Works of John Bunyan — Complete

by John Bunyan

3. The priests under the law were not to be hard-hearted, but pitiful and compassionate, willing and ready, with abundance of bowels, to offer for the people, and to make an atonement for them (Heb 5:1,2). To signify, that Jesus Christ should be a tender-hearted High Priest, able and willing to sympathize and be affected with the infirmities of others, to pray for them, to offer up for them His precious blood; He must be such an One who can have compassion on a company of poor ignorant souls, and on them that are out of the way, to recover them, and to set them in safety (Heb 4:15). And that He might thus do, He must be a man that had experience of the disadvantages that infirmity and sin did bring unto those poor creatures (Heb 2:17).

4. The high priests under the law were not to be shy or squeamish in case there were any that had the plague or leprosy, scab or blotches; but must look on them, go to them, and offer for them (Lev 13), all which is to signify, that Jesus Christ should not refuse to take notice of the several infirmities of the poorest people, but to teach them, and to see that none of them be lost by reason of their infirmity, for want of looking to or tending of. 10

This privilege also have we under this second covenant. This is the way to make grace shine.

5. The high priests under the law they were to be anointed with very excellent oil, compounded by art (Exo 29:7; 30:30). To signify, that Jesus, the Great High Priest of this new covenant, would be in a most eminent way anointed to His priestly office by the Holy Spirit of the Lord.

6. The priest's food and livelihood in the time of his ministry was to be the consecrated and holy things (Exo 29:33). To signify, that it is the very meat and drink of Jesus Christ to do His priestly office, and to save and preserve His poor, tempted, and afflicted saints. O what a new-covenant High Priest have we!

7. The priests under the law were to be washed with water (Exo 29:4). To signify, that Jesus Christ should not go about the work of His priestly office with the filth of sin upon Him, but was without sin to appear as our High Priest in the presence of His Father, to execute His priestly office there for our advantage—"For such a high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens" (Heb 7:26).

8. The high priest under the law, before they went into the holy place, there were to be clothed—with a curious garment, a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle, and they were to be made of gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen; and in his garment and glorious ornaments there must be precious stones, and on those stones there must be written the names of the children of Israel (read Exodus 28), and all this was to signify what a glorious High Priest Jesus Christ should be, and how in the righteousness of God He should appear before God as our High Priest, to offer up the sacrifice that was to be offered for our salvation to God His Father. But I pass that.

Second, Now I shall speak to His office. The office of the high priest in general was twofold. 1. To offer the sacrifice without the camp. 2. To bring it within the veil—that is, into the holiest of all, which did type out Heaven.

1. [First part of the high priest's office]. (1.) It was the office of the priest to offer the sacrifice; and so did Jesus Christ; He did offer His own Body and Soul in sacrifice. I say, HE did OFFER it, and not another, as it is written, "No man taketh away My life, but I lay it down of Myself; I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again" (John 10:17,18). And again it is said, "When He," Jesus, "had offered up one sacrifice for sin, for ever sat down on the right hand of God" (Heb 10:12). (2.) The priests under the law must offer up the sacrifice that God had appointed, and none else, a complete one without any blemish; and so did our High Priest, where He saith, "Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body has Thou prepared Me," and that I will offer (Heb 10:5). (3.) The priest was to take of the ashes of the sacrifice, and lay them in a clean place; and this signifies, that the Body of Jesus, after it had been offered, should be laid into Joseph's sepulchre, as in a clean place, where never any man before was laid (Lev 6:11, compared with John 19:41,42).

2. [Second part of the high priest's office]. This being one part of his office, and when this was done, then in the next place he was, (1.) To put on the glorious garment, when he was to go into the holiest, and take of the blood, and carry it thither, etc., he was to put on the holy garment which signifieth the righteousness of Jesus Christ. (2.) He was in this holy garment, which hath in it the stones, and in the stones the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, to appear in the holy place. "And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel: six of their names on one stone, and the other six names of the rest on the other stone, according to their birth" (Exo 28:9,10). And this was to signify, that Jesus Christ was to enter into the holiest, then He was there to bear the names of His elect in the tables of His heart before the Throne of God and the Mercy-seat (Heb 12:23). (3.) With this he was to take of the blood of the sacrifices, and carry it into the holiest of all, which was a type of Heaven, and there was he to sprinkle the mercy-seat; and this was to be done by the high priest only; to signify, that none but Jesus Christ must have this office and privilege, to be the people's High Priest to offer for them. "But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people" (Heb 9:7). (4.) He was there to make an atonement for the people with the blood, sprinkling of it upon the mercy-seat; but this must be done with much incense. "And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin-offering which is for himself, and for his house, and shall kill the bullock of the sin-offering which is for himself: and he shall take a censor full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil: and he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, that he cloud of the incense may cover the mercy-seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not: and he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy-seat eastward, and before the mercy-seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times. Then shall he kill the goat of the sin-offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the veil, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy-seat and before the mercy-seat." (Lev 16:11-15). Now this was for the priest and the people; all which doth signify that Jesus Christ was after His death to go into Heaven itself, of which this holy place was a figure, and there to carry the sacrifice that He offered upon the Cross into the presence of God, to obtain mercy for the people in a way of justice (Heb 9). And in that he is said to take his hands full of sweet incense, it signifies that Jesus Christ was to offer up His sacrifice in the presence of His Father in a way of intercession and prayers.