DIGRESSION CONCERNING GROTIUS ON ISAIAH LIIl. 457
cannot from them be confirmed. This digression, then, is to cast into the fire that broken crutch which this learned man hath lent unto the Jews and Socinians to lean upon, and keep themselves from sinking under their unbelief.
To discover the rise of that learned man's opinion, that Jeremiah is intended in this prophecy, the conceits of the Jewish doctors may a little be considered, who are divided amongst themselves.
1. The ancient doctors generally conclude that it is the Messiah who is here intended. "Behold, my servant the Messiah shall prosper/' says the Chaldee paraphrast upon the place. And Constantino TEmpereur tells [us] from R. Simeon, in his book Salkout, that the ancient rab- bins, in their ancient book Tanchuma, and higher, were of the same judgment.^ Rabbi Moses Alscheth is urged to the same purpose at large by Hulsius ; and in his comment on this place he says expressly, " Ecce doctores nostri laudata) memorise uno ore statuunt, et a ma- joribus acceperunt, de rege Messia sermonem esse, et doctorum L. M. vestigiis insistemus." And one passage in him is very admirable, in the same place ; saith he, " Dicunt doctores nostri L. M. omnium afflictionum quae mundum ingressee sunt, tertia pars Davidi et patri- archis obtigit, tertia altera seculo excisionis, ultima tertia pars regi Messise iucumbet;" where he urgeth the common consent of their doctors for the sufferings of the Messiah. Of the same mind was R. Solomon, as he is cited by Petrus Galatinus, lib. viii. cap. xiv.; as the same is affirmed by the Misdrach Resh, cap. ii. 14; and in Bereshith Rabba on Gen. xxiv., as is observed by Raymundus Mar- tinus. Pug. Fidei 3, p. dist. 1, cap. x. So that before these men grew impudent and crafty in corrupting and perverting the testimonies of the Old Testament concerning the Messiah, they generally granted him and only him to be here intended. It was not for want of company, then, that Grotius took in with the modern rabbins, who, being mad with envy and malice, care not what they say, so they may oppose Jesus Christ.
2. Many of the following Jewish doctors interpret tliis place of the whole people of the Jews. And this way go the men who are of the greatest note amongst them in these latter days, as R. D. Kimchi, Aben Ezra, Abrabanel, Lipman, with what weak and mean pre- tences, with what inconsistency as to the words of the text, hath been by others manifested.
3. Abrabiuel, or Abrabanel, a man of great note and honour amongst them, though he assents to the former exposition, of apply- ing the whole prophecy to the people of the Jews, and interprets
I a Yovvo libri istius, undc hnec sectio in Esaiaui dcsumpta est, Author peihibetur D. Simeon, conciouatorum princcps, qui Francofurti dim degebat. Hie e Judffiorum vetustissimis scriptis, secundum bibliorum sericm, dicta et explicationes plui'imas : magna diligentia et labore collegit : unde libri suo nomen tj-'pn ac si peram dicas [mallet:] quia ut in pera reconduntur plurima." — L'Eniper.
458 VINDICI^ EVANGELICiE.
tlie words at large accordingly, — which exposition is confuted by Con- stantino I'Empereur, — yet he inclines to a singular opinion of his own, that Josiah is the man pointed at and described; but he is the first and last that abides by that interpretation.
4. Grotius interprets the words of Jeremiah in the first place, not denying them, as we shall see, to have an accommodation to Christ. In this he hath the company of one rabbi, R Saadias Gaon, men- tioned by Aben Ezra upon the 5 2d chapter of this prophecy, verse 13. But this fancy of Saadias is fully confuted by Abrabanel; whose words, because they sufiiciently evert the whole design of Grotius also, I shall transcribe as they lie in the translation of Hulsius: " Revera ne unum quidem versiculum video, qui de Jeremiah exponi possit : qua ratione de eo dicetur, 'Extolletur et altus erit valde?' Item illud, ' propter eum obdent reges os suum,' nam setas ilia prophetas habere consueverat, Quomodo etiam dici potest morbos nostros por- tasse, et dolores nostros bajulasse, et in tumice ejus curationem nobis esse, Deum in ipsum incurrere fecisse peccata omnium nostrum: quasi ipsi poena incubuisset, et Israel fuisset immunis? Jam illud, ' Propter peccatum populi mei plaga ipsis/ item, ' Dedit cum impro- bis sepulcrum ejus,' ad ipsum referri nequit; multo minus illud, ' Videbit semen, prolongabit dies,' item, ' cum robustis partietur spo- lium.' In quibus omnibus nihil est quod de ipso commode affirmari j)ossit. Undo vehementer miror, quomodo R. Hagaon in hanc sen- tentiam perduci potuerit, et sapientes dari qui hanc expositionem laudant; cum tamen tota ista exponendi ratio plane aliena sit, et e Scriptura non facta."
Now, certainly, if this Jew thought he had sufiicient cause to ad- mire that the blind rabbi should thus wrest the sense of the Holy Ghost, and that any wise man should be so foolish as to commend it, we cannot but be excused in admiring that any man professing himself a Christian should insist in his steps, and that any should commend him for so doing.
That, therefore, which here is affirmed in the entrance of his dis- course by Abrabanel, namely, that not one verse can or may be ex- pounded of Jeremiah, shall now particularly be made good against Grotius : — ■