sation with money.* To these punishments we must add three others, which are generally and not improperly classed among ecclesiastical punishments; but the Hebrew form of government being theocratic, they necessarily partook of a civil as well as of an ecclesiastical nature.

(1) The Nedui, or separation, was inflicted on him who had despised the admonition given in private by the minister or leading man in the synagogue, or had been guilty of refusing to pay any debt to which he had been found liable, or had been guilty of certain offences, which have been collected out of the Talmud by Dr. Lightfoot + and Dr. Owen. The time of its continuance was commonly thirty days; but if the person neglected to apply for a remission at the end of that time, he became virtually liable to the next higher degree of censure, although it was not always inflicted. During the continuance of this sentence, he was not prevented from hearing the law, or even from teaching it, if a master in Israel, provided he kept four paces distant from other persons. Nay, he might even go into the temple to attend divine service, under the same restrictions. If he died while under this sentence, they threw a stone upon his bier, to signify that he deserved stoning. This degree of excommunication is what is meant in the New Testament by casting out of the synagogue.

(2) The second degree of excommunication was called Cherem, or "cutting off," to which Paul alludes, when he speaks of giving one over to Satan, 1 Cor. v. 5. It was an authoritative and public censure, pronounced by the synagogue, and lasted for thirty days. With persons under this malediction it was not lawful so much as

to eat.

(3) But the highest degree of separation was the Shemetha; so called from a word which signifies to exclude, expel, or cast out; meaning that the persons on whom it was pronounced were cast out from the covenant of promise, and the commonwealth of Israel; and that they should be accounted by the Jews as heathen men and publicans. Some, however, interpret it as equivalent to Maranatha-the Lord cometh, i. e., to execute vengeance; or, There is death, i. e., an excommunication to death. It was inflicted on those who despised the cherem, and was by the greater part of the Jews esteemed total and final; the person who fell under it being left to

the judgment of God, without hope of reconciliation with the church. It included an utter exclusion from the congregation, confiscation of property, and exposure to death by the visible interposition of God. Hence it is called in the Targum, "the curse and execration of God;" and by the Talmudists, "the anathema of the God of Israel." This punishment is referred to in 1 Cor. v. 11, xvi. 22; Ezra x. 7, 8. And it is thought by some that there is a reference to it in 1 Cor. xi. 30, where the apostle tells the Corinthians, that in consequence of their improper observance of the Lord's supper, "many were weak and sickly among them, and many slept," or died by the visitation of heaven. And perhaps it is to this visible judgment of God, in the apostolic age, against egregious offenders, rather than to the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost, that the apostle John also refers in his first epistle (v. 16), when he says, "If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and God shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. But there is a sin unto death I do not say that he should pray for it." He might pray for offenders in general, and even for the souls of those who were under this visible judgment; but he might not pray for their restoration to health, since God was more glorified, and men more awed, by its continuance.§

(4) To the inferior punishments already enumerated, Michaëlis adds the sin and trespassofferings, in consideration of which punishments were either entirely remitted, or capital punishments commuted for others less severe. Such offerings were, therefore, in themselves a kind of punishment. First, as fines; and, secondly, as an exposure to shame, in a public acknowledgment of guilt, which probably bore some resemblance to our ecclesiastical penance. They were to be offered in the following cases: (1) For every unintentional transgression of the Levitical law. Even if it was a sin of commission, a sin-offering being made, the legal punishment was thereupon remitted; which in the case of wilful transgression was nothing less than extirpation, Lev. iv. 2, v. 1, 4–7. (2) For every rash oath which was not kept. This was not for the inconsideration, however, but for the neglect, Lev. v. 4. (3) For concealing any thing against a guilty person, on his trial, and where the witness was sworn to depose to all he knew, Lev. v. 1. (4) For in

* Lightfoot, Hora Heb., Matt. v. 38. +Ibid., 1 Cor. v. 5. Exposition of the Heb, Exerc. 21. Godwyn's Moses and Aaron, b. v., chap. 2.

