make his foul an offering for fin, he fhall fee his feed, he fhall prolong his days, and the pleafure of the Lord fhall profper in his hand. He fhall fee of the travail of his foul, and fhall be fatisfied by his knowledge fhall my righteous fervant justify many; for he fhall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the ftrong; because he hath poured out his foul unto death and he was numbered with the tranfgreffors; and he bare the fin of many, and made interceffion for the tranfgreffors."

THESE words are extant in a book, purporting to contain the predictions of a writer who lived feven centuries before the Christian era.

That material part of every argument from prophecy, namely, that the words alleged were actually spoken or written before the fact, to which they are applied, took place, or could by any natural means be forefeen, is, in the prefent inftance, incontef

tible. The record comes out of the cuftody of adverfaries. The Jews, as an ancient father well obferved, are our librarians. The paffage is in their copies as well as in ours. With many attemps to explain it away, none has ever been made by them to difcredit its authenticity.

And, what adds to the force of the quotation is, that it is taken from a writing declaredly prophetic; a writing, profeffing to defcribe fuch future tranfactions and changes in the world, as were connected with the fate and interefts of the Jewish nation. It is not a paffage in an historical or devotional compofition, which, becaufe it turns out to be applicable to fome future events, or fome future fituation of affairs, is prefumed to have been oracular. The words of Ifaiah were delivered by him in a prophetic character, with the folemnity belonging to that character; and what he fo delivered, was all along understood by the Jewish reader to refer to fomething that was to take place after the time of the author. The public fentiments of the Jews, concerning the defign of Ifaiah's writings, are fet forth in the book of Ecclefiafticus: "He faw, by an excellent fpirit, what should come to pass at the last, and he comforted them that mourned in Sion. He showed what fhould come to pafs forever, and fecret things or ever they came." (ch. xlviii. v. 24.)

It is alfo an advantage which this prophecy poffeffes, that it is intermixed with no other fubject. It is entire, feparate, and uninterruptedly directed to one fcene of things.

The application of the prophecy to the evangelic hiftory is plain and appropriate. Here is no double fenfe. No figurative language but what is fufficiently intelligible to every reader of every country. The obfcurities, by which I mean the expreffions that require a knowledge of local diction, and of local allufion, are few, and not of great importance. Nor have I found that varieties of reading, or a different conftruing of the original, produce any material alteration in the fenfe of the prophecy. Compare the common tranflation with that of bifhop Lowth, and the difference is not confiderable. So far as they do differ, bishop Lowth's corrections, which are the faithful refult of an accurate examination, bring the description nearer to the New Teftament history than it was before. In the fourth verse of the fifty-third chapter, what our bible renders "ftricken," he tranflates "judicially ftricken :" and in the eighth verse, the claufe "he was taken from prifon and from judgment," the bishop gives "by an oppreffive judgment he was taken off." The next words to thefe "who fhall declare his generation," are much cleared up in their meaning by the bishop's verfion, his manner of life who would declare," i. e. who would ftand forth in his defence. The former part of the ninth verfe," and he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death," which inverts the circumstances of Christ's paffion, the bishop brings out in an order perfectly agreeable to the event; "and his grave was appointed with the wicked, but with the rich man was his tomb." The words in the eleventh verfe, "by his knowledge fhall my righteous fervant juftify many," are in the bishop's verfion by the knowledge of him shall my righttecus fervant juftify many."

a

It is natural to inquire what turn the Jews themselves give to this prophecy. There is good proof that the ancient Rabbios explained it of their expected Meffiah; but their modern expofitors concur, I think, in reprefenting it, as a descrip tion of the calamitous ftate and intended reftoration of the Jewish people, who are here, as they fay, exhibited under the character of a fingle perfon. I have not difcoverd that their expofition refts upon any critical arguments, or upon these in

a «Vaticinium hoc Efaiæ eft carnificina Rabbinorum, de quo aliqui Judæi mihi confeffi funt, Rabbinos fuos ex propheticis fcripturis facile fe extricare potuifle, modo Efaias tacuiffet." Hulle Theol. Jud. p. 318. quoted by Poole in loc.

Hulfe Theol. Jud. p. 430.

any other than a very minute degree. The claufe in the ninth verfe, which we render "for the tranfgreffion of my people was he ftricken," and in the margin "was the ftroke upon him,” the Jews read, "for the tranfgreffion of my people was the ftroke upon them." And what they allege in fupport of the alteration amounts only to this, that the Hebrew pronoun is ca pable of a plural, as well as of a fingular fignification, that is to fay, is capable of their conftruction as well as our's. And this is all the variation contended for; the rest of the prophecy they read as we do. The probability, therefore, of their expofition is a fubject of which we are as capable of judging as themselves.

