braced within its bounds Galilee on the one side of the Lake of Tiberias and the region of Gaulonitis, or Gadara, on the other, but was hemmed in by Phoenicia, on the Mediterranean coast. The third, Palestina Tertia, vel Salutaris, included the southern part of Judea, together with Edom and Moab. The far greater part of the trans-Jordanic region, though strictly pertaining to Syria, bore, from Roman vanity,' the name of Arabia. From Dan to Beersheba, the whole of the three Palestines, as of Israel's ancient inheritance, was measured in their utmost limits from north to south. These, therefore, unitedly formed but a small portion of the land that was at first promised to their fathers, and shall at last be divided among the Israelitish tribes. Yet trodden down by the Gentiles as Palestine was, and meted out for the possession of Israel's enemies, and yielding up its remains to an Italian republic, the cities of Palestine, having risen more than once from their ruins, were yet to be reckoned by a number far larger than some independent kingdoms can boast.

Different lists of the episcopal cities of the three Palestines are given in Reland's most valuable work. In the first of these, which he deemed incomplete, the number of those places of which each was a bishop's see, exceeded seventy. Palestina Prima, containing thirtyfive bishoprics;1 Palestina Secunda, twenty-one; and

1 Ælia or Jerusalem, Anthedon, Antipatris, Apathus, Aracla or Heraclea, Archelais, Ascalon, Azotus, Bitelion, Baschat, Cæsarea, Diocletianopolis, Diosopolis, Dora, Eleutheropolis, Gadara, Gaza, Gerara, Jericho, Jamnia, Joppe, Livias, Lydda, Magisma, Minois, Neapolis, Nicopolis, Orus, Petra, (Palestina), Raphia, Sebaste, Sozusa, Sycamazon, Toxus, Tricomias.

2 Abila, Capercotia, Capitolias, Diocæsarea, Gadæ, Gadara, Gaulame Clima, Helenopolis, Hippus, Maximinianopolis, Mennith, Nais, Pella, Raphia, Scythopolis, Sebaste, Sozuza, Sycamazon, Tetra comias, Tiberias,

Zabulon.

Palestina Tertia, eighteen;'-seventy-four in all. To these are to be added, as given by Reland in another list, sixteen bishop's sees in the Phoenician provinces of Arabia, twelve in the province of Lebanon, and thirtyfour in that of Arabia, or the Haouran, of which Bostra was the capital.

But Palestine, in its widest extent, when divided into three Roman provinces, was far from comprehending the destined heritage of Jacob; and a much more complete list of the bishop's sees in Syria, is affixed by the archbishop of Tyre to his history of the Crusades.

As Antioch, in former ages, had been the seat of emperors and kings, whether the successors of Pharaoh, or Nebuchadnezzar, or of Alexander, or bearing the name of Cæsars; so when a proud hierarchy, supplanting in its native region the simplicity of the faith of the meek and lowly Jesus, outrivalled earthly principalities, the same city, long accustomed to rule, became the apostolic see of Syria, and held in subjection to its authority, as their titles ran, many catholici, metropolitans, archbishops, and bishops. In vain, according to an ecclesiastical polity like theirs, did Jesus say to his apostles themselves, "Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles, exercise lordship. over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them; but so shall it NOT be among you; but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister; and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all." In vain did Jesus, when his disciples disputed which of them should be greatest, take a little child and

1 Aila, Areopolis, Arindela, Augustopolis, Birosaba, Characmoba, Eluza, Mamapsora, Mapse, Mitrocomia, Pentacomia, Petra, Pharan, Phaenon, Rabathmoba, Saltus Hieraticus, Sodoma, Zoara.

Vide Relandi Palestina, pp. 207-214.

Mark x. 42-44.

place him in the midst of them, as a pattern worthy of the imitation of apostles, declaring that no man could enter in another manner into the kingdom of heaven;1 and in vain did he say, "be not ye called rabbi; for one is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren." In apostolic times, as the infallible record of the Spirit of all truth bears, bishops or presbyters, then interchangeable terms, were those whom the Holy Ghost made overseers (or bishops) over the flock,3 and of whom there were several, if not many, in one town, as at Ephesus and Philippi. But in after ages cities derived their title to that name, which had from thence its origin as the seats (sedes) or sees of bishops. And the multiplicity of these on the establishment of a hierarchical order, that exercised dominion and lordship in the church, as did secular princes in the world-may clearly indicate how Palestine was plenteously repeopled by another race, after the extermination of the Jews, and how the other regions of Syria teemed as before with an abounding population. In many of these cities, if not in all, episcopal dignity was maintained in a manner befitting papal domination. And the ruins of cathedrals, and many other churches once magnificent, amidst the remains of many towns scattered over Syria, shew how numerous and splendid were its cities in Christian times.

