WE FIND in Holy Scripture three parts of the office of the Messiah:the first of a redeemer,or saviour;the second of a pastor,counsellor,or teacher,that is,of a prophet sent from God to convert such as God hath elected to salvation;the third of a king,an eternal king,but under his Father,as Moses and the high priests were in their several times.And to these three parts are correspondent three times.For,our redemption he wrought at his first coming,by the sacrifice wherein he offered up himself for our sins upon the cross;our conversion he wrought partly then in his own person,and partly worketh now by his ministers,and will continue to work till his coming again.And after his coming again shall begin that his glorious reign over his elect which is to last eternally.
To the office of a redeemer,that is,of one that payeth the ransom of sin,which ransom is death,it appertaineth that he was sacrificed,and thereby bore upon his own head and carried away from us our iniquities,in such sort as God had required.Not that the death of one man,though without sin,can satisfy 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,16)the Lord required that there should,every year once,be 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 goats,of which he was to sacrifice one;but as for the other,which was the scapegoat,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 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;he opened not his mouth;he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter,and as a sheep is dumb before the shearer,so opened he not his mouth":here is the sacrificed goat."He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows";and again,"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 for the transgression of my people":there again he is the sacrificed goat.And again,"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,"My kingdom is not of this world."Now seeing the Scripture maketh mention but of two worlds;this that is now,and shall remain to the day of judgement,which is therefore also called the last day;and that which shall be after the day of judgement,when there shall be a new heaven and a new earth;the kingdom of Christ is not to begin till the general resurrection.And that is it which our Saviour saith,"The Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father,with his angels;and then he shall reward every man according to his works."To reward every man according to his works is to execute the office of a king;and this is not to be till he come in the glory of his Father,with his angels.When our Saviour saith,"The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses'seat;all therefore whatsoever they bid you do,that observe and do";he declareth plainly that he ascribeth kingly power,for that time,not to himself,but to them.And so he doth also,where he saith,"Who made me a judge or divider over you?"And,"I came not to judge the world,but to save the world."And yet our Saviour came into this world that he might be a king and a judge in the world to come:
for he was the Messiah,that is,the Christ,that is,the anointed priest and the sovereign prophet of God;that is to say,he was to have all the power that was in Moses the prophet,in the high priests that succeeded Moses,and in the kings that succeeded the priests.And St.John says expressly,"The Father judgeth no man,but hath committed all judgement to the Son."And this is not repugnant to that other place,"I came not to judge the world":for this is spoken of the world present,the other of the world to come;as also where it is said that at the second coming of Christ,"Ye that have followed me,in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory,ye shall also sit on twelve thrones,judging the twelve tribes of Israel."
