Part 23

This Holy Land (which, according to the promise made to the Patriarchs, was for many years in the possession of the _Israelites_) was, as you read in _Deuteronomy_ chap. viii. a most fruitful and rich country, abounding with corn, fruits, wine, and all that is required to the maintenance of man’s life. So the Lord himself saith, _That he will give them a land, that still floweth with milk and honey_. For it hath rich valleys, hills, fields and gardens, richly adorned with fountains and trees, so that it was very well chosen to be the worldly Paradise, wherein _Adam_ and _Eve_ did live, honour and serve God. Now as the land in it’s goodness surpassed other lands, so did _Jerusalem_ excel all other cities in building, glory, fortification, and number of inhabitants. Moreover God visited the _Israelites_ from the beginning, and had a house built in this city for himself, which he chose before all others to sanctify his name there. And above all this he provided them with High Priests, Kings and Prophets, until God the Father did send his only begotten Son, our Lord _Jesus Christ_ in the flesh, to reveal to them his will with teaching and miracles.

But when they would not acknowledge his merciful visitation, nor receive his messengers, but did rather abuse, ridicule, and kill them, rejected the Lord of Glory himself, and adhered to, and adored strange Gods and served them; God did reject and disperse them among the heathens, burnt and destroyed their city and temple, and reduced their fruitful country into barren desarts and a desolate wilderness, and so the punishment came upon them, which the holy Prophet _Esaiah_ did foretel them in the thirteenth chapter, and ninth verse, saying, _Behold the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it_. And further in the twenty-fifth chapter, and second verse, _Thou hast made of a city a heap; of a defenced city a ruin; a place of strangers to be no city, it shall never be built_. And _Daniel_ also maketh mention of this in his ninth chapter, _&c._ This ought to serve us and all men as an example of the fervent anger of God, to be a warning to us for ever. For if of the glorious city of _Jerusalem_, which God had chosen before others, and of it’s vast buildings that made her famous before her desolation, there is at this day nothing at all to be seen, so that one might very well doubt whether it ever stood there, were it not for some holy places and it’s situation, that give us demonstration thereof. If I say this worldly _Jerusalem_, because of it’s unbelieving inhabitants, that would not acknowledge the Blessed _Messias_, nor adhere to his doctrine to their salvation, is quite rooted out; and instead thereof, the way of the heavenly _Jerusalem_ opened to us heathens by the holy apostles: _How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?_ This way to our Lord _Christ_, hath for many years past been shewed us sincerely by the ministers of the holy word of God, but we do not only not much care for it, but seek rather other by-ways, that lead us to idolatry, sin and vices, nay, to our utter ruin. Wherefore it is to be feared, that if we do not repent in time, and return to God again, that he will come upon us with his wrath (as he hath already begun) and deliver us up into the hands of our adversaries, that we may fall by their swords (as _Ezekiel_ doth threaten us in his thirty-ninth chapter) and to punish us according to the deserts of our sins. Wherefore we ought to lay to heart the terrible example of the _Jews_, and turn from our evil ways, that we may avoid the punishments that befel them. We see that those who were formerly the people of God, are now come to be so blind, and full of errors, and of so depraved a life, that there is hardly any like them to be found even among the infidels and impious. Wherefore they are by all men despised and hated, chiefly by the _Turks_ (who hate them more than any other nation) so that they would not let them live among them, if the _Turkish_ Emperor had not for a great sum of money given them a peculiar freedom. And besides all this, now-a-days, their towns and countries are inhabited by _Turks_, _Moors_, and _Arabians_, that do not love to till or cultivate the ground, but will rather starve than take pains to get a good livelihood by their hand-labour. And although the country about _Jerusalem_ is very rocky, rough, stony, and ill managed, yet notwithstanding they will not endeavour to mend and improve it, but find out the fruitful lands that are here and there, and over-run the country like grashoppers, so that you may observe it yearly to decay more and more. Seeing then that there is but little tillage about the city, therefore the product of the earth there is but very small, so that they must have almost all necessaries brought them from other places.

