goat to be led into the wilderness, 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 ransom 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 Christ’s sufferings seem to be here figured, as clearly 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 scapegoat; “He was oppressed, and He was afflicted (Isaiah 53:7); He opened not His mouth; He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep is dumb before the shearer, so He opened not His mouth”: here He is the “sacrificed goat.” “He hath borne our griefs (verse 4), and carried our sorrows”: and again (verse 6), “the Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquities of us all”: and so He is the “scapegoat.” “He was cut off from the land of the living (verse 8) for the transgression of my people”: there again He is the “sacrificed goat.” And again (verse 11), “He shall bear their sins”: He is the “scapegoat.” Thus is the Lamb of God equivalent to both those goats; sacrificed, in that He died; and escaping, in His resurrection; being raised opportunely by His Father, and removed from the habitation of men in His ascension.
For as much therefore as he that “redeemeth” hath no title to the “thing redeemed,” before “the redemption” and ransom paid; and this ransom was the death of the Redeemer; it is manifest that our Saviour, as man, was not king of those that He redeemed before He suffered death; that is, during that time He conversed bodily on the earth. I say, He was not then king in present, by virtue of the pact, which the faithful make with Him in baptism. Nevertheless, by the renewing of their pact with God in baptism, they were obliged to obey Him for king, under His Father, whensoever He should be pleased to take the kingdom upon Him. According whereunto, our Saviour himself expressly saith (John 18:36), “My kingdom is not of this world.” Now seeing the Scripture maketh mention but of two worlds; this that is now, and shall remain unto the day of judgment, which is therefore also called the “last day”; and that