of Greek authors, that stoning was a Grecian punishment. | factors from the Tarpeian rock. The same practice obtains The inconstancy of a populace, easily persuaded by any among the Moors at Constantine, a town in Barbary.8 plausible demagogues, will sufficiently account for the sudden 6. DROWNING was a punishment in use among the Syrians. change in the mind of the Lystrians towards the apostle. and was well known to the Jews in the time of our Saviour, Although the law of Moses punished no one with infamy, though we have no evidence that it was practised by them. during life, yet three marks of infamy are denounced against It was also in use among the Greeks and Romans. The those who were punished capitally; viz.—(1.) Burning the Emperor Augustus, we are told, punished certain persons, criminal who had been stoned, agreeably to the ancient con- who had been guilty of rapacity in the province (of Syria or suetudinary law. (Gen. xxxviii. 24. Lev. xx. 14. xxI. 9.)- of Lycia), by causing them to be thrown into a river, with a (2.) Hanging, either on a tree or on a gibbet (for the Hebrew heavy weight about their necks." Josephus1o also tells us word signifies both); which was practised in Egypt (Gen. that the Galileans revolting, drowned the partisans of Herod xl. 17-19.), and also enjoined by Moses. (Num. xxv. 4, 5. | in the sea of Gennesareth. To this mode of capital punishDeut. xxi. 22.) The five Canaanitish kings were first slain ment Jesus Christ alludes in Matt. xviii. 6.1 and then hanged. (Josh. x. 26.) Persons who were hanged were considered as accursed of God, that is, punished by him and abominable; on which account they were to be taken down and buried the same day. (Deut. xxi. 23.) The hanging of Saul's sons, recorded in 2 Sam. xxi. 6., was done, not by the Israelites, but by the Gibeonites, who were of Canaanitish origin, and probably retained their old laws. The hanging mentioned by Moses was widely different from crucifixion, which was a Roman punishment; on account of its ignominy, however, the Jews subsequently extended the declaration of Moses to it, and accounted the crucified person as accursed. (John xix. 31-34. Gal. iii. 13.)-(3.) The Heaping of Stones on the bodies of criminals, who had been already stoned to death, or slain by the sword, or upon their remains, when consumed by fire.2 Such a heap was accumulated over Achan (Josh. vii. 25, 26.), and also over Absalom. (2 Sam. xviii. 17.) The Arabs, long after the time of David, expressed their detestation of deceased enemies in the same manner. Similar heaps were raised over persons murdered in the highways in the time of the prophet Ezekiel (xxxix. 15.); as they also are to this day, in Palestine, and other parts of the East.

3. BURNING OFFENDERS ALIVE is a punishment which Moses commanded to be inflicted on the daughters of priests, who should be guilty of fornication (Lev. xxi. 9.), and upon a man who should marry both the mother and the daughter. (Lev. xx. 14.) This punishment seems to have been in use in the East, from a very early period. When Judah was informed that his daughter-in-law Tamar was pregnant, he condemned her to be burnt. (Gen. xxxviii. 24.) Many ages afterwards we find the Babylonians or Chaldeans burning certain offenders alive (Jer. xxix. 22. Dan. iii. 6.); and this mode of punishment was not uncommon in the East so lately as the seventeenth century.5

The preceding are the only capital punishments denounced in the Mosaic law in subsequent times others were introduced among the Jews, as their intercourse increased with foreign nations.

7. BRUISING, OF POUNDING IN A MORTAR, is a punishment still in use among the Turks. The ulema or body of lawyers are in Turkey exempted from confiscation of their property, and from being put to death, except by the pestle and mortar. Some of the Turkish guards, who had permitted the escape of the Polish prince Coreski in 1618, were pounded to death in great mortars of iron.12 This horrid punishment was not unknown in the time of Solomon, who expressly alludes to it in Prov. xxvii. 22.

