Grotius. To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? To how few is the power of God unto salvation made known by the Holy Ghost? Jeremiah also shall have clear revelations, says Grotius. And this is counted learnedly to interpret the Scriptures; and every day are such annotations on the Scripture multiplied.

3. It is not then the prophet's prediction of what he should do, of whom he treats, what he should believe, what he should receive, whereof there is notice given in this verse; but what others shall do in reference to the preaching of him; they shall not believe, Who hath believed?'

4. The annotator tells us, these words do agree to Christ chiefly, and magis, karà λéğı. This then must be the signification of them, according to his interpretation, in relation unto Christ: 'He shall believe the prophecies of Isaiah, and receive revelations of his own.' For my part I am rather of the mind of John and Paul, concerning these words, than of the learned annotator's.

5. There is no mention of describing the person spoken of by two notes: but in the first words the prophet 'enters upon the description of Christ, what he was, what he did, and suffered for us, which he pursues to the end of the chapter.

Ver. 2. For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground; he hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty, that we should desire him.' An entrance is made in these words, into the account that the prophet intends to give, why so few believed in Christ the Messiah, when he came, after they had looked for him, and desired him so long, namely his great unsuitableness to their expectation: they looked for a person shining in honour and glory, raising a visible pompous terrene kingdom, whereof they should be made partakers. But Christ, when he comes indeed, grows up both in his human nature, and his kingdom, as a tender plant, obnoxious to the incursions of beasts, winds, and storms, and treading on of every one; yet preserved by the providence of God, under whose eye, and before whom he grew up, he shall prosper; and he shall be as a root preserved in the dry ground of the parched house of David, and poor family of Mary and Joseph, every way outwardly con

temptible; so that from thence none could look for the springing of such a branch of the Lord. And whereas they expected that he should appear with a great deal of outward form, loveliness, beauty, and every thing that should make a glorious person desirable, when they come to see him, indeed, in his outward condition, they shall not be able to discover any thing in the world, for which they should desire him, own him, or receive him. And therefore after they shall have gone forth upon the report that shall go of him, to see him, they shall be offended and return, and say, 'Is not this the carpenter's son, and are not his brethren with us?' This sword of the Lord, which lies at the heart of the Jews to this day, the learned annotator labours to ease them of, by accommodating these words to Jeremiah; which through the favour of the reader, I shall no otherwise refute, than by its repetition: 'for he shall grow up before the Lord as a tender plant; Jeremiah shall serve God in his prophetical office, whilst he is young. And as a root out of a dry ground: He shall be born at Anathoth, a poor village. He hath no form nor comeliness: he shall be heavy and sad. And when we see him, &c. He shall not have an amiable countenance." Who might not these things be spoken of him that was a prophet, if the name of Anathoth be left out, and some other supplied in the room thereof?

The third verse pursues the description of the Messiah in respect of his abject outward condition, which being of the same import with the former, and it being not my aim. to comment on the text, I shall pass by.

Ver. 4. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.' Having formerly given the sense of these words, and vindicated them from the exceptions of the Socinians, I shall do no more but animadvert upon their accommodation to Jeremiah by Grotius. Thus then he,

Vere languores nostros ipse tulit.] Ille non talia meritus, mala subiit quæ nos eramus meriti. Hæc omnia ait Judæos dicturos post captam urbem.' 'He that deserved no such thing underwent the evils that we had deserved. All these things he saith the Jews shall say after the taking of the city.'

It is of the unworthy dealing of the Jews with the pro

phet in Jerusalem during the siege, that he supposes these words are spoken, and spoken by the Jews after the taking of the city. The sum is, when he was so hardly treated, we deserved it, even to be so dealt withal, not he, who delivered the word of God.

But 1. The words are, he bare our griefs, and carried our sorrows.' That by our griefs and sorrows, our sins and the punishment due to them are intended, hath been declared. That the force of the words 'bearing and carrying' do evince, that he took them upon himself, hath also been manifested. That he so took them, as that God made them meet upon him in his justice, hath likewise been proved. That by his bearing of them we come to have peace, and are freed, shall be farther cleared; as it is expressly mentioned, ver. 5. 11. Let us now see how this may be accommodated to Jeremiah. Did he undergo the punishment due to the sins of the Jews? Or did they bear their own sins? Did God cause their sins to meet on him, then when he bare them, or is it not expressly against his law, that one should bear the sins of another? Were the Jews freed? Had they peace by Jeremiah's sufferings? Or rather did they not hasten their utter ruin? If this be to interpret the Scripture, I know not what it is to corrupt it.

