1. The will of God : it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief ; that is the cause of his sufferings.
2. The nature of his suffering : when thou shall maJce his soul an offering for sin.
3. The fruits of his suffering, and they are three : —
[1.] The propagation of his spiritual seed : he shall see his seed.
[2.] The prolongation of liis life: Jie shall prolong his days.
[3.] The promulgation of the will of God in his hands : tlie plea- sure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands. Tliis will be clear to you by going over tlie phrases.
Treniellius has it, Delectatus est Dominus, the Lord delighted to bruise him. The Seventy, to mend the harshness of the phrase, render it, * It pleased the Lord to cleanse him ; ' but that is a mistake of the word, which among the Chaldees signifieth to cleanse ; and there is no reason why we should fear to say that the Lord designed to sub- ject his Son to bruisings and to grief, since the great comfort of Chris- tians dcpcndeth upon it. That these things did not happen by chance, or against the will of God, as something that he did not care
ISA. LIII. 10.] THE FIFTY-THIRD CIIAPTEU OF ISAIAH. 369
for, or would abhor. The Lord's pleasure was fulfilled in all these Hulferings, though these wicked men that brought them upon Christ had other intentions. And that decision of Lombard and other school- men is very derogatory to the truth of the gospel and the comfort of believers, when they say, God would only discover the virtues of Christ, and the fruits of his sufferings, and the malice of the Jews ; as if the sufferings of Christ were beside God's intention and design. But the acts of their malice are ascribed to the ordination of God : ' It pleased the Lord to bruise him and to put him to grief.' And suit- able to this, it is very observable in the New Testament, that those Avords which imply their malice do also imply God's appointment. Pilate delivered him, Judas delivered him, and God delivered him : Mat. xxvii. 2, 7rape8wK€v, 'And delivered him to Pontius Pihite the governoT.' And then it is said of Pilate, in the 26th verse, that he ' loosed ' or ' released Barabbas,' irapehwKev, and delivered Christ to be crucified. And Judas delivered him : Mat. xxvi. 15, ' I will deliver him to you.' And Christ, speaking of Judas, says, John xix. 11, 'There- fore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.' And the same word is used of God's disposal of Christ, Eom. viii. 32, ' He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.' And again, of the Jews, Acts iii. 13, TTapeScoKare, 'Whom ye delivered up.' The priests for envy, Judas for gain, the people in blind zeal, and Pilate to keep up his esteem among the Jews, but God to make out his own ends for the salvation of his people. And always delivered or betrayed is expressed by the same word, which is the rather to be noted, because the scriptures, not in one place only, but in many, use the same action and expression. And therefore, without any stain or blot upon divine justice, we may say, ' The Lord delighted to bruise him and to put him to grief; ' for he hnd a great hand in all that was done to Christ. It foUoweth: —
' When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin ; ' or, as it is more properly in the margin, ' When his soul shall make an offering for sin : ' this clause being to be referred to God the Son ; for the Lord Christ was not unwillingly subjected to bruises and griefs, but volun- tarily submitted himself to the pleasure of his Father's will, and gave himself to die for us: Gal. ii. 20, 'He made his soul (ascham), sin,' as it is in the Hebrew, it being a usual property of scripture-phrase to call the sin-offering sin. Thus it is said, 2 Cor. v. 21, ' For he hath made him to be sin for us ; ' that is, a sin-offering. And thus you may understand that of the apostle, Rom. viii. 3, ' God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh.' By a sin-offering, which was Christ, he abolished and took away sin. I should pass over this phrase, but that I cannot choose but note to you the conditionality of this expression, ' When he shall make his soul an offering for sin.' Erab some read it — if thou wilt do thus and thus. It implieth the covenant between God and Christ. There is not only a covenant between God and believers, but between God and Christ ; as I shall show more fully hereafter, when 1 observe the abundant usefulness of that consideration. But it followeth in the text : —
He shall see his seed. This is the third reason why the death of Christ should not be accounted infamous and ignominious to him. The
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370 A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION UPON [ISA. LIII. 10.