8. DICHOTOMY, or CUTTING ASUNDER, was a capital punishment anciently in use in the countries contiguous to Judæa. The rabbinical writers report that Isaiah was thus put to death by the profligate Manasseh; and to this Saint Paul is supposed to allude. (Heb. xi. 37.) Nebuchadnezzar threatened it to the Chaldee magi, if they did not interpret his dream (Dan. ii. 5.), and also to the blasphemers of the true God. (Dan. iii. 29.) Herodotus says, that Sabacho had a vision, in which he was commanded to cut in two all the Egyptian priests: and that Xerxes ordered one of the sons of Pythias to be cut in two, and one half placed on each side of the way, that his army might pass between them.13 Trajan is said to have inflicted this punishment on some rebellious Jews. It is still practised by the Moors of Western Barbary, and also in Persia.14

9. BEATING TO DEATH (TUμTavioμos) was practised by Antiochus towards the Jews (2 Macc. vi. 19. 28. 30.), and is referred to by Saint Paul. (Heb. xi. 35. Gr.) This was a punishment in use among the Greeks, and was usually inflicted upon slaves. The real or supposed culprit was fastened to a stake, and beaten to death with sticks. The same punishment is still in use among the Turks, under the appellation of the bastinado: with them, however, it is seldom mortal.

10. EXPOSING TO WILD BEASTS appears to have been a punishment among the Medes and Persians. It was inflicted first on the exemplary prophet Daniel, who was miraculously preserved, and afterwards on his accusers, who miserably perished. (Dan. vi. 7. 12. 16-24.) From them it appears to have passed to the Romans.15 In their theatres they had two sorts of amusements, each sufficiently barbarous. Sometimes they cast men naked to the wild beasts, to be devoured by them: this punishment was inflicted on slaves and vile persons. Sometimes persons were sent into the theatre, de-armed, to fight with wild beasts: if they conquered, they had their lives and liberty: but if not, they fell a prey to the beasts. To this latter usage (concerning which some further particulars are given in a subsequent page) Saint Paul refers in 2 Tim. iv. 17. and 1 Cor. xv. 32.

4. DECAPITATION, or beheading, though not a mode of punishment enjoined by Moses, was certainly in use before his time. It existed in Egypt (Gen. xl. 19.), and it is well known to have been inflicted under the princes of the Herodian family. Thus John the Baptist was beheaded (Matt. xiv. 8-12.) by one of Herod's life-guards, who was spatched to his prison for that purpose. (Mark vi. 27.) 5. PRECIPITATION, or casting headlong from a window, or from a precipice, was a punishment rarely used; though we meet with it in the history of the kings, and in subsequent times. Thus, the profligate Jezebel was precipitated out of a window (2 Kings ix. 30. 33.), and the same mode of punish-flicting upon them the sentence to which they had been conment still obtains in Persia." Amaziah, king of Judah, barbarously forced ten thousand Idumæan prisoners of war to leap from the top of a high rock. (2 Chron. xxv. 12.) The Jews attempted to precipitate Jesus Christ from the brow of a mountain. (Luke iv. 29.) James, surnamed the Just, was thrown from the highest part of the temple into the subjacent valley. The same mode of punishment, it is well known, obtained among the Romans, who used to throw certain male

Biscoe on the Acts, vol. i. pp. 315, 316.

2 Michaelis has given some instances of this practice. See his Commentaries, vol. iii. p. 430.

Dr. Lightfoot's Works, vol. i. pp. 901, 902.

Dr. Shaw's Travels in Barbary, vol. i. Pref. p. xviii. 8vo. edit. Chardin, in his Travels (vol. vi. p. 118. of Langles' edition), after speaking of the most common modes of punishing with death, says, "But there is still a particular way of putting to death such as have transgressed in civil affairs, either by causing a dearth, or by selling above the tax by a false weight, or who have committed themselves in any other manner. The cooks are put upon a spit, and roasted over a slow fire (see Jeremiah xxix. 22.), bakers are thrown into a hot oven. During the dearth in 1688, I saw such ovens heated on the royal square at Ispahan, to terrify the bakers, and deter them from deriving advantage from the general distress." -Burder's Oriental Literature, vol. ii. p. 204.

Sir R. K. Porter's Travels in Persia, vol. ii.

PP.

28--30.

