fince Chrift is become like us; and not to make that Nature of ours a Slave to brutish Lufts and Paffions, which the Son of God vouchfafed to take upon him.

Suffered under Pontius Pilate.

HO was it that fuffered under Pontius Pilate?
A. Jefus Chrift the Only Begotten Son of

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God.

Q. How do you prove that the Chrift or Meffiah was to fuffer?

A. Because it was fo determined and agreed between God the Son and God the Father, from the firft Fall of Adam. The Serpent was to bruise his Heel, Gen. iii. 15. Or the Human or Inferiour Part of Chrift. He was delivered by the Determinate Counsel and Foreknowledge of God, Acts ii. 23. He went as it was de- . termined of him. And St. Paul proved, Acts xvii. 3. That Christ must needs have suffered.

Q. Were the Sufferings of Chrift foretold by the Prophets?

A. Yes; in many Places of them, but especially in the 53 Chap. of Ifaiah. For he is there defcribed as a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief, oppreffed, afflicted, bruifed, brought to the Slaughter, cut off out of the Land of the Living.

Q. What Reafon have you to believe that the Prophet fpeaks in that Chapter of the Saviour of the World?

A. Because he fays, he bare our Griefs aud carried our Sorrows; That the Chaftifement of our Peace was upon him, and by his Stripes we are healed: Which could not be truly and properly faid of any other Perfon whatsoever.

2. Does Chrift any where acknowledge thefe Prophefies to be spoken of him?

A. Yes; and upbraids his Difciples for not understanding them. O Fools and flow of Heart to believe

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all

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all that the Prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have Juffered these things, and to enter into his Glory, Luke xxiv. 25, 26.

2.That our Jefus did fuffer is indeed confeffed both by Jew and Gentile: But how do you prove that he underwent thofe very Sufferings that the Meffias was to undergo?

A. From his own Words before he suffered. Behold (fays he) We go up to Jerufalem, and all things that are written by the Prophets concerning the Son of Man fhall be accomplished, Luke xviii. 31.

2. But do you not believe our Jefus was God? And if fo, how could he suffer?

A. He fuffered not in his Divine but Human Nature: He fuffered in the Flesh; he was put to Death in the Flefb, 1 Pet. iii. 18.

2. But if, as you fay, he fuffered only in the Flesh, can you properly fay, the Son of God fuffered?

A. Yes; because that Nature which fuffered was truly his And therefore the Holy Ghost, speaking of him, faith, God purchased his Church with his own Blood; meaning with That Blood Which ran in the Veins of That Body Which was and is the Son of God's. They crucified the Lord of Glory, 1 Cor. ii. 8. 2. But did his whole Human Nature fuffer?

A. Yes; he fuffered in his Body and his Soul. In his Body by natural Infirmities and most barbarous and unnatural Injuries: In his Soul by Fears and Sor. rows; by unknown and inexpreffible Anguishes. The Plowers plow'd upon his Back and made long Furrows; and his Soul was exceeding forrowful, even unto Death. 2. Why is the Circumftance of Time, when, and under whom he fuffered, mentioned in the Creed?

A. Chiefly to determine and perpetuate the Memory of the Time when the Son of God fuffered, as namely when Pontius Pilate was Governour of Judaæa. 2. What do you learn from the Sufferings of Christ?

A. I learn the heinous Nature of Sin, for which he fuffered: And if Sin Imputed was punished with fo great Severity in the Son of God, Sin Committed will not be pardoned without true Repentance, in the Sons of Men.

2.

Was crucified, dead.

H Meffiab was to be crucified and die?

OW do you prove the Christ or Promised

A. From Types which did apparently, forefhew it, and Prophefies which did plainly foretell it.

2. What Types did forefhew the Crucifixion of the Meffias?

A. They are chiefly Two; Firft, Ifaac's bearing the Wood which was prepared to burn him, did fig nifie that the Meffias fhould carry the Crofs prepared

to crucifie him.

