unlike some churches we have seen, which have a lofty tower in the front, and a lower aisle running along each side of the building. The utensils for sacred service were the same as in the tabernacle; only several of them, as the altar, candlestick, &c., were larger in proportion to the more spacious edifice to which they belonged. This first temple was at length plundered by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon of all its rich furniture, and the building itself destroyed, after it had stood, according to Josephus, four hundred and seventy years, six months, and ten days from its dedication*. Though other chronologers, as particularly Calvisius and Scaliger, reduce the number of years to four hundred and twenty-seven or eight; and Usher to four hundred and twenty-four, three months, and eight days +. The second temple was built by the Jews upon their return from the Babylonish captivity, under the influence and direction of Zerubbabel their governor, and of Joshua the high priest, with the leave and by the encouragement of Cyrus the Persian emperor, to whom Judea was now become a tributary kingdom. This is that Cyrus, of whom Isaiah had prophesied by name two hundred years before he was born, and had predicted his encouraging the rebuilding Jerusalem and the temple, Isa. xliv, 28; xlv, 1. It is probable, that Daniel had showed Cyrus this prophecy, and that Cyrus refers to it in his proclamation for rebuilding the temple: "The Lord God," saith he," hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem,” Ezra i, 2. He also restored the sacred utensils which Nebuchadnezzar had put in the temples of his god; and not only gave leave to the Jews to rebuild their temple, but encouraged his own people to assist them with presents, for carrying on the work, Ezra i, 4. Upon which the foundation of a new building was laid, with great rejoicing of the people; only some old men, who remembered the glory of Solomon's temple, and had no expectation that this, which was erecting by a few poor exiles, just returned to their own country, could ever equal that in * Antiq. lib. x, cap. viii, sect. v, p. 528, edit. Haverc. † Usser. Annal. A. M. 3416, p. 71, and Scaliger de Emend. Temp. p. 400, edit. Colon. Allobr. 1629. magnificence, wept with a loud voice, while others were shouting with joy, chap. iii, 12, 13. However, the work, which was thus cheerfully begun, went on but slowly, partly for want of zeal for God's honour and worship, for which they were reproved by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, and partly, also, through the envy and malice of their neighbours, the Samaritans, who by their ill offices at court prevailed with the emperor to put a stop to the work, chap. iv, 23, 24. At length, after an intermission of about thirteen years, it was vigorously reassumed under the encouragement of the emperor Darius, and completely finished in the sixth year of his reign, chap. vi, 15. Upon which the new temple was dedicated with great solemnity and much rejoicing, ver. 16, 17. That there was really a very considerable difference and disparity betwixt the old and this new temple is very certain, not only from the old men's lamentation before mentioned, but from the following passage of the prophet Haggai, "Who is left amongst you, that saw this house in its first glory? And how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes, in comparison of it, as nothing?" Haggai ii, 3. And also from the promise which God gave them, in order to comfort them on this occasion, that he would raise the glory of this latter temple above that of the former, by the presence of the Messiah in it, ver. 9. The Jews tell us, the second temple wanted five remarkable things, which were the chief glory of the first temple: the ark and mercy seat:-the Divine presence, or visible glory in the holy of holies, which they call the Schechinah:-- the holy fire on the altar, which had been first kindled from Heaven: the Urim and Thummim:-and the spirit of prophecy. This temple was plundered and wretchedly profaned by Antiochus Epiphanes, who not only rifled it of all its riches, but caused it to be polluted by sacrificing swine's flesh upon the altar. He also caused the public worship in it to cease*. It was afterwards purified, and the divine worship restored by Judas Maccabeus, on which occasion the temple, or at least the altar, was dedicated anew, and an annual festival was instituted in commemoration of this happy event. This is Joseph. Antiq. lib. xii, cap. v, sect. iv, p. 609, edit. Haverc.; and 1 Maccab. i, 20-24, and 45—47. the feast of dedication which we read of in the Gospel of St. John, chap. x, 22, and which is said to be in winter, and could not, therefore, be kept in remembrance of the dedication of the temple of Solomon; for that was in the seventh month, which is just after harvest, 1 Kings viii, 2; nor of Zerubbabel's temple, which was dedicated in the month Adar, in the spring. It must, therefore, be the festival, which was instituted by Judas Maccabeus, on his having purified the temple and altar from the pollution of Antiochus. This feast was celebrated for eight days successively, from the twentyfifth day of the month Casleu, answering to our December, 1 Maccab. iv, 59. And it is also mentioned by Josephus as a festival to which great regard was paid in his time*. This festival is still observed by the Jews; yet not as a time of rejoicing, but of mourning, on account of the destruction of their temple, and the calamities which have befallen their nation. When this second temple was grown old, and out of repair, having stood five hundred years, King Herod, in order to ingratiate himself with the Jews, and to perpetuate his own