was restored.

The pool is at the foot of Mount Moriah, on the south side.

Emmaus, a village about seven miles from Jerusalem, on the north side, is celebrated for the very interesting conversation of Jesus with two of his disciples, after his resurrection. A church has been built on this spot, were the house of Cleopas is supposed to have stood.

Our blessed Lord completed the great work of redemption, by his death, on Mount Culvary, called, in Hebrew, Golgotha, which signifies a place of skulls. It was anciently appropriated to the execution of malefactors, and shut out by the walls of the city, as an execrable place. This spot, formerly so ignominious, is sanctified by the death of the Redeemer of mankind.

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LETTER VI.

Sketch of the History of Jerusalem since the Time of Christ.

MY DEAR NIECES,

I will now give you a brief sketch of the complicated miseries in which Jerusalem. was involved after its inhabitants had crucified the Lord of Life, and impiously exclamed, His blood be upon us and our children." In my History of the Jews, you may find further information on this subject.

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The prophecies of our Saviour, respecting the tremendous calamities and utter ruin of the city and temple, were verified in their utmost extent. The day on which Titus encompassed Jerusalem was the feast of the Passover; and it is deserving of particular attention, that this was the anniversary of that memorable period, when the Jews crucified their Messiah.

After the destruction of the devoted city, multitudes of the Hebrew nation were dispersed over the earth, suffering severe persecution, and in a most oppressed and wretched condition. Some, however, still remained in their country, and even in Jerusalem; or rather, in the new buildings which they had erected amidst the ruins of the city. But they were entirely subjected to the Romans, and obliged to pay to the emperor that tribute which devotion had destined annually for the service of the temple.

About the year of our Lord 132, Barchochebas, who pretended to be the Messiah, stimulated his countrymen to revolt against the Romans, and engaged to restore them to their former liberty and glory. The emperor Adrian had sent a colony of heathens to Jerusalem, and proposed to build there a temple to Jupiter. This so exasperated the Jews, that they broke out, under Barchochebas, into open rebellion, which was obstinately maintained. They were, however, at length, subjected after a terrible slaughter.

When the war was terminated, Adrian completed his designs respecting Jerusalem. He rebuilt the city, calling it Ælia, after one of his own names. He erected a temple to Jupiter, where that of Jehovah formerly stood, and placed a hog of marble upon the gate of the city on the side of Bethlehem. The emperor also published an edict, prohibiting the Jews from entering the city upon pain of death, and forbade them even to look at it from a distance. They were acustomed, it is said, to give great bribes to the Roman soldiers to be permitted to approach Ælia, and wept over the ruins of their country.

In this state, Jerusalem, now called Elia by the Romans, continued till the reign of Constantine the Great, who, during his government, subverted pagan superstition, and established Christianity. He caused the city to assume its ancient name, enlarged and beautified it with many superb buildings and churches, and extended his munificence to every spot which had been consecrated by the footsteps of the Apostles and Prophets, and the Son of God. Helena, the mother of the emperor, went to Palestine, visited the sacred places, and erected the church of the Holy Sepulchre; so called, because supposed to be raised over the tomb in which our Saviour was buried.

Constantine and the succeeding emperors, his sons, treated the Jews with great severity.

But their successor, Julian, an apostate from Christianity, favoured their cause, and attempted to rebuild their temple, and induce them to settle in Jerusalem, in avowed contempt and defiance of the Prophecies. But his undertaking was repeatedly frustrated.

Jerusalem remained in possession of the Greek emperors, till, in 613, it was taken by the Persians. But the Greek emperor Heraclius, soon recovered it, and banished the Jews; prohibiting them, under the severest penalties, from coming within three miles of the city.

The Arabian Caliph, Omar, invested and took Jerusalem in the year A. D. 636. He allowed the inhabitants the exercise of their religion, on condition of their paying tribute; but established the Mahometan mode of worship, and built a mosque where the temple had formerly stood. It is called, by the Mussulmans, El-Haram, or the Temple, and is by far the most splendid edifice in Jerusalem. Its external magnificence appeared to Dr. Clarke superior to the celebrated mosque of St. Sophia, at Constantinople. The government became entirely Mahometan. The holy city was transferred from the Greek Christians to the Arabian Mussulmans and continued in subjection to the Caliphs above four hundred years.

The Turks, a fierce and valiant nation, after having conquered Persia and other countries,

turned their arms against the Holy Land, took Jerusalem in 1076, and established the Ottoman empire. The city of Jerusalem next fell into the hands of the Latin Christians. Peter the Hermit, a French monk, went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and there witnessed, and shared in, the oppressions the pilgrims endured from the Turkish government. After his return to Europe, he described the sufferings of the Christians in such pathetic terms, that, by the authority of Pope Urban the Second, and the council of Clermont, an expedition was formed to take Jerusalem from the Turks. Immense numbers, who were called Crusaders from their assuming the badge of the cross, engaged in what they styled the Holy War for the recovery of Palestine from the hands of infidels. The conquest of the city, in the year 1099, appeared to have crowned their enterprize with success. Godfrey of Boulogne, their general, was chosen king, and the kingdom existed till the year 1187, when the Turkish Mussulmans regained their former dominion, and the Holy Land is still in their possession.

The emperor Adrian rebuilt Jerusalem, not exactly on its former site, but on the spot which it now occupies. He included Calvary within its walls. The gate of the Holy Sepulchre is strictly guarded by Turks without, and Greeks within. Admission, however, is granted to pilgrims of all nations and sects, up