PART I. Of Naza reth. CHAP. II. Of our Saviour's Journeyings, from his Birth to his Baptifm, and Entrance upon his public Miniftry or Preaching of the Gofpel. WH HEN the time appointed by the Divine Wisdom for the coming of the Meffias into the world drew nigh, the Angel Gabriel was fent 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 whofe kingdom there should be no end, that is, in fhort, of the Meffias, or Redeemer of the world. The bleffed Virgin then lived in a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, fituated in the fouth-weft part of Galilee, and fo not far from the confines of Samaria to the fouth, and nearer to the coafts or territories of Tyre and Sidon to the north-west. It is at prefent (as we are informed by the late reverend and ingenious Mr. Maundrel *, who visited it but ten years ago, viz. A. D. 1697. in his return from Jerufalem to Aleppo) only an inconfiderable, village, fituate 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 meffage brought her by the Angel. Here is alfo fhewn the houfe of Jofeph, being the fame, 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 diftant from hence they fhew likewise the fynagogue, wherein our blessed Lord preached that fermon, Luke iv. 16. by which his countrymen were fo exasperated, or filled with wrath, that they rofe up and thrust him out of the city, and led him unte * Journey from Aleppo to Jerufalem, p. 110, 111. the II. the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they CHAP. might caft him down headlong, Luke iv. 28, 29. This fame precipice they now call the mountain of precipitation, for the reason just mentioned. It is at least half a league distant from Nazareth fouthward, and in going to it you cross first over the vale in which Nazareth ftands; 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 ftone standing on the brink of the precipice, which is faid to be the very place whence our Lord was defigned 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: thefe, the friars will tell you, are the impreffes of Chrift's fingers, made in the hard stone, whilst he refifted the violence that was offered to him. At this place there are seen two or three cifterns for saving water, and a few ruins, which is all that now remains of a religious building founded here by the pious Empress Helena, mother of Conftantine the Great. And whereas the places, where are fhewn the house of Joseph and the fynagogue wherein our Saviour preached, were anciently dignified each with an handsome church by the fame Empress, these monuments of her piety are now likewise in ruins. ber of the tion faid by the Papists to be re Nazareth to Before we leave Nazareth, as it will not be altogether im- The champertinent, so neither may it be altogether unufeful (namely, Annunciain order to lay open the unreasonable and abfurd bigotry of the Papifts) to obferve, that in how mean a condition foever Nazareth may be at prefent, yet fome part of its ancient moved by buildings, I mean the chamber wherein the Virgin Mary is angels from said to be fitting, when the Angel brought her those joyful Loretto. 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 faid, that this fame chamber being after the blessed Virgin's departure had in great reverence by Christians, and remaining in Nazareth till the Holy Land was fubdued by the Turks and Saracens, A. D. 1291, it was then moft miraculously tranfported into Sclavonia. But 4 I. PART But that country being unworthy of the Virgin's prefence, it was by the angels carried over into Italy, and at length fettled at Loretto, then a village in the Ecclefiaftical State, or Pope's dominion, his Holiness's territories being, without doubt, the most worthy in the world to be the receptacle of fuch an holy apartment. So extraordinary an arrival of fo extraordinary a relict was quickly noised about; and not only the people of all ranks came to vifit it with great veneration, but even the popes themselves have paid it more than ordinary refpect, one of them building a moft ftately church over this chamber, which is now become, by prefents made to the Lady of it, the richest in the world; another erecting the village of Loretto, where it ftands, into a city and bishop's fee. 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 fee, but now a village; and Loretto being formerly a village, but now a city and bishop's fee. 2. Of the Hill It is time to take leave for the prefent of Nazareth, and Country of to attend the Virgin Mary in her journey thence to vifit her Judea. coufin Elizabeth, who, the Angel acquainted her, had already gone fix months with the child, called afterwards John the Baptift. 