Our Lord is plainly Bethany. 3, &c. is betrayed plainly acquaints the difciples, that he was now speedily to CHA P. be betrayed and crucified, Matt. xxvi. 1, 2. After which, VI. as he was fitting at meat in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, there came a woman having an alabafter box of anointed by very precious ointment, and poured it on his head. Which a woman to his burial, at fome of his disciples blaming the woman for, JESUS acquaints them, that she had done well, inafmuch as she had aforehand anointed his body to the burying, which it was in a few days to undergo. Matt. xxvi. 6, &c. Mark xiv. Not long after this, the Devil prevails upon the covetous Our Lord temper of Judas Iscariot to agree with the rulers of the Jews and appreto betray his mafter to them for a small sum of money, when hended. he should get a fair opportunity to do it; which offered itself in a little time, Matt. xxvi. 14. Mark xiv. 10. Luke xxii. 3. For the first day of unleavened bread, when the paffover was to be killed, being come, our Lord with the twelve apostles fits down at even to eat the paffover, in an upper room in the city of Jerufalem. Which being done, and all the other particulars tranfacted, which are recorded Matt. xxvi. 31. Mark xiv. to ver. 27. Luke xxii. to ver. 4. and John xiv. our Saviour retires out of Jerufalem unto the mount of Olives, where he made thofe difcourfes to his difciples, which are mentioned John xv. and xvi. as also that divine address to God the father, John xvii. After which he paffed over the brook Cedron, which runs at the foot of the mount of Olives, and came to a place called Gethsemane, to a garden, whither he ofttimes reforted with his difciples, and which therefore was well known to Judas that betrayed him, Matt. xxvi. 36. Mark xiv. 32. John xviii. 1, 2. Accordingly Judas looking on this as a convenient opportunity to betray him, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and pharifees, comes directly to the garden, where they that he had brought with him took JESUS (he, who had before more than once miraculously delivered himself from them, and who could have now commanded legions of angels to his rescue, permitting himself now to be fo taken, in order to accomplish the great end of man's redemption, for which he came into the I. PART world, Luke iv. 30. John viii. 59. Matt. xxvi. 51, &c. John xviii. 11, 12.) The officers and foldiers having thus taken our blessed Lord, bound him, and then led him away to Annas first, who was father-in-law to Caiaphas, the high-priest for that fame year. But Annas forthwith orders him to be had before Caiaphas himself, with whom were affembled the scribes and elders, Matt. xxvi. 57. John xviii. 13, &c. Our Lord is condemned fied. When the morning was come, the rulers of the Jews led and cruci- JESUS from Caiaphas's houfe unto the judgment-hall, to accuse him to Pilate the Roman governor, and to get sentence of crucifixion pronounced against him, Matt. xxvii. 1, 2. Mark xv. 1. Luke xxiii. 1. John xviii. 28. Which having obtained, the governor's foldiers took our Lord into the common hall, called Prætorium; where they mocked him, and abused him by great and heinous indignities. After which they led him out to crucify him, making him at first carry his crofs himfelf; till our Lord being unable, (as is probably conjectured) through the continued fatigue he had endured all the night before, and that day, to carry it any longer, the foldiers compelled onė Simon, a Cyrenian, to carry the cross for him. When they were come to the place called in Hebrew Golgotha, in Latin Calvary, that is, in English, the place of a fcull, there they crucified the Lord of life; who fome time after, commending his fpirit into the hands of God his father, gave up the ghost. thea. 16. Our bleffed Redeemer being thus dead, that we might Of Arima- live; when the evening was come, Joseph, a rich man and honourable counsellor of Arimathea, (a city of the Jews, thought to be the fame with Ramatha, 1 Sam. i. 1. and so to be fituated in the tribe of Ephraim,) came to Pilate, and begged the body of JESUS; for he had not confented to his death, but was a disciple, though secretly for fear of the Jews, John xix. 37. The body being granted him, he and Nicodemus came and took it down, and wound it in linen clothes with the fpices prepared by Nicodemus, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where JESUS was crucified there was a garden; and in that garden Joseph had caused caufed a new tomb to be hewn out of the rock; wherein CHA P. they laid the body of JESUS, rolling a great ftone to the door of the fepulchre. VI. 17. Of Gethfe mane. Having thus attended our bleffed Redeemer to his grave, during his body's lying therein, let us take a more particular account of the places, wherein the feveral parts of his fufferings were tranfacted, and which, for that reafon, are become remarkable to Chriftians. I shall begin with the garden of Gethsemane, which, as Mr. Maundrel informs us, is an even plat of ground, not above fifty-feven yards fquare, lying between the foot of mount Olivet and the brook Cedron. It is well planted with olive-trees, and thofe of fo old a growth, that they are believed to be the fame that stood here in our Saviour's time, but improbably. At the upper corner of the garden is a flat naked ledge of rock, reputed to be the place, on which the Apostles, Peter, James, and John, fell afleep during the agony of our Lord. And a few paces from hence is a grotto, faid to be the place in which Christ underwent that bitter part of his paffion. About eight paces from the place where the Apostles flept, is a small shred of ground, twelve yards long, and one broad, fuppofed to be the very path on which the traitor Judas walked up to Christ, saying, Hail, Mafter, and kiffed him. This narrow path is feparated by a wall out of the midst of the garden, as an accurfed piece of ground, a work the more remarkable, as being done by the Turks, who, as well as Chriftians, deteft the very ground, on which was acted fuch an infamous treachery. 