, and from the midst of the Altar the other way was as the South: And so Rabbi Josi from Rabbi Judah saith also, There were two Wickets in the House of the Butchering knives, opening toward the West, and eight cubits from the ground, so that the Court might be fit for eating of the most Holy things, and for the killing of the lesser Holy Sacrifices, even behind the Oracle. From both which allegations taken up together, we may observe, 1. That the Israelites had a standing on the North-side of the Court as well as on the East, which though it was not, nor indeed could be exactly eleven cubits broad, as was their station at the East-end, yet was it a station for them as well as that: And our Author when he speaketh of the place where the Feet of the Israelites trod, of eleven cubits broad, and of the place where the Feet of the Priests trod of eleven cubits broad: he meaneth not that there was such a space for the Israelites and the Priests to stand in all along the North-side of the Court as there was in the East, but his meaning is this, that when the Sacrifices to be slain on the North-side of the Altar were exceeding many indeed, that rather than want room to kill them, they should not only slay them in the place of the Rings, but even in the standing of the Priests and Israelites at the East-end, namely so far on that ground, as lay even with that space that was on the North-side of the Altar: and so might they use the like space all along the North-side of the Court for the same purpose, even to beyond the West-end of the Temple. 2. That the House of the Butchering knives, called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 was in that end of the Porch that pointed North-ward, and that the Doors thereof were behind the Porch West-ward, even where the wing of the Porch stood out more Northerly than the breadth of the Temple and extended: and there the going up to these Doors was by steps even eight cubits high: and the reason why the Doors were there, rather than in the front or the end of the Porch, was because the passage to them there, took up the least room, and was the least hindrance in the Court.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Four cubits from the North-side of this place of the Rings there stood Marble Tables upon which they washed the Inwards of the Sacrifice, and cut it up into pieces: and four cubits further North, there were the Pillars on which they hung up the Sacrifice upon hooks, that so they might flea it. These Pillars the Jews call 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which Aruch Interprets 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Pillars low or shorty (it may seem the word is taken from the Latin Nanus, and so the Treatise Parah, speaketh of a red Cow 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 low and small, Nana & minuta: ) Now these Pillars were not those that supported the Cloister on this North-side of the Court, but low Pillars set by these or joining to them, eight in number, over the Heads of which were laid transom beams of Cedar, and hooks of Iron fastened both in these beams and in the Pillars, on which hooks they hanged up the Beast slain for Sacrifice, that they might the better come at him to flea him. The Pillars had everyone of them three hooks in them, one above another, that they might be fit for Beasts of several bignesses and cizes. And before these Pillars, or rather, before the space that was between the Pillars (so that one might easily pass between) stood the Marble Tables, on which, after that they had given the Entrails of the Beasts their first washing, in the washing room mentioned before, they washed and dressed them a second time, and made them sit and fair for the Altar, and on which after they had flayed the beast as he hanged upon the hooks, they cut him in pieces according as he was to be cut and divided for his laying on the Altar to be offered up.

From these low Pillars to the North-wall of the Court were eight cubits, and this was the place and space for Israel's standing on this side the Court: for though these Pillars spoken of did not bear up the Cloister under which the People stood, yet did they stand so even or close to those Pillars that did, that from these Pillars we may, and the Jews do count and measure the space of the Israelites station on this side, and it was three cubits narrower than their standing at the East-end. Thus was the space taken up that was between the Altar and the North-side of the Court, now let us come to view the space on the other side of the Altar toward the South: Where first the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Causey or Rise that went up to the Altar took up two and thirty cubits: even just as much space on this side, as there was betwixt the Altar and the further-side of the place of the Rings on the other. But here a question may not improperly be moved out of the Arithmetic of the Talmudicks about the measure of the Altar, and the rise of it, which they hold out: for they say expressly that the Altar was two and thirty cubits square, and that the rise on the South-side was two and thirty cubits long, and yet summing up both together, they say that the Altar and the rise were but sixty two cubits: whereas according to the two particulars named, they should be sixty four: But the reason of the account is from this, either because they reckon the length of the Causey or rise, not from the outside of the foundation of the Altar, but from the narrowing of the Altar above the Circuit; for thither did the Causey bring them and land them there, as the ordinary place of their Service, when they went to besprinkle the Horns of the Altar with the Blood of the Sacrifices: or else because they reckon not the two first cubits of the rise or the very entrance upon it, it being so flat and near to the ground, as that there was so much of the rise gone, before there was any stepping off to the Bridge that went to the foundation of the Altar▪ And yet though they do sometime account thus of the Altar and the rise, that they took up but sixty two cubits, yet in distributing the one hundred thirty and seven cubits of the Courts breadth into particular spaces, they then allow, as they cannot do otherwise, thirty cubits to the Altar, and as many to the rise: for the particulars are thus: (that we may sum them again.)

