I.

PART Mr. Maundrel * has obferved, that it may be faid to have two banks, whereof the firft or outermoft is that to which the river does, or at leaft did anciently, overflow at fome seasons of the year, viz. at the time of harveft, Jofh. iii. 15. or as it is expressed, 1 Chron. xii. 15. in the first month, that is, in March. But at present (whether it be because the river hath by its rapidity of current worn its channel deeper than it was formerly, or whether because its waters are directed fome other way) it seems to have forgot its ancient greatness: for we, faith the forementioned author, could difcern no fign or probability of fuch overflowing, when we were there, which was the thirtieth of March, being the proper time for these inundations. Nay, fo far was the river from overflowing, that it ran at least two yards below the brink of its channel. After having defcended the outermoft bank, you go about a furlong upon the level strand, before you come to the immediate bank of the river. This fecord bank is so befet with bushes and trees, fuch as tamarifk, willows, oleanders, &c. that you can fee no water, till you have made your way through them. In this thicket anciently (and the fame is reported of it at this day) several forts of wild beasts were wont to harbour themfelves whose being washed out of their covert by the overflowings of the river, gave occafion to that allufion of the prophet Jeremiah, ch. xlix. 19. and 1. 44. He shall come up like a lion from the fwelling of Jordan. The water of the river, when Mr. Maundrel faw it, was very turbid, and too rapid to be swam againft. And for its breadth, he tells us, it might be about twenty yards over, and in depth it far exceeded his height.

Our Saviour

comes to

Jordan to be baptized by St. John.

Now while John was baptizing, Jefus came and was also baptized of him in Jordan. And Mr. Maundrel informs us, that within about a furlong of the river, at that place where he and his company vifited it, there was an old ruined church and convent, dedicated to St. John, in memory of the baptizing of our bleffed Lord. It is founded as near as could be conjectured to the very place where the Baptift had the

*Journey from Aleppo, &c. p. 80, 81, &c.

honour

Of the

our Lord

ed.

honour to perform that facred office, and to wash him who CHA P. was infinitely purer than the water itself, and, let me add, from whom the water of baptism derives all its faculty or spiritual virtue of cleanfing the inward man, or washing away fin. Our bleffed Lord, after he had been baptized, was moved 3. by the Holy Spirit to retire from Jordan up higher into the wilderness mountainous and more folitary part of the wilderness, in order wherein to conflict with the temptations of the Devil; and fo, by what was temptbefel himself, and by his own deportment therein, to teach all his followers what they were to expect from the fame common adversary of mankind, and after what manner they should best defeat all his crafty devices to feduce them. The Devil adapts his first temptation to our Saviour's prefent circumstances; and from the hunger, which our Lord began to feel after his fast of forty days and forty nights, the Devil takes occafion to perfuade him to exert his divine power, by commanding the ftones that lay by, to be made bread. But this temptation not fucceeding, the Devil brings our Lord to Jerufalem, and fets him on a pinnacle of the Temple, and there tempts him to fhew his divine power, by casting himself down from thence. This temptation failing likewife of its fuccefs, the Devil in the last place takes our Lord up into an exceeding high mountain, where he vainly endeavours, by promises of And of the earthly grandeur and dominion, to allure and overcome the hea- exceeding vealy-minded JESUS, who was dead to the vanities and pomps tain, to of this world, and was in truth the fole Lord of all therein. Mr. Maundrel * informs us, that in his journey from Jeru- by the Defalem to Jordan, after he had paffed over mount Olivet, he proceeded in an intricate way amongst hills and valleys interchangeably; and, after fome hours travel in this fort of road, he arrived at the mountainous defert, into which our blessed Saviour was led by the Spirit to be tempted by the Devil. A moft miferable, dry, barren place, faith he, it is, confifting of high rocky mountains, fo torn and difordered, as if the earth had here fuffered fome great convulfion, in which its very bowels had been turned outward. On the left hand, looking

* Journey from Aleppo to Jerufalem, p. 78, 79.

high moun

which he

was carried

vil.

down

I.

PART down in a deep valley, as we paffed along, we saw some ruins of small cells and cottages; which they told us were formerly the habitations of hermits, retiring hither for penance and mortification. And certainly there could not be found in the whole earth a more comfortless and abandoned place for that purpose. From the tops of thefe hills of defolation, we had however a delightful profpect of the mountains of Arabia, the Dead Sea, and the plain of Jericho; into which last we descended, after about five hours march from Jerufalem. As foon as we entered the plain, we turned up on the left hand, and going about one hour that way, came to the foot of the Quarantania, which they fay is the mountain, into which the Devil took our blefied Saviour, when he tempted him with that vifionary scene, of all the kingdoms and glories of the world. It is, as St. Matthew ftyles it, an exceeding high mountain, and in its afcent not only difficult but dangerous. It has a small chapel at the top, and another about half way up, founded on a prominent part of the rock. Near this latter are feveral caves and holes in the fide of the mountain, made use of anciently by hermits, and by fome at this day, for places to keep their Lent in, in imitation of that of our blessed Saviour. In most of thefe grots we found certain Arabs quartered with fire-arms, who obftructed our afcent, demanding two hundred dollars for leave to go up the mountains: fo we departed without farther trouble, not a little glad to have so good an excufe for not climbing fo dangerous a precipice. This is the account, given us by Mr. Maundrel, of the place where our Lord is generally and most probably believed to have been tempted.

