Part 18

The manner of correcting such, was thus. The malefactor had both his hands tyed to _a post_, one cubit and half high, so that his body _bowed upon it_. The _Judge_ shall cause him to _bow down_, _Deut. 25. 2._ This _post_ or _stake_ on which the Malefactor leaned in time of whipping, was termed ‎‏עמוד‏‎ _Gnammud_, _Columna_, _a Pillar_. His cloaths were plucked off from him downward unto the thighs, and this was done[591] either by _renting_ or _tearing_ of them. The _Governours rent_ Paul _and_ Silas _their cloaths, and commanded them to be beaten with rods_, _Acts 16. 22._

[591] _Talmud, ibid._

That the _Beadle_ should inflict a number of stripes proportionable unto the transgression, this correction was performed in the _sight of the Judge_. The _Judge_ shall cause him to be beaten _before his face_, _Deut. 25. 2._ The _chief Judge of the three_, during the time of the correction, did either read or recite _Deut. 28. 58, 59._[592] _If thou wilt not keep, and do all the words of this law_, &c. _Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful_, &c. The _second Judge_ he numbred the stripes, and the _third_ he bade the _Beadle smite_. The _chief Judge_ concluded all, saying, _Yet he being merciful forgave their iniquity_, &c. _Psal. 78. 38._

[592] _Talmud. ibid._

Sometimes in notorious offences, to augment the pains, they tyed certain huccle-bones or plummets of lead, or sharp thorns to the end of the thongs, and such scourges the Greeks termed[593] ἀστραγαλωτὰς μάστιγας _Flagra taxillata_ in the Scripture they are termed[594] _Scorpions_. My father hath chastised you with _rods_, but I will correct you with _Scorpions_, _1 King. 12. 12._

[593] _Eustathius. Item. Athenæus lib. 4._

[594] _Tholosan. synt. jur. univers. l. 31._

CHAP. IX.

_Punishments borrowed from other Nations._

The punishments borrowed from other Nations are principally six: 1. _Crux_, _The death on the Cross_. 2. _Serrâ dissectio_, _the cutting one asunder with a saw_. 3. _Damnatio ad bestias_, _The committing one to fight for his life with wild beasts_. 4. τροχὸς, _the wheel_. 5. καταποντισμὸς, _Drowning one in the sea_. 6. τυμπανισμὸς, _Beating one to death with cudgels_. The first and the third were meerly _Roman punishments_; the second was likewise used by the _Romans_, but whether originally taken from them is doubtful: the fourth and the last were meerly _Greek punishments_; the fifth was for the substance in use among _Hebrews_, _Greeks_ and _Romans_, but in the manner of drowning them, they differed. It will be needful to speak somewhat of all these.

1. _Crux._ This word is sometimes applied to _any tree or stake on which a man is tortured to death_, but most properly it is applied to a _frame of wood consisting of two pieces of timber compacted cross-wise_. The first is termed _Crux simplex_, the last _Crux compacta_. This latter is threefold. 1. _Decussata._ 2. _Commissa._ 3. _Immissa._

_Crux decussata._ This was made of two equal pieces of timber obliquely crossing one the other in the middle, after the manner of the _Roman_ X, and thence it is called _decussata_.[595] _Decussare, est per medium secare. Veluti si duæ regulæ concurrant ad speciem literæ_ X, _quæ figura est crucis._ This kind of cross is by the common people termed _Crux Andræana_, Saint _Andrews-cross_, because on such an one he is reported to have been crucified.

[595] _Hieron. in Jerem. c. 31._

_Crux commissa._ This was, when a piece of timber erected, was joyned in the middle to a traverse, of over-thwart top; somewhat shorter than the piece erect, in manner of a _Roman_ T. This is called _Crux Antoniana_, S. _Anthony his Cross_, because he is often painted with such a _Cross_.

_Crux immissa._ This was when a short traverse somewhat obliquely crossed the stake erect, not quite in the middle, as _Crux decussata_, nor quite on the top as _Crux commissa_, but near the top, in this manner †. This is thought[596] to have been _Crux Christi_, _the Cross on which our Saviour Christ suffered_.

[596] _Lipsius de cruce lib. 10. cap. 10._

The _Ceremonies_ used by the _Romans_ towards those whom they crucified were these: First, they _scourged_ them, and sometimes tyed them to a _Piller_ in time of scourging. _Artemidorus_[597] is clear in this, Προσδεθεὶς κίονι, πολλὰς ἔλαβε πληγὰς, that is, being tyed to the _Piller_, he received many stripes. _Plautus[598] is thought to have alluded_ to the same.

