it was emphatically called, The city of Da
vid. 2. The lower city, called, The daughter
of Zion, built after it; on which ftood the two
magnificent palaces, which Solomon built for
himfelf and his queen; that of the Maccabean
princes; and the ftately amphitheatre, built
by Herod, capable of containing 80,000 specta-
tors; the ftrong citadel, built by Antiochus,
to command and overtop the temple, but fince
rafed by Simon the Maccabee, who recovered
the city from the Syrians; and, laftly, a fecond
citadel, built by Herod, upon a high and
craggy rock, called by him, Antonia.
3. The
new city, mostly inhabited by tradefmen,
artificers, and merchants; and, 4. Mount
Moriah, on which was built the fo famed
temple of Solomon, defcribed in the fixth and
feventh chapters of the Second book of Kings;
and fince then, that rebuilt by the Jews, on
their return from Babylon; and afterwards
built almoft a-new, and greatly adorned and
enriched, by Herod.

SETTING afide all controverted points con-cerning this fo celebrated ftructure, we shall confine our prefent account of it to fuch particulars only, as are agreed on all hands, and founded on the authority of the divine writers, but which will ferve to give our readers a ge neral idea of the whole.

As, 1. There were no less than 163,300 men
employed in the work. 2. That, notwith-
ftanding that prodigious number of hands,
it took up feven whole years in building,
3. That the height of this building was 120
qubits, or 82 yards, rather more than lefs;
and the courts round it, about half as high."
C 2
4. That

4. That the front, on the Eaft-fide, was fuftained by ramparts of fquare ftone, of vaft bulk, and built up from the valley below; which laft was 300 cubits high, and, being added to that of the edifice, amounted to 420 cu-. bits; to which if we add, 5. The height of the principal tower, above all the reft, viz. 60, will bring it to 480 cubits; which, reckoning at two feet to a cubit, will amount to 960 feet: but, according to the length of that measure, as others reckon it, viz. at two feet and a half, it will amount to 1200 feet; a prodigious height this from the ground; and fuch as might well make Jofephus fay, that the very design of it was fufficient to have turned the brain of any but Solomon. 6. Thefe ramparts, which were raifed in this manner, to fill up the prodigious chafin made by the deep valley below, and to make the area of a fufficient breadth and length for the edifice, were 1000 cubits in length at the bottom, and 800 at the top, and the breadth of them 100 more. 7. The huge buttreffes which fupported the ramparts, were of the fame height, fquare at the top, and 50 cubits broad, and jutted out 150 cubits at the bottom. 8. The ftones of which they were built, were, according to Jofephus, 40 cubits long, 12 thick, and 8 high, all of marble; and fo exquifitely joined, that they feemed one continued piece, or rather polished rock. 9. According to the fame Jewish hiftorian, there were 1453 columns of Parian marble, and twice that number of pilafters, and of fuch thickness, that three men could hardly embrace them; and their height and capitals ́ proportionable, and of the Corinthian order.

Bus

But it is likely Jofephus hath given us thefe two laft articles from the temple of Herod ; there being nothing like them mentioned by the facred hiftorians, but a great deal about the prodigious cedars of Lebanon ufed about that noble edifice, the excellent workmanship of them, adapted to their several ends and designs,. together with their gildings and other curiousornaments. The only thing more we fhall. venture to add, is what is affirmed in the text, that all the materials of this ftupendous fabrick were finished and adapted to their feveral ends, before they were brought to Jerufalem; that is, the stones in their quarries, and the cedars in Lebanon; fo that there was no noife of ax, hammer, or any tool heard in the rearing of it. Thus much fhall fuffice at prefent, to give our readers an idea of this immenfe work.

THIS once ftately and opulent metropolis is. at prefent called by the Turks, Cudfembaric and Goudfheriff, and reduced to a poor thinly inhabited town, of at moft three miles in circuit. It ftands 38 deg. 48 min, of North lat. and 35. 34. Eaft longitude, on a rocky mountain, fur-rounded on all fides, except on the North, with steep afcents, and deep valleys below; and these again environed with other hills at fome distance from them. The foil now, for want of care, is, for the most part, ftony, fandy, and barren;. yet here and there produces fome corn, wine, oil, &c. efpecially about the neighbourhood of the city; but at a distance from it, fcarcely bears any thing but grafs, heath, and other fpontaneous herbs and shrubs, which are left to run to feed. There was a period indeed, after its deftruction by Titus Vefpafian, in which it was

likely

C 3

likely to have recovered its former grandeur namely, when the Emperor Adrian built a new city almost upon the fpot of the old one, which he called Elia Capitolina, and adorned with walls and other noble edifices; permitting the Chriftians to fettle and live in it. But this was a fhort-lived change; fo that when the pious Emprefs Helena, mother of Conftantine the Great, and, by birth, a British Lady, came to vifit this theatre of the world's redemption, fhe found it in fuch a forlorn and ruinous condition, as raised her pity into a noble zeal of reftoring it to its antient luftre. To which end, the caufed, with a great deal of coft and labour, all the rubbish that had been thrown upon thofe places, where our Saviour had fuffered, had been buried, &c. to be removed; in the doing of which, they found the cross on which he died, as well as those of the two malefactors who were put to death with him; and, as the writers of thofe times relate, difcovered, by a miracle, that which had borne the Saviour of mankind. Mount Calvary thus cleared, fhe caufed a magnificent church to be built upon it, which should inclofe as many of the scenes of his fufferings, as could be convepiently done; which ftately edifice is still ftanding, and is kept in good repair, by the generous offerings of a conftant concourfe of pilgrims, who annually refort to it, as well as the contributions of feveral Christian princes.

THE walls of it are of ftone, the roof of cedar; the Eaft end inclofes mount Calvary, and the Weft the holy fepulchre. The former is covered with a noble cupola, fupported by fixteen maffive columns, which were crufted with

marble.

marble. The centre of it is opened on the top, just over the fepulchre; and over the high altar, at the Eaft-end, is another ftately dome. The nave of the church conftitutes the choir; and, in the infide ifles, are fhewn the places where the most remarkable circumftances of our Lord's paffion were tranfacted, together with the tombs of Godfrey and Baldwin, the two first Christian kings of Jerufalem. Going up an ascent of 22 fteps, we come to a chapel, where that part of Calvary is fhewn on which Chrift was crucified, and the very hole in the rock in which his crofs was fixed. The altar hath three croffes on it, and is richly adorned, as with other coftly embellishments, fo particularly with forty fix lamps, of immenfe vaz lue, that hang before it, and are kept continually burning. Adjoining to this is another fmall chapel, fronting (like this) the body. of the church. At the Weft-end is that of the fe pulchre, which is hewn in that form out of the folid rock, and hath a small dome or lantern, fupported by pillars of porphyry. The cloifter round the fepulchre is divided into fundry chapels, appropriated to the feveral fects of Chriftians who refide there; fuch as Greeks, Armenians, Maronites, Jacobites, Copts, Abyffines, Georgians, &c.; and on the North-weft are the apartments of the Latins, who have the care of the church, and are forced to refide conftantly in it; the Turks keeping the keys of it, and not fuffering any of them to go out, but obliging them to receive their provifions in at a wicket.

EASTER is the time in which the greatest ceremonies are performed in this place, and which