Jerusalem, indeed, had fallen, and a blighting curse rested on the hills of Judah, from which they never have recovered. The rightful capital of Christendom, and the destined seat of an universal kingdom of truth, and righteousness, and peace, raised not its head, even in mockery of its true greatness, for many an age. Though the apostle James was the reputed bishop of Jerusalem, and though bishops were but the fifth in

1 Mat. xviii. 2, 3.

2 Mat. xxiii. 7.

3 Acts xx. 17, 28.

order under the apostolic see of Antioch, whatever Rome might boast of concerning one of the apostles, there is something worse than a blank in the "apostolic succession" of the man who gave the sentence, in which all concurred, in "the first council" of the church, and in the primitive seat of Christianity. For, as an archbishop records, while Syria could count many metropolitans and archbishops, with numerous bishoprics under each, and others that maintained these titular dignities, the church of Jerusalem, according to tradition, (on which the whole fabric of high-churchism rests,) and also on the testimony of Syrian and Grecian writers of no mean authority, had a bishop who enjoyed little dignity, or no prerogative whatever, down to the days of Justinian in the sixth century.'

So unseemly a blank in an ordinary pedigree, even if unassociated with others of a kindred sort, might, though unable to startle a Puseyite or a monk, baffle a master in any secular chancery. But though the rightful metropolis of Christendom had no place for centuries among archiepiscopal or metropolitan cities, and though no train of unholy successors pretended, for six centuries, to follow the brother of the Lord, Antioch had its magnates in largely compensating numbers, and was long, on the ecclesiastical arena, the rival of Alexandria, Constantinople, and Rome. The city itself boasted of its three hundred and sixty churches. Ben-Kiliseh, the hill already mentioned, which lies between it and the sea, literally signifies the thousand churches, from the

Juxta traditiones veterum, et etiam quaedam scripta quae auctoritatem habent non modicam apud Palestinos, et maxime Graecos, Hierosolymitana ecclesia usque ad tempora Justiniani sanctae recordationis Augusti, episcopum habuit nulla, vel modica dignitatis praerogativa gaudentem. Will. Tyr. Hist., lib. xxiii. p. 1045.

Will. Tyr. Hist., xxiii. p. 1045, 1049.

vast number with which it was adorned.

And the see

of Antioch, bearing the name of apostolic, exercised authority over two hundred and three bishops, besides eight metropolitans, twelve archbishops, and twenty-five principal suffragans, who resided in two hundred and forty-eight cities, of which about forty lay beyond the bounds of the promised land. Exclusive of these, attached to Tyre were thirteen bishoprics;1 to Apamea, seven; to Hierapolis, eight; to Bostra, nineteen; to Selucia, twenty-four;5 to Damascus, ten; to Cæsarea, (on the coast,) nineteen;7 to Scythopolis, nine; to Rabba-Moab, twelve; to Bitira of Arabia, thirty-five. Besides these, forty-three other cities were

1

10

TYRUS, 13, Porfirion, Archis, Ptolemais, Sydon, Sarepta, Biblium, Botrion, Orthosia, Archados, Antarados, Paneas, Araclis, Tripolis.

2 APAMEA, 7, Epiphania, Seleucouila, Larissa, Valanea, Mariam, Raphania, Arethusa.

3 HIERAPOLIS, 8, Zeuma, Surron, Varnalis, Neocæsarea, Perri, Orimon, Dolichi, Europi.

✦ BOSTRUM, 19, Gerasson, Philadelphia, Adraon, Midanon, Austanidon, Delmundon, Zozoyma, Herri, Iceni, Eucuni, Constantia, Paramboli, Dionysia, Conaachon, Maximopolis, Philipolis, Chrystopolis, Neilon, Lorea.

5

SELEUCIA, 24, Claudiopolis, Diocæsarea, Oropi, Dalisanidos, Seuila, Kelenderis, Anemori, Titopolis, Lamos, Antiochia parva, Hefelia, Ristria, Selenunta, Yocopi, Philadelphia parva, Irinopolis, Germanicopolis, Mobsea, Demetiopolis, Abidi, Zmonopolis, Adrasson, Mynu, Neapolis.

6 Damascus, 10, Albi, Palmipon, Laodicia, Suria, Konokora, Yabruda, Danabi, Karacena, Hurdani, Surraquini.

7 CESAREA MARITIMA, 19, Dora, Antipatrida, Iampnias, Nicopolis, Onus, Soscuris, Raphias, Regium Apatos, Regium Hierico, Regium Liuas, Regium Gadaron, Azotus Paralias, Asotusippum, Estomason, Estilion, Tricomias, Toxtus, Saltum, Constantiniaquis.

SCYTHOPOLIS, 9, Capitoliados, Miru, Gadaru, Pelos, Vilisippus, Tettacomias, Oluna, Galanis, Komanas.

9 RABBA MOABBITIS, 12, Augustopolis, Arindila, Kara, Serapolis, Mempsidos, Eulitis, Zora, Virosum, Pentacomia, Mamapson, Mitroconeras, Saltum Hieraticum.

10 BITIRA ARABIE, 35, Adrasson, Dias, Medauon, Hierasson, Nein,