Jews faid this to him; all which time the Temple was CHAP. III. more more adorned, beautified, and perfected, and

་

so might be said to be fo long a building, though the

0 3

main fabrick was finished in a much leffer space.

313

But it is next to be known, that by the Temple is The feveral meant, not only the fabrick or house itself, but also the parts of the Temple. courts thereunto belonging. Within the fabrick itself there were these two parts, the first or outmost was that, The fancwherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the fnew-tuary. bread, which was called the fanctuary; the fecond or in- The holy of moft was that which is called the holiest of all, which had holies. the golden cenfer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid und about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that

had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant, and over it the cherubims of glory fhadowing the mercy-feat. Now the

into the

accomplishing the daily Service of God: but into the fecond went the high-priest alone, and that but once every year, &c. Heb. ix. 2, 3, 4, &c. As to the courts of the Temple, they were at firft but The court two, the priests court, and the people's court. The priests ofthe court was next to the Temple, and had in it the brazen altar for the facrifices, and the laver for the washing both of the priests and the facrifices alfo, and into this court might none enter but the priests.

first part or tabernacter priests went always

priests.

of the peo

ple.

The people's court was feparated from the former by The court a wall of three cubits height, to which the people did repair to perform their facrifices, to fay their prayers, and to pay their vows. In the midft of this court did Solomon make a brazen scaffold for the Kings his fucceffors, 2 Chron. vi. 13. In after times this court came to be built round with porches, into which the people retired in rainy weather; whence this court is fometimes denoted by the name of Solomon's porch, John x. 23. Acts iji. II. Solomon's having the name of Solomon added to it, either to con- porch. tinue his memory, or because the porches here built had fome refemblance of that porch which he built before the Temple, 1 Kings vi. 3.

The men's

court.

The wo

men's

court.

PART I. The forementioned court of the people was one entire court in Solomon's days; but afterwards it was divided by a low wall, fo that the men ftood in the inward part of it, and the women in the outward, This divifion is thought to have been made in Jehofaphat's time, of whom we read, that he stood in the house of the Lord, before the new court, 2 Chron. xx. 5. that is, before the women's court. In this ftood the poor's treasury, or the alms-box, as may be gathered from the poor widow's cafting her two mites into it; on which account this whole court The trea- is fometimes denoted by the name of the treasury, John

fury.

The court of the Gentiles.

viii. 20.

Lastly, in Herod's Temple there was a fourth court added before or without the three already mentioned, namely, for fuch as were unclean by legal pollutions, and for strangers; whence it was commonly called the court of the Gentiles, being defigned chiefly for the use of such Gentiles, or ftrangers, as were only profelytes of the gate, and not of the covenant, that is, as had bound themselves only to the obfervation of the precepts of Noah, and not to the obfervation of the Mofaical Law. This laft or outmoft court of all was feparated from the women's court with a wall of three cubits height, adorned with certain pillars of equal distance, bearing this infcription: Let no alien (or ftranger, that is, no one that is not a Jew or circumcifed profelyte) enter into the holy place. And to this wall it is, that the Apoftle alludes, when he faith, He hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, (that is, between Jews and Gentiles,) making one of twain, Eph. ii. 14, 15. and when he thence infers, that the Gentiles are no more to be efteemed foreigners and Strangers, but fellow-citizens with the faints, and of the houfehold of God, ver. 19. To close this difcourse in reference to the Temple, it was in this fourth court, or court of the Gentiles, that the Jews permitted to be kept a market of sheep and oxen and doves, and the tables of the money-changers to ftand; whereby the Jews fhewed the mean regard they had for the Gentiles, placing, them

in the fame court with their cattle. And therefore out CHAP. III. of this part or court of the Temple it was, that our Saviour caft the buyers and fellers; and herein it was that he overthrew the tables of the money-changers; afferting hereby the Temple to that facred use mentioned by the Prophet, namely, to be an house of prayer for all nations. To the account here given, the reader may add the defcription of the Temple given by Jofephus, b. vi. chap. vi, of the Wars of the Jews.

CHAP. IV.

A. D. Of our Saviour's Journeyings from the firft Paffover after 30 and 31. his Baptifm and Entrance upon his public Miniftry, to the fecond Paffover.

1.

Of Enon

THE

L'HE paffover holy days (during which our Saviour had and Salim. by his miracles converted many, and among the rest Nicodemus, a ruler or principal perfon among the Jews) being now ended, our Lord, with fome of his disciples, withdrew from Jerufalem into another part of Judea, where he continued for fome while. At this time John was baptizing in Enon, near to Salim, because there was much water there, John iii. 22, 23. And indeed the name Enon does import the fame as a place of Springs; but the only mention we have of it in Scripture is here, where it is defcribed to be fituated near Salim. And the fituation even of this last place is now uncertain, unless it be the fame with Shalem, (or Salem,) a city of Shechem, mentioned Gen. xxxiii. 18. or else the fame with Shalim, (or Salim,) mentioned 1 Sam. ix. 4. If it be the same with either of thefe, it lay within (what was called in the times of the New Teftament) the province of Samaria.

2.

Of Se

chem, or Sychar.

Our Lord, after he had spent some time in this part of Judea, knowing how the Pharifees had heard that he made and baptized more difciples than John, (though our Lord himself baptized not, but his difciples,) to avoid any ill defigns that the Pharisees might be contriving against him, he left Judea, and departed again into Galilee, having also by this time heard, that John the Baptist was cast into prifon by Herod. Now JESUS, as he went the straight way from Judea to Galilee, muft needs go through Samaria; where in his way he comes to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his fon Jofeph; hard by which town there is a well called Jacob's well, where Jefus, being wearied with his journey, Sat down and rested himself, John iv. 1, 2, 3, &c. The de

fcription

t

fcription here given by the Evangelift, of Sychar, puts it CHAPTIV. out of all doubt, that, it is the fame with Sychem; the difference between the two names proceeding in all pro bability only from a dialectical or corrupt way of pronun ciation. This city b is at prefent called Naplofa, and stands in a narrow valley between mount. Gerizim on the fouth, and Ebal on the north, being built at the foot of the former; upon the top of which the Samaritans, whofei chief refidence is here at Sychem, have a finall templeiori place of worship, to which they are still wont to repair at i certain feafons, for performance of the rites of their religion. What these rites are, Mr. Maundrell tells us, he could not certainly learn: but that their religion confiftsi in the adoration of a calf, as the Jews give out, feems to have more of fpite than of truth in it. Sychar, or, as it is now-a-days called, Naplofa, is at present in a very mean condition, in comparison of what it is represented to have st been anciently. It now confifts chiefly of two streets, lying parallel under mount Gerizim, but is full of people, and the feat of a Baffa.

Mr. Maundrell acquaints us, that fetting forwards from Sychem towards Jerufalem, and proceeding in the narrow » valley between Gerizim and Ebal, (not above a furlong broad,) he and his companions faw on their right hand, juft without the city, a small mofque, faid to have been over the fepulchre purchased by Jacob of Emmor, the father of Shechem, and which goes by the name of Jo seph's fepulchre, his bones having been here interred, after their transportation out of Egypt, Josh. xxiv. 32. ·

well.

3.

At about one third of an hour, we came, faith Mr. Maundrell, to Jacob's well, famous not only on account of Jacob's of its author, but much more for that memorable conference, which our bleffed Saviour here had with the woman of Samaria, John iv. If it should be questioned, whether this be the very well, that it is pretended for, or no, seeing it may be fufpected to stand too remote from