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But when they should transfer
it into the most secret place, the rest of the multitude went away, and only
those priests that carried it set it between the two cherubims, which embracing
it with their wings, (for so were they framed by the artificer,) they covered
it, as under a tent, or a cupola. Now the ark contained nothing else but those
two tables of stone that preserved the ten commandments, which God spake to
Moses in Mount Sinai, and which were engraved upon them; but they set the
candlestick, and the table, and the golden altar in the temple, before the most
secret place, in the very same places wherein they stood till that time in the
tabernacle. So they offered up the daily sacrifices; but for the brazen altar,
Solomon set it before the temple, over against the door, that when the door was
opened, it might be exposed to sight, and the sacred solemnities, and the
richness of the sacrifices, might be thence seen; and all the rest of the
vessels they gathered together, and put them within the temple.
2. Now as soon as the priests had put all things
in order about the ark, and were gone out, there cane down a thick cloud, and
stood there, and spread itself, after a gentle manner, into the temple; such a
cloud it was as was diffused and temperate, not such a rough one as we see full
of rain in the winter season. This cloud so darkened the place, that one priest
could not discern another, but it afforded to the minds of all a visible image
and glorious appearance of God's having descended into this temple, and of his
having gladly pitched his tabernacle therein. So these men were intent upon
this thought. But Solomon rose up, (for he was sitting before,) and used such
words to God as he thought agreeable to the Divine nature to receive, and fit
for him to give; for he said,
"Thou hast an eternal
house, O Lord, and such a one as thou hast created for thyself out of thine own
works; we know it to be the heaven, and the air, and the earth, and the sea,
which thou pervadest, nor art thou contained within their limits. I have indeed
built this temple to thee, and thy name, that from thence, when we
sacrifice,and perform sacred operations, we may send our prayers up into the
air, and may constantly believe that thou art present, and art not remote from
what is thine own; for neither when thou seest all things, and hearest all
things, nor now, when it pleases thee to dwell here, dost thou leave the care
of all men, but rather thou art very near to them all, but especially thou art
present to those that address themselves to thee, whether by night or by
day."
When he had thus solemnly
addressed himself to God, he converted his discourse to the multitude, and
strongly represented the power and providence of God to them; - how he had
shown all things that were come to pass to David his father, as many of those
things had already come to pass, and the rest would certainly come to pass
hereafter; and how he had given him his name, and told to David what he should
be called before he was born; and foretold, that when he should be king after
his father's death, he should build him a temple, which since they saw
accomplished, according to his prediction, he required them to bless God, and
by believing him, from the sight of what they had seen accomplished, never to
despair of any thing that he had promised for the future, in order to their
happiness, or suspect that it would not come to pass.
3. When the king had thus discoursed to the
multitude, he looked again towards the temple, and lifting up his right hand to
the multitude, he said,
" It is not possible by what
men can do to return sufficient thanks to God for his benefits bestowed upon
them, for the Deity stands in need of nothing, and is above any such requital;
but so far as we have been made superior, O Lord, to other animals by thee, it
becomes us to bless thy Majesty, and it is necessary for us to return thee
thanks for what thou hast bestowed upon our house, and on the Hebrew people;
for with what other instrument can we better appease thee when thou art angry
at us, or more properly preserve thy favor, than with our voice? which, as we
have it from the air, so do we know that by that air it ascends upwards
[towards thee]. I therefore ought myself to return thee thanks thereby, in the
first place, concerning my father, whom thou hast raised from obscurity unto so
great joy; and, in the next place, concerning myself, since thou hast performed
all that thou hast promised unto this very day.
And I beseech thee for the time to come to afford us whatsoever
thou, O God, hast power to bestow on such as thou dost esteem; and to augment
our house for all ages, as thou hast promised to David my father to do, both in
his lifetime and at his death, that our kingdom shall continue, and that his
posterity should successively receive it to ten thousand generations. Do not
thou therefore fail to give us these blessings, and to bestow on my children
that virtue in which thou delightest. And besides all this, I humbly beseech
thee that thou wilt let some portion of thy Spirit come down and inhabit in
this temple, that thou mayst appear to be with us upon earth.
As to thyself, the entire heavens, and the immensity of the
things that are therein, are but a small habitation for thee, much more is this
poor temple so; but I entreat thee to keep it as thine own house, from being
destroyed by our enemies for ever, and to take care of it as thine own
possession: but if this people be found to have sinned, and be thereupon
afflicted by thee with any plague, because of their sin,as with dearth or
pestilence, or any other affliction which thou usest to inflict on those that
transgress any of thy holy laws, and if they fly all of them to this temple,
beseeching thee, and begging of time to deliver them, then do thou hear their
prayers, as being within thine house, and have mercy upon them, and deliver
them from their afflictions.
Nay, moreover, this help is what I implore of thee, not for the
Hebrews only, when they are in distress, but when any shall come hither from
any ends of the world whatsoever, and shall return from their sins and implore
thy pardon, do thou then pardon them, and hear their prayer. For hereby all
shall learn that thou thyself wast pleased with the building of this house for
thee; and that we are not ourselves of an unsociable nature, nor behave
ourselves like enemies to such as are not of our own people; but are willing
that thy assistance should be communicated by thee to all men in common, and
that they may have the enjoyment of thy benefits bestowed upon them."
