FROM
the general consideration of our Saviour’s passion, we proceed to the most
remarkable particular, his crucifixion, standing between his passion, which
it concludeth, and his death, which it introduceth. For the explication
whereof it will be necessary, first, to prove that the promised Messias
was to be crucified, that he which was designed to die for our sins, was to
suffer upon the cross; secondly, to shew that our Jesus, whom we
worship, was certainly and truly crucified, and did suffer, whatsoever was
so foretold, upon the cross; thirdly, to discover what is the nature of
crucifixion, what peculiarities of suffering are contained in dying on the
cross.
That
the Messias was to be crucified; appeareth both by types which did
apparently foreshew it, and by prophecies which did plainly foretell it.
For though all those representations and predictions which the forward zeal
of some ancient Fathers gathered out of the Law and the Prophets cannot be
said to signify so much, yet in many types was the crucifixion of Christ
represented, and by some prophecies foretold. This was the true and
unremovable stumblingblock to the Jews, [1 Cor. i. 23] nor could they
ever be brought to confess the Messias should die that death upon a
tree to which the curse of the Law belonged: and yet we need no other
oracles than such as were committed to those Jews, to prove that Christ
was to suffer.
A
clearer type can scarce be conceived of the Saviour of the world, in whom
all the nations of the earth were to be blessed, than Isaac was: nor
can God the Father, who gave his only-begotten Son, be better expressed than
by that Patriarch in his readiness to sacrifice his son, his only son
Isaac, whom he loved. [Gen. xxii. 2] Now when that grand act of
obedience was to be performed, we find Isaac walking to the mountain
of Moriah with the wood on his shoulders, and saying, Here is the
wood, but where is the sacrifice? [Ver. 7] while in the command of God,
and the intention and resolution of Abraham, Isaac is the
sacrifice who bears the wood. And the Christ, who was to be the most
perfect sacrifice, the person in whom all nations were perfectly to be
blessed, could die no other death in which the wood was to be carried; and
being to die upon the cross, was, by the formal custom so used in that kind
of death, certainly to carry it. Therefore Isaac bearing the wood
did presignify Christ bearing the cross.
When
the fiery serpents bit the Israelites, and much people died, Moses,
by the command of God, made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole:
and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the
serpent of brass, he lived. [Num. xxi. 6, 9] Now if there were no
expresser promise of the Messias than the seed of the woman,
which should bruise the serpent’s head; [Gen. iii. 15] if he were to
perform that promise by the virtue of his death; if no death could be so
perfectly represented by the hanging on the pole as that of crucifixion;
then was that manifestly foretold which Christ himself informed
Nicodemus, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up. [John iii. 14]
The
paschal lamb did plainly typify that Lamb of God that taketh away the sins
of the world; and the preparing of it did not only represent the cross, but
the command or ordinance of the passover did foretell as much. For while it
is said, Ye shalt not break a bone thereof, [Ex. xii. 46] it was
thereby intimated, that the Saviour of the world should suffer that death to
which the breaking of the bones belonged (and that, according to the
constant custom, was the punishment of crucifixion), but only in that death
should by the providence of God be so particularly preserved, as that not
one bone of his should be touched. And thus the crucifixion of the
Messias in several types was represented.
Nor
was it only thus prefigured and involved in these typical resemblances, but
also clearly spoken by the Prophets in their particular and express
predictions. Nor shall we need the accession of any lost or additional
prophetical expressions, which some of the ancients have made use of: those
which are still preserved even among the Jews, will yield this truth
sufficient testimonies.
When
God foretells by the Prophet Zachary, what he should suffer from the sons of
men, he says expressly, They shall look upon me whom they have pierced;
[Zech. xii. 10] and therefore shews that he speaks of the Son of God, which
was to be the Son of Man, and by our nature liable to vulneration; and
withal foretells the piercing of his body: which being added to that
prediction in the Psalms, They pierced my hands and my feet, [Ps.
xxii. 16] clearly representeth 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 whom we receive that honour to be named Christians was really
and truly crucified. 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. He underwent those previous pains which
customarily antecede that suffering, as flagellation, and bearing of the
cross: for Pilate when he had scourged Jesus, delivered him to
be crucified; and he bearing his cross went forth into Golgotha.
