PART II. Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Pamphylia, Pifidia, Lycaonia, Phrygia, Myfia, Troas, (all mentioned in the New Teftament,) as alfo Lydia, with Ionia and Æolis, (both included fometimes under Lydia,) Caria with Doris, (fometimes included under Caria,) and Lycia. Of these, Lydia and Caria taken in their larger acceptations, Mysia and Phrygia, (including Troas, otherwise called Phrygia Minor,) made up the Roman P proconfular Afia, which has been thought by fome to be the fame as the ScriptureAfia. But it is evident to any one, diligently reading the travels of St. Paul in the New Teftament, that Myfia, Phrygia, and Troas are by the facred writer reckoned as diftinct provinces from the Afia fo called in Scripture. Wherefore it is with great reafon taken for granted 9 by the most judicious, that by Afia in the New Testament is to be understood Lydia in its largest acceptation, or taken fo as to include Ionia and Æolis; within which compass lay the feven cities, the churches whereof are styled by the facred penman, the churches of Afia; which I shall now proceed to describe in their following order, and chiefly from Sir Paul Rycaut', as to their modern state and condition. 3. I fhall begin with the famous city Ephefus, not only Of Ephefus. because we left St. Paul s arrived here, but also because it is set first in order by the holy penman St. John. As to its fituation, it lies diftant about forty-five English miles south south-east from Smyrna, and about five miles from the fea, accounted in ancient times for a maritime town, by reason of the river Cayfter, which runs by the city, and near to the fea was capable of receiving the veffels of thofe days. Hence Strabo, speaking of it, faith, this city has both a port and shipping belonging to it; but the port is very shallow, by reafon of the great quantity of P See Cic. Orat. pro Flacco. The only exception hereto is licia, Pamphylia, and Lycia, &c. Prefent State of Greek Church, chap. ii. pag. 41, &c. Acts xix. 1. t Rev. ii. 1. mud, mud, which the Cayfter throws up; however the city CHAP. V. daily increases, and is the principal mart of Afia on this SECT. 1. fide of the mount Taurus. It is feated on the fide of an hill, having a prospect to the weft toward a lovely plain, watered and embellished with the pleasant circles of the Cayfter, which turns and winds fo wantonly through this plain, and with fuch curious doublings, as has given occafion to travellers to mistake it for the Meander; which error may be the more confirmed by the name, which the Turks give it, of the Leffer Mendres. Some marshes there are not far distant, and yet so far as that the vapours of them seem not to reach or corrupt the air of the city. The foil produces abundantly woods of tamarisk, which overrunning the plains, render them delightful to the eyes of the beholders. As to the dignity of this city, it was the metropolis of the proconfular Afia, and also the seat of the primate of the Afian diocefe, As to its ornaments, it was most celebrated among Heathen writers for the temple of Diana, which for its largeness, furniture, and workmanship, was esteemed one of the feven wonders of the world. It is faid to have been four hundred and twenty-five feet long, two hundred and twenty feet broad, and to have been fupported with an hundred and twenty-feven pillars of marble, each seventy feet in height, and twenty-feven of them moft curiously wrought, and all the reft polished. The model of it is said to have been contrived by one Ctesiphon, and that with so much art and curiofity of architecture, that it took up two hundred years before it was finifhed. After it was finifhed, it was fired feven times; one of which is faid to be on the very day that Socrates was poifoned; and the last time, (when it was set on fire by one Eroftratus, only to get himself a name,) on the fame night that Alexander the Great was born, which gave occafion to that witty. fcoff, that Diana, who was accounted one of the goddeffes of midwifery, could not attend the preservation of her temple, being then bufied about the birth of fo great a prince, VOL. II. T PART II. a prince. However, as it is generally faid to have been first built by the warlike race of females the Amazons; fo it is faid, after this laft burning, to have been again rebuilt by the large and devout contributions of the fame sex. But these not being able to raise enough to perfect the work, Alexander the Great proffered, as is faid, to complete the work at his own expence, on condition that his name might be entitled to the whole fabrick. But this offer was handfomely refused by the compliment of a witty Ephefian, alleging, That it was not feemly that one God fhould contribute to the temple of another. And as this city was famous in the times of Heathenifm for the temple of Diana, so in the times of Christianity it was adorned with a beautiful and magnificent church, honoured with the name of St. John, who for a confiderable time refided in this city, and governed the churches of Afia. This church is ftill ftanding, concerning which, and the present condition of the city, take the following account from Sir Paul