_------Abducite hunc_ _Intro, atque adstringite ad columnam fortiter._

[597] _Joseph. excid. lib. 5. cap. 32. Philo contra Flaccum. It. Liv. lib. 1._

[598] _Plaut. Bacch._

The ancient _Fathers_[599] report that our _Saviour_ was whipt thus _ad columnam_: but the Scripture is silent, both touching the place and manner of this whipping, only that he was whipt is testified. _He scourged Jesus_, and delivered him to be crucified, _Mat. 27. 26._

[599] _Prudentius; Hieron. Beda vid. Lip. de cruce, lib. 2. cap. 4._

_Secondly_, They caused them to _bear their own Cross_,[600] _Malefici cùm ad supplicium educuntur, quisq; suum effert crucem_. Thus _Christ bore his own Cross_, _John 19. 17._ To this there is allusion, _He that taketh not his Cross, and followeth after me, he is not worthy of me_, _Mat. 10. 38._

[600] _Plutarch. de sera num. vind._

_Thirdly_,[601] That the equity of the proceeding might clearly appear, the cause of the punishment was written in a table, and so carried before the condemned person; or else it was proclamed by a publick Cryer. This cause was termed by the _Romans_ commonly _Titulus_, by some[602] it is called _Elegium_. Thus Pilate _wrote in Hebrew, Greek, and Latine, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews_.

[601] _Euseb. Eccl. hist. lib. 5. cap. 1. It. Suet. Domit. cap. 10._

[602] _Tertul. Apol. cap. 2. Sueton. in Calig._

_Fourthly_,[603] They _pluckt off their cloaths_ from such as were to be crucified. Thus _Christ suffered naked_.

[603] _Artemidor. l. 2. c. 58._

_Serra dissectio_, _A sawing one in sunder_. They sawed them from the head downward. The _Romans_[604] they used this kind of punishment, so likewise did the _Hebrews_. Thus _Manasses_ is thought to have punisht the _Prophet Isaiah_, and the Apostle to have alluded unto it, _They were sawn a-sunder_, _Heb. 11. 37._

[604] _Sueton. in Calig. cap. 27._

_Damnatio ad bestias._ Those who were condemned to wild beasts, are properly termed _Bestiarii_. Whether S. _Paul_ did, according to the letter, fight with beasts at _Ephesus_, _1 Cor. 15. 32._ is much controversed. Some[605] understand by _Beasts_, _Demetrius_, and others that opposed him at _Ephesus_, others[606] more probably understand the word _literally_. And this kind of punishment was commonly exercised against _Christians_ in the _Primitive Church_, insomuch that the _Heathens_ imputing the cause of all publick calamities unto the _Christians_, would call out,[607] _Christianos ad Leones!_ _Let the Christians be haled to Lyons_: yea, the litteral interpretation of the words, is a stronger argument that Saint _Paul_ believed the Resurrection (which is the scope of the text) than to understand the words of a metaphorical fight, against the enemies of his doctrine.

[605] _Theophylact. Anselm._

[606] _Chrysostom. Ambros. & alii._

[607] _Tertullian. Apol. cap. 40._

Τροχὸς, _The Wheel_: A wise _King_ bringeth the _wheel_ over the wicked, _Prov. 20. 26._ I take the words to imply no more but this, that _as the wheel turneth round, so by the wisdom of a King the mischief intended by wicked men, is brought upon their own head_. That hereby should be understood, the grinding of wicked men under a cart-wheel, as the husband brake some sort of grain under the wheel, is the meer conceipt of Expositors on this place; for no Records make mention of any such punishment in use among the _Jews_. Among the _Greeks_ there was a punishment went under this name:[608] it was called τροχὸς, A _Wheel_, not because a wheel was _brought over the wicked_, but because they bound fast the offender to the _spokes of a wheel_, and there scourged him, to inforce a confession.

[608] _Ἐπὶ τοῦ τροχοῦ γ’ ἕλκοιτο μαστιγούμενος, Aristoph. in Iren. De eadem pœna loquuntur Demosth. 3. in Aphob. & Suidas._

Καταποντισμὸς, _Drowning in the Sea_. This was in use among many Nations, but the manner differed. The _Romans_[609] they sewed up a Parricide into a leather budget, sewing up together with him into the same budget, _a Serpent_, _a Cock_, and _an Ape_, and so cast them all into the Sea. The _Grecians_[610] when they judged any to this kind of punishment, they wrapt him up in lead. The _Hebrews_ tyed a milstone about his neck. Thus, in respect of the manner those are to be understood, who say,[611] this kind of punishment was peculiar to the _Jews_.

