and foretelleth to us the death upon the cross, to which the hands and feet of the person crucified were affixed with nails. And because these prophecies appeared so particular and clear, and were so properly applied by that disciple whom our Saviour loved, and to whom he made a singular application even upon the cross; therefore the Jews have used more than ordinary industry and artifice to elude these two predictions, but in vain.* For these two prophets, David and Zachary, manifestly did foretell the particular punishment of crucifixion. It was therefore sufficiently adumbrated by types, and promulgated by prophecies, that the promised Messias was to be crucified. And it is as certain, that our Jesus, the Christ whom we worship, and from whence we receive that honour to be named Christians, was really and truly crucified. (Matt. xxvi. 2.) It was first the wicked design of Judas, who betrayed him to that death: it was the malicious cry of the obdurate Jews," Crucify him, crucify him." (John xix. 15.) He was actually condemned and delivered to that death by Pilate, "who gave sentence that it should be as they required:" (Luke xxiii. 24.) he was given into the hands of the soldiers, the instruments commonly used in inflicting that punishment,† who "led him away to crucify him." (Matt. xxvii. 31.) He underwent those previous pains which customarily antecede that suffering, as flagellation, and bearing of the cross: for Jacob the son of Chajim, in Massoreth Magna, ordine testifieth that he found it manifestly signifieth sicut leo, it must not signify the same in this; and being the Jews themselves pretend in some corto nothing else, it followeth that it be בקצת ספרים כרייקים rect copies כרו כתיב of this text, and adding And Johannes Isaac Levita confirm and the old Syriac, which translateth still read as it was, Ɔ, and translated foderunt. From whence it also appeareth, that this was one of the eighteen places which were altered by the Scribes. For the Masorah in several places confesseth, that eighteen places in the Scriptures have been altered by the Scribes; and when they come to reckon the places, they mention but sixteen; the other two without question are those concerning the crucifixion of the Messias, Psalm xxii. 16. and Zech. xii. 10. For that of Zachary, a Jew confessed it to Mercerus: and that of David, we shewed before to be the other. + That the soldiers did execute the sentence of death given by the Roman magistrates in their provinces, and not only in the camp, is evident out of the historians of that nation. 'Sciendum est Romanis Pilatum legibus ministrasse, quibus sancitum est, ut qui crucifigitur prius flagellis verberetur.' S. Hiero. ad Matt, "Pilate, when he had scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified;" (Matt. xxvii. 26.)" and he, bearing his cross, went forth into Golgotha." (John xix. 17.) They carried him forth out of the city, as by custom in that kind of death they were wont to do;* and there between two malefactors, usually by the Romans condemned to that punishment, they crucified him. And that he was truly fastened to the cross, appears by the satisfaction given to doubting Thomas, who said, "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, I will not believe:" and our Saviour said unto him, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands:" (John xx. 25. 27.) whereby he satisfied the apostle, that he was the Christ; and us, that the Christ was truly crucified; against that fond heresy, which made Simon the Cyrenean not only bear the cross, but endure crucifixion, for our Saviour. We therefore infer this second xxvii. 