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any other Principle of Religion, plainly laid down in the Scriptures.

Q. But is it just for an innocent Person to suffer for the Guilty?

A. If the Party offended be willing to accept of the Commutation, and the Party that suffers doth it voluntarily, there can be no Injustice that one should suffer in another's Stead, and make Satisfaction for the Crimes and Faults another hath committed: Because the innocent Person having a free Disposal of himself, may freely offer his own Life or Liberty in Exchange for the forfeited Life of another, and the Judge, if he thinks fit, may accept it. This is an Act of great heroical Goodness, which though Justice cannot require to be done, yet it is no Ways contrary to the Rules of Justice to perform it. Besides, if it were unjust that an innocent Person should suffer for the Guilty, the very Notion of a Sacrifice would be quite destroyed; which requires, that the Innocent should suffer for the Guilty. The Perfection that was expected in the Beasts that were set apart for Sacrifice, and their Suffering for those Sins they never committed, nor were ever capable of committing, sufficiently signifies what Innocence was required in a Sacrifice; and if the Sacrifices of Beasts were Types of any other meritorious Sacrifice, they must prefigure the Death and Sacrifice of a most innocent Person, of that Lamb of God, without Blemish and without Spot.

Q. How doth it appear that the promised Messiah was thus to suffer?

A. The Prophet Isaiah represents the Messias that Chap. liii. was to come as a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with Grief, oppressed and afflicted, wounded and bruised, brought to the Slaughter, and cut off out of the Land of the Living. That he was numbered with the Transgressors. And that the Messias is treated of in this Chapter, appears not only from the genuine Sense of the Place, but from the Confession D D

Zach. xi.

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xii. 10.

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of the most ancient Jews. The Prophet Zachary foretels the Price for which he was to be betrayed; Thirty Pieces of Silver. And that they should look Psal. xxii. on him whom they pierced. The Prophet David more particularly, That they should pierce his Hands and his Feet. Which Predictions agree with the historical Account we have in the Evangelists, of the Sufferings of the Blessed Jesus; who did constantly instruct his Apostles in this Truth, not only that they might expect it, but that they might be thereby confirmed that he was the true Messias. Acts xvii. And St. Paul makes it a Part of his Preaching, that Christ must needs have suffered.

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Heb. ix.

22.

Q. How was the Sacrifice of our Saviour typified under the Law?

A. Moses, in the Institution of the Passover, where Ex. xii. 3. the Paschal Lamb was to be slain, pointed at the Lamb slain before the Foundations of the World. Num. xxi. When the Brazen Serpent was set up in the Wilderness, it declared that the Son of Man should be lifted up on the Cross. All the Sacrifices for Sin proclaimed Levit. xvi. that without Effusion of Blood there was no Remission. But the great Type was the Day of Expiation and Atonement, enjoined by God under a great Penalty, and observed with a proportionable Exactness both by the High Priest and the People. It was on this Day alone the High Priest went by himself into the Holy of Holies; and besides the Propitiation he was to make for himself and his House; he made an Atonement for the People by Two Kids of the Goats, for a Sin-offering, which he presented before the Lord at the Door of the Tabernacle; where, by Lots, was determined which was to be offered, and which was to be the Scape-Goat; with the Blood of that which was offered he sprinkled the Mercy-seat; on the other he laid both his Hands, and confessed over him the Sins of the People, putting them upon the Head of the Goat, and sent him away by the Hand of a fit Man into the Wilderness. And thus the Apostle, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, represents our Saviour to have been our High-Priest,

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and on his Passion-Day to have offered the Sacrifice Heb. ii. of himself, to have borne our Sins in his own Body, 26, 24. and with his own Blood to have entered into the Holy Place not made with Hands, and to have appeared as before the Mercy-seat in the Presence of God for us.

