on the other, would give an additional charm to the picture." *

Pella, another of the ten cities, is said to have been the place to which the Christians of Jerusalem, by divine monition, betook themselves for shelter during the siege of the city.

Fifthly. IDUMEA.-Idumea, as a district of Palestine, must not be confounded with the Idumæa, or Edom of the Old Testament. The latter is much larger than the former. It included all that country which lay between the lake of Sodom and the Red Sea, and which was afterwards called Arabia Petrea, from Petra, its metropolis. In a sedition which arose among the inhabitants of this country, during the Babylonish captivity, when the land of Judea lay desolate, a party of them went off, and took possession of as much of the south-western part of it as had constituted the whole of the inheritance of the tribe of Simeon, and half that of the tribe of Judah; and this part of the land of Judea, together with part of Arabia lying contiguous to it, constituted the canton of Palestine that was designated Idumæa. During the wars of the Maccabees, John Hyrcanus conquered these Idumeans, and obliged them either to embrace the Jewish religion, or abandon their country. They chose the former, and thus, were not only received into the Jewish church, but were incorporated into the Jewish nation; so that they henceforth considered themselves, and were usually styled, Jews. They did not, however, lose the name of Idumeans, till about the end of the first century of the Christian era. The name of their country occurs in Mark iii. 8, among places whence people resorted to Christ.†

*Travels in Palestine, vol. ii. pp. 289, 290.

† Prideaux's Connexions, vol. i. pp. 34, 35; vol. iii. pp. 267, 404.

LECTURE XVI.

CANAAN.

ITS DIVISION.-JERUSALEM.

"The

THIS was indeed "no mean city." It was beautiful for situation; it was built compact together; it was defended by towers and bulwarks; it was adorned with palaces; it was sanctified by a holy and beautiful house, dedicated to the worship of Jehovah. Great King" recognised it as his city :-he was known in her palaces for a refuge; her walls were continually before him; he abundantly blessed her provision, and satisfied her poor with bread, he also clothed her priests with salvation, and caused her saints to shout aloud for joy; he chose it for his own habitation, and put his name there. It was the seat of justice-there, were set thrones of judgment. It was the place of solemn assemblies-thither the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. Her inhabitants took pleasure in her stones, and favoured the dust thereof; thus, when removed to a distance from her, where they were unable to feast their eyes on her comeliness, they would say, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do

not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I do not prefer Jerusalem above my chief joy." Strangers were attracted from a distance by its beauty and glory. It was an emblem of the church on earth it was an emblem also of the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven. There was accomplished the decease of Christ for the redemption of the world; there was effected the Pentecostal effusion of Divine influence to qualify the apostles for the momentous work to which they had been designated: there began to be preached repentance and the remission of sins in the name of a crucified Saviour; there suffered the first Christian martyr; there was planted the first Christian church, and thence went out the word of eternal life to the distant nations of the earth, thus verifying the description of it," the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion." Jerusalem was signally blessed; prophets were sent unto her, the Son of God himself came unto her! but she most egregiously abused her blessings: she stoned the prophets, and crucified the Son of God! wherefore God gave her into the hands of her enemies, who utterly spoiled her! So that, as she had been an object of the special favour of Jehovah, she became, and continues to be, an awful monument of his vengeance!

From the important circumstances and associations thus connected with Jerusalem, as well as from its being the capital of Palestine, it merits a particular and separate description, which we proceed, in the lecture before us, to give to it.

Jerusalem is supposed to be the same city as is, in the history of Abraham, called Salem, of which Melchizedek was king. Certain it is, that at a very early period of the history of Canaan, it formed a very powerful Canaanitish kingdom. (Jos. xv, 63.) It was called Jebus, and belonged to a tribe called from their city Jebusites. It lay in the confines of the territories

of Judah and Benjamin; but it was not possessed by these tribes, till it was wrested from its original occupants by David and his valorous troops. It was built on, and surrounded by several hills. "The situation of Jerusalem," says the author of the History of the Jews, "is remarkably imposing: it stands on several eminences of unequal heights, some parts of which slope gradually, on others the sides are abrupt and precipitous. All around, excepting to the north, run deep ravines or valleys, like entrenchments formed by nature, beyond which arise mountains of greater height, which encircle and seem to protect the city. It is open only to the north, as if the way had been levelled, for the multitudes from the rest of the tribes to arrive at the holy city, without difficulty or obstacle. The hill of Zion, on which David's city stood, rose to the south: it was divided by a deep and narrow ravine from the other hills, over which the city gradually spread."*

The ancient city of Jebus occupied probably only one of the hills on which Jerusalem afterwards stood, and that the more northern. Connected with it, however, on another hill called Zion, south of the former, and higher than it, was a fortress, which also David wrested from the Jebusites; and having possessed himself of this fortress, he made it his royal residence, and enclosed the whole mountain, and added it to the city, giving it the specific name of "the city of David." (2 Sam. v. 9.) The city was still farther enlarged by Solomon, enclosed with a wall, and adorned with erections which, for costliness and splendour, might vie, not only with any in ancient, but even with any in modern times.

The first of these erections was the Temple. David had contemplated this erection, and had made most abundant and costly preparations for it; but he was

* History of the Jews, vol. i. P. 237.

forbidden by God to proceed with it, on account of having shed so much blood in war. The work of raising this splendid edifice, therefore, was assigned to Solomon, who was to succeed him on the throne, and to be eminently a man of peace. Having, then, sufficiently added to the materials provided by his father David, Solomon commenced the work. "The eminence of Moriah," observes the writer just quoted,* "the Mount of Vision, i. e. the height seen afar from the adjacent country which tradition pointed out as the spot where Abraham had offered his son, (where recently the plague had been stayed, by the altar built in the threshing-floor of Ornan, or Araunah, the Jebusite,) rose on the east side of the city. Its rugged top was levelled with immense labour; its sides, which to the east and south were precipitous, were faced with a wall of stone, built up perpendicular from the bottom of the valley, so as to appear to those who looked down of most terrific height; a work of prodigious skill and labour, as the immense stones were strongly mortised together and wedged into the rock. Around the whole area, or esplanade, an irregular quadrangle, was a solid wall of considerable height and strength within this, was an open court, into which the Gentiles were either from the first, or

subsequently, admitted. A second wall encompassed another quadrangle, called the court of the Israelites. Along this wall, on the inside, ran a portico or cloister, over which were chambers for different sacred purposes. Within this, again, another, probably a lower wall, separated the court of the priests from that of the Israelites. To each court the ascent was by steps, so that the platform of the inner court was on a higher level than that of the outer. The Temple itself was rather a monument of the wealth, than the architectural

* Pp. 256-265.