26. To which Lucian alludes in his own condemnation: 'Epoi pèv ἀνεσκολοπίσθαι δοκεῖ αὐτὸν, νή Δία, μαστιγωθέντα γε πρότερον. Lucian. in Piscatore, c. 2. • Multi occisi, multi capti, alii verberati crucibus affixi.' 2 Liv. 1. xxxiii. c. 36. And 1. xxviii. Ad palum deligatus, lacerato virgis tergo, cervicem cruci Romanæ subjiciam.' So Curtius reports of Alexauder: Omnes verberibus affectos sub ipsis radicibus petræ crucibus jussit 'Credo ego isthoc exemplo tibi esse eundum actutum extra portam, Dispessis manibus, patibulum cum habebis.' Tully; Cum Mamertini more atque instituto suo crucem fixissent post urbem in via Pompeia.' V.in Verr. c. 66. †Thieves and robbers were usually by the Romans punished with this death. Thus Cæsar used his pirates, τοὺς λῃστὰς ἅπαντας ἀνεσταύρωσε. Plut. in Vita, c. 2. 'Imperator provinciæ jussit latrones crucibus affigi.' Petron. Sat. c. 111. Latronem istum, miserorum pignorum meorum peremptorem, cruci affigatis.' Apulieus de Aur. Asin. 1. iii. p. 133. ed. Elmenhorst. 1621. Latrocinium fecit aliquis, quid ergo meruit? Ut suspendatur.' Sen. Epist. 7. Where suspendi is as much as crucifigi, and is so to be understood in all Latin authors which wrote before the days of Constantine. Famosos latrones, in his locis ubi grassati sunt, furca figendos, compluribus placuit.' Callist. 1. xxxviii. de pænis. Where furca figendos is put for crucifigendos; being so altered by Tribonianus, who, because Constantine had taken away affigi.' l. vii. c. 11. Thus were the Jews themselves used, who caused our Saviour to be scourged and crucified: Μαστιγούμενοι καὶ προβασανιζόμενοι τοῦ θανάτου πᾶσαν αἰκίαν, ἀνεσravρouvтo. Joseph. excid. I. v. c. 32. * This was observed both by the Jews and Romans, that their capital punishments were inflicted without their cities. And that particularly was observed in the punishment of crucifixion. Plautus; Mil. Glor. a. ii. s. iv. 6. the punishment, took also the name out of the Law. Quapro This was the peculiar heresy of Basilides, a man so ancient, that he boasted to follow Glaucias as his master, who was the disciple of St. Peter. And Irenæus hath declared this particularity of his : pter neque passum eum: et Simonem quendam Cyrenæum angariatum portasse crucem ejus pro eo; et hunc secundum ignorantiam et errorem crucifixum, transfiguratum ab eo, uti putaretur ipse esse Jesus; et ipsum autem Jesum Simonis accepisse formam, et stantem irrisisse eos.' Adv. Har. 1. i. c. 23. And Tertullian, of the same Basilides: Hunc (Christum) passum a Judæis non esse, sed vice ipsius Simonem crucifixum esse: unde nec in eum credendum esse qui sit crucifixus, ne quis confiteatur in Simonem credidisse.' De Præsc, adv. Har. c. 46. From these is the same delivered by St. Epiphanius Hæres. 24. §. 3. and by St. Augustin, Hær. 4. conclusion from the undoubted testimonies of his followers, and unfeigned confessions of his enemies, that our Jesus was certainly and truly crucified, and did really undergo those sufferings, which were pretypified and foretold, upon the cross. Being thus fully assured that the Messias was to be, and that our Christ was truly crucified, it, thirdly, concerns us to understand what was the nature of crucifixion, what the particularities of suffering, which he endured on the cross. Nor is this now so easily understood as once it was: for being a Roman punishment, it was continued in that empire while it remained heathen; but when the emperors themselves received Christianity, and the towering eagles resigned the flags unto the cross, this punishment was forbidden by the supreme authority, out of a due respect and pious honour to the death of Christ.