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sins and sorrows of others: else why is it said he hath borne our griefs, and not he hath borne his own griefs? If the Jewish nation were here personified, and a description given of their sufferings, then the passage would run as follows: He hath borne his griefs, and carried his sorrows: he was wounded for his

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transgressions, and the chastisement of his peace was upon him; and with his stripes was he healed. To understand the third personal pronoun he, to mean the same individuals, or nation, as the first personal pronoun we, in one and the same sentence, is in the highest degree absurd. But to such shifts are the Jews re. duced, by denying the plain and obvious mean ing of their own sacred books.

It follows, therefore, that the sufferings of the person here described are expiatory; they are submitted to for the benefit not of himself, but of others, Now, there is no passage of the prophetical Scriptures which declares this of the sufferings of the children of Israel. On the contrary, it is said, in numberless passages of

the Scriptures, that all their sufferings are the fruit of their own sins. (Levit. xxvi. 39.)

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And they that are left of you, shall pine away in their iniquity in their enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed ¿ against me; and that also they have walked contrary unto me; and that I also have walked 'contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their • uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they ' then accept the punishment of their iniquity, then will I remember my covenant with

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Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land."'

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In the above passage, we see Israel led into captivity for their own iniquity; and it is only when they shall have accepted the punishment of their iniquity, as being their just due, that they shall find mercy, and be restored to their

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own land. Indeed, it deserves the particular attention of the Jews, that there seems to be some great offence, which is emphatically dwelt upon by the Spirit of God in this passage, as the procuring cause of their misery: it is called "the trespass which they trespassed against me. The Hebrew word by here rendered trespass, seems to mean, properly, a falling away, or apostacy from the truth, which is the very worst species of sin. (See Parkhurst on this word.)

Since, then, it is evident, that the punishments inflicted upon the Jewish nation have been for their own sins, their sufferings cannot, in any sense, be an expiation for the sins of others. Consequently, the passage of Isaiah, which we are now considering, does not describe their sufferings, since it relates to the sufferings of a person who is styled the righteous servant of God, and who suffered for the iniquities of others, not for his own.

But farther, If we suppose that in the liii. of Isaiah the Jewish nation is personified, then we

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must suppose that the person styled, in ver. 11, the righteous servant of God, is one and the same with those who, in the 6th verse, are said to have all gone astray, like sheep, and to have turned every one to his own way.' how can a people, described as so laden with iniquity, receive the title of the righteous servant of God in the very same passage of Scripture? This would be making the Scriptures contradict themselves. The Jews are therefore certainly mistaken in their application of this prophecy.

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The clause in the 8th verse, he was cut off out of the land of the living,' cannot possibly apply to the nation of Israel: neither can the phrase in the 9th verse, he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his 'death;' for these are things that cannot be affirmed of a nation: and if it be said that these expressions are figurative, the reply is, that they still cannot apply to the Jews, who, though led captive in all nations, are preserved from destruction, and are destined, by provi

dence, to be raised to glory and happiness at a future, and, probably, not very remote period.

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It does not characterize the Jewish nation, that they have done no violence, neither was • deceit found in their mouth.' On the contrary, it is testified against them, by God himself, that they filled their land with violence.' (Ezek. viii. 17.) And if, in this and all the foregoing particulars, the prophecy will not answer to the character of the Jews, it follows that it has no relation whatever to their sufferings.

I would now proceed to examine whether the prophecy was not fulfilled minutely in the life, the sufferings, and death of Jesus. I think it impossible for any unprejudiced person to read the four gospels attentively, without feeling a conviction that Jesus was a preacher of righteousness. To prove how often he preached righteousness, it would be necessary to transcribe a great part of the gospels; I shall therefore content myself with quoting a few passages, earnestly beseeching the Jews to

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