PART II. a stately church within a farm, which Lucina, a noble Christian matron of Rome, had long before fettled upon that church. He adorned it with an hundred of the best marble columns, and beautified it with the most exquisite workmanship; the many rich gifts and endowments, which he bestowed upon it, being particularly fet down in the life of Sylvefter. This church, as too narrow and little for the honour of fo great an Apoftle, Valentinian, or rather Theodofius the emperor, (the one but finishing what the other began,) by a rescript directed to Salluftius, præfect of the city, caused to be taken down, and a larger and more noble church to be built in the room of it: farther beautified (as appears from an ancient inscription) by Placida the emprefs, at the perfuafion of Leo, bishop of Rome. What other additions of wealth, honour, or ftatelinefs, it has received fince, is not material to enquire.

CHAP.

CHAP. VII.

Of fuch Countries and other Places, as are mentioned, or referred to, in the Books of the New Teftament, which follow after the Gospels, and fall not in with the Course of St. Paul's Travels.

THERE
are fome few countries and one city, which fall
not well in with the description of the course of St. Paul's
travels; and therefore remain to be here spoken of. They
are most of them mentioned Acts ii. 9. where amongst
those that came together and heard the Twelve speak,
every man in his own language, on the day of Pentecoft
and upon the descent of the Holy Ghoft, are reckoned
Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in
Mefopotamia.

1.

I shall begin with Mefopotamia, as lying next to Syria (already described) eastward, between the two famous Of Mefo potamia. rivers Euphrates and Tigris, whence it takes its name; Mefopotamia in the Greek tongue importing as much as Mid-River Land.

2.

In the forementioned country, in the western or northwest part thereof, on a river which runs into Euphrates, Of Charran. lay the city Charran, mentioned by St. Stephen the protomartyr, called b in the Old Teftament Haran, and fo named (as is thought) in memory of Haran the son of Terah, and brother of Abraham and father of Lot, this being the place to which Terah removed when he left Ur of the Chaldees, and where he died. It was called, with a little alteration, by the Romans, Carræ, and was made memorable on account of a great overthrow they received here by the Parthians.

3.

Chaldæa, or the land of the Chaldæans, out of which Abraham originally came with his father, lies to the fouth of Chalof Mefopotamia, being divided from it by the river Eu

b Gen. xi. 31, 32.

dæa.

phrates

PART II. phrates and Tigris, as is alfo Arabia Deferta. However, as the fouth-weft part of Mefopotamia is by fome c ancient writers afcribed to Arabia Deferta, fo it seems the foutheaft part of it was reckoned fometimes as pertaining to Chaldæa. On which account Ur, seated in Mefopotamia between Nifibis and Tigris, is not improbably conceived to have been the fame with Ur of the Chaldees, the birthplace of Abraham; and hereby is cleared what St. Stephen faith, Acts vii. 2, 3, 4. The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mefopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and faid, Get thee out of thy country, &c.-Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran.

4.

Of Elam,

of the Elamites.

To the east of Chaldæa, on the other fide of the river or country Euphrates, lay Perfia, which in the more early times of the world was denoted by the word Elam, the word Perfia being not used in the Old Testament before the prophecies of Ezekiel and Daniel, but the word Elam made ufe of to denote that country and people. And in the fame fenfe, no doubt, is it to be understood in the forecited place of the Acts of the Apostles. Only it is to be obferved, that the name does more properly belong to the region of Elymais in Perfia; and that it feems to have been taken from Elam, one of the fons of Shem, who fettled here, Gen. x. 22.

5.

To the north of Elam, or Perfia more properly so Of Media. called, lay Media, or the country of the Medes, frequently mentioned in the history of the Old Testament, and particularly by the prophet Daniel, who lived when Belshazzar the king of the Chaldæans was flain, and Darius the Median took the kingdom; and who profpered in the reign of Darius, and of Cyrus the Perfian, who fucceeded Darius, and founded the empire of Perfia. This country doubtlefs took its name from Madai, one of the fons of Japhet, Gen. x. 2.

6.

Of Parthia.

To the east of Media lay Parthia, which for a long time

Xenoph. Cyr. Exped.

-was

VII.

was only an appendix or appurtenance of Media, and fo CHAP, together with it devolved to the kings of Perfia, and all together brought under the Grecian yoke by Alexander the Great; under which it continued till Arfaces, a noble Parthian, wrefted his own country, and the other provinces lying east of Euphrates, out of the hands of the Greeks, and erected the Parthian kingdom. With the fucceffors of Arfaces the Romans had feveral engagements, till at length the Parthians fubmitted themselves to Auguftus Cæfar and the Romans, fo far as to receive for their kings fuch as fhould be appointed by the Roman emperor and fenate. But this fubmiffion was of no long continuance.

It will be requifite only to obferve further, in reference to the before-mentioned provinces, lying to the east of Euphrates, viz. Parthia, Media, Elam, and Mesopotamia; that there lived a great many Jews &, probably defcendants of those that were carried away captive by the kings of Affyria and Babylon; whence it is that we find the inhabitants of these countries at Jerufalem on the day of Pentecoft.

7.

Of Libya

But befides these, we find mentioned by the facred writer, the dwellers in the parts of Libya about Cyrene. and Cyrene. Of which, Libya in its largest acceptation is taken to denote the whole Libyan or African continent, being the fouth-weft part of the three general parts, into which the world was anciently divided. But in its proper acceptation Libya denotes the parts of the faid continent lying along the Mediterranean Sea, from Egypt eastward to the greater Syrtis, or Gulf of Sidra, weftward.

Within Libya Propria in the western part of it stood Cyrene, a city of great note, and once of such power, as to contend with Carthage for fome preeminences. It was the chief city of this country, which is therefore styled by fome Cyrenaica, and by the facred writer paraphrastically, Libya about Cyrene. The city itself is fa

d Philo. Leg. ad Caium.

mous

PART II. mous for being the birth-place of Eratofthenes the mathematician, Callimachus the poet, and, in holy Writ, of that Simon, whom the Jews compelled to bear our Saviour's crofs. Nor need we wonder, that when Egypt, particularly Alexandria, abounded with fuch vaft numbers of Jews, that fifty thousand of them were there flain at one time, there should be fome colonies or profelytes of them in the neighbouring country of Libya properly so called, or Cyrenaica, fome of whom should among others come up to Jerufalem at the feast of Pentecost.

I have now gone through the Geography of the New Teftament, having given an account of the fituation of the several countries and other places therein mentioned; and withal having taken notice of such particulars as have rendered the places more remarkable; this mixture of History tending to take off the dryness of bare Geography, and to render the whole pleasant and entertaining, as well as useful to the reader.

A CHRO