110 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK ir. be propagated by seeds, layers, or cuttings, into plenty sufficient to store 



even these vulgar uses, were men industrious ; and then how beautiful 

 and sweet would the environs of our fields be ! for there are none of the 

 spinous shrubs more hardy, none that make a more glorious show, nor 

 fitter for our defence, competently armed, especially the Rhamnus, 

 which I therefore join to the Oxycantha, for its terrible and almost 

 irresistible spines, able almost to pierce a coat of mail ; and for this made 

 use of by the malicious Jews, to crown the sacred temples of our blessed 

 Saviour, and is yet preserved among the most venerable relics in 

 St. Chapel at Paris, as is pretended by the devotees, &c. and hence has 

 the tree (for it sometimes exceeds a shrub) the name of Chrisfs Thorn. — 



upon the head of Christ at his crucifixion ; but Dr. Haselquist, who had great oppor- 

 tunities of examining the plants of the Holy Land, is of opinion that it was a species 

 of Zizyphus, which grows in great plenty in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. It is a very 

 thorny plant, and is called by Linn^us, Rhamnus aculeis geminatis rectis, foliis ovatis. 

 Sp. PI. 282. The learned Dr. Pearce, late Lord Bishop of Rochester, sees the whole 

 of this transaction in a very different light. And as his own words will best explain his 

 opinion, I shall here transcribe them from his most excellent work, intitled, ' A Com- ^ 

 mentary upon the Four Evangelists.' " The a.v.avBav may as well be the plural genitive 

 " case of the word aHayfla? as of anavfiij : if of the latter, it is rightly translated of Thorns, 

 " but the former word signifies what we call Bears-foot, and the French Branche Ursine. — 

 " This is not of the thorny kind of plants, but is soft and smooth. Virgil calls it Mollis 

 " Acanthus (Eccl. iii. 45, and Georg. iv. 137) : so does Pliny, Sec. Epist. v. 6, and Pliny the 

 " elder, in his Nat. Hist. xxii. 22, (p. 277, Edit. Hard, fol.) says that it is Icevis, smooth, and 

 " that it is one of those plants which are cultivated in gardens. I have somewhere read, 

 " (but cannot at present recollect where,) that this soft and smooth herb was very common 

 in and about Jerusalem. I find nothing in the New Testament said concerning tliis 

 " crown which Pilate's soldiers put upon the head of Jesus, to incline one to think that 

 " it was made of thorns, and intended (as is usually supposed) to put him to pain. The 

 " reed put into his hand, and the scarlet robe on his back, were only meant as marks 

 " of mockery and contempt. One may also reasonably judge by the soldiers being said 

 " to plait this crown, that it was not composed of such twigs and leaves as were of a 

 thorny nature. I do not find that it is mentioned by any one of the primitive Christian 

 writers, as an instance of the cruelty used towards our Saviour before he was led to his 

 *' crucifixion, till the time of Tertullian, who lived after Jesus's death at the distance of 

 " above one hundred and sixty years. He indeed seems to have understood aKavBav in the 

 " sense of /Aorn^, and says, De coron. milit. Sect. xiv. (Edit. Pomel. Franck. 1597.) quale, 

 "orote, Jesvs Chiislus serlum pro ulraque sexu suhiil? Ex spinis, opinor, ct tribulis. The 

 " total silence of Polycarp, Barnabas, Clem. Romanus, and all the other Christian writers, 

 " whose works are now extant, and who wrote before Tertullian, in this particular, will give 



" some weight to incline one to think that this crown was not plaited with thorns." — 

 Vol. L p. 196, Ed. 1777. 



