Vests and Ornaments with the mitre and holy crown upon his head the holy annointing oyl was so powred upon his head Psal 133.2 that it ran down upon his beard and descended to the skirts of his garments Now the reason why God would have his consecrations to be done by Oyl may be rendred from the excellent proprieties thereof The Mystery all which in a spirituall and Evangelicall sense and meaning will relate to Christ Oyl hath an excellent vertue in seasoning of meats as well for the preservation of health as also to give them a sweet and delightsome relish to the palate Therefore did they dress their flovvre vvith Oyl 1 Kin. 17.10 Levit. 2. and vvith Oyl God vvould have his offerings to be seasoned The Oyl in the meat-offering did shevv forth Christ the condiment vvithout vvhom nothing is svveet nothing is savory It is he that seasoneth all our sacrifices and whatsoever we shall aske the father in his name he will give it us Joh. 16.23 Oyl hath an excellent vertue in healing of wounds and to asswage the pains of them Luc. 10.34 It is Christ who speaks peace unto the soul by the word of the Gospel and was annointed and sent to heal the broken hearted Oyl doth exhilarate and make glad him that is annointed with it Luc. 4.18 Psal 104.15 all true joy and gladnesse is from Christ through the sweet influence of his most holy and most blessed spirit who is the oyl of gladness Psal 45.7 Oyl doth pierce into the bones doth diminish the pains of bodily exercises doth make a man strong and able to perform his work Livie telleth of Hannibal that he being to skirmish immediately with the enemy but the weather being extream cold and his Souldiers weary and weak distributed Oyl unto them to the end that being annointed therewith they might be refreshed and enabled to the battel It is Christ who by his grace enableth us unto that whereunto of our selves we have no sufficiency 2 Cor. 12.9 Ezec. 36.26 Oyl doth mollifie and soften It is the peculiar work of Christ by his Spirit to mollifie and soften the hard hearts of men Oyl hath a sweet and odoriferous smell Cant. 1.3 and his name saith the Spouse in the Canticles is as oyntment powred forth Oyl doth illuminate and lighten and He is the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world Joh. 1.9 When the High Priest was annointed Christ was annointed in the type He was the annointed and he was the annointer and he himself was the holy annointing oyl Notwithstanding the oyl wherewith he was annointed was not of the essence of his God-head but the fulness of all graces and of all vertues wherewith the man-hood of Christ was as it were filled up to the brim created graces and vertues infused into the man-hood by the divine operation of the Holy Ghost Therefore the holy annointing oyl howsoever it was Gods oyl neither was it lawfull for any one to make the like yet was it confected of no other simples but such as are to be found in nature That holy annointing oyl was powred forth upon the High Priest having on together with all the rest of the sacerdotall ornaments the Urim and Thummim together with the golden Plate or holy Crown that so they might in the type and by the spirtuall eyes of faith see Christ by his unction with that oyl which was materiall annointed and consecrated to be that true King that true Priest that true Prophet of whose fulness all Kings Priests and Prophets do pertake and yet he hath made all his elect and chosen Kings and Priests unto God and his father as St. John saith in his Revelation Rev. 1.6 That the High priest was so annointed that the holy annointing oyl powred upon his head went down unto his beard and descended to the skirts of his clothing it did mysteriously give them to know that the graces of the Holy Ghost whereof the man-hood of Christ is the rich treasure house do descend down from him the head of his Church who received them not by measure into all the members of his mysticall body who all receive them from him in such a measure and proportion as is convenient for every one of them Lastly by the different habit of the High Priest and his superabundant unction they were shewed the difference that must be betwixt the type and the antitype for Kings Priests and Prophets were typicall persons and they all were annointed by men but that He must be annointed by the Father through the Holy Ghost They were annointed with the holy anointing oyl but he must be annointed with all spirituall graces meant and intended by it They were annointed in measure but he must be annointed above measure They were annointed as men but he must be annointed as God and man They were annointed to offices temporall but he must be annointed to offices eternall They by their unction were Christi Domini the Lord 's Christs But he by his unction must be Christus Dominus the Lord Christ Act. 2.36 4ly To the Evangelicall part of the Testament belonged all the Leviticall offerings The Levitical offerings The Holocaust or whole burnt-offering The whole burnt offering so called because it was all burnt It was a sacrifice wherein to the end that God might be honoured and pleased the whole host which was offered was consumed with the holy fire and as it were sent up from earth to heaven for an odour of a sweet savour to God It was of the Herds of the Flocks or of the Fouls and the whole rite thereof is amply set forth