Thirdly, It behoved us to take notice of the Roman governor in the expression of our Saviour's passion, that thereby we might understand how it came to pass that Christ should suffer according to the Scriptures. The prophets had foretold his death, but after such a manner as was not to be performed by the Jews, according to whose law and custom, no man among them ever so died. Being then so great a prophet could not die but in Jerusalem, being the death he was to suffer was not agreeable to the laws and customs of the Jews; it was necessary a Roman governor should condemn him, that so the counsel of the will of God might be fulfilled, by the malice of the one, and the customs of the other.

And now the advantage of this circumstance is discovered, every one may express the importance of it in this manner: İ am fully persuaded of this truth as beyond all possibility of contradiction, that in "the fulness of time" God sent his Son; and that the eternal son of God, so sent by him, did suffer for the sins of men, after the fifteenth year of Tiberius the Roman emperor, and before his death, in the time of Pontius Pilate the Cæsarean Procurator of Judea; who, to please the nation of the Jews, did condemn him whom he pronounced innocent, and delivered him, according to the custom of that empire, and in order to the fulfilling of the prophecies, to die a painful and shameful death upon the cross. And thus I believe in Christ, that SUFFERED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE.

Was crucified.

FROM the general consideration of our Saviour's passion, we proceed to the most remarkable particular, his crucifixion, standing between his passion, which it concludeth, and his death, which it introduceth. For the explication whereof, it will be necessary, at first, To prove that the promised Messias was to be crucified, that he which was designed to die for our sins was to suffer on the cross; secondly, To shew that our Jesus, whom we worship, was certainly and truly crucified, and did suffer whatsoever was foretold, upon the cross; thirdly, To discover what is the nature of crucifixion, what peculiarities of suffering are contained in dying on the cross. γὰρ ὑπομνήματα τὰ ὑπὸ Πιλάτου πραχθέντα καὶ τὴν προθεσμίαν περιέχει τοῦ Πάσχα. ἱστορεῖται γοῦν ὅτι τῇ πρὸ ὀκτὼ καλανδῶν ̓Απριλλίων ἔπαθεν ὁ Σωτήρ. tom. 5. p. 942. These were also mentioned in the Acta S. Tarachi, Probi et Andronici, c. 9. Præses dixit, Inique, non scis, quem invocas, Christum, hominem quidem fuisse factum, sub custodia Pontii Pilati et punitum, cujus exstant Acta Passionis?' These Acta in the time of Maxi

minus were adulterated, and filled with many blasphemies against our Saviour, as appears by Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. l. i. c. 9. Οὐκοῦν σαφῶς άπελýλεуктαι тò πλáoμа тŵV KATÀ TOũ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ὑπομνήματα χθὲς καὶ πρώην διαδεδωκότων· and : Πλασάμενοι δῆτα Πιλάτου καὶ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ὑπομνήματα πάσης ἔμπλεα κατὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ βλασφημίας, γνώμη τοῦ μείζονος ἐπὶ πᾶσαν διαπέμπονται τὴν ὑπ' αὐτὸν apxýv. 1. ix. c. 5.

