of these great truths, and that but imperfectly, and had different opinions about them: all the Israelites were instructed in this doctrine, and did not vary the least in their notions about it.h

m

The truths they were taught more obscurely, were, that in GoD there are three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; that the Saviour they expected should be God, and the Son of GOD that he should be both GoD and Man at the same time; that GoD would not give men his grace, and the assistance necessary to perform his law, but through this Saviour, and upon account of his merits; that he should suffer death to expiate the sins of mankind:" that his kingdom should be altogether spiritual; that all men shall rise again: that in another life there shall be a just reward for the good, and punishment for the wicked. All this is taught in the Scriptures of the Old Testament; but not so clearly that all the people knew it ; neither were men capable at that time of bearing such sublime truths.

But my design is only to explain in what the outward practice of their religion differed from our customs. They had only one temple and Orig. cont. Cels. h Joseph. 1. ii. c. App. 6.

i Gen. i. 26. Psalm xxxiii. 6. Isaiah xlviii. 16.

* Prov. xxx. 4.

Psalm xiv. 6. 7.

Gen. xxii. 18.

1 Isai. vii. 14.

Isaiah liii. 5. 6. 11. Dan. ix. 26. • Job. xix: 25-27. P Psalm xvii. 15. See this particularly stated in the Tar. gum of Jonathan ben Uzziel on Gen. iv. 8. where Abel is represented as vindicating the doctrines of the immortality of the soul, and future rewards and punishments against the infidel objections of his brother Cain.

one altar on which it was lawful to offer sacrifice to God: this was a symbol of God's unity: and this building was the most magnificent in the whole world, to represent also his sovereign majesty. It was not one only building, like most of our churches, but a great enclosure, comprehending courts surrounded with galleries, and several offices for the different courses of Priests and Levites, besides the body of the temple. The temples of other nations, as the Egyptians and Chaldeans, had also large edifices adjoining to them, and stood upon a great deal of ground: but they always planted trees about them: whereas the Israelites would not suffer any to grow near theirs, that they might keep entirely free from the superstition of groves, which the pagans held sacred.

The body of the temple was sixty cubits long, and twenty broad, and thirty high, without reckoning the holy of holies, which joined to it on the same floor, and was twenty cubits in length, and twenty in breadth, and twenty

4 We find two different cubits in the Scripture; one of them equal (as Dr. Arbuthnot says) to an English foot, nine inches and 888 thousandth parts of an inch; being a fourth part of a fathom, double the span, and six times the palm. The other equal to one foot and 824 thousandth parts of a foot, or the 400th part of a stadium. The Romans too had a cubit equal to one English foot, five inches and 406 thousandth parts of an inch. Father Mersenne makes the Hebrew cubit one foot four digits and five lines, with regard to the foot of the capital. According to Hero, the geometrical cubit is 24 digits: and according to Vitruvius, the foot is two-thirds of the Roman cubit, i. e. six. teen digits or finger's breadths. The Scripture says here, the cubits were after the first measure. Vid. 2 Chron. iii, 3. E. F.

in height. At the entrance there was a porch that supported a great tower a hundred and twenty cubits high, and twenty broad.' I leave the learned to judge of the proportions. But I must desire those that think the temple small, to consider, that the people were never to go into it; only the priests, and such as waited on them, and that at stated times, morning and evening, to light the lamps, and offer bread and perfumes. The high priest was the only person that entered into the sanctuary where the ark of the covenant stood, nor did he go in oftener than once a year.

The whole temple and sanctuary too were wainscoted with cedar, adorned with carvings, and all covered with plates of gold. On the outside it was surrounded with two cedarfloors, which made three stories of chambers for different uses.' Before the temple, in a great court, was the altar for holocausts, or whole burnt-offerings, that is to say, a platform thirty cubits square and fifteen high. The priests went up to it by an easy ascent without steps, to place the wood and victims in order. In the same court were ten great brazen basons set upon rolling bottoms; and that, which was supported by twelve oxen, the Scripture calls the brazen-sea.

This court belonged to the priests, especially that part betwixt the altar and the porch, for

* 1 Kings vi. 2, 3, 20. Jos. Ant. 1. xv. c. ult: et de bell. Jud. 1. vi. c. 6. • 2 Chron. iii. 4. 1 Kings vi. 3. 4

* Cœnacula.

the laity might advance as far as the altar to present their victims and slay them, when they offered sacrifices. The Levites stood upon the stairs of the porch, which faced the temple, to sing and play upon musical instruments:" The court of the priests was enclosed with galleries, and surrounded with a first court much larger, which was the usual place for the people, where the women were separated from the men, and the Gentiles might not come any farther than to stand under the galleries which made the enclosure of the first court. There were several parlours, chambers, and storehouses, for different uses, adjoining to these galleries of each enclosure.*

They had treasuries for the sacred vessels of gold and silver, which were so numerous, that even at their return from the captivity they brought home five thousand four hundred ;▾ vestries likewise for the sacerdotal habits, and store-houses, where they laid up the offerings set apart for the maintenance of the priests and Levites, widows and orphans; and what was committed to their charge by private people.* For it was customary with the ancients to deposit what was given for the public in temples.' In other places they kept wine and oil for the libations, salt to season all the sacrifices, and "Ezek. xl. xli. xlii.

* Gazophylacia, Pastophoria, Thalami, Exedræ, vid. Jer. xxxv. 4. in the Vulgate.

y 1 Esd. ii. 14.

z Ezek. xliv. 19.

a 2 Chron. xxxi. 11. 2 Macc. iii. 10.

Talmud. Cod. Middoth.

the lambs that had been picked out to be offered at the evening and morning sacrifice, which was never omitted. In other places they made shew-bread, and what other pastry was necessary for the sacrifices. They had kitchens for the flesh of the victims, eating rooms for the priests and guard of the Levites, that kept the doors and watched the temple day and night; besides lodgings for those of them that were musicians; one, where the Nazarites were shaved after their vow; another, to examine lepers in; a hall where the chief council of seventy elders was held, and other rooms of the same nature, with which we are not so particularly acquainted. So many fine regular buildings gave, no doubt, a high idea of the great king that was served in that sacred place.

They offered four lambs every day for an holocaust, two in the morning and two in the evening and this is what is called the continual sacrifice. On sabbath and festival days the sacrifices were multiplied in proportion to the solemnity, without reckoning the offerings of private people, which were daily very nu

merous.

We are offended at these bloody sacrifices which made the temple a sort of shambles: but it was the same amongst other nations; and the Israelites had taken sufficient precautions for performing these sacrifices with all the cleanliEzek. xl. 44. van tameed, Heb. ediλexioμos, Sept. juge sacrificium. Vulg.

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