II.

taken it, and called it the city of David, 2 Sam. v. 7, 9. Af- CHAP. ter this Jerufalem became not only the principal city of the tribe of Benjamin whereto it appertained, but the capital of the kingdom of Judah, and the most celebrated city of the whole land of Ifrael; and, on account of religion, the most renowned city of the whole world among Chriftians as well as Jews, it being dignified by the infpired writers with the most illuftrious title of the Holy City; in allufion to which it feems, with a little variation from the Hebrew, to be termed by the Evangelifts, Hierofolyma, which in the Greek language imports as much as Holy Solyma. There will be more proper occafions to speak of this city elfewhere: and therefore I shall add no more here, only that the reader may have a particular account of it given by Jofephus, b. vi. chap. 6. Of Wars of the Jews.

5.

carried into

Before the holy child JESUS was brought from Bethlehem The child to Jerufalem, there came wife men from fome country lying JESUS is eaft of the Holy Land, probably Arabia, to Jerufalem, enquir- Egypt. ing after him, who was lately born King of the Jews. Here- A. D. 1, upon Herod, then King of Judea, being alarmed, resolved forthwith to provide for his own fecurity in the throne, by cutting off the new-born King. The better to bring this about, he fends the wife men to Bethlehem (where he underftood that Chrift was to be born), giving them directions to bring him word again, when they had found the young child, that he might come and worship him alfo. Thus ufual is it for wicked men, under some specious pretence of religion, to endeavour to bring about their most irreligious and devilish purposes! But the over-ruling providence of God quite defeated the defign of Herod, by admonishing the wife men not to return to him, but to depart into their own country another way, and by admonifhing Jofeph to flee with the new-born King, the holy infant JESUS, into Egypt.

6.

being faid to

Herod, when he faw that he was mocked of the wife men, Of Rama, was exceeding wroth, and fent forth, and flew all the children and Rachel's that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coaft thereof, from two weep at the years old and under, according to the time which he had dili- murder of gently enquired of the wife men, Matt, ii. 16. in reference to cents.

the inno

A. D. I.

I.

PART the age which the new-born King muft be of. Nay, it is not to be omitted, that so very jealous was Herod of the ill confequences which might hereafter arife to him from the new-born King, fhould he not be timely took out of the way, that he would not venture to exempt from the general maífacre of the young children a fon of his own, that was then at nurse in those parts. Which being told to the Emperor Auguftus, it drew from him that sharp but just reply, that he had rather be Herod's fwine than his fon; his swine being fafe, in regard the Jews were forbidden to eat swine-flesh, whereas his fon was liable to be made away upon state fears and jealoufies. By this maffacre of the innocent babes in and about Bethlehem, there was (in a more eminent manner than before) fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, faying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation and weeping, and great mourning; Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not, that is, were dead. Now Rama lay within the coafts, that is, the neighbourhood of Bethlehem, though it was fituated in a different tribe, namely, that of Benjamin, the youngest son of Jacob, and whom only befides Jofeph he had by his wife Rachel. For no fooner was Rachel delivered of this her younger fon, but she died, as she was with her husband on a journey from Bethel to Bethlehem, and was come near to Bethlehem, but yet in the border of Benjamin, Gen. xxxv. 16, 17, &c. I Sam. x. 2. On which account, upon the murdering of the innocents in Rama as well as in Bethlehem, the lamentations of their mothers in general are properly and elegantly represented by the mourning of Rachel; forafmuch as from her not only the Benjamites of Rama fprang, but also because she lay buried in thofe parts. Mr. Maundrel tells us, that among the remarkable places fhewn now-a-days in the road from Jerufalem to Bethlehem, the laff or nearest to Bethlehem is Rachel's tomb. On which he obferves, that this may probably be the true place of her interment; but the present monument can be none of that which Jacob erected, it appearing plainly to be a modern and Turkish ftructure.

Herod

II.

7.

Herod being dead, Jofeph, by the admonition of an angel, CHA P. returns with the holy JESUS and his mother into the land of Ifrael. But hearing that Archelaus reigned in Judea in the ftead of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: not- The child withstanding being warned by God in a dream, he turned afide Jesus is brought into the parts of Galilee, and came and dwelt again at Nazareth, back out of where he had formerly lived; whence not only our blessed Egypt, and Saviour was, according to a current prophecy, ftyled a Naza- Nazareth. rene, but his disciples likewise were at first distinguished by the name of Nazarenes.

carried to

A. D. 2.

expiring.