That the Messias was to be crucified, appeareth both by types which did apparently foreshew it, and by the prophecies which did plainly foretell it. For, though all those represen tations and predictions which the forward zeal of some ancient fathers gathered out of the Law and the Prophets,* cannot be said to signify so much; yet in many types was the crucifixion of Christ represented, and by some prophecies foretold. This was the true and unremoveable" stumbling-block to the Jews," nor could they ever be brought to confess the Messias should die that death upon a tree to which the curse of the * The ancient fathers, following the τριακοσιοστὸν στοιχεῖον, τὸ δὲ Ἰῶτα καὶ steps of the apostles, to prove all the τὸ Ητα τοὔνομα σημαίνειν τὸ σωτήριον. particulars of our Saviour's death out Stromat. 1. vi. c. 11. As also St. Amof the Old Testament, have made use brose: Nam et Abraham 318 duxit of those types and prophecies which ad bellum, et ex innumeris trophæa did really and truly foreshew it; but hostibus reportavit, signoque Domitogether with them, partly out of nice crucis et nominis,' &c. Prol. ad their own conceptions, partly out of 1. i. de Fide, §. 3. 'Eos adsciscit too much credit to the translations, quos dignos numero fidelium judicahave urged those places which the vit, qui in Domini nostri Jesu Christi Jews may most easily evade, and we Passione crederent. Trecentos enim can produce but with small or no T Græca litera significat; decem et pretence. As for the extending of octo autem summum I H exprimit the hands of Moses, they conceive it nomen.' Id. de Abrah. 1. i. c. 3. §. 15. to be a perfect type; and Barnabas, And St. Augustin of another three Epist. c. 12. tells us, that the Spirit hundred: Quorum numerus, quia commanded Moses, that he should trecenti erant, signum insinuat Crucis, make the similitude of a cross: Aéya propter literam T Græcam, qua iste εἰς τὴν καρδίαν Μωσῇ τὸ πνεῦμα, ἵνα numerus significatur. Quest. in Hept. Tоinoy TÚTOV Oтavρov kaì тov μéλλovтog 1. vii. q. 37. And Clemens AlexanTάox but the text assures us no drinus again, of the three hundred more, than that Moses held up his cubits in the Ark : Eloì dè oî roùs tpiabands, which might be without any κοσίους πήχεις σύμβολον τοῦ Κυριακοῦ similitude of a cross. And when both onpeiov Xéyovoi. Strom. 1. 6. c. 11. were lifted up by Aaron and Hur, 'Sed sicut ille non multitudine nec the representation is not certain. And virtute legionum, sed jam tum in Sayet, after Barnabas, Justin tells us, cramento Crucis, cujus figura per that Moses represented the cross, ràc literam Græcam T numero trecentoXeipas ikαTέpas кTeráσaç Dial. c. rum exprimitur, adversarios principes Tryph. p. 317. and Tertullian calls it debellavit: cujus mysterii virtute habitum crucis. adv. Marcion. I. iii. trecentis in longum texta cubitis suc. 18. In the same manner with the peravit Arca diluvium, ut nunc Ecstrange Indian statue, which is de- clesia hoc seculum supernavigat.' S. scribed by Bardisanes, as: ȧvôpiàs Paulinus, Ep. ii. al. xxiv. §. 23. As ἑστὼς ὀρθὸς, ἔχων τὰς χεῖρας ἡπλωμένας unlikely a type did they make Jacob's Ev TÚTY σravρov. Porphyr. de Styge. ladder. Ego puto Crucem SalvatoWith less probability did they gather ris illam esse scalam quam Jacob viboth the name of Jesus, and the cross dit.' S. Hieron. Breviar. in Psal. 91. of Christ, from the three hundred and eighteen servants of Abraham. 'Ira δέκα, Ἦτα ὀκτώ, ἔχεις Ἰησοῦν· ἔτι δὲ oravpòs ¿v rų TëμeλEV EXEL Tηy xáo, λέγει γὰρ τοὺς τριακοσίους· δηλοῖ οὖν τὸν μὲν ̓Ιησοῦν ἐν τοῖς δυσὶ γράμμασι, καὶ ἐν Evi Tòv oravρóv. Epist. Barn. c. 9. As if I H stood for Jesus, and T for the cross. And yet Clemens Alex. follows him: Paoìv ovv elvai roỡ μèv Kuριακοῦ σημείου τύπον κατὰ τὸ σχῆμα

·

Scala usque ad coelum attingens Crucis figuram habuit; Dominus innixus scala, Christus crucifixus ostenditur.' S. August. Serm. de Temp. 79. al. 11. §. 6. These, and many others, by the writers of the succeeding ages, were produced out of the Old Testament as types of the cross, and may in some sense be applied to it being otherwise proved, but prove it not.

Law belonged:* and yet we need no other oracles than such as are committed to those Jews, to prove that Christ was so to suffer.

