Chapter VII
The exercise offaith in prayer, which aptly present themselves under the notion
of coming to God, and Christ as our high priest, so far as the type of the
high priest, when he went into the holy of holies, doth represent.
I limit myself unto that converse with Christ, and God through him, by faith exercised in prayer. And therein I intend but only such exercises in
prayer as aptly present themselves under the notion of coming to God, and
Christ as our high priest ; so far as the type of the high priest in the times
414 OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK VI.
of the Old Testament, when he went into the holy of holies, doth represent. And yet therein I shall instance in some more principal ones that are obvi ous in that day s rites, leaving your own thoughts to search and find out more of the like (that are to be found therein, not insisted on by me), for
your own help and advantage.
1. Acknowledge thine infinite unworthiness to enter and to draw near; as being so high a privilege. You read, Lev. xvi. 17, that the very priests in the old law that entered daily into the first tabernacle, Heb. ix. 6, accom
plishing the service of God, that yet when the high priest went unto the
* And there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation, when he goeth in to make an atonement
holy of holies, they were all turned out :
in the holy place, until he come out, and have made an atonement for him
self and for his household, and for all the congregation of Israel ; as to
shew, that as it is Christ alone that makes our atonement, so withal our
utter unworthiness to come thither to him.
2. Acknowledge that it is purely by the blood of Christ thou hast the
* By the blood of
right and boldness to draw near ; so my text, ver. 19,
Jesus. Shall I tell you, Christ himself having been made sin for you, and undertaken for sin, should not himself have entered into the holy of holies, but by and through his own blood, first shed ; and therefore it is express in
the 12th verse of the 9th chapter, that by his own blood he entered into
that holy place. He had not come thither else. And the reason is, that
although in his original, personal right, it was his inheritance, and ordained
for him, yet having appeared with sin for us in this world, that is, with
the guilt of our sins taken on him, a demurrer stood to hinder him the pos
session of it. And compare for this Heb. ix. 26 and 28. In ver. 26 it is
said, He once, in the end of the world, appeared, to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. And observe how this is plainly called an appearing with sin, and was his first appearance in this world ; for in ver. 28 he
* Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many ; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin, unto salvation. This second appearance without sin, shews his first to have been with sin, which is also expressly said, ver. 26, bearing (as the word is in that verse)
says,
* the sins of many ; which his bearing of them, and then his offering of himself for them, was that which did put them away from himself, as well
as from us ; and was the reason why that, after he had done this, that he
is said to appear the second time without sin.
Yet let no man here apprehend, as if I meant that Christ offered one
sacrifice for himself, and then for the people, as his type the high priest is observed to have done, with difference from Christ our high priest is by our
apostle, chap. vii. 27, Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to
offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people s. And
the reason is, because the high priest was a sinner himself, by inherency; and therefore they are there called his own sins ; and so he needed to atone for himself apart by one sort of sacrifice ; as in Lev. xvi., you read how on that day he did ; and so he might be capacitated to offer another
for the people s, each of which he did at two successive turns and vices, as you find by comparing the 6th and llth verses with ver. 15. But it was
infinitely otherwise with our high priest ; as it follows in that Heb. vii. 27, This he did once, when he offered up himself. He made but one work of
it, in one entire sacrifice of himself ; and the reason of that was, because
they were really and indeed our sins alone which he was to suffer for ; but made his only by imputation, he barely taking on the guilt of them. And
CHAP. VII. J OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 415
it was himself was the sole sacrifice (as there). And thereby it came to
pass, that in offering up himself for our sins, he, by that one act of but one
sacrifice, discharged himself of the imputation of them ; even as a surety that is bound for another, by paying the full sum of the debt for that other at one single payment, acquits himself of the debt, and the principal debtors too ; until which be done (in case he whom he is bound for be utterly insol vent and unable) he stands bound for himself, as well as the debtor.