* From whence it came to pass, that since it hath been disused universally for so many hundred years, it hath not been so rightly conceived as it was before, when the general practice of the world did so frequently represent it to the Christian's eyes. Indeed if the word which was used to denote that punishment did sufficiently represent or express it, it were enough to say that Christ was crucified: but being the most usual or original word doth not of itself declare the figure of the tree, or manner of the suffering; it will be necessary This is observed by St. Augustin, Serm. 18. al. 88. de Verbis Dom. §. 8. Quia ipse honoraturus erat fideles suos in fine hujus seculi, prius honoravit crucem in hoc seculo, ut terrarum principes credentes in eum prohiberent aliquem nocentium crucifigi.' And Tract. 36. in Ioan. §. 4. speaking of this particular punishment: Modo in pœnis reorum non est apud Romanos; ubi enim Domini › crux honorata est, putatum est quod et reus honoraretur si crucifigeretur.' Whence appears, first, that in the days of St. Augustin crucifixion was disused: secondly, that it was prohibited by the secular princes. But when it was first prohibited, or by whom, he sheweth not. It is therefore to be observed, that it was first forbidden by the first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great. Sozomenus gives this relation: 'Aμéλe Toi πρότερον νενομισμένην Ῥωμαίοις τὴν τοῦ σταυροῦ τιμωρίαν νόμῳ ἀνεῖλε τῆς xphoews rŵv dikαornρiwv. l. i. c. 8. + The original word in the New Testament, for the tree on which our Saviour suffered, is σravρòc, and the action or crucifixion oravowong, the active oravpovv, and the passive σravpovolai. Now σταυρός, from which the rest mentioned are manifestly derived, hath of itself no other signification than of a stake. As we find it first used by Homer, Σταυροὺς δ' ἐκτὸς ἔλασσε διαμπερὲς ἔνθα, καὶ ἔνθα, Πυκνοὺς καὶ θαμέας, τὸ μέλαν δρυὸς ἀμφικεάσσας.—Οδυσ. Ξ. 11. Σταυροῖσιν πυκινοῖσι.—Ιλ. Ω. 453. These are the same which Homer ἐκ δὲ τούτων τὸ ἀνασκολοπίζειν, καὶ elsewhere calls oкóλOTEÇ, and the an- dvaoravpouv. As when Homer decient grammarians render each by scribes the Phæacian walls, other. As Eustathius: Eravρoi ¿çîà καὶ ἀπωξυμμένα ξύλα. οἱ δ' αὐτοὶ καὶ Τείχεα μακρὰ σκόλοπες λέγονται, ἀφ ̓ ὧν τὸ ἀνασκολο. Ὑψηλὰ σκολόπεσσιν ἀρηρότα, Odyss. H. 44. πίζεσθαι, καὶ ἀνασταυροῦσθαι· so he, expounding σravpós: and in the same he gives this exposition: KóλOTES manner expounding σκόλοπες λέγον- δὲ καὶ νῦν ξύλα ὀρθὰ, οἱ καὶ σταυροί. ται δὲ οἱ τοιοῦτοι σκόλοπες καὶ σταυροί, In the same manner Hesychius: Y '' to represent it by such expressions as we find partly in the evangelical relations, partly in such representations as are left us in those authors whose eyes were daily witnesses of such executions. The form then of the cross on which our Saviour suffered was not a simple but a compounded figure, according to the custom of the Romans, by whose Procurator he was condemned to die. In which there was not only a straight and erected piece of wood fixed in the earth, but also a transverse beam fastened unto that towards the top thereof: * and beside these Σταυροί, οἱ καταπεπηγότες σκόλοπες, Xápakes and: Ekóλomes, ¿pléa (1. opθὰ καὶ ὀξέα ξύλα σταυροὶ, χάρακες and again: Χάραξι, φραγμοῖς, ὀξέσι ξύλοις οἱ δὲ, καλάμοις, οἱ δὲ, σταυροῖς. Be sides, they all agree in the same etymology, άπò rov ioraolai, and therefore always take it for a straight standing stake, pale, or palisado. Thus κελέοντες in Antiphon, are briefly rendered ὀρθὰ ξύλα but more expressly thus by Etymologus: Kɛλéοντες, κυρίως οἱ ἱστόποδες, καταχρηστικῶς δὲ καὶ τὰ καταπεπηγότα ξύλα, & kai σravρovç kaλovơi. This is the undoubted