Rycaut, p. 44, &c. of his forecited book. But nothing appears more remarkable and stately to a ftranger, in his near approach to this place, than the castle on the hill, and the lofty fabrick of St. John's church, now converted to a Turkish mofque; the biggest pillar in which is five Turkish pikes and a half in compass, which is upwards of four English yards. These lifting up their heads amongst other ruins and humble cottages of the present inhabitants, feem to promise that magnificent ftructure, which renowned and made famous this city in ancient history. But at the entrance a person stumbles at pillars of porphyry, and finds an uneafy paffage over subverted temples and palaces: the memory of what they have been is not preferved by tradition; and few or no inscriptions remain to direct us. Some marks there are of a building more ample and stately than the rest, which feems to have been feated in the suburbs of the city without the walls, and therefore gives us caufe to conjecture it to have been the templerof Diana, the metropolitan SECT. 1. fhrine of all others dedicated to that goddess, anciently CHAP. V. adjoining to the Ortygian grove and Cenchrian stream, where the and Apollo were reported in fables to be born from Latona. This probably might have been the temple of that goddess, which all Afia" and the world worshipped, and caufed that riot and pother amongst the silverfmiths of this place. Under the ruins of this temple we defcended about thirty stairs with lights in our hands, where we entered into divers narrow paffages, with many turnings and windings, that it was necessary to inake use of a clew of thread to guide us, which some therefore call a labyrinth but to me it feemed no other than the foundation of the temple, which for fabricks of that weight and magnificence is convenient, as I conceive, according to the rules of the beft architecture. The air below was moist, and of a fuffocating heat, which nourished bats of a prodigious bignefs, which ofttimes ftruck at our torches, as enemies unto light, and companions of those spirits which inhabit the Stygian darkness. Not far from hence was a stately lavatory of porphyry, called St. John's Font, the diameter of which was above feven Turkish pikes, wherein, it is reported, he baptized great multitudes of believers. Not far from hence was fhewn us the cave of the feven Sleepers, the ftory of which, whether true or false, is yet current through the world, and believed fo far by the Christians who anciently inhabited Ephesus, that they have erected a chapel in memory of them, part of which remains unto this day, and the painting as yet not wholly defaced. The theatre is almoft wholly destroyed, few feats being there remaining; and of other ruins no certain knowledge can be had; the * inscriptions which I found being for the most part fo disfigured and broken off from the portals of gates and triumphal arches, as that they can little fatisfy any man's curiofity. u Acts xix. 27. * The infcriptions, such as they be, are given us in Sir Paul Ri- T2 Over PART II. Over a gate, which appears to have been in the middle of the city, are divers figures engraven, ftill plain and not much defaced, which feem to represent the story of Hector's body drawn about the city of Troy by Achilles; but is without reason fancied by fome to be a description of the first Christian perfecutions. For I having no fuch ftrength of imagination to represent it to me in that form, and obferving likewise that the ftones do not exactly fquare each with the other, am induced to believe that they were fetched from fome other place, and fixed there for ornament in more modern times. The aqueduct on the eaft fide, agreeable to the ancient magnificence and honour of fo renowned a city, appears not very antique, at least seems to have been repaired in latter times, in regard that fome ftones, which are found there, are reversed in the walls, with infcriptions denoting Marcus Aurelius; and therefore feems to have been placed by the Turks, as cafually they came to hand, at the time that they first took poffeffion of that city, when for fome years it flourished even in their days, before the Ottoman family became masters of Conftantinople, or those parts of the Leffer Asia, But now the relics of the Gentiles, the Christians, and the Turks are fubverted, and lie unknown, and heaped promifcuously together: for the whole town is nothing but a habitation of herdsmen and farmers, living in low and humble cottages of dirt, covered on the top with earth, fheltered from the extremity of weather by mighty maffes of ruinous walls, the pride and oftentation of former days, and the emblem in thefe of the frailty of the world, and the tranfient vanity of human glory. For I cannot, but with many reflections on the wifdom and providence of Almighty God, (who cafts down one and raises another,) and on the strange alterations and metamorphofes of worldly things, take a profpect of this city of Ephefus, being as well changed in the variety of names as of conditions. For as Pliny faith, during the Trojan war, it was called Alope, then Ortygia, then Morgas, then Ephefus, and now by the Turks |