gateway decorated at last the restored wall of Suleiman; and it is not the least curious part of its history, that it was walled up in more modern Moslem times, in fear of some mysterious prophecy. "Whenever the Christians enter the holy city," so runs the oracle, "it will be by this gateway." This idea, there is little doubt, is derived from an erroneous interpretation of a passage in Ezekiel (Ezek. xl. 1—3.); but although this text may refer to the gate of the temple of Zerubbabel, yet if the present gate be, as I suppose, the one by which the Saviour entered, its present closed condition is a remarkable commentary upon the prophecy which foretold that it should be shut, because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it, if not an actual fulfilment of it.*

Before closing these remarks on the site of the

*As for that most perverse interpretation put on this text of Ezekiel by Jerome and others of the fathers, and even quoted with approval by our Bishop Pearson (Creed, p. 213., Oxford), proving thereby the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it seems enough to compare the prophecy with their reading of its purport to overthrow the latter by the former. If the glosses of the Fathers (so extolled in modern times) be so generally respectable, this is certainly an example which, if unused to patristic expositions, we should charitably hope to be unique.

Temple, it is worth while to notice the very odd reasoning which is said to stimulate the Moslems in their zealous exclusion of unbelievers in their faith, from the courts of their Mosque of Omar. "Allah," says the Moslem sage, "loves to hear the prayers of the faithful, they are like sweet music in his ears, like the warbling of melodious birds, or the rippling of streams in the valley of El-Sham. It grieves him to hear them cease; and to prolong them, he defers to grant the object of their petitions. But the accents of unbelievers, idolatrous Nazarenes, or lying Jews, are ungrateful to the ears of Allah; these ascend like a noisome stench into his nostrils, and to get quit of them he gratifies their desires, and silences their demands by satisfying them. The safety of the faithful consists in the truth, that the prayers of unbelievers cannot generally find access to the throne of Allah; there are but few entrances so direct to this blissful place that all prayers uttered in them must arrive at the end of their destined courses. One of these is the Haram esh Sherief, the Mosque of the holy caliph Omar, and if an unbeliever should enter this 'Ear of God,' and 'light of the whole earth,' his horrible petitions must of necessity be heard in heaven, and Allah would grant his prayers,

were they even for the restoration of the holy city itself to the hands of the unbelievers in the Prophet. Do not we, then," asks the Moslem, "act consistently in keeping unbelievers out of this holy place, and from the sight of the sacred Rock, the glory of all the world ?"

CHAP. IX.

ANTONIA.

THE situation of the building now called the governor's palace, which is at present, I believe, used as a barrack for Turkish soldiers, certainly coincides with the position of the fortress described by Josephus as the town of Antonia. This is upon the supposition that the area of the great platform of the Mosque of Omar is the same as that of the temple of Herod; a supposition strengthened, as to the northern boundary,

the ancient and massive appearance of the stones at the north-eastern angle, which stones show the wall of the outer court here to have taken a rectangular course. Then close to this is a large empty reservoir or fosse, the masonry of which, on the temple side, is very remarkable; the interstices of larger stones being closely filled in with very small ones, a sort of work I did not notice elsewhere in Jerusalem. Vast heaps of rubbish prevent the bottom and ends of this reservoir from close examination; but on the east side it runs nearly up to the barrack just men

tioned. This tank is called in modern times the Pool of Bethesda; but of course the circumstances of the siege of Antonia by Titus must have much altered its form and character, if it be really that interesting spot; and as Josephus speaks of a great fosse between Antonia and the town, this may be in reality (as Dr. Robinson suggests) only a part of that ditch, the remainder whereof has been filled in. But though in itself uncertain, this fosse gives additional strength to the idea, that the barrack stands on part of old Antonia; and when we reflect on the great interest connected with that fortress and palace, we shall think no proof of the identity of its site superfluous. For here it must have been that the Saviour of the world was led bound to Pilate when governor of Judæa, and underwent those remarkable examinations, wherein by his silence he fulfilled the prophetic character of the Messiah (Isa. liii. 7, 8.), and by his answers asserted his office as king in the very presence of his murderers. And this Antonia was probably the castle mentioned in Acts (xxi. 37.; and xxii. 24.), on the stairs leading up to which St. Paul made his eloquent defence and sermon in Hebrew to the enraged multitude of Jews who were bent on his destruction. In confirmation of which, we find these stairs mentioned by Josephus in