from being every moment offended by them. The country begins to be rugged and uneven at Samaria, the N. boundary of the tribe of Ephraim;` from whence, through Sichem, all the way to Jerusalem, we have nothing else but mountains, narrow defiles, and vallies of different extents. Of the mountains, those of Ephraim, the continuation of Gerizim and Ebal, are the largest; the most of them being shaded with forrest trees, whilst the vallies below, particularly the plains of Morch, Gen. xii. 6. Deut. xi. 30. where Gideon put to flight the princes of Midian, Judges vii. 1. are long and spacious, not inferior in fertility to the best part of the tribe of Issachar. The mountains of the tribe of Benjamin, which lie still further to the southward, are generally more naked than those of Ephraim, having their ranges much shorter, and consequently their vallies more frequent; in one of which, vI. M. to the eastward of Jerusalem, is the village Jeremiah, formerly Anathoth, with the ruins of a convent and a small brook running by it. The tribe of Judah were possessed of a country much like that of Benjamin or Ephraim; though the mountain of Adummim* and Quarantania, those of Engaddi, and others that border upon the plains of Jericho and the Dead Sea, are as high, and of as great extent,

This joins to the mountain of Quarantania; and through it the road is cut that leads from Jerusalem to Jericho; a difficult pass, the mountain of blood, or the bloody road, as the name may import; where probably it was, from the very nature of the situation, that the man fell among thieves, &c: Luke x. 30.

tent, as those of the two other tribes, though much more barren, and with fewer trees growing upon them. Some of the vallies likewise that belong to Judah, such as Rephaim, Eshcol, and others, merit an equal regard with the plains of Moreh, or that parcel of ground which Jacob gave to his son Joseph, Gen. xlviii. 22. But the western district of the tribe of Ephraim, at Ramah and Lydda, is nearly of the same arable and fertile nature, with that of the half tribe of Manasseh; as it is likewise equally plain and level. The latter of these circumstances agrees also with the tribe of Dan, though their country is not so fruitful, having in most parts of it a less depth of soil, and borders upon the sea coast at Joppa, and a great way on each side of it, in a range of mountains and precipices. And it is, for the most part, in these high situations that we meet with the dens, the holes, or caves, so frequently mentioned in Scripture; formerly the lonesome retreats of the distressed Israelites, Judges vi. 2. 1 Sam. xiii. 6. and persecuted prophets, 1 Kings xviii. 4. Heb. xi. 38. Strabo tells us, (lib. xvi. p. 760.) that the port of Joppa and Jerusalem, So, were in sight of one another; but the many high intervening mountains will admit of no such prospect. From the mountain of Quarantania, the very same perhaps where the two spies concealed themselves, (Josh. ii. 16.) we have a distinct view of the land of the Amorites, of Gilead, and of Basan, the inheritance (Deut. iii.) of the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and of the half

half tribe of Manasseh. This tract, in the neighbourhood particularly of the river Jordan, is in many places low, and, for want of culture, shaded and overgrown with tamarisks and willows; but at the distance of two or three leagues from the stream, it appears to be made up of a succession of hills and vallies, somewhat larger, and seemingly more fertile than those in the tribe of Benjamin. Beyond these plains, over against Jericho, where we are to look for the mountains of Abarim*, the northern boundary of the Land of Moab, our prospect is interrupted by an exceeding high ridge of desolate mountains, no otherwise diversified, than by a succession of naked rocks and precipices; rendered in several places more frightful, by a multiplicity of torrents which fall on eacl. side of them. This ridge is continued all along the eastern coast of the Dead Sea, as far as our eye can conduct us; affording us all the way a most lonesome melancholy prospect, not a little assisted by the intermediate view of a large stagnating, inactive expanse of water, rarely if ever enlivened by any flocks of water fowl that settle upon it, or by so much as one vessel of passage or commerce that is known to frequent it. Such is the general plan of that part of the Holy Land, which fell under my observation.

The

Nebo and Pisgah were some particular parts or summits of this mountain, from whence Moses beheld the land of Canaan, before he was gathered to his people. Num. xxvii. 12, 13. and xxxii. 47. Deut. iii. 27. and xxxii. 49. and xxxiv. 1.

The hills, which stand round about Jerusalem, situate it as it were in an amphitheatre, whose arena inclines to the eastward. We have no where any distant view of it. That from the Mount of Olives, the best and perhaps the farthest, is notwithstanding at so small a distance, that, when our Saviour was there, he might be said, almost ⚫ in a literal sense, to have wept over it. There are very few remains of the city, either as it was in our Saviour's time, or as it was afterwards rebuilt by Hadrian, scarce one stone being left upon another, which hath not been thrown down. Even the very situation is altered. For Mount Sion, the most eminent part of the old Jerusalem is now excluded, and its ditches filled up; whilst the places adjoining to Mount Calvary, where Christ is said to have suffered without the gate, are now almost in the centre of the city.

Yet notwithstanding these changes and revolutions, it is highly probable that a faithful tradition has always been preserved of the several places that were consecrated, as we may say, by some remarkable transaction relating to our Saviour, or to his apostles. For it cannot be doubted but that, among others, Mount Calvary and the cave where our Saviour was buried, were well known to his disciples and followers; and not only so, but that some marks likewise of reverence and devotion were always paid to them. These, no less than the grotto at Bethlehem, the supposed place of our Saviour's nativity, were so

well