uncleanness and the sting of sin.  After this he-goat had been immolated, its blood was taken, together with the blood of the calf, into the Holy of Holies, and the entire sanctuary was sprinkled with it; to signify that the tabernacle was cleansed from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.  But the corpses of the he-goat and calf which had been offered up for sin had to be burnt, to denote the destruction of sins.  They were not, however, burnt on the altar:  since none but holocausts were burnt thereon; but it was prescribed that they should be burnt without the camp, in detestation of sin:  for this was done whenever sacrifice was offered for a grievous sin, or for the multitude of sins.  The other goat was let loose into the wilderness:  not indeed to offer it to the demons, whom the Gentiles worshipped in desert places, because it was unlawful to offer aught to them; but in order to point out the effect of the sacrifice which had been offered up.  Hence the priest put his hand on its head, while confessing the sins of the children of Israel:  as though that goat were to carry them away into the wilderness, where it would be devoured by wild beasts, because it bore the punishment of the people’s sins.  And it was said to bear the sins of the people, either because the forgiveness of the people’s sins was signified by its being let loose, or because on its head written lists of sins were fastened.

The figurative reason of these things was that Christ was foreshadowed both by the calf, on account of His power; and by the ram, because He is the Head of the faithful; and by the he-goat, on account of “the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom. 8:3).  Moreover, Christ was sacrificed for the sins of both priests and people:  since both those of high and those of low degree are cleansed from sin by His Passion.  The blood of the calf and of the goat was brought into the Holies by the priest, because the entrance to the kingdom of heaven was opened to us by the blood of Christ’s Passion.  Their bodies were burnt without the camp, because “Christ suffered without the gate,” as the Apostle declares (Heb. 13:12).  The scape-goat may denote either Christ’s Godhead Which went away into solitude when the Man Christ suffered, not by going to another place, but by restraining His power:  or it may signify the base concupiscence which we ought to cast away from ourselves, while we offer up to Our Lord acts of virtue.

With regard to the uncleanness contracted by those who burnt these sacrifices, the reason is the same as that which we assigned (ad 5) to the sacrifice of the red heifer.

Reply Obj. 7:  The legal rite did not cleanse the leper of his deformity, but declared him to be cleansed.  This is shown by the words of Lev. 14:3, seqq., where it was said that the priest, “when he shall find that the leprosy is cleansed,” shall command “him that is to be purified”:  consequently, the leper was already healed:  but he was said to be purified in so far as the verdict of the priest restored him to the society of men and to the worship of God.  It happened sometimes, however, that bodily leprosy was miraculously cured by the legal rite, when the priest erred in his judgment.