A clearer type can scarce be conceived of the Saviour of the world, in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed, than Isaac was: nor can God the Father, who gave his only-begotten Son, be better expressed than by that patriarch in his readiness to sacrifice his son," his only son Isaac, whom he loved." (Gen. xxii. 2.) Now when that grand act of obedience was to be performed, we find Isaac walking to the mountain of Moriah with the wood on his shoulders, and saying, "Here is the wood, but where is the sacrifice?" while in the command of God, and the intention and resolution of Abraham, Isaac is the sacrifice, who bears the wood. And the Christ, who was to be the most perfect sacrifice, the person in whom all nations were perfectly to be blessed, could die no other death in which the wood was to be carried; and being to die upon the cross, was, by the formal custom used in that kind of death, certainly to carry it. Therefore Isaac bearing the wood, did signify Christ bearing the cross.‡

When the fiery serpents bit the Israelites, and "much people died," Moses, by the command of God, "made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole; and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." (Numb. xxi. 9.) Now if there were no expresser promise of the Messias, than the "Seed of the woman, which should bruise the serpent's head;" (Gen. iii. 15.) if he were to perform that promise by the virtue of his death; if no death could be so perfectly represented by the hanging on the pole, as that of crucifixion; then was that manifestly

Trypho the Jew, in the dialogue with Justin Martyr, when he had confessed many of the Christian doctrines, would by no means be brought to this: Εἰ δὲ καὶ ἀτίμως οὕτως σταυρωθῆναι τὸν Χριστὸν (subaud. ἔδει), ἀποροῦμεν· ἐπικατάρατος γὰρ ὁ σταυρούμενος ἐν τῷ νόμῳ λέγεται εἶναι· ὥστε πρоç тоUто ȧкμý dvorεioтws exw.p.317. And afterwards granting his passion, urgeth him.to prove his crucifixion: Ἡμεῖς γὰρ οὐδ' εἰς ἔννοιαν ἐλθεῖν δυνάμεa. Ibid. So Tertullian describes the Jews: Negantes passionem Crucis in Christum prædicatam, et argumentantes insuper non esse credendum ut ad id genus mortis exposuerit Deus Filium suum, quod ipse dixit, Maledictus omnis homo qui pependit in ligno.' Adv. Judæos, c. 10.

+ This custom is very considerable

most express. Βαστάζειν τινὰ τῶν δαιμόνων χθονίων κακούργῳ μὲν ἰδόντι σταυρὸν αὐτῷ σημαίνει· ἔοικε γὰρ ὁ σταυρὸς θανάτῳ, καὶ ὁ μέλλων προσηλοῦσθαι πρότερον αὐτὸν βαστάζει, Artemid. Oneirocr. 1. ii. c. 61. Τῷ μὲν σώματι τῶν κολαζομένων ἕκαστος τῶν κακούργων ἐκφέρει τὸν αὐτοῦ σταυρόν. Plutarch. de sera Numinis Vindicta, c. 9. So these not long after our Saviour's death. And much before it, Plautus in Carbonario,

Patibulum ferat per urbem, deinde affigatur Cruci.'

This is not only the observation of the Christians, but the Jews themselves have referred this type unto that custom: for upon Gen. xxii. 6. "And Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son," the lesser Bereshith bath this

כזה שטוען: צלובו בכתפו as to the explication of this type ; and

note

is to be therefore confirmed by the testimonies of the ancients, which are

as a man carries his cross upon his shoulders.

foretold which Christ himself informed Nicodemus, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up." (John iii. 14.)*

The paschal lamb did plainly typify that Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world; and the preparing of it did not only represent the cross,† but the command or ordinance of the passover did foretell as much. For while it is said, "ye shall not break a bone thereof," (Exod. xii. 46.) it was thereby intimated, that the Saviour of the world should suffer that death to which the breaking of the bones belonged (and that, according to the constant custom, was the punishment of crucifixion), but only in that death should by the providence of God be so particularly preserved, as that not one bone of his should be touched. And thus the crucifixion of the Messias in several types was represented.

