132 FORGIVENESS OF SIN. rule, that there can be no true worship of God in any state or condition without sacrifice : What then l Why, then the continual sacrifice of the mass is necessary in the church, and without it there is no true worship of God; and thence their advantage and profit; the mass being that inexhaustible spring of revenue which feeds their pride and lust throughout the world. But there is in the church of Christ an altar still, and a sacrifice still, which they have rejected for the abomi- nable figment of their mass, namely, Christ himself, as the apostle informs us, Heb. 13 : 10. But as the sacri- fices of beasts could not have been before the entrance of sin, so it may be shown that they were instituted from the foundation of the world, that is, presently after the entrance of sin. Christ is called the "Lamb of God," John, 1 : 29, which he was, in reference to the sacrifices of old, as 1 Pet. 1 : 18, 19 : whence he is represented as a "Lamb slain," Rev. 5 : 6, or giving out the efficacy of all sacrifices to his church. Now, he is said to be " a Lamb slain from the founda- tion of the world," Rev. 13 : 8, which could not be, un- less some sacrifice prefiguring his being slain had been then offered; for it denotes not only the efficacy of his mediation, but the way. Besides, the apostle tells us that "without shedding of blood there was no remis- sion," Heb. 9 : 22; that is, God, to demonstrate that all forgiveness related to the blood of Christ, from the foundation of the world, gave out no word of pardon, but by blood. Now, I have shown that he revealed pardon in the first promise, and therefore there ensued the shedding of blood and sacrifices, and that testament or covenant was dedicated with blood, ver. 18. Some think that the beasts of whose skins God made garments for Adam, were offered in sacrifices. Nor is their con- jecture vain : yea, it seems fitting that their nakedness, which became their shame upon their sin, (whence the
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