But still so as until he had performed this, and brought his blood shed
for our sins, and himself came in the virtue of his having been offered up for them, there had been no appearing for him in heaven (as not for the
high priest into the holiest without blood). There was no room for Christ himself there, not according to God s ordination and compact with him, until that were performed. God would have shut heaven gates against him without his offering made ; and Christ himself, in the 16th of John, insinuates as much : The Spirit shall convince the world (the Gentile world that was to be converted) of (my) righteousness, by the apostles ministry of righteousness ; that is, that his righteousness was the true
righteousness, ordained to justify men, when they had first convinced them of sin, as in the verse afore he directs them. And he gives them this invincible evidence that it was, as he had formerly taught, the true right eousness, Because I go to my Father, and you shall see me no more. Was that such a sign and wonder, may some say, that he who was the Lord from heaven, and whose right and due therefore it was to go thither at any time he would, without more ado, could there be the least supposition made, that
they might see him sent down again ? You must know that he speaks of himself as having undertaken, with his Father, to perform a righteousness for sinners here on earth, to take sins away, ere he should come to him in
person ; without the exact fulfilling of all which righteousness first, there had been no coming for him thither, so as to keep his standing there ; but
they should have seen him again. My Father would not have admitted me ; I must have come back again to have completed what had been want
ing, if anything had been. Take it therefore, says he, as an invincible
evidence, that all will be finished according to agreement with my Father, that I go to my Father, and you shall see me no more. And therefore it
is called, the blood of the covenant, by which he (Christ himself) is said to be sanctified, Heb. x. 29, where, setting out the sin and punishment of a deserter of Christ, he says,
* Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God ; and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing ? the word he, &c., not so fully referring to the apostate, as if he had been ever truly sanctified by that blood, as it doth unto Christ s hav
ing sanctified himself thereby, in offering up himself a sacrifice unto God. And that clause is added to aggravate the sin of apostates, in counting that blood to be but as a common thing, whenas Christ himself, whose blood
it is, was consecrated thereby, to be the mediator of the New Testament. In the same sense that chap, xiii of this Epistle, ver. 20, Christ himself
is said to be brought again from the dead, by the blood of the everlasting covenant ; his very resurrection was from the merit of his own blood. Yea, heaven itself was to be purified with his blood ; for though we sinners never had been there to defile it, yet because sinners were to come
thither, it was to be purified. And so in the type, Rev. xvi. 16, when the high priest was entered into the holy of holies, he was to make an atone ment for that holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of
41 6 OF CHKi&T THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK VI.
Israel. And it was not for their ceremonial uncleanness only, but because
of their transgressions in all their sins. Brethren, this is strange, that
* the most holy, whereinto the people never entered, no, not by one room off (for they went not into that first tabernacle that was
the place called
afore it), that their ordinary sins should reach and defile that holy place, so as that an atonement, or expiation for sin, must be made for the place. How was it then defiled ? Persons only, not places or things, are capable of having sins imputed to them, whether they be their own sins or another s. For persons only are capable of the guilt of sin. Yet 1, By a relation that
places may or do bear unto persons, they are defiled, Titus i. 15. And
it was ceremonially seen in the defilement of the leper s house and walls. And so, although the people, during that dispensation, were not to come
thither, yet the high priest came in their stead, into the most holy place, on purpose to make an atonement for all their sins, as being the place appointed and ordained by God to have an atonement made therein for
their sins. And in relation unto the making that atonement for them as
sinners, the very place wherein it was to be done was itself first to be
sanctified and atoned, which the high priest was to do, with the blood he
brought thither with him, distinctly and apart for the place, and then to make the atonement for them. Their sins were of so great a guilt, as the
very holiness of the place forbade any atonement to be made in it for the
sinners, until itself were purified with the same blood.
