V. them, Come ye yourselves apart into a defert place, and reft a while: CHAP. For there were many coming and going where he was, so that they had no leifure fo much as to eat, Mark vi. 31. Hereupon he took them, and went afide privately into a desert place, belonging to the city called Bethfaida, to which he croffed over the fea of Galilee, which is alfo called the fea of Tiberias; namely from a city of the fame name, built by Herod, the tetrarch of Galilee, on its western fhore, and fo called by him in honour of Tiberius Cæfar. The great privileges granted by Herod to the inhabitants of this place made it quickly become one of the principal cities of those parts. It is faid to have had in it thirteen fynagogues and an academy; that here was the laft feffion of the Sanhedrim, or chief council of the Jews; and here the Talmud, or body of the Jewish civil and canon law, was collected. eaftern fide Now the people feeing JESUS and his difciples departing 9. over to the other fide of the fea, went round on foot till they follow our The people met with our Lord again. Where our Lord having given Lord to the them many inftructions, towards evening before he difmiffed of the fea of them, miraculously fed them, being about five thousand, with Tiberias. five loaves and two finall fishes, there being left after all no fewer than twelve baskets full of the fragments of the five loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten, Luke ix. 10, 11, &c. John vi. 1, 2, &c. The people having feen the miracle that JESUS did in thus feeding them, faid, This is of a truth that prophet, viz. that extraordinary prophet, the Meffiah, that should come into the world: and hereupon they refolved among themselves to come and take our Lord by force, and to proclaim him their King. When JESUS therefore perceived this, he ftraightway constrained his difciples (who feem to have liked well enough, with the people's intentions, to make their mafter a King, and fo to have been unwilling to be fent away from him at that juncture) to get into the ship, and to go before him unto the other Our Lord (that is, the western) fide of the lake again. After which he fends the Apostles withdrew himself into a mountain alone to pray; where hav- back to the ing tarried till about the fourth watch of the night, he comes to western fide of the fea, I. PART to his disciples walking upon the fea. The, difciples, when they faw him walking on the fea, fupposed it had been a spirit, or apparition, and cried out for fear. But our Lord quickly put them out of their fear, telling them, that it was he himfelf: whereupon they gladly received him into their ship, into which as foon as he was come up, the wind, which had all along hitherto toffed them, ceafed, and their fhip was immediately at the land of Gennefareth, whither they were going. 10. The people The day following, when the people, which had been fed return to the by JESUS, and had remained all that night on the other fide of western fide the fea, namely, on that fide where they had been fed, began of the fea. to obferve with themfelves, that there was no other boat there, fave that one, whereinto his difciples were entered, and that JESUS went not with his disciples into the boat, but that his difciples were gone away alone, they fought for our Lord in the neighbouring places, not imagining he had passed the lake. But hearing nothing of him in those parts, they took the opportunity of fome boats that were come from Tiberias near to the place where they had been fed, and in them came over to Capernaum, feeking for JESUS. And when they had found him, they let him know, that they had been seeking after him, and were still at a lofs to know how he came over to that fide of the fea. Jefus anfwered them, Verily, ye feek me, not becaufe ye faw the miracles, but ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled; and from hence takes occafion to exhort them, not to labour for the meat which perishes, or that food which can nourish only for a short time, but for that meat which endures, and will nourish their fouls to everlasting life, and which he should* give unto them in due time. And in the following part of this his discourse our Lord plainly acquaints them, that he was the living bread which came down from heaven: If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that he should give, was his flesh or body, which he should give, by permitting it to be put to death, for the life of the world. To which our Lord fubjoins the indispensable neceffity that lies on all Chriftians to partake of the facrament, in order to ob V. tain eternal happiness; for, faith our Lord, Verily, verily, I CHAP. Jay unto you, except ye eat (not only by believing in me