virtue which God put into this pool to heal all manner of diseases. And as the fountain of Christ's blood was to be opened at the passover, at which feast he was crucified, Dr. Lightfoot imagines, that the miraculous cure was effected by this pool at that feast only.* So It may seem a little strange, that there is no mention made of this miracle, either by Josephus, or the writers of the Talmud, who on all other occasions are ready enough to celebrate the miracles which God wrought for, and which did honour to, their nation. But supposing, which is highly probable, that the miraculous virtue was first imparted to this pool about the time of our Saviour's coming, and that it ceased at his death, whereby it plainly appeared that this miracle was wrought in honour of Christ, we need not wonder that Josephus passes it over in silence, since he could not relate it without reviving a testimony to Christ, greatly to the discredit of his own nation, who rejected and crucified him. And as it is not recorded by Josephus, it is not unlikely, that the memory of it was lost among the Jews at the time when the Talmud was written, which was not till several hundred years afterward.† Concerning the gates of the temple, Godwin observes, that there were two of principal note, both built by Solomon; the one for those that were new married, the other for mourners and excommunicated persons. The mourners, he saith, were distinguished from the excommunicated by having their lips covered with a skirt of their garment; none entered that gate with their lips uncovered but such as were excommunicated. The Mishna saith, "All that enter, according to the custom of the temple, go in on the right-hand way, go round, and go out on the left-hand way; except a person, cui accidit aliquid, who is rendered unclean by a particular circumstance, who goes round and enters on the left. And being asked why he does so, if he answer, Because I mourn, they reply, He who inhabits this house comfort thee. If he answer, Because I * Hora Hebraic. John v. 4. There are two very learned dissertations on this subject in the second volume of the Thesaurus Novus Theologico Philologicus: one by Joan. Conrad. Hottingerus de Piscinâ Bethesda; the other by David Ebersbach, de Miraculo Piscina Bethesdæ. The last contains a full reply both to Bartholine and Hammond. See also Witsii Miscell. tom. ii. exercitat. xi. sect. liv.-lx. p. 314-320. am excommunicated, the reply is, according to R. Jose, He who inhabits this house put it into thy heart to hearken to the words of thy companions, or brethren, that they may receive thee." It appears from hence (at least according to the opinion of the mishnical rabbies), that excommunicated persons were not excluded from the temple, though they were from the synagogue, as we learn from several passages in the evangelist John, chap. ix. 22; xii. 42; xvi. 2; where such persons are said to be aroσvvaywyou, excluded from the synagogue. Not that we are to infer from this, that the Jews accounted their synagogues more holy than the temple; but it shows what was, and should be, the true intent of excommunication, namely, the shaming and humbling an offender, in order to bring him to repentance; on which account he was excluded the society of his neighbours in the synagogue; but not his eternal destruction, by driving him from the presence of God in the temple, and depriving him of the use of the most solemn ordinances, and the most effectual means of grace and salvation. The temple was the common place of worship for Israelites; by allowing him to come thither they signified, that they did not exclude him from the common privilege of an Israelite, though they would not receive him into their familiarity and friendship. How much heavier is the yoke of antichrist than the Jewish yoke of bondage! How much more cruel is the excommunication of Popery, which deprives persons of all their liberties and privileges, of their goods and lives, and consigns over their souls to be tormented in hell for ever,-how infinitely more cruel, I say, is this modern excommunication than even that of the wicked and barbarous Jews, who crucified the Lord of glory! Mish. tit. Middoth. cap. ii. sect. ii.; et Maimon. in loc. tom. v. p. 334, 335, edit. Surenhus.; Lightf. Hor. Hebr. 1 Cor. v. 5. CHAPTER IV. OF THEIR GROVES AND HIGH PLACES. WE have several times had occasion to observe, that in order the more effectually to guard the Israelites from idolatry, the blessed God, in instituting the rites of his own worship, went directly counter to the practice of the idolatrous nations. Thus, because they worshipped in groves,* he expressly forbad "the planting a grove of trees near his altar;" Deut. xvi. 21. Nor would he suffer his people to offer their sacrifices on the tops of hills and mountains, as the heathens did, but ordered that they should be brought to one altar in the place which he appointed; Deut. xii. 13, 14. And as for the groves, Hæc (nemora sc.) fuere numinum templa, priscoque ritu simplicia rura Deo præcellentem arborem dicant. Nec magis auro fulgentia atque ebore simulacra quam lucos et ipsa silentia adoramus. Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xii. cap. i. p. 4, tom. iii. edit. Harduin. 1685. See also Lucian. de Sacrif. tom. i. p. 355, C, D, edit. Salmur. 1619. These groves Plutarch calls aλon Jewv, the groves of the gods, which he saith Numa frequented, and thereby gave occasion to the story of his commerce with the goddess Egeria; Plutarc. in Numa, p. 61, F, Oper. tom. i. edit. Francof. 