In the case of certain extraordinary criminals, besides indemned, it was not unusual to demolish their houses, and reduce them to a common place for filth and dung. Among other things, Nebuchadnezzar denounced this disgrace to the diviners of Chaldæa, if they did not declare his dream to him (Dan. ii. 5.); and afterwards to all such as should not worship the God of Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego. (Dan. iii. 29.) And Darius threatened the same punishment to those who should molest the Jews. (Ezra vi. 11.) In this way the Romans destroyed the house of Spurius Cassius, after they had precipitated him from the Tarpeian

Livy, Hist. lib. vi. c. 20.

Pitt's Religion and Manners of the Mahometans, pp. 311, 312. London edit. 1810. • Seutonius, in Augusto, c. 67. 10 Ant. Jud. lib. xiv. e. 15. § 10 11 Grotius in loc.

19 Knolles's History of the Turks, vol. ii. p. 947. London, 1687. 13 Raphelii Annotationes in Nov. Test. ex Herodoto, tom. i. p. 376. Other instances from ancient writers are given by Dr. Whitby, on Matt. xxiv. 51. and Kuinoël, Comment. in Hist. Lib. Nov. Test. vol. i. p. 633.

14 Shaw's Travels, vol. i. p. 457. Morier's Second Journey, p. 96. 15 This barbarous mode of punishment still exists in Morocco. See an interesting extract from Höst's Account of Morocco and Fez, in Burder's Oriental Literature, vol. ii. p. 207

12 Trypho the Jew every where affects to treat the Christian religion with contempt, on account of the crucifixion of its author. He ridicules its professors for centering all their hopes in a man who was crucified! Dialog. cum Tryphone, p. 33. The person whom you call your Messiah, says he, incurred the last disgrace and ignominy, for he fell under the • Duces bella pravo consilio gerentes, etiamsi prospera fortuna subse-greatest curse in the law of God, he was crucified! p. 90. Again, we tuta esset, crucí tamen suffigebantur. Valerius Maximus, lib. ii. cap. 7. must hesitate, says Trypho, with regard to our believing a person, who 191, edit. Torren. Leida, 1726, was so ignominously crucified, being the Messiah; for it is written in the

(3.) "The several circumstances related by the four evan-show: Agrippa being a Syrian, and king of a large country gelists as accompanying the crucifixion of Jesus were con- in Syria. formable to the Roman custom in such executions; and, When Pilate had pronounced the sentence of condemnafrequently occurring in ancient authors, do not only reflect tion on our Lord, and publicly adjudged him to be crucified, beauty and lustre upon these passages, but happily corrobo- he gave orders that he should be scourged. Then Pilate took rate and confirm the narrative of the sacred penmen." We Jesus and scourged him. And when he had scourged Jesus, says will exhibit before our readers a detail of these as they are another of the evangelists, he delivered him to be crucified. specified by the evangelists. Among the Romans, scourging was always inflicted previEvery mark of infamy that malice could suggest was ac-ously to crucifixion. Many examples might be produced of cumulated on the head of our Redeemer. While he was in this custom. Let the following suffice. Livy, speaking of the high-priest's house, they did spit in his face and buffeted the fate of those slaves who had confederated and taken up him, and others smote him with the palms of their hands, say- arms against the state, says, that many of them were slain, ing, Prophecy unto us, thou Christ, who is he that smote thee? many taken prisoners, and others, after they had been whip(Matt. xxvi. 67, 68. Mark xiv. 65.) Pilate, hearing that ped or scourged, were suspended on crosses. Philo, relating our Lord was of Galilee, sent him to Herod; and before he the cruelties which Flaccus the Roman prefect exercised upon was dismissed by him, Herod, with his men of war, set him at the Jews of Alexandria, says, that after they were mangled nought; and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and torn with scourges in the theatres, they were fastened (Luke xxiii. 11.) He was insulted and mocked by the sol- to crosses. Josephus also informs us, that at the siege of diers, when Pilate ordered him to be scourged the first time; Jerusalem great numbers of the Jews were crucified, after that by that lesser punishment he might satisfy the Jews and they had been previously whipped, and had suffered every save his life, as is related by St. John. After Pilate had wanton cruelty. condemned him to be crucified, the like indignities were repeated by the soldiers, as we are assured by two evangelists. (Matt. xxvii. 27-31. Mark xv. 16-20.) And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe, and when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it on his head, and a reed in his right hand and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail! king of the Jews. And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.

