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CHAPTER IV.

Of St. Paul's Travels and Voyages into Phrygia,
Galatia, Mysia, Troas, Macedonia, Achaia, &c.
till his fourth Return to Jerusalem, after his
Conversion.

ST. PAUL, after his next departure from Jerusalem, taking a very great circuit both by land and sea, before he returned again to the Holy City, I shall therefore distinguish this chapter into two

sections.

CHAP. I

SECT. I.

SECTION I.

Of St. Paul's Travels, from his leaving Jerusalem, after the Council there held, to his Departure out of the Asiatic Continent for Europe.

1.

Antioch.

THE Council at Jerusalem, having made such deerees as were judged proper*, dismissed St. Paul St. Paul reand the rest of his company, who returned to An- turns with tioch. + Some days after they had been here, Barnabas to Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do. Hereupon Barnabas, taking with him John, A. D. 46. surnamed Mark, sailed into Cyprus, his native Barnabas country; and Paul, taking with him Silas, other- part one wise called, according to the mode of the Latin from the tongue, Silvanus, went through Syria, and so into other. his native country Cilicia. Thence he came to Derbe § and Lystra, and so into Phrygia ||.

* Acts xv. 30. Acts xvi. 1.

+ Acts xv. 36. Acts xvi 6,

+ Acts xv. 41.

St. Paul and

PART II.

2.

St. Paul

comes into

Cilicia, thence to

Derbe and

Lystra, and

so into

Phrygia.
A. D. 49.

3.

Of Hierapolis.

The country called in the New Testament Phrygia, is the same with that which in common authors is generally styled Phrygia Major, or the Greater, to distinguish it from another country called Phrygia Minor, or the Lesser, (of which more hereafter,) by the said common authors.— The Scripture Phrygia lay to the west of Lycaonia, where stood Derbe and Lystra; from which last, as lying next to it, St. Paul seems to have come directly into Phrygia. The people of this country are said to be anciently more superstitious than the other Asiatics; as is gathered from the rites used by them in the sacrifices of Cybele, and some other Heathen goddesses. They are said also to be the inventors of augury, and other kinds of divination; and yet for the most part men of afterwits, whence the proverb, Sero sapiunt Phryges, i. e. the Phrygians are wise too late, is wont to be applied to such as want forecast, and know better to lament misfortunes than to keep them off. They were likewise noted for their effeminacy and lightness of conversation; and, for fear they should not of themselves be wanton enough, their very music was so fitted as to dispose them to lasciviousness. Hence that sort of music which is styled by Aristotle enthusiastic, as unhinging the affections, is by Boethius termed Phrygian; which by the philosopher first mentioned is forbidden to be used, by reason of the ill influence it was apt to have on men's behaviours. And it is an observation of the Orator, that change of music makes a change in manners; and therefore care is to be taken in a common wealth, that the most grave music only be used. But to return to the geographical account of this province. It was by Constantine divided into two provinces, Phrygia Salutaria, and Pacatiana; of which last mention is made in the postscript at the end of the first Epistle to Timothy.

In Phrygia, and more particularly in that part of it which, after its division by Constantine, was called Pacatiana, lay the city Hierapolis, mentioned by St. Paul, Col. iv. 13. being the principal

city of that division. Of this place take this ac- CHAP. IV count from Sir Paul Rycaut *. About five miles SECT. I. on our right hand from Laodicea to the north, we espied a white cliff on the side of a hill, with some buildings thereon, which the Turks from their whiteness call Pambuck or Cotton; and having received information from the Greeks that Hierapolis was there to be seen, curiosity carried us thither; of which place Strabo reporteth in this manner.

