in the prophetic writings, in order that, when the Messiah should appear, there should be no room to question his divine mission ; since the marks them- selves could not have been combined by chance, nor would have been invented by any one, who had de- sired to impose upon the world.
Confining ourselves to those specified in the text, we observe, that he was to be obscure in his origin. This is intimated under the figure of " a root out of a dry ground." The house of David had once flou- rished as the cedars of Lebanon ; (he himself having been one of the most powerful monarchs upon earth) but now his family was reduced ; insomuch that it was like " a root" or mere stump of a tree. Its situation too, like a " root in a dry ground," was such, as not to afford any prospect that it should ever revive again. Our Lord, like a weak and tender sucker, sprang from this root, and was, to all outward appearance, unworthy of notice. Notwithstanding the prodigies that attended his birth, and the regard paid to them for a little while, " he grew up before him," that is, before the Jewish people, in obscurity, working at the trade of his reputed father as a car- penter. This circumstance proved an offence, and a stumbling-block to the carnal Jews : when they heard his discourses, and saw the wonders that he wrought, they said, " Whence hath this man these things ? and what wisdom is this which is given to him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands ? Is not this the carpenter ? And they were offended at him." But, if they had duly con- sidered their own prophecies, they would have seen, that his parentage and education were precisely such as had been foretold, and consequently were argu- ments in favour of his high pretensions.
Another mark exhibited in the text is, that he was to be mean in his appearance. The Jews expected a Messiah who should come with pomp, and whose magnificence should equal, if not surpass, that of any potentate on earth : and if Jesus had appeared in this manner, he would soon have been caressed and