Part 2

Here three things most evidently appear, 1. _Jehovah_ was that person in the deity, who appeared visibly and discoursed with the patriarchs, not the invisible supreme. 2. That _Abram_ erected an altar to this divine person _Jehovah_, worshipped him, and invoked in his _name_. Invoked whom? the supreme unquestionably, _i. e._ prayed to the supreme Being, in the _name_, virtue, effect, and merit of _Jehovah_, the mediatorial deity. The word NAME, in these passages of scripture, means the mediatorial deity, JEHOVAH by name: Ὁ Θεος Επιφανης, the God who appear’d personally to the patriarchs, who was the king of the _Mosaic_ dispensation, and of the _Jewish_ people, call’d the anointed or _Messiah_, 1 _Sam._ ii. 10, 35. he was the captain of the _Israelites_, that conducted them from _Egypt_ to _Canaan_, _Exod._ xxiii. 20. the royal angel, the king, emperor. The angel of his face or presence, _Isaiah_ lxiii. 9. the angel of the covenant, _Malachi_ iii. 1. _Melech Jehovah_ the angelick king, _Zechar._ iii. 1, 2, 3, 4. he is very God: for, says the supreme, in the before quoted passage in _Exodus_, _behold I send an angel before thee_ (_the_ angel, it ought to be read) _to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him and obey his voice, provoke him not, for he will not pardon your transgressions; for my_ NAME _is in him._ This same way of speaking _Joshua_ uses, _Josh._ xxiv. 19. _Ye cannot serve Jehovah; for he is a holy deity, he is a jealous God, he will not forgive your transgressions, nor your sins._ The _Jews_ confess this doctrine to be just. _Rabbi Hadersan_ upon that passage in _Zephaniah_ iii. 9. _to call upon the_ NAME _of Jehovah_, says, this _Jehovah_ is no other than _Messiah_. All this shews the patriarchs had a knowledge of the true nature of the deity, and that the Christian or mediatorial religion is the first and the last. And when men were quite deviated from the first, the _Mosaic_ dispensation was but an intervening vail upon the effulgence and spirituality of true religion for a time, to reduce them to it, in the actual advent of the Messiah. 3. These altars, as they are here called, were the patriarchal temples like those of our druids, the places of publick worship; and invoking in the name of _Jehovah_, is a form of speech importing publick worship on sabbath days: equivalent to our saying, to go to church on sundays. Whence _Servius_ on the _Æneid_ III. v. 85. writes, in the most ancient manner of worshipping, they only pray’d directly to the deity, without offering sacrifice. And thus I apprehend, we are to understand _Herodotus_ II. where he says the _Athenians_ learn’d invoking, of the _Pelasgi_, who were _Phœnicians_: and probably they had it from _Abraham_, who was introduc’d into the land of _Canaan_, as a reformer of religion. Invoking was the ordinary method of devotion on sabbath days: sacrificing was extraordinary.

It was _Abraham_’s custom, wherever he dwelt, to build one of these temples: as afterward, in the plain of _Mamre_, by _Hebron_, _Gen._ xiii. 18. And at _Beersheba_ we are told he planted a grove, and there invoked in the name of _Jehovah_, the everlasting God, _Gen._ xxi. 33. It cannot be doubted but there was an altar and work of stones at the same place. And this was the usage of all the patriarchs, his successors, ever after; as is obvious in scripture, even to _Moses_’s time. _Isaac_ builded an altar in _Beersheba_, and invoked in the Name of _Jehovah_, who personally appear’d to him, _Gen._ xxvi. 25. _Jacob_ set up the anointed pillar at _Bethel_, xxviii. 18. and the temple there, xxxv. At _Shechem_ he builded another, xxxiii. 20. At _Bethel_ he set up a pillar, where _Jehovah_ personally appeared to him, and blessed him: he anointed it, and poured a drink-offering, or libation thereon, xxxv. 14. In _Exod._ xxiv. 4. we read, _Moses rose early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars_, which we have no reason to doubt were set in a circle. The like was done after they were seated in the land of _Canaan_, till the temple of _Solomon_ was built: for _Samuel_, when he dwelt at _Ramah_, built an altar, to _Jehovah_ there, whereat to celebrate publick offices of religion, 1 _Sam._ vii. 17.

