SECT. 3.] EXPLAINED AND VINDICATED. 147
Sacrifices by blood, to be offered by these priests, and by them only, God appointed of various kinds, with respect unto various occasions, of bulls, goats, sheep, fowls; whose nature and differences T have explained in our former Exercitations, Exerc. xxiv. The prin- cipal end of all these sacrifices, was to make atonement for sin. This is so express in their institution as that it is all one to deny that there were any sacrifices appointed of God as to deny that they were appointed to make atonement. See Lev. i. 4, v. 5, 6, vi. 7, xvi. 6, 34, ete. Now, the nature, use, and end of atonement, was to avert the anger of God due to sin, and so to pacify him that the sinner might be pardoned. This is the importance of the word, and this was the end of those sacrifices whereby atonement was made. The word is sometimes used where no sacrifice was implied, but is never used in any other sense than that declared. So Moses spake unto the people upon their making of the calf: “Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LorD; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin,” Exod. xxxii. 30. He hoped that he should by his interposition turn away the wrath of God, and obtain pardon for them; which he calls making an atonement, because of its respect unto the great future sacrifice, by virtue whereof alone we may prevail with God on such occasions. In Lev, v. 5, 6, as in many other places, this is appropriated unto sacrifices: “ When aman shall be guilty in one of these things, he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing: and he shall bring his trespass-offermg unto the Lorp for his sin which he hath sinned; ..... _and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his sin.” So also verses 17, 18, chap. vi. 6, 7, ete. The sin committed was against the Lord; the guilt contracted was confessed to the Lord; the sacrifice or offering was brought unto the Lord; the atonement was made by the priest before the Lord ;—all which give it the nature before described, and admit of no other. In some instances the sins committed were to be confessed over the head of the sacrifice wherewith the atonement was to be made; which rendered the whole action more pregnant with representation, A person guilty of sin, convicted in his own conscience, condemned by the sentence of the law, by God’s allowance and appointment brought a clean beast, assigned in general for that use, and, bringing it to the altar, confessed over it his sin and guilt, laying them legally upon it, so delivering it up into the hands of the priest, by whom it was slain, and the blood poured out, as suffering under the guilt laid upon it; wherein, with some other ensuing acts, it was offered to God to make atonement for the sin committed and confessed. Thus was blood given unto the people to make atonement for their souls, be- cause the life of the beast was in the blood, which was destroyed in the shedding thereof, Lev. xvii. 11.
148 TRUE NATURE OF THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST [EXERC. XXXI.
Certainly no man can ever arrive unto so much confidence as to question whether the actings of the priests in those sacrifices whereby atonement was made, did not in the first place respect God him- self; nor, indeed, do I know that it is by any positively and directly denied: for the sense we plead for depends not on the use of any one single word, or the signification of it in these or other places, but upon the whole nature and express ends of those institutions. And herein all mankind are agreed, namely, that the divine Power was the immediate object of sacerdotal actings,—that they were done with God on the behalf of men, and not actings towards men on the behalf of God.
By all these terms and expressions doth our apostle describe the sacerdotal actings of Christ. For having declared him to be a high priest, he affirms that he offered a sacrifice to God,—a sacri- fice to make reconciliation for sin: as also, that therein God made all our sins to meet upon him; which “ he bare in his own body on the tree.” The question now is, What is intended thereby? Our adver- sarles say it is the merciful and powerful actings of Christ towards us, giving out help, assistance, grace, and mercy, from God unto us; so delivering us from all evil, the whole punishment due to sin, and eternal death. But why are these things called his offering of him- self unto God a sacrifice to make reconciliation for sin? They say it is because of an allusion and similitude that is between what he so doth for us, and what was done by the priests of old in their sacri- fices. But it is plain, from what hath been declared concerning the sacerdotal actings of the priests of old in their sacrifices, that there is no allusion nor similitude between these things, nor can they assign wherein it should consist. Their actings were immediately towards God on our behalf, his, it is said, are towards us on God’s behalf ; theirs were to make atonement for sin, his to testify love and mercy to sinners; theirs by shedding of blood, wherein was life, his in power and glory. Wherefore I say, if we have any instruction given us in these things,—if the office of the priesthood, or any duties of it, any sacrifices offered by the priests, were instituted to typify, pre- figure, and represent Jesus Christ as the great high priest of the church,—it cannot be but that his sacerdotal actings do justly and immediately respect God himself; which shall now be further con- firmed.