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 shalt see in his hands the
print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, I wilt
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 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 is 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 to
represent it by such expressions as we find partly in the evangelic
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 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 from, that which was erected and straight up. To
that erected piece was his body, being lifted up, applied, as Moses’
serpent to the pole; and to the transverse beam his hands were nailed: upon
the lower part coming out from the erected piece his sacred body rested, and
his feet were transfixed and fastened with nails; his head, being pressed
with a crown of thorns, was applied to that part of the erect which stood
above the transverse beam; and above his head to that was fastened the
table, on which was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin
characters, the accusation, according to the Roman custom, and the
writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. [John xix. 19]
Thus
by the propriety of the punishment, and the titular inscription, we know
what crime was then objected to the immaculate Lamb, and upon what
accusation Pilate did at last proceed to pass the sentence of death upon
him. It was not any opposition to the Law of Moses, not any danger
threatened to the temple, but pretended sedition and affectation of the
crown objected, which moved Pilate to condemn him. The Jews did thus accuse
him; We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give
tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a king. [Luke xxiii.
2] And when Pilate sought to release him, they cried out, saying, If
thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend: whosoever maketh
himself a King speaketh against Caesar. [John xix. 12] This moved Pilate
to pass sentence upon him, and, because that punishment of the cross was by
the Roman custom used for that crime, to crucify him.
Two
things are most observable in this cross; the acerbity, and the ignominy of
the punishment: for of all the Roman ways of execution it was most painful
and most shameful. First, the exquisite pains and torments in that death
are manifest, in that the hands and feet, which of all the parts of the body
are most nervous, and consequently most sensible, were pierced through with
nails; which caused, not a sudden despatch, but a, lingering and tormenting
death: insomuch that the Romans, who most used this punishment, did
in their language deduce their expressions of pains and cruciation from the
cross. And the acerbity of this punishment appears, in that those who were
of any merciful disposition would first cause such as were adjudged to the
cross to be slain, and then to be crucified.
As
this death was most dolorous and full of acerbity, so was it also most
infamous and full of ignominy. The Romans themselves accounted it a servile
punishment, and inflicted it upon their slaves and fugitives. It was a high
crime to put that dishonour upon any free-man, and the greatest indignity
which the most undeserving Roman could possibly suffer in himself, or could
be contrived to shew their detestation to such creatures as were below human
nature. And because, when a man is beyond possibility of suffering pain, he
may still be subject to ignominy in his fame; when by other exquisite
torments some men have tasted the bitterness of death, after that, they have
in their breathless corpse by virtue of this punishment, suffered a kind of
surviving shame. And the exposing the bodies of the dead to the view of the
people on the cross, hath been thought a sufficient ignominy to those which
died, and terror to those which lived to see it. Yea, where the bodies of
the dead have been out of the reach of their surviving enemies, they have
thought it highly opprobrious to their ghosts, to take their representations
preserved in their pictures, and affix them to the cross. Thus may we be
made sensible of the two grand aggravations of our Saviour’s sufferings, the
bitterness of pain in the torments of his body, and the indignity of shame
in the interpretation of his enemies.
It is
necessary we should thus profess faith in Christ crucified, as
that punishment which he chose to undergo, as that way which he was pleased
to die.
First, because by this kind of death we may be assured that he hath taken
upon himself, and consequently from us, the malediction of the Law. For we
were all under the curse, because it is expressly written, Cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of
the law to do them: [Deut. xxvii. 26; Gal. iii. 10] and it is certain
none of us hath so continued; for the scripture hath concluded all under
sin [ver. 22], which is nothing else but a breach of the Law: therefore
the curse must be acknowledged to remain upon all. But now Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us;
[ver. 13] that is, he hath redeemed us from that general curse,
which lay upon all men for the breach of any part of the Law, by
taking upon him that particular curse, laid only upon them which
underwent a certain punishment of the Law: for it was written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. [Deut. xxi. 23] Not
that suspension was any of the capital punishments prescribed by the
Law of Moses; not that by any tradition or custom of the Jews they
were wont to punish their malefactors with that death; but such as
were punished with death according to the law or custom of the Jews,
were for the enormity of their fact oft times after death exposed to
the ignominy of a gibbet; and those who being dead were so hanged on
a tree, were accursed by the Law. Now though Christ was not to die
by the sentence of the Jews, who had lost the supreme power in
causes capital, and so not to be condemned to any death according to the Law
of Moses; yet the providence of God did so dispose it, that he might suffer
that death which did contain in it that ignominious particularity to
which the legal curse belonged, which is, the hanging on a tree.
For he which is crucified, as he is affixed to, so he hangeth on the
cross, and therefore true and formal crucifixion is often named by
the general word suspension; and the Jews themselves do commonly call our
blessed Saviour by that very name to which the curse is affixed by Moses;
and generally have objected that he died a cursed death.