[609] _Senec. lib. 5. controv. 4. Juvenal Satyr 8. Modestus, Digest. l. 48. ad legem Pomp. de parric. vid. Cæl. Rhod. l. 11. c. 21._

[610] _Athenæus l. 14._

[611] _Hier. Mat. 18. 6._

Τυμπανισμὸς. It is rendred by the general name of _torturing_, _Heb. 11. 35._ _2 Mac. 6. 19._ But the word signifieth a special kind of torturing, by beating one with cudgels unto death. It hath its denomination from τύμπανον, which signifieth a _Drum_ usually: and hence some[612] have parallel’d this torture with that among the _Romans_ termed _Equuleus_; as if the person thus tortured, were rackt, and stretched out in manner of a _drum head_: but it signifieth also a _drum stick_, and thence[613] cometh the punishment to be termed _Tympanismus_, that is, a _Tabring, or beating one to death with cudgels_, as if it were with _drum-sticks_. This is evident by _Eleazar_; he came willingly, ἐπὶ τὸ τύμπανον, _to this kind of torment_, _2 Macab. 6. 19._ and in the thirtieth verse, where he gave up the Ghost, there is mention of his strokes, not of his _racking or stretching_.

[612] _Magius in lib. de Equuleo, vid. Drus. præter. l. 8._

[613] _Scholiastes Aristophanis τύμπανα scribit esse ξύλα οἷς τύπτονται ἐν τοῖς δικαστηρίοις οἱ τιμωρούμενοι in Pluto p. 50._

_Junius_[614] reckoneth another kind of punishment termed by the _Hebrews_, ‎‏צינק‏‎ _Tsinok_, which he would have to be a compound word: doubtless his meaning is that it would be compounded of ‎‏צי‏‎ _Tsi_, _Navis_, _a ship, or boat_, and ‎‏ינק‏‎ _Janack_, _Sugere_, _to suck_: for he saith that thereby is meant a certain punishment, termed _Navicula sugentis_ which _Plutarch_[615] describeth in this manner; _That the offender should be inclosed between two boates, as in a prison, or, as his phrase is_ (_quasi in vagina_) _as in a sheath; and, to preserve life in him, milk and honey tempered together was forcibly put into his mouth, whether he would or no_. And hence, from this _sucking in of milk and honey_, this punishment hath been termed _Navicula sugentis_. But the _Hebrews_[616] say, that _Tsinock_ was nothing else but _manacles_, or _cords_, wherewith prisoners hands were tyed. I leave it indifferent to the Reader to follow which interpretation he please.

[614] _Junius. Jer. 29. 26._

[615] _Plutarch. in Artaxerxe._

[616] _‎‏כלי מסגר לידים‏‎ Instrumentum constringens manus. D. Kimch. Jer. 29. 26._

THE SIXTH BOOK

OF _MISCELLANEOUS RITES_.

CHAP. I.

_Of Circumcision._

Their _Sacraments_ were two. First, the _Passover_ of which there hath been a set Chapter. Secondly, _Circumcision_, of which now.

_Circumcision_, was a cutting off the foreskin, as a sign and seal of _Gods_ Covenant made with the People of the _Jews_. It is called a _sign_ by _God_ in its first institution, _Gen. 17._ and a _seal_ by the _Apostle_, _Rom. 4. 11._ Yea, it is called a _sign_ and a seal, by a _Doctor_ of the _Jews_,[617] more ancient than their _Talmud_.

[617] _Zohar. Gen. 17._

It was used (though not as a _Sacrament_) by many other Nations:[618] by the inhabitants of _Colchis_, the _Æthiopians_, the _Trogloditæ_, and the _Egyptians_.

[618] _Alex. ab Alex. lib. 2. cap. 25. Herodo. l. 2. Diodor. Sicul. l. 2. c. 1. It. l. 4. c. 3._

In a figurative sense, alluding unto this _Sacramental Rite_, we read of three other sorts of _Circumcision_ in the _Scripture_; so that in all there are four mentioned. 1. _This of the flesh._ 2. _Another of the heart._ 3. _A third of the lips._ 4. And a _fourth of the ears_. We are to consider it in its proper acception, and here to observe: First, the _time when_ it was administred. Secondly, the _manner how_. Thirdly, the _penalty in case it was omitted_.