18. Of the brook Ce As for the brook Cedron, it runs along the bottom of the valley, which lies eaft of Jerufalem, between it and mount Olivet, being called the valley of Jehofaphat. The brook is dron. fuch only in the winter season of great rains, being else without the least drop of water in it, as it was all the time Mr. Maundrel ftaid at Jerufalem. 19. The valley of Jehofaphat runs across the mouth of another valley, called the valley of Hinnom, lying at the bottom of Of the Pot ter's Field, or the Field of Blood. PART mount Sion. On the weft fide of this laft valley is the place I. called anciently the Potter's Field, and afterwards the Field of 20. Of the upper room, Lord infti Blood, from its being purchased with the pieces of filver, which were the price of the blood of Chrift: but at present, from that veneration which it has obtained amongst Christians, it is called Campo Sancto, or the Holy Field. It is a fmall plat of ground, not above thirty yards long, and about half as much broad. One moiety of it is taken up by a fquare fabrick twelve yards high, built for a charnel house. The corpfes are let down into it from the top, there being five holes left open for that purpose. Looking down through thefe holes, we could fee many bodies under feveral degrees of decay; from which it may be conjectured, that this grave does not make that quick dispatch with the corpfes committed to it, which is commonly reported. The Armenians have the command of this burying-place, for which they pay the Turks a rent of one zeguin a day. The earth is of a chalky fubftance hereabouts. . A little below the Campo Sancto is fhewn an intricate cave or fepulchre, confifting of several rooms one within another, in which the Apoftles are faid to have hid themselves, when they forfook their master and fled. The entrance of the cave discovers figns of its having been adorned with painting in ancient times. They do pretend at this very day to shew whereabout in Jerufalem ftood the house, in an upper room whereof our wherein our Lord ate the paffover, and inftituted the bleffed facrament. There is a church built on the spot of ground; but, instead of being now used as a church by the Chriftians, the Turks have taken it to themselves for a mosque, and so it is not to be so much as seen by Christians. tuted the paffover. 21. Of the house of Annas. In like manner there is another fmall church in the hands of the Armenians, which is fuppofed to be founded in the place where Annas's houfe flood. Nay, they pretend to fhew the place, where one of the officers of the High-Priest smote our Saviour, John xviii. 22. And in the court before this little church or chapel is an olive-tree, of which it is reported, that that Chrift was chained to it for fome time, by order of An- c H A P. nas, to fecure him from efcaping. VI. 22. Of the pa So again, near Sion gate, where the houfe of Caiaphas ftood, is another fmall chapel belonging alfo to the Arme- of the nians. Here, under the altar, they tell you, is depofited that house of Caiaphas very ftone, which was laid to fecure the door of our Saviour's fepulchre; of which more anon. Here is fhewn likewise a little cell, faid to have been our Lord's prifon till the morning, when he was carried hence before Pilate; and also the place where St. Peter was frighted into a denial of his master. They fhew likewife at Jerufalem now-a-days the palace 23. of Pilate, or rather the place where they fay it ftood; for lace of Pinow an ordinary Turkish house poffeffes its room. It is not late. far from St. Stephen's gate, and borders on the area of the, Temple on the north fide. From the terrace of this house there is a fair profpect of all the place where the Temple stood, indeed the only good prospect that is allowed you of it. For there is no going within the borders of it, without forfeiting your life, or, which is worfe, your religion. In this pretended house of Pilate is ftill fhewn the room, in which Chrift was mocked with the enfigns of royalty, and buffeted by the foldiers. On the other fide of the street, which was anciently part of the palace alfo, is the room where they say our Lord was fcourged. 24. Of the way which our Lord was to mount Calvary. In our return from Pilate's palace, we paffed, faith Mr. Maundrel, along the Dolorous way, fo called because Chrift was led along it to be crucified. In which walk we were led from Pifhewn in order; firft, the place where Pilate brought our late's palace Lord forth to prefent him to the people, faying, Behold the man! fecondly, where Christ fainted thrice under the weight of his crofs; thirdly, where the bleffed Virgin fwooned away at fo tragical a fpectacle; fourthly, where St. Veronica is faid to have presented to our Lord the handkerchief to wipe his bleeding brows; fifthly, where the foldiers compelled Simon the Cyrenian to bear his cross. 25. Of mount There remains only now mount Calvary to be spoken to, whereon our Saviour underwent the last part of his moft me- Calvary. ritorious |