The town of _Jerusalem_ which is still pretty large; but very ill built, hath within it’s wall, which the _Turkish_ Emperor caused to be built about twenty years ago, large places that lie desolated, and are so full of stones and rocks, that one can hardly walk in them. The gardens (even those that are within the city, and are but ill managed) are surrounded with mud walls, not above four foot high, so that one may climb over them without any difficulty. These are washed down again by rain in a very little time, so that they want mending continually.

Their habitations are also little and low, have clay walls, and many of them are decayed, some lie quite in a heap. The churches of the two Apostles, that of St _John_ and St _Peter_, are in the same condition, as also the prison where St _Peter_ was kept, the habitation of _Veronica_, which the Cordeliers shew us for them, and a great many places more. In some streets chiefly near to their _Batzar_, or exchange, are very old vaults, part whereof are decayed and broken, part filled up with dust, which runs out into the streets; wherefore (chiefly in the summer) the dust lieth so thick in them, that you may see every step in it, as in snow or sand.

All which sheweth, that the _Turks_ destroy or ruin more than they build; wherefore they are deservedly called _Turks_, that is to say, _destroyers_. The present town, as to the extent of it’s walls, is not much less than the old one was, wherefore one should admire, considering how it is built now, how it was possible it should hold so many people as it is said were in it at the time of it’s desolation, _viz._ a million of men, or as _Josephus_ and _Eusebius_ say, three millions. _Jerusalem_ was formerly surrounded with very steep cliffs, deep ditches and vallies, chiefly on three sides towards the south, east and west, so that one could not easily get up to it but only on the north side, where the town was low, lying in a plain; therefore did _Titus_ first attack it in a place near the village called _Scapas_, seven miles distant from it, and afterward advanced and took it; which the holy Prophet _Jeremiah_ did foretel many years before, in the first chapter and twelfth verse, saying, _Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land_.

These ditches and vallies are now quite filled up with the ruins of the broken walls and buildings, so that one may go into the town, as into an open village, without any hinderance or pain. But when the Grand Signior, after he had taken it, saw that the town was open, and that the Christian Pilgrims came thither in great numbers from all places and countries, he feared that they might make themselves masters of it again, as they had done some years agone, wherefore he ordered it to be surrounded again with new walls, which although they are very high, yet they are so thin and slight, that they are not able to withstand the least violence. But as the town was anciently built four square, so it is now built more round, chiefly towards mount _Calvaria_, which formerly was without the town, but now is walled in; so that you may still see two corners, one whereof is towards _Galilee_, where the gate of that corner is which is still open, and almost one of the handsomest, through which you go to _Nazareth_, distant three days journey; as also to _Cæsarea Philippi_, which is now called _Balbec_, where still are to be seen some very fine antiquities; and also towards _Damascus_, which is six days journey distant from _Jerusalem_, and from thence six days journey more to _Aleppo_, the greatest town for trade in all _Syria_. _Jeremiah_ maketh mention of this gate in his 31st chapter and the 38th verse. _Behold the days come saith the Lord, that the city shall be built to the Lord, from the town of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner._ And also _Zacharias_, in his 14th chapter, and in the 2d book of _Chronicles_, the 26th chapter, and 9th verse: It is said _Uzzia_ built towers in _Jerusalem_ at the corner gate, and at the valley gate, _&c._ The second corner mount _Zion_ maketh, where it doth end toward the south, whereon, as also on the mount _Moria_, the city is rising towards the north. The old city had twelve gates, as you read in the _Revelation_. The 1st, the _Fish-gate_, which was also called the gate of _Hebron_, because the road of _Hebron_ went through it, which is about seven or eight hours walking distant from it. 2. The _Old-Gate_. 3. The _Prison Gate_, whereof _Nehemiah_ maketh mention in his 12th chapter, through which our Saviour Christ carried his cross. 4. _Rayn-Gate._ 5. The Gate of _Ephraim_, before which St _Stephen_ was stoned to death, as you may read in the 2d book of the _Ecclesiastical History_ in the 1st chapter. 6. The Gate of _Benjamin_, where the holy Prophet _Jeremiah_ was taken and imprisoned, as he saith himself in the 37th chapter. 7. _Corner-Gate._ 8. _Horse-Gate._ 9. _Valley-Gate_, thro’ which they went into the valley of _Josaphat_. 10. _Dung-Gate_, through which the water carried out all the soil into the valley of _Josaphat_; and about this river is still to this day a great stink. 11. _Sheep-Gate._ 12. _Fountain-Gate_, which is now walled up. The Prophet _Nehemiah_ maketh mention of them in his 3d, 8th, and 12th chapter, so that it is not needful to say any more. These gates are so mightily decayed, that there is not to be seen the least of the old buildings. The _Turks_ have instead of them, built others in the new raised wall, but yet not half so many in number, whereof some (according as the town is inlarged in some places, and contracted in others) are displaced; others are erected again in the same places, according to the old streets, _viz._ 1. The _Fish-Gate_, which is still standing towards the west behind mount _Sion_, and over-against mount _Gihon_, as you may conclude out of the words of the 2d book of _Chronicles_ in the 33d chapter and 14th verse. _Manasses_ built a wall without the city of _David_, on the west side of _Gihon_, in the valley, even to the entring in at the _Fish-Gate_. This gate hath it’s name, because they brought many fishes from the sea side through this gate into the city. So is also still standing, on the outside of the valley _Tiropæon_(which distinguished the two mounts, _Sion_, and the temple mount called _Moriah_) the gate of the fountain, which hath it’s name because it leadeth towards the fountain of _Siloah_, which _Nehemiah_ his 2d chapter, verse 14. calleth the _King’s Pool_. Through this was our dear Lord _Christ_, the true promised _Siloah_, brought a prisoner bound from the mount of _Olives_ over the brook _Kidron_, into the house of _Hannas_ and _Caiphas_ in the upper town, as we read in the 12th chapter, verse 37, that by the _Fountain-Gate_ they went up to the city of _David_. The same way also the two disciples, _Peter_ and _John_, were sent to bespeak the paschal lamb by _Christ_, where they met the man with the pitcher of water.