The _time_ was the _eighth day_; yea, the _eighth day_ was so precisely observed, that if it fell on the _Sabbath_, yet they _circumcised the ~Child~_; whence rose that saying among them, _Circumcisio pellit Sabbatum_ _Circumcision driveth away the Sabbath_; or, the _Sabbath_ giveth place to _Circumcision_. And with this accordeth that of our Saviour, _Ye on the Sabbath day circumcise a man_, _John 7. 22._ The _Jews_ superstitiously conceiting that each creatures perfection depended upon the sanctification of one _Sabbath_ day at least, say that _God_ did therefore enjoyn the _eighth day_, that one _Sabbath_ might first pass over each male, before he should be partaker of this Sacrament. But more probably we may say, that the reasons why God would not suffer them to anticipate the _eighth day_, were first to shew, that _God_ in the matter of Salvation, neither was, nor is _simply tyed to Sacraments_; for then there had been no less cruelty in _forbidding Circumcision until the eighth day_, than there was love in _permitting it upon the eighth_. Secondly, because in this time of the _Mosaical Pedagogie_, there was a kind of _legal uncleanness_, in which the creatures were thought to be, as remaining in their blood, for the first _seven daies_ after their birth, _Levit. 22. 27._ _It. 12. 2, 3._ Notwithstanding, _God_ thought it not convenient to defer it longer than eight daies, for the comfort of the Parents, which they received by a mature and seasonable initiation of their children.

The manner how Circumcision was administred, I find thus recorded: Some of those that were present held a vessel full of dust,[619] into which they did cast the foreskin being cut off. Again, they prepared in the room, a certain _void chair for Elias_;[620] which was done, partly in honour of him, for which respect also, as often as they fell on any difficult place in Scripture they would say[621] _Veniet Elias, & omnia enodabit_; _We know that Elias will come, and he will tell us all things_: But chiefly it was done, because they thought _Elias_ to be present there in spirit, whose bodily coming they did, and do daily expect. These ceremonies are meerly _Jewish_, practised by the latter _Jews_, but utterly unknown in our _Saviour Christ_ his time, and, as it appeareth by the _Samaritan woman_ her speech, that proverbial saying applyed now to _Elias_, was of old applyed to _Christ_, _John 4. 25._ _Thirdly_, he which supplyed the place of the _Witness_, or as we phrase it, of the _Godfather_,[622] held the Child in his arms whiles it was _Circumcised_: this _Godfather_ they called _Baal Berith_, and _Sandack_; that is, the _Master of the Covenant_. Uriah _the Priest_, and _Zachariah_ the son of _Jeberechia_, are thought[623] to have been _Godfathers_ at the Circumcision of _Maher-shalal-hash-baz_, _Esay. 8. 2._ and from them the custome of having _Godfathers_ in _Baptisme_, to have taken its original. _Fourthly_, the Parents named the Child, and in _Zacharies_ time, it seemeth that in the naming of the Infant, they had respect to some name of his Ancestors. _They said unto her, there is none of thy kindred that is named with this name_, _Luk. 1. 61._ Other Nations had their set daies also after the birth, for the naming of their Children. The _Romans_[624] gave names to their male-children on the ninth day, to the female on the eighth. The _Athenians_[625] gave names on the tenth. Others[626] on the seventh. These daies _Tertullian_[627] called _Nominalia_. The _Grecians_ besides the tenth day on which they named the Child, they observed also the _fifth_,[628] on which day the Midwives took the Child, and ran about a fire made for that purpose, using that Ceremony as a purification of themselves and the Child: on this day the Neighbours also sent in _gifts_, or _small tokens_, _Munera natalitia_;[629] from which custom that amongst _Christians_, of the _Godfathers_ sending gifts to the baptized Infant, is thought to have flown. But to return again to the Rites of the _Jews_. After the Child had been _circumcised_, the Father said:[630] _Blessed be our Lord God, who hath sanctified us with his precepts, and hath commanded us, that we should cause this child to enter into the Covenant of Abraham_. After this, the whole Church or company present replyed in this manner,[631] _As thou hast made him to enter into the Covenant, so make him also to enter into the Law, into Matrimony, and into good works_.