Levit. cap. 1. The continuall or daily burnt-offering The continuall burnt-offering so called because it vvas offered unto God tvvice every day at morning and at evening It did consist of two Lambs of the first year vvhereof the one vvas offered in the morning and the other at even and the rite thereof is set dovvn Exod. cap. 29. The meat-offering The meat-offering vvhich vvas either fine flovvre and oyl seasoned vvith salt and frankincense put upon it and that either ravv bak't or fryed or green ears of corn dryed having in like manner oyl salt and frankincense and the rite thereof is to be read Levit. cap. 2. The drink-offering The drink-offering vvas strong Wine the fourth part of an Hin for one Lambe as a proportionable quantity for such an offering povvred unto the Lord Exod. 29. Numb 28. The sin-offering The sin-offering so called because it vvas made for the expiation of sin committed either ignorantly or vvittingly vvhether greater or less by the priest the vvhole congregation the Ruler or any of the people set forth and prescribed at large Levit. cap. 4. 5 6 7. The peace-offerring was either of the herd or of the flock male or female The peace offering it was made in thankfulnesse
he calleth hell because it warreth all for hell and the devill is the prince of it Eph. 6.11 2 Cor. 10.4 The gates of hell therefore do signifie those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those fortresses munitions and strong holds which the powers of hell do hold against the Church and from whence they assault it in all her members by force or fraud All which is meant by gates because the gates of castles and of strong holds are wont to have the best munition and to be most strongly fenced So that the gates of hell are not only heresies although heresies are of them as Saint Epiphanius lib. Anchor and Saint Augustine De symb ad Catechum do note but also persecutions in name in goods in liberty or in life and specially sins with all manner of evills which seek to subdue us to everlasting death As is well observed by Origen Saint Chrysostome Saint Gregory and others The gates of hell therefore may assault but they shall not prevail against the Church catholick utterly to extinguish it nor against any sound member of the same who is an homogeniall part of the whole rightly built and abiding upon the rock Psal 139.1 2 3 4. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth may Israel now say Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth yet they have not prevailed against me The plowers plowed upon my back they made long furrowes The Lord is righteous he hath cut assunder the cords of the wicked And this is the first part of that retribution which the Apostle Saint Peter received from his Lord S. Mat. 16.18 upon his good confession Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it A second part of his retribution was in expectance and to be made good in the future The keyes of the kingdom of heaven promised and given that was the keyes of the kingdome of heaven then to be given when he shall be risen from the dead and shall have fully accomplished the work of mans redemption Saint Peter for the present was not in capacity and Christ himselfe was not yet fully manifested to be the Saviour and redeemer of all mankinde That promise therefore must be performed in its season after his resurrection and he performes it the same day The same day at evening being the first day of the week when the doors were shut S. Joh 20.19 where the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jewes came Jesus and stood in the middest and saith unto them Peace be unto you And when he had so said he shewed unto them his hands and his side Then were the Disciples glad when they saw the Lord. 20 Then said Jesus unto them again Peace be unto you As my Father sent me even so send I you And when he had said this he breathed on them 21 22 and saith unto them Receive ye the holy Ghost Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained 23. The power of Christ to give the keyes of the kingdome of heaven is three-fold 1. The power of the Creator By what power Christ gave the keyes S. Joh. 1.3 Eph. 1.7 All things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made Heaven it self was his creature how shall he not dispose the work of his own hands 2ly The power of the Redeemer in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace Is he the redeemer of that Church of his part whereof singeth the songs of victory in heaven and is called the triumphant Church part whereof lyeth in the camp of warfare upon earth and is called the militant Church and must not then the keyes be his to open the doors of heaven by himself and by his ministers unto whom he shall commit them 3ly He is the head of his Church Eph. 5.23 as the husband is the wives head Is that head of his Church the Lord of heaven and hath he not the keyes to open the doors of heaven to that mysticall body whereof he is the head To that little flock of his who are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones 30 The keyes of the kingdom of heaven were his to give and he gave them according to his word and promise he did not delay to give them but being risen from the dead he gave them the same day The kingdom of heaven in the scriptures is compared to a city therefore called the holy Hierusalem Reu. 