Of Bethabara.

After our bleffed Lord had been thus himself tempted, and by his refifting and vanquishing the Devil had taught us, that he was able to fuccour them that are tempted, Heb. ii. 18. he repaired to Bethabara, where John was baptizing. Of this Bethabara we have no further account given us in Scripture, than that it lay beyond Jordan, John i. 28. and that our bleffed Lord, when the Jews fought to take him at the feast of the Dedication, retired hither, whither many resorted to him, and believed on him, John x. 39, 40, &c. The word

Betha

III.

Bethabara does in the Hebrew language denote as much as a CHA P. place of paffage over: and whereas we read Jofh. ii. 7, 23. that there was a fording place over Jordan, not far from Jericho; and again Josh. iii. 16. that the people paffed over right against Jericho; therefore it is conjectured, that hereabout stood Bethabara, as being the place of reception or entertainment for paffengers out of Judea into Peræa, or the country beyond Jordan. Nay, it is imagined by fome, that in the very fame place of the river, where the ark ftood, whilft the Ifraelites paffed over, our bleffed. Saviour, the true ark of the covenant of grace, was baptized by John the Baptist.

5.

Of Cana in

Our bleffed Lord having ftaid fome days at Bethabara with the Baptift, fets forth for Galilee, John i. 43. Upon his ar- Galilee. rival there he was invited to a marriage at Cana, for distinction fake styled Cana of Galilee (there being another town of the fame name mentioned Jofh. xix. 28. and appertaining to the tribe of Asher, and lying not far from Sidon, and fo fituated much more north than Cana of Galilee), which lies within. the tribe of Zebulon, and not far from Nazareth. Mr. Maundrel tells us, that he and his company taking their leave of Nazareth, directed their course for Acra, or Ptolemais; in order to which, going at first northward, they croffed the hills that encompass the vale of Nazareth on that fide: after which they turned to the weftward, and paffed in view of Cana of Galilee, the place fignalized with the beginning of Christ's miracles; and where lived, as fome fuppofe, Alphæus, otherwise named Cleopas, whose wife was Mary, the fifter or coufin-german of the blessed Virgin; and in whose house the marriage, to which our Lord was invited, is supposed to have been kept. But however this be, certain it is, that this Cana of Galilee was the native, or at least dwelling place of the Apostle Nathaniel, otherwife called Bartholomew; for the Evangelift St. John exprefsly styles him Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee, John xxi. 2.

6.

After this our bleffed Lord, together with his mother and his brethren or coufin-germans, and his disciples, went down Our Lord

* Journey from Aleppo to Jerufalem, p. 115.

goes from

Cana to Capernaum, and fo to je

to rufalem to

I.

the first paffover after

his baptifm

and entrance

lic ministry.

PART to Capernaum, where they continued not long (for which reafon I shall say no more of it here, than that it lay on the fea of Galilee); but the Jews' paffover being at hand, our Lord went up to Jerufalem. Being come hither, and finding in the Temple thofe that fold oxen and sheep and doves for facrifices, on his pub- and the changers of money, he drove them all out of the Temple, together with the sheep and oxen, and poured out upon the ground the changers money, and overthrew the counting tables. Hereupon being demanded of the Jews to fhew a fign of his divine authority to do as he had done, JESUS makes them this anfwer, Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up again. Then replied the Jews, Forty and fix years was this Temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? Which they said, thinking that Christ had spoken of their Temple, whereas he spake of the Temple of his own body, John ii. 12, 13, &c.

7.

Of the Tem

falem.

Now, for the better understanding of this paffage, it may be ple at Jeru. Very convenient to adjoin here the following account of the Temple of Jerufalem. Upon the Ifraelites coming out of Egypt, it pleafed God to give pofitive command to Mofes, for making a tabernacle to be a fanctuary or place fet apart for his public worship, Exod. xxv. 8, 9. This tabernacle was no other than a fort of large tent, 2 Sam. vii. 2-6. and so movable. Hereupon King David, that man after God's own heart, when he had by the divine bleffing got rest round about from all his enemies, began to think it very improper, that he himself should dwell in an houfe of cedar, and the ark of God dwell only within curtains, or in a tent, (2 Sam. vii. 2.) and therefore refolves within himself to build an house for God's public worship. This bare resolution was highly acceptable to God; who nevertheless in his divine wisdom thought it not convenient that David fhould build the house, but acquainted him by the prophet Nathan, that his son, who fhould fucceed him in the throne, should build such an house as he intended; and, by way of fpecial recompence for his religious intentions in this particular, God commands Nathan to tell David exprefsly from him, The Lord will build thee an houfe, that is, I will not take away my mercy from thy fon which

fball