a Bifbop Lowth adopts in this place the reading of the seventy, which gives fmitten to death, "for the tranfgreffion of my people was he fmitten to death." The addition of the words " to death," makes an end of the Jewish interpretation of the clause. And the authority upon which this reading (though not given by the prefent Hebrew text) is adopted, Dr. Kennicot has fet forth by an argument, not only fo cogent, but fo clear and popular, that I beg leave to tranfcribe the fubftance of it into this note. "Origen, after having quoted at large this prophecy concerning the Meffiah, tells us, that having once made ufe of this paffage, in a difpute against fome that were accounted wife among the Jews, one of them replied, that the words did not mean one man, but one people, the Jews, who were fmitten of God, and difperfed among the Gentiles for their converfion; that he then urged many parts of this prophecy, to fhew the abfurdity of this interpretation, and that he feemed to prefs them the hardest by this fentence- " for the tranfgreffion of my people was he fmitten to death.” Now, as Origen, the author of the Hexapla, muft have understood Hebrew, we cannot fuppofe that he would have urged this laft text as fo decifive, if the Greek verfion had not agreed here with the Hebrew text; nor that these wife Jews would have been at all diftreffed by this quotation, unless the Hebrew text had read agreeably to the words "to death," on which the argument principally depended; for by quoting it immediately, they would have triumphed over him and reprobated his Greek verfion. This, whenever they could do it, was their conftant practice in their difputes with the Chriflians. Origen himself, who laboriously compared the Hebrew text with the Septuagint, has recorded the neceffity of arguing with the Jews, from fuch paffages only, as were in the Septuagint agreeable to the Hebrew, Wherefore, as Origen had carefully compared the Greek version of the Septuagint with the Hebrew text; and as he puzzled and confounded the learned Jews, by urging upon the reading “to death” im this place; it feems almost impoffible not to conclude, both from Origen's argument, and the filence of his Jewish adverfaries, that the Hebrew text at that time actually had the word agreeably to the ver fion of the feventy." Lowth's Ifaiah, p. 24.

This judgment is open indeed to the good fense of every attentive reader. The application which the Jews contend for, appears to me to labour under infuperable difficulties; in particular, it may be demanded of them to explain, in whose name or perfon, if the Jewish people be the fufferer, does the prophet fpeak, when he fays, "he hath borne our griefs, and carried our forrows, yet we did esteem him ftricken, fmitten of God and afflicted; but he was wounded for our tranfgreffions, he was bruifed for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his ftripes we are healed." Again, the defcription in the feventh verfe," he was oppreffed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the flaughter, and as a fheep before her fhearers is dumb, fo he opened not his mouth," quadrates with no part of the Jewish history with which we are acquainted. The mention of the 66 grave,' " and the "tomb," in the ninth verfe, is not very ap plicable to the fortunes of a nation; and still lefs fo is the conclufion of the prophecy in the twelfth verfe, which exprefsly reprefents the fufferings as voluntary, and the fufferer as interceding for the offenders, "because he hath poured out his foul unto death, and he was numbered with the tranfgreffors, and he bare the fin of many, and made interceffion for the tranfgreffors."

There are other prophecies of the Old Testament, interpret-ed by Chriftians to relate to the gofpel history, which are deferving both of great regard, and of a very attentive confideration; but I content myself with ftating the above, because I think it the cleareft and the strongest of all, and because most of the reft, in order that their value be reprefented with any tolerable degree of fidelity, require a difcuffion unfaitable to the limits and nature of this work. The reader will find them difpofed in order, and diftinctly explained in bishop Chandler's treatise upon the fubject: and he will bear in mind, what has been often, and I think, truly urged by the advocates of Chriftianity, that there is no other eminent perfon, to the history of whofe life fo many circumstances can be made to apply. They who object, that much has been done by the power of chance, the ingenuity of accommodation, and the induftry of refearch, ought to try whether the fame, or any thing like it, could be done, if Mahomet, or any other perfon, were proposed as the subject of Jewish prophecy.

II. A fecond head of argument from prophecy, is founded upon our Lord's predictions concerning the deftruction of Jerufalem, recorded by three out of the four evangelifts.

Luke xxi. 5-25. "And as fome fpake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he faid, As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there fhall not be left one ftone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And they asked him, faying, Master, but when fhall these things be? and what fign fhall there be when these things fhall come to pafs? And he faid, Take heed that ye be not deceived, for many fhall come in my name, faying, I am Chrift; and the time draweth near. Go ye not therefore after them. But, when ye fhall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified; for these things must first come to pass, but the end is not by and by. Then faid he unto them, Nation fhall rife against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and great earthquakes fhall be in divers places, and famines and peftilences and fearful fights, and great figns fhall there be from heaven. But before all thefe, they fhall lay their hands on you, and perfecute you, delivering you up to the fynagogues, and into prifons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's fake. And it fhall turn to you for a testimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall anfwer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all adverfaries fhall not be able to gainfay nor refift. And ye fhall be betrayed both by parents and brethren, and kinsfolk and friends; and fome of you fhall they cause to be put to death, And ye fhall be hated of all men for my name's fake. But there fhall not an hair of your head perifh. In your patience poffefs ye your fouls. And when ye fhall fee Jerufalem com-paffed with armies, then know that the defolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midft of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For thefe be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give fuck in thofe days; for there fhall be great diftrefs in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they fhall fall by the edge of the fword, and fhall be led away captive into all nations; and Jerufalem fhall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled."

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In terms nearly fimilar, this difcourfe is related in the twen ty-fourth chapter of Matthew, and the thirteenth of Mark.