from Heaven, wifely and refolutely appeal'd unto Cæfar; and fo was fent to Rome.

SECT. IX.

Their PUNISHMENTS.

Having given the foregoing large Account of the Method and Proceedings of the Great Council, or Senate, let us next inquire into the Punishments which ensued, upon particular Crimes, after Condemnation was paft therein. Thefe, as we find them specified in the Law, were, Reftitution, Fine, Retaliation, Whipping, Banishment, being fold, and Death various ways.

Of Reftitution, we read thus; If a Exod.' man shall steal an ox or a sheep, and kill it, xxii. 1, or fell it; he fhall restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a fheep, with variety of other Cafes, that follow.

Of Fine, we have an Inftance in this

Cafe; If men frive, and hurt a woman with ---xxi.22, child, fo that her fruit depart from her, and 23,&c. yet no (other) mischief follow: He shall be Jurely punished, according as the woman's bufband will lay upon him; and he shall pay, as the judges determine.

Deut.

XXV. 2.

Exod. ххії, 3.

And immediately follows, the Cafe of Retaliation. And, if any mischief follow, then thou shall give, life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, ftripe for stripe.

For whipping or beating, it is thus ordain'd; If a man be worthy to be beaten, the judge fhall caufe him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number. Forty ftripes be give him, and not exceed: left, if he should exceed, and beat him above these, with many Stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto

thee.

may

As to being fold, it is faid; A thief fhall make full reftitution; if he have nothing, then he fhall be fold for his theft.

Banishment, was to be to fome one of the Cities of Refuge, afterwards allotted for ---xxi.13. that Purpose, in fuch a Cafe as this; If a man lie not in wait, (for another) but God deliver him into his hands (if Providence fo : orders that the Perfon whom he kills, falls accidentally in his way) then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee.

There are three kinds of Death mention'd exprefly in the Law, by way of Pu

nishment

nishment for particular Criminals; befides being put to death in general: And those, are burning, crucifying, and ftoning. Of burning, in this Cafe; If a man take a wife, and Lev. xx. ber mother, (to be his Wife alfo) it is wick- 14. edness. They fhall be burnt with fire, both be, and they

Of crucifying, the Law speaks thus; If

22.

a man have committed a fin worthy of death, Deut.xxi. and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree; (fufpend him on a Crofs; bis body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wife bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God) that thy land be not defiled.

That, by hanging on a tree, is meant crucifying, we are affur'd by the Interpretation of Peter and the other Apostles, who fay to the Jews; The God of our fathers Acts. v. raised up JESUS, whom ye flew and hanged 30. on a tree. Again, in another Place, St. Peter speaking of JESUS, and the Jews who crucified him, fays; Whom they few and ---x. 39, banged on a tree: Him God raifed up the 40. third day, and fhewed him openly. And fo St. Paul fays; When they had fulfill'd all ---xiii. that was written of him, they took him down 29.

from the tree, and laid him in a fepulchre. But God raised him from the dead. And Gal. iii. again he tells us, Chrift hath redeemed us

13.

Josh. viii.

29.

Josh. x. 26.27.

2 Sam.

from the curfe of the Law, being made à curfe for us; for it is written, Curfed is every one that hangeth on a tree.

Accordingly, we find Joshua hanged the king of Ai on a tree until eventide; and, as foon as the fun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcafe down from the tree. And when he had flain the five Kings of the Amorites, it is faid, He hanged them on five trees; and they were hanging upon the trees until the evening. And it came to pass, at the time of the going down of the fun, that Joshua commanded, and they took them down off the trees, and caft them into the cave wherein they had been hid, and laid great ftones in the cave's mouth.

When therefore David fuffers the Gibeonites to hang up feven of the Sons of Saul;

and they are left hanging from the beginxxi. 9, 10. ning of Harvest, until water dropped upon them out of heaven; which probably was, feveral Weeks: This feems to have been an extraordinary Cafe. And, as this Execution was made by way of Atonement, to

avert the Anger of the LORD, who had punish'd the Land with a famine of three years, it is probable, it was attended with a Vow, that the Bodies of Saul's Sons fhould continue hanging on their Croffes until God should fhew he was appeas'd, by fending Rain; The Want of which, in all likelyhood, had been the Occafion of the Famine.'

N

All these Inftances are of an arbitrary Kind, and not in Execution of Judgment according to Law. Of thefe we have, I think I mayifay, two. One, by a Sentence of God himself; the other, of the Great Council, or Senate. The first was, when Ifrael joined himself unto Baal Peor, and the Numb. anger of the LORD was kindled against Ifrael; The LORD Jaid unto Mofes, Take all the beads (Chiefs) of the people, and hang them up before the LORD (the Tabernacle) against the Sun; that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away from Ifrael.

The other was exemplified in our LORD and Saviour JESUS CHRIST; who, as the Gospels tell us, was condem'd by the Council, to Death; and accordingly, crucified; by the Permiffion of Pilate, the Ro

Dd4

XXV. 4.