ith
vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When
Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished:
and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. The Jews therefore,
because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain
upon the cross on the sabbath-day, (for that sabbath-day was an
high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and
that they might be taken away. Then came the soldiers, and brake
the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with
him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already,
they brake not his legs. But one of the soldiers with a spear
pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he
knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things
were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him
shall not be broken. And again another Scripture saith, They shall
look on him whom they pierced.

EASTER EVEN

THE COLLECT.

Grant, O Lord, that as we are baptized into the death of thy
blessed Son our Saviour Jesus Christ, so by continual mortifying
our corrupt affections we may be buried with him; and that,
through the grave, and gate of death, we may pass to our joyful
resurrection; for his merits, who died, and was buried, and rose
again for us, thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. _Amen_.

THE EPISTLE. 1 St Peter iii. 17.

It is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for
well-doing, than for evil-doing. For Christ also hath once
suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us
to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the
Spirit: by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in
prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering
of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing;
wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. The like
figure whereunto, even baptism, doth also now save us, (not the
putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good
conscience towards God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: who
is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God, angels and
authorities and powers being made subject unto him.

THE GOSPEL. St Matth. xxvii. 57.

When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named
Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple. He went to Pilate,
and begged the body