Now this type was to be fulfilled, and it is certain that the holy of holies that was then was the type, or (as the 24th verse of Heb. ix. styles it) the
demonstration, or scheme, or pattern of the highest heavens, unto which
place in the end (though it was not manifest as then to the old Jew), yet they and we, even all the saints of both testaments, were ordained unto, are at last to come. Thence and therefore it came to be necessary, that the holy place of the heavens was to be purified by Christ s blood, as Aaron s most holy place was instituted to be purged by the blood of those
his sacrifices ; so as it was not only, or so much to fulfil the type ; which
yet, they being given out afore as types, was necessary ; for though they be but shadows, yet they are prophetic, and must have an answerable per formance in the truth and substance signified thereby. But the original reason, and for which the type itself was appointed, was, that the holy of
holies in the heavens was itself fore-ordained to be the place for us sinners
to come unto, and did bear in God s fore-decrees the relation of being their
eternal house they are to dwell in for ever. And God s holiness and purity is such (having made that place the seat of his presence-glory, and placed his throne there), as to shew how deeply he resenteth sin ; he would have the place of his children s residence (having once been sinners), it being so near to him, and afore his face, first purified, as well as the sinners them
selves. Not that it was defiled in itself, for the presence of God makes it most holy ; but even that was it made it to be too holy for sinners. And
therefore, in relation to its becoming their actual abode there, it was now
to be atoned for their sakes. And upon both these reasons, especially the
latter, it was, that this, which was the truth and substance of the type, was not so much to be conformed to the type, as the type was framed and formed by this foreordination of God s, which was the original protot}
rpe of all. And upon this it is that the apostle pronounceth in the 23d verse
of the said Heb. ix., It was necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these ; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
CHAP. VII.] OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 417
But besides these general grounds of analogy of the type and antitype, the words of the next verse do expressly determine, that the heavens, con
sidered as the place, were purified by Christ s person and blood. For it
* For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with
follows, ver. 24,
hands, which are the figures of the true ; but into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God for us. They are those places in the hea vens (heavenly places as they are elsewhere rendered) answerable to those on earth, that were to be purified. And he here speaks of them as of the
place or places, as the word entering into imports. Even as when in
Eph. ii. we are said to sit in heavenlies, it is aptly and necessarily to be understood,
* to sit in heavenly places ; for so the word sitting doth
require. Thus likewise here, the word entering into heavenlies argues those heavenlies spoken of to be the places of heavens ; whereof the taber
nacle, or tabernacles of Moses, which were also called the tabernacle, in
the singular; of these, as the place or places, the apostle says, ver. 21,
* Moreover, he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacles, and all the
vessels of the ministry. So that not only the vessels, the furniture, the
suppellex, the utensils in the tabernacles (and accordingly the saints that
are to bejbrought in thither, that is, into heaven), but the place itself that contained them, was purified also by Christ s blood, that it might receive
sinners, and be their domicilium, their habitation for ever. And of all
these, both tabernacle and vessels, he says that they were figures and
patterns of the true in the heavens, in their several kinds of analogy. The
tabernacle itself, the utensils of the things in that place, and all to be puri fied with better blood than these ; and especially the place of holy of holies
* For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the
in the heavens ; for in ver. 24 it is peculiarly specified and said of it,
figures of the true ; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. And in that place, the mercy-seat, we read, was sprinkled with blood ; and the pavements of the place that were afore the mercy-seat were sprinkled seven times. Lev. xvi. 14, And he shall take of the blood
of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy-seat east ward : and before the mercy-seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his
finger seven times.
I cast this in further, to shew the necessity of Christ s blood for our en
tering into the holy of holies in heaven ; either now by faith, or hereafter
by possession and enjoyment, that even the mercyseat itself, the throne of grace, that is, of God himself, whereon
* God, merciful, gracious, long-
suffering, pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin, sitteth, that that also was sprinkled with blood, Lev. xvi. 14.
But you will say, Did God s mercy-seat need sprinkling with blood, or a
being purified ?
No, surely, not in itself. The mercies of God are pure and holy mercies, Acts xiii. 34 ; ra Seta, the holy things, they are called (see the marginal
note). But yet if sinners shall come to have mercies from God, his mer
cies must be mingled with Christ s blood to purchase them, that God may be just in having received the atonement, and the justifier of him that
believeth in Jesus. So as still in respeet of us that are sinners, the
mercy-seat must have blood, that we may be justified, even as the heavens were to be purified with blood, because sinners were to enter there.