4. When Solomon had
said this, and had cast himself upon the ground, and worshipped a long time, he
rose up, and brought sacrifices to the altar; and when he had filled it with
unblemished victims, he most evidently discovered that God had with pleasure
accepted of all that he had sacrificed to him, for there came a fire running
out of the air, and rushed with violence upon the altar, in the sight of all,
and caught hold of and consumed the sacrifices. Now when this Divine appearance
was seen, the people supposed it to be a demonstration of God's abode in the
temple, and were pleased with it, and fell down upon the ground and worshipped.
Upon which the king began to
bless God, and exhorted the multitude to do the same, as now having sufficient
indications of God's favorable disposition to them; and to pray that they might
always have the like indications from him, and that he would preserve in them a
mind pure from all wickedness, in righteousness and religious worship, and that
they might continue in the observation of those precepts which God had given
them by Moses, because by that means the Hebrew nation would be happy, and
indeed the most blessed of all nations among all mankind. He exhorted them also
to be mindful, that by what methods they had attained their present good
things, by the same they must preserve them sure to themselves, and make them
greater and more than they were at present; for that it was not sufficient for
them to suppose they had received them on account of their piety and
righteousness, but that they had no other way of preserving them for the time
to come; for that it is not so great a thing for men to acquire somewhat which
they want, as to preserve what they have acquired, and to be guilty of no sin
whereby it may be hurt.
5. So when the king had
spoken thus to the multitude, he dissolved the congregation, but not till he
had completed his oblations, both for himself and for the Hebrews, insomuch
that he sacrificed twenty and two thousand oxen, and a hundred and twenty
thousand sheep; for then it was that the temple did first of all taste of the
victims, and all the Hebrews, with their wives and children, feasted therein:
nay, besides this, the king then observed splendidly and magnificently the
feast which is called the Feast of Tabernacles, before the temple, for
twice seven days; and he then feasted together with all the people.
6. When all these
solemnities were abundantly satisfied, and nothing was omitted that concerned
the Divine worship, the king dismissed them; and they every one went to their
own homes, giving thanks to the king for the care he had taken of them, and the
works he had done for them; and praying to God to preserve Solomon to be their
king for a long time. They also took their journey home with rejoicing, and
making merry, and singing hymns to God. And indeed the pleasure they enjoyed
took away the sense of the pains they all underwent in their journey home. So
when they had brought the ark into the temple, and had seen its greatness, and
how fine it was, and had been partakers of the many sacrifices that had been
offered, and of the festivals that had been solemnized, they every one returned
to their own cities. But a dream that appeared to the king in his sleep
informed him that God had heard his prayers; and that he would not only
preserve the temple, but would always abide in it; that is, in case his
posterity and the whole multitude would be righteous.
And for himself, it said, that
if he continued according to the admonitions of his father, he would advance
him to an immense degree of dignity and happiness, and that then his posterity
should be kings of that country, of the tribe of Judah, for ever; but that
still, if he should be found a betrayer of the ordinances of the law, and
forget them, and turn away to the worship of strange gods, he would cut him off
by the roots, and would neither suffer any remainder of his family to continue,
nor would overlook the people of Israel, or preserve them any longer from
afflictions, but would utterly destroy them with ten thousand wars and
misfortunes; would cast them out of the land which he had given their fathers,
and make them sojourners in strange lands; and deliver that temple which was
now built to be burnt and spoiled by their enemies, and that city to be utterly
overthrown by the hands of their enemies; and make their miseries deserve to be
a proverb, and such as should very hardly be credited for their stupendous
magnitude, till their neighbors, when they should hear of them, should wonder
at their calamities, and very earnestly inquire for the occasion, why the
Hebrews, who had been so far advanced by God to such glory and wealth, should
be then so hated by him? and that the answer that should be made by the
remainder of the people should be, by confessing their sins, and their
transgression of the laws of their country. Accordingly we have it transmitted
to us in writing, that thus did God speak to Solomon in his sleep.
Footnotes
(14) The Septuagint say that
"they prepared
timber and stones to build the temple for three years," (1 Kings
5:18);
and although neither our
present Hebrew copy, nor Josephus, directly name that number of years, yet do
they both say the building itself did not begin till Solomon's fourth year; and
both speak of the preparation of materials beforehand, 1 Kings v. 18;
Antiq. B. VIII. Ch. 5. Sect. 1. There is no reason,
therefore, to alter the Septuagint's number; but we are to suppose three years
to have been the just time of the preparation, as I have done in my computation
of the expense in building that temple.
(14b) This solemn removal of the ark from Mount Sion to Mount
Moriah, at the distance of almost three quarters of a mile, confutes that
notion of the modern Jews, and followed by many Christians also, as if those
two were after a sort one and the same mountain, for which there is, I think,
very little foundation.
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