Secondly, it was necessary to express our faith in Christ
crucified, that we might be assured that he hath abolished in his
flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments; [Eph. ii. 15]
which if he had not done, the strength and power of the whole Law had still
remained: for all the people had said Amen to the curse upon every
one that kept not the whole law, [Deut. xxvii. 26] and entered into a
curse and into an oath to walk in God’s law, which was given by Moses, the
servant of God, and to observe and do all the commanaments of the Lord their
God, and his judgments and his statutes. [Neh. x. 29] Which was in the
nature of a bill, bond, or obligation, perpetually standing in force against
them, ready to bring a forfeiture or penalty upon them, in case of
non-performance of the condition. But the strongest obligations may be
cancelled; and one ancient custom of cancelling bonds was, by striking a
nail through the writing: and thus God, by our crucified Saviour, blotted
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to
us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. [Col. ii. 14]
Thirdly, hereby we are to testify the power of the death of Christ
working in us after the manner of crucifixion. For we are to be planted
in the likeness of his death; [Rom. vi. 5] and that we may be so, we
must acknowledge, and cause it to appear, that our old man is crucified
with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed; [Ver. 6] we must
confess, that they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh, with the
affections and lusts; and they which have not, are not his. We must not
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; [Gal. v. 24] nor can
we properly glory in that, except by it the world be crucified unto us,
and we unto the world. [Gal. vi. 14]
Fourthly, by the acerbity of this passion we are taught to meditate on that
bitter cup which our Saviour drank; and while we think on those nails which
pierced his hands and feet, and never left that torturing activity till by
their dolorous impressions they forced a most painful death, to acknowledge
the bitterness of his sufferings for us, and to assure ourselves that by the
worst of deaths he hath overcome all kinds of death, and with patience and
cheerfulness to endure whatsoever he shall think fit to lay upon us, who
with all readiness and desire suffered far more for us.
Fifthly, by the ignominy of this punishment, and universal infamy of that
death, we are taught how far our Saviour descended for us, that while we
were slaves and in bondage unto sin, he might redeem us by a servile death:
for he made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a
servant; and so he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross: [Phil. ii. 7, 8] teaching us the glorious
doctrine of humility and patience in the most vile and abject condition
which can befall us in this world; and encouraging us to imitate him, who
for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame;
[Heb. xii. 2] and withal deterring us from that fearful sin of falling from
him, lest we should crucify unto ourselves the Son of God afresh, and put
him to an open shame, [Heb. vi. 6] and so become worse than the Jews
themselves, who crucified the Lord of life without the walls of Jerusalem,
and for that unparalleled sin were delivered into the hands of the Romans,
into whose hands they delivered him, and at the same walls in such
multitudes were crucified, till there wanted room for crosses, and crosses
for their bodies.
Lastly, by the public visibility of this death, we are assured that our
Saviour was truly dead, and that all his enemies were fully satisfied. He
was crucified in the sight of all the Jews, who were made public witnesses
that he gave up the ghost. There were many traditions among the Heathen, of
persons, supposed for some time to be dead, to descend into hell and
afterwards to live again; but the death of these persons was never publicly
seen or certainly known. It is easy for a man that liveth to say that he
hath been dead; and, if he be of great authority, it is not difficult to
persuade some credulous persons to believe it. But that which would make
his present life truly miraculous, must be the reality and certainty of his
former death. The feigned histories of Pythagoras and Zamolxis,
of Theseus and Hercules, of Orpheus and Protesilaus,
made no certain mention of their deaths, and therefore were ridiculous in
the assertion of their resurrection from death. Christ, as he appeared to
certain witnesses after his resurrection, so he died before his enemies
visibly on the cross, and gave up the ghost conspicuously in the sight of
the world.
And
now we have made this discovery of the true manner and nature of the cross
on which our Saviour suffered, every one may understand what it is he
professeth when he declareth his faith, and saith, I believe in Christ
crucified. For thereby he is understood and obliged to speak thus
much: I am really persuaded, and fully satisfied, that the only-begotten and
eternal Son of God, Christ Jesus, that he might cancel the
handwriting which was against us, and take off the curse which was due unto
us, did take upon him the form of a servant, and in that form did willingly
and cheerfully submit himself unto the false accusation of the Jews, and
unjust sentence of Pilate, by which he was condemned, according to the Roman
custom, to the cross; and upon that did suffer that servile punishment of
the greatest acerbity, enduring the pain; and of the greatest ignominy,
despising the shame. [Heb. xii. 2] d thus I believe in Christ
crucified.
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