21.10 12 having a great and high wall and twelve gates Man was a citizen of that city till he sinned but by sinne he lost his freedom there in as much as there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lye 27 For his sinne he was banished this city and the gates fast lockt and shut against him He was cast out of Paradise and God placed cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life Gen. 3.24 So that there was found no way to return back into the city or into Paradise from whence man was expulsed But God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Him therefore did God give to open the gates of heaven which were shut and lock't by sinne and by the guilt thereof to bring in man and to open them to the faithfull S. Joh. 3.10 and to shut them against the unbelievers What keyes Christ had and what keys he gave to the Apostles Rev. 3.7 S. Mar. 2.7 S. Joh. 1.29 Who because he is the great King of this city he is said to have the key of David and openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth By a two-fold possession he is Lord of the keyes For 1ly As he is one God with the Father he hath the same keyes which the Father hath even the key of authority to forgive sinnes Who can forgive sins but God onely 2ly As he is the Son of the Father made man and by the merit of his death and passion is that very lambe of God which taketh away the sin of the world he hath the key of excellency and by a speciall prerogative doth open and shut the gates of heaven Neither of these keyes gave Christ to his Apostles the keyes which they had by his Donation were ministeriall keyes to the end that not by themselves but by the power of God and by the virtue of Christ his passion they might open and shut the gates of heaven These keyes as St. Chrysostome saith are the knowledge of the scriptures according to Tertullian the interpretation of the law and as Eusebius saith the
Salome maried to Alexas and two wives Malthace a Samaritan and Mariamne who was niece to Hercanus by Alexandra his daughter and of the Assamonaean family By Malthace he had three sons Archelaus who raigned after him in Judea of whom St. Mat. 2.22 and Herod Antipas Tetrarch of Galilee and Philip Tetrarch of Iturea and of the region of Trachonitis of whom St. Luc. 3.1 By Mariamne the Assamonaean he had two sons Aristobulus and Alexander Aristobulus had to wife Bernice the daughter of Salome his fathers sister and of her he had a daughter whose name was Herodias But these were not all the wives that Herod had for he had also to wife another Mariamne the daughter of Simon Boethus the high priest born in Alexandria by whom he had also a son whose name was Herod this Herod married Herodias and had by her a daughter whose name was Salome and then he dyed After whose death Herodias married Philip Tetrarch of Iturea a second husband the brother of Herod Antipas by father and mother and both of them brethren to Herod deceased by the fathers side Herod Antipas falls in love with Herodias his brother Philips wife and she consenteth to forsake Philip her husband and did so Herod Antipas for so it was agreed betwixt them repuding his lawfull wife who was the daughter of Aretas king of Arabia took unto him this Herodias who was the wife of Philip his owne brother both by father and mother as is said before and had her home to his house together with Salome her daughter but Philip whom she had forsaken lived still and died not till in the twentieth year of Tiberius the Emperour after that he had governed his Province thirty and seven years as Josephus saith a good and quiet man ready to do justice to all men at all times he obtained a sumptuous funerall and was laid into a monument which himselfe had builded Antiq. lib. 18. cap. 6. Such were the incestuous marriages of the Herodian family But hinc illae lachrymae For Saint John the Baptist comming out of Judea into Galilee as before is said and having accesse unto Herods court was had in esteem by Herod himselfe S. Mar. 6.20 who observed him and when he heard him he did many things and heard him gladly But Saint Iohn knew not how to daube with untempered morter he could not dissemble the sins and vices of the court nor would he permit a sin so hainous to be unreproved but told Herod plainly It is not lawfull for thee to have her S. Mat. 14.4 Levit. 18.16 Levit. 20.21 Saint Iohn spake law for the law of God saith Thou shalt not uncover the nakednesse of thy brothers wife it is thy brothers nakednesse And if a man shall take his brothers wife it is an unclean thing he hath uncovered his brothers nakednesse they shall be childlesse Herodias the cause of her hatred against Saint John Hence sprung the hatred of Herodias against Saint John who for that cause had a quarrell against him and would have killed him if she could She was impudent and was not ashamed of her uncleannesse she was proud and obstinate so that she would not endure reproof Besides it is well observed by venerable Bede she did fear lest that Herod should at length repent or be reconciled to his brother whereby it would come to passe that this her incestuous mariage should be dissolved Therefore watched she all opportunities to destroy him and no doubt had counselled her daughter to do the like having by her importunity so far prevailed with Herod that he had laid hold on him and laid him