Greek, and Latin characters, the accusation, according to the John xix. 19. Roman custom; and the writing was JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Thus by the propriety of the punishment, and the titular 205 inscription, we know what crime was then objected to the immaculate Lamb, and upon what accusation Pilate did at last proceed to pass the sentence of death upon him. It was not any opposition to the law of Moses, not any danger threatened to the temple, but pretended sedition and affectation of the crown objected, which moved Pilate to condemn him. Luke xxiii. 2. The Jews did thus accuse him: We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar, saying that he himself is Christ a king; and when Pilate sought to release John xix. 12. him, they cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Cæsar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a king, speaketh against Cæsar. This moved Pilate to pass sentence upon him, and because that punishment of the cross was by the Roman custom used for that crime, to crucify him1.

Two things are most observable in this cross; the acerbity and the ignominy of the punishment: for of all the Roman ways of execution, it was most painful, and most shameful. First, the exquisite pains and torments in that death are manifest, in that the hands and feet, which of all the parts of the body are most nervous, and consequently most sensible, were pierced through with nails; which caused, not a sudden dispatch, but a lingering and tormenting death: insomuch that the Romans, who most used this punishment, did in their language deduce their expressions of pains and cruciation from the cross. And the acerbity of this punishment

which the accusation or crime was
written, as it is expressed by Nice-
phorus : Σανὶς ἑτέρα λευκή, ή βασιλέα
τῶν Ἰουδαίων γράφων—ὁ Πιλάτος ὑπὲρ
κεφαλῆς ἐτίθει, ἐν εἴδει στήλης βασιλέα
τῶν Ἰουδαίων τὸν σταυρωθέντα κηρύτ
Twv. Hist. Eccl. 1. viii. c. 29. And thus
there were, as Xanthopulus observes:

Ο σταυρός, ἦλοι, καὶ γραφῆς τίτλος άνω.
1'Auctores seditionis et tumultus,
vel concitatores populi, pro qualitatis
dignitate, aut in crucem tolluntur, aut
bestiis objiciuntur.' Jul. Paulus. 1. v.
tit. 22.

2 Illa morte pejus nihil fuit inter omnia genera mortium.' S. August. in Ioan. Tract. 36. [§ 4. Vol. 11. part 2. p. 545 F.] Tully calls it 'crudelissimum teterrimumque supplicium,'* V. in Verr. c. 66. and Apuleius, 'pœna extrema.' De Aureo Asino. Lib. x. [p. 698.]

3 Ubi dolores acerrimi exagitant, cruciatus vocatur, a cruce nominatus: pendentes enim in ligno crucifixi, clavis ad lignum pedibus manibusque confixi, producta morte necabantur. Non enim crucifigi hoc erat occidi;

* These words do not belong to the text of Cicero.

appears in that those who were of any merciful disposition would first cause such as were adjudged to the cross, to be slain, and then to be crucified'.

As this death was most dolorous and full of acerbity, so it was also most infamous and full of ignominy. The Romans 206 themselves accounted it a servile punishment, and inflicted it upon their slaves and fugitives. It was a high crime to put

sed diu vivebatur in cruce: non quia
longior vita eligebatur, sed quia mors
ipsa protendebatur, ne dolor citius
finiretur.' S. August. Tract. in Ioan.
36. [Ibid.] To this etymology did
Terence allude in those words,

'Et illis crucibus, quæ nos nostramque ado-
lescentiam

Habent despicatui, et quæ nos semper omni-
bus cruciant modis.'

Eun. Act. ii. sc. iii. 91.

1 As it was observed of Julius Cæsar: 'Piratas, a quibus captus est, quum in deditionem redegisset, quoniam suffixurum se cruci ante juraverat, jugulari prius jussit, deinde suffigi.' Suet. Vita Jul. c. 74.

2 Vulcatius Gallicanus relateth of Avidius Cassius, in the case of some centurions which had been prosperous, in fighting without orders given: 'Rapi eos jussit, et in crucem tolli, servilique supplicio adfici: quod exemplum non extabat.' c. 4. And Juvenal speaks with relation to this custom, Sat. vi. 218.

'Pone crucem servo.'

So Palæstrio in Plautus, Mil. Glor.
Act. ii. sc. ii. 28.