Hence we gather further these three things. 1. That they planted groves in patriarchal times, as temples for publick worship. It seems that this was done in those hot countries, for convenience in the summer-season: and perhaps for magnificence. For we are told, _Abraham_ dwelt long at _Beersheba_, where he planted the grove. These were as our cathedrals; they were planted round about the circular parts of stones, as porticos for receiving of the congregation. Whence groves and temples became a synonymous appellation, both in sacred and heathen writers. 2. That these temples which they call’d altars, were circles of stones, inclosing _that_ stone more properly nam’d the altar. The circles were greater or less, of more or fewer stones, as the will or convenience of the founder prompted. _Moses_ his temple was a circle of twelve stones: and such we have in _England_. 3. They were commonly made on open plains, and rising grounds, conspicuous and commodious for multitudes, a whole neighbourhood to assemble in. This is the consequence of the nature and reason of the thing: for a matter of publick use must be in the most publick and conspicuous place. 4. The patriarchal religion, and the christian, is but one and the same. Hence in _Isaiah_ xix. 19. the prophet speaking of the restitution of the patriarchal religion in _Egypt_, under the gospel dispensation, says, “In that day shall there be an altar to _Jehovah_ in the midst of the land of _Egypt_; and a pillar, at the border thereof, to _Jehovah_.” This is expressly making use of the terms of a patriarchal temple, with a view to that religion restor’d, meaning the christian.

These monuments of the piety of the patriarchs in the eastern parts of the world, were in time desecrated to idolatrous purposes, and at length destroy’d, even by the people of _Israel_, for that reason: and temples square in form and cover’d at top, were introduc’d at the _Mosaic_ dispensation, in direct opposition to that idolatry. But before then, that first method pass’d all over the western world, and to _Britain_, where we see them to this day. By the way, we trace some footsteps of them, but there is always a fable annex’d; as generally at this day, in our Druid temples at home. Thus _Pausanias in corinthiacis_ informs us, that near the river _Chemarus_, is a _septum_ or circle of stones. He says, they have a report there, that this is the place whence _Pluto_ carry’d away _Proserpine_. By such story we must understand, the mysteries were there celebrated. _Pausanias_ writes, that the _Thracians_ us’d to build their temples round, and open at top, in _Bœotic_. He speaks of such at _Haliartus_, by the name of Ναος, equivalent to the _Hebrew Beth_, which name _Jacob_ gave to his temple. He speaks of several altars dedicate to _Pluto_, set in the middle of _areas_ fenc’d in with stones: and they are call’d _hermionenses_. He tells us too, among the _Orchomenians_, is a most ancient temple of the _Graces_, but they worship ’em in the form of stones. From the number three, we may easily guess this was a _Kist vaen_, as our old _Britons_ call it, or _Kebla_, like that in our great temple of _Abury_, and elsewhere. Indeed, the stones of these _Kebla_ in time, instead of a direction in worship, became the object of worship; as _Clemens Alexandrinus_ affirms.

That our Druids were so eminently celebrated for their use of groves, shews them to have a more particular relation to _Abraham_, and more immediately from him deriving the usage: by which way, I pointed at in good measure, in the account of _STONEHENGE_. Hence the name of Druid imports, priest of the groves; and their verdant cathedrals, as we may call them, are celebrated by all old writers that speak of this people. We all know the awful and solemn pleasure that strikes one upon entering a grove; a kind of religious dread arises from the gloomy majesty of the place, very favourable to the purpose intended by them. _Servius_ upon _Æneid_ III.

_Ante urbem in luco falsi Simoëntis ad undam_,

observes, _Virgil_ never mentions a grove without a note of religion. Again, _Æneid_ IX. _ver._ 4. _Strabo_ says, the poets call temples by the name of groves. And this is frequently done in the scripture. But it is natural for our classic writers, when speaking of the Druids and their great attachment to religious rites, so different from what they were acquainted with, to insist much upon their groves; overlooking our monuments, which they would scarce dignify with the name of temples, because not covered like their own. Yet if with some, we would from hence conclude, that they were the only temples of the Druids, and therefore _Stonehenge_ and the works we are upon, were none of theirs, we should err as much, as if we asserted _Abraham_ only made use of groves, and not of the other temples erected on plains and open places.

