To the Office of a Redeemer, that is, of one that payeth the Ransome of
Sin, (which Ransome is Death,) it appertaineth, that he was Sacrificed,
and thereby bare upon his own head, and carryed away from us our
iniquities, in such sort as God had required. Not that the death of one
man, though without sinne, can satisfie for the offences of all men,
in the rigour of Justice, but in the Mercy of God, that ordained such
Sacrifices for sin, as he was pleased in his mercy to accept. In the old
Law (as we may read, Leviticus the 16.) the Lord required, that there
should every year once, bee made an Atonement for the Sins of all
Israel, both Priests, and others; for the doing whereof, Aaron alone was
to sacrifice for himself and the Priests a young Bullock; and for the
rest of the people, he was to receive from them two young Goates, of
which he was to Sacrifice one; but as for the other, which was the Scape
Goat, he was to lay his hands on the head thereof, and by a confession
of the iniquities of the people, to lay them all on that head, and then
by some opportune man, to cause the Goat to be led into the wildernesse,
and there to Escape, and carry away with him the iniquities of the
people. As the Sacrifice of the one Goat was a sufficient (because an
acceptable) price for the Ransome of all Israel; so the death of the
Messiah, is a sufficient price, for the Sins of all mankind, because
there was no more required. Our Saviour Christs sufferings seem to be
here figured, as cleerly, as in the oblation of Isaac, or in any other
type of him in the Old Testament: He was both the sacrificed Goat, and
the Scape Goat; "Hee was oppressed, and he was afflicted (Isa. 53.7.);
he opened not his mouth; he brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a
sheep is dumbe before the shearer, so opened he not his mouth:" Here he
is the Sacrificed Goat. "He hath born our Griefs, (ver.4.) and carried
our sorrows;" And again, (ver. 6.) "the Lord hath laid upon him the
iniquities of us all:" And so he is the Scape Goat. "He was cut off from
the land of the living (ver. 8.) for the transgression of my People:"
There again he is the Sacrificed Goat. And again (ver. 11.) "he shall
bear their sins:" Hee is the Scape Goat. Thus is the Lamb of God
equivalent to both those Goates; sacrificed, in that he dyed; and
escaping, in his Resurrection; being raised opportunely by his Father,
and removed from the habitation of men in his Ascension.
Christs Kingdome Not Of This World