§ Godwyn's Moses and Aaron, b. v., chap. 2; Lamy's Apparat. Bib., b. i., chap. 12; Brown's Antiq. of the Jews, vol. ii., p. 25; Parkhurst's Greek Lexicon, Mapavada; and Macknight on 1 Cor. v. 11.

curring a debt to the sanctuary; that is, not conscientiously paying the tithes. In addition to the trespass-offering in this case, the delinquent must make up his deficiencies, with twenty per cent. over and above, Lev. v. 14, 15. (5) The same was the rule, where a person denied any thing given him in trust, or any thing lost, which he had found, or any promise he had made; or where he had acquired any property dishonestly, and had his conscience awakened on account of iteven where it was a theft, of which he had once cleared himself by oath, but was now moved by the impulse of his conscience to make voluntary restitution, and wished to get rid of the guilt, Lev. vi. 1-7. By the offering made on such an occasion, the preceding crime was wholly cancelled; and because the delinquent would otherwise have had to make restitution, from two to five fold, he now gave twenty per cent. over and above the amount of his theft. (6) In the case of adultery committed with a slave, an offering was appointed (Lev. xix. 20-22); which did not, however, wholly cancel the punishment, but mitigated it from death, which was the established punishment of adultery, to that of stripes. That such measures as these must have had a very great effect in prompting to the restitution of property unjustly acquired, and to the retraction of false oaths, is quite obvious. But in cases of crimes, of which the good of the community expressly required that the legal punishment should be put in execution, no offering could be accepted.*

2. The capital punishments were

(1) Stoning, which was the most general punishment denounced in the law against criminals who incurred capital punishment. It seems that lapidation was performed in two ways. The first was when stones were thrown on the guilty person till he was killed, in which the witnesses always threw the first stones, Deut. xvii. 17.+ The second mode was, when the criminal was carried to a steep place twelve or fourteen feet in height, whence one of the two witnesses threw him headlong, and the other rolled a large stone upon his body. To the latter method there is supposed to be an allusion in Matt. xxi. 44: "Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to der;" for he that was thus stoned was first flung upon a stone, and then a stone was dashed upon

pow

* Michaelis on the Laws of Moses, vol. iii., pp. 482-488. The wisdom of this law is apparent. It would seem that few men could become so hardened as to bear false witness against their neighbour, when they knew that they would be obliged to inflict the punishment of death themselves.

him.‡ The Jews generally stoned criminals outside of the city; but in some cases, as blasphemers, idolaters, or adulterers, they stoned them wherever they were found. Thus, when they brought to Jesus a woman taken in adultery (John viii. 7), he said to her accusers, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone at her." And the Jews, pretending he blasphemed, took up stones to stone him, even in the temple, verse 59, x. 31. On such occasions they dispensed with the usual formalities, and followed the transports of their passion. This they called "the judgment of zeal."|| There were nineteen offences which subjected to this punishment, according to the rabbins; only six or seven of which are specified in the law. See Lev. xx. 2, 27, xxiv. 14; Deut. xiii. 10, xvii. 5, xxi. 21, xxii. 21, 24.

(2) Strangling, which was effected by two persons with a handkerchief, for the following offences: adultery, striking of parents, manstealing, elders notoriously rebellious against the law, false prophets, and those who prognosticated future events in the name of false gods.

(3) Slaying with the sword, which was the punishment affixed to the two following offences: the voluntary manslayer, and the inhabitants of a city who had fallen into idolatry, Deut. xiii. 13– 16; 1 Sam. xv. 33; 2 Sam. iv. 7; 2 Kings x. 7. (4) Drowning, with a weight suspended from the neck, Matt. xviii. 6.

(5) Sawing asunder. It is said that Isaiah was subjected to this horrible death; and Paul alludes to it in Heb. xi. 37.

(6) Braying in a mortar, Prov. xxvii. 22 This punishment is still resorted to by the Turks.§

(7) Crucifixion. This punishment was introduced among the Jews by the Romans, who had borrowed it from the Greeks. It obtained among the Egyptians, Persians, and Carthaginians. As this is the punishment to which our blessed Lord was subjected, we may be allowed to notice it more at length than we have any of the former punishments mentioned. Dr. Harwood has written very largely upon it, and from his work we have borrowed the following particulars :-Crucifixion is one of the most cruel and excruciating deaths which the art of ingeniously tormenting and extinguishing life ever devised. The person doomed to this dire end was distended on a cross;

Selden de Synedriis, lib. i., c. v., ii. 13; Lightfoot, Temple Service, chap. xxii.

|| Calmet's Bib. Ency., art. "Stoning."