8.

At twelve

to Jerufa

urns to Na

After this the facred History is filent of our Saviour, till in the twelfth year of his age he went up with Jofeph and Mary years of age to Jerufalem, to celebrate the paffover, Luke ii. 42. The he goes up feftival being ended, and Jesus, though so very young, having lem, and redifcourfed publicly in the Temple with the doctors or learned men of the Jews, to the admiration of all that heard him, he returns back again to Nazareth, where he lived in all due obedience to Jofeph and Mary, until he entered upon his public ministry.

zareth.

PART
I.

CHA P. III.

A. D. 30. Of our Saviour's Journeyings from his Baptifm and Entrance upon his public Ministry to the first Passover next fucceeding.

I.

Of the wilderness of

Judea.

HE bleffed JESUS, though as to his divine nature he was equal with God, and was no other than God, Phil. ii. 6. John i. I. yet was pleased for the redemption of mankind, not only to be made flesh, John. i. 14. but also in the flesh to make himself of no reputation, taking upon him the form or condition of a fervant, or mean man, Phil. ii. 7. and during the former part of his life working with his reputed father, who was by trade no more than a carpenter. Hereupon our Saviour is styled, by way of scorn and contempt, the carpenter's fon, Matt. xiii. 55. and also the carpenter, Mark vi. 3. In this mean employ did our bleffed Lord vouchfafe to exercise himself, till he began to be about thirty years of age, Luke iii. 23. when he thought fit to enter upon his public ministry, and to make known who he was, and for what end and intent he was come into the world. In order hereunto he repairs from Nazareth of Galilee, Mark i. 9. to John, the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth, and fo his kinfman, who not long before had begun publicly to preach the baptifm of repentance for the remiffion of fins, Mark i. 4. Luke iii. 3. The place where John preached and baptized was the wilderness of Judea, Matt. iii. 1. Mark i. 4. which lay along the river Jordan, and that on each fide of it; whence John is faid by St. Mark to baptize as well as to preach in the fame wilderness, and by St. Luke to come into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remiffion of fins, Mark i. 4. Luke iii. 3. It is further to be here observed, that this tract was called the wilderness of Judea, not because it was abfolutely uninhabited, but because it was lefs inhabited than other parts.

As

III.

2.

As to the river Jordan, it is the most celebrated and larg- CHA P. eft river in the Holy Land, and the famous Jewish historian Jofephus gives us this account of it: "The head of this river "has been thought to be Panion, but in truth it pafles hither of the river "under ground, and the fource of it is 'hiala, an hundred Jordan. " and twenty furlongs from Cæfarea (viz. Philippi), a little on "the right-hand, and not much out of the way to Trachonis. "It is called Phiala (that is, the vial), from the round figure of " it; and its water ftands always at a stay, the bafon being brim "full, without either fhrinking or overflowing. The first discovery of this fecret was from Philip, the tetrarch of "Trachonis, by cafting ftraws into Phiala, that came out again at Panion, which till that time was taken for the "head of Jordan. This river, thus, as to appearance, taking "its original from the cave of Panion, afterwards croffes the bogs and fens of the lake Semechonitis: and, after a courfe "of an hundred and twenty furlongs further, paffes under the "city of Julias (or Bethfaida), and fo over the lake of Ge"nezareth; and then running a long way through a wilder"ness or defert, it empties itself at laft into the lake Asphal"tites, or the Dead Sea." Such is the description of the river Jordan, given us by Jofephus himself in his third book of the Wars of the Jews, chap. xviii. From which account it appears, that the vulgar opinion of this river's arifing from two fountains, or rivulets, one named Jor, the other Dan, is but ill grounded, if not wholly fictitious. It may not be improper to observe here further, that the cave Panion lying at the foot of mount Libanus, and the lake Asphaltites reaching to the very extremity of the fouth of Judea; it follows, that the river Jordan extends its courfe quite from the northern to the fouthern boundary of the Holy Land. And it is also obfervable from the forementioned account, that there lay in the times of the New Teftament a great deal of wilderness or defert along the river Jordan; which therefore was without all doubt the wilderness wherein John the Baptift came preaching and baptizing. As to the largenefs of the river Jordan,