PART ritorious paffion. It is then a small eminency or hill, upon I. the greater mount of Moriah, and it is thought by fome to have had the name of Golgotha in Hebrew, Calvary in Latin, given to it from its fomewhat representing a man's fcull. It was anciently appropriated to the execution of malefactors, and therefore shut out of the walls of the city, as an execrable and polluted place. But fince it was made the altar, on which was offered up the precious and all-fufficient facrifice for the fins of the whole world, it has recovered itfelf from that infamy, and has been always reverenced and resorted to with fuch devotion by all Chriftians, thas it has drawn the city round about it, and ftands now in the midft of Jerufalem, a great part of the hill of Sion being fhut out of the walls, to make room for the admiffion of mount Calvary.

Of our Sa

viour's fepulchre.

This fame mount is likewife honoured with a church, called the church of the Sepulchre, as being built over the place where our Lord's fepulchre was. It is less than one hundred paces long, and not more than fixty wide; and yet it is fo contrived, that it is fuppofed to contain under its roof twelve or thirteen fanctuaries, or places confecrated to a more than ordinary veneration, by being reputed to have fome particular actions done in them relating to the death and refurrection of Chrift. As firft, the place where he was derided by the foldiers: fecondly, where the foldiers divided his garments thirdly, where he was fhut up, whilft they digged the hole to fet the foot of the crofs in, and made all ready for his crucifixion: fourthly, where he was nailed to the crofs fifthly, where the cross was erected: fixthly, where the foldiers ftood that pierced his fide: feventhly, where his body was anointed in order to his burial: eighthly, where his body was deposited in the fepulchre: ninthly, where the angels appeared to the women after his refurrection: tenthly, where Chrift himself appeared to Mary Magdalene, &c. The places, where thefe and many other things relating to our bleffed Lord are faid to have been done, are all fuppofed to be contained within the narrow precincts of this church, and are all distinguished and adorned with so many several altars.

VI.

In galleries round about the church, and also in little build- CHA P. ings annexed to it on the outfide, are certain apartments for the reception of friars and pilgrims; and in thofe places almost every Christian nation anciently maintained a fmall fociety of monks, each fociety having its proper quarter affigned to it, by the appointment of the Turks: fuch as the Latins, Greeks, Syrians, Armenians, Abyffenes, Georgians, Nestorians, Cophtites, Maronites, &c. All which had anciently their feveral apartments in the church. But these have all, except four, forfaken their quarters; not being able to sustain the fevere rents and extortions, which their Turkish landlords impofe upon them. The Latins, Greeks, Armenians, and Cophtites keep their footing ftill. But of these four the Cophtites have now only one poor reprefentative of their nation left: and the Armenians are run so much in debt, that it is supposed they are haftening apace to follow the example of their brethren, who have deferted before them.

Besides their several apartments, each fraternity have their altars and fanctuary properly and diftinctly allotted to their own use. At which places they have a peculiar right to perform their own divine fervice, and to exclude other nations from them.

But that which has always been the great prize contended for by the Chriftians of the feveral nations aforefaid, is the command and appropriation of the holy fepulchre, a privilege contefted with great warmth, especially between the Greeks and Latins. For putting an end to the quarrels hereby occafioned between the feveral forts of Chriftians, the French King interpofed, by a letter to the Grand Visier about twentytwo years fince, requesting him to order the holy fepulchre to be put into the hands of the Latins, according to the tenor of the capitulation made in the year 1673. The confequence of which letter and of other inftances made by the French King was, that the holy fepulchre was appropriated to the Latins. This was not accomplished till the year 1690, fince which the Latins only have the privilege to fay mass in it. And though it be permitted to Chriftians of all nations to

go

PART go into it fo their private devotions, yet none may folemnize any public office of religion there but the Latins.

I.

Of the stone rolled to the mouth of

In order to the fitting of this hill, called mount Calvary, for the foundation of a church, the first founders were obliged to reduce it to a plain area; which they did by cutting down feveral parts of the rock, and by elevating others. But in this work care was taken, that none of those parts of the hill, which were reckoned to be more immediately concerned in our bleffed Lord's paffion, fhould be altered or diminished. Thus that very part of Calvary, where they fay Chrift was faftened to, and lifted up on his cross, is left entire, being about ten or twelve yards fquare, and ftanding at this day fo high above the common floor of the church, that you have one and twenty fteps or ftairs to go up to its top. And the holy fepulchre itself, which was at firft a cave hewn into the rock under ground, having had the rock cut away from it all round, is now as it were a grotto above ground.