No. xxxi.; and for further particulars relative to the various See the authorities referred to in Fragments to Calmet, kinds of punishment adopted by the Hebrews, see his Bib. Ency,, art. "Punishment."

is heir to.* There is great reason to think that our blessed Redeemer, in his way to Calvary, experienced every abuse of this nature. Might not the scourging that was inflicted-the blows he had received from the soldiers, when in derision they paid him homage-and the abuse he suffered in his way to Calvary, greatly contribute to accelerate his death, and occasion that speedy exit, at which one of the evangelists tells us, "Pilate marvelled?" When the malefactor had carried his cross to the place of execution, a hole was dug in the earth, in which it was to be fixed -the criminal was stripped-a stupifying potion was given himt-the cross was laid on the ground -he was distended upon it-and four soldiers, two on each side, were at the same time employed in driving four large nails through his hands and feet. After they had deeply fixed and riveted these nails in the wood, they elevated the cross with the sufferer upon it; and in order to infix it the more firmly and securely in the earth, they let it violently fall into the cavity they had prepared to receive it. This vehement precipitation of the cross must have occasioned a most dreadful convulsive shock, and agitated the whole frame of the malefactor in a dire and most excruciating manner. These several particulars were observed in the crucifixion of our Lord. Upon his arrival at Calvary, he was stripped-the medicated cup was offered to him-he was fastened to the cross; and while they were employed in piercing his hands and his feet, it is probable that he offered to heaven that most benevolent and affecting | prayer for his murderers, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" In conformity with the Roman custom, a title or inscription, by Pilate's order, was fixed above the head of Jesus, written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, specifying what it was that had brought him to this end. After the cross was erected, a party of soldiers were appointed to keep guard, and to attend at the place of execution, till the criminal breathed his last. So it was in the case of our Lord, Matt. xxvii. 54. While they were thus attending him, it is said our Saviour complained of thirst. This is a natural circumstance. The exquisitely tender and sensible extremities of the body being thus perforated, the person languishing and faint with loss of blood, and lingering under such acute and excruciating torture, must necessarily kindle and inflame a vehement and excessive thirst. One of the guards,

This is questioned by Godwyn. See Rom. Antiq., book iii., sect. 3, chap. 4.

This was for the purpose of rendering him in some measure insensible to the pain. But our blessed Lord refused this potion.

hearing his request, hasted and took a sponge, and filled it from a vessel that stood by, that was full of vinegar. The usual drink of the Roman soldiers was vinegar and water. After receiving this, Jesus cried with a loud voice, “IT IS FINISHED!"-the divine plan and scheme of human redemption is completed: after which his head sunk upon his bosom, and he gave up the ghost, Matt. xxvii. 50. The last circumstance relative to the crucifixion of our Lord which demands notice, was the petition of the Jews to Pilate, that the death of the sufferers might be accelerated. There is an express prohibition in the law, that the bodies of those who were hanged should remain all night upon the tree, Deut. xxi. 23. The next day, therefore, after the crucifixion, being, as one of the evangelists says, a high day (John xix. 31), a number of leading men among the Jews waited on Pilate in a body, to desire that he would hasten the death of the malefactors hanging on their crosses. Pilate, therefore, dispatched his orders to the soldiers on duty, who broke the legs of the two criminals who were crucified along with Christ. But, when they came to Jesus, finding he had already breathed his last, they thought this violence unnecessary; but one of them pierced his side with a spear, whose point appears to have penetrated into the pericardium of the heart: for John, who says that he was an eye-witness of this, declares that there issued from the wound a mixture of blood and water. This wound, had he not been dead, must necessarily have proved fatal. This circumstance John saw; "and he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe," John xix. 35. He thus attested it from a conviction of the great importance of the event, and conscious that on this single fact rested the whole fabric of the Christian religion. The rites of sepulture were commonly denied to such as were crucified. The bodies of the malefactors were generally devoured by wolves, dogs, and other animals; or, if the crosses were higher than usual, they either became a prey to the birds, or putrefied and fell to pieces. Among the Hebrews, as before remarked, the body was not suffered to remain on the cross all night; but they did not permit them to be placed in the tombs of their families, till their flesh had been first consumed in the public sepulchres. It was for this reason, perhaps, that Joseph desired leave from

+ Dr. Huxham's Method for preserving the health of Seamen, in his Essay on Fevers.

|| Harwood's Introd. to the New Testament, vol i, pp. 333 - 353.