crucified, but also facramentally) the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you, that is, it is impoffible for you to obtain everlasting life. This great and important doctrine I could not but take this special notice of, that fo the reader may fee, that receiving the facrament of the Lord's Supper is, neceffary to falvation, as well as the receiving the other facrament of Baptifm, John vi. 27, 51, 53. About this time was celebrated that which was the third The third paffover after our Lord's entrance on his public ministry, and A. D. 32. paffover. which is mentioned, and only mentioned, by St. John the Evangelift, in the fame chapter, where he records the foregoing discourse of our Saviour, viz. John vi. 4. PART A. D. 32 & 33. Of Canaan and Syro CHAP. VI. Of our Saviour's Journeyings from the third Passover after his Baptifm and Entrance upon his Public Ministry, to the fourth Passover, at which he was crucified. ΤΗ HE next journey of our Lord taken notice of by the Evangelifts is that, when he went to the coafts of Tyre phoenicia. and Sidon, where he cured the daughter of the woman of Canaan, Matt. xv. 22. or, as St. Mark ftyles her, who was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by nation. That the coafts or territories of Tyre and Sidon lay to the west and north of Galilee, has been observed chap. i. fect. 8. Where also it was obferved, that the old inhabitants of this tract were defcendants of Canaan, and many of them not driven out by the children of Ifrael; whence this tract feems to have retained the name of Canaan a great while after those other parts of the faid country, which were better inhabited by the Ifraelites, had loft the faid name. The Greeks called the tract inhabited by the old Canaanites along the Mediterranean Sea, Phoenicia; the more inland parts, as being inhabited partly by Canaanites or Phoenicians, and partly by Syrians, Syrophœnicia and hence the woman faid by St. Matthew to be of Canaan, is more particularly said by St. Mark to be a Syrophoenician by nation, as she was a Greek by religion and language. It is obfervable that the name Phoenicia, though it be mentioned in the Acts, yet it is never mentioned in the Gofpels; but the lower or fouthern parts of it are in these always denoted by the coafts of Tyre and Sidon, two principal cities herein, of which therefore it will be convenient to give a more particular account. 2. I fhall begin with the city of Tyre, which lies fouth of Of Tyre. the other, about the distance of seven hours, or fomewhat better than twenty miles. It is probably supposed to have been VI. first built by a colony of the Sidonians (whence by Isaiah, chap. CHAP. xxiii. 12. it is called the daughter of Sidon), and that on an high hill on the continent, the ruins whereof are ftill remaining by the name of Palætyrus, or Old Tyre. In process of time the city was removed into an adjoining rocky island, about feventy paces from the main land, and became a place of great trade and wealth, and for fome time outdoing even Sidon itself in both refpects. Hence Ifaiah in his forementioned chapter faith of it, that her merchants were princes, and her traffickers the honourable of the earth. It is particularly famous for dying purple, faid to be first found out here, and that by a mere accident; a dog's lips, by eating of the fish called Conchilis, being dyed of a purple colour. It was taken and deftroyed by Nebuchadnezzar; and after it had recovered itself, and flourished for a confiderable time, it was again demolished by Alexander the Great, and by him joined to the main land. Recovering once again both its beauty and riches, the city became a confederate of the Romans, and was by them invested with the privileges of a Roman city, for its great fidelity. It was made in the flourishing times of Chriftianity the Metropolitan fee for the province of Phoenicia: but in A. D. 636. it was fubjected by the Saracens ; under which yoke having groaned for the space of 488 years, it was at laft regained by the Chriftians, A. D. 1124. It was attempted afterward by Saladine, but in vain: however it was finally brought under the Turkish thraldom, A. D. 1289. as it ftill continues. Mr. Maundrel* has given us this account of its state and condition, A. D. 1697. This city, faith he, standing in the sea upon a peninsula, promises at a distance something very magnificent. But when you come to it, you find no fimilitude of that glory, for which it was fo renowned in ancient times, and which the prophet Ezekiel describes, chap. xxvi. xxvii. and xxviii. On the north fide it has an old Turkish ungarrifoned castle; befides which you see nothing here, but a mere Babel * Journey from Aleppo to Jerufalem, p. 47. N 3 of |
