draw commiseration from the very stones of his tower. "He made the back of Jesus red," says Nonnus, "with the horrible whip." It should always be remembered that Christ endured the Roman scourging and not the Jewish. The former was not only more painful than the latter, but also more disgraceful. All classes of Jews, even priests, if malefactors, were liable to suffer their mode of scourging; but Roman citizens were always exempt from the Roman mode; even if criminal, they were too dignified to receive any flagellation save that with the rod. Saint Paul availed himself of his free citizenship, to avoid the scourge of the centurion, see Acts xxii. 25; and another freeman is represented by Cicero as crying rightfully, but in vain, to the flagellant Verres, "I am a Roman citizen, I have served under Lucius Pretius." Jesus "was born in Bethlehem ; he could therefore claim no legal exemption from the instrument which was appropriated exclusively to slaves and dependents. He not only took upon him the form of a servant, and died the death of a slave, but also endured the preparatory stripes of a slave. "The ploughers ploughed upon his back, they made long their furrows."

In the earlier ages, the criminal received his regular flagellation while on his way to the cross. Dionysius, and Plautus speak of malefactors, who were whipped and goaded with stings as they walked to the spot where death waited to ease them of their laceration. The executioners are said to have carried behind the prisoner, thongs, rods, or poles, either sharpened at the end, or headed with iron, and to have been incessantly puncturing him, harassed, as he must have been, with the most dismal forebodings.

In the later ages, the criminal received his preparatory scourging while bound to a pillar, either in his own house, or at the pretorium. Instances are recorded of persons who were doomed to a double flagellation; one at the whippingpost, another on their way to the cross. That Christ was scourged at the pretorium, either by the governor or under his inspection, there can be no doubt. See Matt. xxvii. 26. Nor need there be doubt, but that he was scourged in the customary attitude. "Our Lord," says Prudentius, his assertion however is not quoted as authority, "stood up with his hands bound, and being tied to the column gave his back, as a slave, to the scourges." Jerome pretends, that this pillar was preserved till his own day, and was used as a

prop to a Christian temple. The Jews themselves acknowledge, that Christ was bound to a pillar, though they ascribe the act of binding him to the wrong agents. "The elders of Jerusalem," says their Mishna Bava Kama, c. 8, s. 6, "took Jesus and brought him to the city, and bound him to a marble pillar in the city, and smote him with whips, and said unto him, where are all the miracles which thou hast done?" That Christ was scourged along the "dolorous way," is indeed not so evident as that he was scourged at the court, yet it is the unbroken voice of tradition, and as prisoners less obnoxious than he were doomed to such excess of maltreatment, there is no improbability that he, as in other things so in this, endured "affliction more than was meet." Very rarely was a prisoner led to the cross without suffering on his way the basest indignity. "He was pushed, thrown down, stimulated with goads, and impelled forwards by every act of insolence and inhumanity that could be inflicted."*

Among the marks of contempt shown to the expectant of death during this scene of the tragedy, was his being doomed to carry his own cross. The mode in which he carried it, was not uniform. Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Antiq. 7, p. 453,) says, "the executioners led forward the slave to punishment, stretched out both his hands, and tied the cross to his wrists, shoulders, and breast, so that he may carry it firmly bound to him." Sometimes it was borne on the shoulder without the use of any ligament. Not unfrequently only the smaller, lighter part of it, the transverse beam was imposed upon him, and in some cases, he was exempted entirely from the cumbersome load. It must have been a peculiar task, for a man almost spent by fear, smarting from the lashes of the thong, fainting from the consequent loss of blood, and hauled about to the right hand and the left by an insulting rabble, to carry in such circumstances the instrument of his impending agonies. But the difficulty of it was not equal to the disgrace. No epithet was so reproachful as "furcifer," "the cross-bearer." Plutarch illustrates the miseries of sin, by showing that every species of it produces its own peculiar torments, just as the wretch driven on to crucifixion carries his own engine of wo. No wonder that the bearer so often fell down groaning under

Lipsius, 1180, tom. 3.

the weight of his instrument, the pressure of his ignominy, distresses, and forebodings.

Our Saviour's cross was placed upon him when he started from the fort for Golgotha. The instruments of death were usually deposited in or near the fort. It appears from the history, that he was unable to carry the machine far, and was relieved from it, not partially, as several commentators say, but altogether. His distress for several days had been severe, see John xii. 27; during the last night it had operated so powerfully upon his animal system, as to cause a profuse perspiration, while he was standing without exercise in the cold open air; notwithstanding the feebleness which must have been induced by this unprecedented mental agony, he had been allowed no rest during the night; had been compelled with all his weariness, to stand up at least three hours in the uncomfortable court-room,* and to be there harassed by impertinent and impudent judges; had been, on the morning of Friday, driven handcuffed from palace to palace, from mountain to mountain, and subjected 'to the most mortifying insult and derision; had at last been scourged with Roman severity and to a degree which even a Roman governor hoped would excite the pity of enemies, of enemies among blood-thirsty Jews. No wonder then that he was exhausted, and, in view of what he was soon to encounter on the cross, was too faint to carry the onerous load.