1620. They are expressly enjoined, by the laws of the twelve tables, as a part of the public religion, Lucos in agris habento. Vid. Duodecim. Tabular. Fragm. tit. Ubi colendi ad calcem Cod. Justiniani, p. 751, apud Corp. Juris Civil. edit. Lips. 1720. + See Spencer's learned dissertation on this and the following verse, de Leg. Hebræor. lib. ii. cap. xxvii. xxviii. Sophocles introduces Hercules asking Hyllus, whether he knew Mount Eta, which was sacred to Jupiter? "Yes," saith he, "for I have often sacrificed upon the top of it." Trachin. v. 1207, 1208, tom. ii. p. 325, edit. Glasg. 1745. And Strabo saith of the Persians, αγαλματα και βωμους ουκ δρύονται, θύουσι δε εν ύψηλω τοπω τον ουρανον ηγουμενοι Δια; Geograph. lib. xv. p. 732, C, edit. Casaub. 1620. See also Herodot. Clio, cap. cxxxi. p. 55, sect. 131, edit. Gronov.; Xenophon. Cyr. lib. viii. p. 500, 3d edit. Hutchins; and Appian (de Bello Mithrad. p. 361, 362, sect. ccxv., edit. Tollii, Amstel. 1670) saith, that Mithridates sacrificed to Jupiter according to the custom of his country, en opovç inλov, upon a high mountain. which the Canaanites had planted, and the idols and altars which they had erected on the tops of high mountains and hills for the worship of their gods, the Israelites are commanded utterly to destroy them; ver. 2, 3. The groves and high places do not seem to have been different, but the same places, or groves planted on the tops of hills, probably round an open area, in which the idolatrous worship was performed, as may be inferred from the following words of the prophet Hosca: "They sacrifice upon the tops of mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks, and poplars, and elms;" chap. iv. 13. The use of groves for religious worship is generally supposed to have been as ancient as the patriarchal ages; for we are informed, that "Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the Lord;" Gen. xxi. 33. However, it is not expressly said, nor can it by this passage be proved, that he planted the grove for any religious purpose; it might only be designed to shade his tent. And this circumstance perhaps is recorded to intimate his rural way of living, as well as his religious character; that he dwelt in a tent, under the shade of a grove, or tree, as the words eshel, may more properly be translated; and in this humble habitation led a very pious and devout life. The reason and origin of planting sacred groves is variously conjectured; some imagining it was only hereby intended to render the service more agreeable to the worshippers, by the pleasantness of the shade;* whereas others suppose it was to invite the presence of the gods. The one or the other of these reasons seems to be intimated in the forecited passage of Hosea, "They burn incense under oaks, and poplars, and elms, because the shade thereof is good;" chap. iv. 13. Others conceive their worship was performed in the midst of groves, because the gloom of such a place is apt to strike a religious awe upon the mind; or else, because such dark conceal This seems, according to Virgil, to have been the reason of Dido's building the temple of Juno in a delightful grove: Lucus in urbe fuit mediâ, lætissimus umbrâ: Condebat. Eneid, lib. i. v. 445. "Si tibi occurrit," saith Seneca, Epist. xli. “vetustis arboribus, et solitam altitudinem egressis frequens lucus, et conspectum cœli densitate ments suited the lewd mysteries of their idolatrous worship.* I have met with another conjecture, which seems as probable as any, that this practice began with the worship of demons, or departed souls. It was an ancient custom to bury the dead under trees, or in woods. "Deborah was buried under an oak, near Bethel," Gen. xxxv. 8; and the bones of Saul and Jonathan under a tree at Jabesh; 1 Sam. xxxi. 13. Now an imagination prevailing among the heathen, that the souls of the deceased hover about their graves, or at least delight to visit their dead bodies, the idolaters, who paid divine honours to the souls of their departed heroes, erected images and altars for their worship in the same groves where they were buried; and from thence it grew into a custom afterward to plant groves, and build temples, near the tombs of departed heroes, 2 Kings xxiii. 15, 16; and to surround their temples and altars with groves and trees;§ and these ramorum aliorum alios protegentium submovens: illa proceritas sylvæ, et secretum loci et admiratio umbræ, in aperto tam densæ atque continuæ, fidem tibi numinis facit. Et siquis specus saxis penitus exesis montem suspenderit, non manufactus, sed naturalibus causis in tantam laxitatem excavatus: animum tuum quadam religionis suspicione percutiet." See also a remarkable passage in Virgil, Æneid, viii. v. 347, et seq. * For proof of the lewdness and obscenity of many of the religious rites of the heathen, vid. Herodot. Euterp. cap. Ixiv. p. 112, 113, edit. Gronov. et Clio, sect. cxcix. p. 80; Diodor. Sicul. lib. iv. init.; Valer. Maxim. lib. ii. cap. vi. sect. xv. p. 185, 186, edit. Thysii. Lugd. Bat. 1655; Juvenal, sat. ix. v. 24; and what Eusebius saith of a grove on Mount Libanus, dedicated to Venus, in his Life of Constantine, lib. iii. cap. lv. Compare 1 Kings xiv. 23, 24. + Plato, after having declared his approbation of the sentiment of Hesiod, that when any of the golden age died they became demons, and the authors of great good to mankind; and after having asserted, that all who died bravely in war were entitled to be ranked in the same class, reckons, among the honours they deserved, their sepulchres being esteemed and worshipped as the repositories of demonsὡς δαιμονον δυτω θεραπεύσομεν τε και προσκυνησομεν αυτων τας θηκας. De Republ. lib. v. p. 662, D, E, edit. Ficin. Francofurt. 1602. See Arrian's description of the tomb of Cyrus, de Expedit. Alexandr. lib. vi. p. 435, edit. Blancard. Amstel. 1678. § On account of the custom of planting trees near temples, "the poets," as Strabo informs us, "styled all their temples groves, even those which had no plantations around them." Geograph. lib. ix. p. 412, D, edit. Casaub. |