city of a considerable kingdom in the most southern CHAP. I. part of Arabia: since therefore Arabia is that country which takes up all that part of the Asiatic continent that lies south of the Holy Land, even so far as to the main Southern Ocean; and since the kingdom of Sheba took up the most southern part of Arabia, it appears that the Queen of Sheba is very properly said to come from the uttermost parts of the earth that way, namely, southwards in respect of the Holy Land. 17. To the west of Arabia lay the country of Egypt, famous in the Old Testament for God's bringing Of Egypt. out from thence the children of Israel, his peculiar people, and therefore styled by the prophet Hosea, chap. xi. 1. his Son, namely, by virtue of the covenant which God made with Abraham, Acts. iii. 25. 18. Beyond Egypt westward, not far from the Mediterranean sea, stood Cyrene, so considerable a city, of Cyrene. as to give the name of Cyrenaica to the adjacent parts of Africk. Of this more in the second Part; I shall here only observe, that of this place was Simon the Cyrenian, on whom the soldiers laid our Saviour's cross, to carry it after him to the place of crucifixion, Luke xxiii. 26. or the Ro mans. There remains but one place more to be here 19. taken notice of, and that is Rome, the capital of Of Rome, the Roman empire, by whose arms the Jewish nation was at first subdued, and afterwards finally destroyed, or driven out of their own country; the very same calamity which they causelessly feared would be the consequence of believing JESUS to be the Christ, being by the just judgment of God brought upon them as a punishment for their cru PART I. cifying him. For according to our Saviour's predictions, Matt. xxiii. 36. and xxiv. 34. the generation then present did not pass away before all that he there denounced against the Jews were fulfilled, and the Romans came and took away both their place and nation, John xi. 48. Having thus given a general description of the several countries honoured with our Saviour's presence, or so much as mentioned or referred to in the Gospels, I come now to give a particular description of our Saviour's Journeyings, which I shall distinguish according to the several most remarkable periods of his life here on earth. 1. Of Nazareth. CHAPTER II. Of our Saviour's Journeyings, from his Birth to his Baptism, and Entrance upon his public Ministry or Preaching of the Gospel. WHEN the time appointed by the Divine Wisdom for the coming of the Messias into the world drew nigh, the Angel Gabriel was sent from God to the Virgin Mary, to let her know that she was so highly favoured, as to be made choice of for the mother of Him, who should be called the Son of the Highest, and should reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of whose kingdom there should be no ed, that is, in short, of the Messias, or Redeemer of the world. The blessed Virgin then lived in a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, situated in the south-west part of Galilee, and so not far from the confines of Samaria to the south, and nearer to the coasts or territories of Tyre and Sidon to the north-west. It is at present (as we are informed by the late reverend and ingenious Mr. Maundrell*, who visited it but ten years ago, viz. A. D. 1697. CHAP. I. in his return from Jerusalem to Aleppo) only an inconsiderable village, situate in a kind of round concave valley on the top of an high hill. Here is a convent built over what is said to be the place of the Annunciation, or where the blessed Virgin received the joyful message brought her by the Angel. Here is also shewn the house of Joseph, being the same, as the friars of the convent tell you, wherein the Son of God lived for near thirty years in subjection to man, Luke ii. 51. And not far distant from hence they shew likewise the synagogue, wherein our blessed Lord preached that sermon, Luke iv. 16. by which his countrymen were so exasperated, or filled with wrath, that they rose up and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong, Luke iv. 28, 29. this same precipice they now call the mountain of precipitation, for the reason just mentioned. It is at least half a league distant from Nazareth southward, and in going to it you cross first over the vale in which Nazareth stands; and then going down two or three furlongs, in a narrow cleft between the rocks, you there clamber up a short but difficult way on the right hand. At the top of this you find a great stone standing on the brink of the precipice, which is said to be the very place whence our Lord was designed to be thrown down by his enraged neighbours had he not made a miraculous escape out of their hands. There are in this stone several little holes, resembling the prints of fingers thrust into it: these, the friars will tell you, are the impresses of Christ's fingers, made in the hard stone, while he resisted the violence that was offered to him. At this place there are seen two or three cisterns for saving water, and a few ruins, which is all that now remains of a religious building founded here by the pious Em * Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 110, 111. PART I. press Helena, mother of Constantine the Great. And whereas the places, where are shewn the house of Joseph and the synagogue wherein our Saviour preached, were anciently dignified each with an handsome church by the same Empress, these monuments of her piety are now likewise in ruins. Before we leave Nazareth, as it will not be alber of the together impertinent, so neither may it be alAnnuncia- together unuseful (namely, in order to lay open the tion said by unreasonable and absurd bigotry of the Papists) to The cham the Papists, to be re Nazareth to Loretto. observe, that in how mean a condition soever Nazamoved by reth may be at present, yet some part of its ancient angels from buildings, I mean the chamber wherein the Virgin Mary is said to be sitting, when the Angel brought her those joyful tidings above related, has had better luck, even at the no less expence than of a downright miracle, if we can believe the popish legends for in these it is said, that this same chamber being after the blessed Virgin's departure had in great reverence by Christians, and remaining in Nazareth till the Holy Land was subdued by the Turks and Saracens, A. D. 1291, it was then most miraculously transported into Sclavonia. But that country being unworthy of the Virgin's presence, it was by the angels carried over into Italy, and at length settled at Loretto, then a village in the Ecclesiastical State, or Pope's dominion, his Holiness's territories being, without doubt, the most worthy in the world to be the receptacle of such an holy apartment. So extraordinary an arrival of so extraordinary a relick was quickly noised about; and not only the people of all ranks came to visit it with great veneration, but even the popes themselves have paid it more than ordinary respect, one of them building a most stately church over this chamber, which is now become, by presents made to the Lady of it, the richest in the world; another erecting the village of Loretto, where it stands, into a city and bishop's see. So that Nazareth and Loretto have as it were changed conditions one with the other, Nazareth being formerly a city and bishop's or archbishop's see, but now a village; and Loretto being formerly a village, but CHAP. II. now a city and bishop's see. 2. Judea. It is time to take leave for the present of Nazareth, and to attend the Virgin Mary in her journey of the Hill thence to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who, the An- Country of gel acquainted her, had already gone six months with the child, called afterwards John the Baptist. Elizabeth was the wife of Zacharias, a priest, and they dwelt in the hill country of Judea, Luke i. 39. 65. in the city, as is probably enough supposed, of Hebron, this being one of the cities given to the priests in the tribe of Judah, Josh. xxi. 10. 13. and also said expressly to lie in the mountains or hills, Josh. xi. 21. and xv. 48. 54. which running across the middle of Judea from south to north, gave to the tract they run along the name of the hill country. The blessed Virgin having staid with her cousin Elizabeth about three months, then returned to her own house at Nazareth. 3. Some time after there went out a decree from Casar Augustus, that all the Roman world or em- Of Bethle pire should be taxed, that is, should have their hem. names and conditions of life set down in courtrolls, according to their families. And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the native city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that while they were there, the days were accomplished, that she should be delivered; and she brought forth her first-born son, our ever blessed A. D. 1. and to be adored Redeemer JESUS, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn, Luke ii. 3-7. Now this Bethlehem is distant from Jerusalem but two hours travel, or six miles to the south west. And as it has been all along much honoured by Christians of all nations, on account * Maundrell's Journey from Aleppo, &c. p. 85, 86, &c. |