1. I suppose if we had not had the advantage of receiving quite another interpretation of these words from the Holy Ghost himself in the New Testament, yet it would not have been easy for any to have swallowed this gloss, that is as little allied to the text as any thing that can possibly be imagined. The Holy Ghost tells us that these words are the complaint of the prophet and the church of believers unto God concerning the paucity of them that would believe in Christ, or did so believe, when he was exhibited in the flesh, the power of the Lord with him for our salvation being effectually re- vealed to very few of the Jews. So John xii. 37, 88, " But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: that the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed V So Rom. x. 1 6, " But they have not all obeyed the gospel; for Esaias saith. Lord, who hath believed our report?"
2. Let us now a little compare these several interpretations : " Who hath believed our report?" — " Lord, how few do believe on Christ, working miracles himself, and preached by the apostles." " Jeremiah shall believe my prophecies," saith Grotius. " To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" — "To how few is the power of God unto salvation made known by the Holy Ghost." " Jeremiah also shall have clear revelations," says Grotius. And this is counted learn- edly to interpret the Scriptures ! and every day are such annotations on the Scripture multiplied.
8. It is not, then, the prophet's prediction of what he should do of whom he treats, what he should believe, what he should receive, whereof there is notice given in this verse; but what others shall do in reference to the preaching of him. They shall not believe : " Who hath believed ?"
4. The annotator tells us these words do agree to Christ chiefly and magis, xara Xsg/i'. This, then, must be the signification of them, according to his interpretation, in relation unto Christ, " He shall believe the prophecies of Isaiah, and receive revelations of his own." For my part, I am rather of the mind of John and Paul concerning these words than of the learned annotator 's.
5. There is no mention of describing the person spoken of by " two notes;" but in the first words the prophet enters upon the description of Christ, what he was, what he did and suffered for us, which he pursues to the end of the chapter.
DIGRESSION CONCERNING GROTIUS ON ISAIAH LIIL 465
Verse 2, " For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground : he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him/'
An entrance is made in these words into the account that the prophet intends to give why so few believed in Christ, the Messiah, when he came, after they had looked for him and desired him so long, — namely, his great unsuitableness to their expectation. They lookedfor a person shining in honour and glory,raising a visible, pomp- ous, terrene kingdom, whereof they should be made partakers. But Christ when he comes indeed gi-ows up, both in his human nature and his kingdom, as a tender plant, — obnoxious to the incursions of beasts, winds, and storms, and tread iug-on of every one ; yet, preserved by the providence of God, under whose eye and before whom he grew up, he shall prosper. And he shall be as a root preserved in the dry ground of the parched house of David and poor family of Mary and Joseph, — every way outwardly contemptible ; so that from thence none could look for the springing of such a " Branch of the Lord." And Avhereas they expected that he should appear with a great deal of outward form, loveliness, beauty, and every thing that should make a glorious person desirable, when they come to see him indeed in his outward condition, they shall not be able to discover any thino- in the world for which they should desire him, own him, or receive him. And therefore after they shall have gone forth, upon the re- port that shall go of him, to see him, they shall be offended, and re- turn and say, " Is not this the carpenter's son? and are not his breth- ren with us?" This sword of the Lord, which lies at the heart of the Jews to this day, the learned annotator labours to ease them of, by accommodating these words to Jeremiah; which, through tlie favour of the reader, I shall no otherwise refute than by its repeti- tion: "'For he shall grow up before the Lord as a tender plant;' — Jeremiah shall serve God in his prophetical office whilst he is young. ' And as a root out of a dry ground ;' — He shall be born at Anathoth, a poor v illage. ' He hath no form nor comeliness ;' — He shall be heavy and sad. ' And when we shall see him,' etc. ; — He shall not have an amiable countenance." Whom might not these things be spoken of, that was a pi'ophet, if the name of Anathoth be left out, and some other supplied in the room thereof?