who hath" abolished in His flesh the enmity." (Eph. ii. 14, 15.) By whom, "being justified we have peace with God." (Rom. v. 1.) By whom "God has called us to peace." (1 Cor. vii. 15.) "Preaching

peace by Jesus Christ." (Acts x. 36.) Glorious also are the promises here given of His universal and eternal reign. How assuring the words, “Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end.” “To what earthly king or kingdom," says Jenour, "can these words apply?"

NOTE VIII.-PROPHETIC ACCOUNT OF THE HUMILIATION, ATONING SUFFERINGS, AND GLORY OF CHRIST IN Isaiah lii. and liii. The latter part of Isaiah, that is from chapter xl. to the end is occupied almost exclusively with prophecies of Messiah and His kingdom; and Fraser considers the design of the spirit of prophecy in this portion is to represent the Gospel times. "And," Henry remarks, "as if it were designed for a prophetic summary of the New Testament, it begins with that which begins the Gospels-The voice of one crying in the wilderness, chap. xl. 3; and concludes with that which concludes the Book of RevelationThe new Heavens and the new earth, chap. lxvi. 22." "But from hence,” (chap. lii. 13,) Lowth observes, "the prophet's views are almost wholly engrossed by the superior part of his subject "-The glorious Messiah. "The most important portion of Isaiah and of the Old Testament commences here." "Probably in no portion of the Bible of the same length, not even in the New Testament, is there to be found so clear an exhibition of the purpose for which the Saviour died." There is abundant proof of its being an ancient prophecy written before our Lord's advent, as it is not only quoted in the New Testament, but is found in the Septuagint and Chaldee versions made before His birth. "That it 1 existed 700 years before Christ is as certain as that the poems of Homer or Hesiod had an existence before the Christian era." "There is the fullest evidence that this passage was applied by the early Jews, both before and after the birth of Jesus, to the Messiah." Jews in self-defence have been driven to adopt some other interpretation of the passage, its reference to Messiah is so plain and obvious that they have never succeeded in framing one entirely satisfactory to their nation, who at the present day hold diverse and contrary views regarding Messiah and His advent.

And though the

So exact and complete is the correspondence of this prophecy with 2 Ibid.

1 Barnes.

the life, character, and death of our Lord, the redemption He purchased by the sacrifice of Himself, and the marvellous and contradictory circumstances connected therewith, that it could never have been the result of conjecture; and it would obviously have been equally impossible for any impostor to have so shaped his conduct and the course of events, as to make his life, death, and character a fulfilment of it. The Old Testament prophecies of Him foretell that He would be "God and man; exalted and debased; master and servant; priest and victim; prince and subject; involved in death, and yet a victor over death; rich and poor; a king, a conqueror, glorious; a man of griefs, exposed to infirmities, unknown, and in a state of abjection and humiliation." And almost all these antithetical circumstances are included in this prophecy, which is not a mere general statement of events which might have been accomplished by any impostor, but a minute particularising of events and circumstances which cannot be applied to any human being or body of men that ever existed, save only to Jesus of Nazareth, in whom, and in whom alone, they are all, in every the smallest detail and most contradictory circumstance, accurately fulfilled. How then, I would ask the unbeliever, can he, save on the ground of divine inspiration, account for this wonderful prophecy of particular events and circumstances, some of them contradictory and apparently impossible of fulfilment, and their complete and unerring accomplishment in the person of Jesus of Nazareth? He must be both ignorant and credulous who can deem it a forgery. Still more credulous he who can believe that the most holy Being that ever existed on this earth, whom even the infidel Rousseau admitted to be the most sinless and perfect of human beings, could be an impostor who contrived the fulfilment of all these impossible events and circumstances in His own life, death, and burial! Rightly examined, this wonderful prophecy alone should suffice to convince of the Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth. It was the means under God's grace of the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch, (Acts viii. 26—28), and of that celebrated votary of dissoluteness and infidelity, Lord Rochester. But what most strongly demonstrates the remarkable and convincing nature of this prophecy is its effect upon the Jews. Barnes says, "It has probably been the means of the conversion of more Jews from the errors of their system to Christianity than any other portion of their Scriptures." Joseph Isaac Levita says, "I frankly confess that this chapter first conducted

1 Calmet.

A A

me to the Christian faith." And Hengstenberg says many similar instances occur in reports of Missionaries among the Jews.1

The following may be regarded as a summary of this remarkable prophecy. In chap. lii. 13-15, Jehovah declares that His servant Messiah, notwithstanding His state of humiliation should prosper and be exalted, (Phil. ii. 6—11), and that though His humble condition and sufferings should cause Him to be contemned, yet by that voluntarily endured abasement and submission to the accursed death, He should, by "the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel,” bring salvation to the nations, and command the regard and veneration of kings and kingdoms that had never heard Messiah's name. In chap. liii. the prophet enlarges on what had been briefly declared in chap. lii. and this part of the prophecy is divisible thus—

