them up for ever. The open flowers shewed Christ, as the perfection of beauty and purity: who was to shine. forth, and who at seasons did, and still does shine forth. Hence the spouse says, My beloved is like a roe or young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing, or flourishing himself through the lat

tice.

The Temple itself was a figure of Christ's body. Hence he said to the Jews, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. But he spake of the temple of his body. The Holy of Holies was a figure of Heaven. The Ark and Cherubim with their apparatus were an exhibition of what had been transacted in Heaven, and what was to be there compleated by the entrance of our Great High Priest; he having obtained eternal redemption. Aaron's rod always blooming was a figure of the eternal priesthood of Christ Jesus. The figures of the Cherubim were in many places of the Tabernacle and Temple exposed to public view, so that all might keep in mind the mystery of the Trinity, and of the man joined to him whom the lion represented. But the exhibition in the Sanctum Sanctorum could not be accessible unto the people, until their real Song ii. 2, 9.

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John ii. 19, 21.

High Priest Jesus Christ had rent the vail, made complete satisfaction for sin, and entered into the very presence of God, there to intercede for them.

The two pillars on either side of the porch pointed out Christ, the strength and establishment of his church.

It should be observed that not only the Temple properly so called, but also its courts and appendages bore the same name. It was all called the Temple.

The court of the Priests was eleven cubits in breadth, and so was also the court of the Israelites. It was so constructed that you ascended from one court into another by stairs, or steps; one court being higher than another.

The gate called Nicanor, or the east gate of the court which was of brass, had fifteen steps, which went down out of the court of the Israelites into the court of the women. It was on the steps, or stairs thereof, the Levites stood and sung those fifteen Psalms, entitled Songs of Degrees, on the feast of tabernacles. This gate faced the Temple-gate.

The mountain of the Lord's House was surrounded and encompassed with the city round about it.

On one side of it lay Sion, the seat of the king.

On the other side Jerusalem, the habitation of the people; and the Temple and

its service were in the middle, as Christ is in the midst of his church.

All the holy ground belonging to the Temple was encompassed with a wall, which according to its squares had eight goodly gates. One was styled the Eastgate. It faced Mount Olivet, as Mount Olivet faced Jerusalem and Sion upon the east, winding likewise northward, so that it faced Sion also, something on the north. Between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives was the valley of the Son of Hinnom, or Tophet.

This eastern gate stood not in the very middle of the eastern wall, but more towards the north; because it was to stand directly in the front, over against the porch of the Temple.

The Altar being placed and fixed by divine appointment, the mountain did not allow an equal space of groumd on either side. Therefore they were forced to build the Temple, so as to stand in its proper parallel with the Altar, and to cast the courts so, as that the greatest space of the mount was on the south, the second on the east, the third on the north, and the least westward.

As a person stood in the east-gate, on the right hand he saw a part of Mount Olivet divided from the city of Jerusalem by the valley of Tophet, and by the valley of ashes. On the left hand, as he looked,

ran Mount Olivet still, and the valley between him and it; and all along the east point, and on the north side of Sion it was called the valley of Cedron. At the foot of the hill, beyond this valley, was seen Gethsemene, or the place of the oil-presses. The south wall faced Jerusalem, the city itself. The mountain of the Temple lay northward of Jerusalem, and Sion northward of the Temple. Hence the Psalmist saith, Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Sion, on the sides of the north. And Ezekiel says, He set me upon a mountain, by which was as the frame of a city towards the south. Which mountain," says a Jewish writer, "is the mountain of the temple, as this city is Jerusalem on the south." On this side which faced Jerusalem, or that looked south, there were two gates, called the gates of Huldah; and they were so placed, that they were at equal distances from the two angles of the wall, east and west, and of equal distance from each other. As a person stood at either of them and looked at Jerusalem, he might behold it, and how it stood, as built upon the hill Acra; which rising in the middle descended with an easy declivity towards the east and west, and with a descent also towards the north, or towards Jerusalem. Upon Psalm xlviii. 2

f Ib. xl. 2.

the very highest point of the hill, and from whence it had a fall either way, there sprang the sweet and gentle fountain of Siloam, without the city, and ran to each end of it, both east and west, in a contrary channel. As it made toward the east, it left the fuller's field upon the right hand, saluted the sheep-gate on the left, and so turned eastward, and fell into the pool called Solomon's pool, which may well be supposed to be Bethesda. As, when it ran westward, it coasted along the broad wall, the tower of the furnaces, and the valley gate, and after a while fell into the pool of Siloam®.

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On the west in this wall were four gates. The first leading to the king's palace, the valley being filled up for the passage, was called Shallecheth, or the casting up, from the causey that was cast up to lead to it from the king's palace; this being his ordinary way to the Temple. It is conceived by some, it was set on each side with oaks, and teil trees, which served for a double use, the one to keep up the causey on either side, that it should not fall down; and the other use of it was to make the king a pleasant walk and shade with trees on either side, as he came and went to the house of the Lord.

Two other gates on this western side & Dr. Lightfoot.