In the abstruse department of mensuration of superficies, the same learned prelate has also ably demonstrated, that the altar of incense, described in Exodus xxx, 2, as consisting of a cubit in length, and a cubit in breadth, and yet “four-square,” contained exactly one square cubit, that is, three English square feet, and about forty-seven square inches;--that the table of shew bread, described in Exodus xxv, 23, as being two cubits long and one broad, and rectangular, contained above six English square feet;--that the boards of the tabernacle, described in Exodus xxvi, 16, as ten cubits in length and a cubit and a half in breadth, and rectangular, contained nearly fifty square feet of English measure;--that the mercy seat, which Moses is directed to make “two cubits and a half the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof,” Exodus xxv, 17, contained twelve and a half square feet;--that the altar of incense, which was directed to be “a cubit the length thereof and a cubit the breadth thereof, and four square,” Exodus xxx, 2, contained upward of three square feet;--that the court of the tabernacle, the orders concerning which were, “The length of the court shall be a hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty every where,” Exodus xxvii, 18, comprised upward of sixteen thousand six hundred and thirty-four square feet, or in English land measure one rood, twenty-one perches, and twenty-seven and a half feet;--and that the Levites’ glebe, which is thus described in Numbers xxxv, 3–5: “The cities they shall have to dwell in: and the suburbs of them shall be for their cattle, and for their goods, and for all their beasts. And the suburbs of the cities, which ye shall give unto the Levites, shall reach from the wall of the city and outward a thousand cubits round about. And ye shall measure from without the city on the east side two thousand cubits, and on the south side two thousand cubits,” &c; “and the city shall be in the midst;” contained three hundred and five acres, two roods, and one perch, which was, for each of the four sides, seventy-six acres, one rood, twenty perches, and eighty square feet.

Respecting the Egyptian aroura, which is sometimes mistranslated “acre,” the bishop remarks, “Reflecting upon Moses’ measure by cubits, and,” in the case of the court of the tabernacle, “finding them to be precisely five thousand square cubits, I observed that they were just half ten thousand, which I had observed from Herodotus to be the area of the Egyptian aroura, by which their land was as generally measured as ours is by acres and roods. I called also to mind a passage in Manetho, an Egyptian priest, cited by Josephus, in his first book against Apion, where he affirms, that Manetho, in his history of the reign, wars, and expulsion of the Pastors, (whom Africanus affirms to be Phenicians or Canaanites, and Josephus vainly believed to be Jews,) wrote out of the public records of Egypt, that these Pastors made at Abaris a very large and strong encampment, that encompassed ten thousand arouræ, sufficient to contain two hundred and forty thousand men, and long to maintain their cattle. Hence it appears, that not only the Egyptians, but also the Phenicians or Canaanites, that had dwelt among them, and had reigned there during the time of six kings successively, used this measure of land called aroura. Now this was long before the time of Moses; for the beginning of Amosis or Tethmosis, who expelled them out of Egypt, was very near the time of Abraham’s death. Wherefore I believe that Moses, who was skilled in all Egyptian learning, especially in surveying, did of choice make the court of the tabernacle to be just half an aroura, which was a known measure to him and his people, and that divine authority directed him so to do.” In another part of his work he reduces the Egyptian aroura into English measure, and finds it to be three roods, two perches, and fifty-five and a quarter square feet.

THE END.

under the article
Apostles’ Creed, for Creed,read Confessions of Faith.

Transcriber’s Note

Minor lapses in punctuation, including missing full stops and end-of-line hyphens, have been corrected with no further notice. In a work this large, it is inevitable that some inconsistencies in format will occur, which have been set right.

There are some variants of spelling which have, in general, been retained, given the wide range of sources employed by the author. The use of the diaeresis in words like ‘coöperate’ or ‘reëstablishment’ was not followed where the prefix appeared hyphenated on a line break (e.g. ‘re-establishment’). These have been rendered here using the diaeresis.

A passage from Chardin, cited on p. 250, has an un-opened quotation, the beginning of which has been placed as noted below, based on other commentaries citing Chardin on Psalms 90.4.