a prisoner in bonds in the castle of Machaerun which was a frontire town betwixt his and Aretas king of Arabia Petraeaes country Herod also himselfe I suppose was not difficultly induced to imprison him whom he knew to be a just man and an holy justum quoad homines sanctum quoad Deum S. Mar. 6 20. just to men-ward holy to God-ward as the Glosse saith such is the rage of unlawfull lust He was vvilling but durst not put him to death and when he would have done it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he feared the multitude lest they should make insurrection and revolt from his government because they counted him as a prophet S. Mat. 14.5 But Herodias did neither fear nor care what would come after so that she might have her will to wash away her present fear in the innocent blood of the Baptist Therefore attending all seasons at length there came a convenient day It was the birth-day of this Herod Antipas which of custome he did solemnize anniversarily an old custome in the courts of princes especially pagan for the solemnity whereof he made a supper to his Lords high captains and chiefe estates of Galilee and then the foresaid Salome the daughter of Herodias by her first husband Herod came into the presence and danced before Herod Antipas and before all his guests Wherewith he was so much taken that he bad her to ask whatsoever she would swearing that whatsoever she should ask he would give it her to the halfe of his kingdom She who had been pre-instructed by her mother Herodias S. Mat 14.8 upon all occasions to work the destruction of St. John the Baptist went in presently and acquainted her mother how matters had passed betwixt the king and her demanding her advice what she should ask She counselleth that setting all other demands aside she should ask the head of the Baptist as being of more consequence to them both then any thing else which the Tetrarch could give And so it followeth in the Evangelist that she came in straight way with haste unto the King and asked saying I will that thou give me by and by in a charger S. Mar. 6.25 the head of John the Baptist And the King was exceeding sorry yet for his oath's sake and for their sakes which sate with him he would not reject her 26 And immediately the King sent not to the castle of Maehaerun which was in the confines of his countrey remote but to some neerer place whither he had removed him to another prison 27 and from whence he might presently send for his head an executioner and he went and beheaded him in prison 28. S. Mat. 14.9 10 11. And brought his head in a Charger and gave it to the damosell and the damosell gave it to her mother Thus was the blood of that righteous man most unjustly spilt but his body whether at Samaria then called Sebast The body buried by his Disciples in honour of Augustus Caesar or in what other place it is not mentioned was buried by his Disciples who so soon as they heard of it took it up and buried it and went and told Jesus But his head remained in the power of wicked Herodias S. Mat. 14.12 S. Mar. 6.29 by whom they say it was secretly buried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
So was the Scripture fulfilled They parted my raiment among them S. Joh. 19.24 and for my vesture they did cast lots He was broken and poured out in his soul by fear By fear of that bitter cup which he was to drinke he feared it and did pray against it O my Father S. Mat. 26.39 if it be possible let this cup passe from me He feared hell and the judgment of God due to mankinde for sin made his by imputation by such a fear as was possible for him to fear them And there is a fourfold fear of hell A foure-fold fear of hell and of the judgment of God There is a fear whereby a man doth carefully decline it such a fear is in all the Saints and servants of God and was in Christ in a speciall manner who is the Lord of all the Saints There is a fear whereby a man doth anxiously or carefully conflict with it such a fear none of all the saints could avoid nor would Christ avoid it as my learned author saith in that he was to be made a sacrifice for us whose prayers and supplications vvere therefore offered up with strong crying and tears Heb. 5.7 unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared Ne absorberetur that he should not be svvallovved up by it There is a fear vvhereby a man despaireth utterly it is the fear of those that cannot truely repent Gen. 4.13 S. Mat. 27.4 and vvas in Cain and in Judas Iscariot but such a fear is never to be found in any of all the Saints nor vvas it possible to be in Christ vvho had no sin There is a fear of hell in hell vvhich the damned retain as a part of their punishment S. Mar. 9.44 never dying worme and inextinguishible fire He vvas broken and poured out in his soul by griefe for he was a man of sorrowes Isa 53.3 4 5. and acquainted with griefe He did bear our griefs and carry our sorrowes he was stricken smitten of God and afflicted yet not for his owne but for our transgressions Lam. 1.12 Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger He was broken and poured out in soul by heavinesse It was a grievious dump and heavinesse that was over his soul wherewith he was amazed and very heavy as Saint Mark noteth when he said unto his disciples that his soul was exceeding sorrowfull unto death S. Mar. 14.34 Finally he was broken