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and this constituted a principal part of the shame and ignominy of such a death. "Cross-bearer" was a term of the greatest reproach among the Romans. All along the road to the place of execution, the unhappy criminal was loaded with every wanton cruelty. He was pushed-thrown down—stimulated with goads and impelled forward by every act of insolence and inhumanity, that wretchedness 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 stupefying potion was given him the cross was laid on the ground-he was distended upon it-and four soldiers, two on each side, at the same time were 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.

This is questioned by Godwyn. See Rom. Antiq. book iii. sect. 3. ch. 4. This was for the purpose of rendering him in some measure insensible to the pain. But our blessed Lord refused this potion!

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, 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.

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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. 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 St. 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 St. 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. +

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The rites of sepulture were commonly denied to such 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

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

+ Harwood's Introd. to the New Testament, vol. ii. pp. 336-353.

prey to the birds, or putrified 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 Pilate to lay the body of Jesus in his own tomb; that it might not be thrown undistinguished among the criminals in the public burial place, which adjoined the place of crucifixion. From this circumstance we also learn, that the Roman governors had the power of dispensing with this part of the ignominious sentence, by delivering the body to the friends of the deceased.

The punishment of crucifixion was so common among the Romans, that by a very usual figure, pains, afflictions, troubles, &c. were called crosses. Hence our Saviour says, that his disciple must take up his cross and follow him, Matt. xvi. 24. The cross is the sign of ignominy and suffering yet it is the badge and glory of the Christian. Christ is the way we are to follow; and there is no way of attaining that glory and happiness which is promised in the Gospel, but by the cross of Christ.*

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Such were the principal capital punishments among Jews, in various periods of their history. But we must not dismiss this subject, without noticing that species of punishment which consisted in-(8.) posthumous insults, and was designed to brand with infamy those who were its subjects. Michaelis notices three punishments of this description.1. Burning, Lev. xx. 14; xxi. 9. The Jewish rabbis have supposed, and in this they have been followed by some Christian commentators, that the punishment here spoken of was inflicted on the criminal while alive; by pouring molten lead down his throat. No such sanguinary law, however, appears among the enactments of Moses. That burning was a posthumous punishment, inflicted on the lifeless corpse of the criminal, is evident from Josh. vii. 15. 25. In the former verse it is ordained that the person who had committed the crime of sacrilege, and who was yet undiscovered, should be burnt with fire; and in the latter, we find that the execu tion of the sentence upon him consisted, in his being first stoned and then burnt.-2. Hanging, Deut, xxi. 22; Josh. x. 16. This was considered as a mark of the greatest infamy; because by the explanation of Moses himself, a person hanged

* Calmet's Biblical Envelopædia, art." Cross."

was held as "accursed of God," and for this reason, that his death did not sufficiently atone for his crime; and, therefore, the law considered him as a person who carried the curse of God with him into the other world, and was punishable even there.-3. Heaping stones upon the bodies of criminals, who had been already put to death, or upon their remains when consumed by fire; in order to serve as a perpetual monument of their infamy, in having there suffered any such ignominious punishment. See Josh. vii. 25, 26; viii. 29; 2 Sam. xviii. 17.* This custom was prevalent among the ancient Arabs, and obtains even in the present day.†

II. Of the treatment of prisoners we have necessarily said something in noticing the punishments to which they were subjected. But there are two or three additional circumstances which require to be adverted to, as they illustrate some parts of the New Testament writings. The Roman method of fettering and confining criminals was singular. One end of a chain, that was of a commodious length, was fixed about the right arm of the prisoner, and the other end was fastened to the left of a soldier. Thus a soldier was coupled to the prisoner, and every where attended and guarded him. Thus was St. Paul confined. Fettered in this manner, he delivered his apology before Festus, Agrippa, and Bernice, Acts xxvi. And it was this circumstance which occasioned one of the most pathetic and affecting strokes of true oratory that was ever displayed either in the Grecian or Roman senate-"Would to God that not only you, but also ALL that hear me this day, were not ALMOST, but ALTOGETHER such as I am-except these bonds!" What a prodigious effect must this striking conclusion, and the sight of the irons held up to enforce it, make upon the minds of the audience! During the two years that Paul was a prisoner at large, and lived at Rome in his own hired house, he was subjected to this confinement. Paul was suffered to dwell with a soldier that kept him. Acts xxviii. 16. The circumstance of his publicly wearing this chain, and being thus coupled to a soldier, was very disgraceful and dishonourable, and the ignominy of it would naturally occasion the desertion of former friends and acquaintance. Hence the Apostle immortalises the name of Onesiphorus, and fervently intercedes with God to bless his family, and to remember him in the day of future recompence, for a rare instance of dis

*

Michaelis on the Laws of Moses, vol. iii. pp. 423-431.

It is said that the pillar of Absalom, which stands in the valley of Jehoshaphat, is heaped round with stones, which are thrown at it by the Turks, as an expression of their indignation at his crime.

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tinguished fidelity and affection to him when all had turned away and forsaken him:-" The Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain; but immediately upon his arrival in Rome he sought me out very diligently till he found me. The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day," 2 Tim. i. 16-18.

Sometimes the prisoner was fastened to two soldiers, one on each side-wearing a chain both on his right and left hand. St. Paul at first was thus confined. When the tribune received him from the hands of the Jews, he commanded him to be bound with two chains, Acts xxi. 33. In this manner was Peter fettered and confined by Herod Agrippa: "The same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains," ch. xii. 6.

It further appears that if the soldiers, who were thus appointed to guard criminals and to whom they were chained, suffered the prisoner to escape, they were punished with death. Thus when Peter was delivered out of prison by a miracle, the next morning there was no small confusion among the soldiers, who were appointed his guards, and to whom he was chained, what had become of Peter? Acts xii. 18. Whence it appears that this deliverance had been effected without their knowledge, when they were sunk in repose. Upon which Herod, after making a fruitless search for him, ordered all those who had been entrusted with his custody, to be put to death, ver. 19. See also Acts xvi. 27.*

SECTION VI.

MILITARY AFFAIRS.

The whole nation liable to be called to arms: exemptions from military service-Strength of the Israelitish armies-Military officers - Order of battle and encampment—Treatment of enemies-Division of the spoil-Arms-Chariots - Qualifications of a warrior-Return of a conquering army-Reward of the

victors.

1. The maxim of ancient states, Quot cives, tot milites, whoever would be defended, must defend-was, as Michaelis

* Harwood's Introd. vol. ii. pp. 207-211.

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