The conclusion of this is, that if the heavens were to be purified with Christ s blood because of us sinners who were to come thither, yea, if Christ himself having undertaken for sins could not have entered thereunto unless
VOL. v. D d
418 OF CHKIST THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK VI.
he had brought the virtue, efficacy, spirits of his own blood with him, and that in and by the merit thereof it was that he entered thereinto, and that
his very human nature was through the imputation of our sins to him, when he
* tabernacled among us, John i., was to have an atonement made
for it by his blood, and by the rending it in two, in the separation of soul from his body, that so he (as representing us) and we as one mystical per son with him, might enter into heaven, and else not ; then whenever thou comest to pray more solemnly (whereby thou enterest and approachest unto
that holies in the heavens), acknowledge how it is by and through his blood that thou, a wretched sinner, not by mere imputation such only, but in
reality of guilt ; and that thou shouldst be in hell, whilst thou art "admitted
into heaven itself, whilst thou prayest, Oh ! this blood, this precious blood !
let it be precious to you, and let him be precious that shed it. And because he was so precious in his person, though debased, therefore it was that his blood is so precious, as you may collect by comparing 1 Pet. i. 19 with
ver. 6 of chap. ii. His person made the blood precious ; for it was the blood of him that was
* made higher than the heavens, Heb. vii. 25 ; yea, of God, Acts xx.
CHAPTEK VIII.
Another exercise offaith in praying is to confess all our sins unto God over
Jesus Christ, as typified by the live-goat, the scape-goat.
Confess all thy sins unto God, over Jesus Christ, as the live-goat, the
scape-goat. What the signification of this is I hope I shall make you understand. There was that day, and on that day only, when the high
priest was to go into the holy of holies ; before he went in, in order to his
going in, there were two goat-kids presented afore the Lord. Look into Lev. xvi. 3,
* Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place ; and at ver. 5,
* He shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the
* The high priest shall take the two goats, and present them before the Lord at the door of the taber nacle of the congregation ; and then at ver. 8,
goats for a sin-offering; and then at ver. 7,
* He cast lots upon the two
goats ; and the one lot is said to be for the Lord, because that goat that
lot for the Lord fell upon was to die, and to be sacrificed to the Lord for
sin. And again, ver. 9, it is said of that goat that it was the goat the Lord s lot fell upon ; for it was set apart, and appropriated to him as a
sacrifice, and so the Lord s in a special manner, in comparison to that
* Aaron
other, namely, by way of sacrifice ; as it follows in that ver. 9,
shall offer him for a sin-offering. And afterwards he was burned without the camp, ver. 27. And the other lot is said to be for the scape-goat, that is, for its escaping being sacrificed as the other was. And it follows, ver. 10, But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scape-goat, shall be
presented alive before the Lord, to make an atonement with him, and to
let him go for a scape-goat into the wilderness. And they both are called a sin-offering, ver. 5 ; that is, both were ordained to take sins away. And this latter goat, that stayed and lived, is said, ver. 10, to
* make an atonement with God as well as the dying goat did, but each in their
: the one by bearing our sins and the punishment of them by death, the other by escaping, and by his life carrying them away. You read not that he was carried away into the wilderness to be there de-
several ways
CHAP. VIII.] OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 419
stroyed, nor was he in that which belonged to its part made at all a sacri
fice. But look, as the dying goat was made an atonement for sin in his
way, by sacrifice in dying, so the other let go alive made an atonement in
its way, namely, by carrying away the sins confessed over him into the
wilderness, by means of his life. And that was transacted by confessing their sins over the head of that live-goat, after that the other goat had been offered as a sacrifice for them, that their sins being so confessed and
sacrificed for, he might carry them away
: ver. 9, 20, -And after he hath made an end of reconciling (namely, the sacrifice), he shall bring the
live goat; ver. 21, 22, And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children
of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man
into the wilderness : and the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited, and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.