and poured out in soul byshame The death of the crosse was a most shamefull and a most ignominious death being therefore affected as a man he could not but shame to have that his chast body exposed naked all bloody at midday to the view of his blessed mother his disciples kindred acquaintance and to be made a scorn and greedy spectacle to his wicked enemies But he endured the crosse Heb. 12.2 and despised the shame as the Scripture noteth We cannot tell how many and how great his sufferings in soule were who knowes the number or extent of them therefore have we to make it in our prayers as the Greeks do in their Liturgies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By thy unknown sufferings O Christ deliver us He was broken and poured out in his body and that in all the parts of it In his hands and in his feet by the tearing nails in his head by the wounding thornes in his side by the piercing spear in his face by the unclean spittings and cruell buffetings and all over by the mercilesse whip Not from his side alone but from all the parts of the body of this true Pelican spouted forth unto us his reviving blood wherein he was similis factus Pelicano Ps 102.6 like unto the Pelican He was broken and poured out in all his senses In his feeling saith Mr. William Austen by the blowes bloody thornes nails and scourges In his taste by vinegar In his smell by hanging in a filthy stinking place of rotten dead mens skulls In his hearing by their base taunts and blasphemies In his sight by seeing those for whom he dyed and dearly loved doing all this and those that dearly loved him his mother and Saint John stand by weeping The feeling of all which was so sensible unto him that in Ieremy he calls from his crosse to all that go by the way to consider it Lam. 1.12 and see if there were any pain like his And now after all upon an Attendite and a Videle on a sufficient view and enquiry a non sicut is returned And that upon good reason For none ever suffered for such a cause therefore none ever felt such pains Excessere saith Thomas for their extent Par. 3. 46. art 6. Excessere omnes dolores quos homines pati possunt in hac vita When God will suffer pain to make him die in all that wherein it was possible for him to die what pain must that be Certainly as much as humanity could bear so much did he endure till sense of pain made him past sense and his noble soul expired suffering in the mean time the violence of his passion by the fortitude of his patience Medit. for good friday He brake the bread and he took the cup. He did give and distribute unto them the bread which he had broken and the cup which he had taken He gave unto them the bread which he had broken and the cup which he had taken And not the bread and the cup only but in by and with that bread and cup he gave his most precious body and blood For the res sacramenti the thing of the sacrament is generally all that which faith doth apprehend to salvation and everlasting life Now that next and immediately is Christ himselfe who is the thing of the sacrament three manner of waies by his person by his merits and by his benefits By his person for whole Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and man is exhibited therein as well in respect of his Divinity as also in reguard of his humanity although in the divine institution of it mention be made more specially of the human nature and a peculiar regard be had thereunto 1st Because in that nature he is consubstantiall with us and that blessed Seed in whom all the families of the earth are blessed 2ly Because in that nature he merited for us 3ly Because by that nature we come to his Divinity and do obtain grace with God By his merit for both the verity and utility of the death of Christ by which he purchased life for us is propounded and confirmed thereby By his benefits for look what Christ had and what Christ did he testifieth by his sacraments that he had them and did them for us men and for our salvation Which benefits Saint Paul reduceth to foure heads wisedome 1
lost his procuratorship and Caesars favour and fled to Vienâ—a in France where living in exile after he had sustained much misery he kill'd himselfe Euseb Ec. hist lib. 2. cap. 7. Neither did Annas and Caiaphas or the Scribes and Pharisees escape unpunished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Nicephorus Who also were deservedly and diversly punished for that they had unjustly promoted the death of Christ Lib. 2. cap. 10. No nor the whole nation upon whom the curse fell and is to this day according as they had most wickedly imprecated upon themselves Being led away to be crucified he did bear his own crosse through the streets of Hierusalem He beareth his own cross as vvas the manner of malefactours it should seem condemned by the Romans but vvas indeed to fulfill the type for Isaac did bear the vvood of the sacrifice and vvas sacrificed in the ram to shevv that Christ should bear his crosse but should only suffer and be made a sacrifice in the human nature He is led out of the city to be crucified as vvas the manner of the Jewes to do by those that vvere condemned to death but vvas foreshevved of Christ in the bodies of those beasts vvhich vvere burnt without the campe Heb 13.11 12. Thus having born his crosse some part of the vvay they encounter vvith one Simon a Cyrenian a Cyrenian