The _Sheep_, or _Beast-Gate_, is also still standing by _Moriah_, the mountain of the temple, which the _Turks_ have taken to themselves, and have built on it a _Turkish_ mosque, or temple, because that God Almighty hath done many and great miracles on this mount; and besides _Mahomet_ did find himself again on this mount, after he had been carried up (as his lying writings tell us) through the heavens before God by the angel _Gabriel_. Wherefore they take this mount to be holy, so that none that is not circumcised and so unclean, dare approach or come near it, nor take the nearest way without over the height of the mount as _Nehemiah_ did, as you may see in the before quoted place; so that the Christians must take a farther way about, and from the gate _Siloah_, go below through the valley of the brook _Cedron_, between this and the mount of _Olives_ to the _Beast-Gate_, which hath it’s name because the beasts that were to be offerr’d in the temple were driven through it.

Near the gate you see still the sheep pond, which is large and deep, yet hath but little water in it, wherein the _Nathineens_ used to wash the beasts, and then to give them to the priests. And also immediately within towards the north, a conduit, which was the pool by St _John_ the Evangelist (in the 2d verse of his 5th chapter) called _Bathesda_, erected by King _Ezechia_; _that had five porches, wherein lay a great multitude of impotent folk, that waited for the moving of the water_. Through this gate is the straight way over the brook _Cedron_, by the mount of _Olives_ toward _Bethania_, down to _Jericho_ on the river _Jordan_, into the valley of _Josaphat_, wherefore this also, being nearer now in these days, is called the _Valley-Gate_.

There is also still the _Corner-Gate_ in it’s old place, where the north and east walls meet on large and high rocks, and is called still by some the gate of _Napthali_.

This I thought convenient to say of the city of _Jerusalem_ in the general of it’s buildings, fruitfulness, and adjacent countries; what famous and holy places are within and without the city, thereof I intend to treat in particular.

CHAP. IV.

