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"of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: "I will also give thee for a light to the gentiles, "that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end "of the earth." The Messiah here complains of having "laboured in vain," evidently among his countrymen; and supposes that "Israel would "not be gathered;" that is, as a nation, at the first, or for a long time, but only a remnant of them; called "the preserved of Israel." In order to compensate this, and as something far beyond the "gathering of Israel;" JEHOVAH promises that he, the Messiah, "shall be the light of the "gentiles, and his salvation to the end of the "earth."-It then follows, "Thus saith the Lord, "the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to "him whom man despiseth, to him whom the "nation abhorreth," (a singular, not a plural,)

"to a servant of rulers; Kings shall see and arise, "princes also shall worship, because of the Lord "that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and " he shall choose thee." Surely this prophecy leads us to expect that, when the true Messiah should appear, the nation of Israel, and the rulers of that nation, would reject, despise, and hate him; as they had generally done the prophets who went before him.

Again, in the same prophet, "Behold, my Ser"vant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted "and extolled, and be very high. As many were "astonished at thee; (his visage was so marred

more than any man, and his form more than "the sons of men ;) so shall he sprinkle many

'Is. xlix. 1-7.

"nations: the kings shall shut their mouths at "him: for that which hath not been told them shall

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they see, and that which they have not heard "shall they consider." This is the King Mes' siah, who shall be exalted above Abraham, and ' extolled above Moses, and be high above the ' angels of the ministry.' (Misrach Tenctuma, an ancient Jewish writing.) Indeed, none but the Messiah can be meant. The same prophecy is evidently continued in the next chapter: "Who " hath believed our report? and to whom is the " arm of the Lord revealed? for he" (the Servant before mentioned) "shall grow up before him" (JEHOVAH) "as a tender plant, and as a root out " of a dry ground: he hath no form nor come"liness; and when we shall see him there is no

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beauty that we should desire him. He is de" spised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, "and acquainted with grief: and we hid, as it " were, our faces from him; he was despised, and "we esteemed him not."2 The very person, who "should be exalted, and extolled, and be 'very "high," would be " despised and rejected by " men," nay, by Israelites! Does not this prophecy, when carefully considered, tend to prepare the mind for the history of Jesus contained in the four evangelists? and for the Acts of the apostles? If the Messiah were not meant, let it be shewn in whom the prophecy has been, or ever can be, fulfilled. The rest of the chapter will come under our consideration in another part of this inquiry.

Is. lii. 13-15.

Is. liüi. 1-3.

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In a Psalm, which will shortly be more fully shewn to be a prediction of the Messiah, he is introduced as saying; "I am a worm, and no

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man; a reproach of men, and despised of the "people. All that see me laugh me to scorn ;

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they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, "saying; He trusted on the Lord, that he would "deliver him; let him deliver him, seeing he " delighted in him." The subsequent parts of the Psalm 2 could not be spoken by David, or by any other man, in those days, concerning himself : and nothing in the preceding part of the Psalm had been spoken of the gentiles: so that the reception of the Messiah by Israel is most undeniably predicted ; "the sufferings of the Messiah " and the glory which should follow."-Several other Psalms relate to the same subject; but do not so obviously and expressly state it. 3

Thus again, Isaiah; "Sanctify the Lord of "hosts himself: and let him be your fear, and let "him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanc"tuary: but for a stone of stumbling, and for a "rock of offence, to both the houses of Israel: for

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a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jeru"salem: and many of them shall stumble, and fall, " and be broken, and be snared, and be taken." 4 Who is here spoken of, except Immanuel, just before mentioned? Or, when did Israel so stumble and fall, in respect of "JEHOVAH of hosts," as in the rejection of Immanuel ?

However the prophecy be interpreted, it stands indelibly on the face of it, that what should have been a sanctuary, would prove " a stone of stum" bling, and a rock of offence, to both the houses " of Israel, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." If Jesus was the promised Messiah, the fulfilment is known to all men: otherwise what events are predicted?

Psalm xxii. 5-8.
Psalm ii. 1-5. 1xix.

* Psalm xxii. 12-18.

* Is. viii. 13-15.

* Is. viii. 8.

"The same stone, which the builders rejected, " is become the head-stone of the corner: this is "the Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes." 1 I do not refer to the New Testament, as authority to Jews; but can they answer, as an argument, the application of this text by our Lord and his apostles? 2 What other so evident a fulfilment of it has ever taken place?

Again, one speaks by Zechariah ; "Three " shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my "soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred " me." "And I said unto them, If ye think good, " give me my price, and if not, forbear; so they "weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver; and "the Lord said unto me, Cast it to the potter;

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a goodly price that I was prized at by them." 3 If the Messiah be not here spoken of: what events are narrated or predicted? If he be; then he, even JEHOVAH, would be "despised" and "abhorred by the shepherds of Israel; in the manner recorded by the evangelists.

Enough has been said to shew, that it might previously have been expected, that the Messiah

'Ps. cxviii. 22, 23.

2 Matt. xxi. 42. Acts iv. 10, 11.

3 Zech. xi. 8-13. Matt. xxvii. 3-10.

would be received with contempt and aversion by a large proportion of the people to whom it was sent, and especially by their rulers and teachers : but our next inquiry,

II. Concerning the death by which, according to the prophets, the Messiah would be cut off, will bring before us much more proof of this particular also.

Even the first promise of a Redeemer implied the idea that he would be a sufferer, " I will put " enmity between thee and the woman, and be"tween thy seed and her Seed: it shall bruise "thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."1 "The "sufferings of Christ and the glory which fol"lowed," in the triumphs of Christianity over idolatry and wickedness, or the cause of Satan, constitute the best, and the only satisfactory comiment on this original promise of a Messiah: yet the more complete fulfilment of the clause, " It shall " bruise thy head," is still future; as the clearest exposition of the clause, "Thou shalt bruise his " heel," is furnished by the crucifixion of Christ, and the persecutions of his people, by those very persons to whom he said, "Ye are of your father "the devil; and the lusts of your father ye will " do: he was a murderer from the beginning." 2

But it would far exceed my limits to adduce, and comment on, all the prophecies respecting this subject in the Old Testament. "The Son of " man must suffer these things, and be rejected of "the chief priests, and scribes, and be slain, and

Gen. iii. 15.

* John viii, 44.

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