by birth though othervvise a Jew the father of Alexander and Rufus Simon of Cyrene compelled to bear his crosse vvho are expresly named either because I suppose they vvere vvell knovvn in the city or else peradventure because they vvere of note among the disciples of Christ when Saint Mark wrote his evangelicall history Upon him comming out of the country at that instant they laid his crosse for that after his scourging and other injuries as bufferings and the effusion of his blood by the thornes wherewith he was twice crowned being also kept from sleep all that night the human nature by divine dispensation and to shew that he was very man fainted and sunk under the burthen of it So this Simon bare his crosse by compulsion following after him S. Mat. 27.32 S. Mar. 15.21 S. Luc. 23.26 27 28 29 30 31. S. Joh. 19.16 17. Mount Calvary There being also a great company of people which followed and women who bewailed and lamented him to whom he turned about foretelling the miseries and miserable destruction of that wicked city Hierusalem shortly to approach And in that manner they bring him to the place of execution which was an hill standing on the west side of the city being a part of the mount Gihon called Calvary but in the Hebrew tongue Golgotha the place of a skull Which name it had as many of the Fathers do probably affirme by occasion that Adam was buried there and his scull found in that place which was not without divine dispensation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as saith Theophylact That so death might be destroyed in the same place where it took its beginning in Mar. 15. Howsoever Bede thinketh that it took its name from the heads of malefactours condemned to die which were cut off in that place Some also will have it to be so called from the bones of the dead which were carried and heaped up there And possible it is that the malefactors might be executed and their heads cut off and the bones of the dead also be heaped up in that place where Adams skul was found Having brought him thither they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrhe but he received it not They give him wine mingled with myrrh S. Mar. 15.23 And in that he received it not I am easily induced to think that it was some potion which the Iewes were wont to give to those that were to be crucified to revive their spirits and that they might with the greater courage undergo their torments which he therefore would not receive a point to be specially observed in the Evangelist because he needed it not and because by divine dispensation he would admit no human help in any thing towards that work which he was to do Nor would he receive any potion to stupifie his senses or to revive or exhilarate his spirits He is fastened to the crosse Deut. 21.23 Having refused the wine he was fastned to the crosse that so he might die the cursed death and be made a curse in his death according to the Scripture Ipse habitus crucis fines summitates habet quinque duos in longitudinem duos in latitudine unum in medio ubi requiescit qui clavis affigitur Iren. lib. 2. cap. 42. The cross therefore was made of three pieces of wood The form of the cross the one was fastned upright in the ground to which the back was applyed the second was a crosse beam going overthwart to which the hands the armes being stretched out at length were nailed The third piece was sub-pedaneous upon which the party that vvas crucified did stand and vvas about the midst of the first vvhich stood upright in the ground to which he had his feet set close together and severally nailed In this manner vvas Christ crucified being nailed to the cross vvith foure nails vvhereof two did nail his hands to the crosse beam above and two his feet to that piece belovv 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as saith Iustine Martyr upon vvhich they that are crucified are carried or sustained Dialog cum Tryph. In the same manner also vvere the tvvo malefactours that vvere crucified vvith him nailed to the severall crosses upon vvhich they vvere crucified and such crosses vvere also called patibuli à patendo because the bodies that vvere crucified upon them vvere laid open and extreamly racked as Tertullian saith in patibulo corpore expanso the body expanded upon the cross lib de pudicitia cap. 22. Aloft upon that part of the cross which was super-eminent to his head was affixed as it should seeme a table wherein was written by Pilate that which Saint John calleth a Title St. Mark the Superscription of his accusation The superscription of his accusation that is to say a superscription setting forth the crime of which he was accused and for which he was condemned in these words Jesus of Nazareth king of the Jews For he was condemned because he affirmed himself to be a king a true king and king of the Jews This title was written in Hebrew Greek and Latin that so it might be read of all the people and that all that passed by might read and understand the cause of his crucifixion Which three tongues as St. Augustine observed had eminency above the rest the Hebrew for the Iews sake who gloryed in the law of God the Greek for the wise men of the Gentiles sake viz. for the Greeks or Gentiles sake who sought after wisdom worldly wisdome and humane learning The Latin for the Romans sake who then had the Empire over many 1 Cor.