Thus far I premis’d with brevity, as an introduction to our discourse, shewing the origin of temples among mankind; a necessary provision for that duty we owe to our sovereign author and benefactor. For unless we can prove ourselves self-sufficient and independent, all nature cries aloud for our acknowledgment of this duty. Private and domestic prayer is our duty as private persons and families, that we have life, and subsistence, and the common protection of providence: but the profession and exercise of publick religion is equally necessary as we are a community, a part of the publick, a parish, a city, a nation, link’d together by government, for our common safety and protection; in order to implore at the hands of God almighty the general blessings of life, wanting to us in that capacity. And that person who secludes himself from his share in this duty, is a rebel and traitor to the publick, and is virtually separated from the common blessings of heaven. But _time_ is equally necessary to this publick duty as _place_, as every one’s reason must dictate. Therefore was the sabbath instituted; the very first command of our maker, even in the happy seat of _Paradise_, and before our fatal transgression. ’Tis the positive institution of God, and founded upon the strictest reason. So that if we allow the patriarchs to have built these temples, wherein to assemble for publick devotion, and disallow of the sabbath, because not particularly mention’d in the scripture that they did celebrate it, we think absurdly, and err against common sense and reason. The scriptures were given to teach us religion, but not to inform us of common sense and reason.

The duty of the sabbath commences as early as our being, and is included with great propriety in that observation of the divine historian concerning _Adam_’s grandson, _Enos_; when it pass’d from a family-ordinance to that of several families united, as then was the case. The particularity of the expression, _invoking_ in the name of _Jehovah_, dictates to us the form of their religion, founded on the mediatorial scheme, which Mediator was a divine person, to be worshipped; and thro’ our faith and hope in him, or in his _Name_, we were to invoke God almighty for our pardon and protection. Therefore the same scheme of religion subsists, from the beginning to this day, the _Mosaic_ system intervening chiefly as a remedy against idolatry, till the world was prepar’d for the great advent; and patriarchal religion should be republish’d under the name of christian.

From all this we must conclude, that the ancients knew somewhat of the mysterious nature of the deity, subsisting in distinct personalities, which is more fully reveal’d to us in the christian dispensation. All nature, our senses, common reason assures us of the one supreme and self-originated being. The second person in the deity is discoverable in almost every page of the old testament. After his advent, he informs us more fully of the nature of the third person: and that third person is discoverable in almost every page of the new testament. That the ancients had some knowledge of this great truth, the learned _Steuchus Eugubinus_ demonstrates, in _perenni philosoph._ from their writings which are still left, such as _Hermes_, _Orpheus_, _Hydaspes_, _Pythagoras_, _Plato_, the _Platonics_, the sibylline verses, the oracles, and the like. Our _Cudworth_ has very laudably pursued the same track, and _Kircher_, and our _Ramsey_ in his history of _Cyrus_, and many more, to whom I refer the curious reader, who has a mind to be convinced of it. I shall only add this, that upon supposition only of an ancient tradition of it, having been handed down from one generation to another, in order to light up and kindle our reason concerning it; that ’tis a doctrine so far from being contrary to reason, or above human reason, that ’tis deducible therefrom, and perfectly agreeable to it, as I shall shew in Chap. XV.

Nor is this a slight matter; for if knowledge be a valuable thing, if it be the highest ornament and felicity to the human mind; the most divine part of all knowledge is to know somewhat of the nature of the deity. This knowledge the Druids assuredly attempted to come at, and obtained, as we gather from the different kinds of their temples; and when we have described them, we shall beg leave to resume this argument, and briefly to discourse on it again, as being the chief and ultimate purpose of all antique inquiries.

CHAP. II.