memory, offered to rebuild it: which brings us, Thirdly, To Herod's temple, which was a far more magnificent structure than Zerubbabel's, and came much nearer to the glory of Solomon's. Tacitus, the Roman historian, calls it "Immensæ opulentiæ templum," a temple of immense opulence. Josephus says, it was the most astonishing structure he had ever seen or heard of, as well on account of its architecture as its magnitude, and likewise the richness and magnificence of its various parts, and the fame and reputation of its sacred appurtenances. As for Rabbi Jehuda, the compiler of the Talmud, and other more modern writers, who have given us descriptions of this temple, which none of them had ever seen, we can have little dependence on their accounts, especially as they differ so much from one another, each having, in a manner, erected a separate edifice; to which one cannot help suspecting, that the strength of imagination has sometimes contributed more largely than the knowledge of * Antiq. lib. xii, cap. vii, sect. vii, p. 617, edit. Haverc. ↑ Joseph. de Bell. Judaic. lib. vi, cap. iv, sect. viii, p. 386, edit. Ha history. But Josephus was himself a priest in the temple he describes, and wrote soon after its destruction, when, if he had given a false, or remarkably inaccurate account, he might have been contradicted by numbers, who had viewed it as well as himself. For that reason, he is to be credited beyond any of the rest *,, though one cannot avoid suspecting, that even in his description there is some panegyric exceeding the bounds of truth, intermixed with faithful and exact narrative; for instance, when he tells us of some stones in the building forty-five cubits long, five high, and six broad. That there were, indeed, some extraordinary large stones, may be collected from the following passage of the evangelist Mark, "And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here?" Mark xiii, 1. And in Luke they are styled goodly stones," chap. xxi, 5. But I apprehend it would puzzle all the mathematicians of the present age to contrive machines by which stones of such prodigious weight and size, as those mentioned by Josephus, could be raised and managed. We are to consider, he wrote before the invention of printing, when books could not be soon and easily published and dispersed into many hands, as they now are. It is possible, therefore, a vain desire of exalting the glory of his nation, might prevail with him, in some cases, above a strict regard to truth, when it was probable, none, who were able to contradict him, might ever see his book; or if they should, and were of his own nation, they would not be inclined to do it. Hitherto we have only considered the temple itself, which consisted of the portico, the sanctuary, and the holy of holies. But this was only a small part of the sacred building on the top of Mount Moriah; for the temple was surrounded with spacious courts, making a square of half a mile in circumference. * Sec his Description of the Temple, de Bell. Judaic. lib. v, cap. v, p. 331, et seq. There is, however, a surprising account in Mr. Maundrel's Travels, p. 138, edit. 1749, Oxon, of the size of some stones, which, he saith, he saw himself in a wall which encompassed the temple of Balbec; one stone was twenty-one, and two others each twenty yards long, four yards deep, and as many broad. And the authors of the Universal History quote De La Roque, a French author, as giving the same account. The first court, which encompassed the temple and the other courts, was called the court of the Gentiles; because Gentiles were allowed to come into it, but no further. It was enclosed with a wall, twenty cubits high, on the top of which were chambers, or galleries, supported by the wall on the outer side, and by rows of columns on the inside; as the sides of the Royal Exchange, or the Piazzas in Covent Garden are. These piazzas of the temple are called 500 by Josephus, and in the New Testament; which we translate porches, though not very properly, for the English word porch conveys a very different idea from the Greek word 50%, which is better rendered piazza. That on the east side was called Solomon's piazza, see John x, 23; Acts iii, 11; because it stood upon a vast terrace, which he built up from. the valley beneath, four hundred cubits high, in order to enlarge the area on the top of the mountain, and make it equal to the plan of his intended building. As this terrace was the only work of Solomon's remaining in Herod's temple, the piazza, that stood upon it, still retained the name of the former prince. Of the same kind with these piazzas were doubtless the five So, which surrounded the pool of Bethesda, John v, 2. The pool was probably a pentagon, and the piazzas round it were designed to shelter from the weather the multitude of diseased persons, who lay waiting for a cure by the miraculous virtue of those waters. Within this outward great court was a less court, of an oblong rectangular figure, near to the west end of which the temple stood. Into this court none but Israelites might enter. It was also surrounded with a wall, and adorned with piazzas, in the manner of the great court. The rabbies speak of two walls, and a space betwixt them of ten cubits broad, which they call the chel, that parted the court of the Israelites from the court of the Gentiles. This is what they understand by the word in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, chap. ïi, 8; "He made the chel and the wall to lament; they languished together*." But however that be, the wall that divided be Vid. Maimon. de Edificio Templi, cap. vii, sect. iii, p. 39, Crenii Fasciculi Sexti. There is, however, a mistake in the translation; instead |