Nisi quidem illa nos volt, qui servi sumus,
Propter amorem suum omnes crucibus con-
tubernales dari.'

And again, Ibid. Act. ii. sc. iv. 19.

'Noli minitari; scio crucem futuram mihi
sepulcrum.

Ibi mei majores sunt siti, pater, avus,
proavus, abavus.'

So in Terence, Andr. Act. iii. sc. v. 15.
Pam. Quid meritus?'
Dav. 'Crucem.'

And Horace, Lib. 1. Sat. III. 80.

'Si quis eum servum, patinam qui tollere
jussus,

Semesos pisces, tepidumque ligurrierit jus,
In cruce suffigat.'

So Capitolinus of Pertinax, c. 9. 'In

crucem sublatis talibus servis:' and Herodian of Macrinus: Δούλοι ὅσοι δεσπότας κατήγγελλον ἀνεσκολοπίσθηoav, 1. v. c. 2. This punishment of the cross did so properly belong to slaves, that when servants and freemen were involved alike in the same crime, they were very careful to make a distinction in their death, according to their condition: Ut quisque liber aut servus esset, suæ fortunæ a quoque sumptum supplicium est.' Liv. 1. iii. c. 18. And then the servants were always crucified. As Servius observes among the Lacedæmonians: Servos patibulis suffixerunt, filios strangulavere, nepotes fugaverunt.' Ad Eneid. iii. v. 551. 'Novercæ quidem perpetuum indicitur exsilium: servus vero patibulo suffigitur.' Apul. Metam. 1. x. [p. 700.] Thus in the combustion at Rome, upon the death of Julius Casar: ̓Αμυνόμενοι ἀνῃρέθησαν ἔνιοι, καὶ συλληφθέντες ἕτεροι ἐκρεμάσθησαν ὅσοι θεράποντες ἦσαν, οἱ δὲ ἐλεύθεροι κατὰ τοῦ κρημνοῦ κατεῤῥίφησαν. Αppian. De Bell. Civil. 1. iii. [c. 3.] 'Ea nocte speculatores prehensi servi tres, et unus ex legione vernacula; servi sunt in crucem sublati, militi cervices abscissæ.' Hirtius lib. de Bell. Hispan. c. 20. So Africanus 'gravius in Romanos quam in Latinos transfugas animadvertit: illos enim, tanquam patriæ fugitivos, crucibus affixit; hos, tanquam perfidos socios, securi percussit.' Valer. Max. 1. ii. c. 7. [§ 12.] This punishment of the cross was so proper unto servants, that servile supplicium in the language of the Romans signifies the same: and though in the words of Vulcatius before cited, they go both together, as also in Capitolinus, [Macrin. c. 12.]

that dishonour upon any freeman; and the greatest indignity which the most undeserving Roman could possibly suffer in himself', or could be contrived to shew their detestation to such creatures as were below human nature. And because, when a man is beyond possibility of suffering pain, he may still be subject to ignominy in his fame; when by other exquisite torments some men have tasted the bitterness of death, after that, they have in their breathless corps, by virtue of this punishment, suffered a kind of surviving shame3. And the exposing the bodies of the dead to the view of the people on the cross, hath been thought a sufficient ignominy to those which died, and terror to those which lived to see it. Yea, where the

bodies of the dead have been out of the reach of their surviv-
ing enemies, they have thought it highly opprobrious to their
ghosts, to take their representations preserved in their pictures,
and affix them to the cross1. Thus may we be made sensible
of the two grand aggravations of our Saviour's sufferings, the
bitterness of pain in the torments of his body, and the indig-
nity of shame in the interpretation of his enemies.

It is necessary we should thus profess faith in Christ
crucified, as that punishment which he chose to undergo, as
that way which he was pleased to die.