_Of Mount ~Sion~, and it’s Holy Places._

Mount _Sion_, very famous in holy Scripture, hath round about it steep sides, high rocks, deep ditches and vallies, so that it is not easy to climb up to it, only on one side towards the north, where it buts upon the lower town, so that the castle and town of _David_ situated on it, was very strong, and almost invincible, as you may read in the 48th Psalm, verse 2. _The joy of the whole earth is mount Sion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. God is known in her places for a refuge, for the Kings were assembled_, &c. Seeing then that the castle, and the upper town _Millo_ was so well fortified with towers and walls, that it was not easily to be taken, the _Jebusites_, after that _Canaan_ the whole Land of Promise, together with the town of _Jerusalem_ was taken, did defend themselves in it against the whole force of _Israel_ for a long time, although they often attempted to take it, and called the town of _Jerusalem_ after their name _Jebus_, until the kingly Prophet _David_ came, who took it by force; and after he had rebuilt the upper town, and joined the castle with it into one building, and surrounded it with walls, he called it after his own name, The city of _David_, and kept his court there, and gave also lodgings to his hero’s and officers, whereof _Uriah_ was one, who had his lodgings near to the King’s palace, wherein the King walking on the roof of his house, saw the fair _Bathsheba_ his wife, and committed adultery with her.

These their habitations, as they are still built in these days, have instead of thatch or tiles, plaistered roofs, so that one may walk on them, as you may see here, that King _David_ walked on it. And also in the second chapter of the book of _Joshua_, where is said, That when the two spies sent into the Land of Promise to _Jericho_, came into _Rahab_’s house, and the King sent to search after them, they went at her request up to the roof of the house, where she hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof. But seeing there is nothing so strong in this world that is not transitory, therefore is also this worldly mount _Zion_, together with it’s strong building and fortification (which was rather a type of the true rock in _Zion_, _Christ_ our Lord, and his heavenly kingdom and holy church that was built thereon) so ruined and desolated, that the greatest and highest part thereof before the town, except a _Turkish_ mosque, some tile houses and a few acres of it, lieth quite a desart, covered with rocks and stones. So it is come to pass, what _Micah_ in his third chapter and the twelfth verse predicted: ‘Therefore shall _Zion_ for your sake be plowed as a field, and _Jerusalem_ shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house, as the high places of the forest.’ And _Jeremiah_ in his _Lamentations_, chap. 5. verse 18. saith, ‘The mountain of _Zion_ which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.’ And _Isaiah_ in his thirty-second chapter, verse 14. ‘The palaces shall be forsaken, the multitude of the city shall be left, the forts and towns shall be dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks.’

The great castle of the _Turks_ is situated at the top of the inward part of the mount, towards the west side near the _Fish-Gate_, which is also newly built, and very well surrounded with walls and ditches; under the gate are several great guns to frighten the Christians that come thither in great flocks, chiefly against great feasts from all nations, _Armenians_, _Georgians_, _Abyssins_, _Latinists_, &c. for they fear that else the town might be taken from them again.

Within the fort near the _Fish-Gate_, is still a strong high tower, built up with great free-stone, which is quite black through age; wherefore some say, that it did anciently belong to the fort, and was built by one of the Kings of _Juda_.

So much I thought convenient to mention of mount _Zion_, concerning other famous places that are to be seen upon and about it, I will only mention the chiefest thereof.

First, As you go out of the _New-Gate_ of mount _Zion_, there is a long street wherein on the left hand is an ancient church, of the holy Apostle _James_ the Greater, brother of _John_, which _Helena_ the mother of _Constantine_ the Emperor, as also many more did build on the market place of the upper city where he was beheaded. The _Armenians_ that have possession thereof, did conduct us into it, shewed us the building, and the place where the holy Apostle was beheaded with the sword (as you read in the _Acts of the Apostles_, the twelfth chapter) by order of _Herod Agrippa_, to whom he was delivered out of spite, as a seditious person, by the High Priest _Abiathar_.

