CHAPTER X. 435 3. Q. What was the first instance of his wisdom in the go- vernment ? A. His deciding the quarrel between two women who contended about a child, and in giving the childto the true mother 1 Kings iii. 16-28. 4. 'Q. How did he find out the true mother? A. He com- manded the child to be divided in two, that each woman might have half : then the tenderness and love of the true mother ap- peared in yielding up her pretensions to it, rather than see it divided ; 1 Kings iii. 25. 5. Q. What special care did Solomon take for the worship of God? A. He built that temple for which David had made so larger a preparation. It was a most glorious palace, built of cedar and fir, and olive wood, and hewn stone, with most amaz- ing expence of gold and silver, and brass and precious stones, both for the adorning of the house itself and for the holy vessels thereof; 1 Kings vi. and vii. He built also two distinct courts about it, one for the people of Israel, and one for the priests, all which were called the temple; 2 Kings xxiii. 12. and 2 Chron. iv. 9. Note. In this temple of Solomon there does not seem to be any court of the Gentiles, but only the court of the priests, in which the house of God or sanctuary stood, and the court of the people to which all Israel resorted ; nor can I find the Gentiles forbidden by any express word of God See 2 Chron. vi. 32. one was the outer court, and the other the inner court ; 2 Chron. iv. 9. and 1 Kings vi. 36. Nor were the people excluded from the inner court; See 2 Chron. xxiii. 10. In the second temple which was built by Zerubbabel after the captivity, we do not read of any court of the Gentiles at the building of it : but in following years when there were more frequent communications and transactions with Gentiles, there was a partition made called Chel, to divide them from the Jews, and the other part of the outer court was left for the Gentiles. In the temple which Herod built, and which was in our Savi- our's time, there was a court made on purpose for the Gentiles, and those Jews which were unclean. But this division does not sufficiently appear to be of divine appointment, though, it must be confessed, the partition wall in Eph. ii, 14. seems to refer to it. 6. Q. In what form did he build it ? A. In imitation of the, tabernacle of Moses and the court thereof, but with vast and universal improvementsin grandeur and riches, and magnificence of it, by the pattern that David his father had received from God, and gave to him ; 1 Chron. xxii. 5. and xxviii. 11, 19. 7. Q. On what spot of ground did he build it ? A. On mount Moriah, not very far from mount Zion in Jerusalem : It was the place where Abraham was called to offer his son Isaac, and where God appeared to David when he stopped the pesti- lence; 2 Chron. iii. 1. and Gen. xxii. 2. and gave him a mirase-
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