signification of oravpòs, in vain denied by Salmasius, who will have it first to signify the same with furca, and then with crux; first the figure of Y, and then of T. Whereas all antiquity renders it no other than as a straight and sharp stake: in which signification it came at first to denote this punishment, the most simple and prime σravowots or avaOKOλónio being upon a single piece of wood, a defixus et erectus stipes. And the Greeks which wrote the Roman history, used the word σταυρός as well for their palus as their crux. As when Antony beheaded Antigonus the king of the Jews, Dio thus begins to describe his execution, Hist. Rom. 1. xli. c. 22. ̓Αντίγονον ἐμαστίγωσε σταυρῷ Tрoodioas not that he crucified him, as Baronius mistakes; but that he put him to another death after the Roman custom, as those died in Livy, 1. xxviii. c. 29. 'Deligati ad palum, virgisque cæsi, et securi percussi.' So that oravρ ρoodeĩv, is ad palum deligare. Thus were the heads of men said avaσravoweñvaɩ, as of Niger and Albinus in Dio, 1. lxxiv. c. 8. and 1. lxxv. c. 7. and Herodian, I. iii. c. 24.; which cannot but be meant of a single palus: and we read in Ctesias how Amytis put Inarus to death, åveorau ρωσε μὲν ἐπὶ τρισὶ σταυροῖς, not that he crucified him upon three crosses, but pierced his body with three stakes fastened in the ground, and sharpened at the upper end. As appears by the like Persian punishment inflicted by Parysatis on Mesabates, as delivered by Plutarch in Artaxerze, c. 17. προσέταξεν ἐκδεῖραι ζῶντα, καὶ τὸ μὲν σῶμα πλάγιον διὰ τριῶν σταυρῶν ἀναπῆξαι, τὸ δὲ δέρμα χωρὶς διαπατταλευσar which the Latin translator renders, in tres sustulli cruces (a thing impossible); whereas it was to be transversely fastened to three stakes, piercing the body lying, and thrust down upon them; which in the Excerpta of Ctesias is delivered only in the word ȧveoravoíoên. Ex Persicis, . et r'. Zravpòs therefore is no more originally than okóλoy, a single stake, or an erect piece of wood upon which many suffered who were said avaσταυροῦσθαι and ἀνασκολοπίζεσθαι. And when other transverse or prominent parts were added in a perfect cross, it retained still the original name, not only of σταυρός, but also of σκόλοψο as: Ὤφειλεν εἰς ἐπίδειξιν θεότητος ἀπὸ τοῦ σκόλοπος γοῦν εὐθὺς ἀφανὴς γενέσθαι, &c. τὴν ἐπὶ τοῦ σκόλοπος αὐτοῦ pwvýv or' àπÉπνε. Celsus apud Orig. l. ii. §. 69. Thus in that long, or rather too long, verse written by Audax to St. Augustin, Epist. 139. 'Exspectat quos plena fides Christi de stipite pendens.' *That the figure and parts of a Roman cross, such as that was ou which our Saviour suffered, may be known, we must begin with the first composition in the frame or structure of it: and that is the conjunction of the two beams, the one erect, the other transverse; the first to which the body was applied, the second to which the hands were fastened. These 'two, as the chief parts of the cross, two cutting each other transversely at right angles (so that the erected part extended itself above the transverse), there was also another piece of wood infixed into, and standing out are several ways expressed: first, by καὶ κεραία τὸ πλάγιον. Because Ιῶτα the Jews, who had no one word in their is like the straight piece or mast of language particularly to express that the cross, and repaiα the yard or punishment (as being not mentioned transverse part; therefore some of in the law, or at all in use among the ancients interpreted this place of them), and therefore call it by a the cross, says Theophylact on the double name, expressing the conjunc- place. And Gregory Nyssen, 1. ii. tion of these beams, sta- de Vita Mosis, p. 217. 