"After they had inflicted this customary flagellation, the evangelist informs us that they obliged our Lord to carry to the place of execution the cross, or, at least, the transverse beam of it, on which he was to be suspended. Lacerated, therefore, with the stripes and bruises he had received, faint with the loss of blood, his spirits exhausted by the cruel insults and blows that were given him when they invested him with robes of mock royalty, and oppressed with the in

These are tokens of contempt and ridicule which were incumbent weight of his cross; in these circumstances our use at that time. Dio, among the other indignities offered Saviour was urged along the road. We doubt not but in to Sejanus the favourite of Tiberius (in whose reign our this passage to Calvary every indignity was offered him. Saviour was crucified), as they were carrying him from the This was usual. Our Lord, fatigued and spent with the senate-house to prison, particularly mentioned this,-"That treatment he had received, could not support his cross. The they struck him on the head." But there is one instance of soldiers, therefore, who attended him, compelled one Simon, ridicule which happened so soon after this time, and has so a Cyrenean, who was coming from the country to Jerusa great a resemblance to that to which our Saviour was ex-lem, and then happened to be passing by them, to carry it for posed, that it deserves to be stated at length. Caligula, the him. The circumstance here mentioned of our Lord bearing successor of Tiberius, had, in the very beginning of his reign, his cross was agreeable to the Roman custom. Slaves and given Agrippa the tetrarchy of his uncle Philip, being about malefactors, who were condemned to this death, were comthe fourth part of his grandfather Herod's dominions, with pelled to carry the whole or part of the fatal gibbet on which the right of wearing a diadem or crown. When he was they were destined to die. This constituted a principal part setting out from Rome to make a visit to his people, the em- of the shame and ignominy of such a death._*Cross-bearer peror advised him to go by Alexandria as the best way. was a term of the last reproach among the Romans. The When he came thither he kept himself very private: but the miserable wretch, covered with blood, from the scourges that Alexandrians having got intelligence of his arrival there, and had been inflicted upon him, and groaning under the weight of of the design of his journey, were filled with envy, as Philo his cross, was, all along the road to the place of execution, says, at the thoughts of a Jew having the title of king. loaded with every wanton cruelty. So extreme were the They had recourse to various expedients, in order to mani- misery and sufferings of the hapless criminals who were fest their indignation: one was the following:-"There condemned to this punishment, that Plutarch makes use of it was," says Philo,2 "one Carabas, a sort of distracted fellow, as an illustration of the misery of sin, that every kind of that in all seasons of the year went naked about the streets. wickedness produces its own particular torment; just as He was somewhat between a madman and a fool, the com- every malefactor, when he is brought forth to execution, carmon jest of boys and other idle people. This wretch they ries his own cross. He was pushed, thrown down, stimubrought into the theatre, and placed him on a lofty seat, that lated with goads, and impelled forward by every act of insohe might be conspicuous to all; then they put a thing made lence and inhumanity that could be inflicted. There is of paper on his head for a crown, the rest of his body they great reason to think that our blessed Redeemer in his way covered with a mat instead of a robe, and for a sceptre one to Calvary experienced every abuse of this nature, especially put into his hand a little piece of reed which he had just when he proceeded slowly along, through languor, lassitude, taken up from the ground. Having thus given him a mimic and faintness, and the soldiers and rabble found his strength royal dress, several young fellows with poles on their shoul- incapable of sustaining and dragging his cross any farther. ders came and stood on each side of him as his guards. Then On this occasion we imagine that our Lord suffered very there came people toward him, some to pay their homage to cruel treatment from those who attended him. Might not the him, others to ask justice of him, and some to know his will scourging that was inflicted, the blows he had received from and pleasure concerning affairs of state: and in the crowd the soldiers when in derision they paid him homage, and the were loud and confused acclamations of Maris, Maris; that abuse he suffered on his way to Calvary, greatly contribute being, as they say, the Syriac word for Lord, thereby inti- to accelerate his death, and occasion that speedy dissolution mating whom they intended to ridicule by all this mock at which one of the evangelists tells us Pilate marvelled? "When the malefactor had carried his cross to the place Multi occisi, multi capti, alii verberati crucibus affixi. Livii, lib. xxxiii. 36.

