47. First, The most ancient and best records of their judgment expressly affirm the person spoken of to be the Messiah. This is the Targum on the place; which themselves esteem of unquestion- able, if not of divine authority. The spring and rise of the whole prophecy, as the series of the discourse manifests, is in verse 13 of chap. lii.; and there the words, "13 a2 737, “ Behold my servant shall prosper,” or “ deal wisely,” are rendered by Jonathan, ndy* sn xu ay, “Behold my servant the Messiah shall prosper.” And among others, the 5th verse of chap. li. is so paraphrased by him as that none of the Jews will pretend any other to be intended: spy spy sib maadsay sonyya oppns sana Sans N2wsp mia 933) yA 2d ppanwe” sean yAyoaned smn) ;—“ And he shall build the house of our sanctuary, which is profaned for our sins and delivered for our iniquities; and in his doctrine shall peace be multiplied unto us: and when we obey his word, our sins shall be forgiven us:” wherein
SECT. 46-48. } THE ONLY TRUE AND PROMISED MESSIAH. 405
though he much perverts the text, yet [it is] to give us that sense which, by their own confession, is applicable only to the Messiah; whereby, as by other parts of his interpretation, he stopped the way unto the present rabbinical evasions. The translation of the LXX. they have formerly avouched as their own; and this also plainly refers the words to the Messiah and his sufferings, though some- what more obscurely than it is done in the original.
In the Talmud itself, Tractat. Sanhed. Dist. Chelek, among other names they assign unto the Messiah, Sin is one; because it is said in this place, xw3 xin wn j>Xx,—“ Truly he bore our infirmity.” We have their ancient rabbins making the same acknowledgment. To this purpose they speak in Bereshith Rabba on Gen. xxiv. 17: “This is Messiah the King, who shall be in the generation of the wicked, and shall reject them, and choose the blessed God and his holy name, to serve him with his whole heart.” wp2d ya5 nx yn pay maynndy owd dsnw aya om;—* And he shall set his heart to seek mercy for Israel, to fast, and to humble himself for them.” wywan dSsmp sin ‘aw ;-—“ As it is said, Isa, liii,, ‘He was wounded for our transgressions.” "Dw oxom joy wan sin oni Sway wb-spI) 1NIaN3);—“ And when Israel sinneth, he seeketh mercy for them; as it is said again, ‘ And by his stripes are we healed.” So Tanchuma on verse 13, chap. lii.: Mw qo m,—“ This is King Mes- siah.” And not to repeat more particular testimonies, we have their full confession in Alshech on the place, with which I shall close the consent: mwn yr dy apr wp tnx np "Sm Ayn ;—* Be- hold, our masters, of blessed memory, with one consent determine, according as they received by tradition, that it is concerning Mes- siah the King that these words are spoken.” And therefore Abar- banel himself, who of all his companions hath taken most pains to corrupt and pervert this prophecy, confesseth that all their ancient wise men consented with Ben Uzziel in his Targum. So that we have as full a suffrage unto this character of the Messiah from the Jews themselves as can be desired or expected. :
48. We have strength, also, added unto this testimony by the weakness of the opposition which at present they make unto our application of this place unto the Messiah. It is rather rage than reason that here they trust unto, and seem to cry, “Pereant et amici, dummodo et inimici pereant.” Let Targum, Talmud, Cabbal tradi- tion, former masters, be esteemed liars and deceived, so that Chris- tians may be disappointed, New expositions and applications of this prophecy they coin, wherein they openly contradict one another, —yea, the same man (as Abarbanel) sometimes contradicts himself ! and when they have done, they suggest such things as are utterly inconsistent with the faith of the ancient church concerning the Messiah, with follies innumerable, no way deserving our serious con-
406 JESUS OF NAZARETH [EXERO. XVII.
sideration. The chief things which they most confide in we shall speedily remove out of our way.
(1.) Some of them say that-this prophecy indeed concerneth the Messiah, but not Messiah Ben David, who shall be always victorious; but Messiah Ben Joseph, who shall be slain in battle against Gog and Magog. But,—[1.] This figment wholly overthrows the faith of the true Messiah, and they may as well make twenty as two of them. [2.] That Ben Joseph, whom they have coined in their own brains, is to be a great warrior from his first appearance, and after many victories is to be slain in a battle, or at least be reputed so to be; but this prophecy is concerning a man poor, destitute, despised, afflicted all his life, bound, imprisoned, rejected, scorned, condemned, and slain under a pretence of judgment,—no one thing whereof they do or can ascribe unto their Ben Joseph.
(2.) Others feign that the true Messiah was born long ago, and that he lives amongst the leprous people at the gates of Rome, being himself leprous and full of sores; which, as they say, is foretold in this prophecy! Such monstrous imaginations as these might not be repeated without some kind of participation in the folly of their authors, but that poor immortal souls are ruined by them, and that they evidence what a foolish thing man is when left unto himself, or judicially given up to blindness and unbelief. We are ready to admire at the senseless stupidity of their forefathers (they do so themselves), who chose to worship Baal and Moloch rather than the true God, who had so eminently revealed himself unto them; but it doth no way exceed that of those who have lived since their rejec- tion of the true Messiah, nor do we need any other instance than that before us to make good our observation. And yet neither doth this prodigy of folly, this leprosy, in any thing answer the words of the prophecy, nor, indeed, hath any countenance from any one word therein, that single word they reflect upon signifying any kind of infirmities, or sorrows in general.