2. There is not the least evidence, that the Jews had any such thoughts, or were at all greatly troubled after the taking of the city by the Chaldeans, concerning their dealings with Jeremiah; whom they afterward accused to his face, of being a false prophet, and lying to them in the name of the Lord. Neither are these words supposed to be spoken by the Jews, but by the church of God.

Et nos existimavimus eum percussum (leprosum ver. 6.) vulneratum et a Deo humiliatum.] Nos credimus Jeremiam merito conjectum in carcerem et lacum, Deo illum exosum habente, ut hostem urbis, templi, et pseudo prophetam.' We believed that Jeremiah was deservedly cast into the prison and mire, God hating him as an enemy of the city and temple, and as a false prophet.' But,

1. These words may be thus applied to any prophet whatever, that suffered persecution and martyrdom from the Jews, as who of them did not, the one or the other? For

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they quickly saw their error and mistake as to one, though at the same time they fall upon another; as our Saviour upbraideth the Pharisees.

Nor

2. Was this any such great matter, that the Jews should think a true prophet to be a false prophet, and therefore deservedly punished, as in the law was appointed, that it should thus signally be foretold concerning Jeremiah. But that the Son of God, the Son and heir of the vineyard, should be so dealt withal, this is that the prophet might well bring in the church thus signally complaining of. Of him to this day are the thoughts of the Jews no other than as here recorded, which they express by calling him ".

The reason of the low condition of the Messiah, which was so misapprehended of the Jews, is rendered in the next verse, and their mistake rectified.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.'

I suppose it will not be questioned, but that these words belong to our blessed Saviour, and that redemption which he wrought for us by his death and blood. Not only the full accomplishment of the thing itself as delivered in the New Testament, but the quotation of the words themselves, to that end and purpose; 1 Pet. ii. 24. do undeniably evince it. In what sense the words are to be understood of him, we have formerly declared. That in that sense they are applicable to any other will not be pleaded. That they have any other sense is yet to be proved. To this, thus the annotator,

Ipse autem vulneratus est propter iniquitates nostras] in Hebræo, At vero ipse vulneratus est (id est, male tractatus est) crimine nostro in nobis culpa fuit, non in ipso: Sic et quod sequitur, Attritus est per culpam nostrorum: Iniquissima de eo sensimus et propterea crudelitur eum tractavimus: id nunc rebus ipsis apparet. Similia dixerant Judæi qui se converterunt die Pentecostes: et deinceps.'

But he was wounded for our transgressions] In the Hebrew, But he was wounded (that is, evilly entreated) by our fault. The fault was in us, not in him. And so that which follows; 'He wasbruised by our fault:' we thought

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ill of him, and therefore handled him cruelly. This now is evident from the things themselves. The like things said the Jews, who converted themselves on the day of Pentecost, and afterward.'

The reading of the words must first be considered, and then their sense and meaning. For against both these doth the learned annotator transgress, perverting the former, that he might the more easily wrest the latter. He was wounded for our sins'' crimine nostro' by our crime; that is, it was our fault not his, that he was so evilly dealt with. And not to insist on the word,' wounded' or 'tormented with pain,' which is slightly interpreted by evil-entreated, the question is, whether the efficient, or procuring and meritorious cause of Christ's wounding be here expressed.

2. The words used to express this cause of wounding are two, and both emphatical: the first is yw, he was wounded yvon for our prevarications, our proud transgressing of the law, yup,'est rebellare, et exire a voluntate Domini, vel præcepto, ex superbia :' R. D. in Michi. It is properly to rebel against man or God. Against man; 2 Kings iii. 7. The king of Moab yw hath rebelled against me:' and chap. viii. 20. In his days Edom yw rebelled' as also against God; Isa. i. 2. I have brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.' Nor is it used in any other sense in the Scripture, but for prevarication and rebellion with an high hand, and through pride. The other word is my. He was bruised for our iniquities;' the word signifies, a declining from the right way, with perversity and frowardness. my, est inique vel perverse agere; proprie curvum esse, vel incurvari;' so that all sorts of sins, are here emphatically and distinctly expressed, even the greatest rebellion, and most perverse, crooked turning aside from the ways of God.

3. Their causality, in reference to the wounding of him here mentioned, is expressed in the preposition which properly is de, ex, a, e,' ' from,' or for.' Now to put an issue to the sense of these words, and thence, in a good measure, to the sense of this place, let the reader consult the collections of the use of this preposition in Pagnine, Buxtorf, Calasius, or any other; when he finds it with sin as here, and relating to punishment, if he find it once to signify any