As a title was affixed to the tree of the Saviour's cross, there was probably, notwithstanding the figments in the Talmud, no crier or herald accompanying him to the scene of death. Whenever the crier was employed, he sometimes proclaimed the crime of the prisoner, directly; thus, "Polycarp has confessed that he is a Christian;" sometimes indirectly, by uttering a moral admonition, from which the multitude may easily infer the crime to be expiated; thus, never swear rashly," an annunciation for a perjured man; "let no plebeian take rough hold of a Roman ambassador," for an assailant; "fumo punitur, qui fumum vendidit," for

66

Thursday night was cold, John xviii. 18; the court-room was the area of Caiaphas palace, and doubtless was large; the fire vessel was in the lower part of the spacious room, or at least the middle of it, Mark xiv. 54, 66, Luke xxii. 55; while Jesus, according to the custom of the Sanhedrim, was with them in the upper part. See Jahn's Arch. on the construction of houses, also on the sessions of the Sanhedrim.

one to be burnt as a public deceiver. The Talmud, Babyl. San. fol. 43. 1. prescribes the formula used by the herald among the Jews. "The crier went before the candidate for death, and said, such a man, the son of such a man, because he has been proved guilty of such a crime, at such a place, on such a day, is now to be slain. The witnesses of his crime are such and such an one. If any person can clear him of the charge, let him speak.' If one said, I have something to say in his favor, the prisoner was brought back to the Sanhedrim, and if found innocent, dismissed; but if not, was carried back to execution."

When the procession had arrived at the destined spot, and while the prisoner was waiting the erection of the cross, he was presented with a stupifying and intoxicating draught. "The tradition is,' see the extract from the Talmud in Lightfoot, tom. 2, p. 386, "that the honorable women of Jerusalem provided this draught at their own expense." Sometimes it was the richest wine mingled with spices, the most delicious species of the "mixed wine." Sometimes it was the ordinary strong drink, or "sikera," a very powerful liquid, made of dates and various seeds and roots. Ordinarily, however, it was the poor, dead, sour wine, or vinegar, saturated with myrrh, gall, wormwood, and other inebriating articles; an inferior species of the "mixed wine," which is proscribed in several Scriptures. This vinegar, when mingled with water, was denominated "posca," was a common beverage among the poorer classes, and the prescribed one of the Roman soldiers. The effect of either beverage was to produce rapid intoxication, and thereby benumb the sensibilities.* "When a man is led forth to be executed," says Tr. Sanhedrim, c. 6, "there is given to him a grain of frankincense in a cup of wine, that his understanding may be disturbed; as it is said, Prov. xxxi. 6, "Give strong drink to one that is ready to perish, and wine to those that be of heavy heart."

The "posca," when made intoxicating, was offered to Jesus, probably by his executioners, though some suppose by his female friends. Matthew says, (xxvii. 34.) that they offered him "vinegar," cheap wine, " mingled with gall," the term gall not being literal here, but meaning any thing bitter.

* See Jahn's Archeology, p. 141, p. 162; also Poole's Synopsis, vol. iv. p. 674.

Mark calls the liquid (xv. 23.) "wine," the same as the vinegar of Matthew, "mingled with myrrh," the species being again put for the genus, the part for the whole, and the myrrh of Mark, like the gall of Matthew, denoting simply a bitter impregnation. Jesus barely applied the liquid to his palate, but discovering the nature of it, and choosing to die with his faculties unimpaired, refused to drink. He dreaded, above all things, to deliver himself in such a way from his cup of sorrow.

*

We must be careful to distinguish the first offer of a beverage to Jesus, from the two succeeding offers. The first was a customary act of kindness, and performed by the rough executioner, because aware that the severities of the cross demanded some alleviation. The second, which is recorded in Luke xxiii. 36, was an offer of nothing but the soldier's posca, and was designed by the Romans for an insult and mockery. The third, which is recorded in Matt. xxvii. 48, Mark xv. 36, John xix. 29, was an offer of the same liquid, lying by in a vessel for the use of the executioners, but was made by a Jew, in consequence of the sufferer's exclamation, "I thirst," and not, as the second, by the Roman military, from motives of wanton sport.

The preparatory step immediately preceding crucifixion, was to divest the prisoner of his clothing. "Naked came he into the world," was the Jewish motto," and naked must he go out." "To be crucified is good for the poor man," says Artemidorus, "because he is then lifted up; but evil for the rich, because he is then made naked." All the property which Christ had, was the clothes upon his back; these, however, must be taken away, and given to his four murderers. His "over-coat," or cloak, being a square sheet, of

*

Perhaps both the myrrh and gall were actual ingredients in the bowl offered to the Saviour. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Jerome, Augustine, and others, read in Matt. xxvii. 34, olvor, instead of ozos, and suppose that Jesus received the rich, pleasant wine, mingled with aromatic substances, and used principally by the luxurious. Michaelis supposes that, as this beverage, though relieving pain for a short time, would on the whole augment it, and especially increase the sufferer's thirst, which was his severest torment, it was refused by the Saviour, in great measure, from his foresight of its ultimate effects. The " posca was cooling and refreshing; Jesus applied his lips to the proffered liquid, with a hope that he should find it the posca," but when his taste had disappointed him, he would not drink.— See Mich. Anmer. zu Matt. xxvii. 34.

It is nowhere stated, that the crown of thorns was taken from the Saviour's head, and the most ancient paintings represent him as crucified with the severe braid upon him. Whether the representation is correct, we do not know, the paintings being without authority.