Matthew Poole and continuators on Luke 23:46

46 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: And having said thus, he gave up the ghost.

See the Notes on Matth. 27.35, 36, to v. 50▪ and on Mark 14.23. to 38. This part also of the History of our Saviour's Passion▪ is best understood, by a comparing together what all the E[illegible: 1 letter]angelists say, which we have before done in our Notes on Matthew [illegible: 1 word] as we shall only observe some few things from it, as here recited, v. 35. And the People stood beholding, and the Rulers also derided him saying, Matthew ch. 27. The chief Priests, Scribes, and Elders, were there mocking. So saith, Mark 15.31. How doth Malice and Hatred for Religion sake, not only out shew Mens reason, but [illegible: 1 letter]lso all their Moral Vertue? and make nothing accounted uncharitable▪ unjust, or indecent to them, into whom this Devil hath once entred. To say nothing of the injustice, and indecencies obvious to every Eye, which these Men shewed upon our Saviour's examination, and Trial. It was now the first Day of the Feast of Vnleavened Bread, the Day following the Passover Night; or (as some think) the Preparation both for the Weekly Sabbath, and for the Passover, (tho the most judicious Interpreters be of the first Opinion) one of them it was; be it which it would. If Atheism, and Irreligion had not been at the height amongst this People, had it been possible that the High Priest, and the chief of the Priests, and the Rulers of the Jews, should have spent this Day, the whole time, from break of the Day till Noon, in accusing, or Condemning Christ? and then have spent the afternoon, in mocking, and deriding him on the Cross as he was dying, breaking all Laws of humanity, and decency, as well as Religion; admiting Annas and Caiaphas were not there; yet some of the chief of the Priests, the Scribes, and the Elders, were certainly there; and behaving themselves there more rudely and indecently than the common People. The People were there beholding him. These were there mocking and deriding a dying Person. But as we say in Philosophy. Corruptio optimi est pessima. So we shall find it true. That Men who are imployed in sacred things, if the true fear of God be not in them, to make them the best, they are certainly the vilest and worst of Men. We read of no rudnesses offered to our Saviour dying, but from the Scribes, Chief Priests, Rulers, and Soldiers. These verses also afford us great Proof of the immortality of the Soul; otherwise the penitent thief could not that Day have been with Christ in Paradise as Christ promised, v. 43. Nor would Christ have committed his Soul into his Fathers hand, if it had been to have expired with the Body, and have vanished into Air. For other things which concern this part of the History, of our Saviour's Passion. See the Notes before mentioned on Matth. 27. from v. 35. to 50.

Marginal references: Psal. 31.5.; Math. 27.50. Joh. 19.30.