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It was afterwards in the possession of the Jebusites, from

I have set it IN THE MIDST OF NATIONS and countries round about her.Ezek. v. 5.

Jerome says, that " Jerusalem is not only in the middle of Palestine, but "in the centre of the habitable world."-The Jews, in this respect, were like the Romans, each looking upon their Capital as the centre of what they supposed constituted the whole globe. In toto Imperio Romano, quod et ipsi vocabant. "Imperium orbis terrarum." So Delphi is called, "Orbis umbilicus;" that is, the middle of Greece. Queresmius, shewing its position to agree with the words of Ezekiel, and to be that which the Jews regard as the middle of the known world, says, "Operatus est "salutem in medio terræ: a parte enim Orientis cingitur plaga quæ dicitur "Asiæ: a partibus Occidentis ejus quæ appellatur Europa, à Meridie et "Austro Libya, et Africa; et a Septentrionali Scythia, Armenia atque "Perside, et cunctis Ponti Nationibus. In medio igitur gentium posita "est." Elucidatio Terræ Sanctæ ii. 436.

It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's House shall be established in the tops of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills. Isaiah ii. 2.

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The mountains upon which Jerusalem and the Temple were built were not the highest of those in Palestine, but were, in point of situation, the most eminent and best adapted to the purposes of a city, of all those inmediately surrounding. Reland thus describes the situation of the city :-"Sita fuit hæc urbs in tractu montano Judææ adeoque loco alto, ita tamen ut respectu montium quibus circumdatur in loco humili sita videatur, "quandoquidem mons olivifer aliique circumjecti altiores sunt. Deum "propterea dici in sacris literis (Deut. xxxiii. 12) habitare inter humeros "Benjaminis non in capite."

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With respect to Melchisedeck (a name derived from the Hebrew MELCHI and SEDECK, signifying A KING of JUSTICE or PEACE), it is only necessary to say, that he was the King of Salem, (Gen. xiv. 18), and by Josephus has also been looked upon as the founder of it, in opposition to the more received opinion of its being built by Shem, and thence called in Hebrew SHALEM. The opinion that Salem of old was Jerusalem, some have derived from the 76th Psalm, where David speaking of God as being well known and worshipped in Israel, says, "In Salem is his Tabernacle," and his dwelling" place in Zion." The words," IN SALEM," in the Hebrew original, signifying " IN PEACE:" and that this applies to Jerusalem, appears evident from the remaining part of the sentence.-Vide Heb. vii. 1. 2, in particular.

Josephus asserts that the founder of Jerusalem was a Canaanite, who was called in the language of his country, "THE KING OF JUSTICE;"

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from whom it was called Jebus; and by them it was principally held during an interval of more than four succeeding centuries, when it was taken by Joshua, who permitted the Jebusites to dwell there in common with the Israelites.2

This permission continued in force for the space of four other centuries, when the city was besieged by David, who after some resistance, took Mount Sion and expelled the Jebusites. David re-built and adorned the city, erected a palace and other buildings of considerable extent on the heights of Sion, and removing from Hebron made Jerusalem the seat of religion and the capital of his kingdom. Quaresmius supposes that from this time it took the name of Jebusalem which for the better harmony of speech was converted to Jerusalem. This name, however, is of older date, and derived from a more ancient and probable origin. Lightfoot quotes a learned Rabbi, who says, "the name of that place is Jehovah-fireh. Abraham "called it fireh and Shem called it Salem :" hence

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and that afterwards the city was denominated Solyma, not as some (vide Tacit. Hist. v. 2.) supposed from the Solymi mentioned by Homer, but from the Hebrew word signifying PEACE or SAFETY, and that when David took it, he called it "JEBUS."

(1)1 Chron, xi. 4.

Vide Jos. Antiq. 7. iii. 2. and Bell. Jud. 6. iv. 1.

(2) Josh, xv. 63, and Jud. i. 21.

(3) 2 Sam. v. 9. 1 Chron. xi. 5.

(4) Postea eam esse Jebus dictam, ac deinde ex illis duobus vocabulis in unam demigrantibus appellatam esse Jebusalem, sed melioris soni gratia, в in R mutato, Jerusalem nominatam, quæ denominatio frequentissima sit insacris et profanis litteris, et eamdem etiam in præsentia, post multam mutationem retinere.

(5) Lightfoot's Works, vol. ii. p. 20.

Euclid. Terræ Sanctæ, ii. 27.

the compound fireh-salem or Jerusalem; a name familiar to every reader of sacred and profane History, though to the Oriental Scholar it is better known by the simple appellation El Kads, "the Holy.".

