AFTER this Account of Chrift's Sufferings in general, are to be confidered the Particulars here added, of the Time, the Manner, and the Confequences of his Suffering. He fuffered, "under Pontius "Pilate; was crucified, dead, and buried; he defcended into Hell.

"

THIS Circumftance, of his fuffering, "under Pontius Pilate, that is, when That Person was Governour of Judæa; is inferted for the fake of fixing the Time of his Suffering. And the Reafon of thus afcertaining the Time, is This. As the Prophet Daniel declares that he understood Dan ix.z. by Books the number of the years that the Lord would accomplish in the Defolations of Ferufalem: So, in a matter of much greater and more univerfal importance, the Sufferings and Death of Chrift; it was very proper, the Time should be kept upon Record; that it might appear, he died in the Fulness of Time; at That precise Gal.iv. 4. Time, which had been antiently foretold;

at the Expiration of Daniel's Seventy Danix 24. Weeks of years, that is, feventy times feven

G

or

6, 7, 8.

or four hundred and ninety years. Which Prophecy was, by This Event, punctualEzra vii. ly accomplished. For from the Seventh year of Artaxerxes the King (when Ezra went up from Babylon- •unto Jerufalem, with a Commiffion to restore the Government of the Jews;) to the Death of Dan. ix. Chrift, which was to finish the tranfgreffi

24.

on, and to make an end of Sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity; were precifely 490 (that is, feventy weeks of) Years. And this Time of our Lord's Suffering, is expressed in this Article of the Creed, not by the Date of the Year, which antiently was not fo known and determinate a computation; but by the Name of the then Roman Governour; because Records were kept at Rome, of the Acts of their Governours in their feveral Provinces.

'TIS further obfervable upon This Head, that by our Lord's fuffering under Pontius Pilate, who was a Roman Governour; is fignified the completion of Another Prophecy, that the Meffiah should

appear

appear when the Sceptre was departed Gen. xlix. from Judah; that is, when the Jews were become fubject to the Empire of the

Romans.

10.

"Tis also remarkable that by This means, by his fuffering under a Roman Governour, he was put to Death, not by a Jewish, but by a Roman Punishment ; and Thereby likewife fulfilled fome particular Prophecies, relating to the Manner and Circumftances of his Death: As, that the Son of Man fhould be lifted up, Joh.ii. 14, like the Serpent in the Wilderness, &c. WHAT that particular Punishment was, is fet forth in the next words ; "Was crucified. And This particular kind of death, it was Therefore prophefied our Lord should undergo, and he Therefore did undergo it; because it was a most Painful Death; Which is expressed in Scripture by his enduring the Crofs. Also, because it was an Ignominious Death; fuch Heb.xii. 2. as Thieves and Robbers, the vileft of Malefactors, used to be put to: Upon which Account, our Saviour is declared to have

Mark xv.

Phil. ii. 8.

If. liii. 12. been numbred with the Tranfgreffors, to 28. have defpifed the Shame, and to have humHeb.xii. 2. bled himself and become obedient unto Death, even the Death of the Cross. Lastly, because it was accounted an Accurfed Death: For which reafon the ADeut. xxi. postle fays, Chrift has redeemed us from the Curfe of the Law, being made a Curfe for us.

23.

Gal.iii. 13.

Joh.xix.

34.

THE following Words, that he was "Dead; are added in this Article, in oppofition to an erroneous Notion of Some among the Antients, who imagined that Chrift fuffered in appearance only, and not in reality; or, that Jefus was not himself the Chrift, but Compounded of Two Perfons, one of which Suffered, whilft the other remained incapable of fuffering. In oppofition to which Errour, the Creed declares that he fo fuffered, as really and truly to Die. Of which, One Evidence was, his being pierced to the Heart with a Spear, fo that out of his Side came Blood and Water. And that Christ should indeed, not only Suffer, but

Dan.ix.26.

23:

22.

Die, (befides that it had been expressly foretold by the Prophets Isaiah and Dani- If.liii. el,) was necessary in order to his being a Sacrifice and Expiation for Sin. For fince the Wages of Sin, is Death; and Rom. vi. God had been pleased to appoint, that without hedding of Blood there fhould be Heb. ix. no remiffion; it was neceffary, (not perhaps abfolutely in the Nature of things, of which it becomes not US to judge; but, in and by the Appointment of God in his all-wife Government of the Universe, it was neceffary,) that He, who was to redeem Us from Death, muft, for the accomplishing of That redemption, die Himself. Wherefore, when it has been faid by Some of greater Zeal than Knowledge, that One Drop of the Blood of Chrift was of fufficient Value to redeem the whole World; and that confequently there might seem to be no abfolute neceffity that he should actually Die; "Tis to be observed in Answer to This, that, literally and properly speaking, not the Blood, but the Death of Chrift, is the Expiation for Sin; and that therefore, when we