Brethren, will you have the mystery of this ? Our dear Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, he is both these goats in the types, but as considered under two different notions, viz., Christ dying for sin in the first, and Christ
risen, and alive, and carrying sins away into the wilderness. But you will
ask, Why two such utterly differing types ? Might not one have served ?
Brethren, the case stood thus, no one type could represent these two grand mysteries of Christ at once ; and therefore God s institution was, to repre sent one piece of him by one type and another piece of him by another. Now, the same individual goat that was killed was not to be raised again, being a brute creature (that is proper only unto men). Hence he takes one goat that should die, to represent Christ in dying, and as such bearing our sins and punishments ; and he takes another goat that lives, to repre sent him alive again. You find the like parallel to this in the case of
cleansing the leper, Lev. xiv. There were two birds, ver. 4, one to be
killed, ver. 5, and another, called the living bird, that flew away
: ver.
* Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop. And
4-7,
the priest shall command that one of the birds shall be killed in an earthen
vessel over running water. As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the
living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water : and he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird
loose into the open field. You read in Rev. i. 18 how our Lord speaks of himself, saying, I am he that liveth, and was dead ; and, behold, I am
alive for evermore. You read in Rom. v. 10 what singular differing pur poses these two especially serve for: that as we are reconciled to God by the death of his Son, as a sacrifice, so we are saved by his life. There
is his death, to pay the price or ransom for our reconciliation, and there is the actual application or communication of eternal salvation unto us ; and
that is said to be by his life. You have the like both again, in Rom. iv.
* and he rose again (and liveth) for our justification: there you have the living
25, He was delivered for our offences: there is the dying goat ;
goat.
Sin is done away two ways by Jesus Christ ; either meritoriously, by the sacrifice of himself, in dying, as the price paid, which the Scripture everywhere speaketh of: Heb. ix. 26, Once in the end of the world he
appeared, to put sin away, by offering himself, and bearing their sins, as
420 OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK VI.
ver. 28. Secondly, there is a taking away of sin by the actual application to us of what his death merited for us ; and so Christ takes sins away when we believe and come to him for pardon. The word John Baptist hath in John i., comprehends both ; Behold the Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world: the word is aigeTv ; it signifieth both, 1. To bear the guilt of them, and then John saw him bearing, and loaded with
all our sins upon him, which did bring him to the tree, and caused him to die ;
* He was made sin for us, who knew no sin. And, 2. It signifieth to take away sins by a removal of them from off our persons ; to which the Latin word tollo answers, but the Greek word ajgsw intendeth both.
First, take the dying goat, and that is Christ, bearing the sins of many, as 1 Pet. ii. 24, when he was crucified ; who his own self bare our sins in his own body upon the tree. And thus to lay our sins upon him to this
end, that was God s act, and his own, in taking our sins upon him, not ours. We were not then, neither did the saints that were then alive, understand or think of it ; but that was God s, and transacted between God and Christ. God was, in ^Christ, reconciling the world to himself; who made him sin for us, and a curse, that knew no sin. And God, says the prophet, laid on him the iniquity of us all, when his soul was made an offering for sin ; and therefore also the dying goat is called the Lord s
lot. The priest did but barely cast the lot, but it was God that disposed it to that goat ; he would have him die. Nor do you read that the priest that was a-doing did confess our sins over the goat that was to die ; it was a single sole act of God s. And so he bore them in his being sacrificed and offered up.