Hierapolis is seated over-against Laodicea, where are to be seen baths of hot waters, and the Plutonium. The waters easily congeal the earth, whereon they run, into stone, so that the channels are firm rocks. The Plutonium is under the brow of the hill, the entrance into which is no wider than that a man can thrust himself through; yet it is very deep within, of a quadrangular form, containing about the compass of half an acre, and is filled with such a thick and caliginous air, that the ground cannot be seen. At the new moon, the poisonous air contains itself within the circumference of the cave, so that a man may approach to the mouth of it at that time without danger; but if any living creature ventures to go in, it immediately expires. Cattle which have been put in there have been drawn out dead; and some sparrows, which we let fly therein, presently died. Those which attend the temples, enter in without danger; because perhaps they are full of an enthusiastical spirit, and so are preserved by Divine Providence ; or else because they have discovered some conservations against the pestilence of that air. water of Hierapolis, which so abounds that the whole city is full of baths, hath an admirable virtue for dying; so that colours dyed there, with the help of certain roots, equal the best scarlets and purples of other places. Thus far Strabo; but what we ourselves saw and observed was in this

manner.

The

We, mounting at first an ascent towards the

*Present State of the Greek Church, ch. ii. p. 64. &c.

PART II. ruins, observed the ground to be covered with a soft brittle stone, crusted by the hot waters, which descend with a full stream from the hill. Being come to the top, the first object which presented itself to our sight, and to put us in mind of our mortality, as well as of the period and subversion of cities, were certain magnificent tombs of entire stone; I may rather call them coffins, with covers of the same, cut in a cubical form. One bore the sculpture, as it seemed, of Apollo, in a chariot; but the charioteer was dismounted, and both he and the other part of the monument subverted. Other sepulchres there were, like small chapels covered with ridges of vast stones, instead of lead or tiles, to cast off rain. Other vaults and charnel houses lay open, where lay exposed the white bones of men, light and dry, and as durable almost as the walls of the city. Near hereunto was the Campus Martius, or a place which seemed to have been designed for exercises and feats of arms. Proceeding farther, we entered into a solitude so dismal, as affected our minds with a strange confusion, and with the thoughts of the sad fate of this unhappy city. The waters, which tumbled down the precipice, added, by its murmuring sound, to the melancholy of the place; and as they run, they petrify all before them, making rude channels for themselves of stone; and when sometimes they overflow, they petrify the earth with a brittle crust. In the midst of the city is a bath of hot waters, paved at the bottom with white marble; but the pavement is now disordered by the fall of pillars and other ornaments, which encompass it. For it seems to have been set off with columns and arches, agreeable to the magnificence of antique buildings, and to the excellent virtues of the waters. am of opinion, that the quality of those waters at the beginning drew inhabitants to that place; the situation thereof not being otherwise advantageous for trade, no more than the air seems conducing to health, lying open to a large plain to the south, and shut into the north with a high mountain. It

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might also in probability have had the name of CHAP IV. Hierapolis from the medicinal virtues of those SECT. I. waters, which often have been accounted sacred, and dedicated to some deity; or else perhaps the cures they operated in many diseases might bestow the name on it of the Holy City, as rivers and fountains have upon less considerable occasions been hallowed and accounted sacred by the Gentiles.

Not far distant remains the ruin of a theatre, not very large, but sumptuous, of a round form, the seats about twenty-three in number, one above the other but it is almost filled with the downfall of vast and weighty pillars; the marble of which is so curiously polished, and still smooth and not defaced, (especially those parts of it, which the rubbish and stones have preserved from the weather,) that I have not observed better in the countries of Christendom. Some inscriptions we found, but such as were worn out with time, and broken off in the midst; only this was very legible on the portal of a gate which was fallen into the theatre: ̓Απόλλωνι Αρχηγέτη καὶ—that is, Το Apollo the chief President, and. Some authors say, that the multitude of temples and fanes, with which this city did abound, was the reason they gave unto it the name of Hierapolis, or the Holy City. And indeed the ruins of vast fabrics are so numerous, that we may well believe, that the false gods. had once there a great possession and share of worship. And as the walls and pillars are the greatest and strongest that I have observed; so the covering and the roofs are the most different from all others that I have seen, being stones of an incredible magnitude and weight, which by force of engines being carried aloft, are there close cemented without the help of timber, and (what is more) of arched work, and yet are joined so artificially, that unto this day they remain unmoveable either by time or earthquakes.

In this place is still to be seen the grotto or cavern, so much defamed by ancient writings, and particularly by Strabo, as before mentioned, for

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