Q. How was this Day of Atonement observed among the People?

A. While the Expiation was making in the Temple at Jerusalem, the Jews, wherever they Lev. xxiii. resided, fasted the whole Day, and afflicted their 29, 32. Souls from Evening to Evening; and whatever Soul it was that was not afflicted in that same Day, he shall be cut off from among his People. And this Affliction of their Souls was not only by Fasting, but by all other Demonstrations of Grief and Abhorrence of their Sins. They watched most Part of the preceding Night, which they spent in Prayer; early before Sun-rising they met in their Synagogues, Buxt. Syn. and passed the Day in public Exercises of Devotion; Jud. c. 25. they were dismissed with the solemn Benediction of the Priests who were present. And except the Day was employed after this Manner, they were not to expect any Benefit from the Sacrifice which was then offered.

Q. Did the Practice of any Christians upon GoodFriday, bear any Conformity with that of the Jews upon their Day of Atonement?

c. vi. vii.

A. In the Western Church, on Good-Friday, the Concil. holy Priests made our Saviour's Sufferings the Sub-Tolet. iv. ject of their Discourses to the People, whom they instructed upon that Occasion in the Mysteries of our Redemption; and all the People, except such as were excused by Age or Sickness, were bound to fast the whole Day, till the Priest, towards Evening, with a loud Voice, did proclaim public Absolution; and this upon the Penalty of being excluded from the Lord's Table at Easter. The Design whereof was, that by this outward Testimony of their true Repentance for their Sins, and by the Benefit of priestly

Absolution, they might be the better fitted to solemnize the Grand Festival of our Saviour's Resurrection, and to eat the Christian Passover.

Q. But our Messias being God as well as Man, how could he suffer, since the Divine Nature is not subject to any Sense of Misery?

A. Our Blessed Saviour suffered only in his human Nature, that Nature of Man which he took upon him; but since it was united to the Divine Nature, and that there was a most intimate Conjunction of both Natures in the Person of the Son, there did from thence result a true, proper Communication of Names, Characters, and Properties; so that the very eternal Son of God may rightly be said to have suffered whatsoever the Man Christ Jesus endured in the Flesh for Sinners, because the Properties of each Nature separate may reasonably be affirmed of that Person in whom the two Natures are united. Q. What may we learn from the Commemoration of Christ's Sufferings?

A. The great Evil of Sin, which we are apt to make so light of, and yet God incarnate was made a Sacrifice to deliver us from the Guilt of it. The infinite Love of our dear Redeemer, who suffered such bitter Torments and inexpressible Anguish, to purchase eternal Salvation for us. That the good Things of this Life are not so valuable, nor the Evils of it so considerable as we are apt to imagine, when the best Man that ever lived was so destitute of the common Comforts and Conveniencies of human Life, and shared so largely in the Afflictions and Sufferings of it. That the Favour of God is not to be measured by outward Prosperity in this World, nor his Wrath and Indignation to be concluded from temporal Afflictions, since the greatest Sufferer that ever was, was the dearly beloved Son of God. testify the Power of Christ's Death, by crucifying the old Man, and destroying the whole Body of Sin; not glorying, save in the Cross of Christ, by which the World is crucified unto us, and we unto the

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World. To bear the Calamities of this Life with Patience and Resignation to the Will of God, and not to murmur and repine that we suffer what we have so highly deserved, when our Saviour, who was perfectly innocent, endured much greater upon our Account. Not to despond under the sharpest Trials, from a Sense of our own Weakness, because our Saviour hath purchased for us the Gift of his holy Spirit, a most powerful Principle of Resolution; and is himself touched with a Feeling of our Infirmities, having been in all Points tempted like as we are, yet without Sin. To make all the Returns we are able of Love and Gratitude. To sacrifice all that is dear to us for the Defence of his Truth, and the Propagation of his Glory and Honour in the World. To extend our Charity to all Mankind, our Enemies as well as Friends; for while we were Enemies to God, Christ died to obtain Peace and Reconciliation for us.

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ALMIGHTY God, I beseech thee graciously to For all look upon thy Family, for which our Lord Jesus Christians. Christ was contented to be betrayed, and given up into the Hands of wicked Men, and to suffer Death upon the Cross; and receive, I humbly beseech thee, the Supplications and Prayers I offer before thee, for all Estates of Men in thy holy Church; that every Member of the same, in his Vocation and Ministry, may truly and godly serve thee, through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, World without End. Amen.

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ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who of thy For the tender Love towards Mankind, hast sent thy Son Imitation our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our Examp

of Chris

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