order that we miglit be clothed with the garment of His perfect righteousness and reckoned innocent.
24. — [Thet/ said therefore among themselves, etc.] In this verse we are told that the conduct of the soldiers was a precise ful- filment of a prophecy delivered a thousand years before. (Ps. xxii. 18.) That i)ropliecy foretold not only that Messiah's gar- ments should be parted and distributed, but that men should " cast lots for His vesture." Little did the four rough Roman soldiers think that they were actually supplying evidence of the truth of the Scriptures 1 They only saw that our Lord's " coat " was a good and serviceable garment, which it was a pity to rend or tear and therefore they agreed to cast lots who should have it. And yet, in so doing, they added to the great cloud of witnesses who prove the divine authority of the Bible. Men little con- sider that they are all instruments in God's hand for accom- plishing His purposes.
. The importance of interpreting prophecy literally, and not figuratively, is strongly shown in this verse. The system of interpretation which unhappily prevails among many Chris- tians— I mean the system of spiritualizing away all the plain statements of the prophets, and accommodating them to the Church of Christ — can never be reconciled with such a verse as this. The plain, literal meaning of words should evidently be the meaning placed on all the statements of Old Testament prophecy. This remark of course does not apply to symbolical prophecies, such as those of the seals, trumpets, and vials in Kevelation.
The typical meaning of this seamless and unrent coat of our Lord is a point on which fanciful theological writers have lov- ed to dwell in every age of the Church of Christ. It repre- sented, we are told by Augustine and many others, the unity of the Church, and it was an allusion to the priesthood of the Divine wearer ! I frankly confess that I am unable to believe such notions, and I doubt extremely whether they were intended by the Holy Ghost. But it is a fact mentioned by Henry, that " those who opposed Luther's separation from the Church of Rome, urged much this seamless coat as an argument, and laid BO much stress on it, that they were called luconsutilistae, — the seamless ones ! "
As to the lying legend that this seamless coat was preserved and handed down to the Church as a precious relic, it is scarce- ly worth while to mention it, except as a melancholy illustra- tion of the corruption of man, and the apostacy of the Church of Rome. The holy coat of Treves, and its exhibition, are a scandal and disgrace to Christianity. Suffice it to say, that any one who can seriously believe that our Lord's seamless coat, after falling into the hands of a heathen Romish soldier, was finally treasured up as a relic, or that the cross itself was kept safe and escaped destruction, must be so credulous a person that argument is thrown away on him.