528 RUINS OF JERUSALEM. 



monastery we descended to the church of the holy sepulchre; 

 attended by several pilgrims, bearing with thorn rosaries and cru- 

 cifixes for consecration iu the tomb of Jesus Christ. Concerning 

 the identify of this most memorable relique, there is every evidence 

 but that which should result from a view of the sepulchre i(s< If. 

 After an attentive perusal of all that may be adduced, and all that 

 has been urged, in support of it, from Euscbius, Lactantins. So- 

 zomen, Jerom, Severus, and Nicephorus, it may be supposed that 

 the question is for ever decided. If these testimonies be insufficient, 

 " we might," says Chateaubriand, " adduce those of Cyril, of 

 Theodoret, and even of the itinerary from Bourdeau to Jerusalem,"' 

 in the middle of the fourth century. From the time of the Emperor 

 Adrian, when the crucifixion and burial of our Saviour was almost 

 in the memory of man, unto the age of Constantine, an image of 

 Jupiter marked the site of the holy sepulchre, and Mount Calvary 

 continued to be profaned by a statue of Venus. This powerful 

 record of the means used by the pagans to obliterate the rites of 

 Christianity, .seems to afford decisive evidence concerning the loca- 

 lity of the tomb, and to place its situation beyond the reach of 

 doubt. Theodoret affirms, that Helena, upon her arrival, found 

 the fane of Venus. nd ordered it to be thrown down. To what 

 then can be attributed the want of every document within the 

 building now called the church of the holy sepulchre, which might 

 denote the site of such a monument ? The sepulchres of the Jews, 

 as has been already maintained, were, in the age of the crucifixion, 

 of a nature to withstand every attack of time : they were excava. 

 tions made in the heart of solid rocks, which even earthquakes 

 would scarcely remove or alter. Indeed, we have evidence from 

 the Gospel itself, that earthquakes, in certain instances, had no 

 power over them; for the sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea, made 

 before the earthquake which accompanied the crucifixion, is de- 

 scribed, after that event had taken place, as his own new tomb, 

 which he had hewn out of the rock. Even the grooving for the 

 stone at the door was unchanged and entire, for he rolled the great 

 tone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed; and it was after- 

 wards sealed and ma;ie sure. Quaresmius, by an engaving for the 

 illustration of the mode of burial then practised, has shewn, ac- 

 cording to a model familiar to the learned monk, from his residence 

 in the Holy Land where such sepulchres now exist, the sort of 

 tomb described by the Evangelists. But there is nothing of this 