On the death of David, his son Solomon, and after him the succeding Kings of Judah considerably enlarged the city, and at length rendered it secure by walls and towers, with trenches in the living rock. A Temple perfect in execution and design; sumptuous palaces; and numerous and stately public buildings, conspired to render Jerusalem the astonishment of the whole world.

Its Topography, as it existed at the time of our Saviour's appearance, is necessarily rendered at this distant period, and for the want of fuller and more precise documents in its history, very confused. D'Anville, indeed, whose scientific knowledge pre-eminently qualified him for such an undertaking, is the only one who appears to have succeeded in assigning the position and extent of ancient Jerusalem, from an accurate and close investigation of the local circumstances and situation of that still existing; taking the Map of Deshayes as that on which implicit reliance might be placed. Villalpandus, Brocardus, and Vitriarcus, among the early, and many more among the latter Topographers, appear to differ much with themselves and with Josephus. Of these, some place Mount Sion to the North, and Acra to the South; others, and those by far the greater number, place Sion in a Southern direction; Moriah to the East, Bezetha to the West, and Acra more from the North. This latter disposition of the respective situation of these mountains is defended

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by Reland' against the arguments advanced by Lightfoot and other writers maintaining opposite opinions; D'Anville however thus seems to decide the question; speaking of Mount Sion, he says, "Its most remark"able declivity looks towards the South and West, "being formed by a deep ravine, which in Scripture " is denominated Ge Ben Hinnom, or the Valley of "the Children of Hinnom. This valley, running from "West to East, meets at the extremity of Mount Sion, "the Valley of Kedron, which extends from North to "South. These local circumstances, which are de"termined by nature herself, are not liable to those "changes which time and the fury of men may have "made in the City of Jerusalem. It is these that "ascertain the limits of the City in that part, which "Sion occupied. It is this part that advances farthest "towards the South, and you are not only fixed in "such a manner that you cannot take in a greater

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space on that side, but the utmost breadth to which "the site of Jerusalem, can possibly extend, is deter"mined

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(1) Sunt qui Sionem ad Boream, Acram ad Austrum, locent. Nobis placent contraria, qui Sionem situm esse in Australi parte urbis Hierosolymitanæ ex Josepho colligimus (Bell. Jud. 5. iv. 1.) ubi muros tres describit quibus urbs cingebatur.

That Sion was the mountain on which the citadel of David was situated, and that it was SOUTH of Acra, may be inferred, from the circumstance that the Authors of the Books of Kings and Chronicles tell us, that the Sepulchres of this and many other Kings were in the city of David (Acts ii. 29.) Now no Royal Sepulchres were discovered till lately, but those on the Northern side of Jerusalem; hence mistakes have arisen by supposing these to be the same as those alluded to by the Writers of the Old Testament, in consequence of which Sion has been placed on the North of Acra: but within late years a Royal Sepulchre has been discovered on the mountain SOUTH of Acra, bearing, in two instances, these words of an inscription, THC ATIAC CIWN; which at once marks the site of Sion and the City of David.

Vide Clarke's Travels, vol. ii. p. 552.

"mined on the one hand, by the declivity of Sion which "faces the West; and on the other by its opposite ex"tremity towards Cedron and the East."

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Josephus, it appears, either did, or intended to write a fuller description of Jerusalem than that which he left in the History of the Jewish Wars, This intention it is probable he never realized; or if he did, the writings are now altogether lost it remains, therefore, only for us to draw such an outline, as his extant works seem to authorize; and keeping D'Anville's plan in view, it will be found that a great similarity exists, between the disposition of the parts adopted by the one, with the description given by the other,

Jerusalem on the North was bounded by a plain, from the right of which flowed a stream in a direction to the Mount of Olives, forming the river, or rather the brook Cedron; a torrent caused only by the rains descending from the surrounding mountains. On the East it was bounded by the Vale of Jehoshaphat, so called from the sepulchre of that King standing nearly

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(1) Dissertation on the extent of ancient Jerusalem.
(2) Bell. Jud. 5. v. 8,

(3) Châteaubriand remarks, that "the traditions concerning the places are not so apt to be distorted as those relative to facts, because the face of "the earth is not so liable to change as that of society; this is judiciously {"remarked by D'Anville, who with wonderful sagacity discovers, in the "modern city, the whole plan of ancient Jerusalem."

Travels into Palestine, &c.

(4) See the plan of the city opposite the title page.

(5) Torrens hic est vero nomine quam æstivo tempore flumen esse desinat

et vallis nomen habeat, adeoque sicco pede transeatur.

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Relandi Pal. Illust. ii, 294,

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