Now these five and twenty cubits which were between the Foot of the rise and the South-wall, is given account of by the Treatise Middoth in these words: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 And the residue of space which was between the rise and the Wall, was also a place of low Pillars.

These were some Sacrifices slain on the South-side of the Altar as well as these that have been mentioned were on the North: There were Sacrifices which were called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Holy of Holies, or the most Holy Sacrifices, and those were the Burnt-offering, Sin-offering and Trespass-offering and others reckoned before, and these were undispensably tied to be slain on the North-side of the Altar, or at least on the North-side of the Court, as hath been spoken: And there were Offerings which were called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The lesser Holy things, and these might be slain in any part of the Court, and were not bound to that side: as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Thanksgiving-offerings and the Nazarites Ram which were lesser holy Offerings, were slain in any place of the Court: Peaceofferings which were of the lesser holy things, were also slain in any part of the Court, and so were the Firstlings, the Tenths, and the Passover, which were also reckoned as lesser holy things. Now although they speak of any part of the Court, as permitted to slay the Sacrifices in, yet most especially have they reference to the South-side of the Altar in opposition to the North, and the South-side understood in that Latitude, as the North-side was when extremity and multitude of Sacrifices put them to it: For when the Sacrifices were no more than what could be killed within the very compass between the Northside of the Altar and the North-wall of the Court, they were slain there, but when numerousness of Sacrifices urged all the North-side of the Court from East to West ends, and as far South as to the middle of the Altar, was used to slay the Beasts in, and all that, was accounted as the North: So on the South-side of the Altar, there were Marble Tables and low Pillars for the very same use that there were on the other side of the Altar, namely for the fleaing and cutting up and washing the Intrals of the Sacrifices, but when greater store came than that very space just between the Altar and the South-wall would contain, then all the South-side of the Court was permitted for that use, even as far as the middle of the Altar betwixt North and South.

The five and twenty cubits space therefore that we are to give account of between the South-wall of the Court, and the foot of the rise of the Altar, were thus parcelled. 1. There were eight cubits from the Court-wall to the Pillars, as there were on the North-side, and this was the breadth of the Cloister, and the standing of Israel on that side the Court. 2. The disposal of the Tables, as on the other side before the Pillars, took up four cubits. 3. And then the thirteen cubits between these and the foot of the Altar rise, was partly (as is probable) taken up with some rings as on the North-side, though not so many (for they needed not) and partly with some plain pavement next to the rise, that the Priests might have access to it the better.

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

THE Altar stood before the Gate or entrance of the Porch, that gave access into the Temple, and the space between the foundation of the Altar and the foundation of the Porch was two and twenty cubits: But there was not so much clear ground or plain pavement and passage between them, for the stairs of the Porch being in number twelve, and every step a cubit broad, besides the half pace or enlarging at every third step, caused that these steps lay down a great way in the Court towards the Altar: and took up a good space of these two and twenty cubits. Everyone of these steps was half a cubit high, and thereupon the whole rise ariseth to be six cubits from the ground to the landing in the Porch, so that he that stood in the Porch-gate, his Feet stood even and level, with his Feet that stood upon the Circuit of the Altar: Upon these steps of the Porch the Priests stood when they came out from burning Incense and blessed the People.

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

1. That no man might come upon this space that had any blemish upon him, nor any man might come here bare headed: the reason of the former restraint is easy to be apprehended, because of the holiness of the place, being so near both to the Alar and the Temple: and the reason of the later is, because in their greatest devotions they used to cover their Head, and therefore none might come bare-headed into so devout a place.

2. That no man might stand upon this space or stay within it, while the Priest was burning Incense in the Holy place. For whilst they burned Incense in the Temple every day, all the People departed from the Temple, so that between the Temple and the Altar there was not a man till he that burned Incense came forth. And so at the time that the High Priest went in with the Blood of the Sin-offering, which was to be sprinkled within, all the People withdrew from between the Altar and the Temple, till he came forth again: And because they might know the time when to withdraw from this space at the daily Incense, the Sagan or President of the Service called to the Priest that was within the Holy place with a loud voice, and gave him notice when he should begin with the Incense, saying to him, Offer the Incense, and as he spake thus, the People withdrew: The reason of this custom I shall not be curious to look after, but whether the Ceremony did not fitly resemble, how far distant all men are from having any share with Christ in his Intercession, which the offering of the Incense resembled, be it left to the Reader to consider.