1stly, in verse 1, the prophet laments that so few had given believing attention to the prophecies of Messiah, and understood the revelation of Him therein. 2ndly, in verse 2, 3, he describes the humble condition of our Lord sprung from the decayed stock or root of David, as a shoot or "root out of a dry ground," destitute of any worldly advantages or qualities to attract respect, and therefore " despised and rejected of men," and enduring contumely and affliction. 3rdly, from verse 4 to 9 is described the great atonement He effected by His suffering for the sins of the world, and not as supposed by His enemies, judicially stricken of God. "The iniquity of us all " being laid on Him as on the scapegoat, and by His atoning sacrifice we obtain peace and reconciliation with God. He voluntarily and unrepiningly submitting to be "made a sin-offering for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the rightcousness of God in Him." But though "made a curse for us," by being put to death on the accursed tree with malefactors, He was, (strange and improbable paradox), to be buried honourably in the rich man's tomb! 4thly in verse 10-12, the end and result of His atoning sacrifice is stated, viz.: that it was well-pleasing and acceptable to God that His soul should make an offering or sacrifice for sin, "for a sweet smelling savour;" and by thus fulfilling God's will He should see a numerous spiritual posterity, and should be abundantly recompensed for all His ignominious sufferings, (Heb. xii. 2.,) for by the know. ledge of Him should many be justified and saved from the penalty of their iniquities. And finally because He had "poured out His soul unto death," the accursed death on the cross, and "was numbered with

1 Barnes.

the transgressors," and "bare the sin of many," and as Mediator interceded for sinners, therefore, it is said in the language of victory and triumph, God should render Him a conqueror over the "prince of this world," and "highly exalt Him," "that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”

NOTE IX. PROMISE OF MESSIAH TO THE PATRIARCHS.-The promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was not only that they were to be the progenitors of a nation, that from their individual selves was to spring a people countless in number, that their race and names should be perpetuated in endless generations. Over and above these transcendent honours, and privileges, and blessings; there was a promise given of far higher importance, of far greater value: the promise of a privilege, the highest ever conferred on a mere mortal, and which was repeated to each in the self same words; "In thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." What words could more forcibly declare the inestimable worth and importance of the redemption, to be achieved by the Messiah to whom these promises referred. And as though to mark the high import of the promise, God changes the name of Abram (sig. High Father,) a title sufficiently exalted to designate the progenitor of the Jewish nation merely, but not significant enough of the unequalled destiny of being the progenitor of the Redeemer of the world, and through Him "the Father of many nations." "Neither shall thy name anymore be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham, [i.e. Father of a great multitude] for a father of many nations have I made thee."

NOTE X.-CHRIST THE PROMISED HEIR TO DAVID'S THRONE AND THE PRIESTHOOD.1—Since there has been a failure not only in the royal line of David but also in the sacerdotal one of Levi, this prophecy (Jer. xxxiii. 17, 18,) can only refer to Him of whom it was said "the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end." And who has been made our great High Priest "for ever after the order of Melchisedec." And is "set on the right hand of the

1 See Jer. xxxiii. 15, 17, 18, and 22; and Ps. lxxxix; and cxxxii. 11-18.

throne of the majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man."

NOTE XI.-THE APPOINTED TIME OF MESSIAH'S ADVENT.The precise time for the manifestation of Messiah was so distinctly specified by the several prophecies referring to this point, that when the period so plainly indicated arrived, none but those who had neglected the scriptures given for their guidance and enlightenment as to the designs of God, or those in whom an evil heart of pride and unbelief reigned, could resist this single testimony to our Lord's truth. But the Jews disregarding the prophetic descriptions of Messiah's nature and offices, condition in life, character and conduct, vainly supposed that His manifestation would be accompanied by the exercise of temporal power which should deliver them from the yoke of the Romans, and make of them a powerful and important nation. Even among the disciples, previous to the effusion of the Holy Spirit, this belief prevailed, (Acts i.6; and Luke xxiv. 21.) Hence it was that notwithstanding the general expectation that Messiah was about to appear at that time, the Jews failed to recognise in the lowly suffering Jesus the Saviour of the world, and madly raged against Him as a blaspheming impostor.

1. In considering these several prophecies in the order of their increasing precision as to the time of Messiah's manifestation, we find in the first place the prophet Daniel, (ii. 43, 44,) announcing that the kingdom of Messiah was to be "set up" by "the God of heaven" Himself" in the days of these kings," that is, ere the termination of the four great universal empires that should precede it, Babylonia, Persia, Grecia, Rome; typified by the head of gold, breast of silver, belly and thighs of brass, and legs of iron, of the image seen in Nebuchadrezzar's dream. And as these empires are described as succeeding or displacing each other, and as "the Stone cut out without hands" strikes the image upon its "feet of iron and clay," (ver. 34, 35.) it is plainly declared that it shall come during the existence of the fourth or iron monarchy of Rome; the fabric of which, comprising in its limits the dominions of the preceding three monarchies, should crumble to pieces, so that there should be no remains of these kingdoms any more than of the chaff which the wind carrieth away. Whilst the "Stone cut out without hands," (that is, of divine not human origin,) the uncreated "Rock of Ages," silently and miraculously, "not of the will of man but of God," not by physical force or intellectual might; not by the ambitious