The truth is, it was a patriarchal custom to consecrate their altars, pillars, or in a general word temples, by anointing with oil, either simple or perfum’d. Rose oil being the oldest, engross’d the general name of the action; so that a stone anointed with oil of roses, is a main amber, or lapis ambrosius. The same is an altar, or stone dedicate to religious use. The plural number, petræ ambrosiæ, import a church or temple, in our way of speaking.
We have an illustrious instance of this practice in the holy Scriptures, and the earliest. Gen. xxviii. This is not commonly understood by writers. ’Tis the moving and memorable history of young Jacob, sent away from his father’s house alone, to take a long journey to some unknown relations. He came to a place, call’d afterward Bethel, and sleeping with his head on a stone for a pillow, had a celestial vision; and a promise from God, of the highest importance to him and all mankind. Awaking, he thought the place had been holy ground, where, perhaps, his grandfather Abraham had before-time built an altar; an house of God, or gate of heaven, as he elegantly names it. “Therefore he rose up early in the morning, which was one circumstance (in patriarchal times) of the work he was going about, and took the stone that he had put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar; and poured oil upon the top of it, and called the place Beth-el, i. e. the house of God. Then he vowed, that if God would please to prosper him in his journey, and bring him back into his own country, he would build a temple there, and consecrate to God the tythe of his substance, as was the manner in those times.”
This is in reality a votive, patriarchal temple, altar or house of God, which he not only vows to build, but at the same time endows it. The stone which Jacob anointed, was not an altar properly, lying on the ground whereon to make a libation, but he set it up as a pillar. It was one of the upright stones, which the scripture calls pillars, as standing of itself; a part of the circle of stones, inclosing the altar. And by the act of anointing, Jacob consecrated it, as the manner then was, destined it for a sacred purpose, as an earnest of his will in good time to fulfil it. And this he did fulfil, chap. xxxv. building the celebrated temple of Bethel. Here Jeroboam set up one of his golden calves. At last it was destroy’d by Vespasian.
In Exod. xxiv. 4. “we have an instance of Moses rising up early in the morning and building an altar, and setting up 12 pillars around it.” This was before the tabernacle was made, which introduced the custom of cover’d temples.
But so famous was that patriarchal temple of Jacob’s, which he built at Bethel; that the heathen called all their temples of that sort, when they were perverted to idolatrous purposes, Bæthylia, lapides Bætyli, and the like. Which indeed is but another manner of expressing lapis Ambrosius, or our Main Ambre. And according to custom, the fabulous Greeks having lost the true history of its origin, affix’d many strange stories to it; as of Saturn devouring such a stone, wrapt up in a skin, instead of his Son Jupiter: which seems to be form’d from the memory of praying at these places, in the name of the mediatorial deity, as the patriarchs did. And Sanchoniathon tells us, the god Ouranus devised Bætylia, or animated stones. He means our rocking stones, gygonian stones. I shall show in my discourse on that subject, that by Ouranus, he means righteous Noah, who, according to patriarchal usage, builded an altar unto Jehovah, Gen. viii. 20. meaning one of these patriarchal temples. In time, by the corruption of mankind, these places were desecrated to idolatrous purposes; and writers pervert the intent of them. So that God Almighty, raising up the Mosaic Dispensation, was oblig’d to interdict the very use and practice of these open temples, and introduce the cover’d one of the tabernacle; by way of opposition to heathenism, as well as with other important views.
We find now the meaning of anointed stones in antiquity, and the olive-tree set by the stones on the Tyrian coins. As the very learned Author of Archæologia Græca observes, on the affair of consecration, “they were more or less sumptuous and expensive, as other parts of divine worship, according to the ability of the worshippers.” Young Jacob a traveller us’d plain oil, part of his viaticum, others us’d perfum’d oil, or ambrosia. That author cites us from Athenæus, the method of consecrating Jupiter Ctesias’s statue with a libation call’d ambrosia: and others by anointing with oil, prayers and libations, Exodus xxx. 22. We have the holy precious ointment made under the Jewish dispensation for the like purpose. And we use such, for inauguration of our kings, to this day.
The Tyrian Hercules who built Tyre and set up the petræ Ambrosiæ in those coins, (if I mistake not) liv’d as early as the time, of Jacob’s anointing the stone at Bethel. The great Bochart, who penetrated very deep into the Phœnician learning, looks upon it as a clear matter, that in Joshua’s time, the Phœnicians sent innumerable colonies, into the mediterranean coasts, and even to the ocean. In the preface to his admirable work Canaan, he says, “he has a great suspicion, that colonies went abroad this way, before that time. Particularly, he asserts, that Hercules, in Eusebius sirnamed Desanaus, who was famous in Phœnicia before the Exodus, is the same, who conquer’d Antæus in Africa: which in Eusebius, is set 56 years before. He is call’d Hercules primus, and that is 63 years before the Exodus, in Eusebius’s chronology.” Again, he judges it to be 2000 years distance between the later Roman times and the first Hercules. Now from Constantine the great, 2000 years carries us up to Jacob’s time. And he proves, from Aristotle de mirabilibus, that Hercules built Utica in Africa, at that time; wherein Eusebius says he was famous in Phœnicia, and this must be when Hercules was old. He having conquer’d Antæus in that country, when he was young.
The Beginning of the Avenue to Stonehenge, where it is Plow’d up.
A. The 7 Kings Barrows B. The Avenue going towards Stonehenge C. The 6 Old Kings Barrows.