Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world (John 1:29);

and by the Lord's words in Isaiah:

He hath borne our diseases, and carried our sorrows: He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His wound has health been given us. Jehovah hath made to fall on Him the iniquities of us all. He was oppressed [literaly, He hath endured exaction], and He was afflicted, yet opened not His mouth He is led as a lamb to the slaughter. He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of My people, to whom the stroke was due, that He might deliver the wicked into their sepulcher, and the rich into their deaths; He shall see of the labor of His soul, and shall be satisfied. By His knowledge shall He justify many in that He hath borne their iniquities. He hath poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bare the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors (Isa. 53:4-12). Both these passages speak of the Lord's temptations and passion; and by His taking away sins and diseases, and by the iniquities of all being made to fall on Him, is meant the like as by His bearing sorrows and iniquities. [2] Therefore it shall first be stated what is meant by bearing iniquities, and afterwards what by taking them away. To bear iniquities means to endure grievous temptations; and also to suffer the Jews to treat Him as they had treated the Word, which they did because He was the Word. For the church as it then existed among the Jews was utterly devastated, and it was devastated by their having perverted all things of the Word, so that there was not any truth remaining; and therefore they did not acknowledge the Lord. This was meant and signified by all things of the Lord's passion. The prophets were treated in a similar way, because they represented the Lord in respect to the Word, and derivatively in respect to the church, and the Lord was the Prophet. [3] That the Lord was the Prophet is evident from the following passages:

Jesus said, A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own house (Matt. 13:57; Mark 6:4; Luke 4:24). Jesus said, It cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem (Luke 13:33). They said of Jesus, This is that prophet of Nazareth (Matt. 21:11; John 7:40). Fear took hold on all; and they praised God, saying that a great prophet is risen up among us (Luke 7:16). That a prophet should be raised up out of the midst of their brethren, whose words they shall obey (Deut. 18:15-19). That the prophets underwent similar treatment, is evident from the things which follow. [4] In order that he might represent the state of the church, the prophet Isaiah was commanded To loose the sackcloth from off his loins, and to put off the shoe from his foot, and to walk naked and barefoot three years, for a sign and a wonder (Isa. 20:2-3). In order that he might represent the state of the church, the prophet Jeremiah was commanded:

To buy for himself a girdle, and put it upon his loins, and not put it in water, and to hide it in a hole of the rock near the river Euphrates; and after many days he found it rotten (Jer. 13:1-7). The same prophet represented the state of the church by His not taking a wife in that place, nor entering into the house of mourning, neither going away to lament, nor entering into the house of feasting (Jer. 16:2, 5, 8). [5] In order that he might represent the state of the church, the prophet Ezekiel was commanded To cause a barber's razor to pass upon his head, and upon his beard, and afterwards to divide it, and to burn the third part of it in the midst of the city, to smite a third part with a sword, and to scatter a third part in the wind; and that he should bind a few hairs in his skirts, and at last cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them (Ezek. 5:1-4). In order that he might represent the state of the church, the same prophet was commanded To make vessels of wandering, and to wander to another place in the eyes of the sons of Israel, and to bring forth the vessels by day, and go forth in the evening through a hole dug in the wall, and cover his face so that he should not see the earth, and that so he should be for a wonder to the house of Israel, and should say, I am your sign; like as I have done, so shall it be done unto you (Ezek. 12:3-7, 11). [6] In order that he might represent the state of the church, the prophet Hosea was commanded To take to himself a harlot for a wife, and he took her, and she bare him three sons, one of whom he called "Jezreel;" the second, "That hath not obtained mercy;" and the third, "Not my people" (Hos. 1:2-9). And again he was commanded To go and love a woman beloved of her companion, and an adulteress, whom he also bought for fifteen pieces of silver (Hos. 3:1-2). [7] In order that he might represent the state of the church, the prophet Ezekiel was commanded To take a tile, and engrave upon it Jerusalem, and to lay siege to it, and build a rampart and a mount against it, and to put an iron pan between himself and the city, and to lie on his left side three hundred and ninety days, and afterwards, on his right side, forty days. Also to take wheat, barley, lentils, millet, and spelt, and make bread thereof, which he should then eat by measure. And also that he should make for himself a barley cake with the dung of man; and because he prayed that it might not be so, he was commanded to make it with cow's dung (Ezek. 4:1-15). The prophets represented other things besides; as, for instance, Zedekiah, by The horns of iron that he made for himself (1 Kings 22:11). And another prophet, by being Smitten and wounded, and by putting ashes upon his eyes (1 Kings 20:35-38). [8] In general, the prophets represented the Word in its ultimate sense, which is the sense of the letter, by a garment of hair (Zech. 13:4); and therefore Elijah Was clad in such a coat, and was girt about his loins with a leathern girdle (2 Kings 1:8);

and in like manner John the Baptist, Who had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins, and ate locust and wild honey (Matt. 3:4). From these things it is evident that the prophets represented the state of the church, and also the Word; for he who represents the one represents the other, because the church is from the Word, and is according to the reception of it in life and faith. Therefore prophets, wherever mentioned in both Testaments, signify the doctrine of the church from the Word; and by the Lord, as the Grand Prophet, is signified the church itself, and the Word itself.