Nor was it only thus prefigured and involved in the typical resemblances, but also clearly spoken by the prophets in their particular and express predictions. Nor shall we need the accession of any lost or additional prophetical expressions, which some of the ancients have made use of:§ those

* The common phrase by which that death was expressed. In Crucem tolli:' Paul. 1. 5. Sentent. Tit. 22, 23. 25. As in the Chaldee p by origination Elevatio, by use is particularly Crucifixio.

+ Justin Martyr shews how the manner of the roasting the paschal lamb did represent the affixing of a man upon the cross, and thereby was a type of Christ: Tò Keλɛvolèν πρóβατον ἐκεῖνο ὅλον γίνεσθαι, τοῦ πάθους τοῦ σταυροῦ, δι ̓ οὗ πάσχειν ἔμελλεν ὁ Χριστὸς, σύμβολον ἦν· τὸ γὰρ ὀπτώμενον πρόβατον, σχηματιζόμενον ὁμοίως τῷ σχήματι τοῦ σταυροῦ ὀπτᾶται. Εἷς γὰρ ὄρθιος ὀβέλισκος διαπερονᾶται ἀπὸ τῶν κατωτάτων μερῶν μέχρι τῆς κεφαλῆς, καὶ εἷς πάλιν κατὰ τὸ μετάφρενον, ᾧ προσαρτῶνται καὶ αἱ χεῖρες τοῦ προβάτου. Dial. cum Tryphone, p. 259. To which Arnoldus Carnotensis alludeth: In veru Crucis boni odoris assatio excoquat carnalium sensuum cruditatem; De Cana Domini, commonly attributed to St. Cyprian. Nor is the roasting of this lamb any far-fetched figure of the cross; for other roasting hath been thought a proper resem blance of it: where the body of the thing roasted hath limbs, as a lamb, there it bears the similitude of a proper cross, with an erect and transverse beam; where the roasted body is only of length and uniform, as a fish, there the resemblance is of a straight and simple Gravpóg. As it is

represented by Hesychius: Ekódoviv ὡς ὄπτησιν· τὸ γὰρ παλαιὸν κακούργους ȧvεσкoλóπičov ¿žúvovtes kúλov dià rñS ῥάχεως καὶ τοῦ νώτου, καθάπερ τοὺς ὀπτωμένους ἰχθὺς ἐπὶ ὀβελίσκων. s. v. Σκόλοψιν.

Although, indeed, it must be confessed, that the crurifragium and the crucifixion were two several punishments, and that they ordinarily made the cross a lingering death: yet because the Law of Moses did not suffer the body of a man to hang upon a tree in the night, therefore the Romaus, so far to comply with the Jews, did break the bones of those whom they crucified in Judea constantly ; whereas in other countries they did it but occasionally.

§ As Barnabas cites one of the prophets whom we know not, Epist. c. 12. 'Oμoiws máλiv περì тov σтavрov ὁρίζει ἐν ἄλλῳ προφήτῳ λέγοντι, Καὶ πότε ταῦτα συντελεσθήσεται; καὶ λέγει Κύριος, Ὅταν ξύλον κλιθῇ καὶ ἀναστῇ, καὶ ὅταν ἐκ ξύλου αἷμα στάξη" which words are not to be found in any of the prophets. Thus Justin Martyr, to prove, ὅτι μετὰ τὸ σταυρωθῆναι βαoλevo ò Xpioròs, produceth a prophecy out of the 96th Psalm, in these words: ὁ Κύριος ἐβασίλευσεν ἀπὸ τοῦ Evλov. p. 298. And Tertullian, who advances all his conceptions: Age nunc, si legisti penes Prophetam in Psalmis, Dominus regnavit a ligno; exspecto quid intelligas, ne forte li

which are still preserved even among the Jews, will yield this truth sufficient testimonies.

