JERUSALEM. 355 
since the age of the jipostles, and the earliest ^'^\^^' 
Fathers of the Church. <-. , ' 
It was upon the Mount of Olives that the Mes- 
siah dehvered his prediction concerning the 
downfall of Jerusalem; and the army of Titus 
encamped upon the very spot^ where its de- 
struction had been foretold. Not that, by the 
introduction of this fact, any allusion is here 
intended to the particular place shewn as " the 
rock of the prediction." The text of the Evan- 
gelist* proves that our Saviour, wiien he de- 
livered the prophecy, was " at the descent of the 
Mount of Olives,'' although in such a situation 
that " he beheld the city, and wept over it." Whether 
the tenth legion of the Roman army were sta- 
tioned upon the summit or the side of the 
mountain, cannot now be ascertained; neither 
is the circumstance worth a moment's consi- 
deration. We found, upon the top, the remains PaganHe- 
1 1 • • 1 A mains upon 
of several works, whose history is lost. Among Mount 
these, were several subterraneous chambers, of 
a diiferent nature from any of the Cryptte we 
had before seen. One of them had the shape 
of a cone, of immense size ; the vertex alone 
appearing level with the soil, and exhibiting, by 
(3) Josephus, De Bell. Jud. lib. vi. cap. 5. Colon. 1691. 
(4) Lvke, ch. xix- 37. 
Z 2 