_Of the origin of temples more particularly, the meaning of the name. The manner of them, round and open. The_ Mosaic _tabernacle a temple square and cover’d, in opposition to the former desecrated into idolatry. Another reason, covered with skins, because typical of Messiah. So the patriarchal or Druid temples made in those forms, that were symbols of the deity, and the divine personalities thereof. When become idolatrous generally dedicated to the sun, by reason of their round form. The most ancient symbolic figure of the deity was the circle, snake and wings, which we see frequently on_ Egyptian _and other Monuments. The patriarchal temples made in representations thereof; therefore of three kinds._ I. _A circle only._ II. _A circle and snake._ III. _A circle and wings. This Volume treats of a temple of each of these kinds in_ Britain. _The temple of_ ROWLDRICH _in_ Oxfordshire _being of the first sort, described. The Evidence of its being a work of the Druids, drawn up in a kind of order, as a specimen._ 1. _Its high situation, on an open heath by the heads of rivers._ 2. _An open circle of stones set upright, taken from the surface of the ground._ 3. _The appearance of the weather on them._ 4. _From the name, the_ Gilgal _of_ Joshua _explain’d._ 5. _From the measure, the Druid cubit._ 6. _From the barrows all round it. A Druid’s court. The king’s_ tumulus. _The archdruid’s_ tumulus, _the founder._ 7. _From old reports concerning these works._ 8. _Sepulchres frequently the occasion of founding temples in all ages, from a hope of the body’s resurrection, and one occasion of deifying heroes, and introducing idolatry, the first species of it._

Temple is a word deriv’d from the _greek_ Τεμενος, a place cut off, inclosed, dedicated to sacred use, whether an area, a circle of stones, a field, or a grove. This matter, as all others, advanced from simplicity, by degrees, till it became what we now call a temple. Thus we read in _Iliad_ II, of _Ceres_’s field. _Iliad_ VIII, of _Jupiter_’s field and altar. In XXIII, another at the fountain of _Sperchius_. In _Odyss._ VIII, that of _Venus Paphia_. _Pausanias_ mentions many of these. _Cicero_ too among the _Thebans_, _de nat. deor._ III. In _Odyss._ XVII, a grove perfectly round by _Ithaca_. And these were encompass’d by a ditch which _Pollux_ calls _peribolus_. _Pausanias_ makes this particular remark in _Achaic_, of the grove of _Diana servatrix_. They were kept by priests who dwelt there for that purpose, as _Maron_ in _Odyss._ IX.

_Tempe_ signifies a grove or temple, which is the same thing. _Strabo_ writes, that the poets, for ornament sake, call all temples groves. This was in affectation of antiquity.

_Est nemus Æmoniæ, prærupta quod undique claudit Sylva, vocant Tempe._——

_Tempulum_, or contractedly _templum_, is a lesser grove, or temple properly speaking, built with pillars, as it were in imitation of a great grove. The patriarchal _temeni_ were call’d במיה _excelsa_, because generally made on high places. Hence the _greek_ word βωμος. By the _hebrew_ writers they were call’d _sacella montana_, mountain oratories. _Sacellum_, says _Festus_, is an open chapel, or without a roof. At length the word temple was apply’d to sacred structures built with a roof, in imitation of _Solomon_’s. And that was a durable and fixed one, an edifice of extraordinary grandeur and beauty, made in imitation of the _Mosaic_ tabernacle, which was a temple itinerant, the first idea of a cover’d one, properly. There were two reasons, among others, why it was cover’d and square in form. 1. By way of opposition to the heathen ones, practised in all the countries round about, which were imitations of the first patriarchal temples there, and now were converted to idolatrous purposes. 2. Because it was a type of Messiah, or _JEHOVAH_ who was to come in the flesh, therefore cover’d with skins. And that we may have the greatest authority in the case, our Saviour himself declares in the most publick manner, that the temple of _Jerusalem_ was symbolical of his body, as we find it recorded in the gospel, _John_ ii. 19. And the author of the _Hebrews_ largely deduces the necessity of making temples to be the pictures of heavenly things, and particularly of the mediator, _Heb._ ix. 11, 23. which can be done no otherwise than symbolically. And authors that describe the tabernacle and temple, insist upon this largely. Nor is it otherwise with us christians, in our cathedrals, designing our saviour’s body extended on the cross. But in the more ancient patriarchal times, before the great advent, they form’d them upon the geometrical figures or pictures, or manner of writing, by which they express’d the deity, and the mystical nature thereof. And this same design of making temples in some kind of imitation of the deity, as well as they could conceive it, was from the very beginning. The heathen authors retain some notion of this matter, when they tell us, of temples being made in the form and nature of the gods. _Porphyry_ in _Eusebius pr. ev._ III. 7. affirms the round figure to be dedicated to eternity, and that they anciently built temples round; but he did not understand the whole reason. And when they built temples properly, in imitation of the jewish, they made them often of a round form, and often open at top, to preserve as near as might be, the most ancient manner they had been acquainted with. Whence _Pausanias_ writes, the _Thracians_ us’d to build their temples round, and open at top.

