The third verse pursues the description of the Messiah in respect of his abject outward condition ; which being of the same import with the former, and it being not my aim to comment on the text, I shall pass by.
Verse 4, '' Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sor- rows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted."
Having formerly given the sense of these words, and vindicated them from the exceptions of the Socinians, I shall do no more but
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466 VINDICI^ EVANGELTCE.
animadvert upon their accommodation to Jeremiah by Grotiua Thus, then, he, —
" Fere languores nostras ipse tuUt. Ille non talia meritus mala tuht quae nos eramus meriti. Hsec omnia ait dicturos Judseos post captam urbem;" — " He that deserved no such thing underwent the evils that we had deserved. All these things he saith the Jews shall say after the taking of the city."
It is of the unworthy dealing of the Jews with the prophet in Jerusalem during the siege that he supposes these words are spoken, and spoken by the Jews after the taking of the city. The sum is, "When he was so hardly treated, we deserved it, even to be so dealt withal, not he, who delivered the word of God."
But, 1. The words are, " He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows." That by " our griefs and sorrows," our sins and the punish- ment due to them are intended hath been declared. That the force of the words " bearing and carrying" do evince that he took them upon himself hath also been manifested. That he so took them as that God made them meet upon him, in his justice, hath likewise been proved. That by his bearing of them we come to have peace, and are freed, shall be farther cleared, as it is expressly mentioned, verses 5, 11. Let us now see how this may be accommodated to Jeremiah. Did he undergo the punishment due to the sins of the Jews, or did they bear their own sins? Did God cause their sins to meet on him then when he bare them, or is it not expressly against his law that one should bear the sins of another ? Were the Jews freed, — had they peace by Jeremiah's sufferings ; or rather, did they not hasten their utter ruin ? If this be to interpret the Scripture, I know not what it is to corrupt it.
2. There is not the least evidence that the Jews had any such thoughts, or were at all greatly troubled, after the taking of the city by the Chaldeans, concerning their dealings with Jeremiah, whom they afterward accused to his face of being a false prophet, and lying to them in the name of the Lord. Neither are these words supposed to be spoken by the Jews, but by the church of God.
" JEt nos putavimus eum quasi leprosum ac percussum a Deo et humiliatum. Nos credidimus Jeremiam merito conjectura in carce- rem et lutum, Deo ilium exosum habente, ut hostem urbis, templi, et pseudo-prophetam," Grot; — "We believed that Jeremiah was de- servedly cast into the prison and mire, God hating him as an enemy of the city and temple, and as a false prophet." But, —
1. These words may be thus applied to any prophet whatever that suffered persecution and martyrdom from the Jews (as who of them did not, the one or the other?) for they quickly saw their error and mistake as to one, though at the same time they fell upon another, as our Saviour upbraideth the Pharisees. Nor, —
DIGRESSION CONCERNING GROTIUS ON ISAIAH LIII, 467
2. Was this any such great matter, that the Jews should tliink a true prophet to be a false prophet, and therefore deservedly punished, as in the law was appointed, that it should thus signally be foretold concerning Jeremiah. But that the Son of God, the Son and heir of the vineyard, should be so dealt withal, this is that which the prophet might well bring in the church thus signally complaining of. Of him to this day are the thoughts of the Jews no other than as here recorded; which they express by calling him ""vP..
The reason of the low condition of the Messiah, which was so mis- apprehended of the Jews, is rendered in the next verse, and their mistake rectified : —
" But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him ; and with his stripes we are healed."
I suppose it will not be questioned but that these words belong to our blessed Saviour, and that redemption which he wrought for us by his blood and death. Not only the full accomplishment of the thing itself as delivered in the New Testament, but the quotation of the words themselves to that end and purpose, 1 Pet. ii. 24, doth undeniably evince it. In what sense the words are to be understood of him we have formerly declared; that in that sense they are applicable to any other will not be pleaded. That they have any other sense is yet to be proved. To this, thus the anno- tator : —
" Ipse autem vulneratus est propter iniquitates nostras. In Hebrseo, ' At vero ipse vulneratus' (id est, male tractatus est) ' nos- tro crimine.' In nobis culpa fuit, non in ipso. Sic et quod sequi- tur, 'Attritus est per nostram culpam.' Iniquissima de eo sensimus, et propterea crudeliter eum tractavimus : id nunc rebus ipsis apparet. Similia dixerunt Judsei qui se converterunt die Pentecostes, et de- inceps," Grot. ; — " ' But he Avas wounded for our transgressions.'' In the Hebrew, ' But he was wounded' (that is, evilly entreated) ' by our fault.' The fault was in us, not in him. And so that which follows, ' He was bruised by our fault.' We thought ill of him, and therefore handled him cruelly. This, now, is evident from the things them- selves. The like things said the Jews who converted themselves on the day of Pentecost, and afterward."