John xix. 31—37. The Jeics therefore, because it urns the pre- paration, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken aivay. Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which teas crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saiv that he was dead already, they brake not his legs : but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true : and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were done, that the Scrip- vol. xiv. o
lure should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. And again another Scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.
UNSEARCHABLE is the depravity of the human heart. Who that had not seen it recorded in the Holy Scriptures, would conceive it possible, that those who felt no remorse for having crucified the Lord of Glory, should yet pretend to feel such reverence for the Sabbath-day, as not to endure the thought of its being profaned by his body remaining on the cross on that day ? Horrid hypocrisy ! This was indeed to " strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel." What if there were extraordinary reasons for sanctifying that day, as being the first day of the Feast of Un- leavened Bread3; could they be supposed to operate on a mind that was dead to all sense of justice or of mercy ? But all was wisely ordered and overruled by God, who by this means wrought more effectually to the establishing of the claims of Jesus to the Mes- siahship : for from hence arose their singular treat- ment of our Lord's body ; which, together with the instruction to be gathered from it, will form the subject of our present discourse.
Let us consider, I. Their singular treatment of our Lord's body —
It was truly singular — [The Romans were accustomed to leave upon the cross those who were so put to death, in order that they might be devoured by birds of prey. Agreeably therefore to their customs, the bodies of Jesus and of the malefactors should have been kept upon the cross. But the Jews, who on some occasions put persons to death by hanging, were forbidden to keep them on the tree all night1': and, as the next day was so great a day, they thought it right to interest themselves with the governor to adopt on that occasion the Jewish, instead of the Roman, plan ; proposing however, that the legs of the
a Lev. xxiii. 5 — 7. Whitby, and others after him, appear to me to be under a mistake in calling it the second day of the Fe;ist of Un- leavened Bread, and the day for presenting the sheaf of new corn ; which was to be, not on the sabbath-day, but .on the morrow after it. Lev. xxiii. 15, 1G.
b Deut. xxi. 23.