RUINS OF JERUSALEM. 533 



reception of immense stones, once squared and fitted to the grooves, 

 by way of closing the entrances. Of such a nature were, indispu- 

 tably, the tombs of the sons of Heth, of the kings of Israel, of La- 

 zarus, and of Christ. This has been also proved by Shaw ; but the 

 subject has been more satisfactorily elucidated by the learned Qua. 

 resmius, in his dissertation concerning ancient sepulchres. The 

 cemetries of the ancients were universally excluded from the pre- 

 cincts of their cities. In order, therefore to account for the 

 seeming contradiction implied by the situation of the place now 

 shewn as the tomb of the Messiah, it is pretended that it was origi- 

 nally on the outside of the walls of Jerusalem ; although a doubt 

 must necessarily arise as to the want of sufficient space for the po. 

 pulation of the city, between a boundary so situated, and the hill 

 which is now called Mount Sion. The sepulchres we are describ- 

 ing carry, in their very nature, satisfactory evidence of their being 

 situated out of the ancient city, as they are now out of the modern. 

 They are not to be confounded with those tombs, commonly called 

 the sepulchres of the kings, to the north of Jerusalem, believed to 

 be the burial-place of Helena, queen of Adiebene. What there, 

 fore are they ? Some of them, from their magnificence, are the 

 immense labour necessary to form the numerous repositories they 

 contain, might lay claim to regal honours 5 and there is one which 

 appears to have been constructed for the purpose of inhuming a 

 single individual. The Karxan Jews, of all other the most tena- 

 cious in adhering to the customs of their ancestors, have, from time 

 immemorial, been in the practice of bringing their dead to this 

 place for interment ; although this fact was not wanted to prove it 

 an ancient Jewish cemetry, as will be seen in the sequel. The 

 sepulchres themselves, according to the ancient practice, are sta- 

 tioned in the midst of gardens. From all these circumstances, are 

 we not authorised to seek here for the sepulchre of Joseph of 

 Arimathea, who, as a pious Jew, necessarily bad his bury ing-place 

 in the cemetry of his countrymen, among the graves of his lorefa. 

 thers ? The Jews were remarkable for their rigid adherence to this 

 custom : they adorned their burial-places with trees and gardens : 

 and the tomb of this Jew is accordingly described as being in a 

 garden ; and it was in the place where our Saviour was crucified. 

 Of what nature was that place of crucifixion ? It is very worthy 

 of observation, that every one of the Evangelists (and among these 

 he that saw it, and bare record), affirm, that it was the place of a 



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