Page:Suppressed Gospels and Epistles.djvu/131

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milk and honey, and have dominion over it.

16 Wherefore ye see how we are again formed anew; as also he speaks by another prophet; Behold saith the Lord, I will take from them; that is, from those whom the spirit I of the Lord foresaw, their hearts of stone, and I will put into them hearts of flesh.

17 Because he was about to be made manifest in the flesh and to dwell in us.

18 For, my brethren, the habitation of our heart is a 'holy temple unto the Lord. For the prophet saith again, In what place shall I appear before the Lord my God, and be glorified?

19 He answers I will confess unto thee in the congregation in the midst of my brethren; and will sing unto thee in the church of the saints:

20 Wherefore we are they whom he has brought into that good land.

21 But what signifies the milk and honey? Because as the child is nourished first with milk, and then with honey; so we being kept alive by the belief of his promises and his word, shall live and have dominion over the land.

22 For he foretold before, saying, increase and multiply, and have dominion over the beasts, fishes, and birds.

23 But who is there that is now able to have this dominion over the wild beasts, or fishes, or fowls of the air? For you know that to rule, is to have power; that a man should be set over what he rules.

24 But forasmuch as this we have not now, he tells us when we shall have it; namely, when we shall become perfect, that we may be made the inheritors of the covenant of the Lord.

CHAP. VI.

The sacrifice of Jesus, and of a goat, an evident type of Christ crucified.

UNDERSTAND then my beloved children, that the good God hath before manifested all things unto us, that we might know to whom we ought always to give thanks and praise.

2 If therefore the Son of God who is the Lord of all, and shall come to judge both the quick and dead, hath suffered, that by his stripes we might live; let us believe that the Son of God could not have suffered but for us. But being crucified, they gave him vinegar and gall to drink.

3 Hear therefore how the priests of the temple did foreshow this also: the Lord by his command which was written, declared that whosoever did not fast the appointed fast he should die the death: because he also was himself one day to offer up his body for our sins; that so the type of what was done in Isaac might be fulfilled, who was offered upon the altar.

4 What therefore is it that he says by the prophet? And let them eat of the goat which is offered in the day of the fast for all their sins. Hearken diligently, (my brethren,) and all the priests, and they only shall eat the inwards not washed with vinegar.

5 Why so? because I know that when I shall hereafter offer my flesh for the sins of a new people, ye will give me vinegar to drink mixed with gall; therefore do ye only eat, the people fasting the while, and lamenting in sackcloth and ashes.

6 And that he might foreshow that he was to suffer for them, hear then how he appointed it.

7 Take, says he, two goats, fair and alike, and offer them; and let the high priest take one of them