account: and although his large measure, do differ far from this of ours, yet doth his cubit measure and state the cubit that we have in hand, so well, that it would be very hard, if not impossible otherwise among the various sizes of cubits that we meet withal, to determine any thing of it. For we find mention of the common cubit of five hand bredth, of the middle of six, of the cubit half a fingers bredth larger than the cubit of Moses, and the cubit half a fingers bredth larger than that: but Ezekiel hath stinted his cubit to be a cubit and a hand bredth (that is the common cubit of five hand bredths, and one hand bredth over;) And so the Jews conclude upon the same measure in this received Maxim: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The cubit by which the Temple build∣ings were measured was six hand bredths, but the cubit by which the Vessels were measured was but five.
The hand bredth therefore being the four fingers bredth as they be laid close together, which make but three inches, the cubit of six hand bredths, (which is the cubit we im∣brace here) ariseth to eighteen inches or just half a yard, and so by this computation, the five hundred cubits upon every side of the square was two hundred and fifty yards, and the whole compass of the Wall was a thousand yards about.
Josephus hath alotted a just furlong to every side of the square: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and so hath made the whole compass to be exactly half a mile about, reckoning according to the common cubit, and according to the measure best known among the Greeks and Romans, for whom he wrote.
And now if any one will take up the full circuit of the wall that encompassed the holy ground, according to our English measure, it will amount to half a mile, and about one hundred sixty six yards. And whosoever likewise will measure the square of Eze∣kiel, Chap. XLII. 20. he will find it six times as large as this, Chap. XL. 5. the whole amounting to three miles and an half, and about one hundred and forty yards, a com∣pass incomparably larger than Mount Moriah divers times over; and by this very thing is shewed that that is spiritually and mystically to be understood.
The description of the Temple and City, that he hath given in the end of his Book, as it was a prediction of some good to come, so was that prediction true, thus far accor∣ding to the very letter, namely that there should be a Temple and a City newly built: and so it was a promise and a comfort to the people then in captivity, of their restoring again to their own Land, and there injoying Jerusalem and the Temple again, as they had done in former time, before their removing and captivating out of their own Coun∣try: But as for a literal respondency of that City and Temple, to all the particulars of his description, it is so far from it, that his Temple is delineated larger than all the earth∣ly Jerusalem, and his Jerusalem larger than all the Land of Canaan. And thereby the scope of the Holy Ghost in that Ichnography is clearly held out to be, to signifie the great inlarging of the spiritual Jerusalem and Temple, the Church under the Gospel, and the spiritual beauty and glory of it, as well as to certifie captived Israel, of hopes of an earthly City and Temple to be rebuilt, which came to pass upon their return under Cyrus.
Yet had this his space of the holy ground its bounds, though they were exceeding large; but when John in his Revelation is upon the measure of his Temple, this outer Court or space is left boundless, and not measured nor inclosed at all, and the reason is given, because that Court was given to the Gentiles, and they should tread the holy City (as men trod Gods Courts when they came to worship) two and forty months, Rev. XI. 1, 2, 3, &c. still clearing the reason of the Prophetical inlarging of the holy ground, which was to denote the abundant and numerous worshippers of God which should be under the Gospel.
The Wall that encompssed and went about the square of the holy ground, was of very fair stone, and it was five and twenty cubits, or twelve yards and an ••••lf high, that is, as one stood within the compass of it, in the holy ground; for without it stood over a very deep and sharp precipice, and so there was an exceeding great height from the bottom of the trench beneath, to the top of the wall, but within it was no higher than five and twenty cubits, and that height is carried about whole the square.
Now whereas it is a very common Tenet amongst the Talmudists that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Eastern wall was six cubits high and no more, it is not to be un∣derstood of the whole East side Wall, for that was five and twenty cubits high as well as the rest, but it is to be understood only of the Wall or Battlement that was just over the East Gate: and so it is explained by some of them thus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 For whereas the Priest that was sprinkling the blood of the red Cow upon Mount Olivet, was to look directly by this East Gate, upon the Gate of the Temple, and whereas the floor of the Porch of the Temple was two and twenty cubits higher ground than the floor of this East Gate, and so the Priest looking from Olivet through this Gate could not