Thus at _Bethel_, the place where _Jacob_ built his temple, and where his grandfather _Abraham_ had built one before, _Jeroboam_ chose it for his idolatrous temple, call’d by the _Alexandrian Greeks_ in after times, οικος Ων, the temple of _On_. _S. Cyril_ in his comments on _Hosea_ writes, that _On_ is the sun, from its round form. The heathen had done all they could to corrupt the remembrance of the name of the true God, and turn’d _Beth-el_, which signifies the house of EL or God, to οικος Ων, the house of _On_, or the sun. As ηλιος, is a word undoubtedly made from EL, in the _Hebrew_, expressing God’s power and sovereignty; so much like _Elion_ a name of God in Scripture, signifying _Hypsistus_, the most high. _Gen._ xiv. 18. _Luke_ i. 37. in _Arabic_, _allah taâla_ the most high God. Whence _Atlas_ the name of consecration of the _African_ hero, _allah taâl_.

When these ancient patriarchal temples in other countries came to be perverted to idolatry, they consecrated many of them to the sun, thinking their round form ought to be referr’d to his disc; and that these pyramidal stones, set in a circle, imitated his rays. Hence call’d _Aglibelus_, _rotundus Deus_, as interpreted by _Bochart_. עגל בעל, ζευς επικυκλιος among the orientals, as _Schedius_ observes. And had the ancient _Greek_ writers seen our temples of _Stonehenge_, and the rest, they would have concluded them dedicated to the sun.

These temples of ours are always of a round form: and there are innumerable of them, all over the _Britannic_ isles, nevertheless they are to be ranked into three kinds; for tho’ they are all circular, yet there are three manifest diversities which I have observ’d, regarding that threefold figure, by which the ancients, probably even from _Adam_’s time, express’d in writing, the great idea of the deity. This figure by _Kircher_ is call’d _ophio-cyclo-pterygo-morphus_. ’Tis a circle with wings, and a snake proceeding from it. A figure excellently well design’d to picture out the intelligence they had, no doubt, by divine communication, of the mysterious nature of the deity. And it was the way of the ancients in their religious buildings, to copy out or analogize the form of the divine being, as they conceiv’d it, in a symbolical manner. By this means they produc’d a most effectual prophylact, as they thought, which could not fail of drawing down the blessings of divine providence upon that place and country, as it were, by sympathy and similitude.

I shall therefore make it the subject of the present volume, to describe one or two of each sort of the temples built upon the plan of these figures: wherein the founders have left an incontestible proof of that knowledge which the ancient world had of the divine nature, by these durable and magnificent monuments. The remainder of these temples (as many as are come to my knowledge) together with the places of the sports and games of the ancient _Britons_, and the religion of the Druids, I shall publish in the succeeding volume.

Names or words are necessary for the understanding of things; therefore 1. The round temples simply, I call temples; 2. Those with the form of a snake annext, as that of _Abury_, I call serpentine temples, or _Dracontia_, by which they were denominated of old; 3. Those with the form of wings annext, I call alate or winged temples. And these are all the kinds of Druid temples that I know of. We may call these figures, the symbols of the patriarchal religion, as the cross is of the christian. Therefore they built their temples according to those figures.

_ROWLDRICH._

I shall begin with _Rowlright_ or rather _Rowldrich_, and as a specimen of what requisites are sought for in these enquiries, I shall draw them up in a kind of order: which may be useful in all researches of this sort.

1. A situation on high ground, open heaths, by heads of rivers.