3. Before him. Whom ? Some say himself, for so they say the Heb- rew word is to be understood. As if the sense were, if you look to the state and presence of the person himself. But I shall pass by that, and take notice but of two persons to whom this him may be referred ; for the scriptures have this privilege, to abound in senses.
[1.] Him, that is, the Lord, for so may it be referred. He was but lately spoken of, ver. 1, ' The arm of the Lord ; ' and then it is added, ' Before him shall grow up a tender plant.' Though he was so mean, yet God saw it, and permitted it, because he had appointed it. It was not by chance, and because it could be no better, but by God's special decree and appointment. Before the Lord he shall rise up a tender plant.
[2.] Before him ; that is, before the party that believes not the report : ver. 1, ' Who hath believed,' &c. — because before him Christ riseth up in such a mean manner. By this him must be meant the unbelieving Jews of whom he spake. Keason cannot expect that the Messiah should lie hid under so mean a shape. They will be offended in Christ's meanness, as I shall touch by and by. Thus for tlie phrases of Christ's original.
Secondly, For the phrases now that belong to the outward state and appearance of his life. Christ hath not in him proportion and beauty, which are the objects allurable to men. We love things for the orderly disposition of parts or colours ; the one is called form or comeliness, the other beauty . So that Christ's mean appearance is described two ways : —
1. By the removal of excellency.
2. By the restraint of affection.
1. As to the removal of excellencv. And therein —
222 A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION UPON [IsA. LIII. 2.
[1.] No proportion, no form nor comelincRS is found in liira. Then — [2.] As to beauty, there was no fitness of colour. These things are not put liere literally, to deny there was any individual or personal beauty in Christ ; for I believe that he was not of a monstrous and misshapen body, but well compacted and well coloured, — though I doubt not but there have been a great many fictions about the body of Christ, particularly what Lentulus says in his letters concerning the aniiableness of Christ's countenance, that he was of so fair a face, and yet of so majestic an eye, that all that beheld him were enforced to love and fear him. Nicephorus likewise said that Mary Magdalen, who was at tirst a common strumpet, was drawn to hear Christ upon a re})ort of the comeliness of his person, and afterwards won by the efficacy of his doctrine. No doubt he had a comely, well-featured, healthy body. But this is not spoken of so much as his outward port and presence to the world. He did not come with such pomp and glory as they imagined was suitable to the majesty of the Messiah. They thought he should have come in a royal way, with a great deal of outward pomp and splendour, that so all the world might have ad- mired the great Redeemer of the Jews.
But how can it be said of Christ that he had neither comeliness nor beauty, since it is said, Ps. xlv. 2, that ' he is fairer than the children of men,' or ' than the sons of Adam' ? And in Cant. v. 10-16, he is described by the spouse to be well-coloured, ' My beloved is Avhite and ruddy, the chiefest of ten thousand ; ' and likewise well- featured, as she goetli on from part to part, from head to feet ; and then con- cludeth, ' He is altogether lovely.' To this I answer : —
(1.) It is one thing what Christ is to the spouse, another what he is to the unbelieving Jews. Christ's beauties are inward, seen of none but those that are inwardly acquainted with him. The spouse speaketh of him in a spiritual sense. Here he is spoken of in respect of his outward habitude in the world.
(2.) We must distinguish between Christ's humiliation and exalta- tion, his Godhead and his manhood. In his Godhead ; so he is ' the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his per- son,' Heb. i. 3, and consequently full of beauty. In his humiliation ; so he is not only a man, but a mean man : Phil. ii. 9, ' He made him- self of no reputation.'
(3.) In Christ's humiliation we must distinguish as to what he is in himself and as to what he is in the eye of the world. In Christ's manhood he did not appear in the form of (xod. It is said, Piiil. ii. 7, ' He took u})()n him the form of a servant ; ' yet he did not lay aside his Godhead : that appeared too sometimes in the power of his doc- trine and miiacles ; but the world saw no form in him, none of the form of the Godhead in him. Tlien —
2. As to the phrase that implieth restraint of affection, ' why w^e