First, because by this kind of death we may be assured that he hath taken upon himself, and consequently from us, the malediction of the Law. For we were all under the curse, because it is expressly written, Cursed is every one that con- Deut. xxvii. tinueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Gal. ii. 10. 207 law to do them: and it is certain none of us hath so continued;

23.

for the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, which is no- Gal. iii. 22. thing else but a breach of the Law; therefore the curse must be acknowledged to remain upon all. But now Christ hath Gal. iii. 13. redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; that is, he hath redeemed us from that general curse, which lay upon all men for the breach of any part of the Law, by taking upon him that particular curse, laid only upon them which underwent a certain punishment of the Law; for it was written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. Deut. xxi. 23. Not that suspension was any of the capital punishments prescribed by the Law of Moses; not that by any tradition or custom of the Jews they were wont to punish malefactors with that death: but such as were punished with death according to the law or custom of the Jews, were for the enormity of their fact ofttimes after death exposed to the ignominy of a gibbet; and those who being dead were so hanged on a tree, were accursed by the Law'. Now

pudor Romani nominis proprius,
qui sæpe res perditas servavit in pro-
liis, tunc quoque subvenit: sed illo
tempore imposuit, jam erubescens
cum puderet vivos, tamquam pudi-
turum esset exstinctos.' Ibid.

Thus they used Celsus, one of
the thirty tyrants of Rome, as Tre-
bellius Pollio testifieth: 'Novo inju
riæ genere imago in crucem sublata,

persultante vulgo, quasi patibulo ipse
Celsus videretur adfixus.' [c. 29.]

2 Deut. xxi. 22. If a man have
committed a sin worthy of death,
and he be put to death, and thou
hang him on a tree. In which words
being put to death, precedeth being
hanged: but, I confess, in our English
translation, it hath another sense,
and he be to be put to death, as if he

though Christ was not to die by the sentence of the Jews, who had lost the supreme power in causes capital, and so not to be condemned to any death according to the Law of Moses; yet the providence of God did so dispose it, that he might suffer that death which did contain in it that ignominious particularity to which the legal curse belonged, which is, the hanging on a tree. For he which is crucified, as he is affixed to, so he hangeth on, the cross: and therefore true and formal crucifixion is often named by the general word suspension1; and the Jews themselves do commonly call our blessed Saviour by that very name to which the curse is affixed by Moses'; and generally have objected that he died a cursed death3.

Secondly, It was necessary to express our faith in Christ Ephes. ii. 15. crucified, that we might be assured that he hath abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments; which

were to die by hanging. And so the
Vulgar Latin, Et adjudicatus morti
appensus fuerit patibulo, as if he were
adjudged to be hanged, and so his
sentence were suspension. And the
Syriac yet more expressly, et appen-
datur ligno atque interficiatur. But
there is no such sentence contained in
the original as the Vulgar, nor futuri-
tion of death, as our English trans-
lation mentioneth. The Hebrew is

in Hophal, that is, interfectus,
occisus, mori factus fuerit; or, as the
LXX. clearly translate it, kai άπolávṇ,
and the Chaldee up et occisus
fuerit.

1 As we before noted on the words of Seneca. Thus the Greeks do often use κрeμav, for crucifigere. For Curtius, speaking of the taking of Tyre by Alexander, says: 'Duo milliacrucibus affixi per ingens litoris spatium pependerunt.' [1. iv. c. 19.] And Diodorus Siculus relating the same: Τοὺς δὲ νέους πάντας ὄντας οὐκ ἐλάττους τῶν δισχιλίων ἐκρέμασεν. [1. xvii. c. 46.] So the same Curtius testifies that Musicanus was 'in crucem sublatus:' [1. ix. c. 32.] of whom Arrianus speaks thus: TOûтоV креμάσαι κελεύει ̓Αλέξανδρος ἐν τῇ αὐτοῦ Y. [Exp. Alex. 1. vi. c. 17.] Thus in the language of the Scriptures, εἷς τῶν κρεμασθέντων κακούργων is one of the

crucified thieves, Luke xxiii. 39. and
the Jews are said to have slain our
Saviour, κρεμάσαντες ἐπὶ ξύλου, Acts
v. 30. and x. 39. The Latins likewise
often use the word suspendere for cru-
cifigere. As Ausonius, in the Idyl-
lium, whose title is Cupido cruci
affixus, describes him thus, ver. 59.
'Hujus in excelso suspensum stipite Amorem.'
And when we read in Polybius, 1. viii.
c. 23, that they did ἀνασταυρῶσαι τὸ
oua of Achæus; Ovid describes his
punishment thus, Ibis 299.

'More vel intereas capti suspensus Achæi,
Qui miser aurifera teste pependit aqua.'

2 The words of Moses are, Deut.