THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT.

The Collect.

This prayer for heavenly protection was introduced at the Reformation.

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We beseech thee, Almighty God, mercifully to look upon thy people that by thy great goodness they may be governed and preserved evermore, both in body and soul, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle.-Heb. ix. 11.

Preface.

The Apostle having, in the preceding verses of this chapter, shewn that the sacrifices and ceremonies of the temple of worship were intended as symbols of a more perfect covenant that was to succeed it, proceeds to say,

All these types and ceremonies Christ hath realized; offering his own blood instead of the Levitical sacrifice* of goats and calves; entering the true

* After the transgression of our first parents, when man had disobeyed the divine command, and God had graciously promised to send a redeemer, offerings and sacrifices were instituted, as types or representations of the Messiah.-See Bellamy's Bible, Gen. iv. note on fifth verse.

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A lamb or kid was commanded to be slain as a sin offering; thus intimating that the Messiah (of whom the lamb or kid was a symbol) would, in the fulness of time, be put to death, as a sin offering for all mankind. Hence the meaning of the supplicatory address at the conclusion of the Liturgy, "O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world;" and also John the Baptist's exclamation, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world;" John, chap. i. v. 29. Hence also why the death of Jesus Christ is termed a sacrifice, and why the bread and wine administered at the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is termed the body and blood of Christ. After the great sacrifice of the Messiah, by which all the typical sacrifices of the law were accomplished, sacrifice was for ever abolished.--See the Epistle for Good Friday.

Holy of Holies; and making for us, not an annual but a perpetual atonement. And well may we suppose, if the sprinkling of the blood of animals purified the Jew from all his legal defilements, that the blood of Christ, offered through the divine appointment without spot to God, will purge us from sin. Thus Christ becomes the mediator of a new and better covenant; redeeming by his death, and restoring to an eternal inheritance, even those who lived under the first covenant.

The Gospel.-St. John, viii. 46.

Whilst our blessed Saviour was instructing the people in the nature of his religion, and telling them that he came into the world to banish ignorance and wickedness, and through faith to lead mankind to eternal life, some Pharisees who were present affected to doubt the truth of his mission. Jesus vindicated his authority, and appealed to his approaching death and resurrection, as a proof of the truth of his pretensions. He then reproached the Pharisees for their obstinacy; the only cause, said he, of your opposition to me, is because I tell you the truth; either believe my authority or disprove it. An honest, sincere heart is all that is wanting for the reception of God's word: you have not this, and certainly, therefore, are not the children of God.

The Jews then in great wrath began to tax him with madness, saying, he was worse than a Samaritan.*

The Israelites who revolted under Rehoboam, and formed themselves into a distinct kingdom, had Samaria for their capital city, and built a temple on Mount Gerizim, in opposition to that of Jerusalem. But the sacred authors confine the appellation of Samaritans to the Cuthites, who were sent by the Assyrians from beyond the Euphrates, to people the kingdom of Samaria, when they carried into captivity the Israelites who dwelt there. The peculiar enmity that subsisted between the Jews and Samaritans,

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Jesus told them that every thing they laid to his charge was founded merely on the obedience he paid to God, whose glory he sought, and who would, in his own time, vindicate his word. What! said the Jews (with great eagerness), are you greater than our father Abraham and the prophets? Yet they are all dead. Whom do make yourself? Jesus answered, that he made himself not greater or less. His honour was from his Father, whom they called their God. But their hearts and doctrines were as opposite to Almighty goodness as his own were acceptable to it. Your father Abraham himself, said he, rejoiced to see my day; and considered it as the completion of his hopes. What! said the Jews, have you, who are not yet fifty years of age, seen Abraham? Be assured, said Jesus, that before Abraham was, I am. On this their rage exceeded all bounds: they took up stones to put him to instant death; but as his time of suffering was not yet come, he miraculously passed through them, and left the temple.

THE SUNDAY NEXT BEFORE EASTER.*

The Collect.

This prayer for grace, to enable us to follow Christ's example, and to become worthy of partaking his resurrection, is found in Gregory's Sacramentarium, and in Ambrose's Liturgy.

Almighty and everlasting God, who of thy tender love towards mankind, has sent thy Son, our Sa

ritans, was occasioned by the calumnies and stratagems employed by the latter, to prevent the rebuilding of the temple of Jerusalem in the time of Ezra.-See Calmet.

This is also called Palm Sunday, in commemoration of our Saviour's triumphal entry into Jerusalem; when the multitude that attended him strewed palm branches in the way.-See Wheatley's Illustration of the Common Prayer.

viour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility : mercifully grant that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection, through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle.-Phil. ii. 5.

Let each of you imitate the example of your blessed Saviour, who took upon him the lowly nature of man, and suffered death upon the cross, though he was before equal with God, and his humanity was afterwards to be exalted to the highest state of glory.

The Gospel.-St. Matt. xxvii. 1.

As Judea was a Roman province, the Jews could not legally put a criminal to death. Being resolved, however, to proceed against Jesus in a legal way, and thinking they had now obtained sufficient matter of accusation against him, they carried him very early in the morning before Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor. In the mean time Judas, finding (what perhaps he did not expect) that his master was condemned; carried back to the chief priests, in an agony of despair, the money he had received, as if hoping to undo the horrid deed he had committed. In vain he told them that he had betrayed an innocent person:-answers of levity and scorn were all that he received. Distracted by his guilty thoughts, he threw down the money in the temple, and, rushing out, put an end to his life.

The chief priests afterwards, not thinking it lawful to place this money among the offerings of the temple, purchased with it a burying ground for strangers from whence that field was afterwards called Aceldama, or the field of blood. Thus was

fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah; "they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, and gave them for the potter's field." Jesus being brought before the governor, was accused chiefly of a design to erect a new kingdom in Judea, in opposition to the Romans. This was supposed to be the best plea they could urge. Pilate, who did not seem to lay much stress upon it, and yet could not entirely neglect it, carelessly asked Jesus whether he pretended to be the king of the Jews? Jesus told him, that his kingdom was of a very different nature from the kingdoms of this world. The chief priests then brought other accusations against him; to which Jesus gave no answer, leaving the governor, who was not a little surprised at his silence, to make what use he pleased of the several charges they brought against him: Pilate, however, clearly saw that the whole prosecution was malicious. He was greatly inclined also to favour Jesus, from a private motive. He had just received a message from his wife, informing him that she had been greatly affrighted that morning in a dream,* on account of that innocent person whose cause was then before him; and begged he would have no farther hand in it. He determined, therefore, within himself, on an expedient which he thought might save Jesus.

It was a custom at the feast of the Passover, for the governor to release some prisoners, at the option of the people; and as there happened to be at that time in prison one Barabbas, a notorious offender, Pilate proposed this person and Jesus to the people for their option: not doubting but that, even prejudiced as they were, they would notwith

*The ancients laid much stress on dreams, and imagined those that came early in the morning to be the most important and significant.