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, Jofh. xxi. 10, 13. and also faid exprefsly to lie in the mountains or hills, Jofh. xi. 21. and xv. 48, 54. which running across the middle of Judea from fouth to north, gave to the tract they run along the name of the bill country. The blessed Virgin having ftaid with her coufin Elizabeth about three months, then returned to her own house at Nazareth. Of Bethlehem. Some time after there went out a decree from Cæfar Auguf tus, that all the Roman world or empire fhould be taxed, that is, fhould have their names and conditions of life fet down in court-rolls, according to their families. And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Jofeph 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 II. of the house and lineage of David, to be taxed with Mary his CHA P. efpoufed wife, being great with child. And fo it was, that while they were there, the days were accomplished, that he should be delivered; and he brought forth her firft-born fon, our ever A. D. 1. blessed and to be adored Redeemer JESUS, and wrapped him in fwaddling 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 diftant from Jerufalem but two hours travel, or fix miles to the fouth-weft. And as it has been all along much honoured by Christians of all nations, on account of its being the place of our Saviour's birth: fo at this very day it is generally vifited by pilgrims, and it is furnished not only with a convent of the Latins, but also with one of the Greeks, and another of the Armenians; the two latter being contiguous to the former, and each having their several doors opening into the chapel of the holy Manger. For here are fhewn at this very day the place, where, it is faid, our bleffed Lord was born, and the manger in which it is faid he was laid; as alfo the grot of the blessed Virgin, which is within thirty or forty yards of one of the convents, and is reverenced on account of a tradition, that the bleffed Virgin here hid herself and her divine babe from the malice of Herod, for fome time before their departure into Egypt. The grot is hollowed in a chalky rock; but this whitenefs they will have to be not natural, but to have been occafioned by fome miraculous drops of the bleffed Virgin's milk, which fell from her breast when she was fuckling the holy infant. And fo much are they poffeffed with this opinion, that they believe the chalk of this grotto has a miraculous virtue for increafing women's milk; and it is very frequently taken by the women hereabouts, as well Turks and Arabs as Chriftians, for that purpofe; and, they will add too, that with very good effect. There is likewife fhewn to pilgrims now-a-days within about half a mile eastward, the field where it is faid the fhepherds were watching their flocks, when they received the glad tidings of the birth of Chrift; and not far from the field, * Maundrel's Journey from Aleppo, &c. p. 85, 86, &c. VOL. II. L the PART the village where they dwelt; and a little on the right-hand I. of the village, an old defolate nunnery, built by St. Paula, and made the more memorable by her dying in it. But to return to Bethlehem itself: you have there fhewn you the chapel of St. Jofeph, the fuppofed father of our bleffed Saviour; the chapel of the Innocents, as alfo thofe of St. Jerom, of St. Paula, and Eustochium. Of which three persons, St. Jerom was a celebrated writer in the latter end of the fourth century; and Paula the mother, and Euftochium the daughter, were two (among many other) Roman ladies inftructed by St. Jerom in learning and piety, and that retired hither to Bethlehem with St. Jerom, whose school is likewife fhewed here to pilgrims at this very day. We are next to attend on the holy babe JESUS to Jerufalem. For when the days of the Virgin Mary's purification, according to the law of Mofes, were accomplished, they brought him to Jerufalem, &c. Luke ii. 22. This city first occurs in Scripture under the name of Salem, Gen. xiv. 18. which is by interpretation Peace, Heb. vii. 2. Of what race or extraction was Melchifedec, the first King of Salem we read of in holy Writ, is not known; forafmuch as he is mentioned by Moses in the forecited chapter of Genefis, without father, without mother, without descent or pedigree, as is obferved Heb. vii. 3. But in the times of Joshua we find the city poffeffed by the Jebufites, one of the nations defcended from Canaan, Gen. x. 16. Joh. xv. 63. from whom it had the name of Jebus, Josh. xviii. 16, 28. Judg. xix. 10. being their principal city; and from these two names, Jebus and Salem, some imagine it to be called Jebufalem, and for better found fake Jerufalem. The Jebufites, we read, were not driven out by the children of Judah, but lived together with thefe at Jerufalem, Josh. xv. 63. For though the Ifraelites had taken the city, Judg. i. 8. yet it seems the Jebufites had a very strong fort adjoining thereto, which was not conquered till King David's reign, who, notwithstanding the ftrong opinion the Jebusites had of its being impregnable, which made them think David cannot come in hither, 2 Sam. v. 6. yet we read, that David took the Strong hold of Zion, and dwelt in the faid fort after he had taken |