law, Cursed is every one who is hanged on a cross. Justin Martyr, Dialog. cum Tryphone, p. 271. edit. Jebb. London, 1719. See also pages 272. 283. 378. 392. See also Eusebii Hist. Eccl. pp. 171. 744. Cantab.

1 Various opinions have been offered concerning the species of thorn, intended by the sacred writers. Bartholin wrote an elaborate dissertation De Spinea Corona, and Lydius has collected the opinions of several writers in his Florum Sparsio ad Historiam Passionis Jesu Christi. (Analect. pp. 13-17.) The intelligent traveller Hasselquist says, that the naba or nabka of the Arabians "is in all probability the tree which afforded the crown of thorns put on the head of Christ: it grows very commonly in the East. This plant was very fit for the purpose; for it has many SMALL AND SHARP SPINES which are well adapted to give pain. The crown might easily be made of these soft, round, and pliant branches; and what in my opinion seems to be the greatest proof is, that the leaves very much resemble those of ivy, as they are of a very deep green. Perhaps the enemies of Christ would have a plant somewhat resembling that with which emperors and generals were used to be crowned, that there might be calumny even in the punishment." Hasselquist's Voyages and Travels in the Levant, pp. 288, 289.

2 In Flacc. p. 970

Philo in Flac. p. 529. edit. Mangey. See also pages 527, 528. ejusdem editionis. The Roman custom was to scourge before all executions. The magistrates bringing them out into the forum, after they had scourged them according to custom, they struck off their heads. Polybii Hist. lib. i. p. 10. tom. i. edit. Gronovii. 1670.

Josephus de Bello Jud. lib. v. c. 2. p. 353. Havercamp. Bell. Judiac. lib. ii. cap. 14. $9. p. 182. Haverc.

Vid. Justi Lipsii de Cruce, lib. ii. cap.6. p. 1180. Vesaliæ.
Plutarch de tarda Dei vindictà, p. 982. edit. Gr. 8vo. Steph. Dionysii
Halicar. lib. vii. tom. i. p. 456. Oxon. 1704.

O carnificium cribrum, quod credo fore:
Ita te forabunt patibulatum per vias
Stimulis, si huc reveniat senex.

Plautus Mostel. Act. i. sc. 1. ver. 53. edit. var. 1684.
Nec dubium est quin impulerint, dejecerint, erexerint, per sævitiam

ant per lusum. Lipsius de Cruce, tom. vi. p. 1180. Vesaliæ.

whom Petronius Arbiter mentions, were crucified by order
of the governor of the province without the city. This was
the custom, likewise, in Sicily, as appears from Cicero.
"It was customary for the Romans, on any extraordinary
execution, to put over the head of the malefactor an inscrip-
tion denoting the crime for which he suffered. Several exam-
ples of this occur in the Roman history." It was also usual
at this time, at Jerusalem, to post up advertisements, which
were designed to be read by all classes of persons, in several
languages. Titus, in a message which he sent to the Jews
when the city was on the point of falling into his hands, and
by which he endeavoured to persuade them to surrender,
says: Did you not erect pillars, with inscriptions on them in
the GREEK and in our (the LATIN) language, "Let no one
pass beyond these bounds ?" "In conformity to this usage,
an 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. This writing was
by the Romans called titulus, a title, and it is the very ex-
pression made use of by the evangelist John, Pilate wrote a
TITLE (102↓ TITAON), and put it on the cross. (John xix
19.) After the cross was erected, a party of soldiers was
appointed to keep guard," and to attend at the place of exe-
cution till the criminal breathed his last; thus also we read
that a body of Roman soldiers, with a centurion, were de-
puted to guard our Lord and the two malefactors that were
crucified with him. (Matt. xxvii. 54.)