3. In this space between the Temple and the Altar, was the murder committed upon Zacharias the son of Barachias, as our Savior mentioneth, Matth. XXIII. 35.

Now there are various conjectures who this Zacharias should be: some think of Zacharias the Prophet, whose Book of Prophesy we have in the Old Testament. Some suppose it might be John Baptists Father, and some conceive that Christ speaketh there predictively, foretelling that they should slay Zacharias the son of Baruch in the Temple, the story of which Josephus giveth in lib. 4. de bell. cap. 19. But the Talmudists do help us to understand it of Zacharias the son of Jehoiada, who was stoned by the people in this place in the days of King Joash, 2 Chron. XXIV. Why he is called the son of Barachias and not the son of Jehoiada is not a place here to dispute: the Jerusalem Talmud hath this story concerning his slaughter, which may give us cause to think, that our Savior spake according to the common received Opinion: and was understood to mean Zacharias the son of Jehoiada, though for special reason he calleth him the son of Barachias, Rab. Jochanan saith, Eighty thousand young Priests were slain for Zacharias blood. R. Jordan asked R. Aha, where slew they Zacharias? In the Court of the Women, or in the Court of Israel? He saith to him, Not in the Court of Israel, nor in the Court of the Women, but in the Court of the Priests, &c. And seven Transgressions did Israel transgress that day: They slew a Priest, a Prophet, a Judge, shed innocent Blood and defiled the Court, and the Sabbath, which was also the day of expiation. And when Nebuzaradan came thither he saw the Blood bubbling. He saith to them, What meaneth this? They said to him, It is the Blood of Bullocks and Rams and Lambs which we have offered upon the Altar. Presently he brought Bullocks and Rams and Lambs and killed them, and as yet the Blood bubled or reeked above theirs. And when they confessed not, he hanged them up. They said, The Lord is pleased to require his Blood at our hands. They say to him, It is the Blood of a Priest and Prophet and Judge, who Prophesied to us concerning all that thou hast done to us, and we stood up against him and slew him. Presently he brought Eighty thousand young Priests and slew them: And still the Blood bubled: Then he was angry at it, and said to it, What wouldest thou have? That all the People should perish for thee? Presently the holy blessed God was filled with compassion and said: What? Is this Man that is but Flesh and Blood, filled with pity towards my Children, and shall not I be much more? Of whom it is written, For the Lord thy God is a merciful God, he will not forsake thee nor destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy Fathers: Presently he gave a sign to the Blood and it was swallowed up in the place. R. Jochanan saith, The Eighty thousand young Priests fled to the midst of the Chambers of the Sanctuary, and they were all burnt, and of all them, none was left but Joshua the son of Jozedeck: as it is written, Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Zech. III. 2.

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

The Treatise Tamid speaketh thus of it, They (that were to go into the Temple to burn Incense, and to dress the Lamps) came between the Porch and the Altar, one of them taketh the Migrephah and Rings it between the Porch and the Altar; one man could not hear another speak in Jerusalem, because of the sound of the Migrephah. It served for three things: The Priest that heard the sound of it knew that his Brethren the Priests were gone in to Worship, and he ran and came. A Levite that heard the sound of it, knew that his Brethren the Levites were gone in to sing, and he ran and came. And the chief of the stationary men brought them that had been unclean and set them in the Gate of Nicanor. Now what kind of thing this Migrephah was, I find but little light towards an exact resolution. Some say it was a great Vessel which they rung to make a sound, but of what fashion, and whether for any other use also, they leave uncertain.

The Chaldee renders 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in Exod. XXXVIII. 3, &c. which seemeth to be the same word with this that we are about, and so he understands it to mean some of the fire-shovels that belonged to the Altar, which being either rung upon, or shoved upon the pavement, would make a loud noise being of brass, and very big.

The Jews upon the sound of this and divers other things at the Temple do hyperbolize thus, Even from Jericho they heard the noise of the great Gate of the Temple when it opened. From Jericho they heard the ringing of the Migrephah. From Jericho they heard the noise of the Engine that Ben Kattin made for the Laver. From Jericho they heard the voice of the Crier that called them to their Services. From Jericho they heard the sound of the Pipe. From Jericho they heard the sound of the Cymbal. From Jericho they heard the sound of the Song. From Jericho they heard the sound of the Trumpets. And some say also, The voice of the High Priest when he uttered the Name Jehovah on the day of Expiation, &c. The truth of which things is not to be pleaded, seeing it is apparent that they are uttered by way of Hyperbole, only it may not be improper to observe how common the phrase was, From Jerusalem to Jericho▪ which is also used in Luke X. 30.

CHAP. XXXVII. Concerning the Vessels and Utensils of the Temple.