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5. The design of God in thus dealing with the person, was to inflict upon him the punishment due to our sins, that thereby he might accomplish the work of redemption. This is such an important article, that the prophet mentions it repeatedly in a variety of expressions. Verse 4, "Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted;" ver. 5. “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." Again, verse 6, "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." Again, verse 8, "For the transgression of my people was he stricken." Again, verse 10, "When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin." Again, verse 11, "He shall bear their iniquities." Again, verse 12, "He bare the sin of many."

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6. This sufferer is described as voluntarily putting himself in the place of the guilty, to suffer in their stead; and when actually engaged in the work, he endured his sufferings with unparalleled patience. For though "he was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth." ver. 7.

7. That because of his humble, mean, and suffering condition, many would conclude that he was a deceiver, and therefore reject him, but would afterwards acknowledge their error. "Who has believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground; he has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised 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. Surely he has born our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." ver. 1-4. Yet after this person "was cut off out of the land of the living, and his grave made with the wicked," ver. 8, 9, he shall live again, "and shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high,"

ch. 52:13; "shall sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouth at him," ver. 15; "he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands, and he shall justify many." ch. 53 10, 11.

5. From the whole it appears that some eminent person is here described, under the title of the servant of the Lord, who should go through much undeserved shame and suffering, even unto death, for the sake and benefit of other people, who should endure all indignities with the greatest meekness and patience, even offering up himself, of his own accord; and at last should be highly honored and exalted, in reward of his obedience, and see the success of all his sufferings in the justification of those whose iniquities he had borne, and in their admission to divide the spoil of his enemies, and enjoy a state of glory and happiness with him. Now, my dear Benjamin, let me ask, who could the person be to whom all these characters belonged, without any strain or violence put upon the words, without any breach or violation of that unity which the whole contexture of the passage requires?

§ 6. Surely it is not applicable to King Josiah, notwithstanding his piety. The expedition in which he fell at Megiddo, was no advantage to his character. It was rashly undertaken, not only without just provocation, but against the express warning and command of God. His death therefore was manifestly the punishment of his own sin and temerity; much less had it the virtue of an expiation or atonement; it averted not the divine vengeance from our people, but left them exposed to the ravages of the Chaldeans, who, a few years after, led them captive into Babylon.

§ 7. No more is it applicable to Jeremiah the prophet. He was indeed remarkable for piety, zeal and faithfulness, and on that account was much hated and persecuted; stil! he is very far from answering the character of this prediction. He relates of himself, that he bore his sufferings very

ill. He cursed the day of his birth; he expostulated with God for giving way to the treachery of his people; he prayed that he might see God's vengeance on them; and very unwilling to die, he at last capitulated for his life. Jer. 12: 1-4; 20: 12, 14, 37, 38. Let the learned Grotius and his followers say whether this be the carriage that suits the "meekness of the lamb, and the silence of the sheep before her shearers?" Does it come up to "interceding for the transgressors, or the making himself freely an offering for sin?" His sufferings possessed no merit. They did not procure him a seed, a long succession of disciples; nor were they the means of converting Gentile kingdoms.

§ 8. Much less does this prophecy relate to the supposed Messiah ben Joseph. The person characterized is to suffer and die for the sins of his people, that they might be healed and justified; but our Rabbins tell us that Messiah ben Joseph is to be engaged in war, and that he and his people are to be slain in battle. Again, this person is said to rise again, to be very prosperous, to have many kings subjecting themselves to him, and to have a multitude of people as his followers; but no such things are believed concerning Messiah ben Joseph. Besides, I have already shown that the whole story of two Messiahs is without foundation in the sacred Scripture, and is a mere fiction of our Rabbins.

§ 9. Once more I will show that this prophecy does not relate to the sufferings of our nation. It has been said that our nation's sufferings are to atone for the sins of the Gentiles, and to be the means of their becoming proselytes to Judaism. But this cannot be the case. For it has already been observed, that the sufferer is described as a most innocent, blameless, and holy person, who deserved no punishment on his own account. Has this been the character of our people at any time? Ask the prophets, and they will tell you that those in their days were a sinful and rebellious people; and they prophesied of those who should live under the second temple, that their sins would be the ruin of the city,

and the cause of the dispersion of our nation. Ask our historian Josephus, and he will confirm the truth of their predictions. For thus he testifies: "If the Romans had delayed to come against them, the earth must have opened and swallowed them up, or fire been rained upon them, as on Sodom; for the Jews were then a much wickeder generation than those that had suffered these extraordinary punishments." Josephus De Bel. ch. 6: 16; 11: 30. Nor do our Rabbins differ; for, as has already been shown, they affirm that the coming of the Messiah has been delayed because of the sins of our people.

Again, the sufferer is said to put himself voluntarily in the place of the guilty, and to bear his sufferings with unparal leled patience; but this is not applicable to our people. Notwithstanding their obedience to the laws of the countries where they live, and their prayers and supplications for "the powers that be;" yet their sufferings are not voluntary. It is well known that the obstinate resistance of our fathers to the Roman power was the cause of the destruction of Jerusalem, together with our beautiful temple, and the awful ca lamities which succeeded, too heart-rending to be described; nor would they willingly continue any longer in exile, if the God of our fathers were to open a door for their return to the land of promise, as he will surely do in his own time, as will be shown hereafter. Hence their daily prayers for deliverance.

Again, the person is said to be cut off from the land of the living, to be buried and to rise again; which expres sions are to be understood literally, as all the rest of the prophecy, and consequently are not applicable to the suffer ings of our nation.

$10. Before I dismiss this part of the subject, I will just take notice of "a Jewish Tract, on the 53d chap. of Isaiah, written by Dr. Montalto, in Portuguese, about the year 1650, and translated and published in London, by Philo-Veritas. An. 1790." The author agrees in the opinion just stated, that

the sufferer mentioned means our people collectively; bu he asserts that they suffer for their own sins, and not for the sins of any other. For in ver. 8th he translates the last clause, "for the transgressions of my people were they stricken," and in his explanation he saith, "God declares that the punishments of Israel were for his own iniquities, and not for those imputed to them by different nations." Again, he saith, It becomes us to bear with fortitude those inflictions which our own transgressions have merited."

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Now my dear Benjamin will easily anticipate an objection against this author's sentiment. As he acknowledges that Israel is a sinner and deserves punishment, therefore Israel cannot be the sufferer described by Isaiah; for he is said to be innocent, and to suffer on account, in the place, and for the good of others. Again, he saith that the persons speaking and the sufferer are distinct. The former he saith are the Gentile nations, and the latter our nation, spoken of collectively as one man. In the 14th and 15th verses (chap. 52,) is expressed, the astonishment of all nations, to behold our redemption !-In the 1st, 2d and 3d verses of the 53d chapter, their wonder breaks out at this sudden exaltation, by the hand of God, of a people, in whose countenances nought but shame and dejection had appeared during their long dispersion." But these persons contradict the author; whilst he asserts that the sufferer is afflicted for his own sin, they repeatedly affirm that he suffered for their sins. See ver. 4, 5, 6, 11, 12. Yea, this author contradicts himself, for he thus paraphrases verse 4th: "the nations exclaim, that surely Israel had borne the punishment of all their sins and violations." Such is the confusion and contradiction which runs through the whole of this tract; an awful specimen of the blindness which "has in part happened unto Israel,"

11. At the close of this tract the author has an observation which is too true, even in the 19th century. It is as follows: "I hope I may be permitted to advert with more of

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