Matthew Poole and continuators on Hebrews 9:4

4 Which had the golden censer , and the ark of the covenant, overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna , and Aarons r[illegible: 1 letter]d that budded, and the tables of the covenant :

In the Holy of Holiest was reserved the Golden Censer, on which the High-Priest put the Incense, when annually he e[illegible: 1 letter]tred there; see Levit. 16.12, 13. that the Cloud of it might cover the Mercy-Seat, and so was kept for that Service in it; see Iosep. Antiq. lib. 3.7. Many would refer this to the Golden Altar of Incense that stood before the Vail, Exod. 30.6, 7, 8. In the Holy Place, and so they read it, having the Golden Altar of Incense before it for its Service, and not within it; signifying the God-head, by which Christ maketh his Intercession, sanctifying and perfuming his own, and all Offerings made in his Name.

It was a Coffer or Chest of Shittim-Wood, plated all over with Gold, Exod. 25.10, to 23. and 37.1, 6. and 40.20, 21. This Chest had for its Cover, a Mercy-seat listed or verged with a Crown of Gold round it; and is called the Ark of the Covenant, because the Tables of Tes[illegible: 1 letter]imony were laid up in it, Exod. 25.16. and 40.20. Those two Stone-Tables wrought by Moses, and carried up into the Mount (after he had on the Idolatry of Israel broken those of God's own making, and on which God had written the Ten Laws, the Terms of his Covenant with them) on which God wrote afresh his Laws, and renewed his Covenant with them, Exod. 34.1, 2, 28, 29. compare chap. 31.18. This Ark was a Type of Christ interposing between God and us, who had broken the Covenant of his Laws.

[non-Latin text not transcribed] wherein refers not to the Ark mentioned just before, for in it was nothing put but the two Tables of the Covenant, but to the Tabernacle called the Holy of Holiest, in which was reserved the Golden Censer, Pot of Manna, provided by God's Charge before the giving of the Law, and laid up afterwards in that Archive by God's Order, Exod. 16.32, 33, 34. This Manna was the Bread God fed Israel in his Church with forty Years in the Wilderness, and is called Angels Food, Psal. 78.25. a Type of Christ the true Bread, that God gave from Heaven to his Church, Iohn 6.31, 32, 33, to 59.

Which was by God's Order put before the Testimony in the Holy of Holiest, and not into the Ark, for it was to be in view there as a token of the true Priesthood, the Type of Christ's, against all after-Murmurers and Usurpers, see Numb. 17.1. to 11. and as these the Urn of Manna and Rod of Aaron were in the Holy of Holiest; so especially

the two Tables of the Covenant were there too, but laid up in the Ark which was in that place; see 1 Kings 8.9, and 2 Chron. 5.10. Others think the Preposition [non-Latin text not transcribed] is to be read, by which, or about, near which Ark, as 'tis used of Christ's sitting [non-Latin text not transcribed], chap. 1.3. and so notes as to the Pot of Manna and Aaron's Rod, an apposition of them to or by the Ark, when the Tables of the Covenant were undeniably put into it.

Marginal references: Exod. 26.33.; Deut. 10.2, 5.