Secondly, Mofes lifting up the Brazen Serpent on a Pole, Numb. xxi. 9. was another Type fignifying that the Chrift should be lifted up on the Crols. And fo it is written, John iii. 14. As Mofes lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

2. What Prophefies foretell the Crucifixion of the Meffias?

A. David prophetically fpeaks in the Person of the Meffias; They pierced My Hands and my Feet, Pf. xxii. 17. And God by the Prophet Zachary foretells what he himself fhould fuffer from the Sons of Men, faying, They shall look on Me Whom they have pierced, Zach. xii. 10.

2. But are there any Types and Prophefies that did forefhew, that the Meffias thould not only be crucified and nailed to the Crols, but that he should die too?

A. Yes; the flaying the Lamb at the Paffover did forefhew, that the Chrift, the Lamb of God,' fhould be flain And the Bloody Sacrifices under the Law

were

were but fo many Types and Representations of the Sacrifice of the Death of Christ.

Q. Where is this foretold?

A. In the 3d of Ifaiah; where that Prophet, fpeaking of the Chrift, fays, He was cut off from the Land of the Living, and made his Soul an Offering for

Sin.

What do you conclude from all this?

A. I conclude that the Meffias, the Chrift, the Saviour of the World, was to be a Man of Sorrows, to be crucified and die.

2. How do you prove that our Jefus was crucified ? A. From the Confeffion of his Friends and Enemies. It was the malicious Cry of the Jews, Crucifie bim, Crucifie him, Luke xxiii. 21. And St. Matthew tells us they crucified him, Mat. xxvii. 35.

Q. What was that?

A. They faften'd his Body to a Cross of Wood, with Nails driven through his Hands and Feet.

Q. How long did he hang fo nailed to the Cross? A. Three Hours; proved from Luke xxiii. 34. And it was about the Sixth Hour, and there was Darkness over all the Earth until the Ninth Hour..

How do you prove he then died?

A. From the 46th Verse of the fame Chapter. And when Jefus bad cried with a loud Voice, be faid, Father into thy Hands I commend my Spirit; and having faid thus, he gave up the Ghoft.

Q. But how do you apprehend thisJefus did or could die, Who was the Only Begotten Son of God?

A. By being alfo Man he died as we Men do. When he was to die, he refigned his Soul; when he gave It up, he died; when It was delivered out of the Body, then was his Body dead; and fo the Eternal Son of God did properly and truly die.

What Effect ought the Belief of the Crucifixion and Death of Chrift to have upon you?

A. It ought to make me believe that he died for the Sins of others (fince he had no Sin of his own to die for :) That the Chaftifement of my Peace was upon him; and from hence to be affured of Pardon upon my Repentance and Faith in him; and to hope for Com. fort from him at my Laft Hours, Who, by his own Experience knows what it is to die.

Buried, defcended into Hell.

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HAT Type did fore-fhew the Burial of
Chrift?

A. 4. The Prophet Jonas was a Type of Chrift's Burial, who being Three Days and Three Nights in the Whale's Belly, did forefhew that Chrift fhould be Three Days and Three Nights (or Part of Three Natural Days) in the Heart of the Earth, Mat. xii. 40. What Prophets foretold this?

A. The Pfalmift muft fuppofe that the Body of Christ should be buried, when fpeaking of him he fays, Thou wilt not fuffer thy Holy One to fee Corruption, Pf. xvi. 10. And the Prophet Ifaiab foretells, That be should make his Grave with the Wicked, and the Rich, in his Death, Ifai. liii. 9.

But was not our Jefus crucified by the Romans? And was it not ufual with them to leave the crucified Bodies hanging on the Crofs, expofed to the Fowls of the Air? How then do you prove he was buried, and fo buried as the Meffiah was to be?

A. The Favour of being buried was not commonly granted by the Romans to Crucified Perfons: But the Jews first befought Pilate that our Saviour's Body fhould be taken down from the Cro/s, John xix. 31. And Jofeph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus afterwards begged the Body of Jefus and buried it, embalmed with Spices and Ointments, as the Jews Manner is to bury, Mat. xxvii. 59.

2. What