It will be only further necessary to acquaint the reader that, as these sermons were preached in his stated and ordinary course, so they were preached in his early youth, and are younger than any of those that have seen the light ; which must be his apology to the world if any expressions are found up and down less accurate and clear, or any- thing different from what was known to be his sense in some of his later writings.
This account may be collected from the preface of his Exposition on James : —
' I have the rather chosen this scripture, that it may be an allay to those comforts which in another exercise I have endeavoured to draw out of Isaiah liii. I would at the same time carry on the doctrine of faith and manners, and show you your duties together with your en- couragements, lest, with Ephraim, you should only love to tread out the corn, and refuse to break the clods. We are all apt to divorce comfort from duty, and content ourselves with a barren and unfruitful knowledge of Jesus Christ ; as if all he required of the world were only a few naked, cold, inactive apprehensions of his merit, and all things were so done for us that nothing remained to be done by us. This is the wretched conceit of many in the present age ; and therefore they either abuse the sweetness of grace to looseness, or the i)ower of it to laziness. Christ's merit, and the Spirit's efficacy are the common places from whence they draw all the defences and excuses of their own wantonness and idleness.'
I have compared the transcript with the original notes, and find reason, after all the care that has been taken, to beg the reader's can- dour and excuse for any smaller errors that may have escaped, both of the copy and of the press,
W. Harris.
* De Satisfactione, cap. i.
A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION.
Who hath believed our report ? and to tvhom is the arm of the Lord revealed? — Isa. LIII. 1.
I SHALL in the course of this exercise go over the several verses of this chapter, which is an eminent portion of scripture, and calls for most serious attention. It may rather be called the gospel than the prophecy of Isaiah. It contains so ample and clear a discovery of Jesus Christ, that one would rather account it historical than prophetical. Other prophecies are explained by the history of Christ in the New Testa- ment, but this prophecy explains the history ; there is no chapter so often quoted and vouched by Christ and the apostles as this, viz., no less than seven or eight times in the New Testament. It is so full and clear, that it rather needs meditation than a comment, faith more than learning, to conceive of it. The coherence or connection of this with the former chapter, take briefly thus : —
The evangelical prophet (for so he may justly be called) had in the end of the former chapter spoken of the glory of Christ's kingdom, how readily it should be entertained among the Gentiles, how he should ' sprinkle many nations,' and make ' kings to shut their mouths,' that is, with silence hearken to and consider his doctrine. Here, coming to the Jews, he finds, on the contrary, nothing but contempt and scorn. and therefore in an holy admiration cries out, ' Who hath believed our report ? ' He saw it was not believed in his days, and that it would not in after days. It was in vain to speak to them of the Messiah. In this chapter there are three remarkable parts : —
1. A description of the Jews' horrid unbelief and contumacy against Christ, ver. 1.
2. The occasion and ground of that unbelief, viz., Christ's meanness as to outward show and appearance, from ver, 2 to 1 0.
3. The removal of this occasion, and taking off this scandal and prejudice, by showing the fruit and glory that followed this meanness, ver. 11 to the end of the chapter.
Our text is the first of these, containing a pathetical description of the Jews' contempt and rejection of Christ. It is propounded by way of query, in two questions.
1st. The one holds forth the thing or evil itself by way of admira- tion : ' Who hath believed our report ?'
192 A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION UPON [IsA. LIII. 1.
2clly. The otlier, the cause of it : ' To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ?'
1st. In tlie first there is considerable : the person, loho; the act, believed ; the object, report.
That the words are a question is clear, but what kind of question is not so clear. Some understand the words as a commiseration of the proi)het : q. cl, I am to tell you such things of the sufferings of the Messiah, that you will scarce believe men should be so barbarous toward him. 13ut this is so absurd that it needs no confutation. It is nut a question of commiseration, but of admiration, or rather of comi)laint, in which Isaiah applies himself to God, as the Septuagint shows by putting in the word Kvpce, Lord, being herein followed by St Paul, Kom. x. 16, ' For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report ?' So John xii. 38, it is also said, ' Lord, who hath believed our report?'