At about a yard and an half distance from the hole in which the foot of the cross was fixed, is feen that memorable cleft in the rock, faid to have been made by the earthquake, which happened at the suffering of the God of nature; when (as St. Matthew, chap. xxvii. 51. witneffeth) the rocks rent, and the very graves were opened. This cleft, as to what now appears of it, is about a span wide at its upper part, and two deep; after which it closes: but it opens again below, (as you may fee in another chapel contiguous to the fide of Calvary) and runs down to an unknown depth in the earth. That this rent was made by the earthquake that happened at our Lord's paffion, there is only tradition to prove but that it is a natural and genuine breach, and not counterfeited by any art, the sense and reafon of every one that fees it may convince him. For the fides of it fit like two tallies to each other, and yet it runs in fuch intricate windings, as could not be well counterfeited by art, nor arrived at by any inftrument.

It is proper here to speak more of the ftone, which we obferved above is faid to be the very stone, which was laid to our Lord's fecure the door of our Saviour's fepulchre. That this stone

fepulchre.

was

VI.

was to be seen in the fourth century or age, both St. Cyril C H A P. and St. Jerom, who lived in that age, inform us. It was accordingly kept for a long time in the church of the Sepulchre; but the Armenians, not many years fince, ftole it from thence by a ftratagem, and conveyed it to the church above mentioned, built over the place where Caiaphas's house stood, and belonging to the Armenians. The stone, as Mr. Maundrel tells us, is two yards and a quarter long, high one yard, and broad as much. It is plaistered all over, except in five or fix little places, where it is left bare to receive the immediate kiffes and other devotions of pilgrims.

I fhall close this account of mount Calvary with obferving, that it was a tradition generally received among the primitive Chriftians, that (the first as well as fecond) Adam was buried here: as also that this was the place where Abraham was about to have facrificed his fon Ifaac, the type of our bleffed Saviour.

Having thus given an account of the several places relating to our Saviour's paffion, and that according to the latest relations we have of them, the reader will, I hope, excuse me, if I take him now a little way, not above half an hour, faith Mr. Maundrel, from Jerufalem to a convent of the Greeks, taking its name from the holy cross. This convent is very neat in its structure, and in its fituation delightful. But that which moft deferves to be noted in it, and for which reason it is here noted, is the occafion of its name and foundation. It is then because here is the earth, that nourished the root, that bore the tree, that yielded the timber, that made the CROSS.

CHAP.

PART
I.

I.

Our Lord

first appears

to Mary

Magdalene

den on

he was bu

CHAP. VII.

Of the Places honoured with our Lord's Prefence after his

ON

Refurrection.

N the first day of the week, very early in the morning, Mary Magdalene with fome other women came to our Lord's fepulchre; where they found the ftone rolled away, and in the gar- were acquainted by angels, that our Lord was not there, but mount Cal- Was rifen from the dead, and were alfo ordered by the angels vary, where to go and tell his difciples, that he would go before them into ried. Galilee, where they fhould fee him, as he had told them before his death. The women hereupon go, and presently acquaint Peter and John with what had pafled; who coming to the fepulchre, found it as the women had faid, and fo returned again to their own home. But Mary Magdalene ftaid ftill at the fepulchre, weeping, because she could neither find her Lord's body there, nor yet learn where it was laid. At length turning herself back, fhe faw JESUS ftanding, but did not know him. Then JESUS faith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom feekeft thou? She supposing him to be the gardener, to whom belonged the garden wherein the sepulchre was, faith unto him, Sir, if thou haft borne him hence, tell me where thou haft laid him, and I will take him away. JESUS then called her by her name, Mary; whereupon fhe looking more earnefly on him, knew him, and cried out, my Master. JESUS after this fends her to the difciples with a meffage, which the accordingly acquainted them with.

2.

Of Em

maus.

After this our Lord appeared to two of the disciples, as they were going to Emmaus, whither he went with them, and ftaid there with them till he had made himself know to them. This Emmaus is by St. Luke faid to be a village diftant about threefcore furlongs, that is about feven or eight miles,

from