'A\ŋows yàp men et subtegmen, the warp and the τοῖς καθορᾷν δυναμένοις ἐν τῷ νόμῳ woof. The Greeks express the same, μάλιστα τὸ κατὰ τὸν σταυρὸν θεωρεῖ by the letter Ταῦ, as partly appears by μυστήριον. Διό φησί που τὸ Εὐαγγέ what is already spoken of the number λιον, ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ νόμου τὸ Ιῶτα καὶ ἡ 300, and is yet more evident by the κεραία οὐ παρέρχεται σημαῖνον, διὰ τῶν testimony of Lucian, who makes εἰρημένων τήν τε ἐκ πλαγίου γραμμὴν, mankind complain of the letter Ταῦ, καὶ τὴν κάθετον, δι' ὧν τὸ σχῆμα τοῦ because tyrants in imitation of that σταυροῦ καταγράφεται. Not that this first made the cross: T yàp TOUTOU is the true interpretation of that σώματί φασι τοὺς τυράννους ἀκολουθή- place (for κεραία signifes a part of oavras kai μμŋoaμévovs tò πλáoua, a letter, as in Apollonius Syntax. 1. ἔπειτα σχήματι τοιούτῳ ξύλα τεκτήναν- i. c. 7. τοῦ ᾶ τὴν κεραίαν ἀπήλειψε); τας, ἀνθρώπους ἀνασκολοπίζειν ἐπ ̓ but by that they testify their apavrá. Jud. Vocal. c. 12. Ipsa est prehension of the figure of a cross; enim litera Græcorum Tau, nostra which is well expressed by Euseautem T, species crucis.' Tertull. bius, describing the form of the adv. Marc. 1. iii. c. 22. St. Jerome amfirms the same of the Samaritan Tau: but there is no similitude to be found in that which is now in use, or any other oriental, only in the Coptic alphabet Salebdi, that is the cross Di. These two parts of the cross are otherwise expressed by the mast and yard of a ship. So Justin Martyr: Θάλασσα μὲν γὰρ οὐ τέμνεται, ἢν μὴ τοῦτο τὸ τρόπαιον, ὃ καλεῖται ἱστίον, ἐν Tỹ vyï owov μévy. Apol. ii. p. 90. And Tertullian: 'Antenna navis crucis pars est.' adv. Marcion. 1. iii. c. 18. And Minutius Felix: Signum sane Crucis naturaliter visimus in navi, cum velis tumentibus vehitur.' c. 29. And Maximus Taurinens.: Cum a nautis scinditur mare, prius arbor erigitur, velum distenditur, ut cruce Domini facta aquarum fluentia rumpantur.' de Cruce Dom. Homil. 2. Now because the extremities of the antenna are a kind of κέρατα (as Virgil that great master of proprieties, Æn. iii. 549. 'Cornua' velatarum obvertimus antennarum'), cross which appeared to Constantine: Υψηλὸν δόρυ χρυσῷ κατημφιεσμένον κέρας εἶχεν ἐγκάρσιον, σταυροῦ σχήματι mεñoinμévov. De Vita Constant. 1. i. c. 31. And this similitude of the mast and yard leads to the consideration of that part of the erected pale which was eminent above the transverse beam. For as the καρχήσιον was above the κεραία, so the stipes did extend itself above the patibulum. And this is evident by those expressions which make the two beams have four sides, and four extremities, as two lines cutting each other at equal angles needs must have. These Theophanes, Homil. 4. init. and Gregory Nyssen, In Christ. Resur. or. 1. p. 396. call ràc ảπò Tоv μÉσOV TÉσσαpac poßoλáç' Damascen. de Orth. Fid. 1. iv. c. 12. rà réoσapa äkρα TO≈ σTAVpoỡ dià toỡ μéσov kévтqoν кρатоÚμɛνа καὶ συσφιγγόμενα. Hence Nonnus calls the cross δόρυ τετράπλευρον. c. xix. 91. And of these four parts the fathers interpret the height, and breadth, and length, and depth, mentioned by St. Paul, Eph. iii. As Gregory Nyssen: 'Epecious TY TÒ πᾶν διακρατοῦσάν τε καὶ συνέχουσαν δύναμιν τῷ σχήματι τοῦ σταυροῦ και ταγράφει——ὕψος καὶ βάθος καὶ πλάτος καὶ μῆκος κατονομάζων, ἑκάστην κεραίαν τῶν κατὰ τὸ σχῆμα τοῦ σταυροῦ θεωρουμένων ἰδίοις προσαγορεύων ὀνόμασιν, ὡς, therefore in Greek repaia is antenna: and from thence the Greek fathers applied the words of our Saviour, Matt. ν. 18. Ιῶτα ἓν ἢ μία κεραία οὐ μὴ παρέλθῃ ἀπὸ τοῦ νόμου, ἕως ἂν πάντα γένηται, to the cross of Christ; τοῦ γὰρ σταυροῦ Ἰωτά ἐστι τὸ ὀρθὸν ξύλον, |