Then we came to the place of the habitation of _Hannas_, whereto _Christ_ our Lord was first of all brought a prisoner and bound, or fetter’d, wherein was nothing observable, only a large court, and in it an old chapel, called the _Angels_, which we soon left, and went out of the gate of mount _Zion_ to the habitation of _Caiaphas_, where we saw an orange tree planted in the place where the holy apostle _Peter_ did warm himself when he denied our Saviour the third time; farther within a chapel, called St _Salvators_, where, in former ages was the place of the High Priest, where _Christ_ was severely accused by _Caiaphas_, and by his servants mocked, spit upon, and beaten; wherein is an altar, whereon the great stone of the grave still lieth, that stopped the door of the sepulchre, which is very like unto the rock of the grave in it’s breaking. That the habitation of the High Priest was in the upper city, _Josephus_ does testify in the seventeenth chapter of his second book of the _Desolation_ of _Jerusalem_, where he saith thus: ‘When the rebellious _Jews_, that had the lower town in possession with the temple, did undertake to possess themselves also of the upper town, they did assault it with all might and power, and at last take it; then they drove out the soldiers, which had the chief priests and men in power with them, out of the upper town, set the habitation of _Ananias_ the High Priest on fire and burnt it.’

Before this, on the top of the mount, stands on the plain a large church, which the _Franciscan_ monks had not long ago in possession, and lived in it, wherefore their father did call himself a Guardian of the holy mount _Zion_. But after that the _Turks_ did about twenty years agon possess themselves of it, and kept it to themselves, and made a _Mahometan_ mosque of it; the monks were forced to fly, and take the habitation where they now live instead thereof.

Of this church or mosque, we saw only the outside of the habitation of _Caiaphas_, for no Christian is allowed to go into it. It was built many years agone by _Helena_, mother of _Constantine_ the Emperor, as _Nicephorus_ testifieth in the thirtieth chapter of his eighth book; wherein is also included the habitation the Disciples were lock’d up in for fear of the _Jews_; and also the paved dining room, or hall, wherein _Christ_ with his Disciples did eat the Passover; where he also washed their feet, and sent the Holy Ghost after his ascension to them; where also _James_[5] the _Lesser_ was elected Overseer, and first Bishop of _Jerusalem_. In this temple, which is above a thousand paces distant from _Golgotha_, or the place of a skull, was, for some time kept the stone pillar, whereto _Christ_ our Lord and Saviour was tied and whipped. Near unto this, in the place of the palace of _Caiaphas_, the same Queen _Helena_ ordered a church to be built for the holy Apostle _Peter_, and many more, whereof mention is made at large in the above quoted place.

This mount extendeth itself towards the south, out before the city, and hath on the other side where it is highest, other higher ones about it, distinguished with ditches and vallies, viz. towards the west mount _Gihon_, at the bottom whereof _Solomon_ was anointed King by the Priest _Zadock_ and the Prophet _Nathan_, as we read in the first chapter of the first book of _Kings_; upon this, at the top towards the road of _Bethlehem_, lieth the field of blood, in their language called _Hakeldemas_, that was bought for thirty silver pieces to bury the pilgrims there, where you see still to this day here and there large and deep holes, and one among the rest very big, wherein are still to be seen several whole bodies lying by one another.

A deep valley separates this mount from mount _Zion_, which beginneth at the _Fish-Gate_, and goeth down to the brook _Cedron_; in it is a conduit by the upper pool called _Asuia_ in the third chapter of _Nehemiah_, which is pretty large, yet without any water, which receiveth it’s water from the high spring of _Gihon_, this was covered by King _Hezekias_, and laid down to the town of _David_, as we read in the second book of _Chronicles_, chap. 32. The holy Prophet _Isaiah_, chap. 7. verse 3. mentioneth it, when the Lord saith to him; ‘Go forth now to meet _Ahaz_, thou and _Shearjashub_ thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, in the path of the fullers field, _&c._’ And in the fourth book of _Kings_, in the eighteenth chapter, verse seventeen: ‘The King of _Assyria_ sent a great host against _Jerusalem_, and when they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the high way of the Fullers field.’