When God foretells by the prophet Zachary, what he should suffer from the sons of men, he says expressly, "They shall look upon me whom they have pierced;" (Zech. xii. 10.)* and therefore shews that he speaks of the Son of God, which was to be the Son of man, and by our nature liable to vulneration; and withal foretells the piercing of his body: which being added to that prediction in the Psalms, "They pierced my hands and my feet,"+ (Psal. xxii. 16.) clearly representeth gnarium aliquem regem significari pu- yet the plain construction of N tetis, et non Christum qui exinde a , is nothing else but quem, relating passione Christi (lege crucis, for he to the person in the affix of the himself hath it ligni, Adv. Marcion. precedent, who, being the same 1. iii. c. 19.) superata morte regnavit.' with him who immediately before Adv. Jud. c. 10. And in the place promiseth to pour upon man the cited against Marcion: 'Etsi enim Spirit of grace, must needs be God. mors ab Adam regnavit usque ad Which that the, Jews might avoid, Christum, cur Christus non regnasse they read it not but , not on dicatur a ligno, ex quo crucis ligno me, but on him, to distinguish him mortuus, regnum mortis exclusit? whom they were to pierce, from him Thus they, and some after them, make who was to give the Spirit of grace. use of those words, åπè žúλov, a ligno, But this fraud is easily detected, bewhich are not to be found either in cause it is against the Hebrew copies, the Greek or Latin translation, from the Septuagint, and Chaldee parawhence they seem to produce them; phrase, the Syriac and Arabic transnor is there any thing like them in the lations. Nor can the Rabbins shift original, or any translation extant, nor this place, because it was anciently the least mention or footstep of them by the Jews interpreted of the Mesin the Catena Græcorum Patrum. sias, as themselves confess. So, R. Justin Martyr, indeed, accused the Solomon Jarchi upon the place,"

our פירשוהו על משיח בן יוסף: -Jews for rasing the words are rob ti

λου out of the text: ̓Απὸ τοῦ ἐνενηκο- masters have expounded this of the στοῦ πέμπτου ψαλμοῦ τῶν διὰ Δαβίδ λε- Messias the son of Joseph. That they χθέντων λόγων, λέξεις βραχείας ἀφείλοντο interpreted it therefore of the Mesταύτας, ἀπὸ τοῦ ξύλου· εἰρημένου γὰρ τοῦ sias, is granted by them; that any λόγου, Εἴπατε ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, Ὁ Κύριος Messias was to be the son of Joseph, ἐβασίλευσεν ἀπὸ τοῦ ξύλου, ἀφῆκαν, Εἴ- is already denied and refuted: it πατε ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, Ὁ Κύριος ἐβασίλευ- remaineth therefore that the ancient σεv. p. 298. But, first, he doth not ac- Jews did interpret it of the true Mescuse them for rasing it out of the ori- sias, and that St. John did apply it to ginal Hebrew, for his discourse is only our Saviour according to the acknowto shew that they abused the LXX. ledged exposition. And in the BeSecondly, though the Jews had rased reshith Rabba, we are clearly taught it out of their own, it appeareth not thus much; for unto that question, how they should have gotten it out of "Who art thou, O great mountain?" the Bibles in the Christians' hands, in (Zech. iv. 7.) he, answereth,

The great הגדול זה משיח בן דוד ,which those words are not to be found

.David והביטו אלי את,in the original

* These words of Zachary are clear mountain is the Messias the Son of And he proves it from, "Grace, grace unto it."

PT although the LXX. have made another sense, πißovrai πρός με, ἀνθ' ὧν κατωρχήσαντο, by translating N ♫N åvợ úv, eo quod; as also the Chaldee paraphrase

y with the Arabic version; and the Syriac another yet, by rendering it per eum quem, as if they should look upon one, and pierce another:

in because he giveth grace and supplications; as it is written, Zech. xii. 10.

+ This translation seems something different from the Hebrew text as we now read it, sicut leo, manus meas et pedes meos. But it was not always read as now it is. For R.