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, the wretch 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 agonizing wretch upon it; and in order to fix it more firmly and securely in the earth, they let it violently fall into the cavity they had dug to receive it. This vehement precipitation of the cross must give the person that was nailed to it a most dreadful convulsive shock, and agitate his whole frame in a dire and most excruciating manner. These several particulars the Romans observed in the crucifixion of our Lord. Upon his arrival at Calvary he was stripped: a stupefying draught was offered him, which he refused to drink. This, St. Mark says, was a composition of myrrh and wine. The design of this potion was, by its inebriating and intoxicating quality, to blunt the edge of pain, and stun the quickness of sensibility. Our Lord rejected this medicated cup, offered him perhaps by the kindness of some of his friends, it being his fixed resolution to meet death in all its horrors; not to alleviate and suspend its pains by any such preparation, but to submit to the death, even this death of crucifixion, with all its attendant circumstances." He had the joy that was set before him, in procuring the salvation of men, in full and immediate view. He wanted not, therefore, on this great occasion, any thing to produce an unnatural stupor, and throw "While they were thus attending them, it is said, our oblivion and stupefaction over his senses. He cheerfully Saviour complained of thirst. This is a natural circumstance. and voluntarily drank the cup with all its bitter ingredients, The exquisitely sensible and tender extremities of the body which his heavenly Father had put into his hands. Our being thus perforated, the person languishing and faint with Lord was fastened to his cross, as was usual, by four soldiers, loss of blood, and lingering under such acute and excrucitwo on each side, according to the respective limbs they ating torture,―these causes must necessarily produce a veheseverally nailed. While they were employed in piercing his ment and excessive thirst. One of the guards, hearing this hands and feet, it is probable that he offered to Heaven that request, hastened and took a sponge, and filled it from a most compassionate and affecting prayer for his murderers, vessel that stood by, that was full of vinegar. The usual in which he pleaded the only circumstance that could possi- drink of the Roman soldiers was vinegar and water. The bly extenuate their guilt: Father, forgive them, for they know knowledge of this custom illustrates this passage of sacred not what they do! It appears from the evangelist that our history, as it has sometimes been inquired, for what purpose Lord was crucified without the city. And he bearing his cross was this vessel of vinegar? Considering, however, the dewent forth to a place called the place of a skull, which is called rision and cruel treatment which Jesus Christ had already in the Hebrew Golgotha. (John xix. 17.) For the place where received from the soldiers, it is by no means improbable that Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city. (ver. 20.) And the one of them gave him the vinegar with the design of augapostle to the Hebrews has likewise mentioned this circum-menting his unparalleled sufferings. After receiving this, stance: Wherefore Jesus also suffered without the gate. (Heb. Jesus cried with a loud voice, and uttered with all the vehe xiii. 12.) This is conformable to the Jewish law, and to ex-mence he could exert, that comprehensive word on which a amples mentioned in the Old Testament. (Num. xv. 35.) volume might be written, It is finished! the important work And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall surely be put to of human redemption is finished; after which he reclined death all the congregation shall stone him with stones without his head upon his bosom, and dismissed his spirit." (John the camp. (1 Kings xxi. 13.) Then they carried him [Na- xix. 30. Matt. xxvii. 50.) both] forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones that he died. This was done at Jezreel, in the territories of the king of Israel, not far from Samaria. And if this custom was practised there, we may be certain the Jews did not choose that criminals should be executed within Jerusalem, of the sanctity of which they had so high an opinion, and which they were very zealous to preserve free from all ceremonial impurity, though they defiled it with the practice of the most horrid immoralities. It is possible, indeed, that they might, in their sudden and ungoverned rage (to which they were subject in the extreme at this time), upon any affront offered to their laws or customs, put persons who thus provoked them to death, upon the spot, in the city, or the temple, or wherever they found them; but whenever they were calm enough to admit the form of a legal process, we may be assured that they did not approve of an execution within the city. And among the Romans this custom was very common, at least in the provinces. The robbers of Ephesus, • Sese multimodis conculcat ictibus, myrrhæ contra presumptione mu. nitas. Apuleii Metamorph. lib. viii. Again: Obfirmatus myrrhæ presumptione nullis verberibus, ac ne ipsi quidem succubuit igni. Lib. x. Apuleii Met. Usque hodie, says St. Jerome, Judæi omnes increduli DoAinicæ resurrectionis aceto et felle potant Jesum, et dant ei vinum myr. rbarom, ut dum consopiant, et mala eorum non videat. Hieronymus ad Matt. xxvii.