But come we, secondly, to the living goat, Jesus Christ. And he, after he hath made an atonement by his death, is yet to take our sins away by an actual justification of us. And in respect both to his sacrifice and offer
ing up, as also for the application of it to us by faith to justify us, at and upon our believing, he is called a propitiation for us. 1. In respect to that made at his death, in 1 John ii. 2, Who is the propitiation for the sins of the world. This must be understood of him in dying ; for there were many in the world, and yet to come into the world, he was made a
* Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood. Observe here how he is said to be fore-ordained to be a propitiation, through faith on that his blood, which was afore made a propitiation on the
propitiation for, who as yet believed not. But, 2. Rom. iii. 25,
cross. For then it is his atonement comes to be actually a propitiation to us, when we through faith come in to God and plead it, and not till
then, and that in a true and real sense. This his being a propi tiation in that place, must therefore be understood in the application of him to us. And we may distinguish of them thus : the one is Christ, a propitiation for us ; the other, the same Christ, a propitiation to us, even in the same differing senses and respects, that the live goat and the dying goat are, in the foresaid Lev. xvi. 5, both called a sin-offering and for atonement. And now when this atonement is to be applied unto us at our conversion, and ever after, then it is indeed that the actings on our part come to be done towards the pardon of our sins : as to believe on and plead his death and blood, and also what the type instructs, viz., to come to him as he is now alive, and lives for evermore ; for him to take our
sins to himself and take them away from us ; to lay hold on him with both
hands, as it is in Lev. xvi. 21, and confess our sins over him ; and until then we remain in our sins, for all that he was offered as a dying goat for
CHAP. VIII.] OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 421
us. And this is the thing that I have aimed at and made way for, in
telling you this long story out of the Old, and the mystery out of the New
Testament. The priest, we see, did confess over this live goat ; and therein
the high priest performed the people s part, for it was done in a way of
confession, and that act in no sense must be ascribed to God, in his laying our iniquities upon Christ. He confessed not them for us. So then we, when we would be saved and forgiven, must perform that part, and come and confess our sins over Christ, the live goat. God the Father hath done
his part in sacrificing his Son, and Christ, the dying goat, hath done his
part in purchasing our pardon ; but he as the living goat must do another, and that is, both to cause us to come to himself, and lay both our hands
upon him, and confess it was God s part to lay our sins upon him ; but
it remains to be our part to lay our sins upon him, by confessing them
over him and afore him to his Father, now he is alive for the pardon of them. Look into the type, in Lev. xvi. 21, 22, it is most express
Aaron, at the 20th verse (mark well), when he had made an end of recon
ciliation (that is, when he had done his work, belonging to that of the goat to die, killed him, and then sprinked the blood) ; Aaron shall lay both
his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the ini
quities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their
sins, and send them away into the wilderness. And he shall bear them
away into a land not inhabited, and he shall let them go alive into the wil
derness. The mystery of this I take to be, that after the reconciliation made for us by Christ in his death, which was done without our knowledge, he then rose again, and is alive to justify us. But then we must come to
him, acknowledge, as the priests did, and confess them in their names, all
the sins of all the people of Israel, of what kind soever. And then this live
goat carries them away into the wilderness.
If you demand the mystery there of the answer,-! it is a like expression to that in Micah vii.^10, that he will cast our iniquities into the depth of
the sea. What is thrown thither never rises more ; as that roll into
Euphrates, to signify Babylon, should never rise again. Heaven is not indeed a wilderness, to which place our live goat is ascended ; but it is in
the utter taking away of sins, and hiding them for ever, so as never to be found or remembered, which is here aimed at. And so Christ takes sins
away, and carries them into that oblivion and forgetfulness, as none can
find them, never to be remembered more, as the Scripture speaks. The issue which I drive at is, as to exhort you hereupon, when you come more solemnly to converse with Jesus Christ in the holy of holies, or with God through him, not only at your first conversion and faith on him, but when you come setly to pray, especially on great occasions, to lay hold on Jesus Christ with both hands (as it is in this type), that is, with all your might ; and then to confess all your sins particularly over him, as the high
priest did over the head of the live goat, who by his resurrection and ascen
sion into heaven, is escaped from death and wrath for sins ; and in confess
ing them, transfer them from off yourselves, and implore him to take them
upon himself ; discharge yourselves of them, by desiring him to take them, who knows what to do with them, not now to suffer for them ; he hath done that once perfectly for ever ; but to carry them away to an utter for
getfulness, and to be thy advocate to God to remember them no more ;
seeking of God not to impute thy sins to thee, but to him that was made
sin, that thou mayest be made the righteousness of God in him. And so to * Qu. The mystery thereof, I answer ? ED.
