seems so to signifie, for other sense I know not to put upon it. The sentence is this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Tragedians and Poets used it before the chief of the Captivity. But what sense he would make of this Etymology, I do not understand. But be the notation of the word what it will, the Talmud setteth two distinguishing marks upon the Gate it self, for which it was singular from all the rest of the gates that we have mentioned. The first is, that it had not so fair a rising Gate-house and chambers above it as the rest had, but only stones laid flat over it, and the battlement of the wall running upon it and no more. And the other is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 That it was not a common and ordinary passage in and out, as the other Gates were, but only a passage upon occasion; the uselessness whereof we shall have occasion to look at again ere it be long.
The Mount Moriah did afford some space of ground upon this side, without the Wall and compass of the Holy ground, which it did upon none of the sides beside; for here was built the large and goodly Tower of Antonia, which we shall survey by and by, whereas on every one of the other sides the incompassing Wall that closed in the Holy ground, did stand near upon the very pitch and precipice of the hill. So that looking about you as you stood out at this Gate, this Tower Antonia stood on your left hand and spoyled your prosect on that side, and you could see nothing that way but it. Before you was Mount Sion, and the goodly buildings of the Kings Palace and other houses; upon the bending toward the East angle, was the place called Ophel or Ophla, the habi∣tation of the Nethenims, Neh. III. 26. and when Ophla was turned East, then was there the horse-gate and water-gate before the Temple.
Thus lay the Mountain of the Lords House, incompassed with the City round about, and enclosed with a fair and high Wall which separated it from the common ground: On the 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 in the middle between, even as the Ministery is in mediation betwixt God and his people. That Wall that encompassed it, had eight gates of goodly structure and beauteous fabrick, all of one fashion, save only that the North and East gates were not topped, the one in height, and the other in fashion, as the other were. At all these gates were Porters by day, and at five of them were guards by night, as we shall observe hereafter: the access to them on the East and West was by a great ascent, but facilitated by steps or causeys for the peoples ease, and for the coming up of the Beasts that were to be sacrificed, of which there were some that came up dayly. On the South side the ascent was not so very great, yet it had its rising in the like manner of access as had the other. On the North what coming up there was, it was more for the accommodation of the residents in the Tower Antonia, than for the entrance into the Temple, the North gate Tedi being of so little use, as hath been spoken.
At any of the Gates as you passed through, the entrance if self, through which you went, was ten cubits wide, twenty cubits high, and twelve cubits over, six of which cubits were without the Holy ground, and six within: and as you entred in at the East gate, had you seen the ground before any buildings were set in it, or any thing done to it, but only the building of this Wall, you might have seen the hill rising from the East to the West, in such an ascent, that the Western part of it was very many cubits higher than where you stood, as we shall have occasion to observe as we pass along.
This bank was once well stored with bushes and brambles, Gen. XXII. 13. and after∣ward with worse briers and thorns, the Jebusites, who had it in possession till David pur∣chased it for divine use and structure, that we are looking after: Here was then a poor threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, but afterward the habitation of the God of Jacob: A place and fabrick as sumptuous and eminent, as it was possible for man, and art, and cost to make it; the glory of the Nation where it was, and the wonder of all the Nations round about it; but in fine, as great a wonder and monument of desolation and ruine, as ever it had been of beauty and gloriousness. Before we step further toward the survey of it as it stood in glory, we must keep yet a while along this Wall about which we have been so long, and observe some buildings and beauties that joyned and belonged to i••, besides the Gates that we have surveyed in it alread.