• See Dr. Benson's Life of Christ, p. 508.

* Monet nos quoque non parum evangelista, qui quatuor numerat milites trucifigentes, scilicet juxta quatuor membra figenda. Quod clarum etiam et ex tunicæ partitione, quæ quatuor militibus facienda erat. Cornelii Carti de Clavis Dominicis, p. 35. edit. Antwerpiæ, 1670. The four soldiers who parted his garments, and cast lots for his vesture, were the four who raised him to the cross, each of them fixing a limb, and who, it seems, for this service had a right to the crucified person's clothes. Dr. Macknight, p.504. second edition, 4to.

• Credo ego-istoc examplo tibi esse eundum actutum extra portam, dispessis manibus patibulum quem habebis. Plautus in Mil.. Glor. act. ii.

The last circumstance to be mentioned relative to the crucifixion of our Saviour, is the petition of the Jews to Pilate, that the death of the sufferers might be accelerated, with a view to the interment of Jesus. All the four evange lists have particularly mentioned this circumstance. Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus; then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he laid it in his own new tomb. (Matt. xxvii. 58–60. Mark xv. 45, 46. Luke xxiii. 50-53. John xix. 38-40.) And it may be fairly concluded, the rulers of the Jews did not disapprove of it: since they were solicitous that the bodies might be taken down, and not hang on the cross the next day. (John xix. 31.) The Jews therefore, says St. John, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath-day (for

• Quum interim imperator provinciæ latrones jussit crucibus adfigi, se. cundum illam eandem casulam, in qua recens cadaver matrona deflebat Satyr. c. 71.

Quid enim attinuit, cum Mamertini more atque instituto suo crucem fixisset post urbem in via Pompeia; te jubere in ea parte figere, quæ ad fretum spectaret 7 In Verr. lib. v. c. 66. n. 169.

* Dion Cassius, lib. liv. p. 732. edit. Reimar, 1750. See also Suetonius in Caligula, c. 32. Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. lib. v. p. 206. Cantab. 1720. Josephus, de Bell. Jud. lib. vi. c. 2. § 4.

See instances in Suetonius, in Caligula, c. 34.; and in Domitian, c. 10. 10 "It is with much propriety that Matthew calls this T2 accusation: for it was false, that ever Christ pretended to be king of the Jews, in the sense the inscription held forth: he was accused of this, but there was no proof of the accusation; however, it was affixed to the cross." Dr. A. Clarke on Matt. xxvii. 37.

11 Miles cruces asservabat, ne quis corpora ad sepulturam detraheret. Petronius, Arbiter, cap. 111. p. 513. edit. Burman. Traject. ad Rhen. 1709. Vid. not. ad loc.

13 The Roman soldiers, says Dr. Huxham, drank posca (viz. water and vinegar) for their common drink, and found it very healthy and useful. Dr. Huxham's Method for preserving the Health of Seamen, in his Essay on Fevers, p. 263. 3d edition. See also Lamy's Apparatus Biblicus, vol. ii. p. 278. See also Macknight in loc.

CHAPTER IV.

ON THE JEWISH AND ROMAN MODES OF COMPUTING TIME, MENTIONED IN THE SCRIPTURES.

I. Days. II. Hours.-Watches of the Night.-III. Weeks.—IV. Months.-V. Years, civil, ecclesiastical, and natural.— Jewish Calendar.—VI. Parts of the Time taken for the Whole.-VII. Remarkable Eras of the Jews.