SERMON V.--GOOD FRIDAY
HEBREWS ix. 13, 14.
For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer
sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God?
The three collects for Good Friday are very grand and very
remarkable. In the first we pray:-
'Almighty God, we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family,
for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed, and
given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the
cross, who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost ever
one God, world without end. Amen.'
In the second we pray:-
'Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of the
Church is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and
prayers, which we 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. Amen.'
In the third we pray:-
'O merciful God, who hast made all men, and hatest nothing that thou
hast made, nor wouldest the death of a sinner, but rather that he
should be converted and live: Have mercy upon all Jews, Turks,
Infidels, and Hereticks, and take from them all ignorance, hardness
of heart, and contempt of thy Word; and so fetch them home, blessed
Lord, to thy flock, that they may be saved among the remnant of the
true Israelites, and be made one fold under one shepherd, Jesus
Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy
Spirit, one God, world without end.
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