[619] _Paul. Fag. Deut. 10._

[620] _Christoph. Cast. in Malac. c. 3._

[621] _Mercerus in abreviaturis. ‎‏היקו‏‎_

[622] _‎‏נוהגין לקרא למי שמחזיק בן חברו למולו סנדק והלועזים קורין לו בעל ברית‏‎ Elias Thisb. in ‎‏סנדק‏‎_

[623] _Jun. & Trem. Es. 8. 2._

[624] _Plutarch. prob. 102. Macrob. Sat. l. 1. c. 16._

[625] _Cœl. Rhodig. l. 22. cap. 12._

[626] _Arist. hist. anim. lib. 7. c. 12._

[627] _Tertul. de Idol. cap. 16._

[628] _Scholiast. Aristoph. in Lusistrat. p. 886. It. Suidas in ἀμφιδρόμα._

[629] _Stukius de conviv. l. 1. c. 16._

[630] _‎‏ברוך אתה יהוה אלהינו מלך אשר העולם אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו לכניסו בבריתו של אברהם אבינו‏‎ Moses Kotsen. in tractat. circumcis. fol. 115._

[631] _‎‏כשם שהכנסתו לברית כן תכניסהו לתורה ולחופה ולמעשים טובים‏‎ Moses Kotsen. ibid._

The _penalty_ for the omission of _Circumcision_ running in this form; _That soul shall be cut off from his people_, _Gen. 17. 14._ I understand the _penalty_ to be pronounced against such an omission; which proceeded either from _contempt_ or _wilful neglect_. In this case the question is, what is meant by this phrase, _His soul shall be cut off from the people_. Secondly, _who ought thus to be punisht?_ whether the child, or the _parents_, and such who _supply the place of parents_? For the first, besides _Gods_ secret action in punishing such Delinquents, methinks there is a rule of direction for the Church, how to proceed against such in her Discipline: If any understand here, by _cutting off such a mans soul from his people_, the sentence of _excommunication_, or _casting him out of the Synagogue_, I shall not oppose it; though I rather incline to those, who understand hereby a _bodily death_ inflicted upon such an offender, in which sense the phrase is taken, _Exod. 31. 14._ _Whosoever doth any work on the Sabbath, that soul shall be cut off from among his people_. And it is very remarkable, that when _Moses_ his child was _uncircumcised, the Lord sought to kill Moses_: which as it intimated the punishment of this fault to be a _bodily death_ so it clearly evinceth, that not the _child_ till he cometh to years of discretion, but the _parents_ were liable to punishment. The opinion of the _Rabbines_ concerning this latter point is thus delivered:[632] _If the Father circumcise him not, then the Judges are commanded to circumcise him: and if it be unknown to the Judges, and they circumcise him not, when he is waxen great, he is bound to circumcise himself, and every day that passeth over him, after he is waxen great, and, he circumciseth not himself, lo he breaketh the Commandment._

[632] _Moses Kots. tract. circumcis. fol. 114. col. 4._

Here it may be demanded, how it is possible for a man, after once he hath been marked with the sign of _Circumcision_, to blot out that character and become _uncircumcised_? for thus some _Jews_, for fear of _Antiochus_, made themselves uncircumcised, _1 Mac. 1. 16._ Others for shame, after they were gained to the knowledge of Christ, and to entertainment of the _Christian faith, uncircumcised themselves_, _1 Cor. 7. 18._ The answer is,[633] that this was done by _drawing up the foreskin_ with a Chirurgion his instrument; and unto this the _Apostle_ in the fore quoted place alludeth, μὴ ἐπισπάσθω, _Ne attrahat præputium_. This wicked invention is ascribed unto _Esau_, as the first _Author_ and practiser thereof.

[633] _Epiphan. lib. de mens. & pond. p. 415. It. Celsus l. 7. c. 25._

CHAP. II.

_Of their first fruits and their firstlings, or first-born._

The use and end of their _first-fruits_, was that the _after-fruits_ might be _consecrated in them_. To this purpose they were enjoyned to offer the _first fruits of their trees_, which served for food, _Levit. 19. 23, 24._ In which this order was observed; the _three first years_ after the tree had been planted, the fruits were counted _uncircumcised_ and _unclean_: it was unlawful to _eat them, sell them, or make any benefit of them_: on the _fourth year_, they were accounted _holy_, that is, either they were given to the _Priests_,[634] _Num. 18. 12, 13._ or the owners did eat them before the _Lord at Jerusalem_, as they did their _second tithe_: and this _latter_ is the common opinion of the _Hebrews_.[635] After the _fourth year_, they returned to the use of the owner: we may call these πρωτογεννήματα, _simply the first-fruits_.

[634] _‎‏והכהן יאכול‏‎ Sacerdos ea comedebat. Aben Ezra in hunc locum._

[635] _Talmud. Bab. in Magnasher sheni cap. 1._