422 OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK VI
make an exchange with Christ ; he to take thy sins, and to bestow his
righteousness upon thee instead thereof.
And secondly, To make use of this notion to help them over one diffi
culty, which those, whose judgments are that Christ died not for all men
intentionally, may, or perhaps do sometimes meet with, in their coming to
Christ. They must not, nor ought to, come to him now to die for them ; that is past and over, and were vain and blasphemous. Nor yet can they
assuredly say and believe that Christ died for them, and bore their sins in
particular. And although that declaration Paul makes, brought home to
* Christ came into the world to save sinners, he speaks in
the heart, that
: sinners, and all sorts of sinners, even the greatest, for he saved
definitely
me, says he there ; though this be a sufficient ground to draw a sinner that
sees himself lost utterly, and sees Christ with a spiritual eye, as John v., to come to him ; yet if this course in the way of believing that I have now
urged be well weighed and made use of, it may conduce to ease the heart much more, as to any such stick and demur in his coming to Christ. For
though I cannot plead that whilst he was adying, he had my sins for my
particular laid upon him by God, yet now he is alive again, I may, as now I have been instructed, come in my own person to him, and lay my hands upon him to be the live goat for me, and confess all these my par ticular sins to him and over him, and also unto God and before God,
having his Christ by him present in the view of my faith. And that I may
lay all my sins upon him with this end and aim, joined with the most vehement implorement of him, that he will freely take the guilt of them off from me, and carry them into a land of non-remembrance, as into a land not inhabited, and therefore never to be found, and to mediate with his
Father, to pass an act of oblivion upon them, and remember them no more. And I may be sure and certain, that I am warranted thus to confess and
lay my sins upon him, to the end that he should carry them away ; and
that this is an act, as now to be performed by me and him. And I may now come to him to do it for me in my particular. And my faith needs not proceed here upon an indefinite ground, that should any way admit of a
scruple, whether I am the person that he intends or no ; for I am, and
every humbled sinner is, now absolutely and definitely required to do all
this for his own salvation, and for his own particular. And this admits no doubtfulness at all, nor requireth a certain resolution first to be had by us, that God laid upon Christ at his death his iniquities. And it is a great relief and help to the exercise of our faith, and an infinitely gracious dis
pensation of God, to ordain such a type, as after was left for us to perform this part, in a way of our coming to Christ, after this manner ; to become a propitiation and atonement for us in particular, through faith in his blood. That God, I say, hath left us so certain a way and course for us to put in
practice ; and in the practice and exercise of it, confessing our sins with
mourning and brokenness of heart, that therein we shall certainly find
Christ, and God through Christ, take away our sins thereupon. And this, this performance upon the day of atonement, teacheth us to do.
Exercise faith for the forgiveness of all thy sins. This that day s practice doth for our comfort in a special manner instruct us unto ; for it was that which those days sacrifices were ordained for ; that whereas they had particular sacrifices appointed for particular sins, as occasionally they were committed, for which they were to bring a trespass-offering to the priest, and he by offer
ing his sacrifice for him, made an atonement ; and the promise was, it should be forgiven him ; of all which you read in Leviticus, the 4th, 5th, and 6th
CHAP. IX.] OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOB. 423
: yet, notwithstanding these, as also that there were daily sacrifices, twice a-day (of the intendment of which afterwards), the expiation on this day was singularly appointed for a general pardon of all sins at once, passed unto the end of that year ; for that outward, typical, legal atonement signified no
chapters
further, there being, as the apostle says, a new remembrance of sins every
year, so as they were forgiven by the year, as we say, and yet universally. All which I shall demonstrate in the close of this head.
But I find it necessary for me to speak first of the intent and scope of those particular atonements for special sins, because that will give some
light towards the clearing that universal atonement of this day. And also
the knowledge thereof will conduce to the comfort of believers, and to the
direction of the faith of believers, in case of occasional sinnings.