Vol.II. p.38. PO mymai, putants ** tie, nisi in illis Christum adorassent locis, de quibus primum Evangelium de patibulo coruscaverat. Hieron. Ep. xvii. ad Marcell. well known in the time of Hadrian*, that out of hatred and contempt to the Christian name, a statue was erected to Jupiter over the place of the holy sepulchre, another to Venus upon Mount Calvary, and a third to Adonis at Bethlehem. All these continued, till Constantine, and his mother, St Helena, out of their great esteem and veneration for places so irreligiously profaned, erected over them those magnificent temples which subsist to this day. An uninterrupted succession, it may be presumed, of Christians, who constantly resided at Jerusalem, or who, as St Jerome informs us, occasionally resorted thither out of devotion, would preserve, not only the names of the particular places which I have mentioned, but of the pools of Bethesda and Siloam, of the garden of Gethsemane, of the field of blood, and of a great many others that are taken notice of in the history of our Saviour. But * Ab Hadriani temporibus usque ad imperium Constantini, per annos circiter centum octoginta, in loco resurrectionis simulacrum Jovis, in crucis rupe statua ex marmore Veneris a gentibus posita colebatur, existimantibus persecutionis auctoribus, quod tollerent nobis fidem resurrectionis et crucis, si loca sancta per idola polluissent. Bethlehem nunc nostrum et augustissimum orbis locum, de quo Psalmista canit, Veritas de terra orta est, lucus inumbrabat Thamuz, i.e. Adonidis; et in specu, ubi quondam Christus parvulus vagiit, Veneris Amasius plangebatur. Hieron. Ep. xiii. ad Paulin. Euseb. de Vita Constant. lib. iii. cap. 25. Longum est nunc ab abscensu Domini usque ad præsentem diem per singulas ætates currere, qui Episcoporum, qui Martyrum, qui eloquentium in doctrina Ecclesiastica virorum venerint Hierosolymam, putantes se minus religionis, minus habere scientie, nisi in illis Christum adorassent locis, de quibus primum Evangelium de patibulo coruscaverat. Hieron. Ep. xvii. ad Marcell. But as all these have been well described by Sandys and Maundrell, they need not be here repeated. The many and so much celebrated pilgrimages to the Holy Land, or sancta terra, from whence perhaps our word santering, or idling about, might proceed, seem to have commenced upon the building of the temples above mentioned; especially after the finding of the cross*, as it was given out, and the many miracles consequent thereupon. The lot of the tribe of Judah was nearly equal in extent to that of all the other tribes; and, being too much for them, the tribe of Simeon had their inheritance taken out of it, Josh. xix. 9. Its southern boundary, (Numb. xxxiv. 3, 4, 5. Josh. xv. 1, 2, 3, 4.) was to be from the bottom of the Salt Sea, southward all along by the border or coast of Edom, (Numb. xxxiv. 3. Josh. xv. 1.) to the river of Egypt, and from thence to the Mediterranean Sea. Now, as it will appear, from the following dissertation, that the river of Egypt could be no other than the Nile, particularly that branch of it which lay contiguous with Arabia, as likewise the extent and situation of the Salt Sea, otherwise called the Lake of Sodom, the Asphaltic Lake, the Sea of the Plain, and the Dead Sea, may be proved from several geographical circumstances, to run parallel with the Mediterranean Sea, and to stretch itself towards the Gulf of Eloth, * Vide Wesselingii Dissert. de Peregr. Hierosol. |